To Bruce Nichols: I'm currently doing some research into the confederate monument located in the Cowan Cemetery in Wayne County, Mo. I came across this message board about a month ago, and enjoyed the thread back in 2007 regarding this monument, and the discussions on what may have happened concerning the executions of the soldiers buried in the Cowan Cemetery.

The story in the third paragraph of this message is pretty much the one I heard nearly 50 years ago when I first saw this monument. In the course of my researching, I found a message in the OR (Vol. 48, page 706) from Capt. B.H. Bostwick to Maj. L.H.Utt (both of the Seventh Kansas Volunteer Cavalry) that pretty well matches the incident of the Wayne County executions, which leads me to believe the 7th Kansas was the unknown Union unit that performed the executions.
If so, it may be that the executed men were guerillas/bushwhackers. Also, the date the incident was supposed to have occurred was May 28th; if memory serves, the surrenders at Wittsburg, AR weren't supposed to take place until May 29th and the surrenders at Jacksonport until June 5th.

In Bostwick's report, he mentions "...............No accident on our side. Will send a detailed account by courier". Sounds a little suspect; sending a courier means the account didn't go through normal channels, which indicates an "your eyes only" report. I searched the OR, but did not find the "detailed account" (if in fact it still exists).

It's all pretty confusing trying to unravel what really happened. I've found that trying to research guerilla/bushwhacker activity in and around Southeast Missouri (I'm from there) is like operating in a shadow world.

Enjoy reading the posts on this message board; I'm going to continue digging into this. Just wanted to pass this along for what it's worth.

Ed Conner