"When a faithful portraiture of the 'Horrors of the war in Missouri' is given to the world, people will be amazed at the recital, and ask 'Can these things be true?' History can furnish few, if any, parallels." -author, Henry M. Painter
Early in September, 1861, Major Joseph A. Eppstein, commandant of the post of Boonville, seized six prominent citizens, W. E. Burr, H. N. Ells, J. W. Draffin, R. D. Perry, J. W. Harper and the Rev. H. M. Painter, pastor of the Presbyterian Church, and informed them that they as Southern sympathizers would be put on the breastworks in the attack about to be made by the Confederates. He granted their request to be allowed to communicate his purpose to the commander of the attacking party and in consequence the Confederates retired when they had sufficient force to make the capture easy. Mr. Painter was banished to the State of Massachusetts during the war and there he published a pamphlet giving horrible details of his experiences during the Civil War. It was published in 1863 and is entitled a "Brief Narrative of Incidents in the War in Missouri, and of the Personal Experience of One Who Has Suffered."
In introducing his book Painter, writes:
"These sketches, which were written under the excitement of personal suffering, are not given to the public as specimens of classic treatise writing, but simply to show some of the horrors of Missouri. It is the purpose of the writer, if spared to more tranquil times, to write a history of the civil war in that State. For that purpose he is new collecting whatever will throw light upon it. No State has suffered more; and the true condition of things there is generally unknown."
