On August 15, 1861, during the Civil War, a military force of 250 Zouaves of the 8th Missouri Infantry Regiment and an artillery piece with its 13 men arrived from Cape Girardeau under Major John McDonald, surrounded Ste. Genevieve, and, guided into town by Lieutenant Colonel J. Felix St. James, demanded the money from Merchant's Bank branch president Firman A. Rozier, who released it under protest on condition that he accompany the battalion to St. Louis; they traveled north on the Mississippi River aboard the steamer Hannibal, and upon arrival in St. Louis the $58,313.30 was deposited with Colonel Robert Campbell, president of the Merchant's Bank. On May 27, 1873, five members of the James Gang entered Ste. Genevieve intending to rob the Ste. Genevieve Savings Bank, previously known as the Merchant's Bank; John Firmin Rozier and cashier O.D. Harris opened the bank as usual that Tuesday morning and were followed inside by two gang members while two more stood guard outside and a fifth watched the street on the edge of town, and after placing guns to Harris's head and ordering him to open the safe, the robbers escaped with about $4,100, much of it in silver, while Rozier, slightly wounded in the shoulder as he ran out in fear, raised the alarm. The Jean-Baptiste Valle family built the two-story brick house circa 1837, Charles and Veronica Rottler later converted it into a tavern, the Rottler family lived on the second floor, and the building was destroyed in 1934 to make room for a Standard Oil Company gas station.