Henry F. Renoe became county judge in 1864. In other communications you once provided information on the murder of Judge Renoe's son around the same time as the Givens/Prairie Grove Massacre. However that account, while kind of graphic regarding the son, doesn't mention the father being shot--just finding his boy laying in a field.

And, it appears Renoe's son was killed over a week after the Givens family was massacred. So it's not likely Judge Renoe was riding around the countryside with a serious wound.

Here's what I dug up on Renoe. The son killed was not James Renoe, as related in the History of Callaway County page 394. James, son of Henry, was still alive when the History was written in the 1880s. The son who was killed was Alex B. Renoe. Turn to the bio of his brother Benjamin F. Renoe on page 595-596. James--alive. Alex, shot "by that brutal Dutch butcher, Colonel Creigle." That would be Arnold Krekel. Date for the shooting was Sept. 13, 1860. Now we know it wasn't 1860, but the Sept. 13 date resonates. Probably Sept. 13, 1862. That's when Krekel was in charge of Callaway.

Here's the scenario I see right now--Krekel sends out a scout to Givens house on Sept. 4 for providing aid to a wounded Confederate. Krekel's men slaughter the civilians at Given's house, and in the process shoot 65-year-old Judge Maupin, who was seriously wounded and died eight weeks later. A few days later the Confederates come by the Renoe house and encourage/pressure Alex B. Renoe to haul a load of feed to their camp. The father, Henry Renoe, horrified at what just happened up the road or down the road or wherever, at the Givens house, hoping to avoid a similar result to his family hops into his buggy and heads to Fulton, notifying Krekel the rebels had been to his house. Too late. The Feds had already heard, and as Henry was in Fulton his son back home was being executed.

One question I have floating around my head, and which I don't have ready access to answer myself, is how closely does the census indicate the homes of Henry F. Renoe and William R. Givens were? And which one of the Renoe boys was it who actually was who was murdered--James or Alex. Which one shows up alive in 1870 and 1880....?

I also have a thought or two on how word of the Givens massacre was tamped down to the point there is virtually no information on it other than cemetery records for three men killed in it. Krekel's men shot a staunch Union judge who died eight weeks later--why didn't the Unionists scream long and loud? I'll lay it out my thoughts a little later.