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 33
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General Rains offered the military escort and transportation subject to my orders and he also assured me that all the Federal wounded should be well taken care of, that they could be removed under the hospital flag, and that the dead should be buried as rapidly as possible.
About half way to Springfield I saw a party under flag of truce going toward the battle-field. Arriving at Springfield, the first officer I reported to was the ever faithful Col. Nelson Cole, then captain of Company E. First Missouri Volunteer Infantry, who, with what remained of that gallant com- pany, was guarding the outposts. I passed on to the camps of Gen. James Totten and Gen. T. W. Sweeney. Here General Totten relieved my escort and sent them back to their command and a new driver was furnished and I delivered the body of General Lyon to Maj. J. M. Schofield, First Missouri Volunteer Infantry, this gentleman finally becoming major-general in the United States army. The body of our chief was taken to the house that had been used previous to the battle by General Lyon for his headquarters.
After the Union army under Sturgis had gotten well under way toward Springfield it was discovered that General Lyon's body had been left behind. Sturgis immediately sent back a flag of truce party under Lieutenant Canfield, of the regular army, with orders to go to Generals Price and McCulloch, and, if possible, procure the remains and bring them on to Springfield. Lieuten- ant Canfield and party went to the battlefield, saw General McCulloch, ob- tained his order for the body, and there ascertained that the body had already started back to the Union forces.
When the corpse was deposited in the former headquarters of the gen- eral on the north side of College street, west of Main street, in Springfield, word was sent to Sturgis. He held a consultation with Schofield and other officers and decided that the body should be taken with the army to Rolla, if possible. There being no metallic coffin available, it was determined to embalm it and Dr. E. C. Franklin, the chief surgeon was sent for. After the war he made the following statement regarding this event :
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COULD NOT PRESERVE THE BODY.
About ten o'clock on the night when I arrived at headquarters, I was summoned there and then first saw the body of General Lyon lying upon a table, covered with a white spread, in a room adjoining the one where two or three of the Union officers were seated. Majors Sturgis, Schofield and others consulted me as to the possibility of injecting the body with such ma- terials as would prevent decay during its transit to St. Louis. I prepared the fluid for injection into the body, but discovered that instead of being re- tained in the vessels it passed out into the cavity of the chest. This led me to suspect a laceration either of one of the large arteries near the heart, or, possibly a wound of the heart itself. This hypothesis, coupled with the fact that there was an external wound in the region of the heart, confirmed my opinion of the utter uselessness of attempting the preservation of the body during its passage to St. Louis. These facts I reported to the commanding officer, who then gave me verbal orders to attend to the disposal of the body in the best manner possible. At this time preparations were being made and the orders given for the troops to retreat and fall back upon Rolla, some one hundred and fifty miles nearer St. Louis. Returning to the general hos- pital, of which I was in charge, I detailed a squad of nurses to watch by the body of General Lyon till morning, which order was faithfully carried out. J then disposed of my time for the best interests of the wounded and sick under my charge.
Doctor Franklin was furnished with money and directed to have the general's remains well cared for and he ordered Presley Beal, an undertaker, to make a gocd, substantial coffin at once. Early the following morning, in some way, word was sent to Mrs. Mary Phelps, wife of Hon. John S. Phelps, that the body of the great Union leader was lying stiff and bloody and neg- lected in the temporary charnel house on College street. Soon she and the wife of Mr. Beal were by his side watching him. Soon came also the wife of Col. Marcus Boyd and her two daughters. The body was now changing fast, having lain about twenty-four hours in very hot weather. Mr. Beal brought the coffin and soon a butcher's wagon was on its way to the Phelps' farmi with all that was mortal of one of the ablest warriors of the Union, and with no escort save the driver, Mr. Beal, Mrs. Phelps and two soldiers. Col Emmett McDonald, who had been made a prisoner by General Lyon at the capture of Camp Jackson, not only assisted Doctor Melcher when Lyon was killed in recovering the body, but Doctor Franklin said of him:
Here let me do justice to Col. Emmett McDonald, who called upon me at the general hospital and after some conversation in regard to the circum- stances attending the death of General Lyon, tendered to me an escort of Confederate troops as a "guard of honor" to accompany the general's re
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mains to the place of burial, which I refused from a too sensitive regard for the painful occasion, and an ignorance of military regulations touching the subject.
