The night of October 9, 1864, a hundred bushwhackers camped somewhere near Brownsville (renamed Sweet Springs in the 1880s). The next morning Quantrill's men, led by David Poole and George Todd, decided to attack the German settlement lying to their west (in the Concordia area). About 50 Germans responded to the cow horns and arrived at the Lutheran Church. They divided into two groups—one rode east to aid Germans who had set an ambush at Davis Creek, and the other group went to guard a ford. The first group encountered the hundred guerrillas near the present town of Emma. Only one of the Germans survived. The bushwhackers smashed each of the 24 victim's skulls with a gun butt or club. Among the dead was Fred Dickenhorst, Maria's uncle. With the resistance eliminated, Quantrill's men went on a killing and burning spree amid the homes of the German community.