[Missouri]: [Civil War]: Benecke, Louis:

Some Light Upon a Chariton County Episode of '64 [wrapper title].

[N.p., but likely Brunswick, Mo: n.d., likely 1892]. 13pp. Original printed wrappers, sewn. Minor rubbing to title, minor edge wear. Small ownership label on inside front wrapper. Very good. Item #12675

Louis Benecke's defense against accusations involving the murder of a Missouri Bushwhacker during the Civil War.  On August 8, 1864, William Carter, a Union soldier visiting his mother at the family farm near Kaytesville, Missouri, "was taken prisoner by Bushwhcker Jim Jackson's gang, stripped naked, tied to a tree in the yard and shot at by the gang till his body was riddled with over thirty bullets, and he was then left for dead, still tied to the tree."  The author of the present work, Louis Benecke, captain of Company I of the 49th Missouri Volunteers, was rumored to have retaliated by killing "one of the participants in that murder."  Here, Benecke defends his good name against such slanders through contemporary orders, affidavits, and other material that refute the notion that he was involved.  Benecke writes that "I was a mere boy when placed in responsible positions, surrounded by intense partisan feeling, hatred, revenge, and all that helped to bring about the unfortunate condition of things as they were in 1864-65."  Most of the affidavits come from Missouri, with one from Ohio and another from Texas.

"Reciting the events surrounding the death of William Carter of the 35th Regiment E. M. M. at the hands of Bushwhacker Jim Jackson's Gang, and the killing of J. W. Leonard, of the gang, in retaliation; Benecke then in command at Brunswick, Mo., now a politician, finds himself under attack as one of those who had killed the bushwacker, Leonard.  In refutation he herein publishes a number of affidavits, shedding much light on guerilla activities in Chariton County, Missouri, during the days of bushwackers" - Midland Notes 87:117.

Not in Dornbusch, Nevins, Nicholson, or Eberstadt.  Due to the lack of an imprint in the work, results from OCLC are a bit muddled, with over a dozen copies reported with publication dates between 1892 and 1895.

Price: $650