are maligning General McNeil, fabricating statements of his brutality, and even asserting the two-fold falsehood that the wife of Allsman petitioned that the rebels might not be executed, and that the old man has since returned. But he will bear such calumnies, and live to reap grateful tributes. It was true that Confederate President Jefferson Davis had threatened to execute ten Union prisoners unless McNeil was handed over to the Confederacy, but the threat was not carried out. It was also true that a number of local Union-supporters had pleaded with McNeil for the lives of the captives (Allsman's wife not among them). The local loyalist paper however supported McNeil: "The madness of rebellion has become so deep seated that ordinary methods of cure are inadequate." (Palmyra Courier, October 18, 1862) and McNeil himself would respond years later "... cherishing, as I do, the firm conviction that my action was the means of saving lives and property of hundreds of loyal men and women, I feel that my act was the performance of a public duty." (July 1889 response to an article in "The Century" magazine). In any event, the act earned him the unshakeable title of "Butcher of Palmyra." As a pair, McNeil and his nemesis, Joseph C. Porter, illustrate particularly well the horrors of the war and the difficulty of moral evaluation; it seems likely that the culpability of each was minimized by his own side and exaggerated by the other. Later campaigns McNeil was made brigadier general to rank from November 29, 1862. In the spring of 1863, McNeil held Cape Girardeau with 1,700 men against Gen. John Sappington Marmaduke's force of 10,000. In 1864 he was appointed to command the district of Rolla, Missouri, and, with the assistance of Gen. John B. Sanborn, Clinton B. Fisk and E. B. Brown, he saved the capital from Price's army. He commanded the 2nd Brigade of General Alfred Pleasonton's Provisional Cavalry during Price's Raid, and along with General John Sanborn, led the attack on the second day of the Second Battle of Independence. His troops also participated in the campaign which led to the defeat of Price's army at the Second Battle of Newtonia in October. During the Battle of Westport, McNeil was relieved of command for "cowardice and failure to attack the enemy" by General Alfred Pleasonton. For this and other charges he was court-martialed, but the charges