My Dear Sir:
We see from some of the Louisville papers that you have been asked to send
troops up here in the mountains to capture us, and that the papers are full of slush
about us being desperadoes, outlaws and thieves, murderers, cutthroats and God
knows what else. In justice to ourselves and to the thousands of friends in Harlan
and the surrounding counties, we cannot afford to let such outrageous falsehoods go
unnoticed.
We will not pretend to give you a detailed account of the feud in this county …
but it began as far back as the war. There was a crowd of people in this town who
wanted to be supreme rulers … and when any stranger would come to town … they
did not like, they would try to run him off or have him killed, and did send many
innocent men to their eternal home. [We were] selected by some unknown power to
resist their attacks and became involved in the feud … and must bear the hardships
we now bear, and must sneak around at night “like a galley slave, scourged to his
dungeon.”
We are as anxious to give up and stand trial as men can be, but that would be
like committing suicide, as old Judge Lewis and his crowd of bushwhackers of the
“Law and Order” party say that if they get us in jail they intend to burn the jail and
we know they will do it. We will give bail in the amount of $75,000 and … can get
¾ of the people in Harlan County to go on our bond. If we did give bond we would
have to stay hid and would have somebody to fight all the time … they would try to
kill us just as hard then as now…. One man can arrest both of us if we are guaranteed
protection, but we will never give up to Judge Lewis and his bushwhackers … this is
the kind of Law and Order Party the devil has presiding in Hell.
No one has ever asked us to surrender, and no attempt was ever made to arrest
us, but on occasion they have come and fired on us, as they did this time, and then
we would fight, and usually whip the hell out of them. Judge Lewis and his crowd
slipped up to about 20 yards of where we were and fired on us, hitting one innocent
boy by the name of Bird Spurlock, and then fled. Wilson Howard was the only one
that fought them, and he whipped the entire ten bushwhackers [This would indicate
that Lewis had a posse of only nine men, as E.B. Allen stated]. If there had been
one man in the party with the least bit of bravery or manhood he could have killed
Howard, as he stood out open and sent the lead sailing into them as they ran like the
cowardly curs they are.
With reference to the people in this section, they are quite law-abiding people,
are never molesting anyone. As there is a just God … they will have to answer for
the unjust assault made on these people, whose only fault is they let us stay amongst
them.
As to the charges they lay to us in Missouri, we desire to say that if your
excellency will pardon us for the indictments in Harlan County against us we assure
you that we will come as fast as the first train can carry us. Judging from the papers,
you may imagine that we have 40 or fifty men with us. This is not so. We are alone,
living as best we can. About three weeks ago Mr. Sam Kash, of Clay County, the
deputy collector for this district, was up here on business and … he saw the majority
of people in this county and … if you refer to him to tell you the sentiment of the
people on this feud trouble. In closing we beg your excellency to consider and inquire
well into this matter, and you will soon find where the blame lies.
Yours to command,
Will Jennings,
Wilson R. Howard

I could never find any confirmation of this story from the feud maybe someone knows more or different.

John Cawood’s son in law married to his daughter Nancy was John Crockett Carter who lived up the creek from John Cawood. John Cawood gave him a large piece of land for a Dowry which he had logged and bought more land with the money. During the Howard- Turner Feud John Cawood was ambushed and killed by the Howard faction, this same group tried to kill His brother Stephen at his home, a rifle ball barely missed him and lodged in a porch pillar by his head. Then they went after John’s son Hiram who barely escaped by running around the house with rifle balls kicking up dust round his feet, but they killed his hired man Hezekiah Hall. Later that night they waited outside of John Crocket Carters home to kill him when John’s little boy walked out onto the porch and remarked to his mother;  ”I wish daddy would come home from Kansas City, I miss him terribly”, (John Crockett carter was away on business to Kansas City to buy or sell cattle,) so they left them alone. Later, the Carter Family of Lee County VA Heard of this and sent the Howards a letter stating that if a hair of John Crockett’s head was mussed they would get a posse of 25 men and come to Harlan County to avenge him. John Crockett Carter or his family was never bothered again.