Their next stop was at the Springville home of Capt . Philip Bence , who was home on leave from the 30th Iowa Infantry . Word of the raids had by now reached Springville , and the local militia was getting ready to ride out after them . Several of their horses were hitched to a fence at Bence ’ s .
Bence , in full uniform , went out to meet the raiders . The guerrillas ordered him to strip off his uniform , giving him light blue pants and a jeans coat to wear instead . When they started to talk about killing him , Bence approached Jackson and asked quietly that if they killed him , that they not do it in front of his wife .
The rebels stole the horses that were hitched there , and took Bence and four other men as prisoners .
A couple of homesteads later , Jackson rode up to the horse carrying Bence and — while whistling — shot him in the head and killed him . Jackson pinned a note he had written in pencil to Bence ’ s body : “ Killed in retaliation for David Plunket , who was murdered by Federal soldiers near Glasgow , Missouri .”
The raiders then decided to free their remaining prisoners . They made them dismount the horses they were riding , made them promise not to join the Union Army and promise not to tell anyone what they had seen until they reached Springville .
The prisoners reached Springville near midnight .
By then an expedition of local militia had picked up the raiders ’ trail and followed it to where Bence lay dead , inside Missouri . They lost the trail and returned to Iowa , and returned Bence ’ s body to his family .
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