- Joined
- Apr 10, 2012
Is there no difference between Lawrence and Baxter Springs? Both are massacres, but in the former, a city was taken and 150 civilian men killed. In the latter, an armed outpost was attacked and an armed column destroyed; 150 uniformed soldiers were killed. If words mean anything, then massacre is not necessarily murder. 10 times as many died in Pickett's charge, were they murdered? Or were they massacred, slaughtered, decimated, in an orderly and proficient military manner?
In Lawrence, I have no trouble using the word murder - the dead were non-combatants. I have a very hard time applying the word murder to the killing of one side's troops by the other's, even in one-sided battle. Maybe that's just me, though.
Pickett's men weren't shot through the head after capture, at Baxter springs the Union men were. 85 men killed, 8 wounded. Do the math and then try to characterize this as anything but a massacre. At this stage of the war this was a not uncommon way for guerrillas to behave in the theater. And there were instances of the same by regular MO/Ark CSA forces as well during the Camden Expedition.