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 27
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tions, in hot pursuit. On reaching the edge of the timber about the head of Clear creek, the guerrillas, dismounting, took their stand in a ravine and as the federals dashed up, fired into their flank, unhorsing four or five of them. Then remounting, they fled northward, passing through the northern part of Dover township, halting on the west side of Clear creek to rest and await their pursuers. As the federals' advance drew near, the guerrillas charged and drove it back, one of them being severely wounded and two others slightly, and as the federals formed to resist further attack, the guerrillas retreated, crossed the creek and sped to the north and encamped for the night on the Falk- ner farm, in Virgil township, while the federals went into camp on Clear creek and the next day returned to their respective stations.
The invasion of Missouri by General Price's army in the fall of 1864 was a most important epoch-making incident of the war. His command comprised three divisions, led respectively by Generals Fagan, Marmaduke and Shelby. The army entered Missouri on October 5, with Shelby's division on the left, Mar- maduke on the right, and General Price accompanying the center column. After the taking of Fort Davidson at Pilot Knob, the army moved northwestward toward Jefferson City, and it then became known that the purpose of the expedition was to dis- perse the federals stationed along the Missouri and in the south- western part of the state and then return to Arkansas. After the army reached Jefferson City, the 3d Wisconsin cavalry, which was stationed in Vernon county, joined General Blunt's division of federals at Kansas City, the purpose being to check the con- federates' advance. In Price's army were many Vernon county soldiers and Colonel Hunter's regiment and Capt. W. H. Taylor's company of Elliott's battalion rendered conspicuous service in some of the fiercest fighting. This was especially true on October 22 at the Big Blue fight, when Jackman's brigade of Shelby's divi- sion with which Hunter's men were connected destroyed a Kan- sas regiment of militia, killing twenty-four, wounding thirty and capturing 100 prisoners and a twenty-four pound cannon.
While the confederates were opposed by Kansas and Mis- souri militia and a few United States volunteers, they were able to carry the day. But with the re-enforcement of the federals by a strong force of experienced fighters the tide of battle changed,
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and at Westport on the 23d, with General Curtis and the Kansas militia contesting their advance, and the tried brigades of Pleas- anton pressing their rear, the confederates met signal defeat, and this was followed on the 25th by the memorable fight in the southeastern part of Linn county, Kansas, in the region of Mine creek, when Price's army was fairly discomfited, suffering a loss of 114 killed, a large number wounded, between eight and nine hundred taken prisoner, and eight pieces of cannon cap- tured. Among those captured were Brigadier-General Cabell, five colonels and a number of other officers, besides Major-Gen- eral Marmaduke, the latter being taken by a private of Com- pany D, 3d Iowa cavalry, James Dimlavy, a nineteen-year-old boy.
The confederates crossed the Little Osage some twelve miles north of Fort Scott, where Shelby's division, which formed the rear, had an encounter with McNeil's brigade of Missouri militia. Turning eastward, the confederates entered Vernon county in the northern part of Richland and the southern part of Henry township. The general direction was toward the Douglas ford over the Marmaton, and great confusion prevailed throughout the advance, the soldiers spreading out over the prairie in their wild haste to save themselves. The crossing at some half a dozen points occupied all night, and as the rear guard passed over, McNeil's advance was in sight, in hot pursuit. The confederates entered Vernon county in the afternoon of the 25th, closely followed by the federals, whose persistent pursuit was checked at intervals by the cannon of the confederates, whose firing ignited the dry grass, which lighted the scene at night with lurid lines of flame. Impeded by the heavy army train and real- izing the futility of further trying to save it, on reaching Deer- field it was determined to abandon it. Some 1,200 mules and 200 horses were turned loose, and 500 wagons laden with stores, forage, supplies and a vast amount of other materials, with a great quantity of medicine and hospital supplies, with many arms and a vast quantity of ammunition, were destroyed. A number of ammunition wagons were overturned in the Marma- ton to destroy their contents and obstruct the ford; others were blown up, and some old wells were filled with ordnance stores. Heading southward, the confederates left Deerfield early on the morning of the 26th in the direction of Lamar and Carthage,
VERNON COUNTY LANDSCAPE, CHARLES FALOR.
