USA > Kansas > A standard history of Kansas and Kansans, Volume II > Part 19
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9 These details were furnished by Captain B. F. Simpson, Paola, Kansas. He was first directed to carry the dispatch to General Curtis, but General Lane believed that some other man should be sent, Simpson being then boyish in appearance. Lane was sent to confer with Curtis.
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soldier. By the intrigues then distracting the councils of the Army of the Border, Colonel C. R. Jennison, Fifteenth Kansas, had secured com- mand of the First Brigade, and he was put in command of the troops defending Byram's Ford on the morning of the 22d of October.10 About noon he was attacked by a heavy foree, and before three o'clock he was driven back and lost the key to the Union position. His failure to hold Byram's Ford lost the day to General Curtis, as its capture turned the right flank of his army, crushed the right wing and caused it to take a new position just outside of Kansas City. General Price camped on the south side of Brush Creek, a small stream running east a mile south of Westport.
The Eleventh Kansas was holding a ford above that guarded by Colo- nel Jennison. Seeing the Confederate army pouring through the gap made in the line by his defeat, and, knowing there was nothing to prevent its entering Kansas, Colonel Moonlight marched by double-quick to the State-line, south of Westport. There he formed to cheek the Confederate advance. Colonel Plumb, with four companies of the Eleventh Kansas, drove back Jackman's brigade, and did it in a manner that called forth compliments from all who saw it. It was dusk. In speaking of it many years later Colonel Moonlight said :
This charge was under the immediate command of Lieutenant-Colonel Plumb, of the Eleventh Kansas Cavalry, with one wing of the regiment, and it was one of the neatest and prettiest movements of the campaign. The charge was made with a line almost as straight as on dress parade, and with a dash and vim, the boys eheering as they flew along the prai- rie into the ranks of the enemy.11
This charge was considered an event in the annals of the Eleventh Kansas, and is thus described by a comrade of Colonel Plumb.12
Jackman's brigade was marching through the gap and had to be stopped else the Confederate army would pour over the State-line into Kansas. To check this advance was now the work of the Eleventh Kansas. The Confederates marched steadily northwest until they came in view of the Eleventh. At that instant Colonel Plumb with four com- panies was beginning his advanee towards the rebels. Seeing this the Confederates stopped short and formed a line of battle facing Plumb,
10 Jennison had been commissioned Colonel of the Seventh Kansas by Governor Robinson in the fall of 1861. His murderous forays and plundering proelivities coming to the attention of the authorities, he was forced to resign in March, 1862. So proficient was he in lifting live- stock that the pedigree of many a horse found in Kansas in that day was tersely expressed in "out of Missouri by Jennison." After the Lawrence Massaere Governor Carney, then under the influence of those opposed to General Lane and to the re-election of President Lincoln, com- missioned Jennison Colonel of the Fifteenth Kansas. This same influ- ence pushed him to the front in the campaign against General Price. Ile was a Federal guerrilla.
11 Letter in the Leavenworth Standard, December 3, 1881.
12 Walter Wellhouse. Company A, Eleventh Kansas, late Secretary Kansas State Horticultural Society.
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who took his men across the State-line to a little valley, and when his men were directly opposite the enemy, he halted them, faced about. formed his line and charged up the hill, his men cheering and firing at will after the first volley. The flashes of Plumb's guns were like fire- flies on a damp night in summer. Jackman's brigade was swept from the field, and no further attempt was made by the enemy in that quarter.
COLONEL VEALE'S REGIMENT
The disaster to Colonel Veale's Regiment is best described in his official report :
HEADQUARTERS SECOND REGIMENT, K. S. M., TOPEKA, OCTOBER 30, 1864. To Maj. Gen. George W. Deitzler, Commanding Kansas State Militia. Sir- On the morning of the 21st October, I received orders
BATTLE OF BIG BLUE [Copy by Willard of Painting in Library of Kansas State Historieal Society ]
from Gen. Grant to move with my command to the erossing of the "Blue" on the Kansas City & Hickman's Mills road, about four miles from the Kansas State line, which order I complied with-camping on the Blue that night.
