Bee Creek Massacre

The Bee Creek Massacre occurred in December, 1861, when troops of the 18th Missouri Infantry USA executed two Confederate prisoners.

Southern bushwhacker Silas M. Gordon had been operating out of Platte County, Missouri for a number of months before regional Federal military authorities attempted to capture him and his followers. In November, 1861, two Federal soldiers were killed near the Bee Creek Bridge, a few miles south of Weston, Missouri.

By mid-December, elements of the 18th Missouri Infantry were occupying neighboring Platte City and captured Black Triplett, Gabriel Case, and William Kuykendall, three Confederate soldiers that had come home either on furlough or at the expiration of their enlistment terms. Platte Countian W.M. Paxton wrote in a history of the county that he spoke to the 18th Missouri's colonel, W. James Morgan, asking on behalf of Triplett's father for the privilege to speak with his son. Morgan's reply was, "Yes, God damn him! Let him say now what he pleases, for he will never see him alive again."

Instead of leniency, Morgan took Triplett and prisoner Case near to Bee Creek Bridge. Triplett stood and was shot. Case, with arms bound, fled to the nearby creek bed where he quickly became mired in the mud. A Federal soldier descended upon him and bayoneted him to death. The letters "U.S." were scrawled in Triplett's blood on the bridge. The third prisoner, William Kuykendall, was spared.

ources

*"History of Clay and Platte Counties Missouri", 1885
*Anders, Leslie, "The Eighteenth Missouri", 1968
*Paxton, W.M., "Annals of Platte County, Missouri", 1897