USA > Kansas > A standard history of Kansas and Kansans, Volume II > Part 18
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9 The heavy traffic between Fort Leavenworth and Fort Scott to supply the army of General Blunt went over this Fort Scott road. The teamsters drove over the best ground they could find. South of the Fletcher farm there were numerous branches of this road-all crossing Ottawa Creek at different points. The author went twice in the fall of 1910 to find the ford at which Quantrill crossed. He found five fords at which it is claimed Quantrill crossed. All of these fords were in use in the summer of 1863, and it was impossible for the militia to know where Quantrill would cross or which ford to ambush. If they were at any ford it was at one Quantrill did not use, for there is no account of any oppo- sition at a ford. Captain Gregg saw Quantrill enter the timber at the ford before he started to follow him, and says that Quantrill would not have ordered him to face the Federal troops with only sixty men until he was five miles away. George Plumb says the guerrillas crossed Ottawa Creek near the field on the Fletcher farm.
10 See Leland's official report, Rebellion Records, Series I, Vol. XXII. Part I, p. 592. General Lane was also at the front most of the time.
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they would be eut to pieces if they proceeded." This occurred on top of the " Big Hill, " a mile and a quarter west of Bull Creek, which runs on the west side of Paola. While the guerrillas were halted there, the militia eame up and charged them. Quantrill turned his whole com- mand, rode baek, met the charge and fought the militia, which held the guerrilla force ten minutes, hoping the cavalry would be able to come up, but had finally to fall back. After a brief council with his offieers, at the top of the hill, Quantrill left the road, going up Bull Creek and away from Paola. It was dark before Major Plumb again reached the top of the hill. There was not a guerrilla in sight, and supposing that Quantrill had gone into Paola, he marched in that direction.
In the afternoon Ben Ellis had arrived at Paola and alarmed the citizens. Captain B. F. Simpson was at home, and he set about the defense of the town. There were but twelve soldiers there. About four o'clock Captain Nicholas Beuter, Company C, Twelfth Kansas, arrived with his company. Simpson got as many citizens as he could, and by dark he had about three hundred men and soldiers under arms. Seouts reported the guerrillas approaching, and Simpson decided to ambush them at the ford of Bull Creek. There was no water in the ford, but for a hundred yards immediately above it there was a stretch of deep water lying parallel with the road, shallow next to the road and deep on the east side against a high, steep bank, on the top of which grew a thicket of willows. Simpson believed that after the day's march over the waterless prairie the horses of the guerillas would became unmanageable when they came to this pool and crowd in to drink. He formed his men in the willows along the top of the steep bank, intending to fire when the horses had rushed into the water. Shortly after the ambush was formed two hundred more soldiers arrived, and these were posted in ambush also, but nearer the ford. Simpson sent six men to seout along the road towards the Big Hill. They returned a little ahead of Major Plumb's command, which was advancing along this road towards Paola-very little ahead of it. They reported that there had been a battle on the Big Hill, and that the guerrillas were following and would be on them in a minute-suppos- ing Major Plumb's men to be the guerrillas. Simpson made his final arrangements to deliver an effective fire and follow it with a vigorous attack on both flanks of the guerrilla column. Major Plumb's men reached the creek, and their horses did exactly what Simpson had expected those of the guerrillas to do-rushed into the water and threw the whole line into confusion. In trying to prevent this Major Plumb gave orders in a loud voice. Simpson recognized Plumb's voice as he was giving the order to fire, and ealled out-"Is that you, Plumb?" "Yes," said Plumb, as he recognized Simpson's voice. Thus by the merest chance were the Union troops saved from the ambush designed for the guerrillas.
Plumb was told that the guerrillas had not appeared at the ford. The Union forees then went into Paola, finding there Lieutenant-
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Colonel C. S. Clark, the ranking officer, and also in command of all the forces south of Little Santa Fe. Plumb's authority ceased. When Clark took the direction of affairs all vigor was lost. Scouts located Quantrill's camp five miles north of Paola, and the troops wished to attack him there but Clark would not permit it to be done, though he had at least four hundred men who were comparatively fresh.
