USA > Missouri > Jackson County > The History of Jackson county, Missouri, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc., biographical sketches of its citizens, Jackson county in the late warhistory of Missouri, map of Jackson county > Part 64
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Van Horn's battalion was organized as follows: Major R. T. Van Horn ; Surgeon, Joshua Thorne; Company A, Captain, William Van Dau; First Lieutenant, Frederick Loos; Second Lieutenant, Frederick Klinger: Company B, Captain, William Millar: First Lieutenant, David Cahill, Second Lieutenant, David O'Neil: Company C, Captain, George C. Bingham; First Lieutenant, Henry Spears; Second Lieutenant, Theo. S. Case.
Dr. Thorne immediately made arrangements for the opening of a hospital. Lieutenant Case was detailed on the date of his muster-in as quartermaster, com- missary and ordinance officer of the post.
On the 26th of July, Major Van Horn received orders to take two companies of his battalion, and go to the assistance of Colonel A. G. Newgent, who, in command of a battalion of Missouri State Militia, at Austin, in Cass county, was threatened by a superior force. The command took up line of march immedi- ately. On the 28th, when three miles from Harrisonville, they were attacked by about five hundred secessionists, and after a fight of four hours repulsed them, killing fourteen and losing one. D. K. Abeel and Captain Bugher acted as aids to Major Van Horn in this engagement, and both distinguished themselves for gallantry and courage. At midnight that night, Major Van Horn retired from the field. Harrisonville was full of the enemy, who was being constantly re-in- forced ; and Captain Dean had surrounded Westport, where there was a large party of the enemy, and needed his assistance; but near Jonesville, the command was met by Colonel Newgent's forces, and also by a party of the First Kansas, under Colonel Weir.
The united force returned to Harrisonville, and, after a brief engagement, took it after which the Kansas City battalion returned home.
In the early part of September, the rebels, to the number of about 2,000, gathered at Blue Springs, and were preparing to attack Kansas City, when Colo- nel Peabody, who, with his regiment, the Thirteenth Missouri Infantry, were at St. Joseph, were ordered here. The rebels then moved down to Lexington, to attack that place, and Peabody, with his command, and Major Van Horn, with . Companies B and. C of his, went down there to reinforce Colonel Mulligan. General Sterling Price laid siege to the place on the 6th of September, and main- tained it until the entire force surrendered to him on September 21st. Through the entire siege the Kansas City battalion was in active service. It was part of the force that had the severe fight in the lane, on the 12th, which was the severest fighting of the entire siege-four companies, under Major Van Horn, there en- gaging Price's entire army. On the 19th, Colonel Peabody was wounded, and the command devolved upon Major Van Horn, until he was wounded, and borne from the fight about two hours before the surrender. After the surrender, the officers and men of the battalion were released on parole, until exchanged in December, when the battalion was consolidated with Colonel Peabody's Thir- teenth Missouri Infantry, with Major Van Horn as Lieutenant-Colonel, and the united command became the memorable Twenty-fifth Missouri Infantry, which was sent south, distinguishing itself in many of the battles on the march from Belmont to Vicksburg.
Lieutenant Case, who had been detailed for special duty as quartermaster
471
HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY.
commissary and ordnance officer of the post at Kansas City, when the battalion was organized, continued in that position until June, 1862, when he was promot- ed to the rank of Captain and A. Q. M .; after which he continued as quarter- master at the post until the spring of 1863, when part of western Missouri and eastern Kansas were organized into the District of the Border, at which time he became quartermaster for the district. In the spring of 1864, the District of the Border was abolished, and he was assigned to duty as quartermaster of the Dis- trict of central Missouri, with headquarters at Warrensburg. In March, 1865, he availed himself of an opportunity to resign, offered to all officers who desired to leave the service, and in June following accepted the position of Quarter- Master General of the State on the staff of Gov. Thos. C. Fletcher.
Dr. Thorne continued in charge of the hospital at Kansas City until the close of the war. In the spring of 1863, when the District of the Border was created, it became a general hospital, and as such received several thousand sick and wounded soldiers during the war.
GUERRILLAS AND RED LEGS.
