Robert H. Birch

He was a member of the infamous "Banditti of the Prairie" in his youth, whose involvement in the torture-murder of Colonel George Davenport in 1845 led to his turning state's evidence against his co-conspirators.

Birch was a self-styled Mormon, who conveniently, used his church membership, as a Latter Day Saint, to gain protection in Nauvoo, Illinois, when the law was hot on his trail.

Robert Birch, more likely, might have had older relatives, such as his father, uncles, or cousins, who were on the Mystic Clan's membership rolls in the U.S. Southern states or were connected to outlaws who were Murrell associates.

After the demise of Murrell, many of the members of the future "Banditti" were driven out of "The South" and to avoid arrest, execution, or death at the hands of regulators and moved farther north, relocating their criminal activities in the still, lawless, frontier of the Middle West, mainly in the states of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.

Disappearing into the frontier, of the Midwest United States, Robert Birch resurfaced, almost, a decade later, a reformed, honest man and an associate of Jacob Snively,[4] the founder of Arizona's first gold rush boom town Gila City, and became the first postmaster on December 24, 1858.

An illustration from Edward Bonney 's book Banditti of the Prairies in which Robert Birch and his accomplices in the Banditti of the Prairie attacked and murdered Colonel George Davenport at his home on July 4, 1845. Birch was later captured and arrested for the crimes and escaped from jail in Wisconsin .
Robert H. Birch with his Banditti outlaw partners, William Fox and John Long burying ill-gotten loot
An illustration of Edward Bonney , from his book Banditti of the Prairies who as a bounty hunter and amateur detective in 1846, began a man-hunt doggedly pursued Robert Birch and his accomplices in the " Banditti of the Prairie ", from Illinois to Ohio and back to Chicago for the torture-murder of Colonel George Davenport and counterfeiting .
Robert Birch was arrested for his part in the torture-murder of Colonel George Davenport but because he broke out of jail in 1847, through outside help or bribery, in Knoxville, Illinois his case never went to trial and he vanished without a trace. The October, 1845 hangings of Granville Young and John and Aaron Long, Banditti murderers of Colonel Davenport, from the 1850 book, The Banditti of the Prairies, Or, The Murderer's Doom!!: A Tale of the Mississippi Valley by Edward Bonney , who is standing to the right of the gallows , wearing a top hat and black suit.
A drawing of the infamous southern criminal gang leader John A. Murrell from the only known, accurate portrait made of him during his lifetime. Robert Birch was said to have had criminal connections with Murrell but this is highly improbable since he would have been only a seven-year-old child or possibly Birch's criminal father was associated with John A. Murrell.
Robert Birch accompanied Jacob Snively in 1858 in helping found Arizona 's first gold rush boom town Gila City in which Birch became the first postmaster . He would later join Snively and James W. Hicks in discovering gold deposits on Bear Creek. The ghost town Pinos Altos was first named Birchville in his honor.
In the beginning of the American Civil War , Robert Birch enlisted in the Confederate Army in the Rebel-held , southern half of the Union New Mexico Territory , known as the Confederate Territory of Arizona with Company A, Arizona Rangers . The Rangers would later occupy Tucson in February 1862, raising the national flag of the Confederate States of America .
Robert Birch later transferred and served under Colonel John Salmon Ford in the Texas 2nd Cavalry of the Confederate Army on the Rio Grande