USA > Missouri > Jasper County > Jasper County, Missouri, in the Civil War > Part 3
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15
The three pieces of Bledsoe's battery, which by now had passed through the city, went into action to answer Sigel's artillery which was already firing, and a few minutes later two of Captain Guibor's guns chimed in. The infantry previously engaged in the town, and now reinforced by Parson's division, ad- vanced to the assault, but Sigel's main body was already on the move again and after a brief brush in which the attackers suffered some losses his rear guard once more fell back, leaving the ridge to the state troops. Two of Sigel's wagons were abandoned in the town. Another short stand was made at the edge of the tim-
40
JASPER COUNTY IN THE CIVIL WAR
ber two miles farther on and then the tired infantry of the State Guard went into camp in and around Carth- age. The cavalry hung on Sigel's rear until dark then abandoned the pursuit.
But there was no rest for Sigel's men despite the fact they had already marched over 18 miles and had been in battle for almost twelve hours. Taking ad- vantage of the darkness, Sigel continued his move east- ward, putting all the distance he could between him- self and the superior forces of the enemy.
It was well that he did so. Generals Ben McCul- loch and Sterling Price, moving up from the south with 3,000 men to assist Jackson, joined the governor the next morning, and Sigel had escaped none too soon. The company of 94 men that the Union commander had left at Neosho were prisoners, captured by the con- federates as they advanced north.
Sigel's total loss during the battle was 13 enlisted men killed and 2 officers and 29 enlisted men wounded. Five of the wounded were left on the field and captured by the state troops. The loss of Jackson's forces, as near as can be gleaned from the reports of the state guard officers, was 10 killed and 64 wounded, some of the latter dying from their injuries. The official tab- ulation at Washington gives the southern losses as 35 killed, 125 wounded, 45 captured. Sigel's report does not mention the taking of any prisoners.
The battle of Carthage was of course a victory for the state troops although at the time it was generally hailed in the north as a union success and even yet an
41
DAYS OF '61
occasional history so classifies it. The original object of Jackson's troops was to get to the south and join McCulloch and Price, and they succeeded. Sigel's original object was to destroy or disperse Jackson's force and he not only failed to accomplish that object -it was an impossible task with the forces at his com- mand-but he had been hard put to it to make his es- cape. Southwest Missouri was left for a considerable period in the hands of the south.
The victory of the State Guard was not as com- plete as it might have been, for considering the differ- ence in the strength of the opposing forces and in view of the fact that a considerable portion of the state troops were mounted, Colonel Sigel's column should have been killed or captured to the last man. It was the successful retreat of the German veteran, his wriggling his forces with insignificant losses out of what would have appeared certain destruction, that caused the af- fair to be considered a victory in the north. It was the training and discipline of his troops as well as his own generalship that enabled him to accomplish this. It was the lack of training of the state troops, a lack of effi- cient organization and discipline and the lack of a cen- tralized command in the State Guard that permitted it. There is no indication that Jackson exercised or at- tempted to exercise any command over his army after the battle started. The different commanders appar- ently did whatever seemed best to them at the time. A few months later and Sigel would not have escaped so easily under similar circumstances.
42
JASPER COUNTY IN THE CIVIL WAR
Both sides came out of the engagement with im- proved morale and both, particularly the state troops, profited from their experiences there. Each army, as the result of the action, looked forward with even a greater keenness than before to the greater struggles which were to follow-struggles in which many of the veterans of Carthage laid down their lives.
Jackson's army, which had been much worried by the fact that other federal troops had up to this time been only a few days march behind it, was jubilant when it was joined by Generals McCulloch and Price three miles south of Carthage. Writing of this some years after the war, Col. Thomas L. Snead, who at the time of the engagement was aide-de-camp to Governor Jackson, says:
"Jackson and his troops did indeed have abundant cause to rejoice for, although we had not won a great victory as we foolishly fancied or established the inde- pendence of the confederacy as some believed, we had escaped a very great danger. For Lyon had been close behind with an overwhelming force and had he over- taken would have routed and dispersed us. Now we were not only safe from pursuit and no enemy in our front but we would within an hour be under the pro- tecting folds of the confederate flag, side by side with that confederate army for whose coming we had been so anxiously waiting. No wonder that we burst into loud huzzas when the redoubtable McCulloch came in- to sight surrounded by his gaily dressed staff and when accompanied by Governor Jackson, General Price and
43
DAYS OF '61
General Pearce he rode down our dust-stained ranks to greet the men who had fought with Sigel and put him to flight.
