USA > Kansas > The Seventh Kansas calvary: its service in the civil war. An address before the State historical society, December 2, 1902 > Part 8
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The name of "Jayhawker" was not an asset at first to be highly valued. The men laughed at it and accepted it. They did not realize what might happen to them in future ages when the ambitious historian turned his im- agination loose on the iniquities that attended the name. When, in the spring of 1862, the regiment was ordered down to the Army of the Ten- nessee, where real war was on tap, the name suggested a scapegoat, and every regiment in the ariny corps began systematically to lay their depreda- tions on the shoulders of the Seventh Kansas. We had our pay held up for over eight months because we refused to make good the depredations com- mitted almost entirely by an Illinois regiment. It was for this injustice that the First Kansas, out of sympathy (God bless them!), refused to cheer General Grant when so ordered, as they marched by his headquarters at Ox- ford, Miss., in the fall of 1862. And this grand old regiment was mighty well disciplined, too. I love this old regiment. We served together for al- most a year. I never shall forget the scene at the Tallahatchie when the rebels began their advance toward our little regiment from their forts along the bottom. Forty siege-guns were filling the atmosphere with bursting shells, and things looked dubious. But just then the infantry column came up at double time, the First Kansas in the advance-"Jayhawkers, ye'll have help now!" All hell couldn't have taken that hill.
During the summer of 1862 the Seventh Kansas served under the great cavalry leader, General Sheridan, then a colonel, at Rienzi, the extreme southern outpost of the army. The service was hazardous and exacting, but this efficient soldier often spoke in generous praise of the service ren- dered. During the advance of General Grant's army down the Mississippi Central Railway toward Vicksburg in the fall of 1862, day after day the Seventh Kansas held the post of honor as the advance-guard of the main infantry column, and it skirmished and fought over every foot of the way between the Cold Water and Coffeyville. It cleared and carried the crossing of every intermediate stream; charged through and captured Holly Springs in the early morning, with military stores and many prisoners; charged the rebel battery at Waterford and captured one of its guns; and finally drove
NOTE 9 .- The American Bible Society had a depository at Harrisonville, Mo. When a de- tachment of the Seventh Kansas entered the town the store had been already looted by some previous organization, but the Bibles were left intact. The Seventh Kansas took the Bibles. It might be pleasant at this late date for the Bible Society to learn that their involuntary charity had been so appropriately applied.
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the enemy behind their breastworks at the Tallahatchie, and held them there for eight hours until the infantry advance came up, led by the grand old First Kansas infantry. These eight hours were passed under the steady fire of forty siege-guns that made up the Confederate batteries. Men of the Seventh Kansas crawled that night through the rebel pickets and into their fortifications, and brought the news that the enemy were evacuating. In the early morning this regiment forced a crossing and followed, harassing their rear-guard from Abbeyville to Oxford, and, driving back their artillery, carried the town by a charge, fighting every inch of the way through the streets. Between the Tallahatchie and Water Valley this one regiment cap- tured over 2000 prisoners. At Coffeyville, where the entire cavalry division was led into a trap by an inefficient leader, the Seventh Kansas was in the brunt of the battle, and fell back in order, and it was the Seventh Kansas that formed at the Tillaboba bridge against the rebel infantry and stopped their pursuit. General Grant never criticised the fighting qualities of the regiment.
Gen. G. M. Dodge, when in command of the Sixteenth army corps, always gave the Seventh Kansas cavalry the preference, and plainly told us so. While under his command the Seventh Kansas and Tenth Missouri cav- alry (Cornyn's brigade), numbering less than 1000 men, whipped to a finish 3500 men under Roddy at Leighton, Ala., and a week later the augmented brigade whipped General Gholson's army at Tupello, Miss., capturing an en- tire regiment of Confederate cavalry.
During the campaigns of Gen. A. J. Smith against Forrest, in northern Mississippi, in 1864, that splendid fighter detached the Seventh Kansas from the cavalry corps, and the Jayhawkers were again given the honored position of advance-guard of the main infantry column. It cleared the way from the north line of Mississippi to Pontotoc; and when Smith made a feint retreat to maneuver Forrest outside of his fortifications, the Seventh Kan- sas fought for sixteen hours, covering the rear against Forrest's entire cav- alry division. Only those who have been up against Forrest know what this means. Forrest himself says, referring to this rear defense: "He took advantage of every favorable position, and my artillery was kept almost constantly busy." The whole wagon-train for the most of the day had but the Seventh Kansas between it and the enemy's cavalry. General Smith's confidence in the regiment must have been great; and it was not mistaken- not a wagon was lost.
