One of the most savage rascals we had to guard us was a murderer named Hankins. One day a boyish soldier named "Teddy," a member of the Third Michigan Cavalry, made an arrangement with Hankins to bring him in a few sweet potatoes when next he should come on guard. Hankins was stationed that day near the gateway between the cook-yard and the sleeping-yard.
Teddy approached Hankins when he came on guard again, and from him received and paid for his sweet potatoes. Starting to go into the sleeping-yard, he had just got into the gateway when some friend hailed him from the outside; without thinking where he was, he stopped for a moment and looked around.
That was an opportunity Hankins had wanted; the face of his intended victim was turned away, and no comrade saw the danger in time to warn the boy. Raising his musket quickly to his shoulder, a big bullet was sent crashing through his body, and Teddy fell to the earth.
Two days after, in the same place, Hankins killed another man with whom but a few moments before he had been in pleasant conversation, and with whom he had not passed an unpleasant word.
In six days of that single week Hankins killed three men, and in each case there was not the least shadow of reason or excuse for the murders. By an Iowa acquaintance I am informed that "when General Wilson's cavalry captured Cahaba some of his men, who had formerly been in Cahaba prison and knew of the kindness of Mrs. Gardner toward the prisoners there, requested to be allowed to go ahead and surround Mrs. Gardner's house, to protect it and its inmates. They also intended to capture and burn Hankins at the stake but on their arrival Mrs. Gardner told them that Hankins was taken sick and died a natural death in Cahaba after the prisoners left." [Source]
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