Al Tracy,

You mentioned that "redlegs" murdered Hugh McWaters and his wife of Cedar County in Cedar County during "1863." Several of us researchers have been looking for the details of an unidentified group of mounted Union soldiers evidently stationed at the large Springfield, Greene County, garrison who seemed to be working off a "kill list" of prominent southern men across several counties of SW MO mostly in July and August 1863. If you call up my many messages in this forum over the last several years, you will see that a number of people studying their genealogy discovered their male ancestors of southern sympathy were murdered in broad daylight mostly in their fields, yards, barnyards, and nearby by this elusive group of blue-uniformed riders throughout the summer of 1863. With lots of help from descendants like you, we have identified so far at least a dozen of these blatant murders, and there may actually be many more. I seem to recall there was another such murder in Cedar County, but I am not sure at the moment. These daring killings by the blue-coated riders played a large part in the near depopulation of large parts of SW MO by the end of the war, because many of the murdered men were well established in the region as people of property and social standing thought to be immune to this kind of assassination. It seems many of the victims were killed only because their sons were then in the Confederate army or had been in southern service earlier in the war. Unfortunately, most of these murders were not mentioned in Civil War era newspapers, because there were just a few newspapers active in SW MO during this time of the war. We have discovered most of the detail we have primarily through genealogy sources from descendants like you.

Your mention that both Hugh McWaters and his wife were killed, I presume at the same time, is the first instance I read where both a man and his wife were killed together. If you can, please tell me the date of these McWaters murders, or at least the month during 1863 it occurred. It would help me to know where the McWaters lived in Cedar County and Mrs. McWaters' first name, and any other pertinent details about the murders. Do their tombstones, if any, provide any details? I am in the process of moving to a new home, and my research materials are not handy this morning.

I have written about this in published materials, so if you call up my name with key words and phrases "Missouri Civil War," and guerrillas," you may find help either at a large library near you, or through Interlibrary Loan. I may have material to add to what you already have. Perhaps the blue-clad riders committed other such murders the same day and near to those of your McWaters.

Bruce Nichols