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Re: Zimmerman, George Rufus
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GEORGE RUFUS ZIMMERMAN

PERSONAL INFORMATION
Born 5 June 1824 in Burke County North Carolina
Died 26 August 1864 in Bollinger County, Missouri
Married Mahala Lucinda Kinder on 27 November 1849
Mahala was born on 21 April 1831 and died on 11 July, 1898

MILITARY SERVICE
Confed. Archives, Chapter 2, Vol: 207 ½, page 256
G R Zimmerman, Capt., Co. B, 4 Reg’t Inf., 1 Division,
Missouri State Guard (Confederate)
Commencement June 24, 1861
Expiration December 26, 1861
In command of the Regiment was Col. Alex Waugh and Lt. Col. James Parrott. The Battalion was commanded by Maj. W.C. Grimsley.
No further record of military service has been located. It is highly unlikely that, with a wife and a family of nine children to support, that he would have gone to Arkansas to be part of the Missouri CSA units there.

NOTES FROM MY FATHER’S (ARNOLD W. ZIMMERMAN) NOTEBOOK COMPLETED 17 MAY 1976
Writing about his grandmother Mahala he said, “She was left alone with 9 small children to bring them up on an estate located in a community where lived at least two parties who were present at the murder of her husband. One of these was Jim Rogers who fired the shot which killed her husband and another known as Levi Lincoln.”

BOLLINGER COUNTY HISTORY 1851-1976 Page 98
Also in 1861, a Union regiment, to be known as the 83rd Battalion was begun but was never completed. The officers were as follows: Company A: Capt. James Rogers; lieutenants, Levi M. Lincoln and H. F. Rhodes. Company B:…………

“SALTY” ZIMMERMAN: A STORYTELLER – ADVANCE STATESMAN, ADVANCE, MO 24 APRIL, 1991
“Salty” is a grandson of George R. Zimmerman and son of Matthew Zimmerman, one of the twins.
In an interview published in this newspaper, Lyman “Salty” Zimmerman said: My grandfather was murdered by Bushwhackers during the Civil War. My father Matt and his twin Uncle Jake were in the bed with my grandfather when these people came in the home and said they were going to kill him. They (the twins) were nine months old. These people wanted my grandfather to come outside, but he told them he would not go. They lined up around his bed and shot him six times. As they started to leave, I guess my grandfather must have gulped for air, and an aunt of mine said, “Oh, he’s not dead yet.” so they came back in and shot him three more times. As they went out the door, one said “You reckon we ought to kill them two little Rebel s.o.b.’s?” That’s how close I came to not being here. Arnold W. Zimmerman, Jr. note – My grandfather, Columbus was a couple of months less than five years old at the time of the murder. He never talked about it.

BOLLINGER COUNTY HISTORY 1851-1976 Pages 100-101
Another guerrilla leader in Bollinger County, although not as well known as Hilderbrand, was Pete Smith. Smith had been born and raised near Big Whitewater in Bollinger County. He was a strong Southern sympathizer, and after the war began, he organized a band of guerrillas, moved to Arkansas, and operated from there. His band consisted of forty to fifty men recruited largely from Bollinger County, and his lieutenant was a Southern partisan from Cape Girardeau by the name of Bolden. Charles Hamilton Williams relates the following episode, concerning Pete Smith, in his unfinished manuscript, I remember the Ozarks. It seems that late in the summer of 1864, Capt. Cochran decided to send a wagon train of produce from Dallas (now Marble Hill) to Fredericktown. With the poor roads and the heavily-loaded wagons, the trip would take two full days. So Cochran secretly arranged for the convoy to stop at the home of a Union sympathizer near Bessville. Everything went well until a Confederate spy learned of the expedition and informed Smith who was camped with fifty men about 15 miles away. Smith surprised the wagon train on the Fredericktown road, a mile from the farm where the convoy had rested. Smith quickly captured the wagon train and stripped the clothing off the Union prisoners and forced them to march back to Cochran, humiliated. The convoy of produce wound up in Arkansas. I am not suggesting that George was involved in the high jacking of the wagon train, but I believe he and others in the community with Southern leanings were murdered in retaliation for the wagon train raid.

Arnold W. Zimmerman, Jr. 27 November 2008

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