USA > Missouri > Shelby County > General history of Shelby County, Missouri > Part 11
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SHELBY COUNTY CONFEDERATE TROOPS.
Following the success of the Confeder- ates at Blue Run July 21, and Wilson creek Angust 10, the secessionists be-
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came active and many set out to join the Confederate army. Some went to join the General Price Home Guards in south- western Missouri, others went to Colonel Green in Lewis county. There was no regular company organized in the county, but those who had the war fever left the county either singly or in squads and joined themselves to the Confeder- ate army, either with Colonel Green or General Price. A small company was or- ganized near Hunnewell, however, about the first of August, which was not a reg. ular organization. They were never mus- tered into service and were composed of men from the three counties of Marion, Monroe and Shelby. The company was commanded by Capt. Thomas Stacy, who lived on a farm near Hunnewell, in Shel- by county.
August 8th, Stacy's company made a raid on Palmyra, which was then unoc- cupied and secured some provisions, arms and took two citizens prisoners. Angust 16th the company fired on a train near Hunnewell. The Sixteenth Illinois were on the train and two of the Union men were bady wounded.
MOVEMENT OF UNION FORCES.
About the first of Angust, Captain Forman received orders from General Hurlbut to take his company of Shelby County Home Guards and search certain honses in Shelbyville for military stores. Ten members of the Sixteenth Illinois, who were stationed at Shelbina, vohin- teered to go with Captain Forman.
They reached Shelbyville early in the morning and searched the store of J. B. Marmaduke, but found no military stores. They, however, arrested the vil-
lage gunsmith, Fred Boettcher, whom they charged with repairing guns for some Confederates. Boettcher was taken from Shelbyville to Shelbina and then sent to St. Louis. The Forman Home Guards while in Shelbyville also cut down the secession flag pole.
As stated previously, Hon. John Mc- Afee was an extreme Southern sympa- thizer and agitator. He was accused of being one of the three men in north Mis- souri who did more than a thousand oth- ers to bring about hostilities. The other two were Senator James S. Green, of Lewis county, and Thomas L. Anderson, of Palmyra. It is also notable, how- ever, that when the cannon began to belch forth their deadly missiles of war. these three men remained at home. The story is told on Mr. McAfee that at one time during the progress of the hostili- ties that General Hurlbut offered Mc- Afee a complete outfit, including horse, saddle and bridle and safe conduet out of his lines, if he would enlist in Green's army. McAfee had been arrested by the Sixteenth Illinois on August 6th. The company came from Macon over to Shel- byville and after placing Mr. MeAfee nn- der arrest took him to Macon and kept him a prisoner for some time.
He was treated severely by the Fed- erals because of his pronounced South- ern tendencies, and because he had been so prominent and active in secession matters. It is said General Hurlbut caused him to do hard labor in the ex- treme Angust sunshine, such as digging privies for the soldiers. After keeping him in Macon for a time, he was sent to Palmyra, and General Hurlbut ordered him tied upon the cab of the engine to
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keep the Confederates from firing upon the train. The order, however, was not executed. The engineer refused to run the train if the soldiers executed the order.
GENERAL GRANT IN SHELBY.
at Florida. On his arrival there he found that Harris and his recruits had scattered. General Grant turned around and marched back to his post at Salt river. In relation to the Grant stay in Shelby county, Edgar White, of Macon, recently contributed an article to some eastern papers. We use it here by per- mission :
It was now a settled fact that Missouri soil would be stained with the blood of man by the cruel hand of war, and the Shelbina, Mo .- "Say, do you know I lost the opportunity of a lifetime?" queried a frosty-haired citizen of this town to a group of the oldest inhabitants sitting on the benches in the railroad park. "I might have had chairs and ta- bles and pipes and things worth hun- dreds-yes, thousands of dollars, by now. When the bushwhackers began raising Hades up and down the old Hannibal & St. Joe until nobody wanted to travel, the government sent a rather short, stout man up here to look after things. He only had a handful of men, and was so quiet and easy going that nobody thought he amounted to shmucks. We never took much stock in him till we be- gan to notice that he wouldn't let his soldiers rob our hen houses and take our horses. If any of the men took anything all we had to do was to make a roar to that quiet, stolid looking fellow and he'd say a few short words to somebody and we'd get it back with an apology. That quiet fellow, who generally wore a cigar in his mouth, was a St. Louis woodseller, Col. U. S. Grant by name." Federal government deemed it of the greatest importance to keep the Hanni- bal & St. Joseph railroad intaet. The road was needed to transport troops and provisions and munitions of war over, also in the transmission of messages it was of the utmost benefit. It was there- fore of very great importance that the road should be carefully guarded. To accomplish this the government plainly realized they must send more men to the county. Accordingly Gen. U. S. Grant, commanding the Twenty-first Illinois In- fantry, and Col. John M. Palmer, com- manding the Fourteenth Illinois, were sent to relieve Colonel Smith at Monroe City. In about a week they were sent on to Hunnewell and to the Salt river bridge, which had been burned only a short time before and which they were to guard during the reconstruction thereof. It thus appears that Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, later one of the great- est captains in the Union army and after- ward twice President of the United States, began his illustrious military career in Shelby county. While located "What's that got to do with gilding your furniture?" asked one of the O. I. fraternity. at Salt river bridge, General Grant erected a block house, which stood to his memory until a few years ago. He was "Oh, I forgot; when we found he was a pretty decent sort of a Yankee, and ordered to proceed agaist Tom Harris, who was conducting a recruiting station wasn't out here to raid us, my wife told
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me to invite him over to supper one night. And he'd a come, too, if I had asked him. Wish I had now.
