USA > Missouri > Jasper County > Jasper County, Missouri, in the Civil War > Part 13
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"Soon the militia came riding back by where we were and the captain told us that he had found that the bushwhackers had not eaten dinner at our place after all and said that he was sorry that his men had burned the house. This did not bring our house back into ex- istence however and I told the captain so. One of the men shouted out to us that they had caught the bush- whackers anyhow and killed one man and one horse. I answered that that was a fine record for thirty men to fight eight and only kill one. The soldiers did not like this and rode away, sourly enough. We did not think they had killed anybody and remained by our goods that night and the next day went over to Aunt Betsy Hammer's home to stay.
"A day or two later we came back to the ruined house for something and my mother, sniffing the
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breeze which was blowing from the direction of the hollow, said that we had better go over and see if the militia had really killed someone. We told her that very likely there was a dead horse there as the militia had said but that we did not think they had killed a man. My mother insisted that there must be a man lying there dead, so eventually we all went over. The soldiers had told the truth. The corpse of a bush- whacker, scarcely more than a boy, was sprawled on the ground beside the carcass of a slain horse. I could not do much myself on account of a great boil on my back but the rest of them, including my mother and Aunt Betsy Hammer, obtained a sheet and rolled the body in it, then scratched and hollowed out a shallow grave and buried it. I suppose that the boy's body is still there to this day.
"After staying at the Hammer house for a short time we got in touch with my father who had been moving a neighbor to Cooper county and all of us went to Pettis county and stayed there until the close of the war."
On September 2 an attempted advance by southern forces on Mount Vernon resulted in great activity and some skirmishing in eastern Jasper county and western Lawrence county. Colonel Allen's report of the affair, dated September 4, says:
"I have this morning received information that there were about 400 rebels that made an attempt to take Mount Vernon last Friday. Captain Stotts who
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was at Cave Springs with twenty-five men of his own command and a portion of Captain Stemmons' company discovered the rebels in force and dispatched a message to me immediately. I sent Captain Morris with sixty men to reinforce Captain Stotts. The rebels went around Stotts' camp and made direct for Mount Vernon. Captain Morris met them about five miles west of Mount Vernon where an engagement ensued. The rebels having five or six to one, Captain Morris had to fall back; dispatched to me immediately. I collected all the militia that was available; went to his relief: met him coming in. We then went back to the place where he left the rebels but on arriving there I was in- formed by citizens that they had gone southwest. I started in that direction and soon discovered about fifty men on the prairie in line. I formed line and or- dered a charge which was obeyed promptly but after running about three miles I got close enough to see that I was chasing Captain Stotts. By this time it was get- ting dark. Early next morning I started 200 men under Captain Morris, all the available cavalry force I could raise. They went in five miles of Carthage on the south side of Spring river then turned north, crossed the river, came up White Oak without making any discovery, but the captain got reliable information that there were about 400 rebels and he thought it prudent to return to Mount Vernon, for I had but few men left. The captain learned that they were about Carthage. There is plenty of rebel forage in Jasper county that ought to be used by the federals if possible."
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Major Milton J. Burch who had garrisoned Carth- age a considerable period in 1863 was at this period stationed at Neosho. It seems probable that he con- sidered Sutherland's methods of handling affairs in the neighborhood of the Jasper county seat to be too severe and he had a disagreement of some sort with him about Joshua Hickey, a citizen. The letters writ- ten by Burch and Sutherland have not been preserved but one written by General Sanborn to Burch under date of September 17 seems to uphold Sutherland and carry an implied rebuke to Major Burch. The letter follows :
"Your communication in regard to Joshua Hickey was duly received and referred to Captain Sutherland, commanding at Carthage. It was made fully to appear by the report of Captain Sutherland and the affidavits of at least fifteen witnesses that this man's house and lands have been a home and harbor for bushwhackers for more than a year in the past. There cannot be any doubt of this. The government has no indemnity or security to offer to such men, their families, persons or
property. By harboring bushwhackers they foment strife and disorder and become guilty before the fact of the murders and robberies of their neighbors. You will afford no protection to Joshua Hickey and will order him to leave this district without delay. Impress upon the minds of all people in your vicinity that they must take an active part in the support of the govern- ment and the maintenance of its supremacy, or the gov- ernment will have no protection or security to afford them when their day of calamity comes. While you
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make every effort to aid and protect the loyal citizens, you will use equal efforts to punish the disloyal enemies of the government and the general enemies of man- kind."
