USA > Missouri > Vernon County > History of Vernon County, Missouri : past and present, including an account of the cities, towns and villages of the county Vol. I > Part 25
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So that, when General Price went northward with his army, there being no bridge nearer than Warsaw, and no ferryboats, the crossing of the Osage was made at Bennifield and Collen fords, and that by a part of the army at Taborville. The stream tras swollen and the horses were made to swim, while the men, wagons and artillery were transported on rafts, with great diffi- culty, the crossing at Bennifield ford occupying three days and nights.
Although the Vernon county regiment did not accompany General Price to Lexington, their remaining in the county proved no protection against invasions. And while Jennison and some of his men came over into the northern part of the county and carried away the slaves of Capt. H. C. Cogswell, and two wagon loads of household goods and some stock, which were being taken to his father-in-law's in Bates county, others of his followers raided the southwestern section of the county.
Then, on September 7th, some Confederate leaders, among them Tom Livingston and John Mathews, made a raid into Kan-
PARSONAGE M. E. CHURCH SOUTH.
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sas as far as Humboldt, in Allen county, and sacked and pillaged the town, burning a number of houses going to and fro. Nine days later, 600 men under Col. H. P. Johnson, were sent by Lane into Cass county against a body of 100 recruits for Price's army, under Col. W. H. Ervin, encamped at Morristown. In the skir- mish that ensued, Colonel Johnson, a gallant officer, and one other were killed, and six wounded, of the Kansans, while Ervin's forces were routed with one killed and several wounded. Just after this, word coming to Lane that an ammunition train for Price's army had reached Osceola, where was an ordnance depot, and that Colonel Peabody and General Mulligan were in dire straits at Lexington, with 600 mounted men, under Colonels Weer and Montgomery, and two pieces of artillery, one of them Moon- light's howitzer, on the 22d set out from Fort Lincoln for Osceola. Arriving there after a hurried march, on the evening of the 23d, he found the place guarded by Capt. John M. Weidemyer and fifty men, who fired on the Federals from an ambush, but with little effect, and were driven from the town, whither they fell back, by the Federal cannon, and retreated to Warsaw. The third shot from Moonlight's gun sent into the magazine a shell that exploded with terrific force, igniting the powder, wrecking the structure and destroying a vast amount of ammunition, and killing half a dozen employees, one of whom was William Gregory, of Warsaw. In the advance of Lane's men was Captain Blan- ton's company from Humboldt, Kansas, the scene of the Mis- sourians' depredations of two weeks before, and the fate of the town was sealed even before the firing on the invaders from am- bush. Vast quantities of ammunition and army stores were in the place and with free license the raiders applied the torch. Some fifty to one hundred barrels of whisky were poured into the street, and mingled with molasses from scores of hogsheads that were emptied, till the gutters ran ankle deep with "black- strap." Having sacked the town, burning what they did not carry away, without the loss of a man, Lane and his men returned via Pleasant Gap and Butler to West Point, asserting that they burned Osceola in retaliation for the sacking of Humboldt. On October 14th, Colonel Talbott, with a band of Confederates, made a second raid on Humboldt and left it in ashes, and in turn the Lane men retaliated by burning Dayton, Morristown and other Missouri villages and thus, tit for tat, was devastation wrought.
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Great alarm now prevailed in Vernon county, in the apprehen- sion that Nevada City would share the fate of Osceola, and es- pecially so since Jennison and his men were invading the western part of the county, and rumors were afloat that a large Federal force was following after General Price, who at this time. had fallen back from Lexington and was on the south of the Osage river.
A general exodus from the county now set in and it was but a few days till all the roads leading southward were thronged with fugitives seeking safety by fleeing into northern Arkansas, many of the soldiers accompanying their own families to the places of refuge and then returning to their commands. That General Price would not only return and re-establish and protect them in their homes, but also avenge the destruction of Osceola and all the other recent depredations of the Kansans, as he had threatened, was their firm belief. After this exodus of the major- ity of the families, with the principal county and township officials in General Price's army and practically every business man away, with the county offices closed and the court-house locked, with the few who remained in their homes in constant apprehension and dread. and with every thing at a standstill, a state of deser- tion akin to desolation seemed everywhere to prevail.
