USA > Missouri > St Charles County > History of St. Charles, Montgomery, and Warren counties, Missouri, written and comp. from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of their townships, towns and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri > Part 65
USA > Missouri > Montgomery County > History of St. Charles, Montgomery, and Warren counties, Missouri, written and comp. from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of their townships, towns and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri > Part 65
USA > Missouri > Warren County > History of St. Charles, Montgomery, and Warren counties, Missouri, written and comp. from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of their townships, towns and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri > Part 65
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Gen. Lyon, then in command of the Federal forces in Missouri, being then in the south-west part of the State, Col. Chester Harding, in command of St. Louis, on July 16, sent seven companies of the Third regiment of U. S. Reserve Corps (Home Guards ), under Col. John McNeil, and the greater portion of Schuttner's Fourth Missouri volunteers (three months' men ), under Lieut .- Col. Hammer, up the Pacific Railroad to cross the river at Jefferson, march to Fulton and attack Harris. McNeil, with the seven companies of his regiment, crossed the river and marched towards Fulton.
At Overton's run, south of Fulton, Harris prepared an ambuscade for the Federals. McNeil's men were marching along when the seces- sion troops fired upon them from an excellent position and at short range ; yet only 15 Federals were wounded - but two mortally. The secessionists were badly excited, and when the fire was returned, they turned and fled, panic stricken and in the greatest disorder. Some of
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them never halted until they had made a distance of 25 miles. The . affair came to be known, and is still called, " The Fulton Races," owing to the extraordinary running and racing made by Harris' men, nearly all mounted, to secure places of safety from McNeil's men, nearly all of whom were on foot ! Men, who afterwards made good and brave Confederate soldiers, ran like foot racers in this engage- ment. McNeil entered Fulton without serious opposition.
In the " Fulton races " there was a company of secession troops from Montgomery county commanded by Capt. Daniel Bryan, a merchant of Montgomery City. It, too, became demoralized and fled in great haste for shelter into the Whetstone hills, in the north-west- ern part of this county. Alvin Cobb, another resident of this county, had a small company in the same fight and retreated with Bryan.
It seems that Col. Hammer did not follow McNeil when the latter went to Fulton. With 42 mounted men of Co. A, Capt. Jacob Melter, of Col. Almstedt's First regiment of United States Reserve Corps (Home Guards ), Hammer crossed the Missouri at Hermann, landing on Loutre island. Capt. Melter was at the head of the com- pany, and an acting lieutenant, August Yager, was present.
Hammer took the Rhineland road up the bottom, riding rapidly. He did not go to Rhineland, however, but turned off at the Neal or Cundiff place, and took the Danville road. That night he camped on Loutre, near where the iron bridge now stands. The next day he came on to Danville. From Danville he went to New Florence, where he reported to Harding by telegraph. In his report to Gen. Lyon, Col. Harding says : -
Hammer telegraphed from Hermann that he concluded to leave the river there, as transportation was easily procured, and that he had made arrangements to effect a junction with McNeil. The next I heard of him he was at New Florence, on the railroad, and McNeil, with 460 men, was near Fulton, where I then knew he would meet Harris. You can imagine my anxiety, and afterwards my relief, when I heard from that brave fellow McNeil, that he had fought and routed the rebels.
At New Florence Melter's company was sent to Montgomery City on their way to Mexico. Hammer himself returned to St. Louis. En route from Hermann to Danville, Hammer took one or two horses from secessionists - one from Joe Cole -and made prisoners of Dr. D. Y. Bast ( who lived on the bottom and who had voted in the State convention that there were just grounds for the secession of Missouri) and J. N. Hunter, who lived near the iron bridge across Loutre. At
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Hunter's, also, the Federals ( who were all Germans ) took with them a wagon load of hay, on top of which they tied a fat yearling calf, which they made Mr. Hunter hold, and indeed it was a singular looking pro- cession that marched into Danville.
The Eighth Missouri infantry volunteers, a regiment made up in St. Louis, and composed chiefly of Americans, or Irish-Americans, and commanded by Col. Morgan L. Smith, was ordered to co-operate with McNeil and Hammer in the movement against Tom Harris. It was to go to Mexico and move from thence upon the secessionists at Fulton. As this was the first regiment of Federal troops to enter the county a narrative of its trip to and through the county may be of in- terest.
