The Daily Dispatch: October 31, 1863., [Electronic resource]

Missouri under, a Complete despotism--Horrible Scenes.

‘ We are under much worse than Russian military despotism here, which is aided by an armed mob, which illuminate the heavens nightly with the light of burning dwellings, which burn to the music of dying father's moans and the shrieks of mothers and children, fleeing from their burning houses through the lonely prairies and dark forests, white they seek safety among the haunts and lairs of wolves and wild beasts from the bloody fury of their more savage fellow men.

’ Twenty-five men have been shot dead in their own houses, and thirty dwellings turned in Andrew county (next north of St. Joseph) within twenty days. Mrs.--'s dwelling — the finest in this county now, and costing $13,000--was burned last week by a squad of soldiers from this place in mere wantonness. A neighbor's, by the name of--, was burned at the same time. The counties of Jackson, Bass, and Bates are a total desolation. Over one thousand houses have been burned — the owners murdered wherever caught — and every thing stolen that could be removed.

A furious radical party now threatens to increase our miseries by the destruction of the present Government of the State.