This Week in History: The Capture of Confederate Partisan John F. Bolin

We’re starting a new feature here at the Opossum Creek Courier called “This Week in History” which we will publish on occasion. This week we are featuring a story which appeared in the February 19, 1864 Charleston {Missouri} Courier , it was a reprint of an account originally published in the Cape Girardeau Argus.

The Civil War was a terrible time in our nation’s history and Missouri ranks third in the number of skirmishes and battles. In the foothills of the Ozarks it was especially brutal and the Charleston Courier accounts the capture and execution of Bolin by a vigilante mob.

A genealogy web page states that Bolin ( also spelled Bowlin)  at the time of the war had $500 in real estate property and $200 in personal property. He also had a wife and two small children.  It is an example of how war can turn a peace loving family man into a desperate fighter. The page also notes that Bolin:

John Fugate Bolin: Private(?), Co. G, 2nd Inf. Regt., 1 Div., MSG. Enlisted as Private, Co. B, 2 Mo Cav Regt 1 Feb 62. Became a noted guerilla in later states of the war He and his brother, Nathan, operated throughout Southeast Missouri. Captured in 1864 and incarcerated in Cape Girardeau, MO, where a mob removed him from custody and HANGED him 5, Feb. 64.. His alleged confession was published in the Cape Girardeau Argus as follows: “I was at Round Pond; there were eight men killed, two by Nathan Bolin and one by John Wright. They were killed with hand spikes. I emptied one revolver. At Round Pond I shot one man, and at Dallas I wounded another. I captured eight men on Hickory Ridge; I told them I was going to shoot them, but their soldiers recaptured them before I could do so. I have killed six or seven men; I killed my cousin; I ordered him to halt — he would not, and I shot him down.”

Below is the article clippings from the Charleston Courier, click to enlarge:

Related: The Battle of Round Pond