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crossing Big Drywood at Hogan's, Lambert's and Adamson's fords, their right being guarded by a detachment of Fagan's division, which passed down near the Kansas line, while a por- tion of Shelby's command moved down the old Texas trail, a little west of Nevada City. The army reached the country about Carthage after a fatiguing march of some sixty-five miles, most of the way across wild, unbroken prairies, with little or no food and without sleep, depressed by thought of their defeat, and with nothing in prospect to cheer, yet determined to resist to the last, and with their jaded horses threw themselves upon the ground to sleep.
With the exception of McNeil's brigade and a part of Ben- ton's cavalry, which pursued the retreating confederates after the defeat, the federal forces under Pleasanton and Curtis marched to Fort Scott. And when the confederates started on their hasty retreat from Deerfield southward, the pursuit was continued, Curtis with Moonlight's brigade and General Blunt with Jennison's and Ford's brigades moving out from Fort Scott. Curtis joined McNeil at Shanghai on the afternoon of the 26th, a detail having been sent to Deerfield to gather the abandoned horses and mules and whatever could be saved of the discarded materials. On the 28th Blunt with Jennison's and Ford's brigades drove General Fagan's division out of New- tonia, and a stubborn fight ensued, in which the federals were at first checked by the arrival of General Shelby and driven back, till re-enforcements coming to their aid, the confederates were forced, by superior numbers, to give way. It was at New- tonia that the Vernon county confederate soldiers fought their last battle in the Civil War.
The wisdom of this expedition which ended so disastrously for the confederates, was widely questioned, and General Price was severely criticised for his action, with the result that at his request a court of inquiry was appointed. But the matter was delayed from time to time till the war ended, and nothing was done.
As was to be expected, the rules of war prevailed, while the army was passing through the county, and everything in the way of personal property was taken at will, whether the owners were unionists or confederates, and one peaceable union citizen, John Reynolds, who lived in Harrison township, was called out
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and shot to death by three of Price's men. At Deerfield General Price had the house of Abram Redfield's widow guarded against depredations.
The recounting of the deeds of some of the confederate parti- sans in Vernon county during the war, which follows, will be of interest to many :
Capt. W. H. Taylor. This officer, who united the commission and authority of a confederate soldier with the tactics and war- fare of a guerrilla or bushwhacker, in 1861 was sheriff of the county, when he went out with the Vernon county regiment as quartermaster.
In the fall and winter of 1861 Henry Taylor-by this name he is better known than by his initials-raised a company for the confederate service from the neighborhood of Montevallo. This company, numbering seventy men, was sworn into service by Colonel Coffee, for whose regiment it was intended. Before the organization was fairly perfected, Taylor took thirty men and made a raid toward Fort Scott. On the Kansas line he surprised and captured a picket post of fourteen men belonging to the 6th Kansas. From these he took their horses and arms and then released them on parole. On the return Captain Taylor was badly wounded in the foot by an accidental shot from one of his men. This accident happened east of Big Drywood, near Judge Requa's field.
March 26, 1862, Captain Taylor, with his company, accompa- nied Colonel Frazier and Captain McMinn on a raid against Hu- mansville, in the northern part of Polk county, where were sta- tioned three newly formed companies of the 8th Missouri state militia, under Captains Stockton and Gravely. The attack was repulsed. Colonel Frazier, Captain McMinn and four of their men were killed, a number wounded, a few captured and Taylor covered the retreat and saved the command from destruction.
A few days afterward, April 11, Taylor was taken prisoner while eating breakfast at a house four miles southwest of Monte- vallo. His captors were a scouting party of the 2d Ohio cavalry from Fort Scott. He was taken off first to Fort Scott and ulti- mately to Fort Leavenworth, where, after having been a pris- oner for six months, he was released on parole not to take up arms until regularly exchanged, and he returned to Vernon
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county. In the meantime his company had gone South after having elected Lieut. James Blanton captain.
Soon after his return home Taylor went to Fort Lincoln and procured the release on parole of about thirty confederates. Con- sidering that the end would justify the means, he took these men to Arkansas and joined the confederate army at. Huntsville. Subsequently he had a disagreement with General Hindman and early in December came by himself back to Vernon, removed his family to Nevada City and reported regularly to the federal military authorities at Fort Scott, by the conditions of his for- mer parole! This he continued to do until September, 1863. His house was destroyed at the burning of Nevada.
