USA > Missouri > Centennial history of Missouri (the center state) one hundred years in the Union, 1820-1921, Volume I > Part 94
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"With regard to the movement in 1862 for a pronunciamento against Mr. Davis, he as- sured me that he had not even heard of it, still less of any suggestion of himself as the leader in whose favor the movement was begun. He expressed surprise at it, and con- demnation of it, but remarked that it explained an incident which had somewhat surprised him, and which he related. On Mr. Davis' visit to Mississippi in 1862, he (General Price) had had an agreeable interview with him, but in it the President, after remarking on the
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gigantic efforts of the United States, very pointedly inquired about as follows: 'Under such circumstances, General Price, would it not be folly for us to have divisions among ourselves?' General Price answered: 'Most assuredly, Mr. President.' And thereupon Mr. Davis, with an air of relief, said markedly: 'I am delighted to hear you say so.' Gen- eral Price remarked to me that after learning from me the existence of the pronunciamento project, he understood what had puzzled him at the time in that conversation, and now thought it designed to sound him as to that project. Soon afterwards I took occasion to assure Mr. Davis of General Price's disclaimer, and related the above incident. Mr. Davis had forgotten it, but supposed he may have made, as he frequently did in his conversations on his visits to the country, some general remarks on the necessity of union and harmony. He smiled at General Price's imagining that he designed sounding him on his intentions of 'pronouncing as a revolutionary president ;' indeed in all his remarks, which were not many, about that movement, Mr. Davis spoke of it more as an insult and a silly attempt to create internal divisions of feeling, than as a serious project to displace him from authority. Yet such it was.
The North West Confederacy.
"In regard to the 'North West' revolutionary scheme, I stated to General Price that the connection of his name, as a leader, with it had done him harm; that no executive, especially one leading a revolution, could look without jealousy on a military officer con- necting himself while in its service with another revolution to occur within the enemy's lines ; that it was not only a species of military insubordination, but an interference with the foreign policy of the Confederate government; and that opinion at the South was much divided as to the real nature of the North West movement (whether for joining us, for separate independence, or for reconstruction of the Union), as to the expediency of our encouraging it if disguised reunion, and even as to the extent to which we could trust its good faith, many considering it a mere political manoeuvre designed solely to affect north- en elections. At the very opening of my conversation and before my presenting the fore- going considerations (in which he fully concurred), General Price disclaimed any direct connection with the North West movement and said: 'I really know no more of it than what I learn from the newspapers and from common talk in the Confederacy.' I alluded to the statement in the Richmond papers of those days that a lady had come through the Federal lines to his camp with communications for him from the North West revolution- ists, and was at Richmond at the Spottiswood, his hotel. He stated as an illustration of his proper respect to the Confederate government in the matter that he had merely heard from the lady her statement on her coming to him in Mississippi in January, 1863, and had merely referred her to the President and facilitated her journey. to Richmond. I decidedly ap- plauded that course and advised his leaving that whole North West business to the Presi- dent ; he agreed with me in the propriety of that course.
"As Major Snead was inclined to promote harmony between the President and Mis- sourians generally, I did not bring up his escapade at the Spottiswood in 1862, in my con- versation with General Price. But I pointed out to him the disturbing influence of Mr. J. W. Tucker in his journal, the Argus and Crisis, published at Jackson, Mississippi, and universally regarded as the 'organ' of General Price; that its blind hostility to the Pres- ident and its interlarding that hostility with advocacy of so-called 'justice to General Price' placed him in the seeming attitude of factious opposition to the President. General Price warmly protested his disapproval of Mr. Tucker's tone, and said he had written him, urging him to drop or change it; Mr. Tucker had answered rather truculently that he would edit his journal according to his own notions. General Price disclaimed it being his organ.
The Alleged Quarrel with Mr. Davis.
