JEFFERSON CITY -- Lt. George W. Nash went on trial before a court martial of eight officers for ordering the murder of William H. Field of Pettis County, the St. Louis Daily Missouri Republican reported.

Nash, of the 1st Missouri Cavalry, took Field prisoner on June 5, 1862. Field was an avowed secessionist, but he was also a well-respected farmer who had made his fortune as an attorney in Louisville, Ky.

The officers assigned to conduct the trial, according to the Republican, were Col. John Glover, commander of the 3rd Missouri Cavalry and president of the court; Col. John Gray, commander of the 1st Missouri State Militia Infantry regiment; Lt. Col. Arnold Krekel, commander of the 1st Battalion Missouri State Militia Cavalry; Lt. Col. Samuel Simpson of the 12th Missouri State Militia Cavalry; Maj. Henry Caldwell of the 3rd Iowa Cavalry, called from Mexico, Mo., for the duty; Capt. Ignatius Burns of the 2nd Missouri State Militia Cavalry; Capt. Charles Biehle of the 1st Missouri State Militia Infantry; and Capt. Elisha Howard of the 4th Missouri State Militia Cavalry.

Varying accounts of Field’s death had surfaced. Most conflicted sharply with the report Nash filed. In the most common version, Nash and his 78 troopers came upon Field and two other men, who were Unionists, while scouting for bushwhackers who had hijacked a Union wagon train. In that version, Nash tried to force Field and the other men to lead him to the guerrillas’ hiding place.

All versions agree that Field refused to help and was defiant in his support of the South. “His behavior during all this time was exceedingly insulting,” Nash wrote in his official report.

Nash wrote that he directed Sgt. Henry Cleino and Pvt. John Ramsay to question Field and that they shot him as he attempted to escape. At his trial, Nash was accused of ordering Cleino and Ramsay to execute Field.

To force his testimony, Ramsay was being held in the guardhouse in Jefferson City. Nash, despite the charges against him, was on parole and had the freedom of the city.