USA > Missouri > Jasper County > Jasper County, Missouri, in the Civil War > Part 10
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Jasper county their pockets were weighted down with the loot of the unfortunate Kansas town.
Yet not all of the band were bad and not all of the bad were wholly bad. As they rode out of Lawrence several of the guerrillas had shown their revolvers, bright capped and free from powder stains, to women beside the road, to show that they, at least, had killed no one that day. Gregg showed mercy more than once at the Kansas town and after leaving Quantrill's band gained a record as an honorable soldier. Even Quan- trill had issued orders prior to the attack on Lawrence that no woman or child, white or black, should be in- jured and that anyone violating the order should pay the penalty with his life.
There were at least some Jasper county men with this band though probably not many for most of Liv- ingston's former followers were with Coffee, and Coffee was raiding northward with Shelby. A Captain Estes, who was one of Quantrill's chiefs at this time, is classi- fied by the war department records as being the same Captain Estes that commanded the left of Livingston's force during the May 15 fight against Major Eno on Center creek but it is possible that this is an error caused by the names of two different men being the same.
Abraham Onstott, son of Judge Onstott and at this time a small boy, is quoted in Judge M. G. Mc- Gregor's biographical history as saying that two of his near neighbors were members of Quantrill's band and upon their return to Jasper county had between them
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about $2,200 in gold and silver which they had looted in Lawrence. They buried this money and informed young Onstott where it could be found in case they were killed. They continued on their way with their leader and before long both of them met death. After the war, Onstott and a brother of one of the men looked long and hard for this money but could not find it. It is probable that it is still lying buried where the two guerrillas buried it.
From Jasper county the band moved to Baxter Springs, attacked the fort there and although beaten off, surprised and routed a column of Wisconsin cavalry that was escorting General Blunt to the fort. Blunt escaped by a narrow margin but his adjutant was killed and the guerrillas butchered the fleeing soldiers like sheep, killing eighty of them. The character of some of the band may be judged by one of the incidents that occurred. A Wisconsin sergeant surrendered up- on promise that he would not be harmed. His captor, took his arms and remarked, "Tell old God that the last man you saw on earth was Quantrill," then shot him in the head. Although left for dead the sergeant sur- vived to tell the story. Blunt gathered a few stragglers and hung on the rear of the guerrillas as they left Baxter Springs but had too few men to accomplish anything. Quantrill moved on down into Indian Terri- tory and rested there awhile before proceeding south. It has often been said that Jesse James was with Quan- trill at this time but this is an error. He did not join the guerrillas until 1864.
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A few words about Quantrill who more than once passed through Jasper county during the war may not be out of place here. Born in Ohio in 1838 he had gone west in his early manhood, engaging in various occupa- tions, including the mild one of teaching school. Dur- ing this period he was in trouble several times and strongly suspected of murder. The dsturbances then going on along the Missouri-Kansas border naturally drew him to them and he began to take part in raids into Missouri to free slaves and steal cattle. During the same period he kept one foot on the other side of the fence by helping pro-slavery "border-ruffians" kid- nap negroes from Kansas and sell them. Finally he saw that he must either definitely espouse one side or the other and induced some Kansans to go with him on a raid to Missouri, then betrayed them to their death.
He explained his treachery to the Missourians by saying that his older brother had been killed by jay- hawkers and that he had joined the Kansans to get revenge. Having one by one killed most of the men who had participated in his brother's death he was now leaving Kansas. Ohio being a northern state, he claimed Maryland as his birthplace. The story told by Quantrill has now been established as a deliberate fab- rication but it seems to have been believed without question by the Missourians at the time and most of the surviving members of the band still believe it.
