USA > Missouri > Jasper County > Jasper County, Missouri, in the Civil War > Part 9
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"The fight was lively for awhile and lasted about fifteen or twenty minutes although it seemed two hours to me. Lieutenant McMinn was seriously wounded as were several other of our men. We made two desper- ate sallies. In our last charge, the wounded guerrilla chieftain, game to the end, attempted to rise but be- fore he could gain his feet one of our men who had picked up the fallen man's gun dealt him a terrific blow on the head, and at the same time several others fired into his body. Any one of these latter wounds
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would have been fatal but we were not taking any chances. A few minutes after this the guerrillas loaded their wounded into a government wagon they had seized and then moved off in a southwesterly direction. Three other dead men were left on the field besides Liv- ingston, one of them being Captain Vaughn who before the war was a banker at Osceola.
"We had a little way of dividing things in those days," continued the veteran, "and I got Livingston's hat and horse. The hat was a broad brimmed white one and I wore it for a long while. Jackson Swingle got the guerrilla leader's gun but had to have it re- paired before he could use it, owing to the fact that the stock had been bent when it was used to strike down its plucky owner in the last charge. The arms and equipment of the rest of the bushwhackers left on the field were taken by others of our detachment.
"Lieut. McMinn, although dangerously wounded, recovered and lived northeast of Carthage for a good many years after the war. Our other three badly wounded men died. Shortly after our skirmish, F. Swingle and a number of other union citizens arrived at Stockton to assist us but the bushwhackers at that time were retreating toward Jasper county."
After the death of Livingston his men moved leis- urely south through this county, apparently with Cof- fee in command.
On July 22 a reconnoitering party of federals from Baxter Springs crossed the state line and marched as far east as the ruins of Sherwood. This detachment
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did not come in contact with any of the guerrillas but sent in a report that on the previous night Coffee with an estimated strength of 150 men had camped on Turkey creek four miles from the burned town. They had been told this by citizens who had seen numerous small squads of men ranging from eight to ten in num- ber riding south the previous day. On every road the federal detachment examined had been found the trail of many horses, all going south.
It was afterwards ascertained that the band was going down on the Cowskin in McDonald county where it was reorganized by Coffee.
Some time in the latter part of July or in early August it was deemed advisable to place a federal gar- rison at Carthage to assist in controlling the central part of the county. Companies L and M, Eight Mis- souri Militia Cavalry, commanded by Captain Milton J. Burch, a capable and experienced officer, accordingly took post at the county seat, preparing the court house and one or two other brick buildings for defense.
This made two garrisoned points in Jasper county, Captain Stotts and Company C of the Seventh Provis- ional holding Cave Springs. Other garrisoned places in this region were Mount Vernon, Newtonia and Neosho, the latter place being strongly held most of the time on account of its exposed position. It is pos- sible that Bower Mills was also a garrisoned point at this time held by Company G, 76th Enrolled Militia.
On August 6, a detachment of Company A, Eighth Cavalry, commanded by Captain J. J. Akard, scouted
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from Greenfield to Carthage, first beating the brush on Horse creek, then moving to Golden Grove. At this point a band of six bushwhackers were encountered and five of them were killed in a brief skirmish. Captain Akard then moved on to Carthage without further in- cident and remained in the town for a couple of days before his return. Captain Burch informed him that so far as was known there were but few guerrillas in Jasper county at that time and that Coffee and his band were supposed to be in the vicinity of Maysville, Ark.
On the 14th of August, however, there was a skir- mish near Sherwood, details unknown. Possibly it was a clash between Burch's men and the guerrillas or it may be that it was the federals from Baxter Springs coming in contact with the southerners. More likely it was Burch, for this officer was of an aggressive na- ture and if the enemy was in the county anywhere he would doubtless be out after him.
