Take, for example, the affidavit of Miss Adeline Hale, found in Union Provost Marshals' Papers, which she swore out at Fredericktown on March 12, 1865, charging Mr. and Mrs. Aylett Buckner of Madison County with feeding and harboring Hildebrand. The impetus for her statement was a recent guerrilla raid through Madison County during which at least a couple of citizens had been robbed at gunpoint. However, it's not clear whether Miss Hale came forward on her own or was recruited by Union authorities to give her statement.
Miss Hale said she had gone to live with the Buckner family in April of 1864 (presumably as a housekeeper and cook) and had stayed until about the first of February 1865. During that time Hildebrand had visited the Buckner home near Fredericktown on five separate occasions. The first time the guerrilla chieftain came, Mr. Buckner introduced him to Adeline as Sam Hildebrand. She said she had known the guerrilla leader previously by sight because she'd been at a house he'd robbed in Wayne County but had not known his name. Hildebrand and all of his men were "armed with two revolvers and two holster-pistols apiece." It was early morning, and the Buckners fed the guerrillas breakfast and also fed their horses. Hildebrand remarked that he'd kill anybody who reported him, and Buckner's wife, Martha, agreed that "that would be nothing but right." Hildebrand bragged that they had killed "one flop-eared Dutchman" the night before, and one of his lieutenants added, "Yes, and they would kill another one tonight if they were not damned smart." Hildebrand and the Buckners remained in a room separate from Adeline most of the time the bushwhackers were there; so she didn't hear most of their conversation.
After this first visit, Hildebrand came to the Buckner home four more times while Adeline was there. On one occasion, he had ten men with him, another time he had six men, another time four, and another time three. On each occasion, the Buckners fed Hildebrand and his men and their horses, and they also furnished the guerrillas food to take with them. Also, Martha Buckner would often take food to the spring house in the evening, and the food would be gone the next morning.
In addition to Hildebrand's visits, three other guerrillas came to the Buckner home in September of 1864, a couple of days before the Rebel army took over Fredericktown (during Price's raid into Missouri). When the three men first appeared outside the home, the Buckners seemed to know them, seemed glad to see them, and immediately invited them inside, just as they always did with Hildebrand. The men were dressed in civilian clothes but were armed with revolvers. Martha immediately instructed Adeline to start cooking for the men, and the Buckners gave them supplies and fed their horses. The men said that Price and his army were on their way, and Martha remarked, "Let them come." Mr. Buckner said he needed to get his horses to a safe place or they would all be stolen, but Martha disagreed, saying that the Rebels had nobody to help them fight and that she and Aylett could at least furnish them horses.
The assistant provost marshal at Fredericktown sent Miss Hale's statement to subdistrict headquarters at Pilot Knob with an endorsement that Miss Hale was "a person of undoubted veracity," and the commanding general there forwarded it to department headquarters at St. Louis with a recommendation that the Buckners be banished from Missouri. Union authorities in St. Louis questioned whether "the unsupported evidence of one person" was sufficient to ban a family, but Aylet Buckner was, indeed, banished on March 28. Apparently his wife, Martha, was not banished, even though she seemed to be more adamant in her disloyalty than he was. It's entirely possible and perhaps likely, though, that Martha accompanied her husband, even if she herself was not banished.
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