The next morning, the 22d, at sunrise, I received an order from Gen. Grant, informing me that he could not reach me very early in the day with the remainder of his command, on account of necessary delay in issuing arms; and directing me to fall baek and join the forces at Byram's Ford. I accordingly withdrew from the erossing to the prairie, some two miles distant, where I left Lieut. Col. Green in command, and took twelve men and went down through the timber to Byram's Ford. I went myself, because I knew the country well. I found Col. Jennison with his regiment-the Fifteenth Volunteers-and also the Jefferson County Regiment, K. S. M., and several pieces of artillery. This was about three miles from where I left my command.
I went immediately baek to move my command down, but on my arrival, I found Gen. Grant with his other forces had come up. I told
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him what I knew of the country, and where our troops were. IIe said we should remain there for the present.
Very soon a messenger arrived from Gen. Curtis with a dispatch, stat- ing that the enemy was moving in strong column up the "Blue," and directing him (Gen. Grant) to send seouts to Hiekman's Mills to see if the enemy was moving south on the Pleasant Hill road, and report to him every thirty minutes.
I was asked by Gen. Grant to take the battalion of my own regiment, the Seeond, and make the reconnoissanee. I moved off immediately and met some troops coming from there as I went over, but saw nothing of the enemy.
About one mile south of the "Blue," at a point where I could over- look the whole country, I ordered a halt and fed my horses. In a few minutes the General and his staff rode up. Here we were immediately joined by Col. Lowe of our brigade and then by Maj. Laing of the Fif- teenth Volunteers with four companies.
A few moments were spent in consultation, when Col. Lowe and Maj. Laing moved south and east on the road to look for the enemy.
Gen. Grant direeted me to move baek to the north side of the "Blue," which I did-the General and staff riding in advance.
Soon after erossing the stream, we met a messenger who told us that fighting was going on up the prairie. The General pushed forward rapidly for about a mile, to where he found my artillery in the lane unsupported, with the enemy in his front. The battalion of the Douglas County Third, under command of Capt. Hindman, had fled. The Wyandotte County Battalion, and the battalion of the Thirteenth K. S. M. had been driven from the field.
Gen. Grant ordered me to form a line of battle, which I did, and as soon as this was done, commenced the fight. Capt. Burnes opened on the enemy at the same time with the battery, and, after obtaining the proper range, did fearful execution-opening the enemy's ranks and hurling them from their horses in great numbers.
Capt. Burnes is deserving of special praise for coolness and gallantry -- standing as he did by his gun until taken prisoner himself, and every man in his command either wounded, killed or taken prisoner.
My first line of cavalry broke when fired on, and some of the men fled in confusion, but with the aid of my brave and gallant officers, it was soon restored, and maintained its ground with stubborn and unfaltering courage.
We fought Jaekman's brigade of Shelby's division-six times our number-for three-quarters of an hour, actually driving at one time his whole center in confusion from our front. But it was soon doubly strengthened and charged upon us in double colunm, flanking us at the same time both on the right and on the left, foreing us baek in disorder to the south side of the Blue, where we found Col. Lowe and Maj. Laing with their commands, who should have supported us in the fight, as should the commands of Johnson, Guilford and Hindman. Had they done so the result would have been different. As it was, my command was saeri- ficed, being ordered to fight six times my numbers of Price's veterans and bushwhackers with raw militia.
It is not for me to say upon whom rests the responsibility of seatter- ing our forces in such a manner as to preclude the possibility of coneert of unity of action. I can only say that I aeted under orders, and by so doing lost twenty-four brave Kansans killed, about the same number wounded, and sixty-eight taken prisoners, among them four officers; also one twenty-four pounder howitzer and 100 horses.
The enemy's loss in killed and wounded in this engagement was very
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heavy, as our prisoners passing over a portion of the field a few moments after the battle, counted forty-three dead rebels.
While my loss is very severe, I have to thank God that the bold stand taken by my brave men gave the enemy an afternoon job which detained them from marching into Kansas; and the next morning they were con- fronted by an army that neither yielded them ground nor spared their ammunition, but put them on a hasty retreat southward; and thus Kansas was saved.
On the morning of the 24th, we gathered together our dead (our wounded having been already eared for) and took them to Kansas City, where we obtained coffins for them, and on the morning of the 25th we buried them in Wyandotte-on Kansas soil. From there we marehed home to meet our mourning friends and tell the sad story of the fallen.
WESTPORT
General Curtis was greatly discouraged by the result of the battle of the Big Blue; it proved that little of the Kansas militia would be permitted by Governor Carney and his advisers to fight under Federal officers.
