Jamie,

The escape by jumping on the sand pile at Gratiot Street Prison in St. Louis seems to be rather well documented, and backs up the earlier report of Paxton's capture. However, a second capture is not as well documented, and the statement "believed to have been operating as a guerrilla" represents an estimation of the Union troops who arrested Paxton at that time, and is a guess by that patrol that captured him. Those Yankee soldiers would have enclosed what facts they gathered (affidavits, statements of witnesses, etc.) to try to prove that Paxton was a guerrilla. However, the proof would have had to await a military tribunal at St. Louis. Anything before that is heresay and not definitive, and it is possible that Paxton took his dive into the sand pile and escaped before the tribunal met. In other words the Union tribunal in St. Louis would have to examine the case for asserting Paxton was a guerrilla versus proofs that Paxton was NOT a guerrilla before making a final assertion. IF the tribunal declared Paxton to be a guerrilla in his home area of Henry County, they would have brought a verdict that he was to be executed, a standard conclusion for a military tribunal to make based on solid evidence. Obviously, Paxton's escape made any execution impossible. Therefore, the declaration of the Union troops who arrested Paxton that he was "believed him to be a guerrilla" was their opinion and not a proven fact. It is possible that Paxton never had his "day in court," and that assertion remained unproven.
Bruce Nichols