USA > Missouri > Scotland County > History of Lewis, Clark, Knox, and Scotland counties, Missouri. From the earliest time to the present, together with sundry personal, business and professional sketches and mumerous family records > Part 62
USA > Missouri > Lewis County > History of Lewis, Clark, Knox, and Scotland counties, Missouri. From the earliest time to the present, together with sundry personal, business and professional sketches and mumerous family records > Part 62
USA > Missouri > Clark County > History of Lewis, Clark, Knox, and Scotland counties, Missouri. From the earliest time to the present, together with sundry personal, business and professional sketches and mumerous family records > Part 62
USA > Missouri > Knox County > History of Lewis, Clark, Knox, and Scotland counties, Missouri. From the earliest time to the present, together with sundry personal, business and professional sketches and mumerous family records > Part 62
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At this time there were a number of rebel partisans in the
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STATE OF MISSOURI.
country about Edina, particularly in the section south and south- east of the town. The news of the killing of the two militia- men at Ewing's had been received, and it was looked upon as an exploit, and Ewing as a hero. Intelligence of the contemplated burial of the dead men by their comrades was spread, and a plan was formed to take advantage of the circumstance and strike another blow. About twenty-five men, some of them of mature age, some of them young striplings in their teens, assembled in the woods south of Edina, and arranged to bushwhack the fun- eral party on its return to Edina. This was no regularly organ- ized company of Confederate soldiers, although there were a few returned soldiers of Price's army in the crowd, but was composed of citizens of the country for the most part, who assembled and organized for the occasion. The leader is now a prominent citi- zen of Edina.
At Allred's hill, a mile and a half south of Edina, on the road to Novelty, the ambush was prepared. The funeral party had passed down the road, and it was calculated that it would return at a certain hour. The situation was most favorable. Thick brush lined the road, and the country back from the scene was broken. Allred himself was in the party, and it was arranged that certain members of his family were to watch for the approach of the Federals, and when they were seen the signal was to be given by calling up the hogs belonging to the farm.
The bushwhackers repaired to their lair, and lay crouching by the roadside, awaiting the coming of the burial party. Shot- guns and rifles in their hands, heavily loaded and carefully primed, and a deadly purpose in their hearts, they were eager for the crisis. No thought of the questionable nature of the affair seems to have been entertained. It was proper and lauda- ble to kill the Federals, whether they were coming from a funeral or a frolic. They would furnish the subjects for another burial- more fresh corpses. Lie low, keep cool, and take good aim when the time comes. Suddenly a voice-a woman's voice-clear and distinct, was heard calling the pigs from the timber. They are coming! They are coming! "Now, boys, every man for his turkey."*
*Said to have been the exact words of the leader, as reported by one of the party.
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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
When the column came fairly in front of the bushwhackers, the soldiers were riding by twos, unsuspecting and unprepared. At once the firing began. Lieut. James Wamsley was riding in front, and received a severe wound. Two men, Euler Norcross and William Troutman, were shot dead from their saddles. Half a dozen others were stricken with the buckshot and pistol balls, and the road was full of bleeding and plunging horses. As many as half a dozen of the steeds were killed. The volley was as startling as a thunder-clap, and began and ended almost as sud- denly. The bushwhackers themselves retreated after the first fire, making for the Fabius timber. The Federals passed on to Edina, half in dread of the "rebel element" of the county, and thoroughly angered and greatly enraged against it. The next day there was another funeral, and two more men were buried with the honors of war. At the grave, when the clods were thundering upon the coffins, there were mingled with the ghastly rattle the muttered threats of vengeance and the fierce epithets of denunciation. Norcross, one of the victims, had many friends in the community wherein he lived. He had been a school teacher, and was well known throughout the southern part of the county. He left a widow and two small children.
Word of the affair at Allred's hill was sent to Col. John M. Glover, then in command of this district, with headquarters at Palmyra. He took the field in person. With five companies of his regiment he swept up from Palmyra, arriving at Edina on the 6th of April. Here he established headquarters, and prepared to clear out the country of bushwhackers. His men were in- structed to enforce Halleck's and Schofield's orders against bush- whackers, and to " shoot them on the spot;" and to obey such in- structions was a labor of love. "The rascals who have no more compunctions of conscience than to fire upon a funeral party de- serve nothing but extermination," wrote the man of war. Hal- leck's orders were very clear and positive. "General Order No. 1" said:
* * * While the code of war gives certain exemptions to a soldier regularly in the military service of an enemy, it is a well-established principle that insurgents, not militarily organized under the laws of the State, predatory partisans and guerrilla bands are not entitled to such exemptions. Such men are not legitimately in arms, and the military name and garb which they have
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STATE OF MISSOURI.
assumed cannot give a military exemption to the crimes which they may com- mit. They are, in a legal sense, mere freebooters and banditti, and are liable to the same punishment which was imposed upon guerrilla bands by Napoleon in Spain, and by Scott in Mexico.