"In regard to his alleged quarrel with Mr. Davis at the latter's house in Richmond, General Price explained to me as follows: After dinner he stated at some length to Mr. Davis his project of a campaign in Missouri and his grounds for asking the command Vol. 1-54
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of the forces employed in it; mentioning, among others, that he had fought forty battles and lost none of them; that he could raise an army of 50,000 men, etc., etc. The President listened very patiently and at the conclusion of his remarks, instead of entering into the . question of a military campaign, abruptly asked General Price: 'Is it true, General, that in 1861. on some one's reporting to you that I intended to offer you a commission of Con- federate brigadier, you said that you would trample it under your feet?' General Price denied having made such a remark; but, continued he in his relation of the matter to me: 'I had been gravely, earnestly giving him my reasons, which my experiences in Missouri entitled me to consider not unworthy of respectful consideration, for a campaign in that state. His contemptuously dismissing them in silence and questioning me about a stale slander thoroughly incensed me and I then skinned him.' I could not get from General Price the precise particulars 'of what he himself called his 'skinning' Mr. Davis further than that he gave very free vent to his feelings and opinions. General Price added that during Mr. Davis' subsequent visit in 1862 to Mississippi cordial relations were entirely restored between them.
"But fearful that some ill feeling remained in Mr. Davis on account of this 'skinning' of the commander-in-chief in his own parlor by a military subordinate, I cautiously sounded him on the subject, without giving General Price's version, but only stating that he was said to have been rather discourteous on the occasion. The President, who did not enter into particulars and evidently attached no importance to the incident, said he remembered nothing discourteous in General Price's conversation or deportment; but that they made on him the impression that he was the 'vainest man he ever met.' "
Shelby and His Men.
On the evening of the day that the Confederate Congress made him a brigadier general, Shelby was preparing to attack Steele's army. With 15,000 men Steele was marching south through Arkansas to join Banks who was coming up Red river in the movement against Shreveport. Shelby had 1,000 men. He decided to make the attack on Steele at midnight. To inspire his men he issued this address :
"Soldiers of Shelby's Brigade: You march in four hours to attack the enemy. He is strong, well equipped and not deficient in courage, but I intend that you shall ride down his infantry and scatter his battalions by the splendor of your charge. You have just four hours in which to say your prayers, make your needful preparations and nerve your hearts for the onset. It will be desperate, because you are brave; bloody, because you are reck- less, and tenacious because I am today a brigadier-general. I have told you often about our homes, our country and our glorious cause. Today I simply appeal to your ambition, · your fame, your spotless reputation and your eternal renown."
The plan was carried out. Shelby sent his thousand Missouri troopers against Steele's rear guard in charge after charge until daylight came.
When Price made his 1864. expedition into Missouri, Marmaduke's cavalry was on the right, nearest the Mississippi; Fagan, with five brigades, held the center ; Shelby, with three brigades, was on the left. The army moved at the rate of fifteen miles a day, which was not half fast enough for Shelby. The campaign which Shelby urged was a forced march upon St. Louis. He thought the city could be taken. Thence he proposed that the army cross the Missis- sippi and march through Southern Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, and by way of Eastern Kentucky to the relief of Richmond. After getting into Southeastern Missouri, Price decided to turn westward and march through Missouri.
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The Raid on Lawrence.
Between the sessions of a republican Congressional convention in Missouri Capt. William H. Gregg told the story of Quantrell's raid upon Lawrence. The presence in the republican convention of J. C. Horton, a wholesale merchant, of Kansas City, who in 1863 was one of the Lawrence business men marked for death and who escaped by being overlooked in the hurry of the raid, was the occasion of the revival of the memories. Captain Gregg and Mr. Horton were quietly sharing reminiscences when the former was led to tell how it all came about. When Quantrell formed his band to operate on the Kansas border. Gregg was the eighth man to join it. He became the first lieutenant, the officer closest to the leader. He was the first of Quantrell's men into Lawrence and the last out of it, named by Quantrell to lead the van and later to command the rear in the retreat back to Missouri.
"There were just 294 in the force which Quantrell led to Lawrence," Capt. Gregg said. "We crossed the border between the states of Missouri and Kansas near Aubrey. It was well understood that the purpose of the raid was to attack Lawrence. But the first intention was to capture Gen. Jim Lane. We had sent a spy into Lawrence, a negro named John Lobb, to come back and report how he found things. Lobb did not get back before we had started. He met us on the way and told us that Lane had left town. That was a fact, but Lane had re- , turned later in the evening. We, however, did not learn this until afterwards. We went to Lawrence with the understanding that we would not find Lane, and therefore, we did not look for him. Lane, we were told afterwards, was in Lawrence, but escaped by going out to a pond and getting under water, all but the tip of his nose."
