USA > Missouri > Jasper County > Jasper County, Missouri, in the Civil War > Part 14
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" 'You can go, young men,' he told us, 'but see that you are back here before daylight, for at that time we move.'
"We both assured him that we would be back and so rode away from our regiment-and never saw it again. I had learned up on the Missouri river that my father had been killed. Lewis Scruggs, an acquaint- ance, had told me how a detachment of militia had rid- den up to the house while my father was sitting on the porch reading and had opened fire on him, sixteen bul- lets entering his body and of course killing him instant- ly. My brother had also been killed by the militia the year previous while returning from the timber where he had been cutting wood and I knew that only my two sisters would be at home. We knocked on the door and roused them but I had a hard time making them believe who I was. They were not taking any chances. I finally convinced them that it was really their brother come home and they opened the door and admitted us. We watered and fed our horses and then ate the supper which the girls had prepared. At an early hour we were again astir, fed our horses and breakfasted and started back to rejoin our organization.
"We were back at the ford before daylight as we had promised but as we approached it a column of horsemen were already crossing. It was dark and we could not see who they were but there were a great many of them and somehow they did not look right. We drew rein and watched a moment.
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" 'I don't believe those are Shelby's men,' I said at length.
" "They don't look like it to me,' answered Rader.
"Just then two of the men detached themselves from the column and rode toward us. We saw that they were union soldiers and wheeled our horses and dashed downstream. The federals both fired at us and gave pursuit, following us a short distnce. Pretty soon we decided that we had no cause to run from two men, so turned our horses and began shooting. The federals replied, but wheeled their horses in turn and rode back toward the road. It was hardly beginning to get light yet and so no harm was done to anyone by all this fir- ing.
"Rader and I rode west a short distance, then turned south, hoping to get ahead of the federals and rejoin our forces. Just after it became light we met Whitey Heiden, one of Dave Rusk's men that I knew. We told him of our experience and what we were try- ing to do.
" 'You haven't a show in the world to catch Shelby,' Heiden told us, 'He broke camp during the night and is probably miles south of Center creek by now. There is not a chance of you overtaking him.'
" 'Where are you going?' I asked.
" 'I am going to join Dave Rusk.'
" 'Where is Dave ?'
" 'He is down on Grand river. You fellows had better come along with me. There is nothing else for you to do.'
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"So we went with Heiden to Rusk's camp. Rusk was a small, light haired man, not much more than a boy and was a very likeable fellow. He had lived at Sherwood before the war and had two brothers in the union army. This last was not especially unusual as many confederates had brothers in the enemy camp. I had one myself although he was out on the west coast and fought only against the Indians. Just now Rusk was painfully wounded but as soon as he heard our news he decided to break camp and go south. We helped him into the saddle and away we went. We secured a Cherokee guide who took us across the Indian Terri- tory where the plains were covered with cattle so we had plenty of meat although we were without bread or salt for twenty-eight days. On arriving in Texas we reported for duty and were assigned to another reg- iment than the one we had left."
The van of the pursuing forces of union troops Walker and Rader had seen at Carthage seems to have been Colonel C. R. Jennison's brigade of Kansas troops. His report in reference to this part of the operations follows :
"The brigade took up a line of march southward through Barton and Jasper counties, Mo., reaching Carthage on the early morning of the 27th and going into camp some five miles south of town, the brigade having then the extreme front of the pursuing column and being only a few miles behind the rear guard of the enemy. Indeed so closely was he pressed that one squadron of his cavalry retreated only upon the ap-
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pearance of our advance at the point designated as our encampment. The rebel army was then only four or five miles before us, his rear having passed about 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Here we met a number of paroled prisoners of the Kansas State Militia who had been released during the afternoon after having been stripped of their clothing, shoes, etc., and robbed of everything valuable about their persons. These were compelled to walk barefoot and almost naked twelve miles until they reached the advance of our lines where they were as well cared for as our circumstances would permit."