In September, 1863, Taylor went to Fort Scott and was de- clared exchanged by the terms of a cartel agreed upon the pre- vious 6th of May. Returning home he went at once upon the war path. Reporting to Captain Marchbanks at the Cephas ford in the Marmaton timber, he was given Pony Hill and five other bushwhackers, and made another foray towards Fort Scott. At the Widow Beale's, a mile across the Kansas line, he surprised and captured Tom Whitesides, a noted federal scout, and six Kansas men. The latter were paroled, but Whitesides was wanted very badly. He was a noted jayhawker, and not long previously he had boasted to Taylor that he had killed fifty-two "rebels" since the war opened. Taylor meant to take White- sides to camp and hold him as a hostage, but when the party reached a point northeast of the Colonel Douglas farm Pony Hill shot him, and he was left dead on the ground.
A few days afterward Captain Taylor went down into Jasper and joined Tom Livingston, on Spring river, five miles below Carthage. He accompanied Livingston on the raid to Stockton, where Livingston himself, Captain Vaughan and "Bud" Elder, of Bates county, were killed, and the raiders driven back to Spring river, where they were forced to disband.
The winter of 1863-64 was passed by Captain Taylor at the house of Judge Andrews, four miles from Kentuckytown and twelve miles from Sherman, Texas. In the vicinity the guer- rilla bands of Quantrill and Anderson wintered.
Captain Taylor himself joined Shelby's division at Batesville. Ark., in time to take part in a raid on the Little Rock railroad, about the last of July. In the fall he joined Elliott's battalion
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of Shelby's division, accompanied the expedition to Missouri, and was in all the engagements of his command on the Price raid.
Taylor passed the winter of 1865 near Sherman, Texas, and in the early spring came north with some of the most notorious confederate guerrilla leaders and bushwhackers of Missouri- Arch. Clements, Dave Pool, Bill Jackson and about forty others. The route lay through Vernon. South of Nevada some of the bushwhackers robbed a Mr. Grace of a fine revolver and some other property. Taylor and others took the part of the citizen, and there was a bitter quarrel. The pistol was restored, but Taylor thought best to sever his connection with the party and withdrew while at Clinton's, near where Walker now stands.
He then organized a small squad and kept in the brush for some weeks, or until about the 1st of May, when, pursuant to negotiations conducted by Judge Requa, Taylor came into Ne- vada and surrendered to Col. D. C. Vittum, of the 3d Wisconsin. He accompanied Vittum away and soon went to Illinois, whither he had long before sent his family. After a stay in Nebraska of some extent, he returned to this county and became a mer- chant and postmaster at Montevallo, dying March 18, 1888.
Capt. William Marchbanks. Captain Marchbanks was born in Overton county, Tennessee, August 26, 1834. He came to Vernon county with his father, N. R. Marchbanks, Esq., in 1841, locating on the north side of the Osage, in what is now Henry township. According to his own statement, after service in Bowen's battalion, he entered the state guard service as captain of a company, his commission bearing date April 10, 1861. He was in the engagements at Carthage, Wilson's creek, Drywood and Lexington, besides the skirmish at Ball's Mill. After the close of his term of service in the Missouri state guard, he en- tered the confederate service and came up into Missouri to recruit.
In January, 1862, Marchbanks and Capt. S. D. Jackman de- feated a force of state militia up in Bates county ; but in March following Captain Marchbanks was captured by a detachment of the 1st Iowa cavalry, carried to Alton, Ill., and kept a pris- oner until September 20, when he was exchanged at Vicksburg, Miss. Soon after he returned to Missouri and recruited another company then went South and entered the confederate service at Batesville, Ark.
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In April, 1863, Marchbanks left the army in Arkansas and came north into Missouri again. He had to fight every jump in the road. Near Cassville he met a federal company, which he fought and defeated, losing one man killed and two wounded, while the federal loss was three killed and eight captured. Later in the month he had a "brush" in Bates county with some state militia. Soon after he had a skirmish with a detachment of federal cavalry who were in a storehouse at Balltown, and he had two of his men wounded. In May he attacked Major Pugh and his party in Nevada and killed Whitley and Shuey. Captain Marchbanks, with his own hand, killed Whitley. Soon after came the surprise and rout on the Marais des Cygnes, in Bates, as well as the skirmish and running fight on and from the Blue Mounds, in this county, wherein, on both occasions, the federals were a part of the 1st cavalry, Missouri state militia, under Major Mullens.