The above incidents are cited to show that under great war leaders the Jayhawkers were trusted and honored, and that as a fighting regiment it always made good. It fought an offensive warfare, not waiting to be at- tacked, but dashed in and got in that effective first blow that wins the fight. Even during its two months in Missouri in the winter of 1861-'62, its killed and wounded was almost fifty per cent. more than the similar loss in Lane's brigade during the whole time it was under Lane's command.
The first movement made into Missouri, as has been said, was by com- panies A, B and H, led by Colonel Anthony. On the evening of November 10, 1861, a loyal Missourian came in with the information that the rebel Up. Hayes had assembled his band of guerrillas for mischief, and was in camp on the Little Blue about thirteen miles out. Anthony immediately moved, with 110 men, and after an all-night march attacked the rebel camp at early
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morning of the 11th. A desperate fight followed. The rebel force greatly outnumbered Anthony's command, but, taken by surprise, they were driven from their camp with heavy loss, and their horses, wagons and en- tire camp equipment were captured. The guerrillas retreated to the bluffs and rallied behind the rocks in a strong defensive position, from which they could not be driven. Our loss was nine men killed and about thirty wounded, many of the latter, however, but slightly. The rebel dead left in camp was a much larger number. Anthony retired, bringing away all his killed and wounded and all the captured property. The writer was, with the reënforce- ments, hurried out to Anthony's support. He was met some eight miles out, on his return march. There were farm-wagons and bed-quilts, a part of the primitive rebel equipment. In some of the wagons were the severely wounded, stolidly bearing their pain; in others the bed-quilts covered motion- less shapes, and told the pitiful story of death and sacrifice. There were no "women's dresses, " nor "spinning-wheels " nor "gravestones strapped 10 to the horses"-the gravestones were a matter for after-consideration. This was the first raid of the Seventh Kansas into Missouri.
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Soon after the regiment went into camp together on the Westport road, near the old McGee tavern. From this camp the regiment made a march out to Independence, returning the same day. This movement is called "a raid" by Britton in his "Civil War on the Border, 1861-'62," (page. 176 ). He erroneously fixes the date in September (more than a month before the Seventh Kansas was organized), and credits the speech in the court-house square to Jennison. Jennison was not present; Colonel Anthony was in command and made the speech.
When Price retreated south from Lexington he promised to soon return with reinforcements and occupy the country permanently. The rebel sym- pathizers around Independence were aggressively elated, and the spirit of secession blatantly rampant. Threats were being made against loyal citi- zens, and many were being driven from their homes and compelled to come over into Kansas for safety.
Both the march out and return were orderly. It was not the first time Union troops had passed over this road. Some destroying hand had some- time preceded us ; along the road were several lonely chimneys and black- ened remains of houses. As we entered Independence, riding down the long, sloping street to the business part of the town, we saw two ladies waving their handkerchiefs from the upper floor of a double porch, at the rear of a house about a block to the left. When we returned in the after- noon they were again at their post. Three years later, when the veteran Seventh Kansas had been rushed by forced marches from Mississippi to help defend Kansas against Price, and as the extreme advance of Pleasanton's relieving army charged up that same street against a battery in action on the crest, two ladies were waving their handkerchiefs from that same porch.
NOTE 10 .- The writer of this article has had some experience with pack-trains, but is at a loss just how to proceed to strap a spinning-wheel to a saddle, especially as the saddle is to be occupied by a rider. The statement seems a little extravagant. Also, the setting of the scene seems to be a little contradictory. That the route should be "lighted by burning homes" re- quires a background of darkness, and that the particulars of the fantastic garb and impedimenta alleged to have been borne by the recreant Jayhawkers be made evident, the light of day would seem to have been most necessary. Also, referring to the " gravestones" that were strapped to the saddles, might they not have been finger-boards taken from the crossroads? Or perhaps the word "gravestones" is a misprint for grindstones: for it was the universal custom of the Seventh Kansas to take possession of all grindstones found along the line of march. These were worn on the watch-chain as an ornament or fob.
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Shells were bursting and bullets were flying thick, but they maintained their post to the end. They did not seem to have any grudge against the Seventh Kansas.
While at Independence the regiment was not permitted to break ranks. The male citizens were rounded up and corraled in the court-house square, and Colonel Anthony, from the court-house steps, impressed upon their minds some wise and salutary truths. I do not know that much good was accomplished, but I am sure Colonel Anthony himself must have been greatly relieved when he got that red-hot stuff out of his system. No houses were burned at any time. The regiment made an orderly march back to their camp and did not parade through Kansas City, and the lurid story of the route being "lighted by burning homes" lacked the necessary background of darkness to have made it effective.