"We were all young then and full of hope, and looked with delighted eyes on the first confederate sol- diers that we had ever seen, the men all dressed in sober grey, and their officers resplendent with gilded buttons and gilded braid and stars of gold. To look like these gallant soldiers; to be one of them; to fight beside them for their homes and our own, was the one desire of all the Missourians who on that summer day stood on one of their own verdant prairies, gazing southward.
"In all their motley array there was hardly a uni- form to be seen, and throughout all the brilliant cam- paign they were about to enter, there was nothing to distinguish their officers, even a general, from the men in the ranks save a bit of red flannel, or a piece of cot- ton cloth, fastened to the shoulder or the arm of the former. But for all that they were the truest and best of soldiers."
As soon as the battle was over the state troopers began to prepare ammunition for their next engage- ment, for their stores of this essential were woefully short. How the artillery was supplied is told by Lieu- tenant Barstow of Guibor's battery who is quoted by Snead as saying :
"One of Sigel's captured wagons furnished a few loose round shot. With these for a beginning, Guibor established an 'arsenal of construction.' A turning
44
JASPER COUNTY IN THE CIVIL WAR
lathe in Carthage supplied sabots; the owner of a tin shop contributed straps and canisters ; iron rods which a blacksmith gave and cut into small pieces made good slugs for the canisters; and a bolt of flannel, with needles and thread, freely donated by a dry goods man, provided us with material for cartridge bags. A bay- onet provided a good candlestick and at night the men went to work making cartridges, strapping shots to the sabots, and filling the bags from a barrel of powder placed some distance from the candle. My first car- tridge resembled a turnip, rather than the trim cylin- ders from the confederate arsenals, and would not take a gun on any terms. But we soon learned the trick, and at the close range at which our next battle was fought, our homemade ammunition proved as effective as the best."
Immediately after the battle of Carthage the coun- ty's only newspaper ceased publication. Dawson took his printing presses and accompanied Jackson's army, being employed in printing muster rolls and other blank forms and, it is said, state script known as "shin plasters." Eventually the presses fell in federal hands and were used by the union army.
The county government seemed to stop functioning about this time, the last meeting of the county court being August 26. The county officers were as follows: T. J. Haskell sheriff, this office also including the duties of county collector; Josiah Boyd, John B. Hig- don and John B. Martin, members of the county court; Stanfield Ross, county clerk; Archibald McCoy, treas- urer, and William M. Cravens, prosecuting attorney.
45
DAYS OF '61
John R. Chenault was judge of the circuit court and John B. Dale represented the district in the legislature. Sheriff Haskell and Prosecuting Attorney William Cravens had just been elected in 1861, succeeding Nor- ris C. Hood and Joseph Cravens, respectively.
Now Archibald McCoy was a strong union man and he began to fear that the county funds which were in his possession would be taken from him by Governor Jackson's officers for the use of the state guard which was much in need of cash. He told his bondsmen, Judge John Onstott, John Halsell, Jim Langley, John B. Dale and one other whose name is now forgotten, of the threats he had heard regarding the funds and asked their advice. It was decided that the money should be entrusted to some southern sympathizer in whom all had great confidence and that he should hold it in se- cret. John J. Scott who resided in Carthage two blocks south of the square and who was favorably known for his integrity was chosen for the task. It was agreed that whenever the county needed money to pay bills due that McCoy should go to Scott and get what he needed.
Scott took the money, receipted for it and between August, when it was turned over to him, and October, McCoy had drawn out about $200. In October Scott decided to leave the country on account of the unset- tled state of affairs and turned the money over to Judge Onstott. There was $1,055 in gold and about $200 in currency.
