The Ouachita Telegraph - Death of Silas Tam

Date: May 2000
Submitted by: Lora Peppers <lpeppers@ouachita.lib.la.us>


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The Ouachita Telegraph
May 18, 1872
Page 1, Column 5

Death of Mr. Silas Tam.
 In our last issue we stated that Mr. Silas Tam, who resided near
Pleasant Hill in this parish, was waylaid and shot by unknown parties in 
Sabine parish.  The following are the particulars of his death, as near as 
we can learn from the various reports that have reached us:
 On the morning of the 22nd of last month, he left the residence of Mr.
Gattis for the avowed purpose of fighting a duel with a man by the name
of James McCartney.  He was alone, and was armed with a double-barrel
shot gun and two six-shooters.  He was not seen any more until Wednesday
morning the 24th, when he was found by his wife leaning against a small
pine tree dead.  Those who examined the ground give in substance the
following opinion as to how he came to his death.  He was riding along
an old road that is seldom traveled and at a place where several trees
had blowned (sic) down across it, the road made a curve around the tops;
and as he passed, while his back and left side was towards them, he was
shot by two persons from behind a clay-root, who evidently ran as soon
as the shooting was done.  They were tracked a short distance to where
they had their horses hitched.  Tam was struck with five shot, two of
which struck the left leg, and three hit his left hip, breaking the hip
bone; the remainder of the charge went into his horse.  When he was shot
his horse evidently plunged to the side of the road and threw him to the
ground, breaking his gun off at the britch; the horse fell dead about
forty feet from the place where he was shot.
 It is thought that the fall stunned him and rendered him unable to
crawl off, and it is evident that he did not die until Wednesday
morning, two days after the shooting; for when found, he was perfectly
limber and warm.  He must have suffered intense agony, for as he sat
against a tree, he dug a great hole with his right heel, that leg being
uninjured.  It is rumored that he scratched something on the bottom of
his shoe, and that he tried to carve on a tree, and the others disagree
as to what the words were, we forbear from giving either version.  To
say the least of it, it was one of the most diabolical murders ever
committed in any community, and for the reputation of the "Free State of
Sabine," we would be pleased to know that the perpetrators of this
terrible deed had been captured, and the extreme penalty of the law
meted out to them.  — Mansfield Reporter.

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