USA > Missouri > Saline County > History of Saline County, Missouri > Part 32
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SALINE COUNTY COURT, SPECIAL TERM, April 21, 1862. 5
Robert Dysart, Joseph Field, and E. P. Garnett, late justices of the county court for Saline county, having failed to take the oath of allegi- ance to the government of the United States, and the provisional govern- ment of the state of Missouri, as prescribed by an ordinance of the state convention of the state of Missouri, their offices, as such, were in conse- quence thereof, vacated, in accordance with the provisions of said ordi- nance. Whereupon Lieut .- Governor Hall, acting governor, appointed Wm. O. Maupin, Fred M. Fulkerson, and Ed. W. Sims, to fill said vacan- cies; who, having been commissioned and qualified according to law, and having given the requisite notice, as required by law, called a special term of the Saline county court to meet in Marshall, on the 21st of April, A. D. 1862.
The county court, having met on said day, in pursuance of said call, at which were present Wm. O. Maupin, F. M. Fulkerson, Edward Sims, judges, and Paschal E. Maupin, coroner, proceeded to the transaction of business.
The judges then proceeded to draw lots for the terms, which resulted as follows: E. W. Sims drew the term ending August, 1862; Wm. O. Maupin, the term ending August, 1864, and F. M. Fulkerson, the term ending August, 1866.
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It is ordered, By the court that all attorneys at law be, and they are hereby required to take and file the oath of allegiance, as prescribed by ordinance of state convention, before they be permitted to practice in this court.
An election for presiding justice of the court was then held, whereupon F. M. Fulkerson was chosen president.
It is ordered, That James R. Berryman be, and he is hereby appointed clerk of the Saline county court, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the fail- ure of Jesse Davis, late clerk, to take and file the oath of allegiance, as required by an ordinance of the state convention.
SALINE COUNTY IN THE SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR.
In the winter of the years 1861-2 there were no military movements in Saline county of very great importance or interest. There were no Fed- eral troops stationed in the county for any length of time, and the Confed- erate troops were far away. Agents of the latter visited the county, how- ever, on recruiting service and were fairly successful. Squads of men for the southern army were organized in nearly every part of the county and made their way to " Old Pap Price " through the blockade established by the Federals.
CAPTURE OF JO. INGLEHART AND HIS COMPANY.
In the winter of 1861-2, in January and February, Captain Jo. Inglehart was busy raising a company in Marshall, which, by the last of February was about ready to march for the southern army. About this time the stage from Booneville carrying the U. S. eastern mail, was halted by dis- guised men in the woods ncar Marshall. The mail bags were taken from it, taken out into the woods off the road and gutted. Instead of leaving for the southern army immediately, Capt. Inglehart with his company still loitered in Marshall, until one fine day early in March, 1862, they sud- denly found themselves and the town of Marshall in the hands of Captain Kiser from Booneville with a battalion of U. S. troops. Not a gun was fired. Inglehart was taken to St. Louis and tried for robbing the U. S. mail, but as no direct evidence could be found against him, he was finally acquitted, and exchanged. Afterwards he served in Shelby's Missouri brigade.
CAPTURE AND RESCUE OF CAPT. KISER'S MEN.
In the early spring of 1862, company A, of Eppstein battalion of " home guards," at Booneville, came up into Saline county on a scouting expedition. The company was commanded by Capt. John B. Kiser or Kaiser (pronounced Kizer), and numbered about sixty men, very nearly all of whom were Germans. Making Marshall their headquarters and general place of rendezvous, the company was divided up into squads and
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HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
sent throughout the county to reconnoiter, etc. While one of these squads, numbering about a dozen men, was marching along north of Salt Fork and between Miami and Marshall, they were suddenly surrounded and captured, without the firing of a gun, by a large company of newly recruited Confederates, from north Missouri, under a Captain Small, making their way to Price's army.
The Germans were kept as prisoners for a few days on Cow creek, and were confined for a time in the Rock Church, in Marshall township. They were guarded for a while by volunteers from the neighborhood. At last their comrades procured re-enforcements from Marshall and Booneville, and making an incursion into the neighborhood where they , were held, re-captured them, at the church, without difficulty, and returned in triumph with them to Marshall. The church was set on fire and destroyed. Upon meeting with each other, the two detachments- the prisoners and their rescuers-set up a joyful jabber in German, which was kept up until long after their arrival in Marshall.