In the formative period of the great struggle, the spring and summer of 1861, there was a general uprising of the people of Missouri. The Union men formed into companies of home guards, and the rebels were also marshaled into hostile bands. The ordinary avocations of life were in a great measure abandoned, and every neighborhood was divided into hostile and warring factions, fully realizing all the conditions of internecine war. Under the President's call for three months' troops in April, there were several regiments organized in Missouri and several in Kansas. About the time these were disbanded in the fall of that year there were several marauding bands organized in Kansas for the purpose of prey- ing upon the rebels across the border in Missouri. The most prominent of these were Montgomery's in southern Kansas, a band of old free-state men of 1856, who seem never to have been entirely disbanded; Cleveland's band in northern Kansas, and Col. Jennison's seventh Kansas regiment, which appears to have been so largely made up of the same class of men that it became as notorious in 1861-62 as jayhawkers as either of the other bands. Besides these there were many smaller bands, irregular and unauthorized in their formation, whose sole object seems to have been plunder. Over the border in Missouri there were sim- ilar organizations of rebels. These were composed of secessionists who had not joined Price's army and gone south, but remained to prosecute an irregular war- fare upon the people of Missouri and the borders of Kansas. All the country adjacent to this city was infested with these bands. On the west and south were Montgomery, Jennison and sometimes Cleveland, and to the south, east and north were bush-whackers under Todd, Parker, Jackman and Quantrell. From the spring of 1861 to the fall of 1864, these irregular bands hemmed in Kansas City on all sides, so that it was very hazardous for people to get here to trade, although there was no regular foe to interfere with them. The Santa Fe trade suffered as much as any other, and was for time nearly cut off. The trade of southern Kansas, which had previously come to Kansas City, was diverted to Leavenworth. During all this time teams were scarcely permitted to come to Kansas City from that section, or to go from Kansas City to any part of southern Kansas. The irregular bands operating in Kansas, better known as the Red Legs, were largely composed of Kansans who had a grudge against Missouri because of the old struggle of 1855-56, and they, therefore, left nothing undone that would hurt Kansas City, because she was a Missouri town. It was largely through their operations that the trade of Southern Kansas was diverted to Leavenworth, for trains going to that place were not molested.
Fort Leavenworth was military headquarters, and the depot of supply for the army on the border, hence she had a large trade and grew rapidly. Boating on
472
HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY.
the Missouri was rendered hazardous, and the Government took so many of the boats for military use, that the trade between Kansas City and St. Louis was quite broken up. The Platte Country Railroad was built from St. Joseph across to Weston by the year 1863, so that all trade which had previously come up the river now came by way of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, and the Platte County Railroad, and made Leavenworth headquarters. Leavenworth also be- came the headquarters of the Red Legs, at least the place, where their booty was disposed of, and became so notorious in that regard that in 1863 Gov. Ewing placed it under martial law, as a means of ridding it of the miscreants. The Leavenworth press all the time made the most of Kansas City's misfortune to warn people against coming here.
From the arrival of Capt. Prince, Kansas City continued in military occupa- tion. In 1862, one Lieutenant-Colonel Buel had command here with head- quarters at Independence. He was strongly accused of sympathy with the bush-whackers, and whether guilty or not, his administration was not calculated to extirpate them. Maj. Banzaf with a battalion of the First Missouri cavalry then occupied Kansas City. On the 23d of March, that year, Quantrell killed two men, and burned the bridge across the Blue. On the 25th he was routed at Tait's house, sixteen miles from this city by Maj. Pomeroy, of the Second Kan- sas. On the 29th the guerrilla Parker was captured at Warrensburg. On the 13th of April Quantrell was again routed on the Little Blue, and again on the 17th, near Raytown. These facts are sufficient to show the general condition of things existing here at that time. Col. Buel permitted the establishment of the rebel paper, and it continued to foster the spirit of rebellion and bush-whacking. This condition, this frequency of small fights, was continuous, until near the close of 1863. The brush on the one side of this city was literally full of bush-whack- ers, and the prairies covered with Red Legs.
In 1862 the militia of Missouri was all enrolled. The regiment raised in this city was numbered 77th; Kersey Coates was colonel and Frank Foster, lieutenant- colonel. None of this militia was ever called upon to do much, and that only in their own locality. During these years, from the spring of 1861 until the au- tumn of 1863, the adjacent parts of Missouri were in an entirely lawless condition. The civil power was entirely suspended ; while the country was completely over- run by small parties of Federal and Confederate troops, between whom fights and skirmishes were of frequent occurrence, beside which, it was equally overrun by the irregular bands of guerrillas and bush-whackers on the one side, and jayhawk- ers and Red Legs on the other. There was absolutely no security for either life or property ; industrial and productive pursuits were impossible ; people on all sides were ruthlessly robbed of whatever they possessed that could tempt robbers, and many men were murdered at their homes for no better reason than that they were found there.
TRADE.
