Confederate Spy. Twenty-year-old Utz joined the Missouri State Guard in 1861. The following fall, after service in the Guard's 8th Infantry Battalion and the 9th Infantry Regiment, Utz was captured. After his exchange, he was promoted to major and assigned to duty as a "special agent" for the Confederate Army. Union soldiers found a ciphered letter on one of five men making their way south to join General Price's army. The decoded message indicted Major Utz. Utz and other five conspirators made their way from St. Louis dressed in Union uniforms, hoping to make their way west to meet General Joseph Shelby's Confederate Cavalry command. The group was arrested and confined in Gratiot Prison in St. Louis, Missouri. Major Utz was tried by military commission & found guilty on charges that he was a rebel spy, that he recruited for the rebel army within the lines of United States forces and that he carried correspondence and information to enemies of the United States. Despite frantic appeals to President Lincoln to reduce the anticipated punishment, Utz was hanged. His pardon from President Lincoln arrived a short time later.
Confederate Spy. Twenty-year-old Utz joined the Missouri State Guard in 1861. The following fall, after service in the Guard's 8th Infantry Battalion and the 9th Infantry Regiment, Utz was captured. After his exchange, he was promoted to major and assigned to duty as a "special agent" for the Confederate Army. Union soldiers found a ciphered letter on one of five men making their way south to join General Price's army. The decoded message indicted Major Utz. Utz and other five conspirators made their way from St. Louis dressed in Union uniforms, hoping to make their way west to meet General Joseph Shelby's Confederate Cavalry command. The group was arrested and confined in Gratiot Prison in St. Louis, Missouri. Major Utz was tried by military commission & found guilty on charges that he was a rebel spy, that he recruited for the rebel army within the lines of United States forces and that he carried correspondence and information to enemies of the United States. Despite frantic appeals to President Lincoln to reduce the anticipated punishment, Utz was hanged. His pardon from President Lincoln arrived a short time later.
Bio by: Connie Nisinger
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