It was daylight the morning of the 22d when he left Paola, and he was fifteen miles behind the guerrillas. He came in sight of them four or five miles east of the State line, but they retreated, leaving their wounded. General Ewing said, "There has been no failure to exert every possible effort to catch Quantrill, except at Paola, Friday night. when a great occasion was lost." 11
At ten-forty-five A. M., on the 21st, General Ewing received dis- patches from Major Plumb. At Fort Leavenworth there were five companies of an Ohio regiment outfitting for Fort Laramie. These were armed at onec. At one P. M. General Ewing started from the fort. He crossed the Kansas River at De Soto, being delayed five hours in getting his men over. lle, too, complains of the awful heat of that day, saying that : "Four men of the Eleventh Ohio were sun-stricken, among them Lieutenant Dick, who accompanied me, and who fell dead on dismounting to rest." At Lanesfield, Johnson County, General Ewing spent the night of the 21st. On the morning of the 22d he heard that Quantrill had passed east. Then he left his command and followed the pursuing troops into Missouri, coming up with them five or six miles east of the State-line, after which the pursuit was directed by him. He and General Lane had a number of stormy interviews, and there is no doubt that the forthcoming Order 11 was discussed by them.12
11 Rebellion Records, Series 1. Vol. XXII. p. 447.
12 Order No. 11 is the most famous order issned on the border during the Civil War. There are conflicting accounts of how and where it was written. There is evidence that in the field on the morning of August 22d Senator Lane exacted from General Ewing a promise that the order should be issued. Senator Stephen B. Elkins told the author that the order was written at the house of Solomon Houck, at Westport, Mo., and that he and Senator Plumb were present when it was written. Mrs. Nannie Harris MeCorkle, a prisoner in the military prison for women at Kansas City, told her sister, Mrs. Eliza Deal, that Major Plumb wrote the order -- that he was directed by General Ewing to write it and did so.
Following is a copy of "General Order No. 11":
"KANSAS CITY, MO., AUGUST 23, 1863.
"All persons living in Jackson, Cass and Bates Counties, Missouri, and that part of Vernon County included in this distriet, exeept those living within one mile of the limits of Independence, Hickman's Mills, Pleasant Hill and Harrisonville, and except those in Kaw Township, Jackson County, north of this creek and west of the Big Blue, embraeing Kansas City and Westport, are hereby ordered to remove from their places of residence within fifteen days from the date hereof.
"Those who within that time prove their loyalty to the satisfaction of the commanding officer of the military station nearest their present
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places of residence, will receive from him certificates stating the fact of their loyalty, and the names of the witnesses by whom it can be sworn. All who receive such certificates will be permitted to remove to any mili- tary station in this district, or to any part of Kansas except the counties on the castern border of the State. All others shall remove out of this district. Officers commanding companies and detachments serving in companies will see that this paragraph is promptly obeyed.
"All hay or grain in the field or under shelter, in the district from which the inhabitants are required to remove, within reach of the military stations after the 9th of September next, will be taken to such stations and turned over to the proper officers there, and a report of the amount so turned over made to the district headquarters, specifying the names of all loyal owners and the amount of such produce taken from them. All grain and hay found in such districts after the 9th of September next, not convenient to such stations, will be destroyed."
CHAPTER XLVI
THE PRICE RAID
The Price raid started from Southern Arkansas. In General Kirby Smith's letter of directions to General Price, St. Louis was made the objective point, the enlistment of recruits the chief end, and the devas- tation of Kansas a special injunction.1
The expedition entered Missouri from Pocahontas, Arkansas, and was met at Pilot Knob, Missouri, by General Thomas Ewing, Jr., of Kansas, and with an inferior force there detained until the attack on St. Louis became impracticable. At Franklin, Missouri, the raid turned in the direction of Kansas.
Major-General Samuel R. Curtis was in command of the Depart- ment of Kansas, with headquarters at Fort Leavenworth. In Septem- ber, 1864, the frontier was threatened by Indians. Iu order to sub- due them General Curtis had taken to the Plains every soldier the border could spare, and, leaving General Blunt to continue the cam- paign there, he returned. He reached his headquarters on the 17th of September, when he first learned of the approach of General Price. He saw the danger to Kansas. General Blunt was called in, and Gov- ernor Carney was induced to order out the Kansas militia. The cam- paigns for State and national elections were in active progress, and, seeing that the call for the militia was likely to produce little help because of that fact, General Curtis, on the 10th of October, placed Kansas under martial law; and on the same day he appointed as a member of his staff General James H. Lane, then United States Sen-
1 See Rebellion Records, Series I, Vol. XLI, Part I, pp. 728-9. None of these things was attained. The need of more men west of the Missis- sippi was made most emphatic, but before he had reached Jefferson City General Price had decided not to issue a proclamation calling for more recruits .- Id .. p. 633.
