In June 1861, President Abraham Lincoln issued an order making U.S. Senator from Kansas James H. Lane a brigadier general. In September 1861, Lane and his army of Kansas Jayhawkers invaded Missouri with the objective of pillaging and destroying Osceola. On September 21 and 22, the Jayhawkers invaded, occupied, sacked, and torched the town. Twelve male citizens sought to protect one of the banks from being looted and burned, and Lane arrested them for treason. Through a drumhead court-martial in which he acted as prosecutor and judge, he condemned the twelve to death and formed a makeshift firing squad, taking part himself. All but three of the twelve men were killed, and one survivor was Micajah Dark. Thirteen years later, Dark was hunted down by forces of Missouri's Reconstruction regime, pursued to his home, kidnapped, brutally assaulted, murdered, and his body thrown into the Osage River at the age of 74.