At the beginning of the war he was in Indian Ter- ritory and in company with a band of Cherokee Indians attached to the confederate army he hung around the outskirts of the battle of Wilson creek. Later he at-
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tached himself to General Price's force, moving north to Missouri. He then went to Jackson county and there took up the life of a guerrilla, killing the first federal soldier ever slain in that county. He soon be- came chief of the guerrilla band, a post won by his skill, aggressiveness and courage. During 1862 he became very prominent, participating in several victories over the union troops, finally attaching his band as recruits to the column that Colonel Jo Shelby led southward in August of that year, and consequently taking part in the action on Coon creek mentioned in a preceding chapter. Quantrill then went to Richmond in a vain attempt to get a commission as a confederate colonel and command of a regiment that would wage a no- quarter war in Missouri and Kansas. He was later given a colonel's commission by some one, probably General Price or Governor T. C. Reynolds. He took a creditable part in several regular battles during the winter of 1862-1863, then went north again, carrying on a summer's campaign which included the raiding of Lawrence as has been mentioned.
The Baxter Springs episode was virtually the end of Quantrill's leadership. During the winter his band disintegrated into separate groups. Some of the men joined the regular confederate army, Gregg later rising to the rank of captain in Shelby's brigade. George Todd, who had deserted from the army at the battle of Cane Hill, obtained control of Quantrill's original band and although Quantrill accompanied him north in 1864, nominally in control, he was in fact without power. During 1864 he accomplished nothing and in January
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1865 he and a few followers went to Kentucky where he was wounded and captured May 10, 1865, dying two days later.
The court house at Carthage was destroyed some- time during 1863 after Captain Burch and his troops had ridden eastward to join Major King. According to tradition-which is quite possibly reliable, as there were civilians living in Carthage at this time-it was Bill Anderson's band that burned it. It is not at all un- likely that while Quantrill was resting in Indian Terri- tory Anderson made a foray up in this county and destroyed the court house which the militia had used as a fort.
But it is time to return to the confederate cavalry raid then in progress. After leaving Bower Mills, Shelby had moved northward to the Missouri river, fighting at numerous points with the state militia cav- alry and the enrolled militia that were concentratng everywhere to oppose his passage or to pursue him. In a severe action at Marshall in Saline county the southern column was separated into two parts by the federals. One section of the command under De Witt C. Hunter, finding itself cut off from Shelby and the rest of the expedition, turned off at right angles and saved itself from destruction by galloping south, put- ting the assembled federals in its rear. Shelby moved on west to Waverly at which point he dumped his wagon train in the Missouri river where, as he ex- pressed it, "it was safe from all capture," then turning south himself, he fled toward Arkansas at break-neck
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speed. The third day after leaving Waverly he entered Jasper county, his trail to the northward being marked by the bodies of numerous horses which had died of exhaustion and been replaced by others taken from the country. On this night-October 17-the confederates camped at Carthage.
John N. Edwards, one of Shelby's officers quoted heretofore, in a book published in 1867 described the stay at Carthage and the skirmish as follows:
"By a heavy march Shelby gained Carthage and established camp at Mr. Kendrick's where corn was furnished in ample quantity.
"Major Pickler, commanding a portion of Coffee's detachment, requested permission of Colonel Shelby to occupy Carthage that night as most of his battalion lived in and near the town, promising extreme vigilance and to rejoin the column at daylight. Much against his judgment and fearful of the results, he consented, but Major Pickler neglected to even picket the approaches to his camp, and suffered severely for his temerity.
"A night of refreshing sleep had been gained here -the first since the camp at Boonville-but in the gray dawn of the morning a great noise and a rumbling of artillery from the crossing at Spring river over which the confederates had passed the night before, an- nounced Ewing's whole army to be at hand. Soon rapid firing from the direction of Carthage sent in all the pickets and called every soldier to his feet. Hasty prep- arations in moments of imminent danger were part of daily drill and exercise for Shelby's brigade, and in ten minutes every soldier was mounted and in line.
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"Throwing forward five companies in front of Ew- ing to fire on his advance, Colonel Shelby started im- mediately southward before ever his position had been discovered although his camp stood only a half mile from the ford. The five companies under Lea, Tucker, Toney, Crispin and Jones nobly carried out their orders and held Ewing in check for one long hour, forcing him to go into line of battle and bring his artillery into ac- tion. Then breaking swiftly into column, and being well mounted, the confederates galloped off in triumph to their comrades, actually bringing with them seven- teen prisoners.
