USA > Missouri > Greene County > Past and present of Greene County Missouri, early and recent history and genealogical records of many of the representative citizens, Volume I > Part 30
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 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103
277
GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
down the old Wire road several miles to the west, turned due north and awaited the main army under Sturgis near Little York, as before stated. Only four pieces of artillery were captured when the hill was stormed, no more being in position at that time, the two others being in the rear. In at- tempting to get one of them away, a wheel horse was killed, then the drivers spiked the gun as best they could and abandoned it. The gun that was saved was first abandoned on the Fayetteville road, and hauled off at first by hand a short distance, Captain Flagg using the soldiers and prisoners in lieu of artillery horses. The route of retreat taken by Captain Flagg, and Lieutenant Farrand, and the fragments of Sigel's command, about four hundred in all, was down the Wire road a short distance then north to the Mt. Vernon road. For three or four hours they were within two or three miles of the main Confederate army and could have been easily captured.
Lieutenant Charles E. Farrand, of the Second regular infantry, com- manding the company of cavalry before mentioned, had charge of that por- tion of Sigel's force which went westward. Upon finding himself alone with his company he retired in a southerly direction and accidentally met Crenshaw. the guide, who had directed the Unionists to the Confederate camp the night previous. He was forcibly detained and after Farrand had collected a number of the troops who were scattered and lost, directed the guide to take them to Springfield by way of Little York. After proceeding a short distance they came upon one of the cannon which had been taken from Sigel's force. The tongue of the limber was broken, one horse was gone and one of the remaining three badly wounded, they succeeded in mov- ing it on. Some distance in advance of this they found a caisson belonging to Sigel's battery, filled with ammunition and it, too, was taken on with the gun. Some of the Germans were prevailed upon to assist in clearing some of the wounded horses from the harness, but they would not stop. But after considerable trouble harness was secured, two more horses and a pair of little mules were hitched to the gun and the party proceeded, but before reaching Springfield, when at the Robinson farm, it became necessary to abandon the caisson in order to hitch the animals to the cannon. This was done after destroying the ammunition it contained. Lieutenants Farrand and Morris, the latter adjutant of Colonel Sigel's command, procured wagons, which they sent back on the road after the wounded.
STORY OF AN EYE WITNESS.
Dr. Samuel H. Melcher was with Sigel's command at the battle of Wilson's Creek, as assistant surgeon in the Fifth Missouri Infantry under Colonel Salomon. He was for a long time identified with Greene county, later a resident of Chicago. He is well remembered by many of our older.
278
GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
citizens, and the following account he gives of what he saw during the engagement comports very favorably with the official reports :
General Sigel cautiously took a good position in the gray of dawn, his battery trained on the Confederate camp and waited until he heard General Lyon open the battle to the northwest, then gave the order to fire, which was responded to with rapidity, but our guns being on an elevation and the Confederates being in a field which sloped toward the creek, the shots passed over their heads, creating a stampede, but doing little, if any, damage to life or limb. Myself and others vainly urged the artillerymen to depress the guns. Either from inability to understand English, or, in the excitement, thinking it was only necessary to load and fire, they kept banging away until the whole camp was deserted. Later the command moved forward until it reached the Fayetteville road and Sharp's house. While the command was taking position. I, with my orderly, Frank Ackoff, of the Fifth Missouri In- fantry, went into an abandoned Arkansas camp, where I found a good break- fast of coffee, biscuit and fried green corn. Most of the tents were open-a musket with fixed bayonets being forced into the ground, butt up, and the flap of the tent held open by being caught in the flint lock. At that time besides a few Confederate sick, there were in the camp Lieut. Charles E. Farrand, in command of the dragoons, and his orderly. Half an hour later some straggling parties from the Third and Fifth Missouri set fire to some wagons and camp equipage. Sigel had four guns in the front, supported by the Third Missouri, with the cavalry and dragoons on the left in the timber. The Fifth Missouri was in reserve. except Company K, under Capt. Samuel A. Flagg, which was farther in the rear, guarding some thirty or forty prisoners. At this juncture I captured Colonel McMurtry, of Warsaw, Ben- ton county, Missouri, an officer in Price's army. I took his Maynard carbine, two pistols and his sword, turning the three latter weapons over to two musicians of the Fifth Missouri. but retained the carbine. Later Colonel McMurtry escaped by representing himself to be a Confederate surgeon. At this time scattering shots were heard at some distance in our front, but no heavy firing. Armed men, mostly mounted, were seen moving on our right in the edge of the timber. It was smoky, and objects at a distance could not be seen very distinctly. Being at some distance in front of the command, I saw a body of men moving down the valley toward us, from the direction we last heard Lyon's guns. I rode back and reported to Sigel that troops were coming, which had the appearance of the First Missouri, and seemed to be moving in a column. Presently, Sigel could see them. Not seeing their colors I suggested to Sigel that he had better show his, so that if it was our men they might not mistake us. Sigel's brigade, not being in regulation uni- form. Colonel Sigel then turned to his color-bearer and ordered him to ad- vance and wave his colors three times. As this order was obeyed, Lieutenant