Sunday evening, July 14, four companies of the Second Missouri volunteers (three months' men ), Col. Henry Boernstein's regiment, under Lieut .- Col. Fred. Schaeffer, and two companies, B and C, of the Eighth Missouri infantry ( American Zouaves ), left the St. Louis arsenal under command of Col. Morgan L. Smith, of the Eighth Missouri, for Mexico and other points on the North Missouri Railroad. Silently under cover of the night, the boat, the Louisiana, on which the soldiers embarked, passed by the city. At the mouth of the Mis- souri she grounded, detaining them there until the next morning, when they again proceeded on their way, arriving at St. Charles dur- ing the afternoon. Before arriving they had heard of the secession tendencies of the citizens there, but their reception gave no evidence that this was the prevailing sentiment; cheers greeted them upon their arrival, and ladies appeared upon the balconies, at the windows and at the doors to wave welcome to them. Similar to this was their greeting for a few miles up the road.
Soon, however, a change appeared that, ere long, became as dark and fearful as thus far their progsess had been bright and encourag- ing. About six miles from St. Charles one of the men was shot from under the cover of the woods; fortunately he was but slightly wounded. It now became evident that they were entering a section of the State where they were to be treated as enemies. The man shot was a member of Co. B, in one of the rear cars, and some little time elapsed before it became generally known that the shot, plainly enough heard, was other than the accidental discharge of a musket. Armed lookouts were now stationed on the tops of the dif- ferent cars ; men sat at the open windows, musket in hand, ready to return the fire of any who might be lying in ambush, and a hand car was kept in advance to see that the track was clear. In this manner
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the soldiers ran into Wentzville, where they remained long enough to get supper. Here one of the men was accidentally shot, the wound afterwards resulting in his death. The town was comparatively de- serted, and the majority of those who remained regarded the invaders more with fear than favor. Rumors were rife that they would be waylaid along the whole line of the road. It was desirable that they should that night reach Montgomery City, but it was with reluctance that the colonel gave the order to advance. It was night when the soldiers again started, dark and rainy, and as the long train rolled slowly on behind the hand car, the prospect was forbidding enough. Nor was it altogether deceptive; three miles from the village, the sharp crash of a volley of fire-arms rung out in the night over the pat- tering of the rain and the monotonous rumbling of the cars. A second's pause, and a line of flashing fire passed from end to end of the train. The whizzing of the Minie balls was a hurricane. Orders to cease firing from the cars and to turn out followed, and speedily about one-half of the battalion were plunging through the woods in the direction indicated by the firing. No signs could be found of the enemy, and flanked by the skirmishers the train was hacked up to the city. Three of the soldiers were slightly wounded.
On the following morning, the train was again put in motion. Be- fore leaving, reports by passengers on the down train were received, that the secessionists along the line of country through which the Federals had to pass were scouring the country, armed and on horse- back, gatbering in bands to waylay them, the track was to be torn up, bridges burned, etc. A sharp lookout was consequently kept, and although the hand-car had now become a forlorn hope, the fear of foul play prompted its continuance, and there was no scarcity of vol- unteers to man it. Quietly the point of attack on the previous even- ing was passed, but a little distance beyond a murderous fire was opened on the hand-car, wounding five out of six of the men who ran it, one of them mortally. Again the skirmishers, a full half of the entire force, turned out, and this time daylight aided them with effect. Through the greater part of the day the skirmishers flanked the cars. Three other attacks were made during the day, but without harm to the Federals.
Three-fourths of a mile west of Jonesburg some secession citizens had concealed themselves, and when the train bearing the soldiers came up they opened fire upon it. These citizens were Joe Sublett, John Hubbard, Thos. Williams, Jacob Curtis and John Hunt. The soldiers returned the fire, but no one was hurt on either side. After-
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wards the members of the firing party were arrested by the Federals, but on examination the only one convicted of having discharged his gun was Joe Sublett, who was sent to Alton prison, and died there.
But for the scouts, seen hourly, though mostly at a safe distance, the country seemed comparatively deserted. Farms had been left in charge of the women; at Wright City, a small village, but three per- sons were seen ; Millville, now Foristell, seemed wholly deserted.
Late in the evening the troops reached Montgomery City, where their reception was hospitable in the extreme, the Union citizens ap- pearing to be decidedly in the majority. In nothing was this illus- trated so markedly as in the attendance next morning of the people upon the funeral of Wm. Pease, a soldier who had been shot the day before on the hand-car, and who died during the night. He was the first Federal soldier that died or was buried in the county.
