Jean Dresden,

I hope you are still monitoring this site, because, thanks to you and my friend Thomas Rose going back to the newspaper microfilm archives at Columbia, MO, I discovered that the "Daily Missouri Republican" of 17 October 1864 is truly the correct issue that discussed the murders of Laiborn "Lave" Preuitt or Pruitt, Noah Wise, James B. Simpson, John Hardesty, Samuel Pepper, and the serious wounding of Hiram Hildebrand. An unnamed Jefferson County resident on 7 October sent a letter to Nathan Pepper, away on active service in the 40th Missouri Infantry Volunteers, in order to tell him how his brother Samuel and the other four men died, and the wounding of Hiram Hildebrand either on 7 October or a day or two earlier. How the "Daily Missouri Republican" obtained the letter we can only guess. The letter writer quoted the wounded Hiram Hildebrand that Hildebrand recognized 15 to 20 members of the six-months regiment, the 47th Missouri Infantry Volunteers, that day, and Hildebrand was positive those men in the 47th were involved, even the murderers disguised as guerrillas, as the letter stated. The letter failed to mention that a neighbor named John Davis was also killed, but Davis may not have been with the six named men.

Two sources correctly cited the "Republican" of 17 October, "Death Records from Missouri Newspapers, and Eakin & Hales's 1993 "Branded As Rebels,"(that I cited in Chapter Two's Footnote #33 on page 369), and, as far as I can tell, NO source gave the exact date for your ancestor's death. This is as close as we can get, unless there may be family records, cemetery or church records, tombstones, diary entries, another letter, or other sources closer to the family. Such records for the other men murdered that day with your ancestor, if they exist, may also help you.

I am truly sorry that I added confusion that may have affected your family genealogist to turn away from looking for probate information. Trying to nail down details for this event is difficult, as I also discovered, didn't I? A number of other events popped on 7 October to muddy up the waters, and take attention away from this event in rural Jefferson County. For example, on 7 October, General Price's army was besieging the state capitol, Jefferson City. On 7 October in Cooper County (two counties west of Jefferson City) former Quantrill lieutenant George Todd with a bushwhacker band of 108 riders ambushed local Union militia killing 7 and wounding one at no loss to themselves. Regional newspapers, such as the St. Louis, Kansas City, and St. Joseph dailies and a bunch of county weeklies were still trying to capture events of Price's army of 11,000 to 12,000 and several guerrilla bands from the days leading up to 7 October, too. My object in capturing these events 160 years later is in some ways is a fool's errand. I consider it fortunate that the "Republican" printed that person's letter.

Muddying up the waters even more, the notorious bushwhacker Sam Hildebrand was at this very time assisting Confederate Major Dick Berryman of Washington County and the major's recruiting command to recruit southern men in St. Francois County (immediately south of Jefferson County) and in Washington County (touching Jefferson County to the southwest). I wonder if Hiram Hildebrand is kin to Sam, which could explain why the 47th MO Inf men were at Hiram's place that day. This plays a part in why the leaders of the 47th Missouri Infantry Regiment sent their men back to their home counties, including Jefferson County, because they knew southern men were all over the place trying to recruit anybody they could. Add to that, everywhere in Missouri that Price's Confederate army went, the 2,000 to 6,000 unwilling men his army conscripted against their will along the Missouri and Arkansas border for months before Price's Great Missouri Raid were deserting in droves and looting homes and stores to feed themselves and obtain winter clothing and maybe also find money for their pockets, in some cases. We could make a case for the 47th men being desperate and worried about their own safety and that of their own families. Well, that doesn't forgive murder or mutilation of the dead, does it?

I will figure out what I need to correct in Volume IV, and I will send the corrections to McFarland and Company, my publisher. I apologize for my errors, but thank you for letting me know.

Bruce Nichols