Terry, you say: "Given what I have been told and read thus far about the Chilton Clan and their Mills, it would seem that their southern leanings and their controll of the food production in their area did not endear themselves to the Union authorities and people."

On the contrary, you need to look at the Union officer Joseph Weydemeyer who was posted at Salem. The man was a Marxist, actually knew Karl Marx before he emigrated to the United States from Germany. When he first arrived at his post and it was necessary for him to obtain food for his troops, he had the bright idea to steal the food from the locals rather than pay for it, which had been the method by which it had been procured up to the time of his tenure. He wrote to his commander that it would be a huge savings for the U.S. Army to go about stocking their commissary in this manner. It wasn't just the products from the mills he was after, it was the beef cattle that families like the Smiths were dealing in as well. Naturally the Chiltons, the Reeds, the Smiths and many others in the area strenuously opposed this method of procuring food for the Union troops. Their opposition, of course, needed to be stopped. Residents like the Chiltons were nabbed in order to be made an example of and to intimidate others. It was Weydemeyer who gave the order to apprehend Chilton, et.al.

I gleaned this information from Weydemeyer's letters found in the addendum to the O.R.