Heres a long excerpt I fouind on the hanging(s).. appears they believed Tom had murdered someone..

The Sins of the Children

Leading up to the surrender of this camp are several ver distressing cirsumstances. Levi Guy, who lived on Watauga River near its falls and its passage into Tennessee, was an old man during the Civil War. His three sons, Canada, Enoch and David, were active Union men. Their enemies called them robbers. There were near the head of North Fork of New River several men of the name of Potter and others named Stout. Thomas Stout, another old man, had three sons, Abram, Daniel and John, who, with the Potters and Guys, were charged with many depredations throughout this region. One night in 1863 a band of men, among whom were supposed to have been the three Guy "boys," as they were called, went to the home of Paul Farthing on Beaver Dams, where Lewis Farthing now lives, and after demanding his surrender, fired into the log walls of his residence. It had been agreed by the people of this neighborhood that, in case any house should be attacked, horns or trumpets should be blown, so that all who heard the signal might hasten to the assistance of those in trouble. This alarm was sounded from the upper story of Paul Farthing's house by his women folk, while he fired at the at-tacking party from the rooms below. Several neighbors heard the alarm and started to the rescue. Among these was Thomas Farthing, and he was shot dead as he approached the house, the robbers taking flight immediately thereafter. Some time later Levi Guy was captured by some of the Confederate Home Guard and hanged, although he protested that he had done nothing more than shelter his own sons when they came to his house for food and beds. Paul Farthing was falsely charged with having been concerned in this deed.

While Isaac Wilson, son of Hiram, was ploughing in his field at the head of the North Fork of Cove Creek, bushwhackers, among whom are supposed to have been Potters and Stouts, slipped up on him and shot him dead. Soon thereafter Canada Guy and a boy named Jacob May, a son of Jeff May, of Roan Creek, Tenn., were captured by Daniel Sheppard and some of Captain Price's men of Ashe County, near Sutherland, and hanged, though it is said that May was innocent and was ex-honorated from all complicity by Guy before he was killed. It is said that Sheppard was afterwards captured and hanged on a dogwood in Johnson County, Tenn., but that the rope broke. Jeff May, his captor, then took the halter from Sheppard's horse and strangled Sheppard to death with it.

After this it is claimed that Paul Farthing's house was again attacked at night, but that he returned the fire and wounded or killed one of the assailants, as blood was seen on the road leading away from the dwelling. Then, sometime afterwards - dates are lacking all through this period - Old Man Thomas Stout, father of the Stout boy or boys charged with having been concerned in the killing of Isaac Wilson, was captured by Confederate Home Guards in the spring of 1864 and taken to Hiram Wilson's on Cove Creek, where he was kept all night. Big Isaac Wilson, a cousin of "Little" Isaac, the slain man; Jay or Jehu Howington and Gilbert Norris are said to have started with Stout next day for Camp Vance, below Morganton, and after having been told to go "the nigh-way." Thomas Stout was never seen alive again.

Two months later James H. Presnell was cow-hunting on Rich Mountain and found a shoe. He reported this to his brother, Col. W. W. Presnell, when he got back to their home on Brushy Fork. The next day the two brothers went back to the place at which the shoe had been found, and within fifty paces they found what remained of the body of Thomas Stout, including his gray hair. It had been placed in the cavity formed by the blowing down of an oak tree; logs had then been placed beside the body and the whole covered with brush and leaves. Not far off, dangling from a leaning white oak, was the hickory thong by which he had been hanged, with the noose still in a circular form, though it had been cut in two when the body was removed. Colonel Presnell reported these facts to Abram Lewis, an officer at Camp Mast, and soon afterwards Thomas Stout's widow had the remains removed and buried near her home.' Thus was the Bible promise reversed, that the sins of the fathers should be visited upon the children; but, alas, the sins of the children are much oftener visited upon their fathers!