USA > Kansas > The Seventh Kansas calvary: its service in the civil war. An address before the State historical society, December 2, 1902 > Part 1
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Gc 973.74 K13f 1753585
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
E
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00822 4302
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840
THE SEVENTH KANSAS CAVALRY:
ITS SERVICE IN THE CIVIL WAR.
AN ADDRESS
BEFORE THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, DECEMBER 2, 1902.
BY S. M. FOX, First Lieutenant and Adjutant.
ALSO, A BRIEF NARRATION OF THE FIRST EIGHT KANSAS REGIMENTS.
STRA PER
ASPER
STATE PRINTING OFFICE, TOPEKA, 1908. 1282 840
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سمعـ
1753585
F 8349 .312
Fox, Simeon M 1842-
The Seventh Kansas cavalry: its service in the civil war. An address before the State historical society, De- cember 2, 1902. By S. M. Fox ... Also, a brief narration of the first eight Kansas regiments. Topeka, State print- ing office, 190S.
SHELF CARD 59 р. 23cm.
"Reprinted from eighth volume of the Kansas historical collections." MAL.
1. U. S. - Hist. - Civil war - Regimental histories - Kan. cav. - 7th. 2. Kansas cavalry. 7th regt., 1861-1865.
Library of Congress
E503 6.7thF2
16-2395 P 21585
STORY OF THE SEVENTH KANSAS.
Reprinted from eighth volume of the Kansas Historical Collections. (Notes by the Secretary.)
An address before the State Historical Society, December 2, 1902, by S. M. Fox,* First Lieutenant and Adjutant.
T `HIS is not intended to be a history, but is a sketch, based, from a lack of sufficient records, on a memory which at times may be at fault. From the conditions, the story can but be rambling and incomplete. The history of a cavalry regiment that nearly every day during its four years of active service was in the saddle would fill many volumes with stories of adventure and hardship and then be a tale half told.
At the beginning of the civil war Kansas had just been ad- mitted as a state, the machinery of government was hardly in working order, and the people were very poor; yet when the call of the president for troops came the response was imme- > diate, and always in excess of every demand. Eight regiments. - were organized and placed in the field during the year of 1861. Much confusion existed in the organization of these regiments, - resulting from the action of the War Department at Washing- ton in giving Senator James H. Lane authority to raise troops
. * SIMEON M. Fox was born in Tompkins county, New York. August 28. 1842. When he was eleven years old he moved with his family to Elmira. He was edu- cated in the high school at Elmira and the Genessee college at Lima. His father came to Kansas in 1855. and located at Highland: the mother came later. and the son remained East attending school. In the spring of 1861. upon the close of school. the son came to Kansas, immediately enlisting in company . Seventh Kansas regi- ment. He served nine months as a private, then was made a corporal, a regimental sergeant-major, and then first lieutenant and adjutant, which place he held until mustered out. At the close of the war be settled in Manhattan, and engaged in the book business. He was appointed adjntant general of the state in 1895, serving dur- ing the administration of Governor Morrill, and was reappointed by Governor Stanley in 1899, serving six years. I
The Kansas regiments during the civil war have a disjointed and very imperfect record of their service. There is a wide-spread impression that their service was practically limited- to patrolling or bushwhacking along the border. or leisurely camping on the plains. Because of the controversy .between Gov. Charles Robinson and Senator James HI. Lane, the organizations of some of the regiments road like chaos. The directors of the Kansas State Historical Society, prompted by the military pride of the people and their observation of the value of patriotic ancestry, deter- mined to gather the story of the state's soldiers as complete as possible. in justice to the descendants of those who made a record as brilliant as that of any of the nation's defenders. Adj. Gen. S. M. Fox. who served with the Seventh Kansas during its entire enlistment and was mustered out as regimental adjutant. at the solicitation of the Society, prepared "The Story of the Seventh Kansas," herewith published. which shows a strenuous service at the front, and which it is hoped may be an incentive and guide to the members and friends of other regiments. The Kansas State His- torical Society has the story of the Nineteenth. Twentieth. Twenty-first. Twenty- ".cond. and Twenty-third. also well told. See volume 6. Historical Collections. For further sketch and master-roll of the Seventh Kansas, see Adjutant General's Report, reprint 1896 .-- G. W. M.
