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Re: Dallas County Missouri Battles/Skirmishes

From Goodspeeds History od Dallas Co et al....page 538-39

Losses.-As a result of the war Dallas County suffered the
loss of her court-house and public records, the latter being the
greater loss, as the records can never be restored. The county
has recovered from the former loss by the erection of a much
better court-house than the one that was destroyed. Otherwise
the county did not suffer as much as many others counties of the
State, being, as it was, off of the direct lines of communication
on which the large armies moved. It was, however, overrun
with scouting parties from both armies, and also by guerrillas
and bushwhackers. A number of citizens lost their lives at the
hands of the latter classes, and some were undoubtedly unneces-
sarily slain by the soldiers. Among the citizens that were
killed were Mark Hendrix, Nathaniel Wollard, John Edmisson,
Isaac Martin, Jacob Norton, Reuben Arnold, Joseph Stanley,
John and Elijah Gordon and probably others, the most of them
having been killed by bushwhackers to avenge an imaginary
wrong, or for the purpose of robbery. The Gordons were killed
about the middle of the war period, at the house of Ezekiel Wil-
kinson, who at the time was sick and was being visited by his
brother, Richard Wilkinson, now of Buffalo. On the occasion,
two men, dressed in the garb of Federal soldiers, called at the
house, and one of them gained admittance under pretense of get-
ting a drink, and the other remained on the porch. At this
moment the firing commenced, and the two Gordons were killed.
The inmates of the house then resisted, and the fiends, probably
feeling that they would be overpowered, fled away. Meanwhile,
Mr. Richard Wilkinson, having seized a gun, fired two shots
after them and wounded one of them, but they both escaped.
Norton was shot while plowing in his field. Arnold, being
charged with rendering assistance to the enemy, was captured by
some Federal soldiers, who started to take him to Springfield,
but killed him on the way while (as they reported) he was
attempting to escape. Stanley was shot at his home, in Buffalo,
by some unknown party. Jackson Chapman was killed by some
Confederate guerrillas or bushwhackers, after they had made a
prisoner of him. Many citizens were killed during the war by
personal enemies, who cowardly and fiendishly concealed them-
selves in the bushes and awaited the passing of their victims,
or under cover of the bushes stealthily crept upon them when
they perpetrated the devilish deed. Others were wantonly killed
after being captured, by their captors, who, in order to justify
their conduct, found it convenient to report that the killing was
done while the prisoner was attempting to escape.
There were no companies organized in Dallas County for the
Confederate service, but some of her citizens, who sympathized
with the Southern cause and were in favor of secession, went
out of the county and joined various commands that were raised
for the Confederate army.

see http://digital.library.umsystem.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=umlib&idno=umlr000006

John R.

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