The Missouri in the Civil War Message Board

Hildebrand's arrest in Arkansas

Around 1868 Hildebrand reportedly murdered the husband of a female acquaintance of Hildebrand’s, along with the husband’s mistress. According to the June 15, 1869 St. Louis Republican newspaper --

“Hildebrand, stung with resentment at the way in which the woman who attended to him while sick was treated, went with a few men, and, tying the man and negress together, flung them into the river. For this act Hilderbrand was tried and sentenced to be hung.”

Hildebrand himself commented on the matter, stating --

“Early in the month of April one of my old war associates, with whom I had passed many a hardship, came to my house and stated that he had received bad news from home; that his sister had been deserted by her husband without any cause, and that the fellow had taken up with a negro woman, and was living with her not more than ten miles off. He requested that I should aid him in taking the couple out and giving them a good flogging.

“The matter was talked over, and one of us might have made the remark that they deserved to be tied together. This conversation was heard by the wife of my friend; two or three days after which the guilty pair were taken from a mill pond, drowned, and still tied together. After the first excitement was over, nothing more was heard about the matter for nearly six weeks. My friend’s wife told all about the conversation, and suspicion rested upon us.

“Finally Major Surge, with three men, arrested us, and took us before the authorities; the preliminary examination was had, and we were both lodged in the jail at Jackson port.”

Hildebrand afterward escaped from the Jacksonport jail, and returned to southeast Missouri.

This event is laid out in my book, “The Autobiography of Samuel S. Hildebrand.” This book is readily available in Europe. Amazon UK’s shopireland.ie arm can have it to you in Dublin within 24 hours of ordering should you desire to look into this further yourself.

Seamus, I am wondering if you might go ahead and transcribe the Daniel Monday obituary onto this board, and provide a source citation for us. The matter of Hildebrand’s arrest and trial in Arkansas is the foremost issue I want to expand upon in the event there is a second printing or a paperback edition release of my Hildebrand book.

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