Judge Onstott took the money to his home south- west of Carthage and buried it by a little cherry tree
46
JASPER COUNTY IN THE CIVIL WAR
near the house. It was the cause of much anxiety for although only one or two persons knew that he had it there was a possibility that the word might spread and in the lawless era then in sway the known posses- sion of so much money meant either robbery or torture and death. Fortunately all persons who knew the cir- cumstances kept the secret.
After some time the judge feared that the paper money would rot under the ground so he dug it up and gave it to his wife to carry. The following year Judge Onstott and a number of others were taken as hostages to Fort Scott by the federals to secure the safety of some union men of Carthage taken prisoner by Tom Livingston and the judge was held for some time be- fore being finally released at Bentonville, Ark. During his absence Ritchie's Indians robbed the house and took the $200 in currency from Mrs. Onstott. The gold was not bothered. In fact no one then at the Onstott home knew where the gold was except the judge's son, young Abraham Onstott.
In 1864 when the judge was again away from home, this time moving John Halsell's family to Cooper county, the federal militia came along and burned his home, leaving his family without a roof to shelter them. It was necessary for the women to leave but they felt that they should take the gold with them. Young Abraham showed them the tree near which the coin was buried and after a considerable search it was found and dug up. It was divided into three parts and sewn into belts. Mrs. Onstott and her two daughters, Sarah and Jane, each put on one of these belts and so took the
47
DAYS OF '61
money with them to Pettis county where they went for refuge and where Judge Onstott soon joined them.
After the war the judge returned the gold to the county and then sold his team and wagon so that he could replace the paper money that had been stolen from his wife by the Indians.
The county records, which were even more valu- able than the county funds, were also preserved through the war although in many of the border coun- ties these records were destroyed. Stanfield Ross, the county clerk, was also clerk of the circuit court and ex- officio recorder of deeds. The county court had pro- bate jurisdiction at that time and so Ross was the cus- todian of all the county records and valuable papers. When the confederates abandoned the country in 1861 Judge Chenault advised Ross to accompany the south- ern army and take the records with him. This he did. Loose papers left in the vault when the records were removed are said to have been taken out by the soldiers and scattered all over town. A note for $68,000 was found on the square by a citizen and returned to the proper authorities.
Ross first went down on the Cowskin river with the confederates, then went to Neosho when Governor Jackson made his headquarters at that town. He stored the records in the vault of the jail at Neosho and left them there. It was soon learned in Carthage that the records were at Neosho and it was said that the books were being mutilated by the confederates who were using the blank pages out of them on which
48
JASPER COUNTY IN THE CIVIL WAR
to print muster rolls and other blank forms needed by the army.
The fortunes of war soon forced the confederates to leave Neosho and when they had done so, Norris C. Hood, the former sheriff and a man of character and energy, obtained an escort of federal soldiers and went after the records, loading them into wagons and bring- ing them back to Carthage. Soon afterwards when he and his family went to Fort Scott he took the records with him and kept them in his home until after the war and then returned them to the new county clerk.
Following the battle of Carthage there was still greater excitement through the county than heretofore, and the various companies which had formed in Jasper county were organized into a regiment which entered the State Guard as the Eleventh Missouri Cavalry. Captain Talbot of the Medoc company was named colonel and in early August the regiment marched to join Price down on the Cowskin river. Here and there men left the county to enter the union army and cases were not infrequent where one brother went south with the Eleventh Cavalry while another went north or west to join the federals.
The family of Dr. Jaquilian M. Stemmons, men- tioned heretofore as being an unconditional union man, is typical of many of the Jasper county families of the day. He himself, although a slave owner, was one of the warmest advocates of the union cause in this local- ity and was killed by southern sympathizers in an at- tack on his home the second year of the war. Two of
A RURAL HOME OF THE 'SIXTIES
This residence was erected at Moss Springs by Dr. D. F. Moss in 1859 and is a good example of one style of architecture in vogue just before the war broke out. Dr. Moss was a union sympathizer and in company with a number of other union men of the neighborhood who believed their lives endangered fled to Kansas in January 1862, his family following a few months later. The house was one of the comparative few that survived the war and was occupied again by the Moss family at the close of hostilities.