"Fugitives from Carthage now began to come up, and reported that Pickler, neglecting to guard a single road and mistaking Ewing's advance for Shelby's, had allowed himself and thirty of his men to be captured. Most of them with their leader, however, succeeded in escaping while being conveyed to Fort Scott, and joined the command next week."
Passing east from Carthage, then south before reaching Sarcoxie, Shelby finally eluded his pursuers and reached the confederate lines in Arkansas. It was well that he did not go to Sarcoxie. Hunter had fled south through Vernon county, a large body of federal troops in pursuit, foremost in the chase being Major King, mentioned heretofore, who with 375 men of the Sixth and Eighth cavalry had fought the confederates at Humansville and captured their last cannon. Briga- dier General John McNeil, who with 300 men was mov- ing southwest in an attempt to cut off Shelby, met King
THE OLD KENDRICK HOUSE
This residence, typical of the ante-bellum mansions of Jasper County, wa: occupied at the time of the civil war by W. B. Kendrick. Located just north o Carthage it witnessed many stirring scenes and although visited frequently by marauders it escaped the general destruction that befell most houses near it When Shelby returned from his daring cavalry raid of 1863 his column campec on the Kendrick farm and it is probable that the general stayed in the house here shown.
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at Stockton and the combined force moved through Bower Mills to Sarcoxie, reaching there the afternoon of the 18th, the same day Shelby fought Ewing at Car- thage. From Sarcoxie, McNeill continued southward, gaining contact a time or two with Shelby's rear but not being able to force him to stand and fight.
Many of the guerrillas of Missouri accompanied Shelby south and as a result there was a marked dimi- nution in the activity in Jasper county after his pas- sage. The winter was a hard one and the militia, re- suming their various stations, mercilessly hunted down what bushwhackers were in the country, the barren trees and brush making this work much easier than in the summer when everything was in leaf, affording better concealment.
Captain Burch, who at this time was in command of the post at Neosho, in a report dated November 29, 1863, tells of an expedition to Jasper county and the capture of guerrillas on Turkey creek 12 miles south- west of Carthage.
"For the information of the commanding general," wrote Captain Burch, "I report the success of a scout taken by me with 20 men to Jasper county. Having learned a few days previous to my starting out of ten or
fifteen bushwhackers harboring on Turkey creek in Jasper county about twenty miles from this place. I thought it would be a good time to catch them (the weather being very cold) so I started.
"I proceeded on my route about nine miles, onto the waters of Shoal creek, and discovered a light in the
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thick brush in such a direction that I knew it did not proceed from any house. I knew it must be the camp fire of guerrillas. I dismounted my men, leaving a small force with the horses, and I with the remainder started on foot, proceeding very cautiously to within about 200 yards and then halted. I then sent Lieuten- ant John R. Kelso to reconnoiter and to ascertain the force of the enemy and their situation. Lieutenant Kelso reported that they had a tent and from the best of his knowledge there were only three. I then with Lieutenant Kelso and three men crept forward. Owing to the dense thicket we had to penetrate we thought that we could slip up and surprise with a small force better than a large one, knowing if there were more rebels than we expected, the remaining portion of the men under my command were within easy striking dis- tance. We arrived at the appointed place, the signal was given and we fired, killing two of them, that being all there was there at the time. Their names were Martin Levacy of Lawrence county and Woods, given name not known.
"It was now about ten o'clock at night and we pushed on for Turkey creek and arrived at one of the places suspected. When within about a quarter of a mile we dismounted and moved stealthily onward to- ward the house which we succeeded in surrounding be- fore being discovered.
"I immediately hailed the inmates of the house and demanded a surrender of all the men and arms that were there. After some little delay, occasioned I sup-
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pose in secreting one of their tribe under the floor. After having put him away decently they concluded to surrender and commenced handing their arms out of the window. The woman that handed out the arms stated that there was only one man in the house. We went in and arrested him and then started to leave. I noticed a fine black overcoat hanging in the house and mistrusted that there must be another man somewhere.
