Excerpts from the Fletcher Pomeroy diary.
MARCH 1865
{Monday, 27th. Has been a beautiful day. 40 men each of Companies D & G of our Regiment and 40 from the 7th (17th) Illinois cavalry went on a eight day scout, Lt. Henry of Company D commanding. We had a good meeting this evening.}
APRIL 1865
{Sabbath, 2nd, Has been a pleasant day but a little rainy this evening. Lt. Henry’s command returned from their expedition on the south. They killed four guerillas. The guerillas entered their camp one night and stole 13 horses from Co. G of our Regiment. This has been a precious day spiritually for me. I have much blessing attending our meetings.}
The story of these and other killings committed by the 7th Kansas and 17th Illinois were recorded by John J. Chilton as newspaper articles in Carter County Missouri during the 1930’s.
The four men they killed were George Reed, Charles Reed, Thomas Reed and Andrew Robinson. Patrick Reed, was captured but escaped when Thomas Reed was killed. Andrew Robinson’s death was mistaken identity. All were first captured unarmed and then killed. Patrick Reed survived as an eye-witness and was a relative of John J. Chilton. The Reed brother’s had a fifth brother named David Clinton Reed who was not harmed. He is the only one of the family that has as yet been identified as taking part in any sanctioned or unsanctioned military or paramilitary activities. These were cold blooded execution style killings. The guerillas who stole the horses did so after the killings of the Reed's and Robinson.
This was not an isolated incident, portions of these two regiments had been brought into this area of Missouri to act as judge, jury and executioner by Ewing under the authority of the Provost Marshall.
Jim Morris