49
DAYS OF '61
his sons, John Martin and William H. were of the oppo- site view of their father and both entered the confed- erate service, John Martin soon rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel of the Eighth division of the Missouri state guard and being mentioned in General J. S. Rains' official report of the battle of Pea Ridge for gallantry in action. Four other sons of Dr. Stemmons-T. J., Felix B., Wilber and Napoleon L .- stood for the north and served under the union banner during the war, the first named achieving considerable note as a captain in the 76th Enrolled militia.
Many union residents about this time received anonymous warning to leave the country at once or it would be worse for them and a wholesale exodus of the peaceably inclined seems to have resulted. On July 26, Clark Wright, captain of a home guard organization stationed at Greenfield, reported that forty-seven union families from the vicinity of Carthage had passed through Greenfield, giving startling accounts of the depredations of confederates in Jasper county. Other refugees went to Kansas. Later in the war when the main confederate armies had retired into Arkansas there was a considerable number of refugee families that returned, in some cases finding southern sympa- thizers had taken possession of their farms and were operating them. An argument generally ensued in this case and since the union families were backed up by the federal troops it is a safe guess that they usually succeeded in getting their places back.
50
JASPER COUNTY IN THE CIVIL WAR
Wiley Britton, who was himself a resident of Mis- souri and who entered the union army at the outbreak of the war, speaks very bitterly in his book "The Civil War on the Border" concerning conditions in many sections of this part of the state following the battle of Carthage.
"Now that the rebel forces occupied southwest Missouri, the union men deemed it safest to fly to the woods and the hills for concealment," he states. "In- stead of respecting the rights of property of all classes, as Colonel Sigel's troops had done, the rebel troops took all the serviceable horses they could find belonging to union citizens. In many cases secessionists accom- panied the rebel soldiers to point out their union neigh- bors whose property was to be taken. Here and there a wife or a mother, in the absence of husband or sons, stood at the gate to plead with armed and hostile men to spare the property of which the family had become possessed after many years of toil, hardships and sac- rifices. Thus was introduced a phase of war of which few, if any, had ever dreamed. But now that its deso- lating effects were beginning to be felt, the property of union citizens was seized and appropriated for the use of the rebel army in spite of the tears of women and children. Men, who a few days before were pursu- ing their peaceful occupation on the farm, at the car- penter's bench or in the blacksmith shop, fled from their fields and shops and concealed themselves as well as they could in the woods and hills and were fed clan- destinely by their families. The bloody threats of se-
51
DAYS OF '61
cessionists, their acting as informers against the union- ists, produced a feeling of insecurity among union men, so that in seeking their safety they left their scythes in half cut swaths, their plows in mid-furrows, and their work in unfinished conditon."
A local home guard organzation was formed this first year of the war in the northeastern portion of the county where there was a considerable union sentiment. Dr. Stemmons seems to have been one of those who were active in its organization and he was chosen as its head. While this country was never called into the field it did good service in protecting the lives and prop- erty of the loyal men in that part of the country.
In August there occurred an event that was the forerunner of many similar ones during the later years of the war.
Some distance south of Medoc, on the ground where Georgia City is now platted out, lived a young but wealthy slave owner named George W. Broome, whose advertisement in the Southwest News has been mentioned. Broome had come to Jasper county from Georgia in 1856 and had purchased a large body of land from John Shirley who later moved to Carthage and ran the Shirley house on the north side of the square. After buying out Shirley the Georgian ac- quired still more land and built a trading post which enjoyed a considerable patronage from the settlers and from Indians. He also extensively engaged in farming and stock raising.
52
JASPER COUNTY IN THE CIVIL WAR
In August 1861, he was killed and his house burned by a band of marauders who were supposed to have ganged together, without regard to political leanings, for the purpose of robbing unprotected settlers. After murdering Broome and looting and firing the house, the band made off with about forty head of horses and ponies, presumably taking them to Kansas.