279
GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
Farrand, with his orderly, arrived from the Arkansas camp, each bearing a rebel guidon, which they had found, and with which they rode from the right of the lane, near Sharp's house, directly in front of the color-bearer of Sigel's regiment. Then there was music in the air! A battery we could not see opened with grape-shot, making a great deal of noise and the balls struck the fence and trees, but not doing much damage, as far as observed, except to scare the men, who hunted for cover like a flock of young partridges, sud- denly disturbed. The confusion was very great, many of the men saying, "It is Totten's battery! It is Totten's battery!" The impression seemed to be general that Totten was firing into us, after seeing the rebel guidons of Farrand, as it was the common understanding that the Confederates had no grape, and these were grape-shot, certainly. It was subsequently learned that it was not Totten's battery, but Reid's Confederate battery, from Fort Smith, Arkansas, and was well supplied with grape from the Little Rock arsenal.
Colonel Sigel now evidently thought of retreat, as the only words I heard from him were, "Where's my guides?" Many instances of individual cowardice among Sigel's officers could be given. I assisted Lieut. Emile Thomas, the only officer of his company that had the grit to stay, to reform the men. I do not know if we could have succeeded, had not a Confederate cavalry battalion suddenly appeared in our front, on the line of retreat. For a moment the two commands gazed upon each other, and then came a terrible rattle of musketry, and a great hubbub and confusion in the direction of Sigel's command, which was just around a bend in the road to our rear. In a twinkling, men, horses, wagons, guns, all enveloped in a cloud of dust, rushed toward us, and in spite of Lieutenant Thomas' utmost efforts, Com- pany F started with all speed down the Fayetteville road toward the Con- federate cavalry. The latter seeming to think they were being charged upon, wheeled and got out of the way very quickly. The bulk of Sigel's command turned to the east and were followed by a Confederate command, that cap- tured one gun at the creek, many prisoners and left a considerable number of killed and wounded along the road. Perhaps one-third of the command went southwest and halted at the next house beyond Sharp's on the Fayette- ville road, and here Doctor Smith, who was General Rains' division surgeon, came up with a long train of wagons and coaches, and was captured, but at once released on my intervention. Later I accompanied Doctor Smith to the battle-field. The one gun that was abandoned on the Fayetteville road was really saved by Captain Flagg, whose men drew the gun by hand until they found some horses, and the Confederate prisoners carried the ammunition in their arms. They came into Springfield the same evening by way of Little York.
Doctor Melcher was one of the most efficient and useful surgeons who
280
GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
cared for the wounded after the battle, working assiduously all that sultry afternoon and far into the night.
Colonel Sigel, of course, gave his reasons for his defeat, saying that he tried to obey his orders, which were to attack the enemy in the rear and to cut off his retreat. This he did. but he also cut off his own retreat very nearly, a circumstance he seems not to have counted on. The time of service of one of his two regiments of infantry, the Fifth Missouri, under Colonel Salomon, had expired some days before the battle and the men had insisted that they be discharged so they could return to their homes. On the first of August he had induced them to remain with the army eight days more. This latter term had expired the day before the battle. The men, therefore, were under no obligations to fight, except that they had marched out to do so, and when the time came suddenly remembered that "they did not have to fight." Sigel's own regiment, the Third Missouri, which had fought at Carthage, its time having expired, had been mustered out, and the new regiment was com- posed of four hundred raw recruits, only a few in the regiment having ever seen any service. The men serving the artillery were utterly unfamiliar with gunnery and the general handling of a battery and were commanded by two lieutenants whose experience as artillerists had been confined to the Prus- sian army in time of peace. Only about half the companies were officered by men with commissions, which, according to Sigel, was the fault of the three months' service. But over all it is claimed that Sigel's complete defeat was the result of an attack by vastly superior forces, the flower of McCul- loch's army that was permitted to approach fatally near under the mistake that they were friends instead of enemies.