As an illustration of the discrepancies between the truth and the way the history of the Lawrence affair has been preserved, Capt. Gregg recalled what happened as the raiders crossed into Kansas near Aubrey.
"If you look in the war records published by the government." he said, "you will find the official report of the Federal officer who was stationed, with 200 soldiers, at Aubrey. In that report the officer states that he heard a command had crossed the line, going from Missouri into Kansas, somewhere near his post. Now, the fact is, that officer saw us enter Kansas on our way to Lawrence. He got out his 200 men and formed them on the prairie as if to give battle. We marched by them in full view not over half a mile away. Quantrell's order was : "'Make no attack unless fired upon.'
"The Federals did not fire, and we did not. We rode along, leaving them drawn up in line looking at us."
The surprise of Lawrence was complete. Capt. Gregg told how the entrance was made.
"Five miles to the southeast of Lawrence is a little town called Franklin. When we went through there it was just light enough in the morning to tell the difference between a soldier and a citizen on the streets. We did not stop. There was no fighting. As we passed out of Franklin Quantrell said to me :
" 'Gregg, take five men and go ahead to see if there is anything in the way.
"I did so, and as we moved in advance Quantrell put the command in column of fours and followed on a gallop. At that gait we went all of the way to Lawrence. The main
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body followed so closely that we five men were only 250 or 300 yards in advance most of the time. We rode into the town from the south by the main street, Massachusetts. Just before we came to the business portion there was a large open space with about forty large tents. I don't know how many soldiers were in them. The five men with me halted there for the main body to come up. As we sat on our horses we saw soldiers sleeping on the porches of the nearest houses, and opened fire on them with our revolvers. As soon as Quantrell reached me-he was riding at the head of the column-I pointed to the forty tents arranged in the open space. Without a word of command being given, and without a halt being made, the command divided and charged through that camp. Men and horses were wrought up to a pitch of frenzy by the all-night riding and by the final gallop. The horses made no effort to go between the tents. They plunged right through them. In three minutes there wasn't a man alive or a tent standing in the camp. We could see the tents flying as the command went through. I had fallen in on the right of Quantrell, who had remained in the road when the command charged the tents. We started on without waiting for the command to reform, and rode down Massachusetts street into the busi- ness part of the town. As we went along he fired to the left and I to the right. We didn't stop until we came to the river bank. When we came to the end of the street we were entirely alone."
The lieutenant of the guerrillas checked his narration and mused a moment. As if recalling some statements that passed for history of the massacre, he said :
"The raid was soon over. We waged no war on women and children. If any women or children were ever hurt by Quantrell's men it was accidental. I have always believed that most of the men killed at Lawrence were soldiers. As we rode away. Quantrell told me to take sixty men and hold the rear. The news had spread rapidly. Federal troops began to close in on us, and we had steady skirmishing all of the way back to the border. Once my rear guard was driven right in upon the main body. I told Quantrell that if he would overlook it that time it shouldn't happen again, and it didn't. We lost just one man in Lawrence -- Milt Scaggs."
Not a semblance of the feeling which made such things possible was in the tones or the manner of Capt. Gregg as he talked. He was moved to speak be- cause of the presence of men who had participated in the events. One who. heard him was Col. R. H. Hunt, who served with Blunt and with the other Union generals in the fierce campaigning in those times in the Southwest. Col. Hunt was the officer sent to Lawrence to batter down the walls of the Eldridge House, left standing in a dangerous condition after the burning by Quantrell's men. He was one of the foremost republicans of Kansas City, and was con- spicuous in the convention which brought Capt. Gregg to Fairmount.
"I can say this for Capt. Gregg," said Col. Hunt, "that in so far as his memory serves him his statements can be depended upon absolutely. He is a man who would not willfully misrepresent."
Quantrell's Band.
Quantrell who organized these lads of Western Missouri into rough riders of the Civil war, was not to the border born. Capt. Gregg knew him more in- timately, perhaps, than any other of the young Missourians who flocked to him.