"After I had gone about forty yards I turned back and asked the lady if there was not another man about the house somewhere. She replied if there was that she could not help it. I then snatched up a fire brand and was going to dash it under the floor, when poor Secessia came crawling out, saying, 'Here are my arms. I am your prisoner.'
"I should have killed him then but we were close to the rendezvous of another party and I did not want to raise any alarm. He justly deserves death, as there are a good many union citizens in this portion of the state that are knowing to his jayhawking and shooting at good union men. In fact, from the story of loyal citizens around this place, he is a perfect desperado. His name is Dempster Lindsey, formerly of Jasper county.
"We then proceeded to another house. Before get- ting to the place we again dismounted and surrounded the place as before, hailing in the same manner. After there was a light made in their house they commenced handing out their arms. One of the rebels was upstairs and was going to jump out of the window, but was de-
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terred by two of my men shooting at him, which alarmed some others that were near who made their escape.
"We captured three rebels at this place and re- captured a federal soldier taken prisoner by the same party. He belongs, he says, to the Fourteenth Kansas cavalry, Company I, and was left sick by a train pass- ing down. We succeeded in recapturing all his arms, except a revolver, together with his horse and equip- ment.
"The alarm being raised, and knowing that the hunt was broken up for this time, we started back to camp with five rebel prisoners, one federal soldier and six horses belonging to the prisoners we captured. The prisoners are all men of desperate character, being regular guerrillas that have infested this country and been a terror to all of the loyal citizens of the south- west."
The fortunes of war during 1863 had gone against the south; Vicksburg which meant so much to the war in the west had surrendered in July and the same month had seen the defeat of Lee's army at Gettysburg, the two events convincing the disinterested world that the cause of the south was henceforth a "lost cause." Neither did the situation have many bright aspects locally for the southern sympathizers in Jasper county, for the federals were more firmly in control than ever and Livingston had fallen in battle. Yet the optimism and confidence of General Stirling Price down in Arkan- sas that Missouri would be regained and the fortunes
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of the confederacy redeemed seems to have communi- cated itself somehow to the southern population here and all hopes were based on the coming of Price during the next year.
CHAPTER IV
1864-Guerrilla Warfare Continued-Price's Raid
The early months of 1864 were quiet ones in Jasper county, most of the guerrillas being in winter quarters in Arkansas or in Indian Territory. At the beginning of 1864 the largest force of union troops in Jasper county was at Carthage which was held by Companies G and H, Sixth Missouri Militia Cavalry. These or- ganizations were soon shifted to Springfield, however, and Carthage was occupied by Captain William J. Walker's company of the Seventh Provisional Enrolled Militia regiment. Company C of the same regiment was camped at Cave Springs at this time as it was in fact the greater part of the remainder of the war ex- cept when absent on some scout or expedition.
The Missouri State Militia Cavalry, although still carrying the name of militia, were by this time practi- cally federal troops, subsisted and paid by the national government the same as any others. The provisional enrolled militia, on the contrary, were still state troops, being that portion of the enrolled militia that had vol- unteered for permanent duty in the field. The enlisted men had not been paid for many months and the offi- cers had never been paid at all. On account of this condition as many of the men who had homes where they could stay were furloughed at this time and the strength of the Carthage and Cave Springs companies, like all the rest, was cut to fifty men. Late in 1864
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the federal government took over the Seventh Provis- ional and it became the 15th Missouri Cavalry.
In February General S. R Curtis, commanding the department of Kansas, made an inspection trip of posts in southern Kansas and western Missouri. In refer- ence to his visit to Jasper county he wrote to General W. S. Rosecrans, commander of the department of Mis- souri, as follows :
"At Carthage I found Captain Walker with a com- pany of provisional troops, who seems anxious to do his duty but who is a stranger in the neighborhood and finds it difficult to discriminate where all pretend to be friends. I left a scout with Captain Walker, at hs request, to give him a better knowledge of matters in that region, my scout having been raised in the neigh- borhood and well acquainted with the people."