Schofield's "Order No. 18" enjoined the "utmost vigilance in hunting down and destroying" all bushwhackers and maraud- ers, who, "when caught in arms, engaged in their unlawful war- fare," were to be shot down "on the spot."
It is, perhaps, true that Glover was inclined to be severe against the bushwhackers, but in addition there were the positive orders of Halleck and Schofield to be obeyed, and Glover was a soldier who understood that his just duty was obedience. At Edina Capt. E. V. Wilson met him with an important paper. An old client of Wilson's was one of the bushwhackers in the affair at Allred's hill. After the skirmish he became very much alarmed, for he saw that no substantial results had been accom- plished. He realized that the death of Norcross and Troutman was the result of a deliberately planned murder by lying in wait, and his connection with the matter had been so peculiarly conspicu- ous that he feared detection, and that the vengeance of the enraged Federals should come not only upon himself but upon his house and barns. Accordingly, to Wilson and Capt. James A. Reid, he made a full confession, turning State's evidence, as it were, stating the circumstances, and furnishing the names of all of the bushwhackers. This confession was made in the south- west room of the second story of the courthouse, and the original paper is still in existence.
On the 2d of April there had been a case of bushwhacking at Walkersville, south of Shelbyville. Two militiamen and a citi- zen, named Lilburn Hale, were killed by Tom Stacy and his guerrilla band, so quickly that they had not time to say "Father, forgive them." Two citizen Unionists, of Marion County, J. M. Preston and - Reed, were killed by Stacy's band, taken from their weeping and pleading wives and children, hung and shot, and their bodies thrown into the thickets, or hidden away where they were never found. Bad blood was moving the peo- ple to do bad deeds.
Two days after his arrival at Edina, to Capt. Benjamin, at
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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
Shelbyville, Col. Glover gave the following, among other instruc- tions, headed " Special Order No. 30:"
In every case within your reach, where the rebels take a dollar's worth of property of any kind from a Union man or family, do you take at least twice as much in value from rebels in the vicinity (from parties who took the goods, if you can identify them), and hold it as security for the return of the property, and hold it till the robbery is made good. You will forthwith levy an assess- ment, and collect it, from the wealthy secessionists in the vicinity, sufficient to comfortably support the families of those members of the M. S. M. who were killed by the rebels, and see that they are comfortably supported by this means until further orders.
Two days later, inclosing a list of sixty-five names of men in different parts of the country, Col. Glover wrote to Benjamin:
EDINA, April 10, 1862.
CAPTAIN BENJAMIN :
Sir, I send you a list of names, marked (A), who did the killing of militia in this (Knox) County. The others are members of a "bushwhacking" com- pany in this and other counties. Give a list of the names to your commis- sioned officers, with instructions to hold all such, if arrested. Keep their names as secret as possible. I do not want them to know they are sus- pected, or we shall not be able to catch them. You have two of them, I am told (the Feltz). Hold them safely. We have five or six of them, and on yes- terday we killed one of the murderers, William Musgrove. These men are scattered all over the country. You will be as active as possible, and charge your men to be cautious. These men are frequently to be found in the vicinity of Magruder's, on Black Creek. These fellows are in the habit of crossing Salt River, southwest of your town, on a bridge on an unfrequented road. You will do well to give it some attention. My instructions are not to bring in these fellows, if they can be induced to run, and, if the men are instructed, they can make them run. Yours respectfully,
J. M. GLOVER, Commanding N. E. Mo.
Glover's troopers scouted the country very thoroughly. They ranged the region south of Edina, along the Fabius, beating up the timber for bushwhackers as huntsmen hunt for foxes, with whoop, halloo and tally-ho. Occasionally they found a man with a gun and brought him in or chased him out of sight. In the Fabius' timber they found a tent, but the occupants had gone. On another occasion, while in the Bee Ridge breaks, they pressed some bushwhackers so close that one of them saved himself only by turning over the half of a hollow log and hiding under it. The troopers rode over it and all about it, while the bushwhacker lay low until the danger had passed. A number of the "dis- loyal " were made prisoners, and among them were two or three of the bushwhackers at Allred's hill, who were released upon
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STATE OF MISSOURI.
oath and bond, presumably on account of their social position and the reluctance of Col. Glover to shoot a man who could not be induced to run. It is probable, too, that in these instances the guilt of the party was not established beyond a reasonable doubt.