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STORY OF THE SEVENTH KANSAS.
and organize regiments of volunteers in Kansas independent of state 'authority. The first two regiments were, however, practically organized before Senator Lane appeared, armed with a brigadier general's commission, to begin his independ- ent recruiting. These two regiments had been ordered on the 23d of May to rendezvous, one at Leavenworth and one at Lawrence. The regiment rendezvoused at Leavenworth was mustered into the United States service on May 30 as the First Kansas volunteer infantry, under the command of Col. George W. Deitzler, and immediately ordered into the field. The secretary of war, deeming the draft too heavy for so young a state, hesitated about mustering in the second regi- ment. When, however, General Lane arrived in Kansas, on Friday, June 7, Governor Robinson sent his quartermaster general, George W. Collamore, post haste to Washington, who after persistent urging finally secured the following order.
WAR DEPARTMENT, June 17, 1861. To his Excellency Charles Robinson, Governor of Kansas:
SIR-This department will accept, for three years or during the war, two regiments of volunteers from Kansas, in addition to the one commanded by Colonel Deitzler and mustered al- ready into service, said regiments so accepted to be the ones commanded by Colonels Phillips and Mitchell, respectively; and the mustering officer ordered by the adjutant general to muster them into the service is hereby directed to make such requisition as may be necessary to supply them with arms and ammunition, clothing, etc., they may require, and also to supply any deficiency that may exist in Colonel Deitzler's regiment. SIMON CAMERON, Secretary of War.
The Second Kansas volunteer infantry was mustered into the United States service for three years at Wyandotte im- mediately thereafter, under the command of Col. Robert B. Mitchell. Many recruits had enlisted in this regiment with the understanding that it was for three months' service; they expressed dissatisfaction, and the regiment was finally or- dered to be mustered out on October 31, 1861, but nearly all its members soon after joined other regiments. The Second Kansas cavalry, organized later, May 7, 1862, was practically a new organization, although commanded by Colonel Mitchell and retaining in its ranks a number of the officers and men of the old Second Kansas infantry.
The Third and Fourth Kansas volunteers were regiments of mixed arms, and were organized by General Lane. These two
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STORY OF THE SEVENTH KANSAS.
regiments, with the Fifth Kansas cavalry, constituted what was known as "Lane's brigade." The Third was mustered into the United States service at Mound City on July 24, 1861, under the command of Col. James Montgomery. This regi- ment took the place of the third regiment authorized by the secretary of war in the order of June 17, previously quoted. The Fourth Kansas volunteers was mustered into the United States service about the same time, under the command of Col. William Weer. The Fifth Kansas cavalry was mustered in under the command of Col. Hampton P. Johnson, who was killed in action at Morristown, Mo., on September 17, 1861, and was succeeded in command by Col. Powell Clayton.
The Sixth Kansas cavalry was mustered in at Fort Scott on September 10. It was commanded by Col. William R. Judson.
The Seventh Kansas cavalry was mustered into the United States service as a complete organization at Fort Leavenworth on October 28, 1861, under the command of Col. Charles R. Jennison.
The Eighth Kansas volunteer infantry was organized with eight companies during October, 1861, and was commanded at its organization by Col. Henry W. Wessels.
It will be remembered that in June the secretary of war was hesitating about authorizing a second regiment, for fear of making too great a draft on a young and sparsely settled state, yet four months later eight regiments had been organ- ized and were in the field, and all this was done without one dollar being offered or paid by the state to secure enlistments.
. I have given this brief sketch of the eight regiments re- cruited in Kansas in 1861 as preliminary to the story of the Seventh Kansas, and to show the patriotic conditions that ex- isted when this regiment was organized. All these regiments helped to make history. and have left records of unfading glory. The First and Second Kansas fought on the bloody field of Wilson Creek, and their heroism there has given a luster to the name of Kansas that time can never dim. One hundred and six men was the death record of the First Kansas alone during that terrible day, and this regiment marched off the field in perfect order when the battle was lost. The Sec- ond Kansas, although not suffering so great a mortality, left a no less brilliant record for bravery and discipline. The Third and Fourth Kansas regiments were never complete or-
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STORY OF THE SEVENTH KANSAS.
