Give Him Up Or We Burn Your City

In an attempt to capture Confederate Silas M Gordon, Union troops burnt Platte City, Missouri December 16^th 1861.

Silas M Gordon lived in Platte County, Missouri and had been fighting a kind of guerrilla war fare against Union troops and supporters in the area, including the September 1861 Platte Bridge Railroad Tragedy that killed and injured over a hundred.  Union troops had tried to capture Gordon in November at Bee Creek, but he got away after killing two Union soldiers.  In early December Gordon along with about 35 men captured the town of Weston, Missouri, and captured two Union soldiers.  They moved to Platte City, where the Confederates camped on the Platte County Courthouse lawn. 

Union General David Hunter issued orders from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas for the people of Platte City to deliver Gordon up or their city would be burned.  Union Colonel W James Morgan commanding the 18^th Missouri marched from St Joseph, Missouri to Platte City where they set fire to the city and the courthouse on December 16^th 1861.  While in that town they found two Confederate soldiers who were home on a furlough and took them prisoner.

Morgan ordered the two prisoners killed.  Despite pleas from the father of one the men, Black Triplett, Morgan took him and the other man Gabriel Case to Bee Creek.  At the same place where Union soldiers were killed Morgan had Triplett executed, and Case was bayonetted trying to get away on December 17^th 1861.

Believed He Was Just To The Last

Abolitionist Aaron Dwight Stevens was executed March 16^th 1860 for his part in John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry.

Aaron Dwight Stevens was born March 15^th 1831 in Lisbon, New London, Connecticut.  At sixteen he enlisted in Cushing’s Massachusetts regiment and saw service in the Mexican American War.  Latter as part of Company F of the United States 1^st Dragoons, Stevens was tried for assaulting United States Major George A H Blake.  The assault was understood to have been caused by Blake’s treatment of enlisted soldiers.  Stevens was sentenced to death, but his sentence was commuted by President Franklin Pierce, and Stevens was sent to Leavenworth for three years hard labor.  He escaped and became the Colonel of 2^nd Kansas Militia, using the name Whipple.

It was while Stevens was with the 2^nd that he met John Brown on August 7^th 1856 during “Bleeding Kansas”.  In 1859 Stevens was with John Brown at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia.  Stevens was trapped in the engine house with Brown and several other raiders.  He thought they should use the hostages as shields and make a run for it, but Brown overruled him and they stayed in the engine house.  Stevens was sent out with Brown’s son Watson to negotiate and was shot four times.  When taken captive by militia, they thought he was dead.

Stevens’ lawyer George H Hoyt said of him that, “He's in a most pitiable condition physically, his wounds being of the most painful and dangerous character. He has now four balls in his body, two of these being about the head and neck. He bears his sufferings with grim and silent fortitude, never complaining and absolutely without hope. He is a splendid looking young fellow. Such black and penetrating eyes! Such an expansive brow! Such a grand chest and limbs! He was the best, and in fact the only man Brown had who was a good soldier besides being reliable otherwise."  Stevens made a deathbed confession, but never changed his belief that the raid on Harper’s Ferry was just.

Stevens was found guilty of treason for his part in the Harper’s Ferry raid, and for conspiring with slaves to bring on an insurrection.  One day after his 29^th birthday Stevens was executed on March 16^th 1860 in Charlestown, Virginia.

He Stayed With His State

Jones Mitchell Withers a United States Army officer in the Mexican American war and a general for the Confederate army during the Civil War was born January 12th 1814.

Jones Mitchell Withers was born in Huntsville, Alabama January 12th 1814 the son of John Wright and Mary Herbert [Jones] Withers. Withers got his early education at the Greene Academy in Huntsville before attending West Point Military Academy. He graduated 1835, 44th out a class of 56. He took a posting at Fort Leavenworth Kansas as a Second Lieutenant in the 1st United States Dragoons.

Withers resigned shortly after and returned to Alabama to practice law, and sell cotton. At the start of the Mexican American war Withers was appointed Lieutenant Colonel and assigned to the 13th United States Infantry. After the war he returned to Alabama where he entered politics serving in the Alabama State Legislature, and then in 1855 with United States House of Representatives.

At the beginning of the Civil War Withers stayed with Alabama and entered the Confederate Army as a Colonel in the 3rd Alabama Infantry. He fought at the Battle of Shiloh and was promoted to Major General. He was leading the 2nd Division of the Army of Tennessee, where they fought with distinction at the Battle of Stones River. He surrendered his troops May 11th 1865 at Meridian Mississippi.

Following the end of the war Withers received a pardon from the Federal Government, and he returned to practicing law. He sold cotton and worked as the editor of the Tribune in Mobile. Withers died in Mobile Alabama March 13th 1890 and is buried in the Magnolia Cemetery.