"Let me tell you," the narrator went on, "that man Grant soon had more friends in these parts than anybody. Of course, we were all for the Johnnie Rebs, but we respected the square fellows on the other side. Grant knew which way our feelings were, and he never talked politics or got into any controversies. He and his men protected the railroad at the big bridge and made the bushwhack- ers afraid to light there. That's all the duty he had then. Lots of our people went out to his camp on the river and be- came acquainted with him. He talked to them abont fishing and hunting and woodcraft and the thousand and one homely little occupations that lie nearest the countryman's life. But I noticed that he would a good deal rather listen than talk. He seemed to be gifted that way, and he would remember everything you told him that was worth remember- ing.
"On each side of us were Union com- manders who at that time were talked abont considerably as being fierce and warlike. One was in charge of a large force at Palmyra and the other in charge of the Department of Northern Missouri at Macon. Sometime during the war each of these commanders ordered mili- tary executions of ten men in their re- spective jurisdictions. I'll bet under the same circumstances Grant wouldn't have done anything like that. Here within the length of sixty miles three men were making history in their own peculiar way, two of them by a rigorous enforce- ment of the military law and the other by a quiet, nnostentatious attention to
duty. Of the three the quiet man is the only one whose name ever got into the liistories.
"When Colonel Grant first came to these parts most of the Southern men hiked out. Grant heard of that and he sent couriers ont after them, telling them to come back home and extending a cor- dial invitation to come to his camp and get acquainted. Those who accepted the invitation were astonished at the plain soldier's hospitality and evident good will. He talked to them in his easy, bus- iness like way, explained the difference between a soldier and a marander and said that when his men required feed for their horses or provisions for themselves orders would be issued and the govern- ment would pay for the supplies. He said the fact that we were Southern sym- pathizers wouldn't make any difference with him so long as we didn't come at him with guns. We all thought it was a pity that such a man should be a Yankee, and a citizen asked him one day how he could fight to free the 'niggers,' being in all other respects so much of a gentle- man. I never heard Colonel Grant's an- swer, but several people about here did, and they quote him this way :
"'This war is not to free the niggers; if I thought it was I'd take my men and join the South.'
"You may be sure that didn't lessen his popularity any in this neck o' the woods. We considered Colonel Grant a pretty good 'rebel' from that time on, and looked with confidence to his lining up alongside of Bob Lee before the war was over. Well, he did line up alongside of Lee, but not the way we had hoped he would.
"It was while Colonel Grant was mak-
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ing his headquarters hereabouts that he was ordered to hunt up and attack Colonel Tom Harris and his Confederate soldiers, who were becoming somewhat audacious. Harris was then much bet- ter known than Grant. He had been en- gaged in a number of lively skirmishes and was said to be a hard and swift fighter. Grant knew all this, and I no- tice in reading some sketches about him since the war that he was just a bit un- easy about the outcome of the expected encounter. Nevertheless, he led his men bravely enough in the direction of Har- ris's camp. The Union force halted he- fore ascending the hill, while muskets and ammunition were examined, bayo- nets fixed and prayers said by the devont ones. Then the order came to march. The big hill was surmounted, revealing a naked plain and a hastily abandoned camp. Harris and his warriors skedad- dled.
""'I'll admit I was suffering from stage fright when we went up that hill,' said Colonel Grant, 'but it never oc- curred to me till then that Harris might be bothered with the same disease.'