ganizations, but, with the Fifth Kansas cavalry, did excellent service along the Missouri border, and their presence there undoubtedly saved Kansas from rebel invasion when, after the dearly bought and doubtful victory at Wilson Creek, the Confederate general, Sterling Price, marched north to Lex- ington, in September, 1861. The Third and Fourth Kansas volunteers were broken up in February, 1862, and assigned to other regiments. The infantry companies were consoli- dated, and became designated thereafter as the Tenth Kansas volunteer infantry; the cavalry companies were transferred to the Fifth, Sixth and Ninth Kansas cavalry, and helped to complete the organization of those regiments. The Fifth and Sixth Kansas cavalry regiments served to the end of the war in Missouri, Arkansas and the Indian Territory with great credit, and took part in all the principal battles west of the Mississippi fought after Wilson Creek. The Eighth Kansas infantry served in the Army of the Cumberland. The regi- ment lost heavily at. Chickamauga, and was one of the first regiments to reach the summit of Missionary Ridge, in the famous charge of Wood's division at the battle of Chatta- nooga.
In the absence of records, it is difficult at this late date to know under whose authority some of these regiments of 1861 were organized. Governor Robinson resented the interference of the War Department in sending General Lane to Kansas to raise troops independent of the state government, and when General Lane began to recruit, and usurp what the governor considered his constitutional rights, he went ahead and raised troops himself and ignored Lane as far as possible. The goy- ernor also made matters as uncomfortable as possible for him ; he started a fire in his rear by appointing Fred P. Stanton to fill the vacancy assumed to have been created in the senate when General Lane was confirmed as a brigadier general, and the senator general was given much trouble to maintain his seat. The First, Second, Seventh and Eighth regiments were clearly raised under state authority, and the Third and Fourth regiments by General Lane; the Fifth cavalry, while a part of Lane's brigade, was practically organized under state juris- diction ; the Sixth cavalry originated under authority of Gen- eral Lyon, who authorized the organization of several com- panies for the defense of the border near Fort Scott; additional companies of the Sixth were organized by order of Major
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STORY OF THE SEVENTH KANSAS.
Prince. This action seems to have been approved by Gover- nor Robinson, and the Sixth was practically organized under state authority.
It was natural that a state made up of the hardy settlers who came to Kansas to make it a free state should be patriotic. The men all had convictions, and they knew that the war was inevitable, and expected when the time came to take a hand in the game. Military companies began to report to the state government as soon as Kansas became a state, and before the end of June, 1861, there was scarcely a hamlet that did not have its military organization that met nearly every night for drill. Leavenworth city alone had twenty-three compa- nies; Atchison and Doniphan county and the settled counties to the westward were organized and asking for arms. The border counties from Wyandotte to Bourbon kept their old companies, organized for the protection of the border, alive, and organized others in addition. All through the state, as far west as Junction City, these companies were drilling and preparing for the trouble to come. Many of these organiza- tions enlisted in the United States service in a body and were the nucleus of the permanent volunteer regiments. Whenever a company so enlisted, another company was organized to take its place at home. There is one thing that must be said : many of the soldiers in the Kansas volunteer regiments came from other states, directed here by motives that were various, but this class was mostly made up of men of abolition belief who wanted to help strike a blow at slavery in the name of Kansas. They left states where large bounties were being offered and enlisted in Kansas, a state too poor to pay an additional bounty, and composed of a class of citizens so patriotic that no such inducement to enlist was ever required.
It will be observed that the Kansas regiments were num- bered consecutively, without reference to the arm of service they represented.
About the 1st of August, 1861, Governor Robinson gave authority to Dr. Charles R. Jennison to raise a regiment of cavalry. Something of a glamour surrounded Jennison in those days; he had been conspicuous as a leader in the early days of border troubles, and his "jayhawkers" had inflicted damage on the pro-slavery sympathizers that ranged all the way from blood to loot; indeed, he carried the latter to such an extent that the pedigree of most Kansas horses, it was said,
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STORY OF THE SEVENTH KANSAS.
