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 7

Author: Goodspeed, firm, publishers, Chicago (1886-1891, Goodspeed Publishing Co.)
Publication date: 1887
Publisher: St. Louis, Chicago, The Goodspeed publishing co.
Number of Pages: 1308

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 7
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 7
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 7
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 7

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

In the district Messrs. Gorin, Givens and Sayre were chosen by large majorities.

THE LA GRANGE AND OTHER MEETINGS.

On the 22d of April, one week after Lincoln's proclamation, a large secession meeting was held in La Grange. A secession flag was raised over the store of J. H. Talbot & Co., young men and boys went about the streets wearing secession cockades and cheering for Jeff Davis, the Southern Confederacy, South Caro- lina, and even Gen. Beauregard, and a great demonstration was made with the view of breaking down or impairing the Union sentiment, then rather strong at La Grange. The meeting was presided over by Judge Ralph Smith, and John H. Talbot was

STATE OF MISSOURI.

the secretary. Speeches were made by Dr. J. C. Page and Daniel Ligon, and strong secession resolutions were adopted. Two of the resolutions, copied from a set adopted at a secession meeting in Palmyra some weeks previously, were these:

That the wrongs of which the Slave States complain, unless speedily redressed and ample constitutional guarantees furnished against their repetition, constitute an " adequate cause to impel Missouri to dissolve her connection with the Federal Union," and in that event, which we believe is approaching steadily and with daily increasing momentum, our interests, pecuniary, social and religious, and every sympathy must impel us to connect ourselves with the Confederate States of the South.

That the insinuation that our gallant State would furnish men and money, or "countenance or aid " a Black Republican Administration in making war upon, or attempting to coerce the seceding States, is slanderous and false; that our sympathies are with our brethren of the seceding States, and any attempt on the part of our State as such, or on the part of individuals to march to the aid of, or furnish supplies to, a Federal Army attempting to carry out the bloody, unchristian and inhuman doctrine of coercion, would meet with determined and unflinching resistance upon our own soil, and if need be, to the death!

A week later, April 29, there was another meeting of the citizens, this time at Monticello. A secession flag was raised over the courthouse. This banner, a nondescript affair, was composed of three stripes-red, white and blue. On one side was stitched the coat-of-arms of Missouri, and a single star; on the other an eagle and a lone star. Senator Green made a strong speech in favor of immediate secession, nothing less and nothing else. Chagrined and disgusted at the reluctance of Missouri to cut the bonds which held her to the old Union, and indignant alike at the armed neutrality men and the unconditional Union- ists, he grew violent in his denunciation of both parties. " Armed. neutrality is treason," said he, "and every Union man, or any man that is willing to live under Black Republican rule, ought to be kicked out of the State like a dog!" *

But in spite of Mr. Green's stirring speech, and the efforts of his followers to the contrary, secession resolutions presented to the meeting were voted down, and the meeting was not a success. The flag was even laughed at. Some of the Union men present said of the devices that the grizzly bears on either side of the escutcheon resembled two fat hogs rooting over a barrel of whisky, and the eagle looked more like an old gander with its

* Canton Reporter's report in the issue of May 4, 1861 : It is but just to say, however, that Mr. Green's words on this occasion were not those of deliberation and soberness, but made under a pressure of circumstances and the excitement of the times.

HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY.

wing broken than anything else. John M. Glover approached Mr. Green, and said significantly : " Senator, you declared in your speech that every Union man ought to be kicked out of the State. Now, I am a Union man, willing to live under Lincoln's administration, and I wish you would appoint yourself a com- mittee of one to kick me out of the State!" The appointment was not made.

At Canton, and at sundry country schoolhouses, other se- cession meetings were held about the same time. Allied to the South by the ties of birthright, kinship, long association, and, as they considered, by a common interest in the preservation of their slave property, hundreds of people hastened to identify them- selves with the Southern cause. Many, too, a great many, who had no personal interest in slavery, owning no slaves, fell in, and for a time the tide was all one way-a tide that flowed into the turbulent sea of secession and war; a tide springing from the fountains of passion and prejudice, and swollen by currents of misrepresentation and malevolence, which bore down before it all but the strongest and stoutest hearted.

A month later the Union men began to move. Away from the river, the Unionists, or "submissionists" were few and gen- erally very quiet. In Canton M. C. Hawkins, H. M. Woodyard, William Ellis, James Ellison and others were the leaders of a considerable number of uncompromising anti-Secessionists. They were aided in La Grange by Charlton H. Howe, the editor of the American, by John M. Cashman, John T. Howland, and others. But in the country there were no leaders, and but few of the rank and file.