Some time in September the son of Captain Henry Fisher was slain by guerrillas several miles west of Bower Mills. In company with Miles Overton of Com- pany G, 76th Enrolled Militia, he was returning from the funeral of Overton's son and suddenly the two rode onto the head of a large force of southerners. Young Fisher fell dead at the first fire and Overton was taken prisoner. Seeing that he too was to be killed, Overton seized hold of one of his captors and swung him around for a shield several times to prevent the others from shooting, then gave him a powerful swing into the crowd and made a break for life and liberty. One bullet went through his left arm and another severely wounded him in the thigh but he managed to hide him- self in a thicket, then crawled 150 yards to the home of Mrs. Jane Blake and was guided and helped to a place of concealment in the brush by Miss Mary Jane Fishburn who was stopping at the Blake home. He lay in this refuge for ten days without attention and was finally rescued by other members of his company.
Carthage was practically completely destroyed by guerrillas on September 22. The court house had already been burned and out of the ruins the federals had constructed a sort of fort. On the northeast corner of the square was the residence which had been occupied by a Mr. Johnson; just south of it was a drug store
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belonging to Ben C. Johnson; next was a small saddlery shop which had been kept by Franklin and Vermillion; then came the Franklin House, kept by a Dr. Love and south of it was a store and residence owned by Robert McFarland; next was the store of J. B. and J. Dale. On the southeast corner of the square was a good brick store house owned by one of the Chenaults and former- ly occupied by Jesse L. Cravens. It is said that at this time it was loop-holed and prepared for defense, having been occupied by a detachment of the troops which had held the town. Going west was a brick storehouse owned by E. Pennington and in which a saloon had been kept. Beyond that was a two story frame store building which had been started by J. B. and J. Dale but never completely finished. West of this was a blacksmith and wagon shop which had been kept by Mitchell and Stinson, and on the southwest corner there was a log house which had been used as a saloon.
On the west side of the square, beginning at the southwest corner was the L. Chrisman saloon, and just north of it was the Bulgin carpenter shop. North of that on the ground on which the Regan building was erected after the war, stood the residence owned by Norris C. Hood who was at that time in Fort Scott. North of the Hood house was a small frame building which had been used by J. C. Cannon for a store and a hotel. On the northwest corner of the square, where the Bank of Carthage now stands, was the Masonic hall, the lower floor of which was used as a grocery and dry goods store. Across the street north of this was a res- idence formerly occupied by a Mr. Fitzgerald.
War Department Photograph
A BATTERY OF UNION ARTILLERY
Artillery played but little part in Jasper County operations save in the battle of Carthage in 1861 but every large union column that came through the county during the war had more or less of it.
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The north side of the square was principally oc- cupied by the Shirley house, a hotel owned by John Shirley. Shirley owned most of the block but there was also a blacksmith shop and a livery stable on this side. Toward the east end of the north side was the residence formerly occupied by W. P. Johnson and Archibald McCoy.
Just east of the southeast corner of the square was a large blacksmith shop which had been owned and run by Judge John R. Chenault, and Judge Chenault's home was built on his farm at a point where the C. B. Platt home on Grand avenue now stands, while the Chenault slave cabins were close by. The Carthage Female Academy, incorporated by an act of the legislature in 1855 and built at a cost of $3,000 some time later, stood south of the square on the site of the present High school. It was of brick and was a fine structure for the time. The bell used by this academy was used for years after the war in the Central school built on the same ground and is now on exhibition within the west entrance of the Carthage High school. Other buildings in town were the old print shop formerly occupied by Christopher Dawson and the Southwest News, a one story brick jail, and a number of residence houses other than those mentioned, mostly frame or log but some of brick.