Trade, under such circumstances as have been described, was manifestly much embarrassed, yet our city continued to do some business with the southwest and west, and remained, by reason of military protection, the headquar- ters for the remnant of the Santa Fe trade. The long talked of express to Pike's Peak was realized in May, 1861, and that and the Santa Fe mail continued through the war, though robbed several times.
The Journal of Commerce, which had suspended March 7th, 1861, was re- sumed as an extra or bulletin May 15th ; stopped again August 20th, and revived again, full size, in March, 1862. Some time in the spring of 1862, Mr. McRey- nolds started the Intelligencer, which soon expired, and in June, 1862, the Press was started, but continued only a brief time.
Soon after Samuel Hallett became connected with the construction of the
473
HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY.
Union Pacific Railroad, he issued a circular relative to the trade of the various points on the Missouri River across the plains from 1857 to 1863, some extracts from which will serve to illustrate the effects of the existing situation on the trade of Kansas City. We insert first a table showing a comparison of river points in 1860.
Table showing the amount of freight forwarded across the plains, from the various posts on the Missouri River, during the year 1860, with the required outfit :
WHERE FROM.
POUNDS.
MEN.
HORSES. 1
MULES.
OXEN.
WAGONS.
Kansas City
16,439, 134
7,084
444
6,149
27,920
3,033
Leavenworth
5,656,082
1,216
.
206
10,425
1,003
Atchison
6,097,943
1,591
.
472
13,640
1,280
St. Joseph
1,672,000
490
520
3,980
418
Nebraska City
5,496,000
896
II3
11, 118
916
Omaha.
713,000
324
377
II4
340
272
Total
36,074, 159
11,631
841
7,574
67,950
6,922
NOTE. - In the above table the government freight forwarded from Kansas City to western forts is included in the exhibits; the amount being 7,540, 102 pounds, requiring 1,590 men, 1,307 wagons, 16,260 oxen, and 232 mules ; cost of transportation, $890,300.
EXPORTS OF NEW MEXICO AND COLORADO 1857 TO 1863.
Table showing the kind, amount and value of the exports of Colorado and New Mexico received at the port of Kansas City from 1857 to 1863, inclusive :
WOOL.
DRY HIDES.
BUFFALO ROBES.
PELTS AND FURS.
YEAR.
Pounds . .
Value . ..
Pounds
Value .
Number. . ..
Value . . .
Pounds .
Value . . ..
Gold Dust and Specie
Total. .
1857 .
465,000 $ 69,750.00
32,440
ยก$2,919.60
25,000
100,000
32,900
$7,740.00
[$225,000.00 |$405,409.60
1858 .
525,500
78,725.00
58, 756
5,887.60
21,750
87,000
35,460
8,154.00
200,000.00
379,754.60
1859 .
456,751
68,572.65
58,812
6,469.32
7,040
29,375
38, 720
7,744.00
192,019.20
304, 120.17
1860 .
349,799
52,369.85
98,875
9,966.25
3,622
16,299
25, 115
6,863.00
300,644.00
386,172.10
1861 .
590,731
118,146.20
38,202
3,820.20
2,440
10,980
10,742
2,475.52
158,585 50
284,007.42
1862.
640,925
160,231.50
29,645
2,964.50
740
3,700
7,460
2,981.60
31,531.00
205,308.35
1863
954,951
286, 285.30
67.968
6,796.80
1,900
9,500
118, 129
38,384.15
546,500.00
346,631.25
.
.
. .
. .
The great increase in the value of freight in 1863 was owing to the large per- centage of dry goods and manufactured articles forwarded, and their extreme low prices.
IMPORTS OF NEW MEXICO AND COLORADO-1857 TO 1863.
Table showing the amounts and estimated value of freight transported to New Mexico and Colorado from Kansas City from 1857 to 1863 inclusive, with the number of men, oxen, horses, mules, and wagons required, the value of the outfit, and the cost of transportation :
474
HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY.
1857
1858
1859
1860
1861
1862
1863
Amounts, pounds .
27,705,000
25,365,000
7,484,390
21,547,718
5,040,840
5,740,540
7,281,491
Value. . . .
$ 4,199,850 $ 4, 465,500 $ 1, 172, 450 $ 3,340,200 $ 2, 094, 000 $ 2, 285,400 $ 3,785.500
Cost of Transportation.
222, 345, 000 228,285, 000
673, 587. 10 2,150,985 44
453,675.60
530,679.95
691,741.64
Value of Outfit. .
3,053,500
3,662,500
917,200
2,609,575
1,012,900
882, 308
1,132,805
Men
5,428
4,088|
1,746
4,993
1,328
1,404
1,798
Oxen. . .
