[1] A few months before, Confederates had ambushed 25 Union troops escorting prominent local politician Isaac Murphy's daughters back home, killing most.

In 1862, after the Battle of Pea Ridge in Arkansas, Isaac Murphy of Huntsville received death threats and was forced to flee his home.

By the fall of 1862, his daughters wished to visit him in Pea Ridge, Arkansas, where Murphy had taken a civilian position on General Curtis's staff.

While Herron's troops passed through Huntsville, they were told that Murphy's daughters were being constantly harassed by locals and had their money and personal property stolen by Confederates.

[4] Murphy's daughters were not the only ones, as Confederates targeted Unionist families near Huntsville, “stripp[ing them] of everything but what was on their bodies, leaving them destitute.”[3] Within days Union soldiers had arrested several men, but no official charges were filed.

[citation needed] In the early morning hours of January 10, 1863, nine men who had been arrested were taken from where they were being detained by members of Company G, 8th Regiment Missouri Volunteer Cavalry, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Elias Briggs Baldwin.

[citation needed] Murphy continued his political career; he was elected governor in 1863 and stayed in office during the first years of Reconstruction in Arkansas.

[citation needed] For decades afterward, locals in the area commemorated the event by annually decorating the site with flowers, but few spoke publicly about it.

In 1974, the historian John I. Smith published several articles about the murders in the Northwest Arkansas Times since he had uncovered accounts of the massacre while researching a biography on Isaac Murphy.