In May 1863, James H Barnes was arrested at his residence in Franklin Co. and taken to Washington. He passed through Union in the night when a short distance from the town, the prisoner and guard was followed and overtaken by Felix Raudisson, Andrew Fink & others, their object was to induce the guard to abandon the prisoner that they might kill him, this was refused and they were driven back. William Grosse ____ of Washington Mo. will testify the facts of this occurence; he was in command of the guard and since the murder of Barnes has been threatened by Fink and others, for not permitting them to kill Barnes at that time.
The evening of Sep 4th 1863, two privates of Capt Dress' company EM demanded the ___ horses for Malitia(sic) service, was induced to do so they said by their Captain. The horses were refused and the __sent ___ them to the livery stable of Jacob Stewart intending if neccessary to procure the horses there. Saw Capt Dress there, who said he gave the order, thereafter hired one horse which Dress said was sufficient. ______ was standing around the stable discussing the proposed expedition, saw Jacob Stewart and Charles Rinehardt apart conversing: approached near enough to hear without appearing to do so by design. Rinehardt said" who are going". Stewart said "most of the boys". Rinehardt said "Bilo" (meaning Capt. Dress) "wants me to go, but I don't intend to." Stewart said they wanted him to go but he did not like to do it: that the Col Maupin & Vitt, ought to lead the men and he was opposed to going unless the Col's would go along, that they ought to be willing to take the responsibility. R- concurred and asked if Fink would be there; Stewart answered he would, and that Murphy would take charge of the company. This seemed to please Reinhardt, who turning to the ___ said "he was glad he furnished the horse, and that he would try and protect his friends, that he did not believe that every man ought to be killed because he did not think as he did. This Stewart is a mail carrier and Reinhardt is P.M. at Union and neither are in the Malitia (sic) service. Capt Dress is a brother-in-law of Reinhardt and much under his influence. The conversation closed by R- saying to S- " I wish you would go; for "Bilo" feels so uneasy". From the manner of the parties and their appearance and other indications, the witness was convinced something unusual was on foot, and that the principal parties knew all that was intended & was uneasy and fearful about it. To divert questions, they pretended to know nothing except that orders had been received from headquarters but they knew nothing about where the expedition was going. The party numbering some 20 or more men left the town between 9 & 10 o'clock PM going in the direction of Barnes, they were on horseback and were all armed. most of them had guns taken from the company Armory. The father of Dress, watched them as long as they were in view and seemed disturbed and anxious, in a short time after they left it was whispered about that they went to kill Barnes, next morning most of them were in ___ about the town and the killing was talked of in the streets. Towards evening, the murder was boasted of by the parties in the _____. Someone reported that Barnes's body was lying in the road and E.B. Dobyns, an old citizen went out to see if it were so. he found the body in the road, two women were sitting by keeping off the dogs, he returned to Union, met Felix Bandissin who laughed at him for being agitated & excited and told him he would soon get used to it for such things would soon be of daily occurence. Dobyns ___ to action to get the body buried, but was prevented and advised to say nothing about it. The one who did this was a member of Finks company. The writer has learned that the manner of killing was in this way. A party of them took Barnes from his house, brought him on towards Union until near the Bourbouse river, then waited until the moon rose, when another party dashed up and shot him. That Fink and Murphey both certainly fired at him.
The writer is morally certain from what he has witnessed and from information received from members of the Radical League and Lodge that this murder was determined on at a meeting shortly after the Jefferson Convention and he has information which he fully credits and which is worthy of credit that several prominent Citizens of the County are marked for assination.
The following incidents have come to the writers knowledge since the 17th inst. Fink with evident design told C.S. Jeffers brother in law of Barnes, that he was greatly suprised at Barnes being killed. that after the arrest, he and a portion of his company were riding in advance, that he heard a firing behind him, turned back in great haste. found the men in charge of Barnes greatly excited, who reported that Barnes had attempted escape when they fired, but did not know whether they had hit him or not. Fink then looked about for him, found him dead in the road. Another statement is, that Barnes attempted to escape by a well known side road, and they killed him there. but Dobyns found his body a long distance from this side road. The negroes now loafing about the grounds and who hear the private conversations of the parties implicated; tell the following, that Murphy, Fink and another shot Barnes, and one of the negroes adds the name of John Reinhardt a brother in law of the Post Master.
Murphy had an old feud with Barnes and threatened to ____ ____, and the others hate Barnes on account of his being: K___ ____ and heretofore in the habit of indulging in violent dem_cation of foreigners, he had two or three sons with Price, and was supposed to be a sympathizer, he was very obnoxious to the Germans and they were afraid of him, for this there was no sufficient cause. Barnes was an old man, much broken and nearly blind. Col Vitt professed to be in much dread of Barnes and Col Maupin entertained much ill feeling against him. One of Barnes sons had been a Deputy Collector under Maupin & M-- charged him with owing about $500. After young Barnes left the county, Maupin desired his father to pay it Barnes denied the indebtedness of his son and charged Maupin with fabricating the debt. Two or three days after the killing of Barnes, Maupin filed his suit attaching the indebt of the son in the father's estate. Randissin is a blood thristy man, intelligent and educated, Fink is of brutal instincts and actions, yet when he chooses, respectful and plausible.
Vitt is intelligent, insinuating, and deceitful. Murphy is vulgar and of less manners, has been a gambler and a decoy for gamblers, he is cunning and from his position of brother in law of Judge Owens and a cousin of Gale's as well as having held an honorable position in the Army, he is regarded as a kind of leader. He professes to act under authority and is the prime mover of every disturbance. he is in the habit of getting up fights, abusing people that visit the town, of driving negroes from their homes, sends them frequently in squads to threaten their masters, and seems ready for any and every violence; he is now organizing squads of bullies for election precients. Maupin is ignorant and self sufficient, can fabricate a circumstantial and plausible statement, but easily caught on cross examination. C. R. Jefferies of St. Clair (brother of C.S.) endeavored to have an inquest, the justices refused and he thinks one of them RA Thomas of St. Clair can state much about the murder and of the parties engaged in it. Fink talked of burning the town of St. Clair the particulars of which can be given by E. Joncelby (sp?), freight agent at this place, these threats of burning the town were connected in some way with the murder. Mack Brockemeyer of Union can testify of an outrage commited on him by Murphy and others in which Murphy forced him to give him $10 on pretense of subscribing a flag but in fact to aid in paying Murphy's expense as a delegate to Washington City.
Offenders - Andrew Fink, Murphy, Felix Randissin
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From what I take this was considered serious enough for Broadhead to personally appear in Union and St. Clair. Whatever the pretext, it appears there were folks in Union that wanted Barnes dead. Apparently Barnes was more connected with St. Clair and a town feud nearly erupted when Fink threatened to use his postion to burn out St. Clair.
Andrew Fink was Captain Andrew G. Fink and held the rank throughout the war as Capt Co 54th EMM and then Co C 55th EMM. He apparently was thought well enough by his superiors to maintan his position in the Franklin County Provisional EM (GO #107).
Clearly Maupin and Vitt were knowledgable of what was likely to happen and devised a convenient alibi. Their command incompetence well described. I've not read anything quite like this for describing the obvious abuse of power and terror brought down on a community by Union/EMM forces written by a Union writer! Broadhead was disgusted and clearly brought charges which were basically ignored by the the command authority, any means to an end, or as George Patton was once described "he is a bastard, but he is my bastard" or words to that effect.
Enjoy, learn, cry, and hope we do better....
John R.