The Missouri in the Civil War Message Board

Re: Avington Simpson
In Response To: Re: Avington Simpson ()

Jim,

The only proof for all these murders are what I wrote in the preceding message--that is, the records of the victim and his date of death and oral family history about what other family members saw when these blue-uniformed men rode into the barnyard or lane and shot the man down. There is absolutely nothing on the Union side to verify this series of killings. Since the murders continued over a period of time, I suspect some officer or NCO at some level either knew about this or set it up. This same level of organization also obliterated any trace of this activity so that nothing whatsoever appears of it in any Union military records. I defy anyone to discover any mention of this killer team in official or private records. I encountered stories like this in other wars and all that is left are stories and rumors. Some researcher some day may get lucky and stumble upon a diary of a participant or a deathbed confession to family and friends, but I won't even waste the time to look for such a thing. They can only be found by happenstance. Too many men had too much to lose to play games with what happened in southwest MO that summer. It seems to me that some Yankees from the Springfield garrison fought the war to win and broke the rules along the way. That never happened before, did it?

This is partly why lots of combat veterans only reveal what REALLY happened to them in combat to other combat veterans. I have interviewed many, many veterans of modern wars over the last few years, and it's a touchy subject to get them to talk about stuff they don't even want to think about--much less discuss. Some friends told me stuff that would curl your hair, but only because they were passing through an early phase of Alzheimer's Disease which seems to open Pandora's Box in some minds.

Believe me, I have lots of suspects. But, since the suspects survived, many of them have descendants. It is not responsible for me to cast suspicions upon somebody's ancestors just because of what I think without proof. You wouldn't want somebody to do that to you, would you? Do you remember the old genealogy joke that folks will pay a researcher lots of money to discover their ancestors and then lots more to forget what they found?

Speaking honestly, I walk a straight line with history like this so folks won't shut me out. I've met people who knew what i sought, but didn't trust me enough to share. As a result there are holes in the history I write. I know where they are, but hopefully the reader won't see the holes. I had to accept that, but it gets to you, believe me. Trust is hard to establish and so easy and quick to lose. It is an election year. What better example do we need than that?

Bruce Nichols

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