Jamie,

Snelling was captured about the second week of August 1863, according to two newspapers of that area ("Lexington Weekly Union" of 15 August 1863; and "Kansas City Daily Journal of Commerce," 21 August 1863) and a postwar paper "Warrensburg Daily Star-Journal," of 27 March 1948. Snelling's death is also mentioned along with other Union executions of captured southerners possibly without full consideration of military tribunal in State of Missouri, "Report of Committee of 22nd General Assembly to Investigate Conduct and Management of the Militia," Jefferson City, MO; W.A. Curry, Public Printer, 1864, page 325.

Frankly, I don't recall seeing any mention of the capture of a Paxton with Benjamin L. Snelling (son of Charles V. Snelling, no mention of the father being captured and shot at this time). Please give me your Paxton's full name and his county or origin and I will see what I can find (and others who read this may conduct their own research, too). It seems odd that Shelby's command would furlough Paxton only a few weeks before Shelby's own raid in this part of Missouri. Possibly, Paxton's commander sent Paxton to gather some recruits and have them ready when Shelby's raid would pass nearby.

I believe that the Union soldiers executed Benjamin Snelling as a guerrilla, but if Paxton could show he was a regular member of a Confederate Union he would be sent to one or the St. Louis area military prisons and later exchanged.

I will explore your mention that a Union Captain Brown and troops from Clinton, Henry County, apprehended Snelling and Paxton somewhere in the area around Clinton in fall of 1863.

The mention of three POWs escaping from a wall of the Gratiot Street Military Prison does ring a bell. Do you happen to know the names of the other two escapees that accompanied Paxton in his daring plan, or the approximate month and year of this escape?

Until later, Bruce Nichols