In regard to the first item:
Note that report was made on August 9th from Hannibal. The Battle of Kirksville happened on Aug 6, the Kirksville executions on Aug 7 and the battle at Stockton (Painter Creek - 30 miles from Kirksville) happened on August 8. There was no telegraph at Kirksville, but there was one at Macon. The only ways that Merrill at Hannibal could make this report was if he received the information by telegram or got it second hand from someone who happened to be traveling the rail line between Stockton (now named New Cambria), Macon and Hannibal. There was no telegraph at Kirksville, but there was one at Macon.
As to Stockton (Painter Creek): McNeil was not there, he was in Kirksville on Aug 8 executing Col McCullough and none of his forces were in that area. The Union forces at Painter Creek were commanded by Woolfolk. To review the timeline on what happened: the Battle of Kirksville on Aug 6, 15 prisoners were executed at Kirksville on Aug 7. On that same day, a messenger was sent from Kirksville to Macon (35 miles on horseback) to make a report (Macon was the largest Union garrison in the immediate area). On Aug 8, McNeil executed Col McCullough at Kirksville and Porter ran into Woolfolk’s forces at Stockton (Painter Creek).
One scenario on how Merrill received the information: After the Painter Creek battle, the information was telegraphed from Stockton to Macon. The information from Kirksville and Stockton arrived at Macon about the same time. Then the information about both of those battles was telegraphed to Merrill at Hannibal in the same message. (Telegraph time was very limited, so only bare essentials were transmitted.) If you read between the lines of Merrill’s report, you can see that both battles are intertwined in the report with some information about each left out. The first paragraph is in regard to Stockton. The second and third paragraphs are in regard to Kirksville. You can see how bogus information can start. Whether the original telegraph message from Macon was incorrect or whether the receiving operator at Hannibal was wrong is not known. No official messages or letters can be found from NE Missouri during this timeframe.
The second scenario on how Merrill received his information: A respected civilian was riding a train east out of St Joe to Hannibal and then to Quincy and during the trip he heard war stories and conveyed them to Merrill when he reached Hannibal. This is probably the method as the newspaper article is a second hand account from someone who was not at any of the events. This person (a railroad official) was probably headed east out of St Joe. He first came to the Stockton area and heard glorious stories of a battle (Painter Creek). He then went next to Macon and heard more stories of a glorious battle (Kirksville). He then put 2 and 2 together and came up with McNeil at Stockton and 26 shot down at Macon. That would explain why both Merrill’s report and the newspaper article both state 26 shot down when it was only 15 at Kirksville (or 16 if you count McCullough the next day and it got exaggerated from 16 to 26)… and why McNeil was stated as being in Stockton when he was in Kirksville and there is no mention of a battle at Kirksville. (This man could not have seen the executions at Kirksville as he stated they were shot at the same time, when documented eye-witnesses all state they were shot down one at a time.)
Either way, the battles got mixed, some information got distorted and Merrill’s report is a hodgepodge of semi-facts.
It is items like that, that make it very difficult to weed out the truth. But once the bad information is in newsprint, it is thought to be ‘gospel’. You have to remember the times: the lack of good communication, the second and third hand accounts and the knee jerk reporting just to incite emotions and try to make someone buy their newspapers. It takes time to sift through all the various stories and whittle them down to the facts. That’s why it took me over 10 years to find out exactly what happened during the 3 hour battle at Kirksville.