Special Edition: An Execution in Kansas (March 22, 1862)
On Saturday March 22, 1862, the Leavenworth Daily Conservative reported that Private Alexander Driscoll, Seventh Kansas Cavalry, was executed outside Camp Hunter in Humboldt, Kansas. Driscoll’s crime was murder, and the Irish-born twenty-seven year old former shoemaker is the fourteenth U.S. soldier to be executed in the war. To date, the Union Army has only executed two soldiers for desertion. (The Confederate Army’s first execution for desertion will not take place until August 1863.) According to official records, the Union Army executed 275 men for military offenses (there are no official records for the Confederate Army), but the best estimate is that over 500 soldiers were put to death during the war.
Driscoll’s crime was typical of the types of behavior which drew the ultimate penalty–murder. But, Driscoll’s story is quite unusual. Born in Ireland in 1834, he joined the British Army in 1853 and deserted three years later at Sevastopol during the Crimean War. He emigrated to the United States, got married, and enlisted in the Sterling Price’s Missouri State Guard sometime in 1861. He deserted a second time during Price’s raid on Lexington, Missouri, in September 1861. He then joined Company H of the Seventh Kansas Cavalry, which began organizing at Fort Leavenworth on October 28, 1861. That company “had a fine contingent of fighting men, but lacked proper discipline.”
Driscoll’s execution took place sometime in early March. The official date is March 18th, the local paper cites March 22nd, but John Brown Jr. described the incident in great detail in a letter to his wife which was dated Sunday March 9th. John Jr. was the eldest son of John Brown, and like his brothers Jason and Salmon, he did not join him at Harper’s Ferry. However, his anti-slavery activities did result in his arrest for “high treason” in 1856. Brown Jr. joined Seventh Kansas Cavalry (Jennison's Jayhawkers) and mustered in as captain of Company K. He served with the company until his resignation in May 1862, because of rheumatoid arthritis. John Jr. married Wealthy Hotchkiss in July 1847, and the couple had two children.
Humboldt Kansas, Sunday March 9th 1862
My own Precious Wife:
Yesterday afternoon one of the men of the Regiment was publicly shot. The circumstances are briefly these. About a week since two men of Company "H", Irishmen, one by the name of Driscol and the other McGinnis, got partially drunk. A dispute arose between them about a revolver, which they agreed to settle by a fist or knock down fight, during which, Driscol getting the worst of it drew a knife and stabbed McGinnis in several places. The knife in one place entering the lungs. McGinnis was taken to the hospital, where he yet lies, barely alive, breathing through the opening in his side whenever the bandages are removed, and Driscol was ironed by Dan Williams the Regimental Black Smith and put under guard in the guard house. While in the guard house he was informed that McGinnis would in all probability die, and that if a Court Martial did not sentence him to death, the men of Company H would lynch him.
One night last week he succeeded in drawing off his boot and the iron from his ankle and crawling under the guard tent made his escape taking with him *Col Anthony's horse. In the morning several squads of men were sent after him, stimulated by a reward of $200 offered by Col. Anthony for his capture. He was caught about forty miles from here and brought into camp on Friday evening - He was again heavily ironed, and next day in the forenoon a Court Martial was ordered where he was convicted of desertion under aggravating circumstances and sentenced to be shot at Dress Parade last evening. He was informed of the sentence only about an hour before the Execution. When told of his fate he cried and sobbed like a child and begged for two of three days or at least twenty four hours. He wanted, he said, at least time to write his wife in St. Louis. In short time the music sounded for Parade and them men came out without arms and formed the usual line in two ranks I managed to get a rod or two from the house where I stay, where I could see the whole line and all the proceedings.
As soon as the Band had ceased "Beating off," an ambulance drawn by two mules brought the prisoner on to the ground, preceded and followed by a number of men as guards Bostwick being "Officer of the Guard'' yesterday took command of the guard. The ambulance was drawn in front of the center of the line about fifteen rods distant and the poor fellow was brought out, his wrists shackled in front. The men, about twenty in number, who who had been detailed to shoot him were then marched to within ten paces of him and brought into line. The guards then left him standing alone. He would not have his eyes bandaged. Oh how awfully alone. He then said that liquor had brought him to this, and warned all to let it entirely alone. He then told them to take “good aim," and crossing himself in Catholic form as well as he could with shackled hands, turned his face to the sky. "Ready" - - "Aim" - - "fire" - - and he fell backwards on his left side, turned on his back, then on his right side, then fell back, and his conscious existence in this sphere was closed.
There are very many of us who feel that there were after all, many extenuating circumstances sufficient at least to have justified some regard to his request for a few days or hours time…. But the men who have been in the habit of killing disarmed men in cold blood, are not those to whom a convict ever need look for mercy or any mitigation of punishment. Cowardice and blood thirsty cruelty are inseparable companions.
****So long, I long to live with my loved ones at home. I will write you again soon…. My love to all. Say to Johnny that I love my boy. Oh how dearly [and] that I think of him a great many times a day.
*Editor’s Note: Lieutenant-Colonel Daniel R. Anthony is the brother of Susan B. Anthony.