Many of the buildings mentioned were undoubtedly unoccupied at the time the town was burned, so many of the residents either having been killed, joined one of the armies or fled the country.
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General Sterling Price with a force of 12,000 con- federate cavalry had just started on his long heralded Missouri expedition that southern sympathizers hoped would regain the state for the south and everything was in confusion as the federals in a fever of excite- ment began to concentrate their scattered forces to meet and drive him back. Price entered Missouri on September 19 near Doniphan in the southeast part of the state.
Carthage was supposed to have been garrisoned by troops from the Seventh Provisional Regiment of Enrolled Militia, but it seems not to have been actually occupied at this time. On September 20 General San- born who had headquarters at Springfield wrote the following sharp letter to Capt. L. J. Mitchell of the regiment mentioned :
"On the 12th instant, orders were sent you to pro- ceed at once with your command to Carthage, relieve Captain Sutherland and assume command of that post. You will report at once to these headquarters whether such orders were received by you and, if so, the date of their reception and reasons for not having complied with them. If now at Humansville as represented, you will without the least possible delay send forward one commissioned officer and forty men of your command with orders to proceed at once by forced marches to Carthage and occupy the post. You will follow without delay with the balance of your command. Captain Suth- erland has arrived here and Carthage thus is without protection."
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At the same time he sent these orders to Captain Mitchell, General Sanborn sent the following order to Colonel John B. Allen who commanded the Seventh Pro- visional regiment and who was in camp at Mount Vernon.
"Upon receipt of this order you will detail from your command one officer and twenty-five men for a scouting party. Direct them to proceed to Carthage and scout about the vicinity until the arrival of Cap- tain Mitchell when they will return at once. For some unknown reason Captain Mitchell has not reported at Carthage as ordered to do and Captain Sutherland has come in under orders delivered to him by mistake, so that post is left without any force. If your detachment finds Captain Mitchell there they will of course return at once."
On September 23, Major Burch reported to General Sanborn as follows:
"I have the honor to inform you that Carthage was burned yesterday by the guerrillas, and the troops sent to hold Carthage had a fight with the guerrillas there and drove them; particulars not known. I received my information from women who came from near Carth- age."
On September 24 Colonel Chas. W. Blair at Fort Scott wrote to General Curtis:
"Carthage was burned or partly so. Two of my scouts were on a hill in sight and saw some houses burning and about fifteen men running around in town.
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They supposed it to be a small force of our local bush- whackers"
These are the most complete records of the burning of Carthage on file in the war department and Burch's information about a fight at the Jasper county seat that day was probably erroneous.
On the same date the above was written, Colonel J. D. Allen wrote to General Sanborn as follows:
"It is reliably reported here that there were 200 rebels in Carthage yesterday; that they camped on Jones creek on the night of the 22nd and that they were traveling north. Captains Mitchell and Stotts are on a scout today in the direction of Jones creek and Carthage. They probably have eighty men with them. I have not heard from them since they started. It seems to me that the twenty men in Lamar will be in great danger of being cut off if they are not relieved soon."
D. L. Wheeler was still in Carthage at the time of the burning of the town and although he was only a small boy it made a strong impression on him and he gives an interesting acount of it.
"One morning some time after daybreak my four- teen-year-old sister and I were at home alone and my sister was getting breakfast-making biscuits, I re- member. My stepfather was not in town, having gone north looking for a safer place for us to go, and mother was not at home. I do not know where she was, prob- ably at a neighbor's. Happening to look out of the win- dow I saw a band of mounted men approaching from
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the south. The federal soldiers had gone some time previously and I knew these horsemen by their ordi- nary civilian clothing to be bushwhackers or guerrillas. They had formed line in evident anticipation of a fight and were moving fairly rapidly, each man with raised revolver in his right hand. Some were at a fast walk and others were at a trot but I believe that they in- creased their gait after they had gone by. As they passed our house the line swerved apart so that part of the men passed on one side of the building and some on the other, then moved on toward the square where the old federal defences were.
