Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1902-08-09
THE FIELD OF BATTLE
INCIDENTS AND ANECDOTES OF
THE WAR.
The Veterans of the Rebellion Tell of
Whistling Bullets, Bra Sht Bayonets,
bursting Bombs, Bloody BATTLES,
Camp Fire, Festive Bugs, Etc, Etc.

1almyra massacre. 1t was at Pal
myra in October, 1862, when Gen. Me
Neil ordered the execution of u men
eaptured in the fight at Kirksville, but
II is mistake to say that these men
We're ordinary prisoners of war. They
We're guerrillas who had been cap
tured and released on parole not to
take any further part in the war
against the Union and who stood
charged with the murder of several
Union men.
We knew those fellows and knew
what they had been doing. Their old
neighbors were the witnesses against
them. There was no doubt of their
guilt. The guerrillas had been perse-
cutting and numbering Unionists for
several months Some of them had
been arrested, tried, and sentenced,
but the Federal authorities had sus-
pended the sentence. This encouraged
the most reckless desperadoes to take
service under guerrilla leaders to for
ward their own schemes of personal
end private vengeance. This had gone
on for so long a time that the Union
lists of the State were furious. When
these - men were tried before Gen
Mcneil and identified as murderers of
the Union men he ordered them shot
and they were shot.
Mcneil had warrant for this in the
order of Gen. Halleck. which declared
that all persons joining guerrilla bands
will not, If captured, be held as pris-
orers of war, but will be hung and in
the order of Gen Schotield to the eff
feet that 'guerrillaS. when caught In
arms engaged in guerrilla warfare. will
be shot down upon the spot 1t is
significant that after the executions
at Palmyra. not single outrage on
Union man occurred in that part of the
State Gen. Mcneil was Missouri
general, and he acted without any ref
erence to the Federal authorities.
''Ihe state of affairs at that time In
Missouri was worse than in any other
State because the country was ranged
over by recruiting parties from both
armies McNeil's policy assumed that
Contederates had no right within his
lines and when he caught them he
treated all such intruders as spies. just
as they were treated In other States.
On one occasion four young men and
myself captured a noted guerrilla and
took him to McNeils tent. We sur
rendered our prisoner on condition that
McSeil never make public the names
Of the captors. He promised to do
this, but years after the close of the
war l found in the official records of
the rebellion a report of McNeil's in
which he gave our names, with the eX-
PLANTATION that he promised not to make
them public.
While New England was in an up
roar over the Palmyra executions and
While the London papers We're Scor-
ing Mcneil as the most brutal of bar
barians, the Union people Of Missouri
We're receiving him with enthusiasm,
and thanking him for the suppression
of guerrilla warfare. We who lived
there understood that guerrilla war
as practiced in Missouri, was worse
than anarchy. 1t was bad in itself, and
it was disastrous in its educational in
fluence. Missouri, as a result of guer-
rillism, turned loose at the close of the
war scores of men like the James
brothers and the Younger brothers to
plague civilization
There was Morgan J.. Smith" said
the captain, Colonel Of the Eighth
Missouri who had a reputation for se-
verify and cruelty, because he was a
great swearer and rough in manner.
But, as a matter of fact he was not
II cruel man. ON his return from the
war, his sister said: Morgan. you have
a reputation for being hard swear
err He turned and faced her and said
in his ordinary soldier tone, That's
d lie. | swear very little He
could not understand the look of con
stefnation on his sisters face until she
explained that he had sworn at her
He. in turn. explained with great care
that he would not swear In the pres
ence of a woman for all the world held
in the way of honors. but he did want
10 say that the man who said he was
a hard swearer was a d liar.
Il was In Missouri early in the wa-,
and was under fire for the first time
in the fight against JEFF Thompson at
Frederickstown, October y. 1861 You
have seen that picture of Vercstchagln,
in which he represents men in battle
for the first time. | saw tl.a1 dav Gun-
drpds of men with that expression On.
their faces, each looking inqulrinGiY,
eXpectantly at the others, not afraid,
but under the strait OF "A new and
strange excitement That morning ]
IVA. suffering with a lame foot. and was
in one Of the compauy's wagons /
heard some commotion and an cxplo-
sion and / raised the cover Of the
gop to see what was going on.
"Tnere saw men with the Ecraet
chagin expression on their faces. all
looking in one direction and | saw
cannon ball bounding along toward tal
wagon In which | Law flat ON NV back.