On the night of the 27th the larger part of the confederate army camped on Shoal creek, twenty-two miles from Carthage, but the rear guard was farther to the north inside Jasper county. The union forces were arriving in the vicinity of Carthage all night, the headquarters of General Curtis who was in command reaching the town mentioned at 3 a. m. and halting un- til 6 o'clock.
Next morning both armies resumed the southward movement, Ford's Kansas brigade leading the union ad- vance. The confederate rear guard was found drawn up in battle line near Diamond Grove but retired with- out fighting and the pursuit continued through Granby to Newtonia, some distance south of which town the southern forces camped.
General Jo Shelby's division was about the only unit in Price's badly battered command at this time which it was safe to trust in battle so to it was given
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the task of protecting the camp from the advancing federals. Soon the Third and Fourth Kansas brigades with General Blunt in command came down through Newtonia. Through a misunderstanding the rest of the union troops had halted to feed their weary horses and Blunt for the time was entirely unsupported. The Kansas general threw his troops into line however and ordered them forward, personally leading the charge. Shelby had dismounted his entire command and, after stopping the Kansas attack with a heavy musketry fire, advanced in turn. Outnumbered, outflanked and with- out support, Blunt's men were forced back, fighting hard. For some distance the retirement continued and the ranks of the Kansans had begun to weaken, as was evidenced by stragglers breaking away and starting to the rear, when help arrived. As soon as General Curtis had learned that Blunt had gone on ahead he had hur- ried General Sanborn's Missouri brigade to join him and now it reached the front in the nick of time. Dis- mounting his men, Sanborn flung them into line-the Sixth and Eighth Missouri State Militia cavalry regi- ments, the Sixth and a portion of the Seventh Provis- ional Enrolled Militia, the Second Arkansas cavalry- and these fresh troops, extending Blunt's line to the left, redeemed the day and Shelby was forced back to his horses, leaving his dead and wounded on the field. Soon the confederate army was in motion southward once more.
Moving down through Pineville, Mo., Cane Hill, Ark., thence through Indian Territory, Price
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eventually reached the confederate lines after suffering many hardships. The expedition from which the southern sympathizers in Missouri had hoped so much had ended in a precipitate retreat that save for Shelby's men would probably have been a complete rout. The cause of the confederacy in Missouri was obviously and irrevocably lost.
Mrs. C. C. Warner tells of an incident which hap- pened at the Kirkpatrick farm, now the Corwin farm, four miles south of Carthage. This was not far from where Mrs. Warner lived.
"Price had retreated through this country, pursued by federal soldiers," said Mrs. Warner. "One of the Price stragglers, sick and unable to go further, stopped at the Kirkpatrick farm and was taken care of by the Kirkpatrick girls in the best way they could. Within a half day, the pursuing soldiers came along. Finding this man, they took him out and hanged him on a tree in the orchard and went away and left him there.
"The girls wanted to give the dead man a decent burial, but they did not know how to get the body down. When some more soldiers came along, these responded to the request of the girls and cut the hang rope, but they left the body where it fell, all in a heap. The girls had a hard time to get the heavy body straightened out and carried away to a place of burial. We went over to help them in their undertaking.
"It was a hard job indeed to get a hole dug deep enough, because we did not have any very efficient implements to work with and only girls to do the work,
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and because the ground was so hard and rocky. We had to be content with a shallow hole and then piled the dirt high over the body to sufficiently cover it. It gave us the 'shivers' to work with the dead in this way, but there were no men folks to do it and we felt that it must be done."
More typical perhaps of the experiences of the civilian population with the pursuing federals was that of the Walker girls and Mrs. Sarah Ann Smith who as had been mentioned had gone with her children and mother-in-law to the Walker home northwest of Carth- age after the town had been destroyed.
