USA > Arkansas > A history of southern Missouri and northern Arkansas : being an account of the early settlements, the civil war, the Ku-Klux, and times of peace > Part 5
USA > Missouri > A history of southern Missouri and northern Arkansas : being an account of the early settlements, the civil war, the Ku-Klux, and times of peace > Part 5
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Others said that appeared to be too harsh. that they were in favor of taking him to Little Rock ard confining him in the penitentiary until the war was over, for it would - n't take but a short time to rid the country of the lopeared Dutch and those who were friends to them. Others re- marked that "that would be too easy for a man who was in favor of the lopeared Dutch; that we are in favor of taking all like him right into the army and making them fight and if they won't fight, the first engagement we get into. pile them up and make breastworks out of them, so that they will catch bullets off of good men." At this juncture Tev- erbaugh remarked, "I have been acquainted with Billy from a boy and you never can force him to fight against what he believes to be right," that he was a good boy and since he has grown up to be a man he has been an honorable and straightforward man and quite an active man politically and my advice would be to confine him in the State Penitentiary until the war is over, for I tell you now if he ever gains his liberty you are going to have him to fight."
Sold as a Beef Cow.
On the morning of the 9th they broke camp and marched near the mouth of Bennett's river and went into camp at what was then known as Talbert's mill. A short time after we had been in camp Capt. Forshee, who had charge of the prisoners, came to the guard house and the author request- ed him that he be allowed to take the oath and return home, as his wife and children were almost scared to death owing to the reports that were currently circulated all through the country, his wife would believe they had hung him. The captain replied that they were not going to al - low him to take the oath. They had plenty of proof against him, that he had been communicating to the lopeared Dutch and as soon as they had formed a junction with Price and
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Mccullough he would be tried as a spy. He gave orders to the guard to see that he was kept in close confinement, and about 11 o'clock in the night as near as the author can guess, it being starlight, the Captain came down to the guard house in company with one of his men, Frank Mor- rison.
The author was lying on the ground pretending to be asleep. The Captain came inside of the guard, called out, "Monks, are you asleep?" The author raised up in a sit- ting position and said, "Captain what is wanted"? The Captain remarked, "I want you to go up to my camp fire," which was aboot 75 yards distance from the guard house. The author said, "Captain, this is a strange time of night to come down and order me to your camp fire." He said; "Not another word out of you, rise to your feet." He ordered Morrison to step behind him with the same gun that he had recently taken from the author and cock it and "if he makes a crooked step from here up to the camp fire shoot him through." The author heard Morrison cock the gun and about half way between the guard house and the camp fire the Captain remarked to the author, "Do you know Kasinger?" The author, suspecting that he was going to be delivered to a mob, said "I know him very well; we have grown up together from boys." The Cap- tain said, "I thought he was a mighty nice man. I have sold you to him for a beef cow." The author remarked there was but one thing he was sorry for; that if he had known he was going to be delivered to a mob he never would have surrendered and had some satisfaction for his life. The Captain said, "I thought I was doing mighty well to sell a black Republican or a Union man for a beef cow where we have as many good men to feed, as we have here."
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His camp fire was under a gum tree with a large top. The fires had all died down, it being in July and nothing but the stars were giving the light. On coming within two or three feet of the tree the Captain ordered the author to halt. He and Morrison walked about ten paces and said, "I have brought you up here to liberate you. We have got plenty of good men here to feed without feed - ing men who are friends to the lopeared Dutch." The author replied to the Captain , "you may think you are deal - ing with a fool. I have neither violated the civil nor mili- tary law; have demanded a trial and you refuse to give it to me. You can't bring me up here at this time of night and pretend to turn me loose for the purpose of escaping the responsibility of an officer and deliver me into the hands of a mob."
The Confederate Army or Hell.