May 25 a Union meeting was held at Gilead Church. James Waggoner was chairman, and G. S. Carnahan, secretary. Speeches were made by Dr. J. A. Hay, John M. Glover and Dr. John Taylor. Dr. Hay was of this county, but Glover and Tay- lor came over from Knox, in response to the Macedonian cry from the Union men of Lewis. Straight-out Union resolutions were adopted, one of which read:

Resolved, That the United States is the wisest and best government on earth. We are opposed to its disruption in any event. If the people will stand by it loyally and faithfully, it will protect them fully and carefully.

STATE OF MISSOURI.

On the 1st of June, pursuant to a call signed by Benjamin Johnston, J. Shultz, J. S. Wiseman, Jacob Hickman and Samuel Ennis, there was a Union meeting on Finley Prairie, near Shultz'. The speakers were Dr. White, Dr. Taylor and John M. Glover. The services of John M. Glover were constantly in demand. Not a professional man, and with but little experience on the rostrum, he was nevertheless earnest, forcible, and eloquent as a speaker, his zeal for the cause inspiring his utterances, and his addresses created the greatest enthusiasm among his auditors.

Senator Green canvassed northeast Missouri for the secession cause, speaking in Clarke, Scotland, Knox, Shelby and Marion. In Lewis he was aided by the active sympathy of a majority of the people. Some of the other leading Secessionists of the county were two of the county judges, Martin E. Green and Ralph Smith, John H. Talbot, of La Grange, Daniel Ligon, of Canton, and the county representative, Hon. A. C. Waltman.

The Union men were opposed not only to secession, but to abolition, or to any interference with the institution of slavery where it already existed pursuant to law. Even among the handful of Republicans in the county there were very few aboli- tionists; among the Union Bell and Douglas men there was not one. Posterity may be deceived into the belief that the abolition of slavery was the original object of the war against the seceded States, and that this object was openly professed and well under- stood from the start, but the fact is that the Union men generally did not so understand it, and those of Missouri were not at all of that belief. Only the Secessionists asserted that the war on the part of the Federal Government was "to free the negroes," and the Unionists stoutly and indignantly denied the assertion. How- ever much men's views changed afterward, however willingly the situation was accepted when it was accomplished, it is certain that in 1861 the Union men of this county were strongly opposed to abolition; that in 1862 many of the stanchest among them read with mortification and sorrow the emancipation proclamation, and that in 1865 they accepted the emancipation ordinance of the State convention under strong protest. Indeed it came to pass before the war ended that Col. Glover, Col. Howland, Dr. Hay and others, who were among the firmest and bravest of the

HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY.

original Union men, when it cost the most to be a Union man, were denounced in certain quarters as "copperheads" and "rebel sympathizers." Lewis County sent 300 men into the Federal Army in 1861; had they been made to understand that slavery would be abolished by the achievements of that army, not half that number would have enlisted at the time. They would have died before they would have fought against the Government; they would have fought for abolition only when convinced that such a measure was absolutely essential to the salvation and pres- ervation of the Government.

It was plain that, notwithstanding the wishes and hopes of very many, war was to come to Lewis County. It was as plain that it was not to be a war of mass meetings and of words either, but of something sterner and deadlier. So preparations were made for it. The organization of military companies was begun.

PREPARATION FOR WAR.

Early in the spring the Secessionists took positive action. A military company was organized at Canton, called the " Can- ton Guards," and commanded by Capt. Noah Grant. On the 20th of April, a week after Fort Sumter, this company met for regular drill. The ladies of the town had made for it a large and handsome American flag, which was offered to them on this occasion, whereupon a majority of the members of this company held a meeting, and passed resolutions thanking the ladies for their good will and good intent, but refusing the flag, as a " service " flag, declaring they would " never march under it in obedience to the requisition of Abraham Lincoln." It was an open secret that this company was intended for service against the United States; very many of its members sported secession cockades, even while on parade or drill.