Regarding an attack on a wagon train in the west- ern part of the county on September 6, Burch reported as follows :
"On September 2 I sent two men from Company L and two men from Company M, Eighth Missouri State Militia Cavalry, to form an escort for Joel P. Hood to Fort Scott on official business. They transacted their business and started back when they overtook four wagons loaded with dry goods and groceries bound for this post. They traveled together until within eight miles of Carthage when on September 6th they were
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attacked by a largely superior force of the enemy who succeeded in capturing two wagons and killing one man by the name of Ross belonging to Company A of the Eighth cavalry under command of Major Eno. He had been home on furlough and was on his return to his command. They captured three prisoners, one a soldier from Company M and the other two citizens. They tried to take the other two wagons but could not suc- ceed.
"News was sent to camp for reinforcements which arrived in the quickest of time and gave the bush- whackers chase, coming up with them about one half hour before sundown. We recaptured the wagon and two of the prisoners, killed three of the rebels and wounded some more. I never saw troops display such courage and determination as the men under my com- mand. Joel P. Hood killed the rebel captain, Turk, and wounded several others. They still retain one of my men prisoners and we have one of theirs. I intend to exchange with them for the man they retain of ours.
"Half of the guerrillas belonged to Coffee and the other half are deserters. They are more numerous at present than they have been at any time since I have been here. They made another attempt to capture our wagon train yesterday but were driven off into their favorite cover-the brush. Their loss is not known.
"I have no further reliable news from Captain Rusk regarding his surrender. The party that attacked the train last Sunday was under Meadows. One of my men was wounded in their onset on the wagons and he has since died."
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The Joel P. Hood mentioned in the foregoing re- port was a son of Norris C. Hood, former sheriff who had saved the records of the county from being lost or destroyed. He was a government scout and rendered good service to the federals with whom he was serving. He was finally killed in 1864 up in Cedar county, being fired on by mistake by a union man whose yard he had entered with the intention of asking some questions. The union farmer thought Hood was a bushwhacker and waited for him at the window with a shot-gun, fir- ing just as the scout stepped up on the porch. Seven buckshot entered his body and he fell in a dying condi- tion. Several other buckshot had been deflected by a large belt buckle, and the buckle, deeply dented, was in possession of Hood's brother, T. C. Hood, for a good many years.
Among the men killed in Jasper county during 1863 was George Sly. In 1917, Jackson Sly, his brother, told of his killing and the shooting of another brother as follows :
"My brother, Levi Sly, was a soldier in the United States army," said Mr. Sly, "and came home on a fur- lough to visit his folks. One evening just at dusk a troop of horsemen rode up to our house. As some of them had on uniforms of union soldiers he was not sus- picious, and when he was called for, went to the door. He was instantly shot dead in his tracks, and almost before the family knew what had happened the bush- whackers were gone, and the identity of the men in the party was always more or less a mystery.
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"Another brother, George Sly, met a similar fate. He was a married man with a wife and children, but was lying desperately sick with the measles at the home of his sister-in fact it was doubted whether he could live through the night. Suddenly a lot of horsemen rode up, forced their way into the house, carried my brother into the yard and killed him instantly with a volley of bullets as he lay helpless on the ground.
"With no one on whom to call for help, our two sisters, with the aid of a man 80 years of age who had been too feeble to go to war, dug a grave in the edge of the woods and buried George in it as best they could. This occurred on the Thomas Buck farm near Avilla now occupied by Chas. Fagg.
"A man named Griggs hauled my brother Levi away on a wagon pulled by an ox team and buried him at Cave Springs.
"Miles Overton, a neighbor of ours, was shot in civil war times while riding across the country. He rolled into the weeds and was left for dead, but finally was able to get up and get home where he recovered. During the time he lay in the weeds severely wounded the bushwhackers were constantly going by and he was fearful to move lest he would be again attacked. Mr. Overton lived in Jasper county till he died ten or twelve years ago.
"Bob Creesman, another well known Jasper county man who died some fifteen years ago, several times narrowly escaped with his life when taken in hand by the bushwhackers. Each time he was let go because of
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the queer actions and talk he was able to assume which made his captors think he was of unsound mind. Once he pleaded that they should let him go home and have one more mess of Viny's pancakes before they shot him, and much talk along this and similar lines caused him to be released. Again he was in the hands of a gang who were about to hang him near the Forest mills, and he pleaded that they not hang him from a limb extend- ing out over the water, because if the rope should break he would fall into the water and drown sure. The queer, semi-humorous talk he indulged in and the queer actions he assumed on this occasion again saved him, and he was set free."