The author was satisfied that he could then see a bunch of men standing in readiness. The Captain replied, "Sit down or you will be shot in half a minute." The author sat down and leaned against the tree. He had on strong summer clothing, wearing an alpaca vest and coat. In an instant, about twenty-five men, led by Kasinger, and a man by the name of William Sap, approached the author ; Kasinger, holding a rope in his hand with a noose in it, walked up to the author, held the noose of the rope above his head and said, "Monks, you have half a minute to say you will join the army and fight, or go to hell, just which you please." The author replied that it was said that "hell was a hot place," but he had never been there, and that he had always been counted a truthful man until he had been arrested, and since his arrest he had been asked divers questions of the whereabouts of the lopeared Dutch, and that he had told them in every instance he
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knew nothing of them and had been cursed for a liar. "If I was to say that I would join the army and fight, I might have a cowardly set of legs and they might carry mne away ; and in the next place, I am a Union man, first, last and all the time. I suppose your intention is to hang me, and there is only one thing I am sorry for, and that is that I ever surrendered; but there is one consolation left. when you kill me you won't kill them all, and you will meet plenty of them that won't be disarmed as I am now."
Kasinger replied, "No damn foolishness, we mean business," and made an attempt to drop the noose over my lead, which was warded off with my arms.
At this juncture the author appealed to the Captain for protection from the mob, saying that he was a prisoner, unarmed and helpless, and if he suffered him to be mur- dered by a mob his blood would be upon the Captain's head. No reply being made by the Captain, all of the par- ties being considerably under the influence of whiskey, Sap raised his left hand, pushed Kasinger back and remarked, "I have been shooting and wounding some of these black Republicans who are friends of the lopeared Dutch, but I intend to shoot the balance of them dead." At the same time he drew a pistol from his right-hand pocket, cocked it, stooped over, ran his fingers under the author's cloth- ing, gave them a twist and commenced punching him around the chest with the muzzle of the revolver, and after, as the author thought, he had punched him some fifty or sixty times with the revolver, the author said to him, "William Sap, there is no question but that your intentions are to kill me, and you want to torture me to death. You know that if I was armed and on equal footing with you, you would not do this." He made a quick jerk with his left hand, intending to jerk the author upon his face, remark - ing to the Captain at the same time, "Captain, you prom-
A NARROW ESCAPE FOR COL. MONKS
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ised him to us and we are going to take him." The auth - or, with all force possible, leant against the tree, Sap's hold broke loose, tearing off all the buttons that were on the vest and coat.
The author again appealed to the Captain for protec- tion from the mob. The Captain then remarked to Sap, "Hold on for a moment, I will take a vote of my company as to whether we will hang him or not." The company at that time was lying on the ground, most of them appar- ently asleep. The Captain called out aloud to his com - pany, "Gentlemen, I am going now to take a vote of my company as to whether we will hang Monks or not. All in favor of it vote, aye; all opposed, no." He then took the affirmative vote and the negative vote. They appear- ed, to the author, to be almost evenly divided. Sap again remarked to the Captain "You promised him to us, we have bought him and paid for him and he is ours."
The author again appealed to the Captain for pro- tection. The Captain replied to Sap, "He claims pro- tection and as I am an officer and he a prisoner I reckon we had better keep him until we reach Mccullough and Price and then we will try him for a spy and there is plen - ty of evidence against him to prove that he has been writing to the lop-eared Dutch and after he is convicted will turn him over and you men can take charge of him." At this juncture a brother in-law of the Captain said, "Captain, I have one request to make of you. I want you to take Monks in the morning and tie him hard and fast, with his face to a tree, and let me shoot with a rest sixty yards and show you how I can spoil a black Repub- lican's pate." The Captain replied, "As soon as he is convicted you can have the gratification of shooting him just as often as you please."
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The Captain and Morrison again took charge of the author, carried him back and delivered him to the guard with instructions to the guard to be diligent in keep - ing him closely confined so that he would have no pos- sible chance of escape. On the morning of the 10th we broke camp and went into camp that night just beyond where Mountain Home now stands. Dr. Emmons, of West Plains, who was a strong Union man and who afterwards became captain in the 6th Missouri Cavalry, attempted to go through to the Federal forces but was pursued by the rebels, captured somewhere in Texas county and brought back to the camp. He was also a prisoner at the same time ; but being a master mason, was paroled to the limits of the camp and on the night of the 10th made his escape and got through to the Federal lines, enlisted and was made captain. Of him we will speak later.