One of the volunteers, who guarded the Germans at the Rock Church, was a young man who had returned a few months before from service in Price's army, his term having expired. He therefore was performing mili- tary duty while not in the military service, a very serious violation of the laws of war. A few weeks thereafter, he decided to leave the county for his own good, and boarded a steamer at Arrow Rock, bound down the river. When he sat down at dinner, lo! there confronting him at the table, was one of those same Germans! Luckily, the Teuton did not remember faces well, but the patriotic Confederate saw him leave the boat at Booneville, with great relief. Upon that voyage, as upon all oth- ers down the stream of life, he was luckily able to steer his Boat right, and he is now a prosperous real estate dealer in Marshall.
FIRST FEDERAL TROOPS STATIONED IN THE COUNTY.
The first U. S. troops regularly stationed in Marshall came in the spring (April), 1862, consisting of Captain Wakefield's Irish company (Co. D.), of the Seventh regiment, Missouri infantry volunteers, Col. John D. Stevenson. From this time on, Marshall was almost continuously a post occupied by U. S. troops. Capt. Wakefield's company remained only a short time, and was succeeded, in May or June, 1862, by a battalion of the Seventh regiment, Missouri cavalry volunteers, under Maj. McKee. Under the general order of Gen. Fremont, declaring martial law, Maj. McKee established the post, and appointed Capt. Love, company L, same regiment, provost marshal of Saline county. Maj. McKee remained in command only two or three months, and was succeeded by Lieut .- Col. W. A. Wilson, of Marshall, then of the 71st enrolled Missouri militia. A large force of Confederates had organized, under Colonels Cockrell, Jackman, Coffey, and others, and were in Jackson and Johnson counties,
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threatening Kansas City and Lexington. Col. Huston, then in command at Lexington, called in all of the militia in Lafayette and Saline counties to defend his post. A "big fight" was expected. It came off, but at Lone Jack, in Jackson county, instead of at Lexington.
Upon the receipt of his orders from Gen. Totten, Maj. McKee issued the following order to Lieut. A. Burnsides, of the Seventy-first enrolled Missouri militia:
MAJ. McKEE'S ORDER.
HEADQUARTERS DETACH. 7TH CAV., MO. VOL. ) MARSHALL, MISSOURI, AUG. 9, 1862. 1
Lieutenant : Orders have just been received from Gen. Totten, by tele- graph, directing that the companies of the 7th Cav., now at Marshall, and all loyal militia of Saline county be ordered, forthwith, to march to Lexington. You will, as soon as possible, on receipt of this communication, march, with your entire command, including the militia, to this post. You will, before leaving, publish an order, directing all the loyal citizens between the prescribed ages, in Saline county, to repair forthwith to Lexington, and state therein, that all who do not come will be held as traitors, and hereafter can claim no protection from the Federal government. You will subsist and forage the militia upon rebels of all shades. When it is absolutely necessary to take from Union men, give them receipts in the name of the state of Missouri. Arms and ammunition will be furnished at Lexington to those who have not got them.
The above is an order of Col. Daniel Huston, received by me this day. Bring all the arms and ammunition you can raise; also for every man that has a horse, to bring him. You must provide yourselves with the neces- sary cooking utensils and blankets. Let every man bring with him two or three days provisions, and report yourselves at this post immediately. I shall move from this post Tuesday at 12 o'clock.
DANIEL MCKEE, Major, Com'd'g Post.
To Lieut. Burnsides :
I certify that the above is a true and exact copy of the order calling this company into active service.
A. BURNSIDES, Co. F, 71 Reg. E. M. M.
Col. Wilson was in command of the post at Marshall until June, 1863, when he was succeeded by Major Geo. W. Kelly, of the 4th cavalry, Mis- souri state militia, who continued in command for some months.
On the 3d Monday of August, 1862, the proceedings of the county court contains the following entry:
In consequence of apprehended trouble from guerrilla bands at this time infesting the country, no court was held according to adjournment. The court thereupon gave legal notice that a special term of said court would be held at the court house in Marshall on the 15th day of September, 1862.
J. R. BERRYMAN, Clerk.
HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
FIRST FEDERAL TROOPS RAISED IN THE COUNTY.