This outrage very naturally caused extreme in- dignation and it was rumored that local persons had had a hand in the matter. Down on Spring river near the state line lived John, Austin and Isaac Ireland, sons of old Abraham Ireland who had come here in 1856. Suspicion fastened on the younger Irelands and soon after Broome's death a band of men said to have included some of the most prominent citizens of the county took one of the Irelands to Medoc, gave him a form of a trial and lynched him, those in the crowd afterward stating that he had confessed that he was implicated in the Broome murder. It is supposed that it was John Ireland that was hanged although some au- thorities state it was Austin. Isaac Ireland was later killed on Lightning Creek, Kans., and the other brother was killed near Merrick's Post on Spring river.
On August 23 there was a little skirmish at Medoc between a band of confederate sympathizers being or- ganized to go south and a group of union men on their way to Fort Scott to enlist in the federal army. This was the first clash between armed bands in the county after the battle of Carthage.
53
DAYS OF '61
Some time after this, Abraham Mathews who lived on 'Possum Creek was killed, being the third man mur- dered in the county. It is probable that there was other murders later in the year although no record has been preserved of them.
While the confederates were in this country they made full use of the mines, particularly those in New- ton county. On October 14, Major G. W. Clark, a con- federate quartermaster at Fort Smith, Ark., wrote to J. P. Benjamin, secretary of war for the confederacy, as follows :
"I have this day shipped to Memphis 32,000 pounds of lead from the Granby mines in Missouri. Will con- tinue to forward lead and believe that I can furnish all that is wanted for the confederate army."
For a few days in early October, 1861, Governor Claiborne F. Jackson, with his family, made his head- quarters in Carthage and it is said he intended to call the state legislature into session here to pass an ordi- nance of secession. The confederate troops which had been near Lexington on the Missouri river, were again falling back, however, and it was considered that this city was a little too close to the zone of operations, and the portion of the legislature that could be gotten to- gether was assembled at Neosho on October 28. Less than a quorum was present but the ordinance was passed anyhow.
The confederate generals apparently did their best to preserve peace in this section while it was in their control. The following order was issued by Gen. Ben
54
JASPER COUNTY IN THE CIVIL WAR
McCulloch at his headquarters in Arkansas September 12, 1861:
"Colonel Greer, commanding the South Kansas- Texas cavalry, will on tomorrow, the 13th instant, pro- ceed with his command to the vicinity of Carthage. Twenty-one days' rations will be forwarded to him to- day.
"On arriving at Carthage Colonel Greer will select an encampment for three mounted regiments. Suffi- cient and ample grounds should be chosen for the camp so as to give full and adequate room for drilling pur- poses. Proper and active vigilance will ever be main- tained and the necessary means adopted to prevent an enemy surprising the camp or destroying property of neighboring citizens. Should deserted farms be found in the vicinity of his encampment he will take charge of them for the use of his command. All the protection possible will be rendered and given to our secession friends.
"Should Colonel Greer hear of any bands of jay- hawkers in his vicinity he will pursue and chastise them severely, taking precautions not to endanger his command by continuing pursuit beyond proper discre- tion. Scouting parties will be kept thrown in the direc- tion of Kansas and Fort Scott."
In connection with the above order it should be kept in mind that the word "jayhawkers" did not mean necessarily Kansas marauders but was used to refer to plundering bands in general.
55
DAYS OF '61
The desire of the southern leaders to preserve or- der in southwest Missouri was soon rendered unavail- ing because the war drifted to the southward and the confederates lost control of this country.
On October 22 General McCulloch of the confeder- ate army wrote to General Sterling Price, commander of the State Guard, suggesting that all forage on Spring river below Carthage ought to be destroyed so the fed- erals could not use it. Probably, he wrote more than one letter along the same line, for a little later Price replied that it would be inhuman to lay waste the coun- try and burn the mills, leaving women and children, most of whom were in sympathy with the south, to starve. The proposed devastation was therefore not carried out. But although saved this crowning calam- ity the conditions of the civil population rapidly be- came worse and worse, the position of those known to be union sympathizers being particularly insecure.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.