Colonel Anthony was a rigid disciplinarian and exacted obedience on every occasion. He was at times tyrannical, and on several occasions he stood perilously near death when he threatened men with the flat of his saber. He never stood for foolishness, and while on the march was con- stantly up and down the column watching the conditions, and if the fool of the regiment had deemed it funny to array himself in any grotesque manner he would have been ordered to dismount and continue the rest of the march on foot, and when in camp the most unpleasant part of fatigue duty would have been assigned to him. No culprit could ever hope to escape through forgetfulness: his case was always attended to. The army was too new for this excess of discipline, and often he would have accomplished more by less exacting methods. He was himself restive under authority, and did not hesitate to express his opinion of the incompetency of certain officers over him, and this was not a good pattern of discipline to set for his men. The first year of the war was a great strain on the army. A lot of incompetent book soldiers had to be tried out, and the great leaders were yet subordi- nates, who had still to make themselves evident by their works. In the regiment, the first selection of company officers was not always a suc- cess. They were elected by the men. But I will say this method produced better results than would have obtained from a direct independent appoint- ment by the governor; and this opinion is abundantly sustained by the character of the appointments he later imposed upon us from civil life. Two of his appointments did make good. Capt. Jacob M. Anthony illus- trated the Kansas motto, but he was helped by peculiar conditions; and Fred Emery, the other, very soon was transferred to the regimental staff as adjutant, and did not have a disgruntled company of men behind him to make life a tantalizing and troublous journey. All the rest went down to oblivion through forced resignation or the sentence of a court martial.
A few days after this "raid " out to Independence, the Seventh Kansas moved out by a roundabout way to Pleasant Hill. On this march guerrilla pickets were in evidence on distant elevations, disappearing over the crest whenever a near approach was made. Late in the morning a heavy fog came down, and the advance was necessarily very cautious. When the fog suddenly lifted, the point, consisting of six men under the command of First Sergt. Johnny Gilbert of company C, saw a squad of men grouped up the road near a house on a hill. He immediately charged, and the guerrillas, evidently thinking the whole regiment was behind the yells that the six
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throats were emitting, broke and wildly stampeded down the road, and, to the surprise of the charging squad, about eighty mounted men, who had been invisible behind an echelon of barns and stacks, dashed out and, terror- stricken, followed them. One dead mule and one wounded prisoner were the material fruits of this unexpected victory. I cannot refrain from inject- ing here an item of personal achievement. I charged with this squad, but I could not help it-my horse ran away. As to Johnny Gilbert, he later de- serted, leaving all government property carefully scheduled behind him in his tent. He had been outraged by the appointment by the governor of an incompetent, cowardly civilian to a commissioned vacancy that in all justice belonged to him. I saw him later in the service as a sergeant of artillery in a famous battery attached to the Sixteenth army corps.
A few days later the regiment came back and went into camp in the old fair-ground at Independence. While at this camp fifteen picked men were sent out, under command of Lieut, Frank Ray, to the north as far as the river. A written list of about a dozen houses, scatteringly located, was given him, with verbal instructions to burn them. This was systematically done. Ray had been a sergeant in the regular army. His force was small and the neighborhood was full of danger, and he kept his men compactly together. No looting was permitted, not even from houses burned. One old Roman matron helped the destruction by throwing a pillow-case a quarter full of powder in her fireplace, and walked from the ruins apparently un- scathed. Whether the orders for this burning came from higher than regi- mental authority I never knew. There was no row made at Fort Leavenworth over it, as was the case in subsequent events.
The regiment went north into Kansas for about two weeks, being during the time in camp about eight miles south of Leavenworth. On December 10 the Seventh Kansas was ordered to West Point, in the northern part of Bates county, Missouri. There was no town there at the time, it having been burned by other vandals than the Jayhawker regiment. On December 24, the regiment marched north in the face of a blinding blizzard, to Morris- town, or where Morristown11 had once stood. This town was also little more than a name; the anticipatory torch had some time before blotted it out. It was here that Col. Hampton Johnson of the Fifth Kansas cavalry had been ambushed and slain at the crossing of the stream, in September; and it was here, I believe, at that time, that seven Confederate prisoners were sub- jected to the action of a drumhead court martial and shot at the edge of their graves. The justice of this act does not concern the history of the Seventh Kansas. It occurred before the service of that regiment began. This was the permanent camp of the regiment during the remainder of its stay in Missouri.
