Frisby Henderson McCullough (March 8, 1828 – August 8, 1862) was a Confederate States Army soldier in the American Civil War, executed on the orders of Union Colonel (later General) John McNeil after the Battle of Kirksville. Early years Born in New Castle County, Delaware, to James and Delia (Pennington) McCullough, he moved with his parents to Marion County, Missouri at the age of 12. McCullough went to California during the 1849 Gold Rush and remained there for 5 years. On November 26, 1856, he married Eloise Randolph in Marion County. They became the parents of three children, including a son who went on to practice law in Edina, Missouri. Military career At the outbreak of the war, McCullough joined the Confederate forces under General Thomas Green. He took part in the Battle of Lexington, before being sent by General Sterling Price to recruit in northeastern Missouri with Joseph C. Porter in the spring of 1862. During the guerrilla campaign in Northeast Missouri in the summer of 1862, McCullough sought unsuccessfully to persuade Colonel Porter to restrict himself to recruiting and not engage the Union forces. According to one of his men, Joseph Mudd (see references), this was because McCullough feared the retaliation Federal forces would inflict upon civilian Southern sympathizers. The observation may accurately reflect McCullough's character, which is universally praised, but it is colored by the author's Confederate perspective. Prior to the engagement at Kirksville, McCullough again urged Porter to decline battle and send his raw recruits to Arkansas for training and equipping behind Confederate lines. Porter refused and McCullough proposed that Porter at least wait in the cornfields outside of town, instead of fighting in the village itself. Again, his advice was ignored. Capture and execution After Porter's disastrous defeat at Kirksville, McCullough became ill. Declining Porter's offer of escort, he rode alone towards Edina to recover and continue recruiting. He was discovered by Federal troops and surrendered. McCullough requested to be sent to Palmyra, rather than to Kirksville, possibly because he had already heard of the executions of prisoners there, but the request was denied. Although he had been treated well in Edina, according to eyewitnesses he was paraded up and down the streets of Kirksville to jeering crowds. He was accused of lacking a military commission, of fighting on his own authority — that is, of being a bushwhacker— and of persuading parolees to return