"I did not see Price's army when it passed," Mrs. Smith has told, "but the roads were full of union cav- alry. Some captain came to the Walker house and told us that the men were hungry and that we had better guard the doors or they would take everything we had. I posted myself at the smoke-house door and one of the Walker girls stood at each door of the house. The cap- tain detailed a soldier to stay there with me and I think there were some others helping guard the house. Soon the yard was full of men who said they were starving. I watched the front of the building good but some of them tore some boards off the back and stole several sides of bacon. The soldier with me called my attention to it but did not try to stop the men. When the fellows saw I had seen them they ran with the meat, a great crowd of other soldiers after them and I think they must have torn that bacon to pieces right away and eaten it raw. I kept better watch after that and they
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did not get anything else. This had been a good apple year and just a few days before we had gathered the apples and 'holed them up' in the garden. The soldiers got into these and not only took every one but went out in the orchard and got every apple that we had not been able to shake off the trees.
"The officer in charge of the militia at Bower Mills at this time was George F. Bowers and a little while after Price's raid he sent us word that we should come up there. So we borrowed wagons and teams from the Bower Mills neighborhood and went there to live."
On November 2 in writing to General Sanborn re- garding a movement of certain organizations to Spring- field in accordance with Sanborn's order, Colonel Allen of the Seventh Provisional said:
* Company C will go to Springfield today. Company C is very much needed below on Spring river. Captain Stotts with his twenty-five men has brought in thirty-six prisoners and is very active. The rebels are still passing in small squads from 150 down to 10."
Ten days later Allen reported that all was quiet in his district, and asked that a portion of the Enrolled Militia which had been called out especially to serve during the emergency created by Price's raid be re- lieved from duty. The band under Piercey which had been in the vicinity of Carthage seems to have gone south either with Price or at about the same time. Nothing further is heard of it. The federal troops again established garrisons in various towns through- out the district at this time but Carthage was not re-
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occupied. The only post in Jasper county was at Cave Springs where Captain Stotts had again taken station.
On November 20 and 21 there passed through this county a brigade of troops returning from the pursuit of Price. The brigade was commanded by Col. C. R. Jennison, commander of the Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry, and consisted of that regiment and the Sixteenth Kan- sas Cavalry, the First Colorado and the Ninth Wiscon- sin batteries, detachments of the Fourteenth Kansas Cavalry and the Third Wisconsin Cavalry and a train of about 200 wagons.
The conduct of these troops as they moved back north and before they reached this neighborhood is best evidenced by a statement signed by a large num- ber of officers at Pea Ridge, Ark., on November 16 and addressed to Colonel Jennison. The statement which is evidently aimed at the Fifteenth Kansas, Jennison's own regiment, is as follows :
"The undersigned officers with this command re- spectfully protest against the indiscriminate pilfering and robbing of private citizens, especially of defenceless women and children, that has marked the line of march of this division of the army of the border from the Ar- kansas river to this point. While we are all in favor of the complete destruction of the property of bush- whackers and of those who harbor them, we think that no property should be taken or destroyed without the expres order of the officer commanding. If soldiers are permitted to rob and plunder without discrimina- tion the result would be demoralization of the men and
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disgrace to the officers and the service in which we are unwilling to share."
That the protest of these officers was fruitless is seen by the following letter written on November 22 by Captain Stotts to General Sanborn:
"Jennison has just passed through this vicinity on his return from the Arkansas river. The night of the 19th he stayed at Newtonia, the 20th at Sarcoxie, and the 21st on Dry Fork. Where he passed the people are almost ruined, as their houses were robbed of the beds and bedding. In many cases every blanket and quilt were taken; also their clothing and every valuable that could be found or the citizens forced to discover. All the horses, stock, cattle, sheep, oxen and wagons were driven off. What the people are to do it is difficult to see. Many of them have once sympathized with the rebellion but nearly all of them have been quiet and cul- tivated their farms during the last year, expecting the protection of U. S. troops. Jennison crossed Coon creek with as many as 200 head of stock cattle, half of them fit for good beef, 200 sheep, 40 or 50 yoke of work oxen, 20 or 30 wagons, and a large number of horses, jacks and jennets, say 100, as they were leading their broken down horses and riding fresh ones. The Fifteenth Kansas had nearly all this property and the men said they had taken it in Missouri. Threatening to burn houses in order to get money is the common practice. They acted worse than guerrillas. Can the stock be re- turned to this department so that the owners can get their property ?"
