The Red Flannel Rag

In addition to training their dogs, moonshiners began posting several guards near

the entrance to the hollows where they were making whiskey. Sometimes the guards set

a charge of dynamite to explode if they saw the revenuers. They also had a quieter

system of warning as well. Several men, posted within decent hearing range of the

moonshiners, would relay a warning by using birdcalls. Sometimes the guards

pretended to be hunting and fired a number of warning shots if they saw revenue agents

coming into the hollow.

My dad was guarding for a moonshiner by pretending to hunt squirrels with a .22

rifle when he was caught the second time. He was sitting on a ridge some distance from

the still when he saw one revenuer and fired two warning shots. Another revenuer

sneaked up behind him and arrested him. One time a revenue agent was shot and

wounded by a moonshiner’s guard. The shooter w as never caught.

Just days after the revenue agent was shot, my Uncle Rob’s brother, Tom, came

home and told his mother that his dog started barking at the still that day. Tom said, “I

looked up and saw Jesus standing on a rock near where I was working. I stopped

making whiskey and came on home.”

Later that day he told Uncle Rob what he had seen. Uncle Rob said, “Nobody

ever sees Jesus and lives,” and he warned Tom, “That’s a sign that something bad is

going to happen.” Tom’s mother, Alice Crawford, a sked him to stay home for a few days.

He refused, telling her his “mash” was ready, and he had to “run” it before it wasted.

The next day Tom didn’t return home until well after dark, his mother told later,

“He was real quiet while he eat his supper. Just as we was getting’ ready to turn in for

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