"That gave rise to Grant's oft-re- peated expression that 'When going into battle I try to remember that the enemy might be as much afraid of me as I am of him.'
"After Colonel Grant left here I read of many mean things said about him by his enemies, but I din't take much stock in 'em. He never said mean things about other people, and that kind of a man don't need any defending."
Shelby county, then, has the distine- tion of being the field in which General Grant began his military career, which
was the stepping stone to the Presidency.
General Grant in after years wrote a letter concerning his stay in Shelby county, of which the following is a copy ;
Long Branch, N. J., August 3, 1884 .- Dear Sir-In July, 1861, I was ordered with my regiment, the Twenty-first Illi- nois Infantry, to North Missouri to re- lieve Colonel Smith, of the Sixteenth, who was reported surrounded on the Hannibal & St. Joe railroad. On my ar- rival at Quincy I found that the regiment (?) had scattered and fled. I then went with my regiment to the junction of the road from Quincy with the one from Hannibal, where I remained for a few days, until relieved by Colonel Turchin with another Illinois regiment. From here I was ordered to guard the work- men engaged in rebuilding the Salt river bridge. Colonel Palmer was there with his regiment at the same time. When the work was near completion I was or- dered to move against Thomas Harris, who was reported to have a regiment or battalion encamped near Florida, Mo. I marched there, some twenty-five miles from Salt river, but found on arrival that he had disbanded about the time I started. On my return I was ordered to Mexico, Mo., by rail. Very truly yours.
U. S. GRANT.
SECESSION OF MISSOURI.
This important event in the history of Missouri occurred on the 28th day of Oc- tober, 1861. The session of the legisla- ture, known as "Claib Jackson's legisla- ture," was held in a hall in Neosha, com- mencing October 26th, and on the 28th an ordinance of secession was passed by
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HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY
both houses. There were in this famous assembly of Missouri statesmen at the time of secession only thirty-nine mem- bers of the house and ten members of the senate. Charles H. Hardin was a mem- ber of the senate and was the only mem- ber of that body to vote "no." He was afterward governor of the state. Repre- sentative Shambaugh, of DeKalb county, was the only one of the thirty-nine mem- bers of the house to vote "no." Accord- ing to the constitution of the state a quorum was required to transact busi- ness. This would have necessitated the attendance of seventeen members of the house. The ordinance passed by the Jackson legislature was, however, ap- proved by the Confederate congress at Richmond, Virginia, and Missouri was considered by those who sympathized with the South as annexed to the South- ern Confederacy.
Shelby county troops were from this time on considered Confederates, and of these the county had perhaps abont 300 in the field. They were mostly with Green and Price. The Third battalion of infantry, under Green, was commanded by Lient .- Col. S. A. Rawlings, of Shelby county, and Capt. Oliver Sparks com- manded Company A.
COUNTY COURT MEETING-CHANGES IN COUNTY OFFICIALS.
The county court of Shelby county had not held a session from October, 1861, until in May, 1862, at which time the court was called together by public no- tice. Of the three county judges who had been elected only one attended (Judge Daniel Taylor). The other two, James Pickett and Perry B. Moore, were turned out of office charged with being disloyal. The governor appointed in their places Samuel Houston and Robert Lair. John Dickerson had also been elected sheriff, and upon refusing to take the "Gamble Oath" was suspended, and E. L. Holliday appointed Elizar sheriff. Mr. Holliday served until October, at which time J. H. Forman was appointed by the governor, and in November he was elected to the office by a unanimous vote. J. J. Foster was also suspended as justice of the peace in Salt River town- ship and Daniel H. Givens in Jackson township shared a similar fate. H. H. Weatherby was appointed in Foster's place and James Jameson in the place of Givens. The assessor's office was also made vacant on account of M. J. Priest being declared disloyal. Leonard Dobyns was appointed to fill the vacancy.
CHAPTER VII.
MISSOURI STATE MILITIA ORGANIZE-BUSHWHACKING IN THE COUNTY-THE BUSH- WHACKING NEAR WALKERSVILLE-STOCKADE BUILT AROUND COURT HOUSE-" SPE- CIAL ORDER NO. 30"-SEVERAL CHANGES IN POSITIONS-JOHN L. OWEN KILLED -SHELBY COUNTY MEN EXECUTED-THE 1862 ELECTION.
MISSOURI STATE MILITIA ORGANIZE.
The war department of the govern- ment gave Governor Gamble authority sometime in December, 1861, to organize the Missouri state militia, which was for the defense of the state and not to be or- dered out of the state unless on the mis- sion of defending the state.