As noted elsewhere [see Lewis County ] Col. Glover soon re- stored peace and quietude. He killed a few bushwhackers, arrested many of them and their friends and sympathizers, and drove the rest from the country. On the 4th day of June, Col. Glover was ordered to Southwest Missouri, and Col. John McNeil, of the Second Missouri State Militia, was placed in com- mand of the district of Northeast Missouri. Thereafter there were no disturbances in the county until the Porter campaign had opened. The Confederate partisans were few in number, and very quiet. The Unionists were quite content with the situation, since they were masters of it, with scarcely any danger in pros- pect that it would be disturbed.
In the latter part of June, after the fiasco at Cherry Grove, Col. Lipscomb followed Porter and the forces under him through Knox County, but did not overtake them. Lipscomb was a better lawyer than a soldier. His force was more efficient, even larger, than Porter's, but he allowed the wily rebels to slip through his fingers, and though certainly not deficient in either loyalty or personal courage, he was often close upon them, even in sight of them, and yet did not bring them to battle. As has been stated, in the pursuit of Porter through Knox County Lipscomb moved leisurely. With him were a dozen or more Knox County men who tell the story. He was often and very correctly informed regarding the rebel situation, knew the road on which Porter was retreating, but made no efforts to head him off. On the evening of the 28th, when his adversary was reported as but three miles away, he deliberately went into camp nine miles north of Edina; whereupon the Knox County men who were serving him as guides left him in disgust. Porter passed on east of Edina, across the prairie, near where Knox City now stands, and on into the Fabius timber, and so on, to the country west and southwest of Newark. Lipscomb came directly through Edina, riding de- liberately, and from there to the southeastern part of the
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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
county. Here his operations were of such a character that he caused a dispersion of the Confederates for a few days.
THE ENGAGEMENT AT NEWARK.
The most memorable incident of the war in Knox County was the engagement at Newark, on the 1st of August, 1862. The details of this affair are proper to be noted in this volume, and are herewith presented as best they can be learned.
At Newark there were the two Knox County companies, K and L, of Lipscomb's regiment, the Eleventh Missouri State Militia-in all about eighty men. Company L was officered by Lieuts. B. F. Snyder and Isaac Bohon, and Company K by Capt. W. W. Lair and Lieut. James Wamsley. The force and the post were commanded by Capt. Lair, as the ranking officer. He was from Marion, and some of his company were also from that county ; his son, Lieut. Valentine Lair, was acting adjutant. The two companies were encamped in the Fabius bottom, a little south of the town.
The orders of Gov. Gamble and Gen. Schofield for the organi- zation of the militia had been received, and the men of the country had been coming in for enrollment. Up to the 31st Porter was thought to be down in Monroe, or perhaps farther south, but on the morning of the 1st word came that the rebels were in the country, and Lair was on the qui vive. Some citizens from the country were in town, and were forbidden to return to their homes lest they might encounter the raiders, and give in- formation of the condition of affairs at Newark. But in some way the situation was made known to Porter, and he determined to bag the game in view-eighty men, with their horses, arms, wagons, tents, provisions, etc.
Striking westward from Midway, in Marion County (now called Benbow), Col. Porter divided his force into two columns. One under his brother, Capt. Jim Porter, and Col. Alex Majors, of Monroe County, he threw out to the southwest, across the Fabius at Whaley's mill, and then sent it westward until it inter- sected the Philadelphia or old West Springfield road, leading into Newark from the southeast, across the Fabius, near where the Federal tents were pitched. Col. Porter himself, at the head
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STATE OF MISSOURI.
of the main portion of his command, kept on the main road lead- ing to the little town, entering from the east. It will be under- stood that two roads entered Newark along which the Confed- erates were passing-the Emerson (or Steffenville) road, from the east, and the Philadelphia (or West Springfield) road, from the south. The Federals were within the jaws of a trap, and the jaws were closing.
