Murder In Arkansas: The Killing of Major Lauchlan Maclean
By Bruce S. Allardice · Originally published March 2019 · pp. 6–7
In rare instances, the Compiled Service Record (CSR) of a Civil War soldier contains little gems of history. The CSR of Robert Clifton Wood includes one such gem, the transcript of his trial for murder. On Dec. 19, 1864, Lieutenant Colonel Robert C. Wood, 14th Missouri Cavalry Battalion rode to Confederate headquarters to obtain a pass to visit a local town. That innocent-seeming desire for a pass set in motion events that resulted in murder. In late 1864, Major General John B. (“Prince John”) Magruder had been made commander of the District of Arkansas. “Known to be a very strict disciplinarian,” Magruder commenced reorganizing the cavalry corps of the district. General Jeff Thompson’s Division of Missouri cavalry, part of General Sterling Price’s cavalry corps, was ordered to a rest camp at Lanesport, a small community in southwest Arkansas. Faced with slack discipline and rampant desertion, Magruder wanted all his officers, particularly regimental commanders, at their posts at all times, in order to enforce discipline and good order. He also did not want officers setting the men a bad example by gallivanting off on leave, an all-too-common practice in the cavalry. Thus he issued an order forbidding any leave without his consent. As General Thompson later recalled, “…several of our Colonels were sadly disappointed by the order. The day after the order, several gentlemen came to my ‘shebang’ to get me to approve their application. I declined doing so. Among them was Col. Wood, who was very anxious to visit the town of Washington and was importunate in his earnestness, and said that if I could sign the application that he would get it signed by Genl. Price and guarantee me no trouble about it. I told him that McLean [sic] would not approve it, unless with special orders from Genl. Price. At last I was over-persuaded and approved the application.” To his dying day Thompson regretted his approval and its unintended result. Robert Clifton Wood was born Feb. 20, 1828, in Charlotte County, Va., of “fine old colonial stock, who never missed a fair, a fight, or a horserace.” At the age of 14, his parents moved to Saline County, Mo. Three years later he left home for the American West, becoming, in the words of an Arizona newspaper, “a splendid specimen of the American pioneer, … soldier, scout, adventurer, statesman, partizan, friend …” After adventures in the southwest fighting Indians, he settled in California and bought a ranch. At the start of the war he hastened back to Missouri to join up with “Pap” Price and the pro-southern Missouri State Guard. He raised the 14th Missouri Cavalry Battalion (later known as the 13th Missouri Cavalry Regiment) and won promotion to major, lieutenant colonel, and colonel. He led the battalion during Price’s 1864 raid, earning the reputation of a gallant and zealous commander. Armed with Thompson’s conditional approval, Wood rode over to Price’s headquarters in Richmond, Ark. Wood had reason to expect Price to approve a pass. Fighting side by side for three years, Price and Wood (who named his son “Sterling” after the general) had become close friends. Price valued Wood as “a remarkably gallant officer and a fine soldier” and knew he was “extremely anxious” to visit Washington. So when Wood appeared at his headquarters in a converted store, Price agreed to issue the pass and ordered his assistant adjutant general, Major Lauchlan Maclean, to write one out.
Lachian Allan MacLean. From Connelley, Doniphan, p. 118.