Those who joined this organization were to be paid by the United States government, subsisted, transported, clothed and armed. They were to assist and co-operate with the Federal troops whenever and wherever they possibly could.
Two months later, or in February, 1862, Col. H. S. Lipscomb commenced the organization of a company of cav- alry. It was designated as the Eleventh Cavalry, Missouri State Militia. The organization was completed in May fol- lowing. The regiment was officered as follows: H. S. Lipscomb, colonel; A. L. Gilstrap, lieutenant-colonel; John B. Rogers, J. B. Dodson and John F. Ben- jamin, majors. The regiment existed until September, or four months, then it was consolidated with the Second Mis- souri State Militia. John McNeil was colonel of the new organization and John
F. Benjamin was made lieutenant- colonel.
The Eleventh Cavalry, Missouri State Militia, was made up mostly of Shelby county men. The officers of the Eleventh were: John F. Benjamin, captain from February 10, 1862, until June 3, 1862. At that date James M. Collier was made captain, Mr. Benjamin having, on May 6th, been promoted to a major. Mr. Col- lier resigned on August 6th, and on Au- gust 18th, A. G. Priest was made cap- tain. W. J. Holliday was the first lieu- tenant and John Donahue second lieuten- ant. Later Company I, Second Cavalry, Missouri State Militia, was organized. A. G. Priest was made captain of this regiment, in which capacity he served for nearly a year, from Angust 13, 1862, until July 28, 1863, at which date he re- signed. Alex R. Graham took his place and was commissioned captain August 11, 1863, and resigned November 3rd of the same year, serving in this capacity for only about three months. He was succeeded by James A. Ewing, who took rank from November 25, 1863, and was later commissioned captain Company B. Seventeenth Missouri Cavalry Volun- teers. W. J. Holliday was first lieutenant of the regiment from February 10, 1862,
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HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY
Ewing, who took rank from August 11, 1863, and who, on the 25th of November following, was promoted to captain. Rob- ert C. Cavert then became first lieuten- ant and served in that capacity until mustered out at the close of term, on February 25, 1865. John Donahue was commissioned second lieutenant at the organization of the regiment and served from February 10, 1862, until October 7, 1863, at which time he resigned. The commissary sergeant was John S. Dun- can, whose younger son, Charles B. Dun- can, was bugler of the company. When the regiments were consolidated Com- pany H was mustered out. The officers of this company while it existed were .J. W. Lampkin, captain; Cyrus S. Brown and John C. Carothers, lieutenants. These companies did little except scout- ing throughout Shelby and adjoining counties. They were in the Porter raid and were considered quite efficient in their services generally.
In relation to bushwhacking in the county the history of 1884 has the follow- ing to say :
"Upon the first blush of spring in the year of 1862, military operations in northeast Missouri began to assume a more sanguinary character. The Con- federate bushwhackers were early on the warpath. Near Colony, in Knox county, about the 25th of March, they waylaid seven or eight members of the state mili- tia from Medina, fired upon and killed two and dangerously wounded two more. As another party of militia were return- ing from the burial of the two men killed
until June 13, 1863, at which time he re- they were fired on, presumably by the signed. His successor was James A. same bushwhackers, and three more were killed. Sometime about the 10th of March, James M. Preston, a Union man, living near Monroe City, was taken from his home one night by Capt. Tom Stacy and his band of Confederate partisan rangers, or bushwhackers, and mur- dered. The killing was done in Shelby county, near Stacy's camp, or headquar- ters, on Black creek or North river. Stacy afterward said that Preston had been "carrying water on both shoul- ders"; that he pretended to be a Confed- crate when in the presence of the bush- whackers and that when Federal troops came along he was a stanch Unionist and informed on certain Southern men and had them arrested. Stacy tried Preston after a fashion, found him guilty of play- ing the spy on him and his band, and shot him forthwith. The body was never recovered. It was said to have been sunk in Salt river with large stones tied to it. Preston left a wife and family in distressed circumstances. His murder aroused the greatest indignation among BUSHWHACKING IN THE COUNTY. the Unionists, who vowed that, as the Confederates had inaugurated that sort of warfare, they should have their fill of it before the war was over. Tom Stacy's band numbered at this time perhaps twenty members, but its strength varied from a dozen to fifty. It kept Shelby county in quite a furor at times and greatly disturbed the western part of Marion on various occasions. When any of the members wanted a horse, a gun, a blanket, or any other article, they did not hesitate to take it wherever they found it -no matter whether its owner was a Un- ionist or a Confederate sympathizer. All was fish that came to their net.
