USA > Missouri > Jasper County > Jasper County, Missouri, in the Civil War > Part 6
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"But the bountiful supply of forage obtained for the cavalry horses was generally at the expense of the people who had worked hard through dangers and dif- ficulties to raise something to subsist upon and to feed to the few head of horses, cattle and hogs left to them after being plucked by both parties. Sometimes re- ceipts and vouchers were given by officers of detach- ments and commands for forage and property taken from them, but in most cases nothing was given to them to show that such seizures had been made. In some cases upon the approach of troops the owners of farms left their homes, crops and everything except a team or so with which to move away with some of their most necessary household goods. Only women and chil- dren were usually at home when the army was passing through the country, and when the troops took horses, mules, forage, or cattle from families, the women rare- ly had the courage or facilities to go to the commanding officers and demand the return of or payment for their property. Now and then, however, sheer necessity compelled the wife or mother, the head of the family at home, to go to the camp and appeal to the command- ing officer for the return of an only horse for the chil- dren to use to take the corn or the wheat to the mill, or to stop the taking of the last load of corn from the crib or side of bacon from the smoke house. The wife and mother whose husband was off in one or the other ar- mies or widow whose husband had been recently killed in the war, when she thus appealed to be allowed to keep a pittance of her property for the use of her chil- dren, sometimes looked the very picture of despair."
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From the camp at Carthage the federals marched eight miles southeast in the direction of Sarcoxie, then suddenly turned northeast and marched forty miles to Turnback in Lawrence county with the idea of heading off a threatened flank attack on Springfield, then re- traced their steps to Mount Vernon and thence to Sar- coxie where various outlying detachments joined them.
By September 28 the union forces at Sarcoxie, in- cluding some Missouri troops, numbered 4,500 men, commanded by Brigadier General Frederick Salomon. At and near Newtonia, twelve miles distant, lay 4,000 confederates under Colonel Douglas H. Cooper. Salo- mon's troops included the one Indian regiment-the Third Indian Home Guard-under Colonel Phillips, this unit being something more of a military organization than Ritchie's Indians were. Cooper's division also in- cluded many Indians-the First Cherokee battalion, the First Choctaw regiment, and the First Choctaw and Chickasaw regiment.
On the morning of September 29, four companies of the Ninth Kansas cavalry, 150 men, and two howit- zers, all under the command of Col. E. Lynde, moved down toward Newtonia on a reconnaissance and after a short clash with the federals fell back from the town and at evening returned to Sarcoxie. Lieut. Col. Jacobi of the Ninth Wisconsin Infantry with Companies D, E, G and H of his regiment, Captain Medford's company of the Sixth Kansas Cavalry, 50 men of the Third In- dian Home Guard and three rifled three-inch field pieces from Captain Stockton's. battery moved from
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Sarcoxie a little later than Lynde and, taking up a po- sition near Newtonia, stayed all that night. The next morning soon after daylight Lynde rejoined him and although Salomon in his report says that their orders were merely to reconnoiter and not to become seriously engaged they immediately formed for an attack on the superior forces of the enemy.
The engagement was opened by the three guns from Stockton's battery, Lynde's two howitzers soon joining in. Captain Hiram Bledsoe's battery which had taken such a prominent part in the battle of Carthage over a year before promptly replied. The confederates were posted among some brick buildings, in a large stone barn, and behind a long stone wall.
Jacobi and his infantry moved gallantly forward to the attack but as they neared the stone wall the 31st Texas Cavalry and the First Cherokee battalion that lay behind it rose up and delivered a most deadly fire in the Wisconsin men's faces. The Texans then sprang forward over the wall to meet the attack and the fed- erals fell back, forcing the Texans, however, by a hot fire to immediately return behind the wall. The ad- vance of the federal cavalry, about the same time as their infantry attack, was stopped by the fire of Bled- soe's battery which after a short retirement had again gone into action.
As the Ninth Wisconsin began to fall back, the Choctaw and Chickasaw regiment rode into Newtonia on a gallop giving the war whoop and singing its war songs. Without pausing, the Indians galloped through
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the town and charged the federal lines. Colonel Shel- by's Missouri regiment, the same that had had the Coon creek fight in August, now entered the battle as did also several other organizations. The federals, greatly outnumbered and having suffered heavy losses, began to fall back everywhere, fighting as they went.
