The entire story of Benjamin Simpsons murder at Dayton Mo is in a research book "Caught between three fires" that is available at Amazon.com. This book contains the history of Cass Co Missouri fron 1860 to 1865. It is a a excellent source of research of the terrible happenings in that era. Benjamin was murdered on Jan.2 1862 along with a man named Samual Grosshart. The entire execution was witnessed by a 11 year old named Henry Ferrell.
I hope this clears ur some of the misinformation in this thread.
Thanks R Nichols