In July Marchbanks skirmished with a force of federals from Fort Scott, in the forks of the Osage and the Marmaton, and killed one and wounded two, without having a man of his own killed or injured. Another skirmish is reported as having oc- curred south of Cephas ford, in the fall of 1863, between March- banks and forty men of the 3d Wisconsin under Captain Car- penter. From Mr. Waddell, of Deerfield, it is learned that Marchbanks had one man killed.
In September Captain Marchbanks, with his company of forty men, attacked about half that number of militia stationed at Quincy, Hickory county. Four of the militiamen were killed, seven captured and the remainder driven away. Marchbanks lost John Rafter killed and Weightman and Scott wounded. Soon after he returned to the confederate army on the Arkansas river.
In 1864 his company, belonging to Hunter's regiment, was on the Price raid, where it did its full duty. Captain Marchbanks was a brave and skillful fighter.
The Mayfield Brothers. Two noted confederate partisans who came to be well known throughout southwest Missouri dur- ing the year 1862 were Brice R. and John Crawford Mayfield, brothers, and sons of John Mayfield, who settled on section 19, Montevallo township, in 1856, and died in May, 1858. At the outbreak of the war Brice Mayfield was twenty-seven years of age, and married, and Crawford (or "Crack," as he was better
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known). was twenty-one. Both enlisted in Gatewood's company and were in the battle of Wilson's creek. At the skirmish on Drywood, in this county, "Crack" Mayfield was taken prisoner, but not long afterwards was released on parole.
Sometime in the early winter of 1862 Brice Mayfield came back into Vernon with some kind of recruiting authority. and from this time forward the two brothers engaged in irregular warfare against the federals in this part of the state. Their deeds and adventures, if fully related, would fill a considerable volume. They were splendid horsemen, not troubled with con- scientious scruples regarding the manner in which they acquired their steeds. shrewd in forming their plans and cool and thor- ough in their execution, and bold and daring fighters.
The Mayfield boys operated in the border counties. chiefly between the Osage river and the Arkansas line. Their exploits are perhaps largely exaggerated, but some of them were remark- able. On one occasion in the early spring of 1872, while a com- pany of the 6th Kansas was stationed at old Montevallo, seven of the men, unarmed, rode out one evening to McCarty's branch, at the Reavis ford, half a mile to the west, to water their horses. While the horses were drinking Brice and "Crack" Mayfield and John Gabbert suddenly appeared from the opposite bank and with drawn revolvers got "the drop" on the unsuspecting federals and marched the entire party away. The prisoners were kept in Dunnagin's Grove for some days. The Mayfield boys sent their sister Ella and Miss Eliza Gabbert to the federal com- mander to say that all the prisoners would be given for Capt. Henry Taylor, then a prisoner at Fort Scott, but the offer was refused. Finally the captives were escorted to the Drywood and turned loose and advised to go to "bleeding Kansas" and stay there.
On another occasion the boys were being chased by a party of the 1st Iowa cavalry. One of the federals dismounted to pick up his hat, which had been shot from his head by "Crack" May- field. His horse, a fine sorrel mare, broke away after the bush- whackers, and being relieved of its rider soon came up with "Crack." who took her by the bridle and led her away in safety. It is said that this animal was afterward ridden by Gen. Joe Shelby and killed under him in one of his battles in Arkansas.
The Mayfield boys fired upon many a federal picket post.
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bushwhacked many a federal scouting and foraging party, ter- rorized many a union citizen, and gained for themselves the ad- miration of a large share of the confederate element of south- west Missouri. But at last their time came. On the morning of December 26, 1862, both were killed a few miles north of Neosho, in Newton county.
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CHAPTER XXIV.
AFTER THE WAR-RECONSTRUCTION.
(1865-1875.)
Armed resistance to Federal authority in Vernon county, ended with the surrender of Henry Taylor and his band, to Colonel Vittum; and, save the occasional depredations of gangs of thieves and robbers that infested the county and for a time, plied their ex-bushwhacking avocations, peace and quiet, in gen- eral, prevailed. It had long been realized by all parties, that the Confederacy was doomed to failure, and a sense of inexpressible relief came with the news of Appomattox and the surrender of General Lee, and how could it be otherwise, when the compara- tively few living in the county, beheld only desolation and ruin, where but a little while before had been happy homes and fruit- ful fields and growing herds, with prosperous towns and villages and all the accompaniments of prosperity and thrift?
At Nevada City a few scattered houses remained; the same was true of Balltown, and on the road between the two places, not a house was left, while Montevallo was utterly wiped out.