Back at Sarcoxie, General Salomon had been alarmed by the heavy firing and sent the Sixth Kansas Cavalry to the front, some time later following it up with the Third Indian Home Guard which was a mount- ed organization, and then setting out himself with the main body. The Sixth Kansas met the retreating troops three miles from Newtonia and held up the enemy for some time, soon being joined by Phillips and his Indians. The retirement was continued slowly, however, until about three o'clock when Salomon finally arrived with his main force. Participants in the fight have described the action as a most stirring one, the whooping of the Indians mingling with the roar of the cannon and the rattle of musketry. The union forces now advanced a short distance but as it neared sunset General Salomon ordered a retirement to Sarcoxie. The Fourth brigade of Missouri state militia cavalry covered the retreat and at midnight the entire column, less casualties, were back at Sarcoxie again. The con- federate cavalry had pursued until dark and had then given up the chase. Considerable equipment and some loaded wagons abandoned by the federals were taken by Cooper's men.
The losses of the union forces in this engagement were 50 killed, 80 wounded and 115 missing, most of
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the latter probably having been captured. The confed- erate loss was reported as 2 officers and 10 enlisted men killed, 13 officers and 50 enlisted men wounded, three enlisted men missing. The battle was of course a re- verse for the federals who had been flung into the fight in driblets against superior forces, and beaten in detail. The magnificent fighting qualities of the offi- cers and men however had made up in part for the want of good generalship and had prevented anything like a disaster.
The union troops from all directions now hurried to Sarcoxie until on the evening of October 3, 12,000 were there, General Blunt in command of the Kansas troops, General Totten in command of the Missourians and General J. M. Schofield in command of the whole. On the morning of October 4 they moved out of Sar- coxie and advanced on Newtonia. The confederates had no desire to engage a force so much superior to their own and fell back after a little artillery firing, Scho- field's troops entering the town practically unopposed.
Some time during 1862 Dr. Jacquilan M. Stemmons who lived two and a half miles northeast of Avilla, and a neighbor man by the name of Latham or Layton Duncan, were killed by guerrillas at the Stemmons home. J. B. Stemmons, who was then a small boy, de- scribes the skirmish in which his father lost his life as follows :
"One night early in the war, several of the mem- bers of the Home Guards, mostly men of our locality who had taken the federal side, were at our house. I think that several more joined them there because
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they had heard rumors that the guerrillas were to raid us. Anyhow there were 26 men there that night, all well armed. Of course several of them were strangers to me, but a number of them were well known to me. Those that I can now remember were: Nelson Knight, Isaac Schooler, Rabe Paul, Coal Paul, Ben Key, Captain McCoy who was a lawyer, Layton Duncan and a man named Drace.
"Our men had pickets out to prevent being sur- prised, but the raiding party, by a well planned ap- proach, rushed the pickets and surrounded the house before anyone inside was aware of it. It was a big party of rebels which had come in on us, 300 or 400 of them being the range of estimates by our men. They included a good sized band from some adjoining coun- ty which happened to be passing through this county just at that time, but they also included many of our neighbors, in whose families father had practiced as a physician. The unwelcome visitors formed a large ring around the house, most of them not wanting to get in too close, for fear of armed men known to be inside our home.
"I remember that the first thing I knew a shot rang out on the night air and glass from a window came rattling down on my face where I lay sleeping on a trundle bed. The first shot had come in at my window. After that all was excitement around that place, inside and out. Much shooting began. Our visitors called on us to surrender, but of course our men would not do that. The men outside tried to fire
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the house, but they were in danger when they came close. Our men would dash outside and go to shooting when they saw a chance to get at men coming near the house. After making the charge, they would run back into the house.
"Eventually the marauders took hay out of the barn and put it on a wagon and ran it up against the end of the house and set the hay on fire and soon had the house blazing.