The zouaves turned out in uniform, and they were followed by res- idents of the village, including many ladies. At the grave, which was and is, in the Montgomery City cemetery, after the salute was fired the soldiers fell back and the ladies passed around the grave, each in turn throwing upon the coffin lid a bunch of flowers. Miss Prudence Pegram, daughter of James L. Pegram, an ardent Union- ist, was especially noticeable in her ministrations at the funeral of the dead soldier, who was " somebody's darling," no doubt. She carefully guarded his tomb, planted flowers upon it, and preserved it from oblivion and obliteration, and yet sees to it that the grave is kept green.
Leaving with many mutual expressions of good will, on the same day they reached Mexico. Near Martinsburg a culvert was found on fire, but the soldiers reached it in time to prevent any material delay. Beyond this, there was no further molestation. After remaining in Mexico a couple of hours, it was determined to run back a few miles, to meet the forces under Col. A. Hammer (Schuttner's regiment ). On the road down the train was again fired on, under cover of the night, and two soldiers were wounded. Again the troops turned out, answering with a volley. Below Martinsburg they joined forces with Hammer's command, camped out on the prairie, and next morning returned to Mexico.
FIRST BLOODSHED IN THE COUNTY - ATROCIOUS MURDER OF MAJ. BEN SHARP AND LIEUT. A. YAGER BY ALVIN COBB'S MEN.
July 18, 1861, the next day after the " Fulton races," the people of Montgomery county were greatly shocked to learn that Maj. Benj. Sharp, a prominent resident of Danville, and Lieut. A. Yager (or
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Jager), a Federal officer, had been murdered near Martinsburg by a band of secession bushwhackers, under Alvin Cobb.
Ben Sharp was a native Virginian, born in Lee county, in 1820. He was educated at the Virginia Military Institute, at Lexington, and possessed a fine scholastic, classical and military education. He had lived at Danville for some years. When the war broke out he was an ardent Unionist, and in favor of coercing the Southern States back to their allegiance, and at once sought a position where he could be most useful. He went to St. Louis, saw Gen. Lyon and tried to get authority from him to raise a regiment in North Missouri for the Federal service.
At last he received authority from Chester Harding to recruit a battalion or regiment with the promise of a commission as colonel so soon as the battalion or regiment was full. With a paper to this effect in his pocket he started home, and accompanied the Eighth Mis- souri battalion and Schaeffer's men on the train from St. Charles to Montgomery City. Here he stopped and attended the funeral of Billy Pease, the zouave, who was shot from the hand-car. He confided to a few intimate friends that he was on his way to Mexico, where under the protection of Smith's command, he would make a speech and begin the raising of a regiment composed of loyal Audrain, Callaway and Montgomery county men.
When Melter's company, of Hammer's command, came to Mont- gomery City, Lieut. Yager 1 was sick and went on the train to Wells- ville. Melter's company procured the services of a Mr. Taylor to guide them.
At Wellsville Ben Sharp, who had become acquainted with Yager, agreed to accompany him to Mexico. The two borrowed a buggy from A. Kempinski, a Unionist, and, hitching up Yager's horse, started by the dirt road for Mexico. They left word for Hammer's men (Melter's company ) to follow them, watching the tracks of the buggy wheels for the proper course.
West of Wellsville, where the Mexico road turned to the north, the old road had been fenced up, and the new road turned about the fence and was somewhat obscure. Here Sharp and Yager, instead of turn- ing north, either did not see the road or did not understand it, and kept on to the westward, pursuing the road leading from Wellsville to Williamsburg, in Callaway county, by way of Broadwater's mill, on Whetstone creek.
Capt. Daniel Bryan and his company of Montgomery county seces-
1 The Adjutant-General's report gives his name as A. Pages.
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sionists were lying in the woods among the Whetstone hills, cooling off after the "Fulton races." It is said that they saw Sharp and Yager, but refused to either fire upon them or attempt to take them prisoners, Capt. Bryan repressing every effort to do either. Some place near here the two Unionists met Hon. Morgan White, of Calla- way, who informed them that they were on the wrong road, and directed them how they could turn back and enter the Mexico road at Martinsburg. Accordingly they circled about toward the north-east and started for Martinsburg, which they would enter from the west.
