October 18, 1862. . . Palmyra Massacre
On October 18, 1862, Union soldiers under the command of Brigadier General John McNeil executed 10 Confederate prisoners at Palmyra, ordered in retaliation for the abduction of Andrew Allsman by the forces of Colonel Joseph C. Porter. Allsman, a former Union soldier, had been retired to special service and was considered by Confederates as practically a spy. Taken prisoner September 12, 1862, he was released a short while later and conducted toward Palmyra, but he never reached home.
On October 8, Provost Marshal William R. Strachan, acting for McNeil, published a notice to Porter that unless Allsman was returned within 10 days, 10 former Porter men held as prisoners in Palmyra and Hannibal would be executed. It is not known whether Porter saw the notice, but in any event, most writers agree that Allsman had already been the victim of personal enemies among Porter's men and that the Confederate colonel would have been powerless to return him.
Nothing was heard from Allsman, and McNeil was unyielding when Union sympathizer interposed to save the doomed men. On Saturday, October 18, wagons containing 10 pine coffins drew up before the jail and the procession to the fairgrounds began, each condemned man seated on his coffin. At the fairgrounds, a firing squad of 30 men put the Confederates to death. Some of the executioners evidently wavered, for only three of the ten were killed by rifle volley and a pistol party was sent forward to finish the execution.
Those executed were Captain Thomas A. Sidenor of Monroe County, Willis J. Baker, Thomas Humston, Morgan Bixler, John Y. McPheeters, and Hiram T. Smith of Lewis County, Herbert Hudson, John M. Wade, and Marion Lair of Ralls County, and Eleazer Lake of Scotland County.
In 1864 Strachan was tried for this and other offenses; sentenced to prison, he was released by General William Starke Rosecrans on the ground of persecution and unjust trial. Strachan's accuser was a Union officer. The Palmyra Confederate monument association erected a granite monument in Palmyra on February 25, 1907.
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