In April the guerrilla bands from all over this state that had wintered in the south began to return to Missouri, many of them passing through Jasper county on their way. Some of them were small parties and others were large bands. Quantrill and Todd passed through in April and some time later Bill An- derson's band went through. Colonel S. D. Jackman was reported as having passed near Carthage on the night of April 24 with 125 men. Jackman was travelling rap- idly, avoiding roads and committing no hostile acts of any sort. Those whose "stamping grounds" were else- where did not linger here, their only desire being to get to the ground they had chosen for their summer oper- ations. Others that belonged to this region at once be- gan to give the militia trouble.
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On April 28 General Sanborn reported that the brother of Kinch West had been killed and West's band scattered. This was in the course of a skirmish with a detachment of enrolled militia commanded by Captain T. J. Stemmons. Captain Stemmons has interestingly described the affair as follows :
"One of the guerrillas that bothered this country quite a bit was Kinch West who formerly had lived in Dade county but who now spent most of his time in the Indian nation, frequently going back to Dade county with a small band of followers and passing through Jasper county.
"Now the enrolled militia was not always in ser- vice during the war but frequently were allowed to go home and attend to their private work, being called back of course whenever a raid threatened. My brother and I owned a threshing machine and since the country was full of unthreshed grain left over from the harvest of the preceding year we were doing some work of this nature.
"Southern farmers over in the vicinity of the Oz- ment place north of Carthage had some threshing that they were very anxious to get done and wanted us to come over and do it. We were willing to do the work but that neighborhood was not a safe one so far as we were concerned and we answered that we would come if they guaranteed protection. They replied to give them a couple of weeks time and they thought that they could do so. In about the time mentioned they sent word to us to come ahead and that everything was
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all right. We knew of course that the protection they offered was from confederate bands. Neither they nor anyone else could guarantee protection from roving gangs of mere outlaws such as Kinch West and his crowd but we hoped to get through with our work with- out any trouble.
"We threshed at the Ozment place among others and that evening after we finished work I went to the Cravens farm some distance away where I was staying. Shortly afterward Kinch West and his gang rode up to the Ozment home. He took all the horses and mules connected with the threshing outfit and also a lot of supplies that the neighbors had brought in from Fort Scott and were unloading. These supplies did not be- long to us but were the property of southern people. West told the citizens who were present at the time of the robbery to tell me that I only had two weeks or less in which to live for he was going to kill me within that time. Without offering to come to the Cravens farm where he could have found me he made off with his loot.
"As soon as I heard of the robbery I hurried to Cave Springs and borrowed thirteen men from Captain Stotts and set out on the bushwhacker's trail. I tracked him all day and finally came up with him somewhere out near Preston. The members of the gang did not stand and fight but took to their heels with us in pur- suit. We were soon pushing them very closely and there was considerable shooting. Kinch West's brother was riding one of my mules and during the chase was
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thrown off. He then ran on foot but was soon over- taken. He reached for his revolver-a heavy type of gun known as a dragoon-but before he could use it several bullets struck him and he fell dead.
"It was now getting sundown and the bushwhack- ers were badly scattered. Not desiring to be caught by darkness in this guerrilla infested region I had the stolen stock and supplies, all of which had been aban- doned by the gang, gathered up and we returned to Cave Springs, leaving the body of West's brother lying where it fell. We gave the southern farmers back their supplies as we passed. I later learned that Kinch West had been wounded in the arm during the chase and that he said that this was the closest call that he had ever had in his life. His whole crowd was dis- mounted by the heavy brush only about 200 yards be- yond where his brother died and if it had been earlier so that we might have continued the pursuit we might have killed or captured the bigger part of them.
"West swore vengeance on me for his brother's death and told that I had captured the man alive and had then killed him and cut off his head and his arms. This was a lie, pure and simple. The circumstances were as I have said.
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