Assassins, brigands and marauders

By any definition, assassins, incendiaries (arsonists), brigands and marauders are not "nice folks"! In fact, from a military perspective during the Civil War they were considered "bad to the bone and were to be eliminated immediately. In other words, "shot on the spot!"

This of course was a Union or Blue Belly Billy Yank perspective in Kansas and Missouri between 1861 and 1865. I would also suggest that this was the Confederate opinion of any Yankee who was unfortunate enough to be captured by Confederate forces while engaged in any of these activities and of course there were such individuals who were the jayhawkers, redlegs and just plain Yankee outlaws.

However, Missouri was occupied for the most part by Union Missourians throughout the war, who were in a constant deadly guerrilla war with the Southern Partisan Rangers or bushwhackers, if you happen to be of the northern persuasion! By the summer of 1863 the Union command in Missouri had issued and published various orders that described how to deal with the "Confederate" guerrillas. It is often believed that the infamous "Order No. 11. issued in late August of 1863, as a result of the successful Confederate destruction of Lawrence, Kan., was the harshest, most brutal of these orders. However, the Union forces in Missouri, started to issues such orders as early as the fall of 1861and the following is such an order that was issued six to eight weeks before the infamous Order No. 11. This order is located on Pages 365 and 366 of Vol. 22, Part II, in the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion.

General Orders: Headquarters, District of Northern Missouri No. 2, Macon, Mo., July 12, 1863

The attention of all concerned is hereby called to General Orders No. 63, Headquarters Dept. of the Missouri and a strict and unfaltering observance and enforcement thereof is required at the hands of all officers, civil and military, within the district.

The assassins, incendiaries, brigans and marauders who infest this district, whether claiming to be rebel soldiery or acting under the guise of loyalty, are equally the enemies of peace, order and good government; no just discrimination can be made between them. Any seemingly antagonism in the motives by which they claim to be actuated is utterly contradicted by the harmony and consistency of their villainous practices. These men must be brought to justice -- driven from the district or exterminated -- together with all who sympathize with or aid them in their hellish work!

To the end, therefore, that the innocent may not suffer with the guilty; that all may understand their duties in the premises and that security and protection may be afforded to every loyal and law-abiding citizen in the district, it is therefore ordered:

I. That whoever shall voluntarily feed, forage, harbor, lodge or conceal any person who is in arms against the government of the United States or who, having knowledge of the presence of such persons in their neighborhood, shall fail or refuse to give prompt and timely information thereof to the nearest military post or command shall be regarded and treated in the same manner as the persons to whom such aid and comfort shall have been rendered.

II. That any person or combination of persons who shall hereafter be found within this district with arms in their hands and not acting under the authority or orders of some legally authorized military or civil officer, shall be arrested, disarmed and held in confinement, subject to orders from these headquarters.

III. It is made the duty of every military officer in the district to arrest and hold in confinement, subject to orders from these headquarters, all persons who, under the guise of military authority or otherwise shall wrongfully do violence to the person or property of any citizen, provided they shall not be in the custody of the civil authorities.

IV. Any person or combination of persons who shall be found in the act of burning, destroying or plundering private property or in the act of committing any violence or outrage upon the person of any citizen or soldier and who shall refuse to desist when commanded so to do by any authorized military or civil officer, or who shall defy or resist arrest by such officer, shall be regarded as outlawed and "shot down upon the spot."

V. It shall be the duty of every officer who shall make any arrest under and by virtue of the provisions of this order to report, without delay, to the nearest provost-marshal or to the district provost marshal, the names of the person or persons so arrested, together with the charges and a brief statement of the evidence upon which such arrest was made.

VI. Any officer who shall neglect, fail or refuse to execute promptly and effectively any duty imposed upon him by the within orders shall be court-martialed for disobedience of orders and neglect of duty. The intention of this order is not to supersede or in any way conflict with the civil authority in the district, but is designed in aid thereof and all civil officers are invoked to the prompt and unfaltering discharge of their respective trusts as the surest means of preserving peace and order and maintaining the supremacy of the laws.

By command of Brigadier-General Guitar: L. T. Hayman, Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

Did these or similar types of orders curtail or eliminate the bushwhackers? No, they did not. What they did do, was to intensive the will of the guerrillas to continue fighting and they made it perfectly clear to the Union officers what would happen to them if they did not comply with or enforce these orders. Neutrality did not exist in Missouri during the Civil War. Citizens and soldiers lived and died by Union, Confederate and outlaw swords and the war went on.A