Mrs. Phelps was practically alone at the time. Her husband was in his seat in Congress at Washington; her son, John E. Phelps had gone away with the Federal troops, accompanied even by her faithful servant, George. But she did not hesitate to do what she regarded as her duty, and the body was taken to her residence and was held there some time, she believing that it would soon be sent for. James Vaughan, who owned a tin shop in Spring- field, was ordered to make a zinc case for the coffin, to assist in rendering it air tight. The coffin was temporarily deposited in an outdoor cellar, which in summer was used as an ice-house. It was covered deep in straw. It was here placed about two o'clock on Sunday afternoon, the IIth. George, the slave, returned two days later. While the body of the general lay in the cellar it was visited by some citizens and many Southern soldiers. Mrs. Phelps asked General Price to send a detail and bury the body. This was done by volunteers from Kelly's and Guibor's Infantry, of General Parsons' Division, at the time encamped on Colonel Phelps' farm. It is believed the body was not buried until the 14th. The slave George dug the grave, which was in the garden at the Phelps home. Some of the soldiers stamped on the grave in great delight.
A four-mule ambulance arrived in Springfield on the 22d, bearing a three-hundred-pound metallic coffin and the following party : Danford Knowlton, of New York City, a cousin of General Lyon; John B. Hasler, of Webster, Massachusetts, the general's brother-in-law, and George N. Lynch. at that time a well known undertaker of St. Louis. From Rolla to Spring- field, the party was accompanied by the gallant Col. Emmett McDonald, who had been to the Federal camp to arrange for an exchange of prisoners and from whom Mr. Hasler said the party received many attentions and favors. Upon arriving here they visited General Price and handed him a letter from General Fremont explaining their mission, which was to bear away the body of General Lyon. As the letter was directed "To Whom It May Concern," and General Price, after glancing at the address, threw it contemptuously aside, saying he could read no document thus directed. At the same time he offered to grant them every facility for securing the body of their dead rela- tive. Repairing to the Phelps farm the party disinterred the body, removed the zinc cover and placed the body in the huge metallic coffin brought from St. Louis. General Parsons, whose division was encamped nearby, came up, introduced himself, and Mr. Hasler says, "showed us numerous civilities. Among other attentions he tendered a guard for the body and tent over night, which was accepted." The next day the party left Springfield and was in
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Rolla on the 25th and in St. Louis on the 26th. Here a military escort joined. From thence the party proceeded to Eastford, Connecticut, the birthplace of General Lyon, which place was reached September 4th, there being great honors paid the body in the towns enroute. On September 5th the body was buried in the family burying ground at Eastford. The funeral was held in the Congregational church and during the ceremonies, according to a Mr. Woodward who was present, the light felt hat which the general waved aloft while rallying his ranks at Wilson's Creek and also the sword, scarred and weather-beaten from sharing in the long hard service of its owner, were laid upon the coffin lid. The hat had been brought from the battle-field by the wounded soldier in the wagon in which the general's body was first placed and was given to Mr. Hasler by the driver who had preserved it. Both hat and sword were given to the Connecticut Historical Society and have since been in the possession of the same.
Gen. Nathaniel Lyon was born in Eastford, Connecticut, July 14, 1818. He entered West Point in 1837, from which he was graduated in 1841, standing eleventh in a class of fifty. He served in Florida against the Seminole Indians in 1841-2; was in the Mexican war under Taylor and Scott; was in California and on the frontier from 1850 to 1861. He was never married. He had just passed his forty-third birthday when his bril- liant career and most promising life so tragically ended.
THE ARMY OF OCCUPATION.
