For the first time, Ethan noticed that Judge Edmund Fanning was there. He and the governor consulted for a few minutes, looking from time to time at the men confronting them. Finally, Tryon called out sixteen names, including Henry Pratt, Herman Husband, and Silas Wythe, the man who had been shot first, through his thigh, and ordered them arrested. There was murmuring among the Regulators, and they moved closer to one another, but then Husband announced, “Men, we have nothing to fear from the law, and we want no more bloodshed. We’ll go peacefully.” The hands of the captives were tied behind them, and then the governor shocked the crowd by announcing, “Silas Wythe is guilty of treason and of instigating this tragic military action. He is hereby sentenced to be hanged.”

The militiamen leveled their weapons at the Regulators, while Wythe was taken to a nearby tree, a rope looped and tightened around his neck, the other end thrown over a horizontal limb, and two soldiers pulled until his feet were two feet off the ground. Ethan watched the rough-hewn farmer with horror until his struggles ceased and his body hung suspended, oscillating back and forth a few inches like a pendulum.

Tryon then broke a deathly silence by saying, “The prisoners will be taken to jail in Hillsborough. All you other men are ordered to return to your homes.”

The powerful Regulator movement was over. But its demise, in many ways, was a precursor of the greater war that was to come.

CHAPTER 8

Trial and Execution

Ethan stayed at home Sunday, but early the next morning he rode into Hillsborough to see what he could do to help his brother. The town was strangely quiet, with few people on the street. He rode to the courthouse and saw a few militiamen standing near the entrance, with a larger number around the nearby jail. In an open yard adjacent to the two buildings, he noticed a row of stocks and a permanent gallows, designed for the execution of two men at a time. He had seen both men and women in the stocks, guilty of what seemed to be minor crimes, including “malicious gossip,” and knew that the death penalty was a common punishment not only for murder but for thievery and sexual misconduct. As he approached the jailhouse, a sergeant looked up and asked, “What do you want?”

“I’ve come to see my brother, Henry Pratt, who was arrested Saturday.”

“My orders are that there will be no visitors, but a hearing, or trial, will be held in the courtroom this afternoon at three o’clock. Just one family member of each prisoner can attend.”

“I’m his only relative, and I’ll be there.”