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In February 1864 the raging gunfire of the American Civil War echoed far away from Edgar County, Illinois, yet in the public mind, the conflict seemed fearfully close to home. In the small town of Paris, elements of the 12th and 66th Illinois volunteer regiments were on leave, visiting friends and relatives. "In a social way everything had been done to make their visit a pleasant one," wrote the local Daily Beacon News, but not everyone welcomed the presence of the soldiers.1 Democrats opposed to the war and to the policies of the Lincoln administration, known as copperheads by their critics, were afraid that the furloughed volunteers would force them to take loyalty oaths or would attempt to shut down the newspaper office of the Paris Times, a periodical with Democratic leanings. Earlier that month, Union soldiers had paid a visit to Amos Green, the editor of the Times (and a "Jeff. Davis patriot" according to some), after locals in the nearby town of Kansas had reported that between one hundred and one hundred and fifty armed "butternuts" were converging on Paris on his orders.1 Under the watchful eyes of the soldiers, Green swore an oath and pledged a sum of money to prove his loyalty.
In the middle of February a soldier named Milton York, scion of a local family known for its abolitionism and its support for the Republican Party, shot and seriously wounded an outspoken copperhead named Cooper.
According to one account, the sheriff of Edgar County, William S. O'Hair, attempted to arrest the soldier, but one of York's compatriots prevented him - at the barrel of a rifle - from doing so. According to the Mattoon Independent Gazette, York was eventually arrested, but the court released him on a technicality and he rejoined his regiment.3
Local copperheads decided to gather weapons with the aim of protecting the Times and its editor from any further provocations. Upon hearing rumors that the soldiers planned to burn the newspaper office before they returned to the front, Sheriff William S. O'Hair, accompanied by over a dozen men, rode into town on the day the furloughed soldiers were to leave. A young boy noticed their activities, as well as the guns they had placed in a...