Not a store remained in the county, and Fort Scott was the nearest trading point. For three years there had not been a sermon preached in the county or school taught; nor had there been any courts, and public business was disorganized and at a standstill. Little wonder then, that returning peace was hailed with joy.
The soldiers began coming home in the early summer of 1865, and though it was in most cases to find their fields desolated and their houses in ruins, yet with courage and in that spirit of determination which had characterized them as soldiers, they now set themselves to the task of rebuilding their homes and retrieving their losses. The fertile soil with all the varied natural resources of the country were here in abundance. With the return of the ex-confederates and refugees, gradually new com-
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ers, among them ex-Union soldiers, and-now and then men from the North came in, seeking homes, and opportunities of bettering their conditions-and all, planning and working with a common purpose, to restore and re-establish that which had been de- stroyed, the county after a few months, began to take on some- what the appearance of its earlier pioneer days.
That the public business of the county might be resumed, Governor Fletcher, responding to the petition of the citizens,. appointed the requisite officers to start affairs; the county records and books were brought from Fort Scott, and after due notice, the county court convened for the first term after the war, on Tuesday, October 17, 1865, at Nevada City.
The judges present were Enoch S. Weyand and David Red- field; John L. Wilson was clerk, but illness prevented the attend- ance of John Brown, the sheriff. There being no suitable place in Nevada City, the records were ordered to be kept at Little Osage. Pursuant to a writ of election ordered by the governor, to choose, in November, a representative for the county to the 23rd general assembly, polls were ordered opened at Redfield's school-house, Deerfield, and McNeil's storehouse in Little Osage, Henry Heri- ford, Peter Brown and James H. Moore being appointed election judges for Deerfield, and Josiah Austin, John G. Dryden and Joseph Worden for Little Osage. The court further ordered Col. Tom Austin and Mr. J. H. Moore, to repair the Nevada City school house, so the next term of court could be held there, and adjourned. At the opening of the second term of court, Novem- ber 13th, Judges Weyand, Redfield and O. L. Davis, with Clerk Wilson and Sheriff Brown, were present, and Davis was chosen presiding justice. A motion by Mr. J. T. Birdseye, that court adjourn to Little Osage, as a more suitable place for its session, prevailed over an amendment by Mr. J. H. Requa, that the session be continued at Nevada City, and after disposing of a few minor matters court adjourned to meet next day at Little Osage. After convening on the 14th, pursuant to adjournment, Colonel Austin was authorized to procure, at Nevada City, a building suitable for the uses of the court and the clerk. Other business transacted was the appointment of Colonel R. W. McNeil as public adminis- trator, J. H. Remsberg, assessor, and for treasurer F. P. Anderson, who was succeeded in March following, by J. H. Moore. Also, the following appointments for justices of the peace were made,
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viz: for Little Osage, J. G. Dryden; Deerfield, David Hogan ; Harrison, William Hiller; Center, James H. Moore, and later, F: P. Anderson, B. F. Long, Hiram Johnson; Thomas Bishop was appointed for Henry, Hazel P. Mobley, for Clear Creek and for Montevallo, Henry Bankson. After January 22, 1866, the court was held at Nevada City. Col. A. A. Pitcher was appointed commissioner of public buildings in March, but resigning, was succeeded by Dr. Dodson. L. J. Shaw was made school commis- sioner and Mr. John T. Birdseye, county attorney.
The tasks devolving upon the officials in trying to bring order out of the existing chaos, Herculean, as they were, would beggar description. Thousands of dollars in warrants were outstanding, with no money in the treasury to meet them and no available means of raising money. Public buildings must be provided, bridges must be built and roads must be constructed. The un-
settled accounts of the former officials who had left everything when they went to the war, were in hopeless confusion, and many of them. as well as their sureties, were bankrupt. Added to all the other apparently insurmountable difficulties, were innumer- able entanglements relating to property rights of the widows and heirs of many who had died during the war, and these were further complicated by the looseness that was prevalent here, as elsewhere, during the war, in relation to marriage ties. So that the office of public administrator became of supreme im- portance, and its work called for the exercise of much patience and superior good judgment. Mr. A. G. Anderson, who had been county treasurer, after long delay, was enabled to settle his accounts, by showing improper charges against him, and taking credit for a large amount in county warrants turned in by him, and the payment of some hundreds of dollars by Major Prewitt, one of his sureties.
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