Springfield at once became quiet after the Southerners took possession, but the farmers over Greene county lost a great deal of forage, and horses and mules were "pressed" and in some instances negro slaves forced into service by the scouting parties which the Confederate generals sent out. Finally a number of Union men were arrested and placed in jail. Some of these had belonged to Phelps' regiment of Home Guards. It was fortunate for the people that a bounteous crop was raised during the summer of 1861, for although three or four large armies took what they needed and wasted as much more, still enough wheat and corn was left to feed the citizens. It is authoritatively stated that the products of the farms of Greene county supplied the inhabitants and in a large measure the armies of Price and McCulloch, Lyon, Sigel, Fremont and Hunter for over two years. Claims were subsequently filed by the citizens here for quartermaster's stores and commissary supplies furnished the Federal army by the Union citizens here aggregating a sum of over three million dollars. And it is estimated that the Confederates seized and appropriated fully one million dollars' worth of local farm products. Also what the Federal troops took from the secession- ist element in the county was never taken into account. No claims were filed
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from this class of citizens for damages. Several threshing machines, owned by Union men, were operating in the county after the great wheat crop had been harvested, and General Price gave orders that these men should not be arrested or their horses "pressed." The wagons of the quartermasters fol- lowed up the threshers and hauled off the wheat as it was threshed, to the mills to be ground into flour for the use of the troops who were in the service of the Confederacy. The Union farmers over the county were warned and many of them delayed their threshing in order to escape the loss of their crops, and it turned out that the Southern sympathizers lost more than their Union neighbors that year. As soon as the fear subsided the people sought to make friends of the army of occupation and began to regard them as their protectors. The troops from Texas and Louisiana were especially liked and shown every consideration. Citizens came from long distances to visit them; many of the leading officers of the army sent for their families' who joined them in Springfield. While there were many joyful reunions, there were numerous sad ones. The town was practically a vast hospital and many a father and mother came to visit their son who was recovering from wounds, many a wife came to care for her husband and many a daughter to care for a father or sister for a brother. However, there was, on the whole, con- siderable time given to festivities, social functions and pleasures in general. General Price made his headquarters at the Graves home on Boonville street, north of the Jordan brook, and General McCulloch's headquarters were at the house of the widow of Gen. N. R. Smith on the east side of Boonville street near the public square. These two noted chieftains were lionized, many coming miles for a mere glimpse of them. The chief of the Texas rangers had his headquarters for a time at Pond Spring west of town. Part of the army was camped at Fulbright's Spring in the vicinity of the present "Gulf shops"; others were camped, as before stated, on the Phelps farm south of town; still others pitched their tent about half way between the public square and Commercial street.
Two weeks were spent quietly, giving wounds time to heal, new recruits a chance to enlist, and general preparations to be made, when General Price deemed it his duty to march his army out of Greene county to other sections of the state where the Unionists were giving trouble. For example, Lane and Montgomery were at Fort Scott, just across the line in Kansas, and from there were making frequent incursions into Missouri, doing much damage to the Southerners. A number of regiments of Home Guards had been organized, were eager to cross the river and join their brethren in this part of the state under Price. In northeast Missouri was waiting a large and efficient brigade under Gen. Thomas Harris and Col. Martin Greene. In northwest Missouri Colonels Boyd, Childs, Wilfley, Patton and Saunders had regiments and Captain Kelly had a battery, while smaller detachments
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were in nearly every county north of the river awaiting the opportunity to rally under the flag of the grizzly bears borne by Price's regiments who had fought so creditably at Wilson's Creek. However, it was not an easy matter for all these secession troops to get together. The great Missouri river formed a natural dividing line, and all along that stream stretched a cordon of Federal military posts keeping close watch to prevent any Southern troops from crossing. Federal garrisons were holding the fords at Kansas City, Lexington, Glasgow. Boonville, Jefferson City, and so on to the mouth of the river above St. Louis. General Price determined to move his army to the north, partly that he might give the isolated troops in the northern counties an opportunity to join him, and partly that he might make a demonstration against the Jayhawkers along the Kansas border. Accordingly, his army in motion again on August 22d, the vanguard heading toward the north. The major portion of the Greene county men were left in Springfield as a garrison, however some of them went with the army as volunteers and were at the battle of Lexington, and. as everywhere else, gave a good account of themselves. A portion of the troops took the Bolivar road and reached the county-seat of Polk county on the 26th, but the majority went by way of Mt. Vernon,-all with Lexington as the objective point, although it was not the design to allow the Kansas troops to gather and follow in the rear, conse- quently the army moved in a sort of curve toward the west. When Drywood creek was reached in Vernon county, about fifteen miles this side the Kansas line. Rains' division had a skirmish on September 7th with some Kansas troops, under Lane and Montgomery, driving them back on the main position at Fort Scott. Captain Bledsoe, of the artillery, was here wounded. Five days later. Price's army reached Lexington and Colonel Mulligan, with nearly three thousand Federals opposed his further advance, but was forced to surrender on the 20th.