Miles Overton, mentioned by Mr. Sly, lived on a farm on White Oak and was one of the men who had been at the Dr. Stemmons home and participated in the skirmish in 1862 in which the doctor and Latham Duncan were killed. He had later served the union troops in the capacity of scout and guide and had num- erous adventures, as in fact did all citizens who took a definite stand in the struggle. He was frequently sought by bushwhackers and his property was all de- stroyed, leaving his family destitute. On one occasion he was taken prisoner and was about to be hanged but a disagreement arose among his captors, some of them evidently interceding for him and he was released. At another time a band of men came to his house after him but he was absent, having just gone to warn a neighbor against whom he had heard threats. His brother and another man was at his home, however, and put up a stout fight, wounding one of the attackers
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and driving the others away. During this fight Mr. Overton's eight-year-old daughter, Mariette, was badly wounded in the shoulder by a stray bullet. Early in 1863 Mr. Overton enlisted in Company G, 76th Enrolled Militia, and participated in the various actions in which that company figured.
Some further idea of the experience of civilians during this year may be gained from the narrative of D. L. Wheeler who at that time was a ten-year-old boy living on Turkey creek with his mother and step-father, Josiah L. Wright.
"We had a number of horses and considerable other stock when the war began," said Mr. Wheeler, "but most of it was taken from us one way or another, generally disappearing while out at pasture. My step- father went to Medoc for something one time, I re- member, and was met by federal soldiers, one of whom traded horses with him. My stepfather had nothing to say about the trade, the soldier merely explaining that the horse that he had was worn down and not much use for military purposes any more and that he needed one that was in better shape. The horse that my stepfather was driving was in good flesh and well suited for a cavalry mount and so the trooper's saddle was shifted and he rode away. My stepfather took the discarded horse and came on home. The animal ac- quired by us in this involuntary trade was not a bad one, except for being badly used up, and we came to know him as 'Charley.'
"In those days most of our stock ran at large but it was customary to keep the work animals in a pas-
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ture where they could be gotten at easily when they were required. One day when my stepfather was not at home I was climbing around as a boy will and stood for a few minutes on the top of a big fence post by the house. Looking out to the pasture I saw a man climb through the rail fence and catch one of our horses. I jumped down, went into the house and told mother that someone had taken Charley. My mother did not know just what to do but finally said that we would go over to a neighbors to see if they knew any- thing about who had taken the horse or if they could do anything to help us get him back. The neighbors knew no more than we did, however, and were able to offer no suggestions, so we started on our return home. As we walked down the lane connecting the two farms we met two armed men on horseback, leading a third horse. The led horse was Charley. Now one of the mounted men was Sim Hines, a young fellow that we knew very well for he had been reared on a neighboring farm. My mother shamed and scolded him for taking a horse belonging to old friends when he knew well how badly we needed horses ourselves. Sim was ashamed of himself, too, anyone could see that, for he grew very red in the face and was not able to answer a word. The other man who was older and who was a stranger to us spoke up courteously.
" 'Madam', he said, 'We are in the brush and we must have horses, otherwise the federals will run us down and kill us, and we have to get our mounts any way that we can. When we took this horse of yours we thought that he was well suited for our purpose but
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we find already that he is tender footed. He would not do us much good unless we could get him shod, so if it is all right with Sim you can have him back.'
"Sim willingly gave his assent so we took Charley and led him back home. Many of the fellows that were in the brush were not bad men, and Sim and his com- panion were apparently of the better type. Other bushwhackers were the worst kind of scoundrels and of course you never could tell who was bad and who was not. Livingston, about whom I had heard much talk, was spoken of as being a gentleman but it is said that he had some very desperate men among his fol- lowers. The bushwhackers did not bother us much ex- cept for stealing our stock. I do not remember that any of them ever robbed our house. Frequently men would come to the door and ask for a meal and it was given to them as expeditiously as possible, out of fear, but after eating they always went on their way. Some- times federal troops came by and asked us questions or directions and I was at first very much afraid but soon became used to them.
