With Sherman's army a few miles from Robeson, the Confederate Home Guard accused Henry Berry Lowry's father, Allen, and brother William, of various crimes, including illegal possession of firearms. After a hastily prepared kangaroo court trial, Allen and William were convicted and executed on March 3, 1865. For nearly a decade, Henry Berry Lowry conducted raids in southern North Carolina, primarily in Robeson County and against upper-class whites. He became the most hunted outlaw in the state's history. During the war, Henry Berry Lowry often flouted the authorities who hunted him for over eight years. He murdered the "presumed head" of the local Ku Klux Klan, John Taylor, after which Lowry and many others escaped into the surrounding swamps: a tactic that they would use over and over again and which would prove highly successful at helping them avoid capture.