Well, I'm not quite sure how I did it with nothing much to work from, but I confirmed the "cut it out" story from the diary, and actually have names of the two men saved from hanging at the last minute, literally, while they were saying their last words.

From the June 16, 1904 National Tribune: "NANCE AND MANN: The Reprieve of Two Condemned Bushwhackers: ...In the early months of 1865, while at Tullahoma, Tenn., with my regiment, 42d Mo., two men, Nance and Mann by name, were condemned to death for bushwhacking and murder, and were to be hanged. The gallows were built...marched to the scaffold...placed upon the scaffold...Last talk before being launched into eternity...when a man on horseback hastily made his way among the guards, bearing a reprieve from the commanding officer at Nashville and ordering the two men to be sent there under guard."

FYI though--these guys weren't Centralia Rebs, or even Missouri. "The men had their homes among the hills of the Cumberland Mountains...."