General Blunt believed the invasion of Kansas to be the real purpose of the raid. See Id., pp. 580-1. While General Price was enjoined in explicit terms from pillage, this seems to have been the main achievement of the expedition. No other such train of plunder was ever gathered in Missouri as General Price collected and did his utmost to preserve and carry out with him. It was taken from friend and foe alike. This is said on the authority of Shelby and His Men, by Major John N. Edwards, General Shelby's Chief-of-Staff and historian of the Shelby brigade. In that work appears a long arraignment of General Price by Thomas C. Reynolds, then Confederate Governor of Missouri.
Vol. II-11
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ator. On the 11th General Blunt arrived at Olathe and assumed com- mand of the army, designated the Army of the Border. He found Kansas militia assembled to the number of twelve thousand (after- ward increased to sixteen thousand) patriotic men anxious to battle to save the State from invasion. But politieal intrigue neutralized the support the militia stood ready to render and even made its presence a menaee. Governor Carney owed his election to General Lane, but had fallen under the influence of Lane's political enemies, who were
GEN. STERLING PRICE
[Copy by Willard of Portrait in Library of Kansas State Historieal Society ]
bitterly opposed to the re-election of President Lineoln. They exerted themselves to the utmost to embarrass and render futile every move- ment of the Union forces. In this crisis they came forward and denouneed the demand for militia as a scheme originated by General Lane to take the citizens of Kansas out of the State and keep them beyond its borders until after the election. They pretended to believe these citizens were opposed to President Lincoln, that Lane knew it, and their absence in the field would enable him to carry the State for " the President. Governor Carney controlled a newspaper, as did
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ex-Governor Robinson, and these papers ridiculed the possibility of the presence of General Price in Missouri.2
When it could no longer be denied that General Price was moving toward the Kansas border General Carney and his adherents insisted that the militia should not cross the State-line into Missouri, and that it should not be subject to the orders of General Curtis, but should remain in Kansas and take orders only from Governor Carney and his officers.3
The appointment of General Blunt to the command of the Army of the Border was an incident favorable to Colonel Moonlight. He had been Blunt's chief-of-staff in 1862 and had great influence with him. On the 12th of October Moonlight sent Plumb the following dispatch :
PAOLA, KANS., OCTOBER 12, 1864.
Colonel Plumb :
Concentrate your entire command (cavalry) on Blue, a little north of Aubry. I will be there to-night. Strike all the tents and send them with camp equipage to Olathe, leaving one wagon with each company, with rations, such cooking utensils as are necessary, and all the ammunition on
2 On the 20th of October, after the battle of Lexington, an editorial appeared in the Leavenworth Conservative, a loyal daily paper, which said :
"The Times appears to have discovered the astounding fact that Price and his forces are south of the Arkansas River, and that Jim Lane is perpetrating a great humbug upon the volunteers of Kansas.
The effort upon the part of the Copperheads of Leavenworth and upon the Governor's staff, to induce him to order the militia home, even with- out consultation with General Curtis, is one of the boldest steps that has yet been put forth by the opposers of the administration. The howl of petty politicians that the General of a Department is intriguing with Lane for political purposes is absurd."
3 See Rebellion Records, Series I, Vol. XLI, part I, official report of General Curtis; also pp. 572-3. General Blunt, on the 16th of October, arrested Brigadier-General Fishback and Colonel Snoddy, of the militia. In his official report General Blunt says he did not inflict on them the death penalty because he knew "that they were the instruments selected by the Executive of Kansas, and others, their superiors in the military organization, to carry out their mischievous and disgraceful designs." General Curtis, in an effort to avoid the appearance of harshness, restored Fishback to his command. Snoddy's regiment elected James Montgomery Colonel and did good service.