At 5 o'clock in the evening the Confederates made their ap- pearance in the creek bottom, and opened fire on the militia- men. The attack was after all a surprise, no pickets were out, and no preparations had been made for defense. The situation was being discussed, and the probabilities of a fight canvassed, when the crack of Porter's pistols was heard. The Federals were driven from their tents into the town, but not before they had returned the fire, and young Lieut. Lair had fallen. They took possession of the Presbyterian Church, Bragg's store and the Masonic Hall over the store, and continued the combat. They were soon confronted or rather surrounded by an overwhelming force, both divisions of Porter's force having come up, but they fought well, repulsing all efforts to capture them or drive them out by a charge, and withstanding the storm of hot and hissing bullets sent against them. The brick walls protected them well, and it was only when they came within the range of the windows that they were in danger. Porter's men dismounted, took posses- sion of the houses, outbuildings and fences, and from them and behind them kept up a steady fire. Some of them exposed them- selves needlessly, and paid dearly for their foolhardiness and temerity.
Night was coming on, and the beleaguered Federals evinced little sign of surrender, and not much progress had been made in compelling their capitulation. An assault directly against the brick walls was sure to be bloody, and it might be futile. The reckless spirits who proposed this scheme and were willing to undertake it were soon silenced by the adoption of a safer and equally as effectual, though a somewhat novel plan. It was pro- posed, instead of assaulting the Federals and whipping them by main strength, to "smoke them out." Two wagons heavily loaded with hay were prepared, and it was proposed to run them
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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
up against the buildings, one against the church and the other against the store, set them on fire, and let the consequences take care of themselves! A flag of truce was sent first demand- ing a surrender. Capt. Lair himself came out, met Porter, and the two talked over the matter. The result was that the Federals surrendered.
The terms were most liberal and generous. The Federals were to be released on parole not to take up arms until exchanged; their tents, arms and ammunition were to be given up, but they were to retain their private property .*
Soon the Federals marched out, delivered up their arms, and the fight was over. The prisoners were uniformly well treated. Capt. Bob Hagar, of Monroe County, cursed Lieut. Wamsley for a "d-d nigger thief," and some of the other inconsiderate spirits indulged in hard language toward some of the others, but nobody was hurt. A few days later Bob Hagar was killed in the fight at Kirksville. The prisoners were not released and paroled until the next morning, remaining under guard during the night.
On the Federal side nearly all the men were from Knox County, and many of them lived in Newark and fought in plain view of their residences, where their wives and children were. The citizens of the village were divided in their political views, but all were united in a feeling of anxiety and alarm. With the Federals were a number of citizens of semi-Confederate proclivi- ties, who had been taken into the buildings when the fight began, lest they might give aid and comfort to the enemy. The women of the little town, who had fathers, brothers and husbands in the church and hall, were in such moods as may be imagined during the skirmishing. Some of them fluttered about from room to room as stray shots hit the houses. In one instance a bevy of young ladies retired to an inner chamber and took refuge under a feather bed. In the door yard of the dwelling house one of Porter's men was killed, and when the fight was over the carcass of a dead horse lay athwart the gateway.
The Federal loss was four killed, six wounded and seventy- two prisoners, as follows:
*After the surrender Porter denied that the term private property referred to the horses, even though they were owned by the men, which, in nearly every instance was the fact, and so the horses were taken, as was the general custom; but for this alleged violation of the terms of the surrender, Capt. Lair claimed exemption from the obligations of his parole, and soon re-entered the service.
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STATE OF MISSOURI.
Killed. Wounded. Prisoners.
COMPANIES.
Company K
2
3
40
Company L.
2
3
32
Total
4
6
72
The killed were Lieut. Valentine Lair and Orderly Sergt. Francis Hancock, of Palmyra, of Company K; John Downing and James Berry, of Newark, members of Company L. Down- ing was in the Masonic hall, and had his brains blown out by a ball through a window. On the Confederate side, as can best be learned now, and as was stated at the time, the loss was eight killed outright; two mortally wounded, and about twenty severely wounded.
