The Smith that Ferguson was referring to was Lieutenant Elza C. Smith of the 13th Kentucky Cavalry. The twenty-nine-year-old Smith was a relative of Ferguson's first wife. Smith had joined the 13th in Clinton County, Kentucky, in 1863, and spent much of his service chasing down terrorists such as Ferguson. Ferguson was a confederate sympathizer in an area that was predominantly Union. Ferguson saw it as his duty to form a guerrilla party to attack Union sympathizers. According to Thurman Sensing, Ferguson's biographer, Smith's death was the culmination of eleven murders. Ferguson allegedly suffered at the hands of his pro-Union neighbors during the war. Dr. J. B. Murfree stated that Smith made Ferguson's wife undress and march around before him along a public road. Sensing then concludes that with the death of Smith, his family honor was restored.