Continuing his march, General Price, passing through Cedar and Dade counties, brought his army into the region of Spring river and distributed it through the country, where it remained till the end of October. During this time, on October 28th, the "Jackson Legislature," at Neosho, passed the act of secession, the purpose of which was to sever Missouri's connection with the United States and unite her with the Southern Confederacy. This body, with thirty-nine members in the House and ten in the Senate, was never seriously regarded as legal except by a few, for by the State Constitution seventeen Senators and sixty-seven Representatives were required for a quorum to transact business. And besides the state legislature had before this vested all power concerning secession in the state convention, which body had but recently, at St. Louis, declared against secession, deposed Governor Jackson, Lieutenant-Governor Reynolds and Secretary of State Massey and prescribed test oaths for everybody.
Still many sanctioned the secession act, and especially in Gen- eral Price's army was its passage received with loud huzzahs and
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general rejoicing. It was approved by the Confederate Congress, and thenceforward all Missourians in arms against the United States called themselves Confederates, as citizens of the Confed- erate states.
At this time 30,000 Federal troops, under General Fremont, were gathering at Springfield from different points. Lane, who had been made a brigadier-general, with his mounted Kansas brigade, passing through Vernon county on his way thither. By a special order from the War Department General David Hunter succeeded Fremont in command, and the entire Federal force fell back from Springfield to the Pacific Railroad.
General Price, who left Neosho for Cassville on October 30th with his army of 12,000, when he learned a week after the Fed- erals left Springfield that they had abandoned southwest Missouri, planned to occupy the country along the Osage, and by Novem- ber 26 this army, numbering, according to Quartermaster Hard- ing's official statement, all told. 14,000, extended from Stockton on the right to near Nevada City on the left, McBride command- ing the right, Rains the left and he himself being in charge of the center at Montevallo. Colonel Clarkson brought up the rear. A movement northward was started in a few days and the army went into camp in Cedar county along the Sac river and on the south side of the Osage. Many of the men were poorly clad, ra- tions and forage were short, and desertions were frequent. After going into camp recruiting began, and while many enlisted more declined, declaring they had had all the war they wanted. Break- ing camp on December 20, the Confederate army reached Spring- field on the 25th and was quartered there till February 12, 1862, when it retreated into Arkansas before General Curtis, who was moving upon it, and on March 6 participated in the battle of Pea Ridge.
Affairs in Vernon county at the close of 1861 were in a sad state. Deserted by many of its families and its officials and leading citizens in the army it was left to the mercy of scouting parties of Kansas troops from their headquarters at Fort Scott, and the Confederate bushwhackers, who made their headquarters in the brush ; and what, between the lawlessness and rapacity of the two the forebodings were gloomy indeed.
In the fall of 1861. the first Kansas troops visited Nevada City, being some of Colonel Judson's 6th Cavalry. who came more
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to reconnoiter than to raid, though they took away some horses and mules and shot and killed a man named Stegall, who mounted his horse and fled in fear of them, and refused to halt when re- peatedly ordered to do so. Nothing was safe with Jennison's men ranging through the county at will.
While General Price was at Springfield with his troops, Colonel Hunter left the army and, going to Montevallo, procured a few men daring as himself, rode to Nevada City, and, unlocking the county building (he being county and circuit clerk), secured all the public books, records and papers of value he could find, loaded them into a wagon, locked the doors of the building and hurried them away to that city. When the army went into Arkansas they were taken and for a time were stored at Bentonville. As the army moved before the advancing Federals the books were shifted from place to place, and once would have been left in the confusion but for Major Prewitt, who took them away in his wagon. Finally the books and papers fell into the hands of Union troops, as near as can be ascertained, a part of the 2d Kansas Cavalry, commanded by Col. W. F. Cloud. Instead of being destroyed, as would be but natural under the circum- stances, these documents and books were securely packed in boxes and guarded as though they had been priceless treasures. Carried from post to post, from far down in Arkansas, they at last reached Fort Scott, and after the close of the war, and the resumption of the county business, were restored to the proper authorities at Nevada, everything intact, except a few papers and one book, Deed Record "B", which were missing.