When Alvin Cobb heard that Bryan would not fire on Sharp and Yager, he said to a squad of men under his control -if not under his command that he would fix them. Alvin Cobb was a desperate fellow, and some six or eight men, as desperate as he, sprang upon their horses and followed. In some way Cobb learned that Sharp and Yager were going into Martinsburg from the west, and striking across the coun- try, which he well knew, he resolved to intercept them and " bush- whack " them. He knew Sharp well. At a point half a mile west of Martinsburg, and on the east side of James Martin's farm, just where his outside fence came up to the road, there was a slough making off to the south. Here also were some bushes. In this slough and among these bushes Alvin Cobb, Frank Cobb and about six more men con- cealed themselves, shotguns and revolvers ready, crouching for their prey.
They had not long to wait. Leisurely driving along, for it was a hot day, Sharp and Yager soon put in an appearance, chatting pleas- antly and familiarly, unconscious of their imminent peril and the ter- rible fate awaiting them. They had passed Martin's house, and the village of Martinsburg was in sight. Now they were at the ambush.
"Fire!" roared Cobb, and with his left arm bearing his bridle-rein caught in his " hook," with his right he fired his revolver fairly at Ben Sharp. Two or three double-barreled shotguns and as many re- volvers poured in a volley, sudden as a flash of lightning and terrible as the thunderbolt that follows ! One revolver bullet and a full load of buckshot entered Sharp's body ; one load of buckshot shattered Yager's arm and tore it nearly off so that it hung by a shred of flesh and clothing. The buggy was riddled with bullets and buckshot.
Neither Sharp nor Yager were killed outright. The horse attached to the buggy, a spirited animal, was badly frightened and sprang for- ward, unrestrained, in a dead run. Cobb and his men started in pur-
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suit, yelling and firing. Half the distance to town Yager, who had sunk down limp and helpless, with half his body hanging over the side of the buggy, tumbled out into the road. The bushwhackers passed him and kept straight on after Sharp. The frantic horse, which Sharp in his wounded condition was unable to control, entered Martinsburg at full speed. It dashed the buggy against the corner of the railroad cattle pen, throwing Sharp out and shivering the ve- hicle to atoms. Then it sprang off and was not caught until the next day.
The bushwhackers stopped and took up Sharp's body and put it on a horse, and some say tied the leg's under the animal's belly. Some ladies saw Yager fall, and running out they helped him up and bore him, all dusty and bloody as he was, into the house of Mrs. John Coyle, and began ministering to him as best they could. They sought first to stop the flow of blood, and as the arm was so shockingly mangled and dangling by a mere shred of flesh and cloth, Mrs. Coyle nerved herself to the extent that she offered to cut it off with a large pair of shears. The wounded officer consented, and the operation was about to be performed by the heroic lady when Cobb and some of his men rode up, and, entering the house, inquired for " that d-d Dutchman," and rudely and brutally tore him from the ladies' arms and put him upon a horse and bore him away. It was all he could do to sit on his horse, and a bushwhacker rode beside him and kept him from falling.
In 1864 E. R. Brown, then a Confederate soldier, and recently county collector, and always a reputable, reliable gentleman, met Alvin Cobb in the Indian Territory. Asked to give the particulars of his disposition of Sharp and Yager, Cobb stated that he put them on horses, bore them north of Martinsburg some distance into Audrain county, and then he and his men dismounted and helped the prisoners to the ground. Cobb said he now told them they must die, and asked them if they wished to pray. Yager made no answer, but Sharp kneeled down and prayed God to bless and protect his wife and chil- dren, to forgive his sins, and to grant that the armies of the Union might be successful, and the Union itself preserved to his posterity forever. Ben Sharp died as he had lived, brave as a lion, devoted to the Union cause, and kneeling and praying to God alone. The prayer finished, Cobb says both men were shot kneeling; then they were taken off and buried.
When the news that Ben Sharp and Lieut. Yager had been killed reached Montgomery county a fierce cry of indignation went Jup from
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the Unionists, and a thrill of horror ran through the entire county. Search was at once begun for their bodies, for it was well known that they must be dead. The soldiers came down from Mexico and joined with the citizens in scouring the woods and prairies. But some of the citizens of secession proclivities were afraid the soldiers would kill them if they had good opportunity, and so would not hunt in the woods with them. Then the soldiers were withdrawn. James L. Pegram, Judge Fulkerson, Judge Harris, Dr. Brown, James Martin and his sons were out night and day.