The county court, composed of Justices Martin E. Green, Ralph Smith and John G. Nunn, was pro-secession; Judge Nunn was a little conservative, but Green and Smith did not beat about the bush. John H. Talbot, the secession merchant of La Grange, furnished a considerable quantity of powder and lead to the " faithful " upon the assurances of Judges Smith and Green that he should be paid for it, and on the 30th of April the court-all

STATE OF MISSOURI.

the judges present-ordered "that $165.34 be, and the same is hereby, appropriated to procure powder and lead for the use of the citizens of Lewis County, and that the clerk hereof draw a warrant on the contingent fund of Lewis County in favor of the Branch of the Union Bank at La Grange, Lewis Co., Mo., for said sum"* At the time the order was made the ammunition had already been purchased and distributed among the Secessionists; not a single Union man got a grain of it, notwithstanding the terms of the order, which did not prescribe a particular class of " citizens of Lewis County " for whose use the powder and lead were to be used.

THE HOME GUARDS.

Although Gov. Jackson refused to call into service a single man to aid the Federal Government in coercing the seceded States, and although he refused to authorize or countenance the organi- zation of military companies not for State service, yet hundreds of men in various portions of the State were enrolled and organ- ized with the scarcely concealed purpose of fighting on the side of the United States when the time should come, and of resisting secession at all times and under all circumstances. These com- panies were generally called home guards. April 27 a home guard company was organized in La Grange. The officers were J. T. Howland, captain; - Grigsby, H. Jordan, V. Decoster, lieutenants; Thomas Musick, John T. Carter, Henry Jarrett, Edward Glavin, sergeants. The company numbered at first 44 men, which number was soon increased to 60. They were uni- formed, their dress consisting of gray caps and shirts with blue trimmings, white pants with blue stripes, and black belts. The company was armed with some muskets which had formerly belonged to an old military organization and had been stored away for some time. May 15 a German company of Union Home Guards, 50 men, was organized at La Grange, and the number was subsequently increased to 70.

After the capture of Camp Jackson (May 10), and indeed in some instances before, Gen. Lyon sent commissions or authority to various parties in northeast Missouri to organize military companies, promising them arms, ammunition and other supplies

*See County Court Records, Vol. III, p. 155.

HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY.

as soon as it should be possible to furnish them. Under this authority Capt. Howland had his La Grange company; Col. William Bishop, of Clark, was authorized to raise a regiment, and so on.

The Secessionists throughout the county were preparing. When Gov. Jackson, on June 12, called out the Missouri State Guard, the organization in this county was begun, and soon a half dozen companies were started in the country. No regular encampment was formed, however, until some time later. There was no leader at first, but one was found when the time came. When the occasion really demands a man, he commonly steps forward. Down in Marion there was general organization, mus- tering and drilling, and all of " the boys" seemed to be eager for a fight.

THE FOURTH OF JULY, 1861.

The fourth of July, 1861, was observed at Canton by a large number of the citizens of the county. Secessionists and Union- ists turned out, but the two factions did not unite, there being really two assemblages. The home guards of Canton and La Grange were present with their arms and in uniform, and both Union and secession flags and cockades were displayed in pro- fusion. It was feared that there would be a collision of some sort, and to avoid this the leading Unionists thought best to have the home guards marched to the river and their arms taken from them and deposited in a warehouse.

While the home guards were on the levee a packet came down crowded with passengers. There was an interchange of salutations between the people and the passengers, a waving of handkerchiefs, etc., when some young Secessionists on shore called for " three cheers for Jeff. Davis!" Perhaps twenty voices responded. Then " three cheers for the Union " were given by 200 persons. Some confusion resulted, and a few young men attempted to take away the flag from the ensign of the Ger- man Home Guard Company of La Grange. Capt. John Howell, of the Canton Home Guard, and others came to the rescue, and there was a scuffle, during which Capt. Howell knocked down a young man named Charles Soward, the son of Richard Soward, the proprietor of the Soward House. Maj. B. B. King and others

STATE OF MISSOURI.

interfered, and soon the crowd dispersed, and quiet was restored. Between the senior Soward and Howell there had been considera- ble ill feeling for some time, and Soward was greatly enraged upon learning of the assault upon his son. An hour or two later Capt. Howell came up on the north side of Lewis Street from the river, and when he reached the middle of Fourth, a hundred feet northeast of the Soward House, Richard Soward came from the hotel, a double-barreled shot-gun in his hands, and called out, "John, draw your revolver and defend yourself."* Howell threw back his coat as if about to draw a weapon, when Soward fired. Howell fell and died in a few minutes. A heavy charge of buckshot entered his body, tearing his vitals to pieces. Soward remarked, in a loud tone, "There, d-n you, you are done drawing your pistol," and walked back to his hotel. Charlie Soward came to the door with another gun, but did not offer to fire. Upon Howell's body a keen bowie-knife was found, but no fire-arm or other weapon. The gun used by Soward belonged to sportsmen from Quincy, guests of his house, and was loaded by him with buckshot when he heard that Howell had struck his son Charles.

