Meriwether County GaArchives News.....How Judge Warner was Hanged .
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Candace (Teal) Gravelle http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00023.html#0005680 November 19, 2006, 1:25 pm

"The Carroll County Times" .
Carrollton, Carroll Co., Georgia

NEWSPAPER Issue of Friday, JULY 25, 1879

HOW JUDGE WARNER WAS HANGED

One of the stories told about Judge Warner is that during the war a party of 
federal soldiers hung him in order to make him tell where his gold was 
concealed, but that he clung to his treasure laid up on earth more 
tenaciously than to life itself, and that the robbers finally retired, 
baffled, but leaving him nearly dead, from the effects of their brutality. 
Many regard the story as a romance, but it is not. It is partly true and 
partly false. It is true that he was hung; it is not true that he had any 
gold to give up. Judge Warner himself described the occurrence a few days 
ago and I do not violate any confidence in giving the substance of his 
narrative.

In the spring of 1865 and after the surrender of General Johnston (though 
that disaster was not officially known throughout Georgia), Judge Warner was 
at his plantation in Meriwether county, awaiting the approach of one of 
Wilson's columns of federal raiders, which was then passing through the 
country. All the whites on the place fled except Judge Warner and his 
married daughter. The latter had a child only a week old, and as she could 
not be moved, the father remained with her.

During the morning several detachments of cavalry halted at the house and 
made themselves free with anything they desired in the way of "portable 
property" but no violence was done to the inmates. About noon, another party 
arrived and stopped to feed their horses and to plunder. After satisfying 
their appetites they began to pillage and the Judge's silver, and other 
valuables were soon stowed away in their capacious saddle bags. While they 
were robbing the smoke house of hams and pickles and wines and preserves, 
the Judge stood in silence watching the proceedings.

After the building had been thoroughly gutted, a revolver was suddenly 
presented at his head and he was ordered to accompany the party. Midway 
between the house and the "negro quarter" was a body of woodlands, and into 
this grove Judge Warner was conducted by his captors. Reaching a place 
secluded from observation, the leader of the band who wore the uniform of a 
federal Captain, took out his watch and said he would give him just three 
minutes to tell where his gold was hidden. Judge Warner protested that he 
had no gold but to no avail. They had been informed along their line of 
march that he had a secret hoard and the "da_ned old secessionist" must give 
it up.

The prisoner urged that the only money he had was confederate currency and 
in Central railroad bills. They robbed him of $5,000. of the former and 
$15,000. of the latter, which they found on his person, but continued to 
insist that he had gold and must produce it. At the expiration of three 
minutes, the Captain made a signal; one of the men took from a horse a long 
leather strap with a running noose at the end, while the other improvised a 
gallows by bending down the end of a stout sapling. With an oath, the 
officer made them select a larger, stronger tree. Judge Warner remained 
silent for the very sufficient reason that he had nothing to tell. One end 
of the strap was adjusted around his neck and the other fastened securely to 
the tree. The sapling was gradually released until the line became taut, 
when it was turned loose and the Judge's body dangled in the air. The brutes 
still surrounded him when he recovered consciousness, and he was again 
ordered to give up his gold, under penalty of death. He could only reply as 
before, and again the sapling was released. This occurred about two 
o'clock.

When he revived, the sun was nearly down. He lay at the foot of the 
impromptu gallows, the halter had been removed from his neck and the leaves, 
which covered the ground several inches deep, were burning within a few feet 
of him. He thinks the heat of the flames restored him to consciousness and 
to life. The wretches had left him for dead and set fire to the woods to 
conceal the evidence of their crime. The Judge was able to find his way to 
the house, where he lay ill for many days. He finally recovered and now 
shows no signs of the violence to which he was subjected. He is confident 
that the Captain and soldiers who figured as amateur hangmen belonged to a 
Wisconsin cavalry, though he does not remember any of their names. The Judge 
is wont to say that he has suffered all the pangs of dissolution and has 
been "as near dead" as he ever expects to be.

Additional Comments:

NOTE from transcriber: This is more likely than not, Judge Hiram Warner 
from Meriwether county, Georgia per a reference to this incident from the 
history of Meriwether county, Georgia:

"Judge Hiram Warner had come to Hancock County in East Georgia to teach 
school, but later "read law", was admitted to the bar and in 1845 became one 
of the three judges in Georgia's Supreme Court. Though from the North, he 
was not spared the wrath of the Yankees at the close of the War Between the 
States. After plundering his plantation, Wilson's raiders hanged him in a 
grove after he repeatedly declared he had no gold. In a further touch of 
irony, a faithful slave turned servant cut him down. He lived to become 
Georgia's Chief Justice from 1867 to 1880. "

From the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress:

WARNER, Hiram, a Representative from Georgia; born in Williamsburg, 
Hampshire County, Mass., on October 29, 1802; received a good common-school 
training and acquired some knowledge of the classics; in 1819 moved to 
Georgia and taught school for three years; studied law; was admitted to the 
bar and commenced practice in Knoxville, Crawford County, Ga., in 1825; 
served in the general assembly 1828-1831; declined reelection; moved to 
Talbotton in 1830 and continued the practice of his profession; moved to 
Greenville; elected judge of the State superior court and served from 1833 
to 1840; judge of the State supreme court from 1846 to 1853, when he 
resigned; elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-fourth Congress (March 4, 
1855-March 3, 1857); declined to be a candidate for reelection in 1856; 
appointed by Governor Jenkins as judge of the Coweta Circuit Court and 
served from 1865 to 1867, when he was appointed chief justice of the State 
supreme court; was subsequently elected and served until 1880, when he 
resigned; died in Atlanta, Ga., June 30, 1881; interment in Town Cemetery, 
Greenville, Meriwether County, Ga.


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