I was presumptuous to assume you were talking about "the first 2 I have" applying to my stuff. Forgive me. I understand you were saying you have seen the two Saline County histories.

I also erred about the exact reason the Federals tried and executed Dr. Benson. Your reference to Eakin and Hales "Branded As Rebels" of 1993 on pages 23-4 clued me into the Kansas City "Star" newspaper article of 22 March 1908 must have been the source that explained that Dr. Benson was in three different southern Missouri State Guard units during 1861. While he was in the third one led by Colonel Frank Robertson the Federals captured nearly that whole unit of 1,500 men at the Battle of Blackwater River or Milford in northeast Johnson County on 19 December 1861. Those men were later released upon their oath they would not again bear arms against the U.S. By Dr. Benson freely admitting he rode with Quantrill at Lawrence, even as an unarmed physician, he clearly violated his oath. That is the main reason the tribunal of several Union officers convicted him to execution.

"Branded as Rebels" and the Committee of the 22nd General Assembly investigation both state Benson was tried by a military tribunal. All those documents are entrusted to the National Archives and Records Administration. As you suggested, the Federals are nuts about keeping records. You can use one of the NARA field sites (one is in Kansas City), or you can go see them in Wash. D.C. just off the Capitol Mall, or you can hire someone to go there and find it and copy it for you. The LDS church also should have that free and online in their family research site. The tribunal record should be in the "Provost Marshal Records for individual persons" I would guess.

The Committee of the 22nd GA investigation brought up the Benson case only in passing to prove that the Union district commander showed favoritism to a northern vigilante organization in 1863 compared to the short shrift he gave to individual southern men such as Dr. Benson and two or three others. In other words, he gave the illegal northern group a slap on the wrist compared to the death sentence carried out soon after tribunal treatment he gave to Dr. Benson, Dr. Zimmerman, and others that same year. The district commander said about Benson that he was "a perjured traitor and a noted bushwhacker, after having taken the oath of allegiance...and was tried, convicted, and shot at Clinton, by a similar board of officers, Col. George H. Hall, commanding." Colonel Hall was commander of the 4th Cavalry Missouri State Militia, and I suppose a tribunal was being held at Clinton, Henry County seat, at that time, so they sent Benson there for trial. From what I read in the Saline County histories that you have seen, the Union soldiers regarded Dr. Benson on a higher plane of respect than most of the guys that faced their firing party, and it caused understandable problems with some of those soldiers.

Under martial law, law and order was the responsibility of the Union military since civil law was unenforceable by the normal offices of police, sheriff, local courts, and the like. Sometimes this played havoc with due process that American citizens are guaranteed by the Constition, even under martial law. At some point in the war, and probably partly due to the tragedy of Dr. Benson and those other two or three, President Lincoln insisted Union troops could not execute those convicted by military tribunal until he personally reviewed the file. Most of these files Lincoln concurred with the ruling, but a large number he commuted to imprisonment, and other lesser sentences. Lincoln did this to prevent arbitrary executions done in a hurry. Now, regulations in Missouri still permitted Union officers to perform a on-the-spot "drumhead courts martial" and then immediately execute any one they captured not in uniform but bearing arms against Union troops. This on-the-spot stuff was commonly done, but a number of Union officers passed on the practice and sent a prisoner forward to higher authority with a brief statement of the pertinent points at the time of his capture to face a tribunal later. In effect, that's what happened to Benson, and I don't know the date of his capture, date of the tribunal, or date of execution, but I gather Benson was not given much time to frame an appeal, and etc. So, you could say his due process was curtailed. Those details should be in the NARA records.

Any other questions?

Bruce Nichols