On the way to visit family in Madison, Indiana yesterday, I stopped at a cemetery in Eminence, (Henry County) Kentucky to search for a monument placed for three Confederate soldiers that were executed in neighboring Pleasureville on November 3, 1864, by order of General Stephen G. Burbridge in retaliation for the killing of two African Americans by guerrillas in nearby Port Royal. I was unsuccessful in finding the monument on Friday evening, but persistence paid off, and I located it today on way back to Frankfort.
As General Orders 59 stated, four Confederate soldiers were to be executed in cases of deaths caused by guerrillas. According to the stone in the cemetery, the three soldiers buried in Eminence were William Tiche, William Datbor and R.W. Yates. Other accounts though show that two of the soldiers' names were misspelled and that it was actually William Tithe and William Darbrow along with R.W. Yates and William Long. Apparently Long was taken to his hometown of Maysville, Kentucky to be buried instead of with the other three.
The inscription on the bottom of the monument is worn and difficult to read in parts, but it says, "The three C.S.A. soldiers who were shot Nov. 3, 1864 in Pleasureville by order of Gen. Burbridge in pretense of retaliation of two Negros [sic] that were killed near Port Royal."
It continues, "Sleep on ye braves for you have got our sympathy to our last breath. We would not have thee change thy lot with him who has caused thy death."
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