"Several times union soldiers, state militia I be- lieve they were, searched our house for firearms and also took what jewelry my mother had, which was not much. I remember that one time when they came we were very much afraid that they would find a silver- mounted hunting rifle of my stepfather's that he prized very highly. In one room mother had spread out a lot of beans on a sheet on the floor and we placed the gun under this sheet beneath the beans. The soldiers did not think to look there and so the gun was saved.
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"We now had two horses left, Charley and a mare to which my stepfather was much attached. The latter animal was in good flesh and my mother felt sure that it would be taken from us sooner or later and she feared that my stepfather would get killed trying to defend it for he swore that they would never get the mare while he was around, and he was a man both of courage and of temper. Some time later he went to my grand- mother's house on a visit and while he was gone the mare was stolen, much to my mother's relief.
"The situation finally became so bad in the Turkey creek neighborhood that practically everyone was leav- ing, many of them going to Carthage which was gar- risoned by union troops and where they hoped to be able to remain until the war ended. My stepfather was a true farmer and did not like the idea of living in a town of any sort and so we were given permission by the owners of an abandoned farm on Center creek seven miles southwest of Carthage to use that land. The only horse we had remaining in our possession was Charley, ยท and a neighbor woman also had only one horse left. We loaned her Charley to help her move into Carthage and then we borrowed her horse to help us move up on Center creek. We found good neighbors on Center creek-I think people were much more sociable and friendly in that early day than they are now. On one side of us lived Mrs. Jane Gibson and her three sons, John, Isaac and Terry; and on the other side resided Jabez Hatcher with his sons, Ben and John. The fences on our place had mostly been burned up and when we moved in, Mr. Hatcher and his sons and the three Gib-
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son boys came over and fenced sixteen acres for us in a day so as to get us started off right. In the spring of 1864 we put in a crop on this land."
One of the most stirring events of 1863 in Missouri was the dashing raid of Colonel Jo Shelby in October. Starting from his base at Arkadelphia on September 22, he broke through the union lines and entered Mis- souri. At Pineville he was joined by Coffee with 400 men and the next day Neosho and its garrison of 300 men was captured. Shelby's report then says :
"Halting at Neosho long enough to distribute the arms and ammunition I pushed on rapidly to Sarcoxie, resting on Jones creek some five hours and feeding my command.
October 4 I passed through the blackened and des- olated town of Sarcoxie whose bare and fire scarred chimneys point with skeleton fingers to heaven for vengeance; then to the town of Oregon or Bower Mills, a notorious pest spot for the militia, which was sacked and then swept from the face of the earth to pollute it no more forever."
Captain T. J. Stemmons and seventeen men were in Bower Mills when Shelby's forces reached it. Hear- ing the clatter of approaching horses the militiamen thought it was a band of bushwhackers coming to at- tack them and hurriedly formed a line on foot outside of the town in the direction from which the noise was coming. Then they waited the enemy's approach. In a few moments they heard shooting behind them and, looking around, saw the town full of men. The confed-
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erates had sent a flanking party around, intending to enter the town from several directions at once.
"We shot," said Captain Stemmons in telling of the affair, "but it was through the brush and across the river. We lost our horses and everything we had except what we had snatched up to meet the expected attack. A short time later, concealed in the brush on the bluff just north of Island No. 10 we saw the con- federates putting the torch to the town. We made our way north and joined other of our troops."
When Shelby started north on his raid there were two companies of the Eighth Missouri Militia cavalry stationed at Carthage under the command of Captain Milton Burch. On October 2 there was a skirmish at this town according to the summary of events in the official records but nothing has been preserved regard- ing the details.
In a report written at Carthage on October 6, Burch states that on October 3 he took forty men be- longing to Company L and M of the Eighth Cavalry and marched to Turkey creek eight miles west of Car- thage, partly for the purpose of escorting some union families out of that region and partly to attempt to destroy a band of guerrillas that was in that neighbor- hood. When he had gathered up the union families he learned that forty armed men had just crossed the creek a mile above the point where he then was.