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In forwarding this communication General San- born asked that the pay of the Fifteenth Kansas be stopped until the amount of losses sustained by citizens could be ascertained by a commission and that then the total amount of losses be deducted from the pay and turned over to the persons robbed. "The citizens are loyal," said Sanborn "and have raised their crops at great risk and in great danger and deserve protec- tion."
Meanwhile Jennison had been relieved of command and placed in arrest as an indirect result of the plun- dering in Missouri and Arkansas. So many officers of his brigade had protested against his course that the matter came to the attention of General Blunt who, in reassigning the Kansas districts, gave Jennison a small and relatively unimportant one. Jennison re. fused to accept it and was therefore placed in arrest for subordination by Blunt who stated, "If I am to believe one-half that has been reported to me by offi- cers who were present, the most outrageous acts of vandalism were perpetrated while on your return march that have occurred anywhere during the war; and I am told that these acts were done under your direction and further that you represented to your vic- tims that they were done by my order."
When Captain Stotts' communication eventually reached Jennison through military channels he de- nounced Stotts for a "rebel sympathizer" and averred that his orders from Blunt had been to "desolate the country from the Arkansas River to Fort Scott, and
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burn every house on the route." "For simply carrying out in part these instructions," he added, "the enlisted men who had battled so nobly for the cause of their country are to suffer."
Blunt approved Sanborn's suggestion about a mil- itary commission and ordered the pay of the Fifteenth Kansas stopped. Higher officials disapproved the com- mission idea however and there is no record of there ever having been any of the injured citizens paid for their property. Jennison however had been thoroughly discredited and soon resigned from the army.
It has often been said that a number of houses in Carthage which had not been burned by the guerrillas when they fired the town were later burned by Kansas troops returning from the pursuit of Price. It is not improbable that this is true and that Jennison's men were the soldiers who did it.
The passage of Jennison through this country is the last thing of note which the records mention as having occurred during 1864.
CHAPTER V 1865-The Coming of Peace
The early months of 1865-the last months of the war-were in the main uneventful so far as Jasper county was concerned. Practically the entire western part of the county had been devastated and depopulated by the years of war preceding and in the eastern part of the county many people had left. Most of the people who had gone had been driven out by the generally lawless conditions which prevailed at frequent inter- vals and others suspected of sympathy to the cause of the south had been required to leave during 1864 by the federal authorities who feared that they would feed bushwhackers or give them information and thus help to maintain them in the guerrilla warfare they carried on every summer.
It seems to have been the intention in the begin- ning of 1865 to still further move out people who were suspected of southern sympathies or who were trying to maintain an attitude of neutrality. A letter written by Mrs. Sarah Scott of Sarcoxie, protesting against this proposed move is not extant but the answer written to her by General Sanborn appears in the official records.
Some years ago Mrs. Scott, then Mrs. Sarah Mus- grave, in speaking of the incident and the correspon- dence said :
"In 1865 near the end of the war, as it afterwards proved, an order was issued to go in effect by a certain
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time clearing the county of what few people were left in it. It was desired to render this territory so it would yield no sustenance for the guerrillas and bushwhack- ers. Many people left, but I stayed. Some others stayed too, but I suppose there were not over 50 people left in Sarcoxie after that order came, probably not that many.
"Capt. Stotts, who had charge of the militia com- pany at Cave Springs, brought to me the notice to leave. That was in January, 1865. I told the captain that I was a harmless woman, a widow with two small chil- dren, had no conveyance of my own and no means of obtaining one and no knowledge of anywhere to go., It was winter and I did not propose to start off aimlessly, even by spring, unless I had to. Captain Stotts told me to write General Sanborn a letter telling him these facts. I do not think I ever wrote a better letter in my life, for I felt that much was at stake. He replied insisting on the order, rebuked me for being content to say I had not done anything against the country and advising me to do something for the country. I stayed on at Sarcoxie, however, determined to go only when I had to, and soon the war was over and all was happi- ness once more. My uneasiness was then at an end."
