Battlefield Dispatches No. 294: 'Papinsville burned to ashes!'

Friday, December 9, 2011

On Thursday, Dec. 12, 1864, 1st Sgt. Luther Thrashers's Company, Company C of Lane's Kansas Brigade, received orders late in the afternoon to prepare for a march into Missouri. It seems that on the previous night a Union man who lived in Missouri near the Kansas line was murdered by bushwhackers or "Missouri ruffians," so according to Thrasher's diary, "we are now off to avenge" this murder. The following entries from Thrasher's diary describe this march into Missouri and the revenge of the Kansas Brigade which included the burning of Papinsville, Mo., and the destruction of many "Rebel" farms on the way to and from that town.

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