As they were more exposed, their loss was greater than that of the Federals. The loss fell heaviest upon the companies from Monroe and Shelby, who seem to have borne the brunt of the fight. Capt. J. Q. A. Clements, of Shelby, fell dead at the head of his company, a bullet through his brain; and his lieutenant, Tom West, had his leg shattered by a minie-ball, and died from the effects of an amputation. In Capt. Head's Shelby County company, Anderson Tobin was shot through the head, and Kesterson was killed by a ball through his vitals. Another of the killed was a young Canadian, who had joined Porter the pre- vious day at Warren, in Marion County. The Confederate dead were buried together, but friends afterward removed the remains of some of them. A neat monument to their memory has been erected in the Odd Fellows' cemetery.
The stores of W. G. Bragg and Samuel Holmes were thor- oughly cleaned out by Porter's men, who needed the goods in their business, and other Union citizens of the place and vicinity were made to feel what a "rebel raid" meant, so far as the loss of pro- visions and provender could make them understand it. In the matter of "foraging off the enemy" it was usually six of the rebels to half a dozen of the Yankees, and the honors and dis- honors were easy. Col. Porter himself had his home only a few miles east of Newark, and the villagers were his old friends and acquaintances. Whatever reprehensible there may have been in the conduct of Porter's men, it was certainly not due to the orders or example of their commander, but in spite of them.
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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
The night of the capture of Newark, Col. Franklin, who, with Col. Frisby Mccullough, had been stationed at the Sugar Camp on the Middle Fabius, set out on the raid for Canton, described elsewhere. Porter sent a message to Franklin and Mccullough, requesting them to join him at some point in western Lewis or eastern Knox. He then, on the morn- ing of the 2d, again set out on his northward journey. Sending a party eastward on the Steffenville road, and another on the Philadelphia road, to see if he was being pursued, Porter pre- pared to start. Both parties were met by McNeil's advance de- tachments, coming in on both roads, and who had ridden since midnight, and were tired, hungry, sleepy, and in that half sav- age condition in which soldiers fight the best, or at least with the most recklessness. The Confederates were driven back through the town in some confusion, but without serious loss. One man and two horses were killed in the creek bottom below the town, and another man wounded, who died on Tiger Fork a few days later. McNeil came on and occupied the town, and halted to await reinforcements, as set forth on preceding pages of this volume. [See sketch of the Porter campaign, in the Lewis County division. ]
The affair at Newark was the talk of all Northeast Missouri for a time. The newspapers of the country published accounts and descriptions of it, all varying, and at last the poetasters fell afoul of it. The following, by a local poet, was first published in the Palmyra Courier and was sung by the Union balladists of this section to an improvised air. It was quite common in war times for local poets to commemorate in verse the battles and skirmishes in Missouri, and the "Battle of Newark" is fully up to the standard of the best effusions of its kind.
THE BATTLE OF NEWARK .* FOUGHT AUGUST 1, 1862.
The sun was in the western sky, Cool evening zephyrs restled by; The birds were warbling o'er and o'er The notes they'd sung so oft before; Slow homeward lag the peaceful cows From distant prairies where they browse,
*Palmyra (Mo.) Courier, September 7, 1862.
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STATE OF MISSOURI.
And as they stop at Fabius' brink, To rest a while and get a drink, They see the foe, with stealthy tramp, Approaching to'ard the Union Camp!
A lively scene, at close of day, Does that gay camping ground display : Some soldiers busy cleaning guns, Some writing to the absent ones, Some pitching quoits, some playing cards, Some singing songs of warlike bards, Some telling how they rebels drove At Memphis and at Cherry Grove, And wondering then how far away The frightened flock could be that day.
While thus engaged a gun is heard ! A second-followed by a third! Then comes a volley-then a whoop- The camp's attacked by Porter's troop! No panic strikes that Spartan band, But nobly does each soldier stand. The bullets whiz on every side; Up to the charge the rebels ride. But one by one the foremost fall, Pierced by the fatal minie ball. With steady nerve and deadly aim," As though they were but shooting game, Those scattered soldiers fire and load, Retreating slowly up the road. .
The startled village now becomes The scene of conflict. From their homes The Union wives and mothers watch Their loved ones fighting in the church. Each sharp report that strikes their ears Fills their fond hearts with anxious fears ;- Perhaps it sounds the knell of death, And stops a son's or husband's breath.
The firing ceases; all is still; A flag approaches o'er the hill. Reluctantly does Lair surrender To the fair terms the rebels tender; 'Twas not till threatened fire and sword, Not till by ten to one o'erpowered, Not till night came and brought no aid, But increased danger with her shade.
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