Such was the condition of affairs in the county at the opening of the year 1862. A few Confederate soldiers were home on fur- lough. The time of enlistment of Captain Gatewood's company of Missouri State Guards had expired and he was seeking new recruits in the vicinity of his home near Montevallo; one or two others were enlisting men in other parts of the county; Captain Marshbank, with a score of men, was in the region of the Osage and Marais des Cygnes, and companies were forming to go south, and at Fort Scott the Kansans were on guard and now and then making a sally into the country.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE WAR CONTINUES.
(1862-3.)
Upon information reaching Fort Scott late in February, 1862, that Captain Gatewood, with a company of Confederates, was in the southwestern part of Vernon county, Lieut. Reese Lewis, of the 6th Kansas, was sent to investigate the rumor, and if true to learn the location of the company. The detachment had no cavalry weapons, the 6th Kansas not being yet fully organized, and the men carried only muskets. Camping the first night near Nevada City, the squad went thence into the Horse creek timber below Montevallo, and then traveled westward, stopping the sec- ond night at the house of a Union man named Riggs, in the edge of the timber, about a mile northwest of "Shanghai." The house was small and Mrs. Riggs was ill in bed, but Mr. Riggs supplied the men with the best he had, seven of them sleeping in the house and Lieutenant Lewis and a man named Breeden going to the granary. The presence of the scouts becoming known, a band of seventeen bushwhackers, among them Joe Frazier, Sam and Ben Simpson . and Mac Barnett, mounted and armed with double-barreled shot-guns, planned to capture or kill the entire Union party, and that night, February 27th, rode to the house, reaching there at daybreak. Mr. Riggs' young son, who was out of doors, saw the raiders coming and gave the alarm. Corporal Louis Mylas, the only soldier awake, rushed out just in time to receive in his shoulder a load of buckshot, as the raiders dashed up and began shooting through the open door and window, nearly all the shots taking effect in the small room now filled with sol- diers. The family went into the cellar, all except Mrs. Riggs, who urged the soldiers to fight to the last, and cheered them on. As they ran out of the house and began firing Lewis and Breeden came running from the granary, and the bushwhackers dashed away and did not stop on the order of their going. All the
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soldiers who were in the house were wounded, but none mortally, and no one was killed on either side. The raiders lost one horse and one or two of their number were slightly wounded. Mylas was cared for by Dr. B. F. Hepler at the Riggs house, but all the other soldiers were able to ride or be carried, and returned to Fort Scott. The next day Captain Greeno, with fifty men, well armed and mounted, came into the county to learn if possible the identity and whereabouts of the men who had made the raid on the soldiers. Going first to the Riggs house, he thence went over through the Clear creek timber, meeting and talking with some of the very men for whom he was looking, but without learning their identity (they were peaceable citizens now), and then scouring the woods and brush on upper Clear creek, and finding no sign of an enemy, encamped that night on the farm of James Millender, and the next day returned to Fort Scott.
During this time, Captain Gatewood was not idle. When he learned of the Riggs house fight he assembled his recruits near old Montevallo, and when Greeno came, followed him. intending to ambush the Federals, or attack them in camp if opportunity offered. Coming on three of Greeno's men who had stopped at the house of a Mr. Wallace to warm, he made them prisoners, and was assured by them, when asked as to the whereabouts of Cap- tain Greeno and his party, that he was at that time on his way to Montevallo. Whereupon Gatewood, with his band, returned toward that place. It was dark when he came in sight of his own home, and discerning horses hitched at his door, and hearing voices in and about the house, he naturally concluded the Kan- sans were there. When about to attack the imaginary foe he discovered that a company of young people had taken possession of the house in a social gathering. Captain Gatewood had his revolver in his hand, and as he went back to his horse and was returning it to its holster it was accidentally discharged and he fell to the ground mortally wounded and died soon afterwards of the wounds. A native of Clark county, Kentucky. James M. Gatewood was born December 7, 1816. He entered a large tract of land in Vernon county in 1856 and settled here in 1858. He was an original secessionist and in 1860 was elected to the legis- lature as a Breckinridge Democrat.
