Today in History:

909 Series I Volume XIII- Serial 19 - Missouri - Arkansas Campaign

Page 909 Chapter XXV. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-CONFEDERATE.

CAMP AT ABBEVILLE, MISS., November 11, 1862.

The meeting in pursuance of adjournment having been prevented by the movement of the army, the meeting was held this evening at General Green's headquarters and fully attended. The meeting was called to order by the president and addressed by Dr. Kavanaugh and others, when the committee submitted the following preamble and resolutions, which were by the meeting unanimously and enthusiastically adopted, directing a copy of the respectfully submitted to the War Department and these proceedings published in the Mobile Register and Memphis Appeal:

The committee appointed by a meeting of the officers of the First Brigade of Missouri Volunteers to prepare suitable resolutions and such other papers and may be necessary to give a full expression of their sentiments in regard to the outrages committed upon our fellow-citizens in Missouri by the authority and action of the Federal Army now in our State, in having 1 captain and 9 privates shot as a retaliation for the loss of 1 man said to be killed by our men, we beg leave to submit for the considerable of the officers of the brigade the following preamble and resolutions:

Whereas it has come to the knowledge of the officers of this brigade, through authentic sources, that on or about October 18 last in the town of Palmyra, in the State of Missouri, one Andy Allsman is said to have come to this death by being shot by some of the authorized Partisan Rangers of the Confederate Army; and whereas the perpetrator of this deed was demanded by One General McNeil, who was in command of the Federal forces at that time at Palmyra, and upon failing to deliver the Federal soldier to the military authorities aforesaid then it was declared that 10 Confederate prisoners than in their possession should be shot as a vindictive retaliation; and whereas the demands of the Federal commander were not complied with and the threatened vengeance carried into execution, by which Captain Thomas A. Sidner and 9 privates, good and loyal citizens ad soldiers of the Confederate States, were barbarously and inhumanly shot, in violation of all the laws and usages of civilized warfare: Therefore,

Resolved, that the officers of the First Brigade of Missouri Volunteers, now encamped near Abbeville, in the State of Mississippi, and forming a part of the Army of the West, feel called upon to express their indignation at the unwarrantable and brutal conduct of the officers of the Federal Army in regard to the outrage here referred to, and take such action as may bring this case to the notice of the Government of the Confederate States, and ask that some measures be adopted by the President that shall avenge the death of our fellow-soldiers and prevent the repetition of like outrages in future.

Resolved, That in the opinion of this meeting Missouri is till loyal to the South and true to the Confederate cause, and although when this war first broke out and before we could defend our soil and our homes the brutal invader of the North overran the whole State, garrisoned every important town, burned our houses, murdered our citizens, and committed every outrage known in the category of crime in his vain attempts to crush out our liberties, yet there are thousands who are forced by Federal authority to remain at home, and thousands who are in the army and have fought in every battle of war, who are still willing and anxious to strike and to continue to strike until the tyrannical border is driven back; and we respectfully ask the able and wise Chief Magistrate of the Confederate States, not only for its bleeding thousands, who are imploringly looking to him for protection, but for its


Page 909 Chapter XXV. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-CONFEDERATE.