In Camp at Yellville.
On July 11th they broke camp and reached Yellville, Marion county, and on the 13th reached Carrolton, a small town in Arkansas, and went into camp. The author well remembers the spring. It ran out of the steep, rocky gulch and the branch ran a little south of west and a beautiful grove of timber surrounded the spring. The prisoners were marched down within a few feet of the spring and there placed under guard. As usual, the abuse that had been continually heaped upon the prisoners during the march was renewed and in a short time a man who was said to be from one of the counties north of Rolla, Mo., commenced making a speech and inciting and encouraging the soldiers to mob the prisoners at once ; that he had disguised himself and en - tered the camps of the lop-eared Dutch at Rolla, and that to his own personal knowledge they had men's wives and
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daughters inside of their camps, committing all manner of offenses possible, and that they were heathens; didn't re- semble American people at all and that he would not guard nor feed any inan who was a friend to them; that they ought to be killed outright.
The men who enlisted in the Confederate army from Howell and adjoining counties, before starting, went to the blacksmith shops and had them large butcher knives made; made a belt and scabbard and buckled them around them, and said that they were going to scalp lop-eard Dutch. In a short time the tenor of the aboved mentioned speech had incited over 400 men and it had become necessary to double the guard. The grove of timber was filled with men and boys looking over, expecting to see the prisoners mobbed every minute. There was a man who drew his pistol, others drew knives and made differerent attempts to break lines and mob the prisoners. The man in posses- sion of the pistol declared that lie intended to shoot them. He was on an elevated place and they called him "Red," and there were three or four men holding him to prevent his firing. The author remarked to him that: "The time will soon come when you will meet men who are not dis- armed. You had better save your bravery until you meet them, and my opinion is that you won't need any man to hold you then." Just about this time on the north side of the spring-the land dropped toward the spring, on a de- scent of about 45 degrees-the author heard the voice of a man ordering the guard to "open the lines and let these ladies come in." The author at once arose to his feet and spoke out in an audible voice to the guard to give away and let the ladies come in and see a Northern monkey exhibited, that the monkeys grew a great deal larger in the north than they did in the south. At this juncture it appeared to take
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one more man to hold Red who said that "he would kill the saucy scoundrel if it took him a week to do it."
When the posse came in we saw that the ladies were accompanied by eight or ten Confederate officers with about fifteen ladies. All the ladies carried small Confed- erate flags, the first ones that the author had ever seen. On coming very close to the prisoners they halted and one of the officers remarked, "These are the Union men that are friends to the lop-eared Dutch. Coulden't you tie the knot upon them to hang them?" I think almost everyone spoke out and said "we could." After heaping other epithets and abuse upon the prisoners they and the officers retired outside of the line. The speaker was still talking, urging and insisting that the prisioners should be mobbed at once, that they should not be permitted to live.
At about this stage of the proceedings a man's voice was heard ontop of the bank saying, "Men, I believe your intentions are to kill these prisoners. You have all started out to fight and you don't know how soon you might be taken prisoner and you would not like to be treat- ed in any such manner; I know Billy, (referring to the author) and all you have against him is the political side that he has taken and I order the orderly sergeant to double the guard around the prisoners so there will be no possible chance for the mob to get through, and move with the prisoners south to a large hewed log house and place the prisoners therein, and place a guard around the walls and suffer no man to approach the house without an order from the officers."
As the prisoner began to move, the excited soldiers, who were wanting to mob them, brought out an Indian yell, and it appeared to the author he could almost feel the ground shake. After they were put into the houses, among the prisoners were some who were deserters,
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the author whispered to the Union men and told them to lie down close to them so that they could not distinguish from the outside one from another. The author was in - formed by Maj. William Kelley, of the Confederate army, who resides at Rolla, Phelps county, Missouri, at the pres- ent time, that he was the officer who made the order to remove the prisoners into the house and place a heavy guard around them to prevent their being mobbed. This ended the excitement for the evening.
