Testimony on behalf of John Thornhill

I have been writing about the case involving Captain John Thornhill for quite a while (see earlier posts the Indictment of Colonel Parsons and More on the case against Colonel Parsons). The writing below was published in the Knoxville Whig on 15 September 1865 (source: Library of Congress), written by an anonymous relative of John Thornhill providing a description of the events that led to his killing.