Kirby, I re-read your essay on the Jackson Fairgrounds affair several weeks ago. When I mentioned having read it to a respected friend, who also is an author, he asked for my opinion. I told him it was the most well researched and written piece, on an individual action, that I had ever read. Also, that the only critical thought I had of the essay was that it was not a chapter in a book. He agreed with me.

As to Capt. George W. Hummell, I will start digging on him today. I found it interesting that his name was mentioned first by Martin in his narrative. When I read the narrative I remembered Hummell from your writing. But, when I read the James Lindsay petition and it indicated a "Capt. Humble" was from "Barnesville" and in conjunction with Powers, Rice, Leeper, et al I started to wonder if it was the same person. As the closest of the two Barnsville villages, existing in Missouri at the time, was in Reynolds County, which shares a border with Wayne County. I looked at the 1860 census for Reynolds County and found an "Antonio Hample" born in Germany in 1825 with a wife and two children. Also in the household was a "Charles Hample" born 1836, also in Germany. This was the only surname that came close to what I thought I was looking for in the entire county. And they had a Barnsville address. Reynolds County had it's share of men who fought for the north, but this is the first indication I have found that any were officers. Jim