In the early spring of 1862 quite a number of the Union men of Saline county enlisted in the Federal service in the various companies then being formed in the county. Many men who had been secessionists at the breaking out of the troubles now became ardent loyalists, ready to justify their pretensions and seal their faith with their blood! The imposing dis- play made by the Federal troops that had passed through the county, their superior equipment to the half-armed, half-clad Confederates; the magnitude of the preparation then being made by the authorities at Wash- ington "for the suppression of the rebellion;" the continual demonstration of the immense resources of the north, and the probable failure ultimately of the Southern Confederacy, and the certainty of good pay in money of nearly par value-these considerations may have moved some to abandon the stars and bars and rally around the "old flag." And yet, without any positive evidence that this is so, it is but fair and just to believe that there was an actual change of heart, honest and sincere, among these men, and that they abandoned the Confederate and embraced the Union cause for the reason that they believed the former to be wrong and the latter to be right.
March 24, 1862, Capt. R. L. Ferguson, then of Miami, received a com- mission to recruit a company for the Seventh regiment of enrolled Mis- souri militia. The company ("B") was made up of men from Saline and other counties in this part of the state. April 17, 1862, Capt. Ben. H. Wilson and Lieut. John S. Crane recruited company "F" of the same regiment, mostly in Saline county.
The Seventh regiment, whose colonel was John F. Phillips, afterward member of Congress, and whose lieutenant-colonel was T. T. Crittenden, afterward governor of the state, did a great deal of service for the Union cause from first to last in Missouri.
FIGHTING BEGINS IN EARNEST.
Hitherto there had been no collisions between the forces in this county of any consequence, but from the spring of 1862, to the close of the war, there were many small skirmishes and unimportant encounters between the Confederates and Union men, or Federals. These were for the most part between scouting parties of the Federal militia and the Confederate partisan rangers, or "bushwhackers," or "guerrillas," as they were termed-the latter being organizations led by men who held no military commissions, but did as they pleased, or as they could. They lived on the country, armed and uniformed themselves, and took their pay out of what they could capture.
These little skirmishes usually amounted to an exchange of shots, the killing or wounding of one or two men, and a speedy retreat. Probably the first of these encounters was the
فقيد
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HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
FIGHT AT MEADOW SPRING.
In May, 1862, Capt. Hawk, of a company of Iowa cavalry, of the Federal army, having been stationed at Waverly for some time, was informed by two negroes, belonging to Baltimore Thomas, that the bush- whackers were near that place. He immediately started with his company in pursuit of them. Following up the trail into the timber, north of Mr. Thomas' house, they came upon seventeen guerrillas, seated around what is known as the Meadow Spring, eating their breakfast, and charged them. The guerrillas at once scattered and took refuge in the brush. A sharp fight then ensued, which resulted in the death of Lieut. Woods, whose breast was literally riddled with buck-shot, and the wounding of Capt. Hawk, in the right arm.
The guerrillas made good their escape. Capt. Hawk was tenderly cared for at the residence of Mr. Geo. Hall, a southern man, in Waverly, and the dead lieutenant was buried with military honors, at the Waverly graveyard, at night, making a most impressive scene.
The guerrillas were commanded by Wm. B. Edwards, afterward a captain in Shelby's regiment, and known as "Squirrel-tail" Edwards, from the circumstance of his having worn a squirrel-tail plume in his hat when he was in command of this irregular organization. He afterward deserted Shelby's regiment, and engaged in robbing the people of Arkan- sas, without regard to their politics. He was killed by a company of Arkansas Confederate militia.
In this engagement the guerrillas lost their horses, but not a man of them was hurt.
THE WAR DURING 1863.
In 1863 the county was under the control of the Federals, as it had been from February, in 1862. Federal garrisons were stationed at Mar- shall, Arrow Rock, and Miami, from time to time and with but few inter- vals. Federal scouting parties were almost constantly in the county, scouring it thoroughly from one border to the other. Federal militia were organized, armed, and equipped in various parts. Federal affilia- tors and sympathizers held all the offices in the county.
But, Federal rule was very obnoxious to the majority of the citizens. For one reason it was distasteful because it was, or seemed so, rigorous and oppressive; for another, and the stronger reason, it was obnoxious because it was Federal, and not Confederate. For there was no mistaking the fact that a majority of the people were at heart Confederates and sym-
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HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
pathized and acted with the southern cause. Many of them had been Union people at the beginning of the troubles, but the course of the Fed- eral commanders, and the conduct of the men under them changed them into pronounced Confederate sympathizers, and indeed made many of them Confederate soldiers. There were those who wished to take no part in the fighting then going on; they wished to remain at home and to pur- sue their ordinary avocations in peace and unmolested; they desired that the soldiers of both armies should keep out of their neighborhoods and avoid all collision in their vicinity. They did not wish to fight against the flag of the stars and stripes, nor against their own race, neighbors and kindreds.
