I regret that I wrote something that direct about the Harshbargers even in an online forum without more evidence and just on the suggestion of a neighbor. They were entitled to a trial. Just to give them the benefit of the doubt I should have used "probably," "evidently," "perhaps," and the like. The evidence is slim, especially after all these years.

All Bill "Wild Bill" Hickok told his biographer was that while he was a Union soldier stationed in Springfield during the war he engaged in something he regreted later, or general words to that effect. He was never specific. I read statements and heard statements like that from soliders of several wars, and it could mean a variety of things, but often refers to abuse of war powers either to noncombatants, comrades, or private property. Regrets about something a soldier did or failed to do are common in war.

The situation of the assassin team working from Union soldiers of the Springfield garrison was strictly a July and August 1863 issue, so you will find it mentioned in the 1863 book, Chapter 12, pages 162-3 (three incidents in July 11-15), 168 (the Dr. Weaver incident of August 13). I learned about other incidents since that volume was published in 2004. Sadly, the only means I have of gathering these stories of assassination by strangers is from the queries of desendant researchers in forums like this one. There is almost no other evidence of deliberate killing of southern sympathizers that took place in this region that summer, and there is little or none about it in the older county histories. There were few newspapers in SW MO during the war and they had to walk a fine line or suffer a "nighttime office visit."

Bruce Nichols