In the hope that he might secure better results by fighting on Kansas soil Curtis decided in the afternoon of the 22d to retire across the Kansas River at night; and he then sent his ammunition and supply trains to Wyandotte, now Kansas City, Kansas. Later he erossed the line him- self 13 and was found in camp six miles west of Wyandotte. From this point he was prevailed on to return late at night to Kansas City for a council of war with his offieers. This council opposed the retreat into Kansas, as it meant for one thing that Kansas City would be looted if not sacked; but General Curtis held out long for that aetion. He was not so much to blame. He had about four thousand volunteer troops and some sixteen thousand Kansas militia, the latter so hampered that it had been able to render little service. The fighting had been done principally by the volunteers. He had no hope of better results in future fighting with the militia offieers acting independently of his orders, each regiment for itself. That afternoon Colonel Sandy Lowe, Twenty-first Militia, had stood by and seen Colonel Veale's regiment eut to pieces, not daring to aid his fellow-officer in the absence of express orders. The politicians about Governor Carney were urging General Curtis to fall back into
13 Among other proof on this point, of which there is mueh, is the statement of Charles Waring, of Manhattan, Kansas, June 21, 1910. Waring was in Company G, Eleventh Kansas. At the time of the Priee raid he was serving in the band of General Curtis. This band furnished the music at the funeral of Major J. Nelson Smith. Seeond Colorado, who was killed in the battle at Little Blue, and buried Satur- day afternoon, October 22d, in a cemetery between Westport and Kansas City. General Curtis attended the funeral, but left before the eere- monies were ended. ordering the band to follow him to Wyandotte. At Wyandotte he could not be found, and the band followed him out to the "Six-mile House," on the Leavenworth road, where he was found in camp. Waring says that from that time the men had little confidence in General Curtis.
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Kansas, promising active support if he would do so. Curtis was an old man. He was loyal and patriotic, but the incessant intrigue of Carney and his associates had told on him. He did not believe his little force of volunteer troops could hold Price in check, and he counted very little on the militia outside of Kansas. If he had asserted himself, sup- pressed the Kansas politicians, and assumed vigorous command of the militia he could have defeated Price. He knew this, and also knew that he had a perfect right to do it, martial law being in effect and the laws of Kansas suspended. But he could not bring himself to the point of resisting Governor Carney.
The first decision of the council of war was to retreat, but General Curtis was finally prevailed on to stand his ground and have his trains return from Wyandotte. This result was not reached, however, until it had been decided by the officers to arrest General Curtis and put General Blunt in command of the army.
When the movements of the following day had been determined by the council it was dissolved. Then Carney and his advisers fell on Gen- eral Curtis with such vigor that he promised them he would retreat into Kansas early Sunday morning; and he actually went to Westport to order the retreat. He found the battle in progress. General Blunt would not order a retreat with the troops under fire, and General Curtis did not do so. The co-operation of the greater part of the militia was lost, though it was anxious to a man to go into battle, those who secured the opportunity doing good service, demonstrating that victories rather than defeats could have been won had Governor Carney and his poli- ticians been suppressed early in the campaign.
The attack on Price on Sunday was without much order and unity of action. About noon General Pleasanton arrived on the field in the rear of the Confederate army, and had General Curtis made the proper effort General Price's army could have been destroyed. When Price turned to retreat and the day was won Governor Carney and his militia officers became very enthusiastic and displayed great anxiety for the battle.
The Eleventh Kansas had been issued rations and ammunition early Sunday morning; for late Saturday night Captain B. F. Simpson had placed a cocked pistol at the ear of a disloyal pilot and forced him to take a boat to Wyandotte and bring a cargo of supplies for that purpose, before the return of the trains to the Missouri side. The position of the Eleventh on Sunday was on the extreme right of the Army of the Border, south of Westport, where it pushed a rebel force rapidly down the State- line road; but it was not properly supported. Colonel Moonlight sounded the recall for Colonel Plumb, who was far in the advance with his men. If the Eleventh had been supported it would have been exactly opposite General Pleasanton when he came on the field, and the Confederate army would have been within the Union lines with escape very difficult, if not impossible.