part in the border troubles. At the beginning of the Civil War, Maclean returned to Missouri. On June 12, 1861, he was appointed adjutant of a state guard regiment. Promoted to colonel, he served as adjutant general of a state guard division. In 1862 he entered Confederate service on Sterling Price’s staff, rising to the rank of major and assistant adjutant general. In August 1864, General Kirby Smith unofficially promoted Maclean to lieutenant colonel. Maclean and Wood knew each other well. Early in the war, both had served on Price’s staff. As such they’d lived in the same room for months at a time. All observers believed their relationship to be most cordial, with only one brief falling-out some years before. Both enjoyed high repute in the army. Fellow staff officers later testified to Wood’s “bravery” and “peaceable disposition,” never “bearing any ill-will or malice to anyone.” They also noted that he was “a hot headed man very dangerous if aroused.” Maclean, a bull-necked Scottish immigrant, often appeared “rough,” “abrupt,” “at times very disagreeable and overbearing,” but overall was thought a “brave and gallant officer … respected by numerous friends.” The no-nonsense Maclean reminded Price of Magruder’s order forbidding any leave of absence, noting that the pass amounted to a leave. Price realized Magruder’s order bound him, but Price also knew of Wood’s “anxiety to visit Washington immediately … and that I could make a satisfactory explanation to General Magruder.” Price ordered Maclean to issue Wood the pass. Maclean wrote out the pass and gave it to Wood, grumbling audibly that granting the pass ‘’was contrary to Gen. Magruder’s orders … he feared trouble or difficulty would be produced by
Lauchlan Allan Maclean was born in Argyleshire, Scotland, May 6, 1820. Around 1843 he came to Lafayette County, Mo., to teach school there and in Saline County. “A highly educated Scotchman,” Maclean married a local girl and adopted the proSouthern attitudes of the community. He served in the Missouri volunteers during the Mexican War. Upon his return home the voters of Lafayette County elected him county surveyor. In 1855 he took a job with the office of the surveyor general of the Kansas Territory, and played a prominent
Sterling Price, from Wikimedia commons.
it.” To Wood, Maclean’s grumbling implied that Wood “was imposing on the good nature of Gen. Price to obtain favors it was wrong to grant, and which might bring trouble upon Genl. Price.” Angered, Wood handed the pass back to Maclean, saying, if you think the pass is contrary to orders, “you had better tear it up.” A relieved Maclean told Wood, “well Bob this is the best conclusion you could have come to,” and tore up the pass. Maclean then left to go to an upstairs room and join fellow staff officers, who were packing up in preparation for a move. A few minutes later Wood, still seething, approached Price again and requested that another staff officer, Major George Gallagher [George Aiken Gallagher (1826– 78), a Harvard-educated prewar lawyer in Little Rock], give Wood a pass. Price told Wood he should have kept the pass he got, but after a few minutes consented to Wood’s request. Wood set out to find Gallagher, climbing the same steps to the upstairs room Maclean had just climbed. Going up the stairs and into the upstairs room, Wood passed Maclean, who had paused by the top of the steps, but ignored him completely. Gallagher and Maclean, who roomed together there, had their overcoats on and, with the help of several other staff officers, were enjoying a few drinks. Wood told Gallagher that Price had ordered Gallagher to issue the pass. As Gallagher started to write out the pass, Maclean, who was standing just behind Wood, took out a bottle of whisky, swallowed a swig, then, in a friendly gesture, handed the bottle to Wood, saying “Bob, won’t you take a drink?” Wood, still angry, turned and replied “I will drink with no such man” (or, as some witnesses recalled, “damned man”) “as you are.” Wood then slapped Maclean in the face. Maclean grabbed the bottle, described by witnesses as square, with sturdy sides, and struck Wood over the head with it, shattering the glass. The large hat Wood wore cushioned the blow, and Wood suffered only minor cuts. The burly Maclean jumped on Wood, grappling him, and pinning him to the wall. As they struggled, the officers in the room rushed to separate them. As they reached the combatants, Maclean jerked loose from Wood, ran back a few feet, and drew his pistol. Two staff officers grabbed Maclean’s hand before he could fire, It was then Maclean announced “I have been cut and will die in a few minutes.” Unnoticed in the scuffle, Wood had pulled out a knife and stabbed Maclean through the chest. Friends placed the seriously wounded man on a sofa, where they noted a spreading bloodstain on his shirt. A doctor came within seconds. Wood descended the stairs to tell General Price “that he had stabbed Maj. Maclean and he would do it again under the same circumstances ninety nine times out of a hundred.” Later Wood told Gallagher