General McCulloch also marched his divisions out of Springfield to Cassville a few days after Price's departure ; some of his forces proceeded on to Fayetteville and some into the Indian Territory, a detachment or two remaining in McDonald county. The term of service of a large portion of the Arkansas troops had expired, and they demanded to be sent home. McCulloch's move was also made partly on account of the fact that he re- ceived orders from Generals Polk and Hardee, who, it is claimed, had been notified by the Confederate government that no more help would be given Missouri until she should secede from the Union. And so all of them "folded their tents like the Arab and silently stole away." the picturesque, long-haired Texas rangers, with their broad-brimmed sombreros, big Mexi- can spurs and dashing mustangs, the tall Arkansas mountaineers, and the gentle-mannered, gray-coated Louisianians. Judging from the tone of the following extract from a letter written by General McCulloch to General
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Hardee from his headquarters at Pond Spring, Greene county, August 24th, he was disgusted with the situation in Missouri :
I am in no condition to advance, or even to meet an enemy here, having little ammunition or supplies of any kind, and will, in consequence shorten my lines by falling back to the Arkansas line, near the Indian Territory. We have little to hope or expect from the people of this state. The force now in the field is undisciplined and led by men who are mere politicians- not a soldier among them to control and organize this mass of humanity. The Missouri forces are in no condition to meet an organized army, nor will they ever be while under their present leaders. I dare not join them in my present condition, for fear of having my men completely demoralized. We lost at least three hundred stand .of arms in the battle of the roth. taken by their straggling camp followers from my killed and wounded, and before the engagement they borrowed of General Pearce six hundred more, none of which they would return after the fight was over. They stole the tents my men left at Cassville (to facilitate their march), and brought them after us the next day on the same road. In a word, they are not making friends where they go, and from all I can see we had as well be in Boston, as far as the friendly feelings of the inhabitants are concerned.
TAYLOR COMMANDS GARRISON.
Col. T. T. Taylor was left in charge of the garrison at Springfield when Price and McCulloch marched their forces away. The colonel had about five hundred men under him. He caused a great number of Union citizens to be brought before him on charges of giving aid and comfort to the enemy. However, Colonel Taylor was usually very reasonable, and he merely re- primanded most of those brought before him, confining but few in jail. Meanwhile foraging parties continued to keep the commissariat well sup- plied as a result of their raids into the neighboring country. Colonel Taylor wrote General Fremont at St. Louis on September 8th, asking for clear interpretation of the latter's order in his proclamation of August 30th, that "all persons who shall be taken with arms in their hands within these lines shall be tried by court-martial and if found guilty shall be shot." The general was asked if he really meant what he said, and if his order applied to wounded prisoners as well as to sound ones, for Taylor had at that time several hundred wounded prisoners under his control in the hospitals at Springfield, and since Fremont's proclamation he was at a loss to know how to treat them. Fremont's reply was, in part, as follows: "You have wholly misapprehended the meaning of the proclamation. I desire it to be clearly understood that the proclamation is intended distinctly to recognize all the usual rights of an open enemy in the field. and to be in all respects strictly
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conformable to the ordinary usages of war. It was not prepared with any purpose to ignore the ordinary rights of humanity with respect to wounded men, or to those who are humanely engaged in alleviating their sufferings." Colonel Taylor was praised by the wounded soldiers in Springfield for the kind treatment which was accorded them. He had no intention of shooting them despite Fremont's absurd and foolish proclamation. He even sent supplies in the hospitals where they were being cared for that the Union physicians could not secure elsewhere, and this was done under protest of his fellow officers; in fact, he was the only Confederate who did furnish anything for the Union wounded, according to Doctor Melcher, before mnen- tioned in this chapter, although the citizens of Springfield, many of whom were Southern sympathizers treated them kindly, and after the funds left by Colonel Sturgis for the care of the wounded had been spent, William Massey and others raised hundreds of dollars for this purpose, not knowing whether they would ever be repaid.
