The Home Guard
During the Civil War, towns and cities throughout the South formed militias or home guard units to protect civilians while sons and husbands were off fighting in the war. They often consisted of old men and teenagers who were either too old or too young to serve in the Confederate Army. Some were the sons of wealthy settlers who had them enrolled to avoid military service. Others were disreputable types, who would use their time in the Home Guard for their own nefarious activities. Home Guard duties included chasing down deserters and draft dodgers, investigating subversive activity, and defending against Union cavalry raids, or in Texas - Indian raids. Sometimes home guard units were little better than outlaw gangs, a bigger threat to civilians than the Union Army. Such was the case in Bell County, Texas.
Sam Hasley Enlists
Like most young men in Texas during the early1860’s, Sam Hasley was swayed by the Confederate cause and enlisted in the Confederate Army. He left behind his elderly, white-bearded father, Drew Hasley, to run the family farm. Young Halsey departed, secure in the knowledge the Bell County Home Guard would protect his dad. Things turned out otherwise.
Home Guard Terror
As the war progressed, the Bell County Home Guard became adept at rounding up deserters, a capital offense in the Confederacy that often led to a firing squad or a hanging tree. In 1865, prior to Lee’s surrender, Confederate armies began losing more and more men to desertion. Deserters would hide out at home or congregate into armed bands and camp out in the brush. Three deserters were caught and promptly hanged from a pecan tree near Reed Lake. Civilians were questioned about deserter activities, sometimes in a less than tactful fashion. To make matters worse, Home Guard members engaged in cattle rustling, stealing cattle from absent settlers fighting in the war. The Home Guard were fast becoming the Home Hoodlums.
John Early vs The Hasleys
The leader of the Home Guard was a shifty, abrasive, and bullish character named John Early, who changed loyalties to either the Union or Confederacy when it best suited him. Early paid a visit to the Hasley home where he got into a heated exchange with Drew Hasley. He roughed up old Hasley, pulling out tufts of hair from his bead. Needless to say, Hasley’s son was not thrilled about his father’s treatment when he returned home from the war. A vengeful Sam Hasley sought out Early, who had sided with local Unionists and received their protection. That didn’t discourage Hasley from watching his movements and looking for a chance to strike.
During an evening ride, Hasley spotted a band of Unionists on horseback. Seeing an opportunity, he brazenly rode into the middle of them, saying nothing but looking at their passing faces. He spotted Early, drew his pistol, and fired. Fortunately for Early, the shot hit his horse, causing it to fall on top of him. From there, all hell broke loss. Although Hasley escaped, Bell County’s Union officials began looking for ways to suppress former rebels, especially Drew Hasely and his son Sam. Chief Justice Hiram Christian, the local U. S. appointed judge in Belton, found the answer: arrest them for hanging those three deserters near Reed Lake. A detachment of U. S. cavalry arrived from Austin and began rounding up suspects in the hangings, including Drew Hasley. They were hustled off to Austin where they spent several months in jail before being released. The Austin jail cells were no place for a sick old man; Drew Hasley died a few years later after his release. The simple blood feud between Hasley and Early escalated into a gang war between Unionists and former Secessionists.
Texas Confederates
The Bell County Fued
Realizing there was security and firepower in numbers, Hasley and his Secessionist friends formed the Sam Hasley Gang, fronted by Hasley’s outspoken, Union-hating brother-in-law, Jim McRae. In April 1866, criminals and Unionists began disappearing off the streets or found floating in the river. Belton Unionist, Dr. Calvin Clark, fled to Missouri, but was gunned down shortly after his arrival. After the killing of Jasper Lindley, a suspected horse thief and Union supporter, fifteen members of the U. S. 15th Cavalry, along with Lindley’s father and brother, arrived in Belton, looking for LIndley’s murderers. They settled on a local rancher named Dawes and an English sheepherder named Duncan. Both were summarily shot off their horses after being arrested. The fued reached its climax when the Lindley’s were arrested and confined in the Bell County Jail. Incensed over the Dawes and Duncan killings, a mob surrounded the jail, chased away the guards, and shot the Lindleys. The following year, Jim McCrea was ambushed after leaving a watermelon party with family members. After McCrae’s death, the fued lost steam. Law and order returned to Bell County as residents began focusing more on postwar rebuilding instead of settling old scores. Amidst all the turmoil and murders, Sam Hasley and John Early managed to stay aloof from the fighting.
With the war over, his father dead, and his gang dispersed, Hasley became just another drunken public nuisance better off in a jail cell. In 1889, a drunk Sam Hasley created a disturbance in downtown Belton. Deputy Marshal William “Cap” Light ordered him to go home. Instead, Easily rode his horse on the sidewalk. Light tried to arrest him before Hasley pulled his pistol. Light shot him dead. John Early had had enough. He left the Belton scene all together, never to be seen again.