With the appearance of Pleasanton the spell of stupidity was broken. Relieved of the incubus of Governor Carney and his advisers, General
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Curtis showed some of his old-time spirit. The Eleventh was thrown forward to keep abreast of Price's army to prevent the entrance into Kansas of any part of it on the retreat. This it accomplished as to the towns. It saved Mound City after a severe engagement and it reached Fort Scott only a few minutes ahead of a Confederate force sent to destroy it. As the Eleventh entered the town it was met by the people and received with cheers. "The Star Spangled Banner" was sung as the Old Flag was borne into the public square.
The Eleventh was in pursuit of Price to the Arkansas River. From Fort Smith it returned to Kansas through the Ozark Mountains of North- west Arkansas. At Fort Smith the horses had broken into a cane-brake; eating the hard stalks of cane caused the death of some two hundred and fifty of them ; and this number of men were compelled to march on foot. There was much rain and wet snow to march through. The country had been stripped by the Confederates on their retreat and supplied little for man or beast. Horses died on the road, thus constantly augmenting the column marching on foot. Colonel Plumb fared no better than his men. but he cheered and encouraged them. The first service of the Eleventh had been in this rugged region in 1862, and this march was a repetition of the hard experience of those days.
The regiment arrived at Paola, December 12, after a campaign of exactly two months.
CHAPTER XLVII
THOMAS CARNEY
Hon. Thomas Carney, second governor of Kansas, was intimately iden- titied with the history of this commonwealth during the exciting days prior to and during the Civil war. In fact, for some years his life history was the history of the state itself, so inseparably was he asso- eiated with public measures. An ardent supporter of republican prin- eiples and a man of great patriotism, he did all within his power to pro- mote the interests of his party, his state and his country, in each of which he attained distinction.
In Delaware County, Ohio, Mr. Carney was born August 20, 1824. When he was four years of age his father, James Carney, died, leaving the widowed mother, poor, and with four small children. For this reason, his opportunities were meagre; in fact he had none except such as he made for himself. His early life was spent in the hardest kind of work, after he was old enough to be of assistance on the farm. From the time he was eleven until he left home, he was the teamster of the family, and conveyed the produets of the farm to Newark, thirty-six miles distant, using as a means of transportation a yoke of oxen. When nineteen years of age, with $3.50 in his possession and buoyed by the hope of youth, he left the home farm. Ile attended school in Berkshire, Ohio, for six months, meantime working for his board. Afterward he secured employment in a retail dry-goods house in Columbus, where he remained for two years, then became clerk in a wholesale dry-goods house in Cin- cinnati. While with the retail firm he received $50 and his board the first year and $100 and board the second year. He remained in Cin- cinnati for twelve years, but his health became impaired by his close attention to business, his success as a member of the firm of Carney, Swift and Company, having been secured only at the expense of his physical strength.
Realizing that he must seek another climate, in 1857 Mr. Carney visited the West. In the spring of 1858 he commenced business in Leaven- worth, Kansas, where, in partnership with Thomas C. Stevens, he opened the first exclusively wholesale house in the city and founded a business that for years was of immense value to local interests. On the retirement of Mr. Stevens in 1866, the firm name was changed to Carney, Fenlon and Company. Two years later the firm established the house of E. Fenlon and Company in St. Louis, which business later merged into the house of Carney, Garrett, Fenlon and Company, and later was changed
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to Carney, Fenlou and Company. The subsequent retirement of Mr. Fenlon caused another change in the business, which was afterward con- ducted by Mr. Carney alone until it was sold. He also started the whole- sale shoe house of Carney, Storer and Company, which firm in 1873 was dissolved, and succeeded by Thomas Carney and Company. In 1875 the business was sold and the one to whom its success was due retired, in a measure, from participation in business affairs.
