The Confederate command selected the hills of southwest Virginia for a hospital as they determined it was an unlikely location to see combat.
Stevenson writes, "The rent received was invested in Confederate and Virginia bonds to serve as an endowment for the future."
The board of Trustees voted in 1861 to allow Professors Wiley, Davis, Buchanan, and Longley to have equal shares of the farmland for $500 a year.
These floors were only accessible by two staircases at either end of the building, where guards were placed to prevent Federal troops from escaping.
The prisoners who were housed at Wiley Hall, and testified at the trial of Champ Ferguson, included: Wm.
After being paroled by Major General Breckinridge, he stayed behind at Emory and Henry College Hospital to treat the massive casualties.
Orange Sells testified at the trial of Champ Ferguson after the war that, "The night before the killing, we heard a rustling on the stairway and immediately three men came into the room.
On October 8, 1864, Champ Ferguson entered the Emory and Henry College General Hospital with twelve to fifteen men almost unnoticed.
Upon entering, a man with Champ recognized Shocker from the previous battle and said, "There was a wounded boy out of the 11th Michigan Cavalry lying in a bunk nearby.
Smith had joined the 13th in Clinton County, Kentucky, in 1863, and spent much of his service chasing down terrorists such as Ferguson.
B. Murfree stated that Smith made Ferguson's wife undress and march around before him along a public road.
The guard that was placed by Dr. Murfree and the quartermaster to keep the federal soldiers on the third floor stopped Ferguson and the men with him.
Undaunted, the guard raised his gun and leveled it at Ferguson and told him that he would shoot him if he approached another step.
Three Confederate soldiers came into the room of Orange Sells, Lieutenant Smith, and Captain Dagenfeld, of the 12th Ohio Cavalry.
Ferguson's partner in crime at the hospital, Hildreth, had been watching the event with a carbine in one hand and a pistol in the other guarding the Federal wounded in the room.
Upon reaching the hospital, the pair was confronted by one of Ferguson's men that was guarding the steps with drawn revolvers.
Dr. Murfree exclaimed, "Gentlemen, you must go down from here; this is a place for the sick and wounded, and you must not disturb them," to which Ferguson retorted, "I will shoot you."
The board of trustees at Emory and Henry College met on November 12, 1864 to discuss the running of the hospital.
Following the massacres on the field and at the hospital, both Union and Confederate commands started receiving reports of inhumane acts.
The story made its way all the way to the Secretary of War in Washington; he demanded the extradition of Ferguson to Federal authorities.