4,150
42, 270
12,840
36,686
8,393
9,146
13,335
Horses. .
494
568
371
387
Mules . .
7,766
5,460
1,582
7,325
3,209
2,794
1,515
Wagons .
4,941
5,073
1,497
4,012
1,396
1,172
2,476
RAILROAD PROGRESS.
The construction of railroads which had been stopped with the beginning of trouble in 1861, began to be agitated again in 1862. In May of that year Con- gress passed the Union Pacific Railroad bill. This bill provided for one main line from this city with a branch to St. Joseph by way of Atchison, one to Omaha, and one to Sioux City, and authorized the Leavenworth, Pawnee & Western Railway Company to construct a line from that city to intersect the main line on the same terms as the branches were built. Besides some surveying done by Col. Midbery, of Ohio, nothing was done on this road until 1863. In June, 1862, Messrs. Ross, Steele & Co., took a contract to build three hundred and fifty miles of the road and soon thereafter commenced operations at Leavenworth, on the Leavenworth, Pawnee & Western Branch. This company had no means and did but little. In June, 1863, Gen. John C. Fremont and Samuel Hallett took the contract to build the main line, and bought out the franchise of the Leavenworth, Pawnee and Western Branch. 'About the same time work was re- sumed on the Pacific Railroad in Missouri on a contract to complete seventeen miles of the line eastward from this city. It was expected to have the road com- pleted to Independence by November, and finished early in 1864. On the 7th of July ground was broken for the Union Pacific Railroad at this city. By No- vember 18th the first forty miles of the Union Pacific were graded, when there arose a controversy between Samuel Hallett on the one side and Fremont and Ross, Steele & Co. on the other, which with the approaching cold weather, stopped active operations. The Missouri Pacific, however, was not thus fortu- nate. The woods along the line were so full of bush-whackers that work had to be stopped. In August Cole Younger, with a party, burned Pleasant Hill, and Quantrell sallied forth from his headquarters in the Missouri borders, in August, and on the 21st burned and sacked Lawrence, retreating again to Missouri to renew his depredations.
A MEMORABLE EPOCH.
Prior to this, in the spring of 1863, it had been determined to dislodge the bush-whackers and guerrillas, who were operating in western Missouri, and to that end the District of the Border, embracing part of western Missouri and east- ern Kansas had been erected, and on the 15th of April Gen. Blunt was placed in command with headquarters at Kansas City. His methods did not, however, prove vigorous enough to accomplish the end designed, and on the 16th of June he was superseded by Gen. Ewing, whose policy, though more vigorous, was not sufficiently so to clear the woods of the predatory bands or prevent the affairs
475
HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY.
above referred to, owing to the sympathy of a large part of the people of Missouri with them.
The affairs above mentioned seemed to call for more vigorous measures still, and it appeared then, to the satisfaction of Gen. Ewing, who commanded the District, and of Gen. Schofield, who commanded the department, that the only effective way of ridding the country of bush-whackers, would be to rid it also of their aiders and abettors among the people. Accordingly, on the 23rd of August, Gen. Ewing promulgated his celebrated Order No. 11.
This order was rigidly enforced, and it made a desolation of all the country embraced in it. It stopped for a time all bush-whacking, and filled Kansas City and Independence with the refugee people.
In November, Gen. Ewing issued General Order No. 20, which provided for the return of all loyal people to their homes, and during the winter of 1863-4, the provisions of order No. 11 were entirely removed. In February, 1864, the District of the Border was abolished, Gen. Ewing was ordered to Pilot Knob and Col. Ford, of the Second Colorado Cavalry succeeded him in command at Kan- sas City, with headquarters at Independence.
THE RAILROADS AGAIN.
When the river froze up in December, 1863, the Union Pacific Railroad had received at St. Joseph, iron and equipments for forty miles of road but could not get them to Kansas City until spring opened. The winter was spent in pur- chasing ties and making arrangements for a vigorous prosecution of the work in the spring.