The connection of Mr. Carney with affairs of state dates from the fall of 1861, when he was elected to the lower house of the Legislature. Sep-
Gov. THOMAS CARNEY
[Copy by Willard of Portrait in Library of Kansas State Historical Society ]
tember 17, 1862, when the republicans met in state convention, he was nominated for governor, and on the 4th of November was elected, receiv- ing 10,090 votes, about twice the number received by his opponent. January 12, 1863, he took his seat as governor, and from that time until the close of his term he gave his undivided attention to public affairs. He found the state in a discouraging condition. It was utterly without credit, and without means to carry on its government or protect its citizens from guerrillas, Indians and the calamities incident to war. Along the eastern and southern borders the Confederates hovered while
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on the west were murderous bands of Indians. The life of every settler was in peril. The general government, immersed in civil war, had no time to devote to the welfare of a remote state. Hence, the welfare of the people devolved entirely upon the governor. Finding that he would be obliged to depend upon his own resources, he investigated the situa- tion thoroughly. The state had no money, no arms and no ammunition, but this did not discourage him. On visiting the menaced regions he found that the people were beginning to seek places of greater safety, and he foresaw the probability that the region would become a desert, unless decisive steps were immediately taken. He raised a force of 150 men and employed them as a patrol along the border, so that no hostile movement could be made without detection and the people would thus have time to rally to the necessary points for defense. The patrol was hired by the governor and paid ont of his private means, he giving $1 a day for a man and horse, the United States Government furnishing the rations. He put the men in the field and kept them there, at a cost to himself of more than $10,000. At the same time he was a captain in the home guard and often on duty in that capacity. Through his patrol he preserved the border from invasion, but, at a later period, he was notified by the commander of the federal forces to abolish the patrol, as the regular troops would be able to eare for the safety of the state. He carried out the order, and within three days Quantrill made his raid into Kansas. Lawrence was in ashes and 180 persons were foully murdered. During the existence of the patrol, the arrangements were such that the different members could speak with cach other every hour, but the militia were scattered in squads over a distance of twenty-five miles, and when Quantrill marched into Kansas, he casily escaped their notice. He moved stealthily. No one knew of his approach except one man who lived along the line of march. He saw the guerrillas, mounted a horse and hurried toward Lawrence to warn the inhabitants, but his horse fell and the rider's neck was broken. Thus the sole witness of the invasion was silenced. It is worthy of mention, as showing the governor's generous disposition, that he made a gift of $500 to the widow of this man, and he also gave $1,000 for the relief of the people of Lawrence.
The entire official career of Governor Carney was a stormy one. Occurring, as it did, at a time when the nation was rent asunder by internal strife, when the state itself was a financial and political wreck, the situation called for a man of great discretion, foresight, energy and force of character. That he met the demands of the situation is recog- nized by all. Through his instrumentality the state was placed upon a firm basis financially. He sacrificed himself for the interests of the state, and gave generously of time, of means and of influence, to promote the prosperity of the commonwealth. During the first year of his administra- tion, the house accepted the grant of Congress giving land for the agri- cultural college, and located said college at Manhattan, Riley County ; also provided for the establishment of an asylum for insanc at Osawatomie, for the building of a penitentiary at Leavenworth, the establishment of a state normal school at Emporia, and the Kansas State University at
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Lawrence (to which he made a personal contribution of $5,000). Decem- ber 10, 1863, a brick building on Kansas Avenue, Topeka, was leased to the state for a temporary capitol. During 1864 the House appointed commissioners to locate a blind asylum in Wyandotte County, and a deaf and dumb asylum in Olathe; grand juries were abolished and a burean of immigration established.
January 9, 1865, Governor Carney retired from the chair of chief executive, in which he was succeeded by Samuel J. Crawford. June 4, 1866, he was elected a director in the Kansas City, Lawrence and Fort Gibson Railroad Company, of which James H. Lane was first, and Wil- liam Sturges the second president. In 1865 and 1866 he served as mayor of Leavenworth, during which time he was interested in and con- tributed toward the building of the railroads here. He was interested in the organization of the First National Bank of Leavenworth, of which he officiated as a director for several years. With other enterprises, both local and state, he continued to be identified, and, while giving much time and thought to private business affairs, nevertheless found oppor- tunity to identify himself with every project for the public welfare and advancement. His death, the result of apoplexy, occurred July 28, 1888. in the town of which he had long been an honored citizen and to whose development he had contributed perhaps as much as any of its promi- nent pioneers. His name is inseparably associated with the history of the state he loved so well. Those who watched his official career, amid all the perplexities of war times, when great responsibilities were thrust upon him, under the most adverse and trying circumstances, agreed that he proved himself to be equal to every emergency, the man for the place : and, whatever may have been individual opinions as to his decisions and actions, it was the verdict of all that his administration was the means of establishing the credit of the state upon a sound financial basis and advancing its educational and general interests in a manner most gratify- ing to every loyal citizen.
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