Pitt Mackeson (died 1865) was a Confederate bushwhacker who was affiliated with the 1st Missouri Irregulars during the American Civil War.
Biography[]
Mackeson dressed as a Union soldier
Pitt Mackeson was born in Newport, Barton County, Missouri, and he came from a family of Southern farmers who supported the secessionist Confederacy on the eve of the American Civil War. Mackeson joined up with Black John Ambrose's 1st Missouri Irregulars during the Missouri-Kansas border war, taking part in several ambushes of Union Army forces, but developing a strong jealousy towards Jake Roedel, a German-born bushwhacker who had become Ambrose's favorite. During the 1863 Lawrence massacre, the sadistic Mackeson attempted to murder the owners of a restaurant where Roedel and his Black friend Daniel Holt had sat down to eat, but Roedel and Holt turned away Mackeson at gunpoint, causing him to swear vengeance. He later attempted to kill Roedel during the skirmish near Brooklyn, Kansas, but he was unsuccessful. Instead, he remained with Ambrose's unit, pillaigng both Unionists and defenseless Southerners in Kentucky until Ambrose's death at Dover in the summer of 1865. Afterwards, Mackeson and Turner Rawls rode back west, with the suicidal Mackeson planning to return to his hometown, even though it was occupied by 200 Federals. Along the way, he came across Roedel and Holt, and he revealed his suicidal plans to them before they warded him off with their guns; Mackeson and Rawls proceeded to ride into town, where they were presumably shot dead before they could drink at the saloon as they planned.