Found this interesting letter in the military record of Quartermaster Sergeant Wm. J.J. Ritchie, Co. E, 12th Missouri Cavalry (Union), written to General Grenville Dodge, commanding Department of the Missouri, on May 25th, 1865:

“Sir: I have the honor to present the following case to your favorable notice. I give such facts and circumstances as are within my own knowledge. Mr. John D. Ritchie and wife who is my father and mother have been banished from this state for disloyalty. Their home is in Buchanan County, Missouri, where they have lived for many years. They are now at Terre Haute, Indiana.

According to the best information at my command, and I think I understand the case, my Father and Mother, above named, were proslavery and doubtless sympathized with the South during the Rebellion. But I think I can safely say they never committed any overt act. They were accused of harboring and feeding bushwhackers. But until the 20th of July, 1864, I lived within half a mile of them and was at home except when my duties in the Militia called me away, and I feel certain that they never either fed, harbored, or encouraged bushwhackers, moreover, I know on good reliable authority that they were accused not on account of their extreme and dangerous disloyal practice but to gratify notions of personal revenge which grow out of difficulties of many years standing. My Father states that no trial was given him at St. Joseph, Mo., by the Provost Martial who banished him. My parents are about 60 years of age, are infirm, unable to work, or even take care of themselves. They have a good farm and abundant means of support in Buchanan County, Mo., from which they were banished. All their interests in Mo. are now neglected and soon nothing of any value will remain but the land. They were banished during the month of March 1865. Mr. Boone, Mr. Fielding, Mr. Maupin, and Mr. Duncan, worse rebels than either my Father or Mother, who were banished for the same or stronger reasons, have been permitted to return to their homes in the same neighborhood. Now that the war is practically over, the bushwhackers of Mo. have nearly all surrendered or left the country, I would respectfully request of you that my Father and Mother be permitted to return to their homes in peace. I am and always have been a sound Union man. I served [as] a 2nd Lieut. in Capt. Wm. Randall’s Co. L of the 25th Buchanan County Regiment of the E.M.M. Since the 20th day of July last, I have served in this Regt.

Very Respectfully, Wm. J.J. Ritchie, Co. E, 12th Cav. Mo. Vols”

General Dodge ordered that the banishment order be revoked contingent on the Ritchie's taking a loyalty oath. Sgt. Ritchie stayed with his regiment until deserting along with many other men of his regiment, from Cottonwood, Nebraska Territory, in January 1866. He died in Buchanan County in 1908 and his parents died there in 1879.

Tom Jones