"While this work was in progress for firing the house with the load of hay, father stepped outside with his gun and addressed the attackers. He said that if they must kill, that was one matter, but the firing of the house was a different thing. He said he was ready to die if he must, but that the attackers ought not to burn down the shelter for his wife and children who would be left after he was gone. They shot him down and he fell over into a niche between the chimney and the house. We could hear him groaning for some time after he was shot, so we knew he did not die immedi- ately. After that the firing of the house went on just the same.
"It soon got too hot to stay in the burning house. I was one of the last to get out. I remember seeing my stepmother run out. She had a year-old baby in her arms.
"Old Mr. Knight and I ran out last. I really be- lieve the old man tarried to see me safe through. We both made a dash for the back door. I ran safely to cover but he ran straight into the arms of a rebel guard
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not far from the door. He and his captor recognized each other. They were neighbors and Mr. Knight had often befriended the other.
" 'Run, old man,' " said his captor. 'I'll shoot, but you'll get away safely,' and he did run and escaped. Our only casualties were father and Layton Duncan. Duncan was shot outside the house while he was mak- ing a charge and ran back inside and died. His body was carried away by our men when they abandoned the burning house.
"One of the rebels worked his way into a rear hall- way during the fight at the house. One of our men saw him and shot him dead. That was the only casual- ty for the enemy that we could be certain about. The friends of this dead man could not get in to recover the body and so his remains burned along with the house, only the charred trunk of the body being left. I stum- bled over the body of the dead man when I was leaving the house. The enemy took away with them their other dead and wounded and we never heard what there were of either.
"We had some mighty good horses on our place, some that father had brought from Kentucky. Also, each man there had come on horseback and their horses were quartered at our place. No other stock was there, but all these horses were led away by the enemy and were valuable booty.
"Father, on coming to this country, had built a considerable house and two cabins for the use of our slaves. Our folks occupied the better house of the
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three after our home burned and it made a fairly com- fortable habitation. During the latter part of the war, however, our family left the farm and stayed first at Mt. Vernon and then Sarcoxie, returning home after peace was restored."
Berry Bedford, a Jasper county man of southern sympathies, was killed by federals in 1862. Mrs. C. C. Warner has told of his death as follows:
"One of those killings near our farm in 1862 made a great impresion on me. Berry Bedford, a neighbor residing a half mile from us, was met by a band of fed- eral men of the locality, they riding up to him as he sat in the woods near our farm. With Bedford were Bud Shirley and James Moorehouse, of Carthage. Bed- ford was captured but the other two men got away by running through a field. Bedford was brought down to the road in front of our tenant house to wait for the men who were in pursuit of the other two.
"In the meanwhile some of the men of the party came to our house thinking the fugitives must have come there for refuge. The fleeing men had not come near the house, however, and after search had been al- lowed the visitors were satisfied of this. They stated, however, that they had caught old man Bedford. Now it happened that Bedford's daughter was right there visiting us girls at the time. She and the rest of us were determined to go to him. But the men said that if a single person left our house he would be forthwith shot down. But even while they were saying this, we were leaving the house and flying down the road. Death
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or no death, nothing could hold us back. We found Mr. Bedford in custody as had been told. His daughter threw her arms around his neck and begged that he be spared. The rest of us girls comforted her and also joined in her plea. The men treated us nicely and as if everything would be all right and eventually persuaded us to go back to the house.
"Soon after we got back, however, we heard a vol- ley of shots and some of the men came by the house and told us we could have our man now. As expected, we found him shot to death. We took a door from the tenant house close by and got the dead man onto that. Some of the men who had remained behind helped us do that, for it was a pretty heavy job for girls to do. We then sent word to the Bedford home and his little boy brought a wagon on which we placed the improvised stretcher and took the dead man home.
"This incident naturally affected me deeply. Fur- thermore one of my sisters died next morning, we feel- ing that her death was hastened by the exciting things of the day before. She was very low and her recovery had been despaired of, but we felt she would have lived for some time, had she not become so excited over the blustering ways of the men who came to the house that day and their threatening attitude, followed almost immediately by the shooting of Bedford."
