The untold story of Sue Mundy’s capture: ‘Not a shot fired’
By GERALD W. FISCHER Marcellus Jerome Clark (alias Sue Mundy), Billy Magruder and Henry Medkiff were captured near the town of Webster, Meade County, in March 1865. The barn where they found lodging belonged to John and Elizabeth Cox, alleged distant kin of Magruder. They were hidden by Cox, and Magruder received medical aid for a bullet wound from Dr. Lewis. The generic version of the Mundy arrest has Mundy awakening to find the barn he was in surrounded by a hundred Union soldiers, a gun battle ensues with Medkiff and Mundy opening fire, killing between one and nine soldiers, wounding others. Captain Cyrus Wilson meets Mundy in the barn using Dr. Lewis as a go-between, negotiating a surrender. Mark Henderson, a great-great-grandson of John E. Cox, inherited one of Jerome Clarke’s pistols, surrendered to John Cox at Mundy’s arrest. Mr. Henderson shared with me a written account of the arrest of Mundy, as John Cox related it to G.A. Foote, a relative. Foote memorialized the family story in a letter to a friend dated Aug. 6, 1941. Foote was 78 at the time of writing. While it differs from the traditional account, it rings more true and answers some troubling questions. Most accounts state that Dr. Lewis was the negotiator between Mundy and Captain Wilson although Lewis had likely given up the guerillas. Would Wilson send his informant to negotiate a surrender, knowing Mundy would likely suspect Lewis? Suspecting Cox to have informed was something that Mundy would not likely consider due to Magruder’s alleged family ties. If there was an intermediary, and I believe there must have been, then it was more logically John or Elizabeth Cox. Wilson would be more inclined to risk their lives because they harbored fugitives. Following are portions of G.A. Foote’s letter pertaining to the arrest of Sue Mundy: . . . “I am sending you an account of the Sue Mundy arrest. (A 1939 Courier Journal article was enclosed with the letter.) It is not exactly like Mr. Cox related it to me. He told me when he went to the barn to feed one morning, he found a full company of soldiers, one hundred men or more, had surrounded the barn. And, the Captain sent him in the barn to tell Mundy he demanded the surrender of him and his two companions, McGruder (sic) and Metcafe (sic). McGruder was wounded and Dr. Lewis was tending on him. Mundy sent Mr. Cox back to tell the Captain to come to the barn and he would discuss the terms on which he could surrender. When the Captain sent Mr. Cox in the barn he told him if you can’t persuade those men to surrender, I will make you burn the barn, or hang you from this tree. Thereupon Mundy told Mr. Cox wrather (sic) than shoot you when you come here to burn the barn I will surrender if he will take me as a prisoner of war. To this the Captain readily agreed to do in the presence of Mr. Cox. When Mundy surrendered and gave his pistols to Mr. Cox, the Captain called his men and told them to bind Mundy hands and feet, and put him on a bare-backed horse, with his hands tied behind him and his feet tied under the horse’s stomach.” . . . “One report has it that there were several men killed, but Mr. Cox said there was not a shot fired at the barn, and Mundy surrendered only because he did not want to shoot him when he came with a tun (sic) of straw to burn the barn. This man Metcafe came to Irvington some years ago to see Mr. Cox in regard to Mundy’s pistols. . .” Respect. G.A. Foote This story relayed by Mr. Cox indicates he, not Lewis, was the negotiator. It explains why Mundy chose not to fight. He knew he was to be burnt out, and to prevent it, if only temporarily, he would have to shoot a person that had befriended him. He could not have survived the inevitable fire or the bullets of a hundred rifles. By surrendering his pistols to John Cox, a civilian, with Cox witnessing that he was arrested as a prisoner of war, he might escape a death sentence, at best being paroled or exchanged, at worse facing a soldier’s death by firing squad. Mundy was imprisoned March 13 in the military prison in Louisville. He had a speedy trial, was not allowed to call witnesses, and was told of the death sentence on the day of his execution. With appeal denied, Mundy was hanged at 4 p.m. on March 15, 1865, at the fairgrounds, located at 13th and Broadway, in Louisville. At age 19, he struggled at the end of the rope for several minutes before he died. A crowd estimated at 10,000 people looked on. Magruder was hanged on Oct. 20, 1865, in the prison yard, while Medkiff was released for inexplicable reasons 10 months later. Years after, Henry Medkiff visited Mr. Cox in Irvington.
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Photo by Gerald Fischer