Hanging Professor

Graham N. Fitch, Senator from Indiana, Thirty-fifth Congress, half-length portrait (1859; LOC: LC-DIG-ppmsca-26779)

guerrilla deterrent?

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch July 28, 1862:

Guerrillas hung

–General Fitch, late Senator from Indian[a], now leading a brigade at St. Charles, in Arkansas, has just hung two guerrillas, in pursuance of pledges to do so in case of the murder of any of his men. The first engineer of the Lexington was shot while sitting at a port- hole–General [F]itch immediately took two of the citizens of St. Charles and hung them in a public place in the town.

Graham Newell Fitch was doctor and professor of anatomy. He represented Indiana in the U.S. House and Senate and raised the 46th Regiment Indiana Infantry after the war started. The Federals occupied St Charles after the June 17th battle.

USS Lexington (1861-1865)  Photographed on the Western Rivers during the Civil War.

Dangerous port hole

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