he “regretted exceedingly that it had occurred … when [I] stabbed him [I] did not want to kill him.” It was at first thought that the wounds might not be mortal, and Maclean appeared to be recovering. However, the knife blade had penetrated Maclean’s lung. Infection set in, and three days later “poor Maclean” died, “regretted by us all.” Maclean was buried in an unmarked grave in a churchyard about a mile from Richmond, Ark. On Jan. 2, 1865, General Magruder convened a military court to try Colonel Wood. The charge was murder, but, curiously, charged murder not under military law but under Arkansas civil law. The witnesses, General Price and the half-dozen staff officers at his headquarters that morning, all agreed on the facts, though their recollections differed slightly. The attorneys for both sides disagreed on how to interpret those facts. Wood’s defense attorneys, partners in a top-notch local law firm, contended that Wood had been “insulted” by Maclean’s reluctance to issue the pass, an insult no officer with “a sense of honor … pride … [and] chivalry” could ignore. The crux of the defense was the contention that, when Maclean smashed the bottle over Wood’s head, it was an assault that threatened Wood’s life, or at least could be seen by Wood as such, justifying Wood’s use of deadly force to defend himself with the knife. At that point, Wood did not intend using the knife to kill, only to fend off Maclean, who was described as “a very powerful man … almost a giant in size.” On the larger issue of intent to murder, Wood obviously had not come into the room with any intent to do Maclean harm and, as testimony showed, after the fight Wood regretted ever pulling his knife out. In short, the defense argued that Wood acted in self-defense. Alternatively, should it be determined that Wood did not act in self-defense, the lawyers argued Wood never had any malicious intent to kill Maclean and thus could not be found guilty of murder. The prosecution presented the events of the killing as the act of an unreasonable, irate officer. Since Maclean’s reluctance to issue the pass stemmed from department orders, not personal spite, Wood had no right to feel insulted. Maclean’s offering the bottle to Wood, calling him by his familiar name of “Bob,” proved that Maclean held no grudge against Wood and was still on cordial terms with him. It was Wood’s slap, induced by Wood’s anger, that started the fight. It was Wood who first hauled out a deadly weapon. Thus, Wood must be held accountable for the fight’s consequences. As to intent to murder, under Arkansas law, the very act of the stabbing implied all the intent necessary for a murder conviction. The court found Wood guilty of murder in the first degree and sentenced him to be shot by a firing squad. However, nobody, including the judges, three high-ranking officers, desired to see a brave officer executed at a time when every fighting man was needed at the front. Two weeks later, General Magruder intervened. On Jan. 20, 1865, Magruder wrote Department Commander Gen. E. Kirby Smith, endorsing the court’s plea for clemency, and adding “there is much sympathy felt here for this gallant officer who is closely confined.” The combined pleas worked. On Feb. 8, Smith returned Wood to duty, pending the result of Smith’s application to President Davis for pardon. Given that the
Trans-Mississippi Department was cut off from Richmond, Smith knew the application might not even reach Richmond, let alone be acted upon, for many months. In essence, Smith pardoned Wood. In the coming months, additional companies were assigned to Wood’s battalion, forming a new regiment under his command. Wood finished the war with the rank of full colonel. Instead of a firing squad, he received a promotion. After the war Colonel Wood returned to the Southwest, settling in Arizona. Known as one of the territory’s biggest ranchers and miners, “Colonel Bob,” as his neighbors called him, died in Tucson Oct. 12, 1902. He is buried in Tucson City’s Evergreen Cemetery. As a local newspaper headlined, “A Life of Adventure and Fidelity to Friendship and
Principle Comes to an End.” Sources: • •
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Wood’s compiled service record, National Archives. Cynthia D. Pitcock and Bill Gurley (eds.), “I Acted From Principle”: The Civil War Diary of Dr. William M. McPheeters, Confederate Surgeon of the Trans-Mississippi (Fayetteville, U. of Arkansas Press, 2002). M. Jeff Thompson, Reminiscences of General M Jeff Thompson, edited by Donal J. Stanton, Goodwin F. Berquist, and Paul C. Bowers (Dayton, Morningside Press, 1988). William E. Connelley, Doniphan’s Expedition and the Conquest of New Mexico and California (Topeka, Crane & Co., 1907). Information on Col. Wood, including undated newspaper clippings, supplied by his great-nephew, Rock P. Wood of Mobile, Ala.
Prof. Allardice has authored More Generals in Gray (LSU Press, 1995) and Confederate Colonels: A Biographical Register (University of Missouri Press, 2008).
Plan of the murder room, from Wood’s Compiled Service Record.