On the last day of 1861 a raid was made out to Dayton and Rose Hill. The latter town was in the southeast corner of Johnson county. Fulkerson, Scott and Britty, rebel officers, were recruiting through this neighborhood. Many Union families were being driven out and over into Kansas, and brought stories of burning and outrage to our camp. There was much skir-
NOTE 11. - A correspondent signing himself "A. B. M.," writing from near Morristown, July 23, 1861, speaks of the capture of Morristown, Mo., July 22, by Captain Jennison with twenty-five of his own men and twenty volunteers. Two wagon-loads of "contraband" goods were taken and distributed through the camp. To the writer's share fell two hats, a necktie, drawers. bridle-bit, soap, pencils, blank books, writing-paper, and, as company steward, a supply of drugs and medicines. - Jennison Scrap-books, vol. 1, p. 13.
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mishing during this trip, and Colonel Anthony was in personal command. 12 The town of Dayton was burned by his order, and he never shrank from the responsibility. Scattering farmhouses were also burned, and doubtless horses were taken and some looting done. Anthony made a report of this expedition. His action was disapproved by General Hunter, and he was censured, but never punished.
I cannot speak personally of the occurrences during the month of Jan- uary, 1862, for I passed that month in an old remnant of a house at Morris- town set apart for a hospital. The delirium of typhoid fever blotted out my memory during that time. I can say, however, that there was much fighting during that month, and the regiment lost seven or eight men killed in action, and a number of men were wounded. On January 9 an expedition was made, under Major Herrick, to Holden and Columbus. Company D was ambushed at the latter place and driven back. Captain Utt, with com- pany A, captured the town, buried our dead and burned the village. There was much scouting during the remaining time in Missouri. Horses were brought in, and doubtless many found their way to private homes in Kan- sas, and not many to the government corrals. It has been said that Jenni- son profited by the sale of some of them; but it is better understood that his active cooperator, when he resigned and sold this stock, told Jennison to whistle for his share.
Jennison evidently directed operations from a distance, in a limited sense, and a very limited portion of the command was involved. It is to be re- membered that the desertions from company H were a matter of subsequent history. The regiment, as a body, was under a reasonable state of dis- cipline. On January 31, 1862, the Seventh Kansas started on its march to Humboldt, Kan., which town had been burned during the previous October by rebel raiders led by Col. Talbott. Missouri knew the Seventh Kansas no more until the Price raid of the fall of 1864 brought back that regiment by forced marches from Mississippi. The hurried rush up the river to St. Louis from Memphis, the day-and-night march across Missouri, and the charge at Inde- pendence were subsequent history. The firing in the rear of Price's army, that told the almost exhausted Union soldiers at Kansas City that relief had come, was directed at the charging Kansas regiment, that had outlived obloquy and come into its heritage.
There is a good deal of rot connected with the theory that any especial man or deed was responsible for the raid on Lawrence. The original burn- ing of Lawrence, Osawatomie, etc., was responsible for Montgomery, Jen- nison, etc., and the campaigns along the border in 1861 held the Missouri
NOTE 12 .- The rebels in Jackson county never fought unless they had the advantage; they laid in ambush and bushwhacked. They did not wear uniforms, but wore citizens' clothing, and when cornered hid their guns and came out whining that they were Union men. Whenever a house was burned they always sent up a howl about being "Union," when no house was burned unless it was well-known that the owner was a guerrilla and out in the "bresh." The only howl made was by "Grandmother" Halleck, and General Hunter, who learned better later. In Alabama we went out and burned and destroyed barns, corn and fodder, and brought away all horses and mules; also cattle, as a rebel brigade made this their home and came out to raid upon our outly- ing camps. Whenever a train was fired upon by guerrillas we immediately destroyed all build- ings and property within a radius of several miles. We burned Oxford, Miss., in retaliation for the burning of Chambersburg, Pa., by Early. (We got the news from a rebel newspaper which was exulting over it.)
Order of General Grant to General Sheridan, August 16, 1864: "If you can possibly spare a division of cavalry, send them through Loudon county to destroy and carry off the crops, ani- mala, negroes, and all men under fifty years of age capable of carrying arms." etc.
This destruction was common throughout the army. It was a necessity. When Grant fell back from Oxford, Miss., in the winter of 1861 and 1862, we covered the rear. Fences, barns and houses were burning, destroyed by the infantry column in advance of us.
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guerrillas in check for the time. Quantrill was a moral degenerate, and when one follows the subsequent career of train-robbing and murder of Jesse James, Cole Younger and others of Quantrill's old gang, the question of inducement to slaughter seems to be a superfluity. Quantrill doubtless had his eyes on Lawrence from the beginning, and was only watching for a propitious season to carry out a long-matured plan.