Capt. E. A. Carr, who later became a general, commanding the ad- vanced guard of Sigel's brigade, gave the following account of the retreat of that wing of the command which turned to the east:
At about nine o'clock I received word that Sigel's infantry was in full flight and that I was to retreat with all haste. After galloping away as best I could for about a mile and a half to the rear, I came upon Sigel at the spring where the army had halted the first night when returning from Dug Springs some days before. After a brief consultation it was decided to move south on the Fayetteville road until there was a chance to go out and circle around the pursuing enemy and then strike for Springfield. There were then present at the spring Sigel. Lieutenant-Colonel Albert, myself, with my fifty-six cavalrymen, two hundred of Sigel's badly demoralized in- fantry, one piece of artillery and two caissons. After retiring rather hastily for a mile or two a body of cavalry was observed in front, and Sigel sent me up to see the condition of affairs and report at once. Arriving at the front I discovered that the Confederate cavalry were coming in from the right and forming across the road to stop the retreating Federals and send
281
GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
them back to the care of McCulloch's division again. Reporting at once to. Sigel, he at once directed me to turn off at the first right-hand road, which happened to be near the point where I then stood. Retreating along this road ยท in a brisk walk Sigel asked me to march slowly so that the footmen could keep up. I replied that unless they hurried forward they would be cut off at the crossing of Wilson's creek, and that the infantry ought to march as fast under the circumstances as a horse could walk. Sigel then said, "Go on, and we will keep up." However, on arriving at the creek, and looking back I saw that the infantry had not kept up, but that a large body of Texas and Arkansas cavalry was moving down and would form an unpleasant junction with him in a few seconds. To use a Westernism there was no. time for fooling then, and as I had waited long enough on the slow-motioned infantry to water my horses, and they were not yet in sight, I lit out for a place of safety, which I soon reached, and, after waiting another while for Sigel. I went on to Springfield. I was sorry to leave him behind, in the first place, but I supposed all the time he was close to me until I reached the creek, and then it would have done no good for my company to have remained and been cut to pieces also, as were Sigel's men, who were ambuscaded and all broken up, and Sigel himself narrowly escaped.
THE CONFEDERATE ACCOUNT OF THE BATTLE.
In describing a battle confusion would necessarily result if one at- tempted to give both sides of the conflict in detail at once. It is just as essential that we give here the Confederate side of the conflict at Wilson's. creek as the Federal side, partly because the description of the fight would be incomplete did we fail to do so, and partly because a large number of Greene county men were in the ranks of the Southerners. The part played by the troops of General Price and General McCulloch have been just as fully and as accurately recorded as was that of the Federals.
Whether General Lyon had attacked the Confederates or whether he had remained in Springfield, a battle would have been fought on Saturday, August 10, 1861, for General McCulloch had finally agreed to General Price's demand that the engagement, long pending, should be brought about at once, and they determined to break camp at nine o'clock Friday night, August 9th, and strike Lyon at Springfield the day following. The march was to be made in four columns. Just after nightfall a light rain came on and there was every prospect of a severe storm later in the evening, which was in- tensely dark. McCulloch well knew that many of the troops were not sup- plied with cartridge boxes, or cartridges either, and that if they moved out from under shelter, and it rained hard, as it then promised to do, their ammunition would become wet and unservicable, carried, as much of it
282
GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
would be, in powder-flasks, shot-pouches and cotton sacks. There was also danger of the troops getting bewildered or lost, some of them, owing to the intense darkness, and not come up to the proper place at the proper time. So he countermanded the order to march just as some of the regiments were preparing to start, and the army lay down to sleep, each soldier with his gun by his side, holding himself in readiness to move at a moment's notice. However, few of the men got any sleep, for it was a most oppressive night, proper accommodations were lacking, and vicious mosquitoes swarmed up and down the valley, invading the tents of the soldiers. This arrangement did not suit General Price. He wanted to proceed to Springfield that night over the very route which General Lyon was at that time following from the town, by way of the Mt. Vernon road. The two armies would have met about midnight near the present site of Dorchester, each being thus surprised. What would have been the ultimate result in the confusion and Egyptian darkness no one would dare venture a guess.