On April 14 an important war event occurred in old Monte- vallo. A company of about seventy confederates had been re-
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cruited at Montevallo, and while awaiting orders to rendezvous with other companies, under Col. John T. Coffee, at Cowhide Prairie, were at their homes in and about the town. The com- pany was at this time in command of Lieut. Joe Woods, Capt. Henry Taylor having been taken prisoner while suffering from an accidental wound at his father-in-law's, near Montevallo, by. a scouting party of the 2d Ohio cavalry. News of this company coming to the Union camp at Osceola a detachment from the 1st Iowa cavalry and the 8th Missouri state militia, under Lieuten- ant-Colonel Moss, was sent out to break up or capture the con- federates. The main body encamped some five miles northeast of Montevallo, but Lieutenant-Colonel Moss and twenty-seven men went on to town and were quartered at Scobey's Hotel. Lieutenant Woods and the other members of the company quietly stole away, and early next morning a lively fight ensued, when twenty-five of the company led by Dr. Dade and Bob Bayles attacked the hotel. The incident is thus detailed by Colonel Moss in his official report :
Report of Lieut .- Col. Charles E. Moss, First Iowa Cavalry. Headquarters Post of Osceola, April 17, 1862.
General: On the morning of April 13, 1862, I left this place in command of Companies D and K, 1st Iowa cavalry, 100 strong, to proceed to Montevallo, Vernon county, for the pur- pose of breaking up a company of guerrillas, reported 300 strong, supposed to have collected at a point twelve miles distant from that place, on Cedar and Horse creeks. I was joined by a force of state militia, under Captain Gravely, from Humansville, 150 strong, making my whole force 250 men. After crossing Sac river, fifteen miles above its junction with the Osage, we came upon the open prairie, when the advance guard had a skirmish with a squad of jayhawkers, killing one and wounding three or four more. They fired upon the advance guard from a house wounding Private John Bander, of Company K, 1st Iowa cav- alry, in the leg. After scouring the woods and thickets for a distance of four miles the command advanced to Beckstown, cap- turing on the way some fourteen prisoners. The troops then moved on to Clintonville, ten miles from Montevallo, where the state militia encamped for the night. Companies D and K then proceeded to Centerville, five miles distant from Montevallo,
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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY
and encamped for the night. Learning at this point that a com- pany of federal troops left Montevallo only two days previous, and there was no organized force in twelve miles from that place, I detailed Lieutenant Barnes, from Company K, 1st Iowa cavalry, twenty-six men, and the guide (Andrew J. Pugh) and my own servant, making the whole party twenty-eight men, and proceeded to Montevallo, leaving Capt. P. Gad Bryan in com- mand of the camp, with orders to come up early in the morning.
I arrived at Montevallo at 7 o'clock in the evening, and quar- tered my men in and about the yard of the hotel, giving special orders to all the men to sleep on their arms and remain close together, prepared for any attack that might be made. The men mostly slept in a room of a log house attached to the ho- tel, and in the loft over a stable in the yard, in which were pick- eted the horses. Four or five of the men slept in the front kitchen of the hotel. After the guards were set and the horses prop- erly cared for and fed I retired, with Lieutenant Barnes, for the night. About 4:30 o'clock in the morning we were alarmed by an approaching body of armed men, said to be fifty strong, demanding an immediate surrender, with a threat of firing the house over our heads and shooting each one of us unless we com- plied with the demand. The demand was answered by a shot from one of my men. The fight now commenced and waged fiercely until daylight, when the enemy retreated. The enemy would unquestionably have carried their threat of firing the house into execution were it not for the determined spirit of my command.
After the fight had continued a short time I retired with Lieu- tenant Barnes and four or five other men, from the lower to the upper story of the building, where deliberate aim could be taken from the windows, and the shots told with effect upon the foe, who retired some fifty yards distant and took shelter behind a neighboring store. The order was given to rush out, fall into line, and charge upon them. This being given in a tone suffi- ciently loud to be heard by the enemy caused them to disperse and cease firing. The precise loss of the enemy cannot be ascer- tained; several were thought to have been killed and seven. wounded, three mortally [?]. Among the mortally wounded was Daniel Henly, known in St. Clair, Cedar and Vernon as the "Wild Irishman," and the leader of one of the most desperate
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gangs of desperadoes in Missouri. Our loss was two killed and six wounded, and two prisoners, who afterward escaped.
