In January 1863, a gang of Unionists in mountainous Madison County raids Marshall for its store of salt-which has been denied hem by the Confederate commissioners. They extend their looting to the home of Col. Lawrence Allen, the commander of the 64th North Carolina who has been temporarily relieved of duty. He nonetheless joins a punitive expedition led by his cousin, Lt. Col. James Keith. They kill a number of Unionists, torture the wives and mothers of other suspects, and capture thirteen men and boys. On the pretext of marching them to Tennessee for trial, they take them in to the woods of Shelton Laurel and shoot them all down in cold blood. The women of Shelton Laurel discover the atrocity and recover the bodies, launching a manhunt and investigations that will eventually be taken up in the U.S. Congress.
In Cold Blood: Compositional Bias and Positive Selection Drive the High Evolutionary Rate of Vampire Bats Mitochondrial Genomes