"Among the skirmishes in 1862 that I recall," said Captain T. J. Stemmons recently, "was an affair in which the guerrillas attempted to trick the militia at Bower Mills.
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"Captain Stotts of Company C, 76th Enrolled Mili- tia, was in command of our men and Captain Henry Fisher was also there. A few of the bushwhackers rode boldly up to the town and fired upon it, trusting that the well known aggressiveness of Captain Stotts would lead him to dash out in pursuit of them. After firing they turned their horses and galloped back by where the remainder of their band were laying in am- bush, finger on trigger.
"Captain Stotts was too wise a bird to be caught by such tricks and getting us under arms quickly he led us around through the timber to where he thought the larger band of bushwhackers might be. They were still in ambush when he came up on their flank but they made off swiftly enough when we opened up on them. We had one horse killed during the firing and I never heard what their losses were.
"Some time during this year we had a couple of forage wagons captured and burned a short distance east of Avilla. Several men of Captain Fisher's com- pany to which I belonged were out foraging when a large number of guerrillas attacked them. Our men cut the horses loose from the wagons and rode for their lives, all making a successful escape. The guerrillas got the wagons but the horses were brought back safely to our camp at Bower Mills.
"One incident that happened this year, as I re- member it, was the capture of Wash Petty. His par- ents lived south of Carthage and by chance we reached their house one day just after Petty and a companion
ยท
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had arrived there for a visit. There was a considerable number of us, Captain Stotts and Captain Fisher be- ing in command. We surrounded the house and Petty and his companion ran up the stairway.
"Several men wanted to go up after them but the two were well armed and whoever went up would have been killed so Stotts forbade it. I and another man were stationed in front of the house and once Petty and his companion approached the window. We raised our guns but they ducked back again before we could shoot. Several men were now shouting to set fire to the house and burn them out.
" 'If you will promise to treat us as prisoners of war we will come down and surrender,' shouted Petty to Captain Stotts. 'I do not propose to have my father's house burned on my account. If you do not make the promise I ask for, we are coming down anyhow. You will kill us all right but we will kill more than two of you before we die.'
"This defiant attitude of Petty's pleased Stotts and Fisher. I remember one of them remarking that if Petty had begged and pleaded for his life he would have likely been in favor of killing him but that he admired a brave man. The two were therefore ac- cepted as prisoners, Petty always maintaining his de- fiant attitude. He had the reputation of being a des- perate man and Captain Fisher tied him upon his horse by putting a rope on one ankle, then running it under the horse's belly and tying it to the other ankle. Petty protested at this but Captain Fisher said to him, 'We
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do this so we will not have to shoot you. I know very well that you are going to try to escape if we do not tie you up. If you tried to escape it would not be our fault if we did not kill you.' 'You are right,' answered Petty, 'and if I ever get you I will treat you the same.'
"Back in our camp there was a man who for some reason I have forgotten was a deadly enemy of Petty's but who was one of the kind of fellows that are never looking for a fight and never went on a scout if he could get out of it. Seeing Petty tied up he began to curse him and ask to be permitted to kill him.
"Petty was not a man to remain silent under these circumstances and he vigorously denounced the other, cursing him roundly for a coward.
"'If they will just turn me loose with a pocket knife and give you all the arms in this camp,' he said, 'I will chase you out of here within five minutes.'
"We knew he could likely do it and most of us could not suppress a grin. Seeing our approbation and sens- ing the kind of man with whom he had to deal, Petty called him about every name that he could think of, telling him that it was plain he let brave men go out and capture prisoners and bring them into camp, then, after they were safely tied up, he was the bravest man of all. This was so true that we all enjoyed the situa- tion except the man referred to and he became silent and said no more about killing the prisoner.
"Despite Petty's defiant attitude he was secretly worried about his fate after he left our hands. The usual thing for us to do with prisoners was to turn
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them over to headquarters at Mount Vernon and from there they would be forwarded into Springfield. Petty was certain that he would be killed by the soldiers at Mount Vernon and we were not very sure ourselves that he would not be. I eventually took him to Spring- field myself and I understand that he was later ex- changed and went south.
