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Behind the big themes, celebrated figures, and dry dates of history are the interesting stories of life in the past and ordinary people. Southeast Missouri has a varied and rich history that you often don’t hear about in history classes. Join Bill Eddleman of the State Historical Society of Missouri to hear about these stories with “Tales from Days Gone By.” Listen in on the second and fourth Thursday of the month during Morning Edition (7:45 a.m.) and All Things Considered (4:44 p.m.)

The Unfortunate Fate of Bennett Murray

Bennett Murray.
Photo posted on Find A Grave, original source unknown.
Bennett Murray.

A grave marker in the Mount Pleasant Methodist Church Cemetery, also called Campground or Camp Grayson Cemetery, in Perry County states, “IN MEMORY OF/BENNETT MURRAY/BORN FEB. 18. 1823/Captured and wounded/by the Confederates/OCT. 11. 1861./Recaptured by the/Guerillas and killed/JULY 3, 1864/AGED 41 Y. 4 M. 15 D.”

Bennett Murray was a resident of northern Bollinger County at the start of the Civil War. He was born in the area when it was part of Cape Girardeau County. Murray married Mary Ann Spencer in Cape Co. and began buying government land. When the Civil War began, he owned 320 acres and was a farmer with around $2000 in assets, above average for that time. He appears to have had Unionist sympathies, or at least wanted to avoid the conflict. No evidence suggests he enlisted in the militia or any other military unit, and the 1863 federal draft list indicates he had no prior military service.

Murray’s neighborhood was on the periphery of an area of divided loyalties. Whether because of Union sympathies or lack of sympathy for secession, guerrillas captured after wounding him in the leg on October 11, 1861. The Confederates held him for some time before releasing him, as noted by local diarist Archibald L. Hager. Murray returned via the Union Camp Grayson near Mt. Pleasant Church on November 10, 1861.

Murray kept a low profile for nearly three years. There are at least two accounts of his final encounter with guerrillas. One story told by his great-grandson states Elliott Murray was on the Apple Creek Road with Jim Conrad and Jim Hart when the gang captured them. They intended to shoot the three, who decided to make a run for it. Spurring their horses, Conrad and Hart escaped, but Murray’s horse stumbled, and he was shot in the back. Another version is that Murray went to the woods to chop wood and brought his rifle with him. The bushwhackers shot him before he could reach the gun.

Confederate activity was uncommon in Perry County and vicinity during the war—most residents held Union sympathies and most conflict occurred south and west of the county. Murray was one of the few killed in the area, and newspapers widely reported his death. Archibald L. Hager noted in his diary: “on the 3 Bennette Murrey was Shot dead neare Joseph Edlemons by a little band of gurillers.”

Prior to the murder, raiders stole over $25,000 worth of goods from stores in Millersville, Missouri. Shortly after killing Murray, they robbed three men of their horses, and on the following morning murdered Jefferson Hartle, another resident of the area. Jefferson Hartle served the Union in Simpson’s Regiment of 6-month militia in 1862 and the 79th Enrolled Missouri Militia in 1863.

The likely leader of the bushwhackers was Peter Smith. At the beginning of the war, Smith was a farmer in the northern Bollinger County neighborhood where Murray lived. He had strong secessionist sympathies. Pete Smith robbed other victims before the murders, including a Mr. Nugent and Moritz Biehle. These men and two others later robbed a Mr. Huber. Peter Smith survived the war according to some accounts and moved to Texas along with many other Confederates.

Fifty years later, in March 1913, John Seifert found a rifle barrel in the woods where Murray died. Surviving local elderly residents recognized the gun was that of Bennett Murray, abandoned when the unfortunate man met his end.

Bill Eddleman was born in Cape Girardeau, and is an 8th-generation Cape Countian. His first Missouri ancestor came to the state in 1802. He attended SEMO for two years before transferring to the University of Missouri to study Fisheries and Wildlife Biology. He stayed at Mizzou to earn a master of science in Fisheries and Wildlife, and continued studies in Wildlife Ecology at Oklahoma State University.