should have been recorded as "out of Missouri by Jennison." So when Jennison began to raise his regiment the organiza- tion became immediately known as "the jayhawkers," a name that followed through its whole history, as the war records will show. Much conjecture as to the origin of the word "jay- hawker" has been indulged in; one story is that it was a modification of "gay Yorker," an appellation applied to Doc- tor Jennison when he first came to Kansas, he having been of sportive proclivities and hailing from the Empire state. There are always persons who take a great deal of trouble to explain or account for a very natural or commonplace thing. The predatory habits of the jayhawk would indicate that the name as applied to Jennison's men was singularly appropriate, and one need not speculate as to what suggested the appli- cation. The "jayhawkers" did not certainly originate then, for as early as 1849 a little band of Argonauts from Illinois, who made the overland journey to California, called them- selves "the jayhawkers"; they were lost in Death Valley, and the thrilling story of their suffering and final rescue has often been told.1 I have seen it somewhere, but I cannot now recall
1. The most interesting party that ever crossed the plains. the discoverers of Death Valley, of silver in Nevada and of the great niter deposits in the desert east of California, were the "jayhawkers of '49." The party was made up at Galesburg, Ill., from which place they started April 5. 1849. They crossed the Missouri river at Omaha. Since 1872 the survivors of this party have held annual reunions. The first was held that year in Galesburg. Ill .. and the last one was at Lodi. Cal .. Feb- ruary 4. 1903. On the 4th of February, 1850. John B. Colton, who now resides in Kansas City, Mo .. saw the first sign of vegetation, and on that day thirty-two of the thirty-six emerged from Death valley terribly emaciated wrecks. Seven of the party are now known to be alive. The Historical Society has had letters from three of them. one being from Mrs. Juliette W. Brier, the only woman in the party, now past ninety years old. When the party reached a Spanish ranch. big. strong men were nothing but wrinkled skin clinging over visible skeletons. Their teeth showed in out- line beneath clinging parchment cheeks. At the last reunion but three attended. Mr. Colton. from Kansas City. a gentleman from San Jose, and the hostess. Mrs. Brier. Mr. Colton has a newspaper scrap-book, containing as much as 3000 columns of reading-matter, about the "jayhawkers of '49," and yet the world cannot get away from the impression that the word originated in a Kansas raid on Missouri. John B. Colton. of Kansas City. Mo .. in a letter, gives the origin of the word :
"For the information of the Bostonese, who is endeavoring to fix the origin of the word 'jayhawker,' I will say that it was coined on the Platte river. not far west of the Missouri river, in 1549, long before the word 'Kansas' was known or heard of. I cannot tell him why, but I was there. Some kind of hawks, as they sail up in the air reconnoitering for mice and other small prey, look and act as though they were the whole thing. Then the audience of jays and other small but jealous and vicious birds sail in and jab him. until he gets tired of show life and slides out of trouble in the lower earth. Now. perhaps this is what happens among fellows on the trail- jaybirds and hawks enact the same role, pro and con-out of pure devilment and to . pass the hours of a long march. At any rate, ours was the crowd that created the word 'jayhawker.' at the date and locality above stated. Another thing: in the mountains and mines of California. in those early days, words were coined or born, climatic surroundings materially contributing. The words were short, like the latter- day 'tenderfoot'; 'shorthand' meant a line, a sentence, and perhaps a whole page. I have heard a word that meant a whole lifetime to the other fellow. Now. when these Argonauts of early times returned to the states, those shorthand words clung to
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STORY OF THE SEVENTH KANSAS.
where, that the name was of common application in Texas during the struggle for liberty, but of this I am not sure.
Colonel Jennison was commissioned as such on September 4, 1861, and recruiting began immediately. Burning placards were posted in the villages offering inducement in way of pro- posed equipment that would have made every man a portable arsenal. The recruit, in imagination, saw himself bristling with death and desolation, mounted on an Arabian barb, breathing flame as he bore his rider to victory. All this was in strong contrast to the pitiful equipment that was at first in reality issued.
The field and staff of the Seventh Kansas at organization was as follows :
Colonel
Charles R. Jennison.
Lieutenant-colonel
Daniel R. Anthony.
Major
Thomas P. Herrick.
1
Major
Albert L. Lee.
Adjutant
John T. Snoddy.
Quartermaster
Robert W. Hamer.
Surgeon
(vacancy) .
Assistant surgeon
Joseph S. Martin.
Chaplain
Samuel Ayers.
Sergeant-major
William A. Pease.
Quartermaster sergeant
Eli Babb.
Commissary sergeant
Lucius Whitney.
Hospital steward
John M. Whitehead.
Hospital steward James W .. Lansing.
Chief bugler
George Goss.
Chief bugler
John Gill.
them and were distributed among the surrounders, and they took them up and per- petuated them. Possibly an early-timer, in the troublous times of new Kansas, when they were settling. difficulties in promiscuous ways, may have known or heard the word 'jayhawker' from the far West, and knew it was a winner, and so adopted it as a talisman. So far as Kansas is concerned, the word was borrowed or copied: it is not a home product. I knew many of the leaders in jayhawker times of early Kan- sas '50's, and have met them at Leavenworth and other points frequently in those days."