As to the conditions in Missouri after the Seventh Kansas left, the fol- lowing extract from a letter of O. G. Cates, of Jackson county, Missouri, to Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War, bearing date of February 26, 1862, (War Records, vol. 17, part 2, p. 93) will illustrate:
"It now appears that, although the Kansas volunteer troops in obedience to orders did leave the state of Missouri, the substituted United States troops in that county (Jackson) have made no change in their mode of war- fare for the better; the same wanton and lawless violation on the rights of private property have continued without check or hindrance. Bands of negroes, slave and free, and clans of white men, thief and Jayhawker, from the state of Kansas, with the knowledge of the United States forces thus substituted, are permitted in open day to enter our county and freely gratify their savage lust of plunder and private revenge on defenseless and terror- stricken people."
It would appear from the above that the Seventh Kansas was not re- sponsible for all the wrongs on the border. 13 The Seventh Kansas had become heir to the name "Jayhawkers," and they bore it to the end. The regiment was neither an aggregation of devils nor saints. The regiment did always fight well, and gained some honor. Propitious fate transferred them to the Army of the Tennessee, and their initial service there was directly under Col. Philip Sheridan. Without orders, the regiment charged General Price's camp at Marietta, Miss., and rode through it and brought away his headquarters flag, and would have burned the camp had not Sheri- dan in person ordered us to withdraw. The Seventh Kansas rode down through Funderberger's Lane in the night against an unknown foe, and routed a superior force. The Seventh Kansas, unaided and far from sup- port, charged Jackson's veteran cavalry division of over 4000 men, and the lane at Lamar was strewn with rebel dead. Thirty-six killed, 500 prisoners, hundreds of horses and over 2000 stands of arms were the fruits of this vic- tory. The infantry regiments came out and cheered us as we passed their camps on our return, and it became a custom that obtained for months
NOTE 13. - A careful reading of the war records of operations in Jackson and surrounding counties during 1862, between the time that the Seventh Kansas was withdrawn and the " Red Leg" service began-that houses of rebels continued to be burned by Union troops, as is noted in the reports of Col. John T. Burris and others ( War Records, vol 8), and the "capture" of horses by the hundreds that were seized and brought out of Missouri, which are mentioned in these reports- indicate that the warfare of 1861 continued, and it does not appear that any specific censure emanated from headquarters. Also Gen. Ben. Loan, on November 17, 1862, assessed $15,000 against the disloyal citizens of Jackson county, $7500 to be applied to subsist enrolled militia, and $7500 for destitute families of soldiers engaged in active service. General Curtis alone seemed to comprehend the situation, as his communication to General Loan ( War Records, vol. 13, p. 688 ), dated September 29, 1862, indicates :
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You think Lane and Jennison should be sent to a 'safe place.' I think it would be safe to send them against the rebels and Indians that are now collected and invading Mc- Donald, Barry and Stone counties. But let terror reign among the rebels. It will be better to have them under such power than loose to carry on guerrilla warfare which drives good people out of Jackson and Lafayette. What rights have the rascals that go skulking about in the garb of citizens, not soldiers? Even our enrolled militia go with a badge on their hats ; but these bands of so-called 'Partisan Rangers' sneak through the brush with no eniblems of war. but with the stealthy, concealed garb of a private citizen, seek to continue the business of steal- ing, robbing and murdering. They deserve no quarter, no terms of civilized warfare. Pursue. strike and destroy these reptiles, and report to these headquarters as often as possible."
On the date that General Curtis wrote this characteristic letter the Seventh Kansas was hanging on the flank of Van Dorn's army, advancing on Corinth, and attacked their train at Bone Yard.
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after. We began to feel that we could eventually trot in the same class with the old First Kansas infantry, which was among the cheerers. It is an old story and has been briefly told elsewhere. As time went on the name "Jayhawkers" lost its opprobrium, and the Seventh Kansas began to make it an honorable appellation. Yet it was the same regiment, little changed from the band which had served about two months in Missouri, and, if we believe vague tradition, laid the country desolate.
Cleveland met his fate as a discredited outlaw at the ford of the Marais des Cygnes. Jennison has cashed in his checks, withdrawn from the turbu- lent game of life, and judgment has been passed upon him. With all his sins, he had a gambler's generosity, and he often made life endurable to some poor struggling soul. May his deeds of kindness be remembered and all that was evil in his nature be forgotten.
Let us see. Kansas aspires to be called the "Jayhawker State." Our most illustrious citizens hail the name as a badge of honor. Our great Uni- versity perpetuates the name in its war-cry that celebrates victory or shouts defiance after stubborn defeat. How came dishonor to be purified? Did not that one cavalry regiment that inherited the name and bore it through four years of strenuous war do much to make it what it is? How else was the miracle accomplished ?
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