Early in the winter the Leavenworth people invited Mr. Hallett to visit them. He much desired a connection to the east that would not subject him to the exi- gencies of river navigation, and they, the previous winter, had got through the Missouri Legislature, a charter for a road from that place to Cameron. Mr. Hallett went, accompanied by Mr. S. W. Bouton, of this city, and found that they wanted to turn over their charter and get him to work up the interest and built the road. This was a critical time for Kansas City, for had that arrange- ment been consummated, it would have given Leavenworth the Cameron Railroad and the bridge, and secured for her future pre-eminence. Mr. Bonton saw the danger, and used his best efforts, with success, to induce Mr. Hallett not to make a contract with them until after he should return to this city, promising him that if he would come back here he would procure for him all rights and franchises of the Cameron road from this city, on which $168,000 had already been expended, and the road-bed of which was already completed. Mr. Hallett returned, and Mr. Bouton called the company together and got it organized as follows : Col. Coates, President ; J. M. Jones, Vice-President ; S. W. Bouton, Secretary ; W. A. Morton, Treasurer; Col. Coates, M. J. Payne, E. M. McGee, C. A. Carpenter, S. W. Bouton, T. S. Case, J. M. Jones, Mr. Deering and Mr. Hall, Directors. Mr. Bouton then got himself appointed attorney for the transfer of the stock of Kan- sas City and Clay county, and offered the road to Mr. Hallett as a gift. This had occupied the time till July, 1864; and Mr. Hallett appointed the 28th of that month to come over to this city and execute the necessary contract, when he was suddenly assassinated by O. G. Talcott, one of his engineers.
An incident in connection with this negotiation of Mr. Bouton with Mr. Hallett ought to be told, though it never was very generally known here in Kan- sas City. At the preceding fall election Col. Van Horn had been elected to the State Senate, and Messrs. E. M. McGee and M. J. Payne to the House. A leave of absence had been granted Col. Van Horn from the army and he was in Jeffer- son City at the time. As soon as Mr. Bouton returned from Leavenworth he made the draft of two bills and sent them to Col. Van Horn to be passed. One of them amended the character of the Leavenworth & Cameron Railroad by
476
HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY.
diverting it at Platte City to Weston, six miles above Leavenworth; the other suspended the operation of the general incorporation law of the State in Platte county. so that a new road could not be started under its provisions. The three gentlemen at Jefferson City soon got the bills passed and thus left Leavenworth without a charter that was worth anything to anybody.
While these negotiations were pending, there was much activity in railroad matters. The press began the agitation of a railroad to Olathe and Fort Scott. Some favorable legislation for the Missouri Pacific was secured in the Legisla- ture that winter, which so encouraged the people of this city as to call forth the greatest rejoicing at a public meeting held for that purpose February Ir, 1864. In February the Union Pacific company was re-oganized in St. Louis, at which General Fremont was dropped out ; and John D. Perry of the Missouri Pacific, became vice-president and acting president. This led to another difficulty and more litigation between Hallett & Co., on the one hand, and Fremont and Ross, Steele & Co., on the other, but the latter was defeated, and the Government recognized the former as the rightful company. In February the Missouri Pacific began laying track between Warrensburg and Dresden, and grading between Warrensburg and Pleasant Hill. On the 24th of March the first locomotive and boat load of iron for the Union Pacific arrived at Wyandotte from St. Joseph.
About this time the Union Pacific company directed its engineers to make a survey of the route of a road that had been chartered and had a land grant from Lawrence southward to the State line, now the K. C., L. & S. R. R., and also of the line of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, which also had a land grant, from Topeka to the western State line.
Mr. Hallett, expecting to obtain control of the Kansas City and Cameron road, and wanting no rival line, caused himself to be elected a director in the Parkville & Grand River Railroad, and thus obtained control of it. This road had almost as much work done on it as had been done on the Kansas City and Cameron road and ran from Parkville, eight miles above Kansas City, to Came- ron.
In April the Missouri Pacific company determined to complete the line between Kansas City and Independence, and in June sent the first engine and iron for the track to Kansas City.
In May the interest in the Kansas City and Fort Scott road began to look up, and a meeting in that interest was held at Paola.
In June, a treaty was made with the Delaware Indians for the surrender of their lands in Kansas, one of the provisions of which was, that a railroad should be built with the proceeds of the lands between this city and Leavenworth. This road is now the extension of the Missouri Pacific up the river from this city. About this time it was announced that the Union Pacific would be completed and opened to Lawrence on the 18th of August, but owing to the assassination of Mr. Hallett in July, it was not so opened until December roth.
In June 1864, the North Missouri Railroad Company came into possession of the charter and franchises of the Missouri Valley Railway Company, which was to build a line from Brunswick up the river to St. Joseph. Leavenworth turned her attention to this road, but effected nothing. It has since been built to this city, and is now the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific.
In September, a pontoon bridge was thrown across the Kaw between this city and Wyandotte-the first bridge between the two places.
THE GREAT RAID OF 1864.
These enterprising measures were in progress only because of the practical freedom of Missouri from rebels and bush-whackers; but they were not destined to continue without interruption from that source. In August it was discovered that Vallandigham, of Ohio, had, during his banishment, formed a conspiracy at
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