The greatest excitement ensued. Soward was a Secessionist and Howell a Unionist, and the Union Home Guards uttered fierce cries of denunciation and vengeance. A rush was made for their guns, but Maj. "Barney " King locked the doors of the building where they were stored, and he and others appealed to the guards to become quiet and do nothing violent, reminding them that their mission was to preserve the peace and not to break it. Soward was arrested and guarded in his hotel by the home guards, prevented from escaping, and protected from the fury of certain rabid Unionists.

Capt. John Howell was a Kentuckian, and had been a soldier in the Mexican war. He was a carpenter by occupation, but was fairly well informed and something of a politician. He was somewhat rough in his general deportment, easily aroused and high-tempered, but brave to a fault, and, being an ardent Union man, had been authorized by Gen. Lyon to recruit a company of volunteers for the Federal service. At the time of his death he

*Soward's statement.

HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY.

was a widower and about thirty-six years of age. Soward was about fifty-five years old, a reputable citizen, but with plenty of friends and enemies.

Soward was never tried. Taken to St. Louis by the Federal troops, a writ of habeas corpus restored him to the civil authori- ties. An effort to have him indicted by the Federal grand jury failed, and he was sent back to Lewis County, and delivered to Sheriff Burnett. By some means he made his way to the Federal forces then operating in this section, and for some time was in the custody of Col. David Moore. Eventually he left the coun- try and located in California. An indictment against him for murder in the first degree was found in this county, but the ' papers were stolen in the burglary of the courthouse, in March, 1865.

ACTIVE MILITARY PREPARATIONS.

For some time organizations of Federal troops had been in camp at Quincy. From time to time there had been rumors that detach- ments of these troops were to be sent into this county. About the 8th of June the Sixteenth Illinois went to Hannibal, and on the 20th two companies came to Palmyra, while other companies went westward over the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad. The Federal commanders refused to come into Lewis with their men until an actual collision should occur or become imminent, although repeatedly invited by certain Union men to send at least one com- pany to Canton and another to La Grange.

But on the night of the 4th of July, when Capt. Howell lay dead in Canton, Col. H. M. Woodyard caused himself to be rowed in a skiff down to Quincy, and, repairing to the Federal head- quarters, requested that a battalion of troops be sent at once into the county. At midnight ex-Gov. John Wood handed an order to Col. John M. Palmer, of the Fourteenth Illinois Volunteers, directing him to proceed early next morning to Canton, "and arrest Soward, Senator Green and some others, and to protect the Union men of the county from a threatened attack by the Seces- sionists."*

Early the next day, July 5, Col. Palmer arrived at Canton on the steamer, "Black Hawk," with his regiment, 800 strong. Soward

*Gen. Palmer's statement to the compiler.

STATE OF MISSOURI.

was at once taken into custody. his home the previous evening.

Senator Green had arrived at On the approach of the troops he mounted a horse and started for Monticello. He was pursued by a squad of Federals, led by ex-Gov. Wood, who accompanied the expedition as a volunteer, and overtaken some miles out of town. His horse stumbled and fell, and he was made a prisoner, taken back to Canton, and subsequently released on parole. This parole, true to his word and his high honor, he never after- ward violated.

Col. Palmer quartered his regiment in the college building, and soon afterward sent a strong detachment under Lieut .- Col. Thompson to Monticello and a few miles westward to break up a camp of the secession forces, known to be in that quarter under Capt. Richardson and others. This force returned without spe- cial incident. A few shots were exchanged with some fugitive Secessionists west of Monticello, but Capt. Richardson moved away, and a collision was avoided. Hon. E. K. Sayre, then a member of the State convention, and residing a mile east of Monticello, ordered away some soldiers, who were taking water from his well, and was made a prisoner, and taken to Canton, where Col. Palmer released him .*

Col. Palmer remained in the county until July 13, when he left for Monroe City to the relief of the Sixteenth Illinois, Col. R. F. Smith, who was attacked on the 13th by a strong force of Secessionists under Gen. Thomas A. Harris. The Union Home Guards at Canton were greatly dispirited by the withdrawal of Palmer's troops. Woodyard, Maj. King and others joined in a letter to Samuel T. Glover, of the Union Committee of Safety of St. Louis, noting the departure of the soldiers, and asking that guns and ammunition be sent up at once for the home guards. "Things look blue here," said the letter. "The rebels are in strong force near Monticello, and now that the soldiers have left they will doubtless attack us, and we are poorly prepared to resist." No arms were received, however, until the 9th of August, when Capt. T. B. Jeffries, of Canton, brought from Springfield,

*In a letter to the compiler Gen. Palmer says: "Mr. Sayre argued with me that, under the Constitution of the United States and the State of Missouri, my soldiers could not take water from his well without his consent. I told him he had the law and the logic, but my thirsty men had the muskets, and he ought to have submitted. I then dismissed him."

HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY.

Ill., several hundred stand, with a considerable quantity of ammu- nition.

During Palmer's stay in the county the Union men were greatly encouraged. On the 10th of July a company of home guards, numbering eighty-three men, was organized at Deer Ridge, with Felix Scott as captain. On the same day a company of fifty-six men, with William B. Moody as captain, was organ- ized at Williamstown. Both companies repaired to Canton, and joined the forces under Col. Woodyard, who was attempting the organization of a regiment. All the men furnished their own arms, the ordinary fowling and hunting pieces of the country.

Col. Woodyard was at first engaged with Col. William Bishop, of Clark, in raising a regiment, Col. Bishop having received au- thority from Gen. Lyon; but subsequently Woodyard determined upon recruiting a regiment of his own, and on July 27, received the necessary authority from Gen. Fremont. August 8 he re- · ported to Fremont that he had four companies at Canton, in all about 300 men. He asked that he be reinforced by a company of United States troops and a piece of artillery, and to have his previous course endorsed and approved, and to be assured of future assistance and support; " otherwise," said he, " I will dis- band my men and avail myself of Green's generous procla- mation." *

The home guards had rendezvoused at Canton in the latter part of July. They had barracks, or quarters, in the Galt House, and their encampment was named Camp Carnegy, in honor of the stanch old Unionist, Hon. S. W. B. Carnegy. The organ- ization was denominated the Northeast Missouri Home Guards, and at first was officered by William Bishop, of Clark, as colonel; H. M. Woodyard, lieutenant-colonel; Barnabas B. King, major; William B. Sprinkle, quartermaster; Dr. L. Lusk, surgeon. The companies at Canton were: Company A-Charles Yust, captain ; Philip Wolff and Frederick Graff, lieutenants; Henry Menn, John Bandauer, George Giegerich, and George Kienzle, sergeants, from Canton. Company B-Thomas J. Morton, captain; T. J: Cochran and A. F. Tracy lieutenants; H. W. Rankin, Hamilton

* Col. Martin E. Green, the leader of the rebel forces in this quarter, had commanded the Union military organizations to disband, promising immunity for the past, and protection for the future to all who would comply with the order.

STATE OF MISSOURI.

Johnson, Thomas Amburn and George Wilds, sergeants. Com- pany D-William B. Moody, captain, from Williamstown. Com- pany E-Felix Scott, captain, from Deer Ridge.

The organization of the Confederate forces in the county was begun a few days before the appearance of Col. Palmer's troops. A camp was formed in the Horse Shoe Bend of the North Fabius, northwest of Monticello, and hither those who were willing to fight for the secession cause repaired. The mustering was in re- sponse to the orders of Gov. Jackson, issued June 12, and calling for 50,000 men to repel the Federal troops from the State. The forces so organized were denominated, under the military bill passed by the Legislature, the Missouri State Guard.

The first company at the bend was commanded by Capt. W. S. Richardson; lieutenants, John Ewalt and James Richard- son; orderly sergeant, John Williams. Perhaps the next to ren- dezvous was Capt. Duell's, from the northwest part of the county, and Capt. Joe C. Porter's from the southwest, came next. In time some of Capt. John H. Carlin's company, the Monticello Grays, joined the rendezvous. The Grays were in full uniform, the only company in the battalion with the distinction. It is said that the uniforms were designed by and manufactured under the supervision of Capt. Carlin himself, who was a tailor.

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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 7

Author: Goodspeed, firm, publishers, Chicago (1886-1891, Goodspeed Publishing Co.) Publication date: 1887 Publisher: St. Louis, Chicago, The Goodspeed publishing co. Number of Pages: 1308

Author: Goodspeed, firm, publishers, Chicago (1886-1891, Goodspeed Publishing Co.)
Publication date: 1887
Publisher: St. Louis, Chicago, The Goodspeed publishing co.
Number of Pages: 1308