A second group of newspaper articles about the sacking of Osceola, pay particualr attention to the New York times report on page 2 that appear to confirm that Harris and Vaughan were captured then paroled. It also appears that Vaughan's house was burned and he himself was robbed of $8,000 or perhaps that was his "parole money". Clearly Harris and Vaughan were two of the richest men in St. Clair County at the time of the raid and it is obvious that Lane expatriated a large number of slaves with the raid. Sturgis and Halleck were both upset with Lane over the incident. The Memphis Daily Appeal editorial indicates that Vaughan had secreted a significant amount of money out of the bank before the raid.

A bit of personal history regarding the Merchants Bank of St. Louis, the branch of which Vaughan was president in Osceola in Sept 1861. Seems the president was a New Yorker by the name of John A Brownlee, son of a Presbyterian minister as related by Stevens in his St. Louis:Fourth City pg 681-684 "John A. Brownlee, a native of New York, the son of the Rev. M. Brownlee, one of the eminent Presbyterian ministers of the east, investigated the prospects of Chicago in 1839, and after a year's experience there moved to St. Louis. He began here as a dry goods clerk and became the head of the firm of Brownlee, Homer & Co. When the Merchants' bank, now the Merchants-Laclede National, was organized in 1857, John A. Brownlee was chosen president. The wife of Mr. Brownlee was a Miss Ridgely of Baltimore. Francis Adams Lane was Missouri born, coming to St. Louis from Marion county when he was eighteen to become a merchant. He made a fortune and retired in 1848. This branch of the Lanes was of an old Virginia family, but derived the name from Presley Carr Lane, who was for thirty years president of the state senate of Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Lanes were represented in St. Louis by William Carr Lane, the first mayor, and by Francis Adams Lane, a successful merchant."

Thus feeling a bit out of character here let me make some wholly unsubstantiated but plausible suppositions:

Lane knew about the bank at Osceola as he had family ties to the thing. In fact Brownlee, a Union man may have made it a point to let Lane know about it.

Harris had money on deposit with Vaughan, a very successful merchant, and as Greider points out, Vaughan is the one man in Osceola that had the wherewithal to reach out to St. Louis for goods and services.

Harris and Vaughan put their hat in the ring for Jackson and the MSG even though Harris had called for "neutrality". Harris and Vaughan were both apparently captured/paroled by Lane during the raid.

Vaughan had removed assets from the bank prior to the raid, Harris became aware of it and wanted his money after the raid.

Vaughan could not deliver gold as promised, either because he did not want to reveal its hiding place, or Lane had made off with it, or a combination of both. (Note the Memphis Appeal editorial writer reports $90,000 being hid by Vaughan in her house, and never reports what became of it and Lane robbed Vaughan of $8,000 dollars from the Vaughan residence before burning the house. This comes close to the $100,000 reported by Hill as being taken)

Harris shoots Vaughan either out of anger for the loss of his funds or the perceived duplicity that Vaughan may have appeared to have had with Lane as president of the bank. ( In essence how'd you survive if you didn't pay Lane off with MY money or more precisely MY gold or are you really a spy...particularly if Harris had been drinking to get over the events of the preceding 48 hours.)

Sturgis gets a confession of sorts from Lane regarding the shooting of prisoners but clearly Harris and Vaughan were released, Why? I propose money... they knew where it was and Lane needed it. A bit like the old feudal European war nature of taking nobility for ransom.

So back to Kirby's 6 questions.

There was a bank in Osceola, Lane knew about it either from Brownlee or Lane connections in St. Louis or local knowledge.
Lane was in Osceola
Part of the town was burned including the Vaughan residence and the courthouse.
Prisoners were shot either by Lane's or Montgomery's troops. Thus Sturgis and Hallecks anger. At least 2 prisoners, Harris and Vaughan were given paroles.
There were a number of slaves "liberated" apparently at least a hundred from the area.
At least Vaughan's home was robbed and there is evidence to believe Hill's assertion of nearly $100,000 taken is plausible.

I'm ready for anyone else to pitch in with their 2 cents worth. And no I don't have a dog in the hunt either just looking for the truth.

John R.