General Sanborn's letter which was dated Febru- ary 1, was as follows :
"Dear Madam: Your letter of the 27th ultimo came duly to hand. I write a few lines in reply, partly because you requested it and partly to correct the er- roneous idea you seem to entertain in regard to the mo-
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tives that led to the promulgation of the order to which you refer. I have nothing to say of the motives that actuated others but I know that in all that I do in my official capacity I am actuated only by a desire to pro- mote the true interests of security and the general wel- fare of the people. How strange it is that the simple fact of women and children being compelled to seek a new place of residence at a season of the year not usual- ly inclement in this latitude strikes your mind with hor- ror, while the spectacle of honest, peaceable men, labor- ing in their fields for the support of their wives and lit- tle children, shot down like dogs by men whom these families you refer to are harboring and feeding, does not call for a sympathizing word or even a remark. You take a strange view of the requirements of charity and seem to conclude that charity requires an officer to stand still with folded arms and see murderers and their accessories turn whole communities of happy families into widows and orphans and cover the earth with in- nocent slain, because the remedy will occasion some in- convenience and perhaps suffering of the parties in a manner guilty. Charity itself calls for the execution of the order. Then your own plea of justification, 'I say with a clear conscience that I have done nothing against the federal government.' How impotent! When this day of passion and excitement shall have passed away, and our posterity shall look back and see the gov- ernment as it was, imposing no burden upon the peo- ple, protecting every right and fostering every interest, enlightening and elevating the masses, affording succor and asylum to the friendless and oppressed, and shall
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behold it assailed by myriads of traitors aiming only to cast down and destroy, how will those then appear to them who stand back with folded arms and say with a clear conscience, 'I have done nothing against the federal government.' Would it not be natural for them when reflecting upon their condition, bereft of relations by a war most cruel, burdened by taxation, surrounded by the crime and immorality that a war always engen- ders, to acclaim, 'Accursed is the person and all his descendants who in such an hour and such a crisis did not rally to the support of the flag of such a govern- ment and at such a time sacrifice all for the common weal, or at least do something for the government and not be content with having done nothing against it. The removal of the families at the time mentioned is deemed a necessary step to enable the loyal people in that section to come to their homes and remain there in quiet. Whatever is necessary to enable the govern- ment to exercise its authority and protect its subjects in all places of its dominion will be done without regard to the sufferings of any particular class, or even that of a whole generation. The order will be executed with as much promptness and vigor as circumstances will allow."
In January 1865 a large number of members of the legislature submitted a petition to the governor of the state asking that he adopt the policy of seizing ten or fifteen of the most prominent and wealthy southern sympathizers in every community and informing them that they would be held responsible in their persons and
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property for any injury done to union men in their neighborhood. Among the names signed to this peti- tion is that of James McFarland, representative from Jasper and Barton counties. This plan seems never to have been put into effect, at least as far as Jasper coun- ty was concerned. It would have been hard to find that many "prominent and wealthy" southerners re- maining.
On February 18 General Sanborn in a letter writ- ten to Governor Fletcher pointed out that the term of service of the Sixth Missouri Militia Cavalry was about to expire and that that of the 15th Missouri Cavalry, formerly known as the Seventh Provisional, would ex- pire July 1 and asked that volunteer militia companies be formed for Jasper and other border counties.
"The advantage of holding these border counties by volunteer militia organizations is twofold," he wrote, "First: These organizations are made up of men who reside in or who have been driven from these counties and in addition to being acquainted with all roads and by-ways have a great personal interest in restoring the state authority and in filling up these counties with a loyal population. Second: These men thus joining an organization and going back to their old homes to serve induce most of those loyal families who have been driven from their homes to return also and raise crops, and thus these depopulated counties become again set- tled with a loyal population, a most desirable result that cannot be as speedily attained by simple military occupation with a federal force."
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