McCulloch's official report states that his effective force at the battle of Wilson's Creek was five thousand and three hundred infantry, six thou- sand cavalry, and fifteen pieces of artillery. The majority of the cavalry were armed only with rifles, revolvers, shotguns and old flint-lock muskets. There were hundreds of other horsemen along with the army that were so imperfectly armed as to be of but little use; in fact, were only in the way during the battle. The guns were in two batteries, under Woodruff and Reid. The total strength being about eleven thousand, five hundred and fifty men. General Price's division was composed of the following sub-divisions : Gen. J. S. Rains-Infantry, thirteen hundred and six; cavalry, twelve hun- dred : total. two thousand, five hundred and six. Gen. W. Y. Slack-Infan- try, six hundred and fifty-nine; cavalry, two hundred and thirty-four ; total, eight hundred and eighty-four. Gen. M. M. Parsons-Infantry, two hun- dred and fifty-six : cavalry, four hundred and six; total, six hundred and sixty-two. Gen. John B. Clark. Sr .- Infantry, three hundred and seventy- six : cavalry, two hundred and fifty ; total, six hundred and twenty-six. Gen. J. H. McBride-Total, six hundred and five. Bledsoe's and Guibor's bat- teries numbered about one hundred and fifty men, making three thousand, one hundred and ninety-three infantry; two thousand and ninety cavalry, and a total of five thousand. four hundred and thirty-three men. Gen. A. E. Steen's division seems to have been attached to McCulloch's army. It was insignificant in numbers.
There were in the column that marched under General Lyon to Wilson's creek exactly three thousand, seven hundred and twenty-one men of all arms, infantry, cavalry and artillery, not including the two companies of Home Guards under Captains Switzler and Wright. Sigel's column consisted of seventeen companies of infantry (eight companies of the Third Missouri
283
GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
and nine companies of the Fifth Missouri), numbering nine hundred and twelve men; six pieces of artillery, manned by eighty-five men; and two companies of cavalry of one hundred and twenty-one men, making a total in Sigel's column of one thousand, one hundred and eighteen men. The total Federal strength was four thousand, eight hundred and thirty-nine men, or, including the Home Guards, under Switzler and Wright, five thousand men. Thus it will be seen that the Confederate strength was more than twice that of the Federal.
Col. T. L. Snead sat up all night on the 9th at General Price's head- quarters, which were on the bank of the creek, at the foot of the sloping, rocky, black-jack hills on whose summit the main battle was fought. About daybreak General Price arose from his couch in great impatience and sent for McCulloch, who soon afterwards arrived, accompanied by Col. James McIntosh, of the Second Kansas Mounted Riflemen, the latter being Mc- Culloch's assistant adjutant general. The four men sat down to breakfast. As the officers were eating, a messenger came running up from the front where General Rains' division was posted, a mile or more away, and in- formed them that the Yankees were advancing, fully twenty thousand strong, and were already on Rains' line, peppering his camp with musketry. "O, pshaw! that's another one of Rains' scares," said General McCulloch, laugh- ingly, alluding to the Dug Springs affair, and added: "Tell General Rains I will come to the front myself directly." The four officers continued eating, and soon another messenger came up and reported that the Federals were not more than a mile away, and had come suddenly upon Rains' men as they lay on their arms and had driven them back. To this McCulloch again said : "O, nonsense! That's not true," but just then Rains' men could be seen falling back in confusion. Immediately General Price arose and said to Colo- nel Snead, "Have my horse saddled and order the troops under arms at once." He had hardly spoken when Totten's battery unlimbered and sent its first shot and about the same instant Sigel's guns opened over a mile to the south. Dispositions for battle were quickly made. The Confederate officers were all astir in a moment, and hurried commands were shouted up and down the camp, which stretched along the creek for a mile. Many of the soldiers were still asleep or just rising for the day and had not, breakfasted. Fires were left burning and victuals cooking and tents in their disorder, guns were seized, horses saddled with all swiftness and everyone hurried as fast as possible through the gray dawn to the front. Price moved at once toward Rains with the rest of the Missouri State Guard. Pearce began forming on Price's left. Very soon Totten's battery was in plain view on the top of the hills in front and pounding away, while Sigel's guns in the rear plainly gave notice that the Federals were on all sides. The surprise was perfect. The few pickets that were out had nearly all been called in to prepare for the
.