Never did men under similar circumstances display greater gallantry than those with me that night. Being exposed to a most murderous fire from double their number of men well armed, not a man flinched or showed any disposition to surren- der or give up the contest. Lieutenant Barnes and Andrew J. Pugh (my guide) deserve my warmest thanks for their cool gal- lantry and determined courage. The band was found to be com- posed mostly of persons living or staying in the immediate vicinity of the place.
The men met at another building, occupied as a tavern, and situated about 300 yards from where I stopped with my com- mand. The ground between that hotel and the one we occupied was covered with vacant log huts and wooden buildings, with the exception of about seven rods, which was covered with a thick growth of brush. These buildings and the underbrush covered from view the advance of the foe until within thirty vards of the house. They were enabled by that means to ap- proach much nearer before being discovered than they otherwise would have done. Two privates of Company K left against or- ders and went to a house a quarter of a mile distant, occupied by a man belonging to the band, and were captured, with their horses and arms.
Soon after daylight Captain Bryan came up with the two companies of Iowa cavalry and state militia. I immediately sent out a scout, under Lieutenant Barnes, of Company K, in pursuit, directing him to scour the country as far as Nevada and return that evening. I also sent another, under command of Captain Bryan, with orders to scour the country in the opposite direc- tion and return in the evening. The scout under Lieutenant Barnes soon came in sight of fifteen of the band and pursued them some fifteen miles without being able to capture them or recover the prisoners. He followed them to Nevada, in Vernon county, and returned in the evening. Captain Bryan was more successful. He soon ran upon another party of the band, killed two and wounded some two more, and captured one (George Gatewood), and recovered the two men captured the night pre- vious. The keeper of the hotel where the band met and organ-
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HISTORY OF VERNON COUNTY
ized that night was a leader in the business and killed by Captain Bryan's men.
Having learned from scouts and other sources that a body of some sixty men. besides two companies from Cedar creek, were preparing to attack the command that evening in Montevallo, I ordered the hotel where the former attack was organized and the old buildings between that and the place I was occupying with my command to be burned, which was promptly done. This measure became necessary as a precaution against attack, and as a measure of safety, as those buildings, of little or no value to any one, were being used as places of protection and resort by the guerrillas.
The" command remained at Montevallo during the night of Monday and left about seven o'clock Tuesday morning, and en- camped about nine miles from Stockton Tuesday evening near Cedar creek. During the whole day bands of armed men, num- bering from fifteen to twenty, were seen moving in the direc- tion of Stockton and White Hair in Cedar county.
On Wednesday morning a heavy rain set in, which raised Cedar creek so as to render it impassable for the wagons con- taining the wounded men, and I set out for this post, and arrived here with an escort about 10 o'clock in the evening. The com- mand encamped sixteen miles from this place, near Cole's store, and came in under Captain Bryan this (Thursday) afternoon in a terrible rainstorm, accompanied by thunder and lightning, tearing up trees and rocks, and filling up the creeks, so as to render them impassable two hours after our wagons had passed over.
Captains Bryan and Gravely, Lieutenant Shriver and all the officers rendered every assistance in their power, and deserve the confidence of their commander. We captured twenty-two men, mostly with arms in their hands, besides several horses and mules. Most of the arms were worthless and were destroyed.
I have the honor to be your obedient servant,
C. E. MOSS,
Lieutenant-Colonel First Iowa Cavalry, Comdg Post. To Brig .- Gen. James Totten, Jefferson City.
The two federals killed were James H. Whitford and Oscar B. Crumb, both of Clayton county, Iowa. They were young un-
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married men and their bodies were interred in one grave in the old Montevallo graveyard, and the grave was marked by a rough sandstone on which the names of the deceased were cut by two of their comrades, George Dayton and Henry Tinkham. Lieu- tenant Barnes was wounded in the hip with buckshot and lost his sight from the effects of shattered glass in his eyes. Private Stone died from the effects of a wound in the leg, requiring amputation. Sergt. J. A. Lynn, afterwards state auditor of Iowa, had his arm shattered. Private J. T. Tupper was wounded in the right arm, and all of these were of Company K, 1st Iowa cavalry. Of same regiment, Company D, Private Jacob Hursh had two teeth shot away, and Samuel E. Shannon had nearly all the fingers of his left hand shot off.
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