WHIPPPED BY A GUERRILLA
Mr. Rosenberger's thrilling experience at High Hill about forty years ago
By H. C. Turner

       Walking up to a company of friends at Danville on October 19, Rmil Rosenberger, of Montgomery County, who

is seventy-seven years old, and has been a member of the bar in Missouri for nearly forty years, said:
     "Gentlemen, it was just forty-three years ago today that I was horse whipped at High Hill, this County, by

Bill Anderson's Guerrillas, which occured a few hours after this town was burned and five of the citizens

killed by these same people." The gentlemen knew that Mr. Rosenberger was telling the truth, for it was

recalled to their minds the down fall of this little place, of which was then a prosperous city, and now only a

little village.
     Mr. Rosenberger celebrates the occasion because he suffered in a good cause and that it is an event that

gives him some distinction above the other members of the Missouri bar. He has been an attorney for nearly

forty years in this County. His story of his horrible experience is as follows:
     "Bill Anderson with thirty-six of his desperadoes came into High Hill forty-three years ago this week.

They called at my house and said if I wolud not let them in they would smash the door down. I knew they would

do it, and it did not take me long to decide to open the door. Without giving me a chance to dress, after

taking my money at the point of a gun, they marched me up town where eight of them horse whipped me with whips

that they had gotten from my own harness shop, and this was done while I had on nothing but an undershirt and

pants. While they were pouring lashes upon me, Bill Anderson himself galloped up and said, "Throw down your

whips you _______. If you want to kill the man, shoot him. but don't whip him!"
     The Geurrillas obeyed their shief's order, and turning to the bleeding victim on of them sais, "Come on,

you damn Dutchman, and take a drink."
     Me. Rosenberger says Tom Hubbert, a man raised in this County, was the leader of the whipping brigade, and

that they reason they did it was because he was the boss of the "Underground Railroad" and kept a "freed man's

bureau." Mr. Rosenberger's back was as raw as a piece of meat, and his skull had been fractured with the butt

end of a pistol.
     "It was about nine o'clock at night when Bill Anderson's Guerrillas entered this town. A group of citizens

were standing in frount of the court house discussing the advisability of putting out pickets that night and

placing a half dozen men to sleep in the blockhouse. Their apprehension was well founded; soon the horses' feet

were heard and in a few minutes the band of Guerrillas were in the city. Bill Anderson shouted "Fire on them!"

A terrible scene followed. The Guerrillas with yells and shouts charged on the citizens, firing and riding upon

them, killing everything in view. Next morning the town was in ashes. Five of her citizens were killed, women

and children were in a state of distraction. Few had slept any that night and with the peep of day came forth

women weeping from the corners of fences and walking slowly toward the square and casting furtive glances up

and down the street. They found that five of their citizens were dead, Henry L. Diggs, Dr, Samuel J. Moore,

Michael A. Gilbert, M. S. Simmons and a school boy named Ira Chinn. He was a widow's son and was shot down in

the doorway of his mother's home  while he was watching the frightening scene that was then being enacted in

that vicinity. He was shot with a pistol in the bright moonlight by one of the Guerrillas.
     Bill Anderson's men left this County, passing through Callaway and going up the Missouri River. When he

reached a point near Camden, in Ray County, he was killed by the Daviess County Militia, under Col. Cox and

Major Grimes. Six human scalps were said to have been found attached to his horse's bridle and on his body were

six revolvers, $200.00 in gold, and $150.00 in silver.
     Mr. Risenberger says when he was admitted to the bar about forty years ago, the only questions asked him

were, "Do you know good whiskey when you tase it, and have you the price of the drinks for the crowd?" He was

initiated by showing the Missourians that he had the qualifications.