The prisoners generally were recruits that Tim Reeves was bringing into what was to become the 15th Missouri Cavalry (CSA). There were also troops from other Confederate units in the area that Reeves took command of for his raid on Centreville. As such, they were due the protections afforded to combatants. They may have engaged in guerrilla warfare, and maybe even a little bushwhacking, but when captured they were with a duly constituted Confederate organization that had just engaged in a legitimate act of warfare. Politically powerful Leeper, who was a member of the State Convention that was, in effect, the governing body of Missouri, was out running around southeast Missouri on his own hook, engaging in acts that he knew crossed the line. He knew he had reason to fear these guys, and wanted to get rid of them while he had the chance because they had cause for coming after him personally. Leeper was kind of like the timid dog in the neighborhood, that is so afraid that it bites whenever approached. Look up Leeper in the index of my book on Hildebrand -- even Leeper's friends said he was a coward. He was kicked out of his regiment not long after this event, and his former company was afterwards exiled from the regiment and was even booted out of the military sub-district.