"In the latter part of 1862, bushwhackers who were in ambush by a road near Bower Mills shot and killed a Lieut. Cather and another man. We pursued the murderers as far as 'the narrows' near the present site of Reeds but they scattered there and we lost trace of them."
After the federals occupied Newtonia the union army moved on south in pursuit of the confederates. Wagon trains passing from Fort Scott through Carth- age, bound for the Kansas troops in the field, were frequently endangered by guerrilla bands. On October 17, Major Benjamin S. Henning, post commander at Fort Scott, wrote to General Blunt as follows:
"On Wednesday night last, some of my scouts re- turned and reported that Livingston was on the Dry Fork of Spring river with 200 men in wait for the train escorted by Capt. George F. Earl. I immediately or- dered Captain Conkey with all of his available force to the assistance of Capt. Earl and they have just returned with the train all safe. Livingston was in wait but did not make the attack as Captain Earl remained at Car- thage until Captain Conkey met him."
On November 5 Lamar was attacked and partially burned by the guerrilla chieftain, W. C. Quantrill. Por-
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tions of the Third Wisconsin cavalry were sent from Fort Scott to aid the company of the Eighth Missouri Militia cavalry that was holding the Barton county town. After they had started, Major Henning learned that Capt. P. D. G. Morton, quartermaster of the Third Kansas brigade, was in Carthage with a wagon train bound for Fort Scott.
Fearing that Quantrill, fleeing from Lamar, would come across the wagon train and capture it, Henning ordered Captain Theodore Conkey with his company of the Third Wisconsin cavalry to Carthage to offer help to the train. Conkey reached Carthage, killing one guerrilla on the way, and found that the train had safely passed on to the west. That evening Captain Conkey, together with Captain C. F. Coleman of the Ninth Kansas Cavalry, camped not far from Carthage.
Meanwhile another detachment of the Third Wis- consin had clashed with the guerrilla band of T. R. Liv- ingston on Cow creek and reported it headed toward Carthage. Major Henning at once sent a messenger to Conkey and Coleman, ordering them to endeavor to intercept the guerrillas. He describes in his official report the events that followed :
"The messenger reached them in good time," the report states, "and they started for Sherwood, but as it grew dark before they reached that place, and hav- ing no one with them familiar with the country, they were obliged to camp until next morning. The com- mand then separated, Captain Coleman on the south side of Spring river and Captain Conkey on the north side and worked down toward Sherwood.
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"Captain Coleman being in advance, came upon the rebels and charged them, killing four or five and taking four prisoners, including the notorious Captain Baker who was taken by Captain Coleman himself."
George B. Walker, from his father's home on Spring river, saw either the skirmish mentioned in the foregoing report or another one about the same time which took place a short distance downstream from Tucker's ford.
"From a hill west of my father's house I could see Livingston's men riding eastward along the slopes of a hill north of the river," Mrs. Walker has said. "I could also see the Wisconsin cavalry, who I understood were commanded by Captain Conkey, working down from the east. I don't think Livingston was looking for a fight at this time. It was not his custom to take his men into a fight unless he thought he was going to win. He met the federals by accident as I stood watching and there was a lively cracking of pistol shots as the two came together. In a few moments I saw that Living- ston was falling back downstream with the union men following after and the occasional cracking of pistols grew dim in the distance. Conkey went downstream some distance and camped. He had taken about six of Livingston's men during the day and Livingston had captured about an equal number of his.
"Livingston was afraid that the union leader would kill the prisoners he had taken and it is said that this was exactly what Conkey was intending to do, since he felt sure that the men of his that had been captured
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had been killed. Livingston asked a southern girl to carry a dispatch to Conkey, asking for an exchange, and she mounted a horse and galloped to the federal camp, arriving just as the firing squad was getting ready to shoot the captives. When Conkey learned that his men were alive he called off the shooting and en- tered into negotiations with Livingston for their ex- change. The latter now insisted that in trading pris- oners Conkey throw in a gallon of whisky 'to boot.' The captain agreed to this and passed over the liquor. Livingston asked that some union soldier sample the drink to prove it was not poisoned. This was done and when the trade was completed, Livingston and his men consumed the whisky and pronounced it good.
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