The author had always been a believer in the reali- ties of religion. About one-tenth of the officers appeared to be Baptist and Methodist preachers, and frequently when they would go into camp would call a large number of the men together and very often take the prisoners and place them near by under a heavy guard, and then con- vene religious services. They always took for a text some subject in the Bible and the author remembers well of the taking of the subjects in the book of Joshua, where Joshua was comanded to pass around the fortifications of the enemy and blow the rain's horn and the fortifications fell, and, the God of Joshua was the same God that ex - isted to-day and there was no question but that God was on the side of the South and all they had to do was to have faith and move on, attack the lopeared Dutch and God was sure to deliver them into their hands.
The author could not help but add, in his own mind, that when the attack is made that God set the earth to shaking and all around where the lopeard Dutch are stand - ing that the earth will open and swallow them up just leave their heads above the surface; so that those Con- federates who were so furious could take their big knives and scalp the Dutch as they had said on divers occasions they intended to do.
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Makes His Escape.
The author was determined to make his escape when- ever the opportunity offered; and he could learn all about the whereabouts of the Federal soldiers from the excited Confederate scouts who would ride along the lines and say that the lopeared Dutch were as thick as rats at Springfield, Missouri, moving around in every direction and they might be attacked at any time and General McBride was looking every day to be attacked by the Federal forces to cut off his forming a junction with Generals Price and Mccullough.
In about four or five days they reached Berryville, near where the Eureka Springs are, and went into camp just west of Berryville right at the spurs of the Boston moun- tain. The prisoners were placed in the guard house near a little creek that was then dry. Captain Forshee's com - pany went into camp next to the company comanded by Captain Galloway of Howell county. As the weather was very hot and dry and the author had been marched bare- footed (one of his shoes having worn out) until his feet were badly blistered, he was lying down, feigning sickness. The guard has become a little careless. Just about sundown heavy thunder set in in the west. The clouds continued to increase, the elements grew very dark. In the mean time they had put out a chain guard all around the encamp- ment and said guard was about thirty steps from guard house. The low lands were all bottom, covered with heavy timber and a large oak had fallen across the creek and reached from bank to bank and the bark had all slip- ped off. About thirty feet from the top of the tree the foot of a steep mountain set in. The guard fire was about sixty yards south of the guardhouse. The clouds soon came up and a heavy rain set in, with terrific thunder and light-
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ning, and as the army had temporary tents the guards all crawled in under the tents and left the author by the fire. The rain soon quenched the fire.
The chain guard were walking up and down the dry creek and they met at the log referred to. The author thought now was his time to make his escape, if ever ; know - ing that he would have to have a shoe, slipped to one of the tents, got hold of a shoe, and then the thought struck him that he would like to have a revolver, but on further ex - amination found their revolvers to be placed in such a posi - tion that it was impossible to get one without waking the men. He then slipped to the butt of the log and heard the guard meet at the log and turn again on their beat. He at once crossed on the log on the other side, walked into the the brush, reached the foot of the mountain about twenty steps distant and halted. Everything appeared to be quiet, the release around the guard fire were singing, whooping and holloing.
The author then took the mountain which was about one quarter of a mile high, and it always has appeared to the author that he crossed the log and went up the moun- ain as light as a cat. On reaching the top, still raining heavily, the thought came into his mind that "I am once more a free man, but I am in an enemy's country, without friends," and at once determined in my mind to reach Springfield, Missouri, if possible. I sat down, pulled on the shoe that I had taken and it just fitted without a sock; I then procured a dead stick for the purpose of holding ยท before me as I traveled for fear I would walk off of some steep cliff or bluff, as it was very mountaineous.
