It all started over a bunch of pigs. Champ, a brother, and another man
sold a bunch of pigs to the Williams brothers, who resided in Fentress
Co., Tenn., about a two hour horseback ride from Alabany, Ky., which is
in Clinton Co., Ky. The Williams brothers were to be in Albany on a
given day and pay for the pigs. The day arrived but the Williams
brothers didn't. Champ finally cornered one of the brothers and he said
his brother had abscounded with the money. This led Champ to attaching
the horses belonging to the Williams brothers when they entered Clinton
Co., Ky., which upset the Williams brothers and their following.

        At about this time there was a camp meeting in Fentress Co., Tenn. and
Champ decided to go. When he arrived at the meeting he noted the
Williams brothers and their followers, they were all bunched together. A
friend of Champs came by and told him that he had overheard some of the
conversation and they were going to get Champ and advised him to leave.
Champ said he wouldn't but when they started toward him he thought he
should so mounted his horse and took flight. The horse he was riding was
fast but she was in foal. While he was easily  outdistancing his
pursuers he jumped the mare over a gully and she hurt herself, leaving
Champ afoot. Champ ran toward a hill with his pursuers on his heels,
close enough that they were throwing rocks at him. Champ threw some back
but this all delayed him, letting a big barrel chested man to come to
grips with him. Champ was unarmed save for a pocket knife, which he
stated was as sharp as a razor. He managed to open the knife and while
he cut himself doing it he started whittling on the man, knowing that he
had to get away or his life would be worth nothing. He killed the man
and then started to run toward a two story house, which was vacant, its
occupants being at the camp meeting. He went up the stairs to the second
floor and there found one of the old time bed wrench's and stood with it
at the top of the stairs, daring anyone to come up them. 

        This resulted in a standoff until Champ agreed to surrender, but only
to the law. The law came and they put Champ in chains and took him to
the jail, where he languished for some time. The Civil War had started
and the C.S.A. controlled that area of Tenn. Champ was given an offer he
couldn't refuse, this that if he joined the Confederacy they would
forget about the happening at and following the camp meeting. Champ was
on record as being opposed to the separation of the states but 
considering he was in the camp of the enemy he knew he would never be
given a fair trial so he acceded to their offer.

        Clinton Co., Ky. was, at least in large part, pro Union, and they never
took kindly to Champ joining the C.S.A. This led to some, while having
too close an acquaintance with John Barleycorn, deciding to pay Champs
home a visit. They forced entry and made Champs wife and fourteen year
old dau. Ann disrobe and cook them a meal in the nude, then paraded them
down the street in the nude. 

        They should never, knowing Champ, have done anything of this nature.
Martha, Champs wife, could of course identify all of them and Champ made
a point of killing all of those participants of the nude meal who were
not killed by the war itself. 

        Champ was also maligned in the newspapers of the north, and if one
reads what was written and then compares that against documented data,
one can be readily determine the reports were not factual. For one Champ
was described as ignorant, a drunk, and never do well. The 1860 census
puts the lie to that. In this census Champ is seen with assets of
$20,000.00, a goodly sum in those years. We also see a number of surveys
made by Champ, and by Champs own statement, he learned to write and
cipher well.

        In the series of books entitled, "The War of Rebellion", Champ is
mentioned about a hundred times. These are a series of books containing
letters and orders of both Union and Confederate forces, having about 60
or 70 volumes in this series. The data was gathered shortly after the
wars conclusion by a Captain and a Leutenant. One thing that struck me
was letters written by Union field officers to their commanders. In
these reports Champ is accredited with havin every where from a hundred
to as many as 700 men, and by Champs statements the most he ever had was
56, and I can only account for 54 of these. One report is about the same
as another, this that they contacted Champ and put him to flight,
wounding him in the process. All I have to say on that is that if he was
wounded as many times as the Union field officers claimed, the man would
have been a walking sieve. 

        What actually happened is Champ would set a trap for them, letting the
Union forces see some of his men, who would then take flight, leading
the Union Forces under Champ's guns, where they would decimate them,
then vanish like smoke into the mountains he knew so well. One such
encounter was written about by several Union soldiers following the wars
conclusion. Champ had allowed the Union Forces to bottle him up in what
they thought was a dead end. The battle raged until night and the Union
held their ground waiting for reinforcements to arrive, they knew the
hounds had finally cornered the fox. Champ left  a few men at the site
to keep the fires burning, the rest going by a formidable trail known to
Champ. This trail was bad enough in the daylight and a horror by night,
especially for one not familiar with it.

        During the night the Union observed no answering fire from Champs camp
and sent soldiers into it only to find the fox had vanished again.
Writings by Union survivors of this tell about the screams of horses and
men as they slipped from the trail, falling hundreds of feet to their
deaths.