Mr. U. P. Davidson writes from Thermopolis, Wyo. : "In answer. I will state that our company was made up from schoolboys at Galesburg, Ill. We formed an order of our own. One of our party suggested the name of 'jayhawk,' so that was adopted. Our company has gone by that name ever since." A few days out from Salt Lake the jayhawkers left a large party and took a different course. In a day or so more they were joined by Rev. Mr. Brier. wife, and three little boys. When Mrs. Brier reached the ranch at the end of their march through Death Valley the Spanish women cried piteously and hugged her to their bosoms as though she were a child. Mrs. Brier writes that "they (the company) took upon themselves the name jay- hawker when they started for California."
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STORY OF THE SEVENTH KANSAS.
Company A was organized the last part of August, 1861, principally in Doniphan county, although the northern tier of counties supplied recruits from as far west as Marshall. The original officers were:
Captain Thomas P. Herrick.
First lieutenant. Levi H. Utt.
Second lieutenant .. Thomas H. Lohnes.
The company was recruited by Captain Herrick, of High- land, in conjunction with Lieutenant Utt, of White Cloud, and was mustered into the United States service at Fort Leaven- worth August 27, 1861. When the regiment was organized, on October 28, Captain Herrick was made a major, and Lieuten- ant Utt was promoted to captain, and Sergt. Aaron M. Pitts was commissioned a first lieutenant to fill the vacancy. Sec- ond Lieutenant Lohnes remained in his original grade until his resignation, February 13, 1862. Major Herrick became lieutenant-colonel on September 2, 1862, and colonel on June 11, 1863. Captain Utt had served under General Lyon in Colonel Blair's First Missouri infantry and was a proficient drill-master. He molded the company, and it was through his first training that the company became and always remained the most efficient and reliable organization in the regiment; and there is no disparagement to the other companies in say- ing this; all were good, but company A was a shade better. Let me say here that the military nomenclature of the civil war differs from the present; the word "troop" as now applied was not then used; "company" was, at the beginning of the war, applied alike to cavalry and infantry; later, in 1863, the name "squadron" became the designation of a company of cavalry. The word "squadron" as applied to cavalry, as the equivalent of "battalion" as applied to infantry, is of. much later date.
Captain Utt was one of the most fearless men that I ever saw; when in the greatest hazard he seemed entirely uncon- scious of danger. He lost a leg at Leighton, Ala., April 2, 1863, while charging a battery with his mounted company; his horse was killed under him. As soon as the stub healed sufficiently, he outfitted himself with a wooden leg and came back to the command of his company. He was promoted major November 17, 1864, which rank he held until finally mustered out with the regiment. Although a young man, the name "old timber-toes" became his familiar appellation.
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STORY OF THE SEVENTH KANSAS.
First Lieut. Aaron M. Pitts was appointed captain of com- pany D October 3, 1862; the vacancy created was filled by the promotion of Sergt. Bazil C. Sanders to first lieutenant. Sec- ond Lieutenant Lohnes resigned February 13, 1862, and Jacob M. Anthony was appointed to the vacancy from civil life. On the promotion of Captain Utt to major, Lieutenant Sanders, who had gallantly commanded the company while Utt was disabled by wounds, became captain, and under his command the company always maintained its reputation for efficiency. Lieutenant Anthony was promoted to captain and assigned to company I on May 16, 1863, and Sergt. Dewitt C. Taylor was promoted to the vacancy. Sergt. Henry C. Camp- bell was appointed a first lieutenant to fill the vacancy created by the promotion of Sanders.
All these officers proved themselves to be brave and efficient. Lieutenant Lohnes was, however, a deserter from the regular army, but no question as to his bravery was ever raised; for cold-blooded nerve he was not often equaled. After his resig- nation he followed the regiment as far as Rienzi, Miss. From there he went back to Kansas and indulged in a little "jay- hawking" on his own hook. He was captured, but while under guard at White Cloud, one cold winter night, when all the guards had come in to the fire in an old building where he was confined, he raised up as if to stretch himself, and, with a re- mark about hard luck, suddenly jumped through the window, carrying away sash and glass. The guard rushed out, but their prisoner had vanished. He was heard from in 1865, and was then living in Nova Scotia.
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