Dear List, I have a written story in my records that tell the tale of my relative, Canaday Johnson during the Civil War. He and his family lived for the most part in Dent County MO but for some reason, they came to Howell County MO during a part of the war. One day, the Alsup Gang came to his house and asked his wife where he was. She told them he was "gone". They then went to the nearby (I guess) house of his son, Jimmie, and his wife who was pregnant with her first child. The wife, being young, told this gang where Canaday and Jimmie were working. The story goes that upon finding Canaday and Jimmie, they shot Jimmie in the back of the head, and left him to die. They forced Canaday to lead them through the area to Houston, Texas Co MO. This he did, and they turned him loose a couple of days later. He returned to Howell County and he and a neighbor helped his wife and daughter-in-law bury Jimmy "down by the river in the brush". According to this story, this event took place between North Fork and Willow Springs in Howell Co. MO. Does anybody know anything about this story? I have it from two sources. Would like very much to know the name of the young wife, if she had her child, if she survived the war, etc. Thank you, Judy Johnson Erickson in TX

I don't know about this particular family, but the few Civil War histories that include Missouri are full of similar events. Much of the war in Missouri was gang action not restricted to the eastern war years. Title: Inside war : the guerrilla conflict in Missouri during the American Civil War / Michael Fellman. Author: Fellman, Michael. Publication Date: 1989. Fellman's book is full of similar reports to yours. McKee, Ivan N. Lost family--lost cause : a story of the McGee family in Wayne County, Missouri during the Civil War years / by Ivan N. McKee. 1978 McKee claims the killings of the McGee family was from jealousy of their wealth, that it was done by military officers, and that those officers had history rewritten after the war to prevent them being considered the hooligans they were. After reading these books about the Civil War in Missouri, its a topic I no longer care to read about. Gerald J.