Whoaaaaa! Are you seriously attacking my family?
1. Missouri was a BORDER STATE
2. Besides #1, anyone already residing in the South
when the CW broke out and chose to remain loyal to
the Union could not possibly be considered a traitor
to a cause they had NEVER professed loyalty to. Any
diehard Rebel can grasp that concept.
3. The official Confederate officer on site ORDERED
the local Confederate irregulars (neighbors) to
march the prisoners to a prison in Springfield, MO.
Instead, the local rebels took them down the road,
camped overnight and executed them in the morn. You
OK with that?
4. Sam Davis, son of Clemiel, managed to escape
although wounded. He never considered the “neighbors”
who murdered his father to be anything other than
“bushwhackers”. That is why he had no problem killing the
six or seven murderers. Sam’s father inlaw had been a
a Sgt in Clemiel’s Missouri Homeguard Co so when he
betrayed Clemiel etal he proved to be a real traitor
and so was dealt with by his son inlaw, Sam.
5. Clemiel Davis and his family were never invaders.
They had been in Southern Missouri since the 1840s.
Clemiel is among the honored Pioneers of Stone County.
Sam was never indicted for killing the bushwhackers.
He died in 1923 at the age of 83.
6. When word reached the family that Clemiel had
been killed Sam’s 15 year old brother, John Wesley
was sent to locate and retrieve Clemiel’s body.
He discovered his father, Clemiel, had been decapitated.
John Wesley Davis was my great grandfather.
Still think my family were traitors?
I am pointing out that I fully understand why a family would regard someone who helped the invaders as a traitor to the family.
1. Missouri was a BORDER STATE
From what i've read, it remained a Union state only because some out of control Union officers got quite violent in preventing the state from doing anything else. It was a Union state for the same reason Maryland was a Union state, because it was held by military force against the will of the populace.
2. Besides #1, anyone already residing in the South when the CW broke out and chose to remain loyal to the Union could not possibly be considered a traitor to a cause they had NEVER professed loyalty to. Any diehard Rebel can grasp that concept.
States may come and go, but everyone owes loyalty to their family. In tight knit communities, the community is a sort of extended family. "Kith and Kin" are the people you should respect and defend, especially against outsiders.
Missouri may not have felt a strong desire to join the Confederacy, though I've read that it wanted to do so, but it should have at the very least objected to the invasion of the other states. That is not the behavior of a nation founded on the right to independence.
3. The official Confederate officer on site ORDERED the local Confederate irregulars (neighbors) to march the prisoners to a prison in Springfield, MO. Instead, the local rebels took them down the road, camped overnight and executed them in the morn. You OK with that?
No. I didn't read it that way when you first wrote it. I thought it was an extemporaneous event having no sanction or control from any government body. A Vigilante type event. Now that you've clarified it, they should have been brought up on charges themselves for disobeying orders as well as murder under color of official sanction.
4. Sam Davis, son of Clemiel, managed to escape although wounded. He never considered the “neighbors” who murdered his father to be anything other than “bushwhackers”.
Common criminals are a different matter. If they were just killing for the sake of robbery or just for the sake of killing, they deserve to be killed in return.
5. Clemiel Davis and his family were never invaders. They had been in Southern Missouri since the 1840s.
No one said they were invaders. What I said is that if they were helping the invaders, I could understand why the family would regard them as traitors.
The Vichy in France are an example of natives helping the invaders.