Sending the union families and their wagons on to Carthage with an escort of eleven men, Burch took the remaining twenty-nine and started in pursuit of the
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hostile forty. He kept on their trail until the evening of October 4 at which time they reached a farm house fifteen miles southwest of Neosho. Here they camped and Burch sent his government scout, Joel P. Hood, a Carthage man mentioned heretofore as having distin- guished himself in a fight with guerrillas in Septem- ber, together with another man, both dressed in butter- nut, to capture the guerrillas' sentry. This the two did. Burch learned the exact strength of the force, which was thirty, from this prisoner and also exactly where they were located. He then tried to ride down their camp but the enemy had taken the alarm and had gotten to horse. Burch chased them four miles, kill- ing ten of them and capturing two men and twenty- five head of horses.
The militia captain then started to return to Car- thage, meaning to go by way of Neosho. Upon nearing that town he sent two men ahead to ascertain if every- thing was all right there and from a union man near the town they learned that the place was full of con- federate troops said to be bound for Carthage. Hoping to arrive at Carthage first, Burch abandoned his cap- tured horses and pushed north at top speed, avoiding the roads. His report, continuing, says :
"I reached Carthage about day on the morning of the 5th, and immediately commenced preparing to give them a warm reception. About 8 o'clock it was re- ported that 15 men were advancing south of this place. I sent three men to ascertain who they were. They passed on, not seeing any person until they had turned
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back to camp, when they met fifteen men advancing from the direction of town, dressed in federal uniforms. The boys halted them and sent one man to ascertain who they were. When he got close to them they fired and killed him; his name was John Wells, a private in Company L, Eighth Missouri State Militia. The other boys succeeded, after a hard chase, in escaping.
"Major A. A. King of the Sixth Missouri Militia Cavalry started with all of the effective force to New- tonia to find out what was going on in that direction. He sent orders to me to have my baggage moved to Mount Vernon, and for me, with all the effective force I could muster, to follow on the trail taken by the enemy."
The Major King mentioned by Captain Burch had been reported a few days previously to be between New- tonia and Pineville with four companies of the Sixth cavalry. It seems probable that the advance of Shelby had forced him back to Carthage and then, as Shelby moved on north, he followed. Burch and his men seem to have left Carthage immediately after his report quoted in the foregoing was written.
On October 5, the same day that Burch returned to Carthage after his expedition down in the Neosho vicinity, a column of about 500 heavily armed and splen- didly mounted men rode down through Jasper county some twelve miles west of the county seat. Most of them were clad in complete federal blue, some were dressed in the ordinary civilian garb of the day, many of them wore a peculiar kind of overshirt, cut low in
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front, the slit narrowing to a point above the belt and ending in a ruffle bunch or a rosette. Some of these shirts were brilliant scarlet, some of them of soberer hue including the familiar butternut ; some were tucked in the trousers and others were flying loose, some were finely embroidered and ornamented by feminine hands, others were coarse and plain. Had anyone doubted the identity of the riders the strange article of apparel mentioned would have answered all questions, for this was the famous "guerrilla shirt" and the riders com- prised the band of W. C. Quantrill on their way to the south.
Quantrill was the most notorious of all of the guerrillas of the west and with him were riding Bill Anderson, Cole Younger, Frank James, W. H. Gregg, Dave Pool, George Todd, John Jarrette and others- most of whose very names are now almost forgotten although in their time they were written high and in blood in the annals of guerrilla warfare.
Six weeks prior to their appearance in Jasper county this band had galloped into Lawrence, Kans., Quantrill and Gregg in the lead, Quantrill firing to the left, Gregg to the right. Behind them the guerrillas spread all over town, carrying out their orders to kill without mercy every man found, then looting the un- fortunate city and setting fire to it. Four hours later they rode away, leaving behind blazing houses, weeping widows and orphans, and the corpses of 150 men, prac- tically all of them unarmed civilians shot down in cold blood. Even now as they rode quietly along through
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