"Looking up toward the square we soon saw peo- ple carying their things out of the houses and into the street, and then several columns of rising smoke showed that the buildings were being fired. A few moments later one of the band rode up to our house, came in and told us the building was to be burned. There was a pile of cotton in the corner that we had raised on Center creek and, despite my sister's expos- tulations, he set fire to this. She argued and pleaded with him and he put it out but then lighted it again, saying that if he did not burn the place the other boys would. She continued to ask him not to do it and he again extinguished the fire, lighted it again and once more put it out. Finally he left, remarking as he did so, 'Well, I won't do it but some of the other boys will.'
"A few minutes later another man came in to burn the building and was soon joined by a third. They re- fused to listen to arguments and told us to get what-
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ever we wanted to save out into the street. My sister and I carried out what we could and the guerrillas helped us with the things that were too heavy for us. They obligingly carried out the cook stove and some other articles, then set fire to the pile of cotton and soon the building was blazing.
"We went over to our grandmother's home and found that her house also had been set afire but that the fire had gone out or been put out. The guerrillas returned and started it again but it was once more ex- tinguished. Naturally we did not like to see the place burned. They came back a third time and, threatening me with revolvers, made me kindle a blaze in the center of the floor and watched it until it had gone so far that it was manifestly beyond control, and the house was soon in flames.
"I saw no looting but I suppose that the men took anything that they wanted although there was natur- ally not much left by this time that they would care for. I heard of one man who started to carry off some dress patterns but was prevented from doing so by Harris Hatcher whom we knew. I cannot say whether Hatcher was a member of the band or not or whether he took part in the burning but my understanding is that he was a confederate soldier and he was in town that day. Another acquaintance of ours named Conrad was also among the men but I do not remember hearing of any others that we knew.
"A few of the houses had not been burned and when the guerrillas rode away the people bunched in
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these. Some of the families later went north and some went south and a few, having no place to go, planned on trying to stay on indefinitely in the remaining houses. My mother and sister and I joined my step- father and went to Fort Scott and I do not know what eventually became of the people who tried to stay in Carthage."
Mrs. Sarah Ann Smith, wife of Campbell Smith, a confederate soldier, lived with her two children and her mother-in-law in an unfinished brick house on the southwest corner of what is now Oak and Garrison. She has described the burning of the town as follows:
"On this day I saw a crowd of bushwhackers riding into the town from the west. You could always tell bushwhackers because they wore feathers, bunches of ribbon, etc., in their hats. Some of the men stopped at our house and asked who lived there.
" 'Cam Smith's family," I replied.
" 'Oh, we know Cam,' one of them replied, 'but we are going to burn this whole town so you better get what things you want out of the house. We will help you carry them down.'
"By this time there were bushwhackers every- where and I suppose they had come into the town from all directions at once. We carried out such stuff as we wanted, the men helping us, but a good deal of our property we left because we had nowhere to take it any- how. The bushwhackers then split up some kindling, placed it under the stairway and set it alight. Soon
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the stairway was blazing and before long the interior of the house was all afire. The blaze consumed all the interior of the building but the walls still stood.
"Practically all of the town had been burned by now and we moved into a small barn with some other families and a day or two later went out to Walkers northwest of town to stay. I was not personally ac- quainted with any of the bushwhackers that burned Carthage but part of the boys were from the Center creek neighborhood."
On September 24 General Sanborn sent the follow- ing order to Colonel Allen:
"On receipt of this you will detach from your com- mand one lieutenant and forty men for special duty. Instruct them to proceed to Jasper county and there collect all available teams for the purpose of removing women and children from about Carthage. Instruct them also to escort the mowing machines now near Carthage to Greenfield and then return to your post. If the teams belong to union men they will be returned after moving out the families. If the owners are Se- cesh send the teams to the quartermaster here. Let Mitchell's men perform this duty if they have not al- ready come in, and then report to you."