But the Federal theory of the war was that there were but two parties, Unionists and Confederates; there could be no such thing as neutrality. He that was not for them was against them; and he that was for them must show his faith by his works. Hence they called on men freely for their property and their services, and demanded ready compliance. "If you are a loyal man, you will not complain ; if you are a rebel, it but serves you right," was the uniform reply to any remonstrance, protest, or expos- tulation.
This theory had its advocates among the Confederates, who quite often carried it into practice, and mayhap it was the correct one after all. In time of and in the immediate presence of war, men can hardly expect to till a cornfield in peace when every day there is a probability that it will be the scene of a cavalry charge; to plow another field for wheat one day when the next it may be plowed by shot and shell; when the horses used to draw the wains of grain and hay are bestrode by troopers or harnessed to gun carriages in an hour or two; when dwelling houses are used for hospitals, and barns converted into barracks.
In Saline county the people felt the hand of war, and it was hard and heavy. Bands of militia daily rode up to the houses of men of southern proclivities and demanded food for themselves and provender for their horses, and obtained them without money and without price. Companies of Confederates paid similar visits to the homes of Union men. Horses were "pressed," and provisions and material were confiscated by both parties. Excesses, not to call them outrages, were daily perpetrated. The bad men, the scoundrels and villains of both sides found opportunity to pillage, to rob, and to murder. The details of many instances of these crimes against humanity, even against the laws of war, ought not to be perpetuated, and will not here be given.
During the year 1863 there were a number of encounters in the county, too many and too unimportant to be enumerated. The principal military event was the invasion of the state by Gen. Shelby, then a colonel, and known as Shelby's raid.
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HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
SHELBY'S RAID.
In September, 1863, Col. Jo. O. Shelby, then with the trans-Mississippi department of the Confederate army, in Arkansas, selected a body of men from the Missouri cavalry regiments of that army and began the now famous " Shelby's raid." The objects of this raid, as stated by Shelby him- self, were to obtain recruits for the Confederate army from among the many then in Missouri who were strong sympathizers with the southern cause, many of whom had seen more or less service already, and were at home on parole, to capture supplies from the Federals, and to let the world, and especially the people of Missouri, know that this portion of American soil was still claimed as a part of the Corfederate states, and was not to be abandoned. The presence of a Confederate force was thought to be nec- essary to restore and maintain confidence in the breasts of those who had begun to doubt the success of their cause, which had no other representa- tives in this territory save the guerrillas, and who had for months been under the control of the Federal troops.
Just how many men Shelby had with him when he left Arkansas cannot now be known. Maj. Edwards, of Shelby's staff, and author of " Shelby and his Men," places the number at eight hundred. There were Shelby's regiment, commanded by Capt. Geo. P. Gordon; Shank's regiment, com- manded by himself; Thompson's regiment, commanded by Lt .- Col. Hooper; Elliott's battalion, and two guns of Collins' battery, in charge of Lt. David Harris, when the expedition started. Afterwards it was joined by Col. Coffey's and Col. David Hunter's regiments, making a force of probably one thousand men. One of the guns was a ten-pound steel Par- rott gun, captured at Springfield, and the other was a six-pounder brass piece captured from the Federals at the battle of Lone Jack, in August, 1862.
Starting from camp on the Washita river, in southern Arkansas, Sept. 22, 1863, Shelby struck straight for central Missouri. It seemed a des- perate undertaking to ride with so small a force into what was virtually an enemy's country, filled as it was with Federals at nearly every county seat and important town, easy to concentrate into an overwhelming force upon either of his flanks, his front, or his rear, or upon all sides; but Shelby was a desperate fighter who took desperate chances, and his men were ever ready to follow where he led. They would do so upon any occasion, and now they were going back to old Missouri and all of them were old Missourians! Such a ride meant iron endurance and incessant fighting with the alternative of death or capture-and probably capture meant death.
