THE 1862 HANGINGS AT GAINESVILLE, TEXAS

ertainly one of the worst atrocities of the Civil War occurred in Gainesville, Texas in Oct. 1862, when 40 men, suspected of Union sympathies, were hanged. Although they were condemned by a questionalble "People's Court," and found guilty by a simple majority of 7 slaveholders, Dr. Richard Peebles characteried the act as "the great lynching," for which statement he was exiled.