"The first we knew of Quantrell was when he came into Missouri with five other Kansans to rob Morgan Walker's house. As we learned afterward, Quantrell came from Ohio. He was raised in Canal Dover. I have been told of recent years that when he
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left Canal Dover he was an abolitionist, his people being so known. He moved to Kansas, took up a claim and taught school. He came out with the Ohio people who were going to make Kansas a free soil state. Something of Quantrell's history in Kansas I have had from ex-Senator Johnson Clark, of Kansas, who afterward moved to Kansas City. Mr. Clark once told me that he assisted Quantrell to perfect his land claim. I think the claim was near Osawatomie, where John Brown lived. Quantrell, as we got the story after he came among us, had a difficulty with some of his associates in Kansas and was shot and wounded. He joined the five Kansans who came over to rob Morgan Walker, and when he got into Missouri he gave away his companions because of what he had suf- fered in Kansas. After that he remained here. What drew attention to him first was a good piece of work he did in recovering several head of fine breeding stock. The animals had been run off from the owner in this county. Quantrell followed the parties who took them, located them in another Missouri county. The owner offered him a handsome reward, but he refused to accept more than $2 a head. He said that was all the work was worth. After that some trouble was made over the manner in which Quantrell had recovered and returned the property. There were threats that he was to be arrested and taken to the place where he had found the stock. When he heard of them he said that he would try to make things interesting if it was proposed to punish him for returning stolen property. He went into the brush and began to organize a company. I,was the eighth man to join him. I took three others into the camp, making eleven in all. Quantrell made me lieutenant. That was the beginning of the organization."
What was the secret of Quantrell's success as a leader? Captain Gregg re- membered him as a man of about 5 feet 9 inches, having light blue eyes and very light hair. His mustache and small imperial, for that was the way he wore what hair he permitted on his face, were red. There was nothing striking about the appearance of this man of 24 as his lieutenant remembered. His aspect had nothing of fierceness or magnetism about it. He was a man of few words. He usually restrained the ardor of his followers, and never sacrificed a man need- lessly. He had no black flag with "Quantrell" in red silk in the center. "We never carried a black flag," said Captain Gregg.
All through this Missouri border country was an intense desire for revenge upon Kansas. Quantrell with a grievance of his own, furnished the oppor- tunity to feed it. Captain Gregg told how the organization grew upon this basis. A single incident will illustrate :
"On one occasion," he said, "the Kansans came into Jackson county and visited the houses of Mr. Crawford and Mr. Sanders. They took the two men prisoners, robbed the houses and then burned them. When they did so they refused to let any of the women folks put on so much as a bonnet, although it was in the winter. After making the destruction as complete as they could they took Mr. Crawford and Mr. Sanders to Blue Springs and killed them. Not long after that Mrs. Crawford came to Quantrell's camp, bringing three boys. The youngest was not more than 14.
"'Here are all I have left,' she said to Quantrell. 'I want you to take them and make soldiers of them.'
"That was the way Quantrell's men were recruited. Most of them were scarcely boys. All of them had family wrongs to avenge."
The Palmyra Affair.
Shortly after the execution at Palmyra, President Davis sent the following letter threatening retaliation :
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"EXECUTIVE OFFICE, RICHMOND, November 17, 1862.
"LIEUT. GEN. T. H. HOLMES,
"Commanding Trans-Mississippi Department.
"General :- Inclosed you will find a `slip from the Memphis Daily Appeal of the 3d instant containing an account, purporting to be derived from the Palmyra (Mo.) Courier, a Federal journal, of the murder of ten Confederate citizens of Missouri, by order of General McNeil, of the United States army.
"You will communicate, by flag of truce, with the Federal officer commanding that de- partment, and ascertain if the facts are as stated. If they be so, you will demand the im- mediate surrender of General McNeil to the Confederate authorities, and if this demand is not complied with, you will inform said commanding officer that you are ordered to execute the first ten United States officers who may be captured and fall into your hands.
"Very respectfully yours, "JEFFERSON DAVIS."
The Newspaper Account.
