Bruce,

The part about McCown/McCowan being cleared by the court is interesting, wonder if it is accurate or more of a matter of not being able to try him? At least one account says he fled (although this might have been a much later retelling/spinning of the story.) But even if he remained, the violent political polarization would make a jury trial unlikely to reach any unanimous verdict unless composed entirely of a party hostile to one side or the other. So I wonder if he was even charged or tried?

The genealogy web page above listed Marsh's murder this way: "At the close of the polls in Warrensburg on Monday, an altercation took place to which Col. James McCown, Clerk of the Johnson Circuit Court, shot Mr. Marsh Foster, Clerk of the County Court. Foster died immediately." The source appears to be an article titled "The Death of Marsh Foster" in the Missouri Triweekly Republican, Feb. 21, 1861. Haven't seen the actual article though.

Unfortunately my pdf of the History of Johnson County is missing the index page that includes the McCowns. So while I found the description of the incident involving Foster and the McCown father and son, I don't know if there is more particular to this McCown. There is of course a record of McCown's svc as a colonel in the MSG and the CSA. The son was a captain, wounded at Wilson's Creek, and captured in Dec. '61 (per Sterling Price's Lts.)