The following account came from pp. 233-234 of Joseph A. Mudd's 1909 book, "With Porter in North Missouri."

...The little remnant of our company, finding reconnoitering next to impossible on account of the vigilance of the militia, made its way cautiously, under the leadership of Moses Beck, back to Monroe County, rejoined Porter and was assigned to Major Snyder's battalion. Beck was an energetic, prosperous farmer about forty years of age. His education was limited; his convictions, political and religious, intense; his integrity spotless. He was unconscious of fear, unsparing of self, considerate of others, modest and gentle in demeanor.

It was reported that there was a large number of muskets stored at Ashley, Pike County, awaiting distribution to the militia about to be enrolled. Snyder was sent to get them. In the light of the very meager information obtainable about this undertaking, it seems the management was bad.

The Missouri Democrat of August 30 says:

"At daylight on Thursday morning last a party of guerrillas, one hundred and fifty in number, attacked a small detachment of State militia, some thirty in number, encamped at Ashley, Pike County. The fight had lasted about one hour when the rebels sent a flag of truce (the bearer of which was the notorious Captain Beck) with the following message:

August 28, 1862.
COMMANDING OFFICER:
We demand surrender, unconditional, of arms. Your men will be paroled.
COLONELS PORTER AND BURBRIDGE,
MAJOR SNYDER,
Commanding Division.

To which Captain Purse, commanding the State militia, made the following reply:

August 28, 1862.
COLONEL PORTER AND OTHERS:
Can't comply with your request. Your men should respect your own messenger.
W. H. PURSE,
Captain, Commanding.

The Missouri Democrat story continued:

“The allusion in Captain Purse's note to respecting their own messenger, referred to the enemy shooting at our men and mortally wounding Beck, who was on his way back to his own lines with Captain P's reply. There were two rebels killed and left on the ground, of whom Beck was one. Several wounded were carried off. One of the State troops was killed-Mr. George Trower-and five wounded. Mr. Trower was not killed in the fight but was shot afterwards, by being decoyed by some of the secesh citizens to the edge of the town and then deliberately killed. After the receipt of Captain Purse's reply the rebels fled in every direction. Our informant, who was in the fight, states that as he came toward Louisiana he met four hundred or five hundred troops, under Colonel Anderson and Fagg, going to reinforce Ashley."

The reader of the foregoing account will be puzzled as to how Captain Purse knew before writing his note declining to surrender that the bearer of his note while returning with it was shot by his friends. But everything went that was calculated to throw discredit on the rebels. The report of Captain Purse to Colonel George W. Anderson makes no mention of this incident:

"We were attacked about daylight this morning by the enemy. Our loss, one killed and five wounded. We have found two of the enemy's dead, one of them being Moses Beck, captain. Also two of their wounded. We are satisfied the brush around is swarming with them. Will report fully as soon as possible.
"W. H. PURSE,
"Captain, Commanding."

If a demand to surrender was sent it was not by the hands of Captain Beck. Beck was not shot by his own men. Sam Minor was standing by him when he was shot. He says that Snyder was managing badly and seemed not to know what to do; that Beck was directing the loading of a wagon with hay for use as a portable fortification. As he stepped from behind the stack he received his death wound. He loosened his money belt, containing gold, and gave it with his revolver to Sam. He lived only a few minutes. Davis Whiteside was mortally wounded about the same time and a little later Henry Lovelace was wounded, but not severely enough to be left on the field. Henry Lovelace was the only member of Penny's company I have seen since the war. A successful physician, a man of the highest integrity and of most lovable disposition, he was my neighbor in Lincoln County for many years. He and his brother James Lovelace, of Montgomery County, have been dead about twenty years.

Sam Minor knows nothing of any demand having been made for a surrender. The other man killed was named Blue and was from Pike County-not a member of our company. The name of the other wounded man left on the field is unknown.

I know nothing of the military capacity of Captain Purse. Personally he was greatly respected as a good man and good citizen. Davis Whiteside lived several days after being wounded and until the end he was tenderly nursed by Mrs. Purse. I have been told that the militia-perhaps by Captain Purse's order-placed Beck's body just as it was in a plain coffin and gave it decent burial, and that several years afterwards when the family exhumed it for interment in the family ground near Truxton, Lincoln County, they found several hundred dollars in greenbacks in his pocket....