Governor Samuel J. Crawford, then a volunteer on the staff of Gen- eral Curtis, in his Kansas in the Sixties, published in 1911, has much to say on this subject. Governor Crawford participated in the councils of the officers and in the operations in the field, and speaks from personal knowledge. He says :
"If, at the proper time, General Curtis had arrested a half dozen politicians in the militia-camp and sent them to Fort Leavenworth in irons, and at the same time shot one or two militia brigadiers from the cannon's mouth, he could have had an invincible army of 15,000 men- infantry, cavalry and artillery-in line confronting Price when he crossed the Blue on the 22d. But instead most of them were away at a distance where they could be of no assistance. I say that such mutineers should have been put in irons and shot before breakfast."
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hand and blankets. Coneentrate rapidly. General Blunt desires that you remain at Olathe in command, with your staff, ete., until we are ready for the fight. I will send for you. You shall have your share, certain. T. MOONLIGHT, Colonel.4
Plumb, then Lieutenant-Colonel, did not escape the fate of the offieer popular with his men, and jealousy of him was sometimes shown. He believed he saw in this dispatch an intention to ignore him as far as possible in the coming campaign. He sent General Blunt the fol- lowing :
OLATHE, OCTOBER 12, 1864.
Major-General Blunt:
My command is all concentrated on the Blue near the line. Fortifiea- tions here all completed; guns mounted and manned; muskets and ammunition all issued. There seems to be nothing further for me to do here. I would respectfully ask permission to join my command this evening or early in the morning. About 600 Douglas County militia in and many more eoming.
P. B. PLUMB, Lieutenant-Colonel.5
Blunt referred the matter to General Curtis; and Plumb was per- mitted to join his regiment, at the front, and was frequently in command of it during the campaign.
The brigades of the Army of the Border were formed at Hickmau's Mills on the 15th of October. The Second Brigade was composed of the Eleventh Kansas, two companies of the Fifth Kansas, two companies of the Sixteenth Kansas, and four mountain howitzers. Colonel Moonlight was put in command of the brigade, and on the 16th marched to meet General Priee and develop his position. Lexington was oeeupied on the 18th. All the forces of Priee were rapidly concentrating in that region. As the Union officers were sitting down to dinner on the 19th Captain L. F. Green, Company B, Eleventh Kansas, entered and reported that he had just been driven in, and that Priee's army was at hand. General Blunt instantly ordered every officer to horse. It was not expected that the Confederate advance eould long he eheeked at Lexing- ton. Colonel Moonlight was given command of the rear. At midnight, after twelve hours of constant battle, the last stand was made at the erossing of the Sni, east of Wellington.6 At nine o'clock on the
4 See Rebellion Records, Series I, Vol. XLI. Part III, p. 824.
5 Id., p. 824.
6 Of the actions of Plumb in the retreat from Lexington, Captain B. F. Simpson gives the best account yet found :
"The rear-guard, under Moonlight, formed in the timber on the hill immediately west of Lexington. The Confederates were now in range, and fire was opened on them. Many saddles were emptied; but it was not the intention of Moonlight to try to hold the hill. He did not retreat until the enemy was almost on him, when he took his eommand down the north slope of the hill in good order. Plumb and I were among the last to leave the field. The road down the hill was worn or cut down into a limestone ledge, and was sunk three or four feet into the ledge in some places, and there were perpendicular hanks or walls on the sides.
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20th General Blunt's forces took position on the west bank of the Little Blue River, eight miles northeast of Independence.
General Blunt wished to fight a decisive battle at the Little Blue, General Pleasanton was pressing Price's rear, and if Blunt could have had his way, the Confederate army might have been destroyed at the Little Blue. The plans of General Blunt could not be met, for Governor Carney and his politicians still insisted that General Price was not in Missouri at all, and that all the military movements of General Curtis were the result of Lane's scheming for political advantage. In fact, Governor Carney prepared a proclamation disbanding the militia the very day General Blunt formed his line along the Little Blue.7
About half-way down there was a square turn to the west, where the walls on either side were about six feet high-solid rock. As Plumb and I reached this turn a caisson came upon us and tried to make the turn and pass us. It cramped and almost turned over, pressing us against the wall at the outer corner, and we were unable to extricate ourselves. We were pinned and pressed against the wall.