281
GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
early march, and this enabled General Lyon to get close upon the Southern camp: in fact, he reached the skirmishers before being discovered. There was some delay on the part of the Missouri State Guard in getting out the horses, for nearly all of them were mounted, having insisted on riding when they enlisted. The idea of walking was distasteful to them, partly because it was laborious to begin with, and partly because it was considered in a measure disgraceful. And the horsemen, so many of them proved a serious disadvantage to the Southern cause. They stripped the country in many parts of Missouri and other states, not only of provisions but of forage and provender, cumbered the roads, and often in an engagement did more harm than good. At Wilson's Creek the horses became frightened, unmanageable. and at one time they and their riders came near stampeding the entire Con- federate army. Hundreds of them tried to escape from the field by the Fayetteville road, but found it securely blocked by Sigel's troops.
GENERAL RAINS OPPOSES GENERAL LYON.
As already stated General Lyon attacked General Rains' division first. The latter, instead of becoming panic stricken, as some predicted, coolly and promptly got his troops under arms and in line of battle, some of his men scattering, it is true, but the main body responded quickly to his orders and as soon as taking their positions in the line began replying spiritedly to U'nion fire. As shown in a preceding paragraph, Rains' division was a large one, including all the men from the populous secession counties of Pettis, Jasper. Jackson, Saline, Lafayette and Johnson, and it held that part of the line in front of Totten's battery. General Price at once ordered the other division commanders, Parsons, McBride, Slack and Clark, to move their infantry and artillery rapidly forward to the support of Rains, whose second brigade was in the extreme advance and consisted of about fifteen hundred men, many of them mounted, and temporarily under command of Colonel Cawthorn. Slack's division of northwest Missourians was the first to come up. and under the personal direction of General Price himself, who had come to the front, took position on Rains' left, and became instantly engaged. It was only a few moments until General Clark's division came up and formed to the left of Slack. Next General Parsons' division, with Colonel Kelley's brigade at the head, went into line at the left of Clark. Then came General McBride's division who took position on the left of Kelly and commanded a flank movement on the right of the Federals, which movement was unsuc- cessful. These positions were taken under General Price's orders and led by him in person at the first. the entire line advanced in the direction of the enemy, under a continuous fire from Lyon's infantry and Totten's Battery, until it reached a position within range of its own guns when the Federal fire
285
GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
was returned. Many of the Missourians were armed with double-barreled shotguns, loaded with buckshot which now got in their work very effectively, the distance being less than one hundred yards. But after a few minutes of brisk fighting the Missourians were driven back.
General McCulloch had in the meantime hurried to the lower or south- ern end of the valley where his division was encamped and the aggressive Texas ranger quickly brought out of camp, Colonel Hebert's Louisiana regi- ment and McIntosh's Arkansas mounted riflemen and hastened to strengthen the northern line under Rains and other division commanders. The force went to the east side of Wilson's creek and came up to the heavy rail fence enclosing Ray's cornfield, where the Arkansas riflemen dismounted and, to- gether with the Louisianians, leaped over the fence and charged through the green corn higher than their heads upon Plummer's Battalion of Federals, driving them back upon the main line with considerable loss, in fact, the fight in the cornfield was one of the most severe of the day, and when it was ended many a dead and dying man lay in the furrows recently made by the plow and there was little left of that year's corn crop. No sooner had the Federal infantry been driven back than Dubois' Battery opened upon the Confederates in the cornfield and death gathered an abundant harvest where only the peaceable husbandman had reaped before. The two Southern regi- ments were driven back with much loss and no little confusion, but soon re- formed and were taken charge of by McCulloch in person, who led them to another part of the field. McCulloch had also ordered up Woodruff's Bat- tery, which had engaged Totten and was doing excellent service.
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.