On the night of October 10, 1863, Shelby encamped on the farm of Judge Nathaniel Leonard, near Booneville, and the next day marched into
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HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
the town. Maj. Leonard, with 250 Federal militia, began to cross from the Howard county side on a steam ferry boat into Booneville. As they were about to land they were informed of Shelby's presence in the place, and immediately they put back for the northern shore. Harris's cannon were turned on the ferry boat, striking it twice before it reached the north bank. The guns continued to play on the troops as they landed, causing them to beat a hasty retreat into the country back from the river. Col. Crittenden, (now governor of the state) with a detachment of the 7th cav- alry, Missouri state militia, was in sight of Booneville, on a boat bound up the river, and learning the condition of affairs, also landed on the northern shore.
As Shelby left Booneville for Marshall, on the morning of the 12th, Gen. E. B. Brown with a force of Missouri state militia, marched in with his command in pursuit of Shelby. It seems impossible at this time to determine how many troops Gen. Brown had with him. There were about 650 men of the 1st M. S. M. under Lt. Col. B. F. Lazear; 350 of the 4th M. S. M. under Maj. G. W. Kelly; a portion of the M. S. M., under Col. John F. Phillips, since member of congress from the Sedalia district; and some enrolled militia under Maj. Wear, or Ware, of Boone- ville.
Sunrise on the 12th found Shelby on his march for Saline and Lafay- ette counties, the homes of very many of his men. Instead of taking the direct road from Booneville to Marshall by way of Arrow Rock, Shelby turned southwest on the Sedalia road, and pursued it for several miles in order to cross the Lamine river at Dug ford instead of at the regular crossing on the Arrow Rock road. All the morning his rear guard skirmished with Brown's advance. Col. Lazear and other officers of the Federal force were anxious to bring on a general engagement with Shelby before he crossed the Lamine, but for some reason Brown would not permit such action to be taken. He had been informed by what he deemed good authority, that the Confederates outnumbered him, and probably he was expecting and waiting for re-inforcements from Gen. Ewing's command, a portion of which was at Sedalia, and could easily move in Shelby's front.
At Dug ford, Shelby crossed and ambushed Hunter's battalion, Jones' Langhorn's, Ferrill's, and Lea's companies, upon the west bank of the stream. When Brown's advance was almost across, it was met by a terrible and destructive fire from the carbines and revolvers of the con- cealed Confederates, and driven back with a loss of from eight to ten men killed, and three times that many wounded. Maj. Edward's account ("Shelby and his Men," p. 217), of this affair places the number of Fed- eral killed and wounded at one hundred and eleven. Levens & Drake's History of Cooper County, p. 114, says there were "two Federals killed."
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HISTORY OF SALINE COUNTY.
No attempt is here made to reconcile the wide discrepancy in the state- ments of other histories. What is here set down has been derived from participants in the Dug ford fight upon both sides, the Federal surgeon who cared for the wounded among others.
The Confederates were not troubled any more that day until in the evening, when near the Salt Fork, in the township of that name, and close to the residence of Mr. George A. Murrell. Here the Federals ran up a section of artillery (two brass six-pound guns), from Thurber's Missouri battery, and opened fire upon Shelby's rear. Harris's guns returned the fire, and one Federal and one Confederate were killed. The Federal had both legs shot off. He was carried into the house of Mr. Murrell and died in a few minutes. The Confederate was buried where he fell.
THE FIGHT AT MARSHALL.
Shelby left Arrow Rock to the right and pushed on to the farm of Mr. George Nave, where he encamped for the night. His camp-fires were in plain sight of those of Gen. Brown, and the pickets were still closer to each other. Shelby's men helped themselves quite freely to the supplies which were found in abundance upon the Nave farm, and of which they stood very much in need. During the evening Mr. Nave vis- ited Shelby's headquarters to obtain pay for what had been taken.
He was promptly paid $500-in Confederate money !
The following account of the subsequent movements of Shelby's forces and those of the Federals is taken from " Shelby and his Men," p. 217, et seq .:
A wet, clinging morning, cold and disagreeable, came at last, and Shelby began the march early for Marshall. There might be danger ahead, and he expected it, but not so sudden and appalling. When within two miles of Marshall, Thorp sent a swift courier, Weed Marshall, back with information that a heavy body of Federals were forming in his front. "Charge them!" was the laconic order. " But, Colonel, they are four thousand strong," replied the heroic Thorp, as he formed for the desper- ate attempt. "Ah! what?" said Shelby; "four thousand devils! Then we are in for it deeper than I expected."
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