The banners of the Confederacy floated unchallenged over the county during the month of September and everything was quict in this locality, business began to be carried on as usual, and Springfield was quite a recruit- ing station for several weeks. From time to time detachments of Missouri State Guards camped here on their way to join Price's army, which marched southward to the Osage river from Lexington on September 30th, and on into Cedar, Vernon, Newton and Jasper counties. Now and then Union men slipped through the lines of the local troops, made their way to Rolla and enlisted in either Colonel Boyd's regiment, the Twenty-fourth Missouri, making up at that place, or in Colonel Phelps' regiment, these two regi- ments being composed largely of men from Greene county. October found the people of Greene and other counties in southwestern Missouri in a dis- turbed condition and wild rumors were again afloat. On the 10th of that month there was a skirmish between a detachment of Price's army and Montgomery's Kansas troops about forty miles northwest of Springfield, re- sulting in the latter falling back on Greenfield. After that the Southern troops in Springfield were kept in constant fear of an attack from the Jay- hawkers, as the troops from the Sunflower state were called, for they were known to be roving in nomad style about the country to the northward and northwest. Once a report reached the garrison that they were marching on Springfield in full force. Immediately the baggage train was rushed to the public square, and placed under a strong guard, and Colonel Taylor's troops took a position a mile and a half north of town at the Owens' farm, and there rested on their arms all night. At this time it was also reported that Fremont's army was on its way to Springfield, then another report said it had retreated toward Jefferson City, and the news that Price was marching his army southward strengthened the belief that the Federals were pushing for-
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ward in force, having crossed the Osage river at Papinsville. The uneasiness increased and some of the Southern sympathizers began packing up prepara- tory to leaving Springfield. About this time a large force of Union men from Greene and adjoining counties left for Rolla, the nearest Federal military post promising security. Detachments of Freeman's State Guards and other Confederate troops were now chasing over the country the dis- banded company of Colonel Galloway, of Christian county, formerly of Phelps' regiment of Home Guards. The captain himself was killed on September 29. A number of men from Douglas county, under Captain Martindale, made the trip to Rolla and joined Colonel Boyd's Twenty- fourth Missouri Infantry. So there was considerable stir over the country.
GENERAL FREMONT MARCHES ON SPRINGFIELD.
Gen. John C. Fremont was severely censured for his management of affairs for the Union in Missouri, principally for failing to re-inforce General Lyon before the battle of Wilson's Creek and Mulligan at Lexington. He was assailed with charges of incapacity, extravagance in expenditures, for his grandiloquent proclamations and unnecessary pomp. Both Wilson's Creek and Lexington was a serious blow to the Union cause in this state. Smarting under these losses, the sarcastic criticism from all over the country, and apprehensive that General Price would now march on Jefferson City and other sections of the state where there were Federal troops, Fremont decided to take the field in person, with the hope of defeating Price before McCulloch, who had recruited a large army in Arkansas, could join him again. Accordingly, on September 27th, Fremont's well equipped army of more than twenty thousand men started toward southwest Missouri. The force included five thousand cavalry and eighty-six pieces of artillery. His ยท subordinate generals were Sigel, Pope, Hunter, Asboth and McKistry. It was also the plan that the Kansas troops, under Sturgis and Lane, were to join Fremont on the Osage. Springfield was the objective point. The various detachments of the army came from St. Louis, Rolla, Tipton, Jefferson City and other points. General Hunter was to march from Versailles, Pope from near Boonville, McKistry from Syracuse, and Sigel from Sedalia. All the troops were in motion by October 15th, and on the 22d the Osage was crossed at Warsaw, Benton county, which was at that time an important shipping point. Nearly a week previous had been spent bridge building there. From the Osage the route was south by way of Bolivar, Polk county. Sigel's men were in the van, and Asboth's brought up the rear. General Price watched the Federal movement very carefully, keeping near the Kansas border as he went South through Osceola and other points in that section of the state. In a proclamation, issued by Governor Jackson .at Lexington,
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