"The Confederates were following us down the hill, and when in revolver range opened fire on us. Every minute they came closer, and the bullets were striking on the iron tires of the caisson wheels. We though we were lost, but Moonlight in some way learned of our plight and charged up the hill. He drove the rebels back and held them until the caisson was taken out and Plumb and I released from our perilous position.
"We rode on after our command and were about the last of our force. At the crossing of Sni-a-bar Creek, three or four miles east of Welling- ton, there was a bridge. It was an old-fashioned wooden structure, boarded np the sides and roofed over with shingles. Just east of this bridge we came up with a soldier-boy, mounted and leading a horse. Plumb said the bridge ought to be burned, to which I agreed. We had matches and we cut shavings from the timbers and tried to start a fire. We had dismounted and given our bridle-reins to the boy. The rebels came up and opened fire on ns, and the horses reared so that the boy could not hold them. Plumb told me to take our horses on through the bridge and wait for him until he got the fire going. I took the horses to the west of the bridge and led them into a depression out of the way of the rebel firing, which was beginning to be hot. The boy followed me, but I told him to go on and not wait for ns. The firing was soon so heavy that Plumb could not remain on the bridge. The rebels were up to the entrance. It was run or be captured, and Plumb came running ont at the west end, inquiring where the boy was. I told him the boy was safe and away ahead. Then we mounted our horses and escaped. The small fire Plumb had been able to start was put out by the rebels, and the bridge was not hurned."
7 See the Leavenworth Daily Conservative, October 26, 1864; it says :
"The deliberate labored attempt of the Governor, his subalterns, his satellites, his paid scribblers, and his unscrupulous adherents, to create sedition in the camp, distrust for our Generals, and political capital for himself and his motley crew has not failed to attract the attention and provoke the nnmeasured condemnation of every true and honest man.
"The General commanding the Department calls for reinforcements; the Governor and his bolting Copperhead crew, while apparently comply- ing with his request, take pains to tell our soldiers there is no enemy at the front, and while our soldiers were facing death on the field on Thurs-
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LITTLE BLUE
General Price did not reach the Little Blue until the morning of the 21st of October. Because of the attitude of Governor Carney, General Curtis did not intend that any general engagement should be fought there. The Eleventh Kansas had been left at the crossing with orders to detain the enemy as long as it could do so with safety, then burn the bridge and retire in the direction of Independence. Colonel Moon- light's resistance was much more stubborn than had been expected of him. He held the line as long as possible. setting the bridge on fire and falling haek slowly only when Price's cavalry had appeared in force on both his flanks. At this juncture General Blunt eame on the field with reinforce- ments and made an effort to halt the advanee of General Price. A part of the field taken from Moonlight was regained. General Curtis and General Lane both went to the front, but Curtis was induced to return to Independenee.
All that day Price was slowly pushing Blunt baek, and it required almost his entire army to do it. General Blunt had but thirty-five hun- dred men of all arms-perhaps not so many. They hugged fenees, sought skirts of timber, utilized ditehes and highways, and stood behind stone walls. For some time the Eleventh Kansas was out of ammunition and held its position by defiant cheers.8 Two miles back from the Little Blue a stand was made at the Massey farm. There the Eleventh was fiereely attacked, lost a number of men, and Major Ross had a horse killed. While supplying the Major with another horse, Captain B. F. Simpson saw Plumb with a company of skirmishers far out in advance of the battle-line. A strong position was taken at the Saunders farm, three miles west of Massey's and this was held until night. From this point General Blunt sent Lane to Independenee to tell Curtis that the Big Blue would have to be the line on the 22d.9 Late at night the Union forces crossed the Big Blue and took position in such defensive works as had been constructed there. The line extended south from the Missouri River to Hiekman's Mills along the west bank of the Big Blue River, although the main body of the army covered a space of some six miles only.
THE BIG BLUE
In 1864 Byram's Ford, on what is now Sixty-first Street, Kansas City, was the principal erossing on the Big Blue. It was the most important point held by the Union army, and it should have been guarded by a good
day, the Governor actually prepared his proclamation to disband the militia."
8 See Rebellion Records, Series I, Vol. XLI, Part I, p. 592, official report of Colonel Moonlight.
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