Having the guard fire for a criterion I moved north - west, soon struck the leading road west that the army was marching on, traveled the road for about one mile, came onto the pickets, surrounded the pickets, struck the road
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again, traveled all night until just gray day, directly west or nearly so. A slow rain continued all night. As soon as it became light enough to see I found myself in a coun- try completely covered with pine timber. I turned square froin the road, went about 350 yards up to the top of a high knob, found about one quarter of an acre level bench. A large pine had turned out by the roots and the hole was partially filled with old leaves. The author always had been afraid of a snake but the time had come when he had more fear of a man than a snake, so he rolled himself down into the hole in the leaves and at the time had be- come chilled with the steady rain. About 9 or 10 o'clock, as well as the author could guess, he heard the beat of the drum which told that the army was marching on the same road that he had traveled in the night. In a short time
the army passed where the author was lying in the sink. The author could have raised himself up and have seen the procession pass but he had seen them just as often as he wanted to and he remained still. Late in the evening a company of about 65 men passed. The author was inform - ed afterwards that they had been detailed to make search for the prisoner, with orders if they found him, to shoot him at once. The author was further informed by Confed - erates who belonged to the command that as soon next morning as it was reported that the author had made his escape that the chain guard declared that no man could have passed between them and they were satisfied that the author was still inside of the lines.
They at once made a large detail and commenced searching. There were quite a large number of box elders with very heavy, bushy tops. They said every single tree, every drift and possible place of hiding, was examined. Orders were at once issued by the commander, who sent word back to the home of the author, that he had made his
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escape and to watch for him and as soon as he came in home to arrest him and either shoot him or hang him at once.
In the afternoon of the same day it cleared off and just as soon as dark came, the author was determined to try to reach Springfield, being in a strange country and knowing that if he was re-captured it would be certain death. He knew somewhere about the distance he had traveled west. He located the north star which he used as his pilot or guide and set out for Springfield, having no arms of any kind, not even a pocket knife and had become very hungry. He came to a slippery-elm tree, took a rock, knocked off some of the bark, ate it and proceeded on his journey, traveling all night. When gray day appeared again, he went to a hick - ory grub, broke the grub off with a rock, cut the top off with a sharp edged rock, to be used for a weapon, placed himself in hiding, remained all day. As soon as night came, again he proceeded on his journey, traveled no roads except when they run in direction of the north star. On the sec- ond morning he went into a small cave surrounded by a thicket, about 10 o'clock in the day he found that he was near enough to some rebel command to hear the drilling. As soon as dark came on he proceeded on his journey. The nights were dark and only star light until the after part of the night. He went near a spring house, but when he got to it, there wasn't a drop of milk in it. He passed through an Irish potato patch, grabbled two or three small Irish potatoes and ate them; passed through a wheat field, rubbed out some dry wheat in his hand, ate that; ate a few leaves off of a cabbage. On the third morning, went into hiding, remained until the darkness came again and re- sumed the journey.
On the morning of the 4th at daylight I had reached an old trace, pulled off my clothes and wrung them and put them on again as the dew was very heavy and every morn -
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ing my clothes would bewet. I went about 30 or 40 yards from the old trace and thought to myself, if I saw any per- son passing that was not armed, that I would approach and learn where I was. Hadn't been there more than a half hour when I heard a wagon coming. As soon as the wagon came in sight I saw that there was a lady driving, accompanied by a small girl and boy, I got up and moved into the road, walked on, and met the wagon, spoke to the lady. She stopped the wagon and I asked her if she would be kind enough to tell me where I was, that I had got lost, traveled all night and didn't know where I was. She told the author that he was in Stone county, Missouri, and asked him where he was from. I told her that I was from the state of Arkansas. She wanted to know if there was much excitement there. I told her that there was; that men were enlisting and going into the Confederate service and the people were generally excited over the prospect of war. I asked her if there was any excitement in this coun- try. She replied that there was-that the rebels a day or two ago had run in, on White River, and killed four Union men and drove out about 40 head of cattle and "that's why I am going out here in this wagon. My husband belongs to the home guards and has come in home on a furlough and is afraid to knock around the place for fear he will be waylaid and shot by the rebels."
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