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THE BUSHWHACKING NEAR WALKERSVILLE.
On Wednesday, April 2, of this year (1862), Col. H. S. Lipscomb, of the Elev- enth M. S. M., and a Captain Wilmont, with an escort of thirteen men of the same regiment in charge of a wagon load of supplies, started from Shelbina to Shelbyville. Taking the road via Walk- ersville, on Salt river, about a mile be- low that little hamlet, Tom Stacy, with sixteen of his band, bushwhacked the party, killing two militia men named Long and Thomas Herbst and a promi- nent and worthy citizen of the county named Lilburn Hale. The latter gentle- man lived three miles southeast of Shel- byville. That morning he had gone to Shelbina to mail a letter to his son, J. C. Hale, then in Pike county, and now prominent attorney of Shelbyville. Re- turning on horseback he was overtaken by the military a quarter of a mile from the scene of shooting and was riding along with Colonel Lipscomb when the murderous volley was fired. Long and Herbst were residents of this county also and both left families. All the men were shot in the head. It was wondered at that not at least a dozen men were killed. The firing was done at point blank range. In a short time Colonel Lipscomb and some of the others of the escort came galloping into Shelbyville and gave the alarm. There was the greatest indigna- tion among the militiamen and the Union citizens. Mr. Hale was generally re- spected, and his murder incensed the people as much as the killing of the sol- diers. The troops in town consisted of the Eleventh M. S. M., who sprang at once to arms. Lieut. John Donahue, at the head of twenty-five men of Company A, started immediately in pursuit of the
bushwhackers, who, it was conjectured, had set off immediately after the shoot- ing for their rendezvous, in the south- eastern part of the county.
Lieutenant Holliday, with a consider- able force, went at once to where the shooting was done. Holliday's squad, under Sergeant Engles, started on the direct trail of Stacy and his men. The trail was easily followed, as the ground was very muddy, but Stacy tried to throw off the force which he knew was on his track by riding into and through the current of the river where he could. But Engles and his men kept on the trail, eager as panthers and true as blood- hounds. About the middle of the after- noon Lieutenant Donahne came upon the bushwhackers at a point on Black creek, at the Kincheloe bridge, ten miles from Walkersville. They were north or north- east and the Federals were going east. The former had just crossed the bridge. With a yell the militiamen dashed upon the bushwhackers and the latter fled, scattering in every direction, some tak- ing to the thickets, others swimming Black creek, which was near by, and still others fleeing straight away. The bush- whackers were completely routed. Two of their number were killed outright, one was drowned in Black creek and another was badly wounded and never was heard from again. Tom Stacy was so hard pressed that he was forced to abandon his horse, saddle bags, coat, hat, sword and double barreled shotgun. Some ar- ticles in his possession, particularly the sword, a beaver cap and some trappings, were identified as having belonged to Russell W. Moss, Esq., near whose resi- dence, northwest of Hunnewell, in the Black creek timber, Stacy and his band
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had their camp. The two dead men were found to be William Carnahan and James Bradley, both citizens of this connty. Bill Carnahan lived at Walkers- ville and left a wife and children. It is said he had eaten many a meal at Mr. Hale's table, and knew that gentleman well. Bradley lived in the northwestern part of this county. The killing was in this wise: Jim Bradley, like Absalom, rode upon a mule. In the rush of the retreat he was either thrown or jumped off "and the mule that was under him went away." Bradley then threw away his fine double-barreled shotgun and started to run. Sergeant John S. Dun- can (afterwards postmaster at Shelby- ville) was upon him in an instant. Bradley stopped, threw up his hands and called out, "Don't shoot; I give up; I haven't done nothing," etc., all very rapidly and excitedly. Duncan said, "Well, I can't shoot an unarmed man," and lowered his gun. But Bradley started to go back for his gun and Duncan said, "Don't run." And just then Private Tom Hillaber, who lived in the northeastern part of the county, came up and without a word lev- eled his Austrian rifle and fired, the ball striking Bradley (ten feet away) in the breast, killing him instantly. The body was not bayoneted, as has been reported. Bill Carnahan was shot out of his sad- dle farther down the creek. The man drowned in Black creek was wounded just as he entered the water. Tom Stacy leaped from his horse and took to a tree. He carried with him a short rifle and an Indian fight took place between him and Lieutenant Donahue. The latter fired twice and missed. Tom saved his fire for close quarters. Private James Watkins
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