The citizens thought the men had been taken off north into Audrain, and then the party had gone west and then turned south into Mont- gomery country, through the settlement on Loutre, formerly called . " Cobbtown," where the Cobbs lived. A trail was found and some blood. Col. Fulkerson asked Frank Cobb's wife where her husband was. She said that the day of the shooting he started off south, and the next day he came in from the north, stopped and gave her his coat to mend and went on south. In the pocket of her husband's coat she found some of Sharp's papers, one of which her husband told her was Sharp's commission, and cautioned her not to lose it as it was valuable. This was probably merely Sharp's authority from Harding to raise a regiment. By some persons unknown some papers of Col. Sharp's were afterward sent his widow in an envelope post-marked Columbia.
At last the bodies were found, far up in Audrain county, east of Mexico. Where a " draw " in a prairie terminated in a slough or gully there was a water-fall, and under the shelving bank over which the water poured when it rained, there was a bench or shelf made by the action of the water. Into this receptacle the bodies of Sharp and Yager had been thrust, all gory and ghastly and mangled. Sharp's duster had been wrapped about his face, and Yager's hat pulled down over his head. A farmer found them, attracted by the smell. It was twelve days after they were shot, and they were badly decomposed and in a shocking condition.
The farmer contrived to haul the bodies to Martinsburg and put them in the depot. Coffins were procured in Montgomery City, and James L. Pegram went up and put the bodies in. The body of Lieut. Yager was sent to St. Louis to his wife, who had telegraphed for it. The remains of Col. Sharp were taken first to Montgomery, and from thence escorted to Danville by Capt. McNulta's company of the First Illinois cavalry, who buried the body with the honors of war in the cemetery a mile west of Danville. Not long afterwards the Masonic
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lodge at Danville, to which Col. Sharp belonged, erected over his grave a fine monument, which is still standing.1
A few days after the murder of Sharp and Yager, Col. Morgan L. Smith arrested John Coyle and his wife, at whose house in Martins- burg the body of Lieut. Yager had been taken, and conveyed them on the cars to Wellsville. Poor Mrs. Coyle, who had done what she could for the wounded lieutenant, stifling and suppressing the natural feminine instincts of fear, and following those of her gentle and sym- pathizing nature, was arrested without explanation. She was badly frightened, and could not imagine why she was treated so. She feared some vengeance was to be taken on her and her husband because she had taken Lieut. Yager to her house, even though she had striven to save his life. But at Wellsville Col. Smith examined her and her husband separately, and then she learned that what the Federal officer wanted was to find out if she knew who the murderers of Sharp and Yager were. Mrs. Coyle is now a widow, and resides in Mexico.
Melter's company followed up the railroad to Wellsville, and there took the road on which Sharp and Yager were gone, following the buggy tracks. They were a mile or more in the rear. Over in the Whetstone country they came upon Bryan's company and other fugi- tives from the Fulton fight. In a small valley a brief skirmish re- sulted. The secessionists made a demonstration from the brush, and there was an interchange of shots, when both parties retreated. The Federals had one man wounded, and lost three horses. The secessionists had a man seriously wounded, another slightly hurt, one horse killed and two others lost, which were after- wards recovered, as were the horses of the Federals. Both parties were badly frightened. The " rebels " retreated into the Whetstone hills, and the German Federals scampered back to Wellsville.
From Wellsville the Germans marched up toward Mexico, and were met in the prairie below Martinsburg by the zouaves of Morgan L. Smith's command. July 21st Melter's company returned to St. Louis. (See Adj. Gen. Rep. for 1863, p. 72; do., 1865, p. 68).
MURDER OF TERRILL, NUNNELLY AND BISHOP BY THE FEDERALS.
The murder of Sharp and Yager by the secession partisans of Alvin Cobb roused the soldiers in this quarter, or at least the Germans among them. The Union citizens of the county were greatly indig-
1 Col. Sharp's widow died in October, 1884, and was buried at Montgomery City, and the writer is informed that it is contemplated to remove the remains of Col. Sharp from Danville and place them beside hers.
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nant and called for retaliation. Nearly everybody denounced the act in unmeasured terms. It was reported that Granville Nunnelly, a hotel proprietor in Danville, had said that, " as for the Dutchman he ought to have been killed, and as for Ben Sharp, if he had stayed at home and minded his own business he wouldn't have been hurt." Mr. Nunnelly was an ardent secessionist, though he had never taken up arms.
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