Huntsville massacre

The Huntsville massacre was an event that occurred during the American Civil War one mile northeast of Huntsville, Arkansas, in which nine men believed to be Confederate sympathizers were shot by Union soldiers. The event, which has since been called a massacre, is little known today.

Background
The event occurred on January 10, 1863, in the midst of the Union Army moving to occupy Arkansas. Preceding this, in 1862, was an incident that is believed to have sparked the execution of the nine men. Following the Battle of Pea Ridge, Isaac Murphy, who was the first Reconstruction Governor of Arkansas, had received death threats and was forced to flee the area in which he lived. Under Union Army escort, he moved to Huntsville. By the fall of that year, his daughters wished to visit him. They went, under Union escort, to Huntsville. When they came to within two miles of the town, the escort, numbering twenty five soldiers, decided to send the daughters into the town alone, and the soldiers set up camp to rest. While resting there, they were attacked by a local Confederate Guerrilla band. Only seven of the Union soldiers survived the skirmish.

Following the Battle of Prairie Grove, Union General Francis Herron was ordered to take his 5,000 troops northeast to the Mississippi River, where he would link up with the army under the command of Ulysses S. Grant in the push for Vicksburg. While Herron's troops passed through Huntsville, it was reported to them that the daughters of Murphy were still being harassed by locals, to the point that their personal property had been taken from them. Within days the Union soldiers had arrested several local men, with no known charges against them.

The executions
In the early morning hours of January 10, 1863, nine of the arrested men were taken from where they were being detained by members of Company G, 8th Regiment Missouri Volunteer Cavalry, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Elias Briggs Baldwin. Those men were Chesley H. Boatright, William Martin Berry, Hugh Samuel Berry, John William Moody, Askin Hughes, John Hughes, Watson P. Stevens, Robert Coleman Young, and Bill Parks. Of the nine, Hugh Samuel Berry and Askin Hughes were soldiers, both being captains in the Confederate Army and home on leave. John William Moody was a Confederate officer with the Fourth Regiment, Arkansas Cavalry and a former US Marshal, and William Martin Berry was a son-in-law to Isaac Murphy. All were shot, with eight being killed. Bill Parks was left for dead, but survived the shooting and later moved to Mississippi.

There were no known charges against any of the men, and it has never been confirmed as to whether the executions were in reaction to the Union soldiers killed months earlier by guerrillas, or if the incident was due to some other unknown cause. It has been since indicated that it is possible the nine men were suspected to have taken part in the guerrilla attack that resulted in the killing of the eighteen Union soldiers. Two of the men executed were Confederate soldiers. There is no way of knowing for certain as to whether that did play a part in the executions. However, even in the event that any of those shot had been involved in the earlier attack on the Union detachment, it would have been considered an act of war on their part, and not punishable by death as the men would have then been considered prisoners of war.

After the executions, Bill Parks, who had been left for dead, crawled to a nearby farm house, where his wounds were treated. When asked what had happened and who did it, his response was "Men of the 8th Missouri Regiment. But Johnson, Ham and Murphy had it done." He was referring to Isaac Murphy, attorney E.D. Ham, and Union Colonel James Johnson. Although Baldwin was present during the murders and directly ordered the executions, he was not mentioned by Parks.

Word of the executions spread quickly through the ranks of the Union Army, and Lt. Col. Baldwin was arrested and charged with "violation of the 6th Article of War for the murder of prisoners of war." He was transported to Springfield, Missouri and held for trial. However, when many of the witnesses were found to be on active military duty and unable to attend the trial, and many civilian witnesses were displaced or not able to make the trip to Springfield, charges were dropped, and Baldwin was discharged from the army.

Afterward
The backlash of the event prompted the two local colleges to close, due to them being funded by the Masons. The local Masonic chapter felt that Isaac Murphy had something to do with the executions, and several of those executed were members of the Masons. Murphy's daughters and wife ran one of the colleges, an all female seminary, and Murphy was the head of the other college. Therefore, the Masons chapter ended financial support of both schools, and the colleges closed. Nonetheless, Murphy went on to have a distinguished political career. James Johnson would go on to become a Congressman and later Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of State for Arkansas. E.D. Ham would later serve as a Senator for Arkansas, as well as a District Attorney and Circuit Judge. Short of Baldwin's arrest and dismissal from the army on less than honorable circumstances, no one was ever punished for the crime.

For decades afterward, locals in the area commemorated the event by decorating the area with flowers on its anniversary each year, but no one spoke publicly about it. In 1974, historian John I. Smith published several articles about the murders in the Northwest Arkansas Times, having uncovered accounts of the massacre while researching a biography he was doing on Isaac Murphy. Prior to those publications the murders had become all but forgotten, as by that time any who would have remembered it first hand had long since passed on. On September 30, 2006, a monument commemorating the event was dedicated at the execution site.