My Kerr Family History
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William Edward Kerr
William E. Kerr was my g-g grandfather. He was born in South Carolina and moved with his parents to Ozark County, Missouri.
He enlisted in the Confederate Army at Camp Rector in Missouri March 9th, 1862. He was assigned as a private to Company B, Fourth Regiment, Missouri Infantry. He fought in numerous battles, including Iuka, Corinth, Grand Gulf, Port Gibson, Champion's Hill, and Vicksburg, where the Confederates surrendered.
Once they were released October 19th, 1863, Kerr went on to fight in the battles of New Hope Church, Georgia, Kennesaw Mountain, Atlanta, Big Shanty, Altoona, Spring Hill, and Fort Blakely. At the Battle of Fort Blakely the Confederates surrendered and Kerr was held in Vicksburg, Mississippi until just before the complete surrender of the Confederacy May 4, 1865.
William E, married Margaret C (Maggie) Fore around in March of 1866. Their one son, William Samuel Kerr was born January 13, 1868. Somehow or another there was big trouble or perhaps a plot was hatched because on October 14, 1868, Maggie and William were divorced. She got custody of the child along with changing her name to her mother's maiden name.
The account of what happened nine days later was that at evening time three riders rode up to the Wm. E. Kerr house and called for him to come out (he, of course, was the only one there). When he came out on the porch, they shot him dead and galloped off. As deliberate and tragic as this murder was no one was ever brought to trial nor, so far as we know, was there ever any investigation as to who the culprits might have been.
The widely believed reason for this is that members of the same gang of bushwhackers that murdered Kerr's father-in-law, Samuel Cobbs Fore, and his son, James Fore, murdered all of them for being southern sympathizers. This also ties in with why Maggie Kerr divorced William and took her mother's maiden name of Davis. It's further believed that the family must have gotten wind that the bushwhackers planned to kill all of them so they did their best to disguise the identity of the wife and little son so that the killers couldn't find them. Even though William lost his life, their plan did save the lives of Maggie and their son, Sam.