Other sources I found regarding Dr. Benson are:

1. Missouri Historical Company, "History of Saline County, Missouri," 1881, pages 320-1;

2. Napton, "Past and Present of Saline County, Missouri," 1910, page 198;

3. State of Missouri, "Report of the Committee of the 22nd General Assembly to Investigate the Conduct of the Militia," page 325 (This source claims Dr. Benson joined and deserted the Union militia and was captured in a skirmish, but this is contradicted by other sources. There seems to be no military service record for Benson in the militia or in the southern service.)

The two sentences in parentheses above are literally what I wrote regarding that source in the endnote Number 61 for Chapter 18 of my 1863 book as stated on page 359 in the Notes section. The first two sources above seem more accurate to me. I wrote a paragraph about the Dr. Benson execution incident in Saline County on page 316 in Chapter 18. The book is "Guerrilla Warfare in Civil War Missouri, Vol. II, 1863," by McFarland and Company, 2007. You can view this via Interlibrary Loan through your local library, or the book is still in print.

I wish you good hunting. The Dr. Benson story is memorable to anyone who ever read of it.

Bruce Nichols