Stover's body, killing him instantly; after which his companions in guilt kicked the lifeless body, and even went so far as to stamp on the head, and grind the face with their boot-heels.* SI GORDON. THE Union citizens of Leavenworth county, Kansas, (the adjoining county to Platte county, Missouri, the only dividing line being the Missouri river), had been subjected to all sorts of inhuman outrages; murders and robberies being committed every day by a gang of miscreants under one Si Gordon. General D. Hunter, in view of Gordon's success in evading the vigilance of the United States forces, which were sent out after him time and again, was led to inquire into the cause of it. He ascertained that the rebel sympathizers of Platte county were extending to Gordon all the aid in their power, by giving him information of the approach of the United States forces, and secreting him and his gang, whenever there was a chance of their being captured; and knowing that it would require a double force before he could capture him-one to guard the sympathizers, and one to hunt up the marauders—he was compelled to issue the following retaliatory order, to effect the delivery of the said Si Gordon into his hands, before he committed any more of the fiendish murders of innocent people of Lawrence and the adjoining counties: 14 * Dr. J. D Hale, of Tennessee. HEADQUARTERS, DEPARTMENT OF KANSAS, Fort Leavenworth, December 1st, 1861. To the Trustees of Platte City, Platte County, Mo. GENTLEMEN: Having received reliable information of depredations, and outrages of every kind, committed by a man named Si Gordon, a leader of rebel marauding bands, I give you notice, that unless you seize and deliver the said Gordon to me, at these Headquarters, within ten days from this date, or drive him out of the country, I shall send a force to your city, with orders to reduce it to ashes, and to burn the house of every Secessionist in your county, and to carry away every slave. Colonel Jennison's regiment will be intrusted with the execution of this order. The attention of the following persons is particularly directed to this notice. * * * * D. HUNTER, Major-General Commanding. MURDER OF MR. TABOR. MR. TABOR, living in Clinton county, Kentucky, about three miles above Albany, was brutally murdered by. that notorious murderer, Champ Furguson, and his band of marauders. Mr. Tabor was a farmer, highly respected, and very frank, never attempting to conceal his sentiments, and, in consequence, became obnoxious to his rebel neighbors. They frequently robbed him of whatever they wished. On one occasion they stole from him a family of ten negroes, and running them off, sold them and appropriated the avails. In conversation one day, he expressed his willing ness to shoulder a musket, if necessary, in defence of the Union. This getting to the ears of the rebels, he was compelled, like many others, to leave home, and hide in the woods and caves to avoid being murdered. After being a fugitive from home several months, he learned that the Union troops had taken possession of Albany, and thought that he would venture to return home to see his family. Upon his arrival, one of his rebel neighbors, Durham Graham, notified Champ and his gang of Mr. Tabor's return. Mustering up courage, they started immediately upon their bloody mission, Graham accompanying them. away Like a pack of thieves, they quietly stole up to his house, and rushing upon the old man, took him prisoner. His wife begged and pleaded with them not to kill her husband, but, if they were determined to kill him, she begged them to kill him at home, and not take him and do it. The lying fiends assured her that they did not intend to kill him. They ordered the old man to get up behind Graham, the villain who had betrayed him. (This Graham had taken the oath of allegiance to the United States Government.) All being ready, they started down the lane leading from his house to the main road. They had not proceeded far, when Mr. Tabor was pushed violently from the horse. This was the signal for them to commence their bloody work. Champ and his gang, as soon as the old man's feet struck the ground, fired at him, until he fell pierced with bullets. The old man still surviving, Champ jumped from his horse, and drawing his knife, cut him until he was satisfied that life was entirely extinct. Mounting his horse, he rode off with an air of triumph, leaving the body in the road, to be buried by his distressed family. Mr. Tabor had four sons in the Union army, and that was the cause, with his being a Union man, the fiends had for murdering him.* FIRING ON DROWNING MEN. DURING the spirited engagement between the gunboats Mound City, St. Louis, Lexington, and Conestoga, and the rebel batteries, at St. Charles, on the White river, a shot from one of the batteries penetrated the port casement of the Mound City, a little above and forward of the gunport, killing three men in its flight, and exploding her steam-drum. As a consequence, many of the crew leaped overboard, for whose rescue boats were immediately sent. But the rebels, instead of compassionating, and seeking to deliver, actually fired upon these scalded and drowning men, and those sent to their rescue, wounding many and killing others. Says Rear-Admiral C. H. Davis, then commanding the Western Flotilla, in his report of June 19th, 1862, to the Hon. Secretary of the Navy: "The victory at St. Charles, which has probably given us command of White river, and secured our connection with General Curtis, would be unalloyed with regret but for the fatal accident to the steam-drum and heater of the Mound City. "Of the crew, consisting of one hundred and seventyfive, officers and men, eighty-two have already died, fortythree were killed in the water or drowned, and twenty-. five are severely wounded. * Dr. J. D. Hale, of Tennessee. "After the explosion took place the wounded men were shot by the enemy, while in the water, and the boats of the Conestoga, Lexington, and St. Louis, which which went to the assistance of the scalded and drowning men of the Mound City, were fired into both with great guns and muskets, and were disabled, and one of them forced on shore to prevent sinking. "The department and the country will contrast these barbarities of a savage enemy with the humane efforts made by our own people to rescue the wounded and disabled, under similar circumstances, in the engagement of the 6th instant." In his report of June 18th he says: "Many must have been killed by the enemy while they were struggling in the water. I was close to the spot, and distinctly saw and remarked on the cowardly act, at the moment they were perpetrating it." MASSACRE OF AMERICANS AND GERMANS IN IN the latter part of 1862, a party of rebel murderers, commanded by that prince of fiends, Captain J. M. Duff, visited the counties of Keer, Gillespie, and Kendall, in Texas, having been ordered there by the rebel government to crush the Union sentiment that was known to exist there. As soon as he arrived with his command, which consisted of five hundred of the worst desperadoes that ever polluted the soil of Texas, he issued an order to confiscate all the property of every Union man in the above-named counties, who refused to take an oath to support the Confederate Government within ten days. He also ordered his men to take no Union man prisoner |