Note that while while Reeves' hometown of Doniphan was burned to the ground by Rice's and Hummell's companies, and men from those two specific companies were singled out for execution days later -- often overlooked is the fact that Kitchen's hometown of Bloomfield was burned to the ground the day after Doniphan was burned.

And while the burning of Doniphan is pretty well documented, the facts surrounding the burning of Bloomfield are much more murky.

Unfortunately, there are no confessional-type memoirs for Bloomfield like there are for Doniphan. Anyway, given the situation, after reading the Martin narrative I had always wondered whether Kitchen had information that elements of the 6th Missouri Cavalry (Montgomery's men) burned Bloomfield; or that there were elements of the 6th Missouri in the vicinity of Bloomfield, and given what had happened in Doniphan.... (I am aware that one SEMO history makes a passing comment attributing the burning of Bloomfield to Confederate guerrilla Pope Congers, but there has never been anything to corroborate that brief reference, or any explanation regarding why he would do so).

Anyway, Kitchen was known to have executed a prisoner or two during his time. Just go back and re-read the Jackson Fairground story.

Regarding Kitchen--could be that he was not a bloodthirsty maniac looking to kill any Federal he could, and instead was just looking for Montgomery's men as payback for Bloomfield. And, not finding any, did not take it any further. Albert Martin saw two officers looking for men to execute, and he saw men taken away for execution. Perhaps Martin didn't make any distinctions between the search and the results.