The guerrilla force around Carthage was increased about this time by a hundred or more men under Major Andrew J. Piercey, according to federal reports and Piercey seems to have taken command of the entire band of 200 or 250. Burch held his position at Neosho and Colonel Allen concentrated as much of his command
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as possible at Mount Vernon. A portion of the regi- ment, however, was called away and engaged in the pursuit of Price who was moving toward the center part of the state.
A clash with these guerrillas somewhere near the eastern edge of Jasper county occurred on September 30. Colonel Allen under date of October 1 tells of it as follows :
"I sent out sixty men on scout under command of Captain Morris yesterday morning. He was met and attacked by the enemy and after a sharp fight was compelled to fall back. The enemy were about 200 strong and came within about five miles of this place. I started with reinforcements to Captain Morris at 1 o'clock yesterday and made the rebels fall back from their position. They went down Spring river in the di- rection of Carthage. I shall start a large scout this morning in pursuit of them."
The next day he wrote again :
"The scout sent out by me has returned without ef- fecting anything. They could not overtake the rebels; followed them to Carthage."
On October 7 Major Burch reported that Piercey had gone south but on October 10 he again reported Piercey near Carthage with about 250 men and added that he had called on Colonel Allen for 100 men and when he received them would try to drive the confed- erates out. A few days later Major Burch from Neo- sho acting in conjunction with Major Moore from Mount Vernon made the move toward Carthage but
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apparently did not come in contact with their enemy for nothing further is mentioned about the affair. On October 24, however, we find Burch writing to the commander at Springfield as follows:
"In regard to the sending out of scouts in the di- rection of Fort Scott it is a very dangerous undertak- ing from the fact that Piercey has 250 men between here and Fort Scott. Piercey's men are on Spring river below Carthage. I have not force to drive him and hold the post. I will do the best I can in getting information from the northwest. If you could send me 150 men I could clean out Piercey and open communication with Fort Scott. It is certain that Piercey is in Jasper county and has not less than 250 men and some reports say 500. I would like very well to get a lick at him. If you can send me any aid, send it immediately."
Meanwhile the confederate column under Price had reached the Missouri river and moved west toward Kansas City driving a portion of the state militia be- fore them and with other organizations of state troops hacking at their rear. Between Independence and Kansas City Price found 15,000 union troops posted be- hind the Big Blue and in the battle of Westport which followed, the southern troops were defeated and driven south, the retreat growing more and more precipitate every day. Two days later the main body of Price's army was practically routed at the crossing of the Lit- tle Osage river and only the stubborn fighting of Gen- eral Jo Shelby's division is said to have saved it from utter destruction. The next day the defeated army
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reached Carthage, Shelby protecting its rear. The itinerary of the expedition contains this entry :
"October 26, at Carthage. No enemy; left every- thing behind; distance 56 miles."
General Price's report states :
"We marched over beautiful prairie a distance of 56 miles, and camped at Carthage on Spring river, the nearest point that forage could be obtained, as I was informed by Major General Logan and Brigadier Gen- eral Shelby who earnestly desired me to reach Spring river.
"The federal prisoners that I had with me became so exhausted by fatigue that out of humanity I paroled them."
George B. Walker, quoted heretofore, was a mem- ber of Shelby's brigade of Price's army at this time and tells interestingly of getting separated from his command while at Carthage.
"I was in the regiment commanded by Colonel Hunter who was a Nevada lawyer before the war," says Mr. Walker, "and since Shelby's brigade was in the rear during the retreat, for us it was a constant battle. We camped on the river near where the lower bridge now is and I went to Colonel Hunter and asked permis- sion to go home for a few hours, explaining that I lived down the river a mile or two. With me was George Rader one of my friends who wanted to go along. Col- onel Hunter was at first a little reluctant but finally gave permission.
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