The article from the Palmyra Courier, which Mr. Davis enclosed, read :
"Saturday last, the 18th inst., witnessed the performance of a tragedy in this once quiet and beautiful city of Palmyra which, in ordinary and peaceful times, would have created a profound sensation throughout the entire country, but which now scarcely produces a distinct ripple upon the surface of our turbulent social tide."
"It will be remembered by our readers that on the occasion of Porter's-descent upon Palmyra, he captured, among other persons, an old and highly respected citizen of this city, named Andrew Allsman. This person formerly belonged to the 3d Missouri Cavalry, though too old to endure all the hardships of very active duty. He was, therefore, detailed as a kind of special or extra provost marshal's guard cicerone, making himself generally useful in a variety of ways to the military of the place. Being an old resident, and widely acquainted with the people of the place and vicinity, he was frequently called upon for information touching the loyalty of men, which he always gave to the extent of his ability, though acting, we believe, in all such cases with great candor, and actuated solely by a con- scientious desire to discharge his whole duty to his government. His knowledge of the surrounding country was the reason he was frequently called upon to act as a guide to scouting parties sent out to arrest disloyal persons. So efficiently and successfully did he act in these various capacities, that he won the bitter hatred of all the rebels in this city and vicinity, and they only waited the coming of a favorable opportunity to gratify their desire for revenge. The opportunity came at last, when Porter took Palmyra.
"That the villains, with Porter's assent, satiated their thirst for his blood by the delib- erate and predetermined murder of their helpless victim no truly loyal man doubts. When they killed him, or how, or where, are items of the act not yet revealed to the public. Whether he was stabbed at midnight by the dagger of the assassin, or shot at midday by rifle of the guerrilla; whether he was hung and his body hidden beneath the scanty soil of some oak thicket, or left as food for hogs to fatten upon, or whether, like the ill-fated Wheat, his throat was severed from ear to ear, and his body sunk beneath the wave, we know not. But that he was causelessly murdered it is useless to attempt to deny.
"When McNeil returned to Palmyra, after that event, and ascertained the circum- stances under which Allsman had been abducted, he caused to be issued, after due delib- eration, the following notice :
"'Palmyra, Mo., October 8, 1862 .- John C. Porter: Sir-Andrew Allsman, an aged citizen of Palmyra, and a non-combatant, having been carried from his home by a band of persons unlawfully arrayed against the peace and good order of the State of Missouri, and which band was under your control, this is to notify you that unless said Andrew Allsman is returned, unharmed, to his family within ten days from date, ten men, who have belonged to your band, and unlawfully sworn by you to carry arms against the government of the United States, and who are now in custody, will be shot as a meet reward for their crimes,
·
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among which is the illegal restraining of said Allsman of his liberty and, if not returned, presumptively aiding in his murder.
. "'Your prompt attention to this will save much suffering. Yours, etc.,
"'W. R. STRACHAN,
"'Provost Marshal General, District of Northeastern Missouri.
"'Per order of Brigadier General commanding McNeil's column.'
"A written duplicate of this notice he caused to be placed in the hands of the wife of Joseph C. Porter, at her residence in Lewis county, who it was well known was in fre- quent communication with her husband. The notice was published widely, and as Porter was in Northern Missouri during the whole of the ten days subsequent to the date of this notice, it is impossible that, with all his varied channels of information, he remained unapprised of General McNeil's determination in the premises.
"Many rebels believed the whole thing was simply intended as a scare, declaring that McNeil did not dare (?) to carry out the threat. The ten days elapsed, and no tidings came of the murdered Allsman. It is not our intention to dwell at length upon the details of this transaction. The tenth day expired with last Friday. On that day ten rebel prison- ers, already in custody, were selected to pay with their lives the penalty demanded. The names of the men so selected were as follows: Willis Baker, Lewis county; Thomas Humston, Lewis county; Morgan Bixler, Lewis county; Herbert Hudson, Ralls county; Marion Lair, Rails county ; Capt. Thomas A. Sidner, Monroe county; Eleazer Lake, Scot- land county, and Hiram Smith, Knox county. These parties were informed on Friday evening that unless Mr. Allsman was returned to his family by I o'clock on the following day they would be shot at that hour.'
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