There are no existing records pertaining to his death and no warrants were issued in connection with the murder. A group of Confederate guerrillas took credit for the killing and his wife's pension application states that he was 'killed by Rebels'. He was killed near his home on January 7, 1865, just thirteen days after leaving the Union Army. Asa's Company E was mustered out on December 24, 1864, in Ashland. Beginning in December 1864, the 45th Kentucky Infantry began mustering its companies out of service. On muster rolls beginning on May 6, 1864, Asa is reported in a Lexington hospital, suffering from a leg fracture. His Compiled Service Records say 'Killed by Rebels'. Runyon later joined the 39th Kentucky Infantry and was killed on May 7, 1864, in Pike County, Kentucky. Some time in 1863, a group of Confederate Home Guards ambushed and killed Francis as he was leaving his house, and Anse took credit for the deed. Although Cline survived his wounds, Anse vowed to retaliate against the responsible parties. William Francis also led a company of Pike County Guards during 1862, a group of which attacked and shot Mose Christian Cline, a friend of Devil Anse Hatfield. During the early months of the Civil War, Asa joined a company of the Pike County Home Guards, under the command of Uriah Runyon, and it is thought he sustained the wound while serving in this unit. At the time of his capture, he was recovering from a gunshot wound to the chest. According to his Compiled Service Records, he was 'captured by Rebels' on December 5, 1863, and was released four months later to a Union hospital in Maryland. Feud Civil War The Hatfield clan in 1897Īsa Harmon McCoy joined the 45th Kentucky Infantry on October 20, 1863. Both families had also been involved in the manufacturing and selling of illegal moonshine, a popular commodity at the time. Ole Ran'l owned a 300-acre (120 ha) farm. Anse's timbering operation was a source of wealth for his family, while the McCoys were more of a lower-middle-class family. The Hatfields were more affluent and had many more political connections than the McCoys. It was widely believed that his uncle, Jim Vance, a member of the Wildcats, committed the murder.

Devil Anse Hatfield was a suspect at first, but was later confirmed to have been sick at home at the time of the murder.

The first real violence in the feud was the death of Asa as he returned from the war, murdered by a group of Confederate Home Guards called the Logan Wildcats. The majority of the Hatfields, although living in Mingo County (then part of Logan County), fought for the Confederacy in the American Civil War most McCoys also fought for the Confederates, with the exception of Asa Harmon McCoy, who fought for the Union. The McCoy family lived primarily on the Kentucky side of the Tug Fork the Hatfields lived mostly on the West Virginia side. The feud has entered the American folklore lexicon as a metonym for any bitterly feuding rival parties. Those involved in the feud were descended from Joseph Hatfield and William McCoy (born c. 1750). The Hatfields of West Virginia were led by William Anderson 'Devil Anse' Hatfield, while the McCoys of Kentucky were under the leadership of Randolph 'Ole Ran'l' McCoy. The Hatfield–McCoy Feud involved two American families of the West Virginia– Kentucky area along the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy River from 1863 to 1891.

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