Saline County, Missouri - The whole text, 1881 (part 8 of 28)

Holman was about tRirty years of age, we believe, and had the reputation of being a vicious negro; certainly he had much the worst countenance of the three. He belonged to a widow lady of some property, and was worth probably $1,000. His offense was not so great as John's, solely, it is thought, because he lacked opportunity. As it was, he came very near taking the life of an esteemed and valued citizen; who, we understand, was only saved from a brutal murder by the heroism of his wife. Holman had not yet had his trial, but was taken out with John. He struggled but little and seemed resigned to his fate. On arriving at the place of execution, a rope was speedily adjusted about his neck, and he was swung up to the limb of a walnut tree close to the one where John was chained. He did not struggle, but died apparently easy.

Jim was from 32 to 35 years of age, worth probably $1,000. He struggled hard to free himself of those who had him in charge, but was secured and taken to the place of execution without maaterial injury to any one. To our eye his offense was the blackest of the three, but the law does not recognize it as equal to either of the others ; at least the punishment provided is not so great. It was the intention of the mob at first to burn Jim along with John, but he was finally swung up on the same limb with Holman, where he struggled for some time, dying hard. The bodies all hung until Wednesday morning, when they were buried near the place of execution.

Those instrumental in putting the negroes to death were the friends of Hinton from Waverly, parties^ from Arrow Rock, and some others from near Marshall. The mob was harangued and incited by J. M. Shackleford, who published a defense of the proceedings in the Democrat^ saying among other things, " I know of no reason why we should not have a little mob law in the state of Missouri and the county of Saline when the occasion imperiously and of necessity demands it. * * * * Abolitionists and negro sympathizers have had a great deal to do in creating a spirit of insubordination amongst our negro population. Every abolitionist ought to be driven out of the country; every free negro should be sold into slavery or go out of the state; no more emancipation without sending the negroes out of the state."

The conduct of the citizens in thus taking the law into their own hands was widely, and, in some instances, severely commented upon. The news was carried to the north, and the journals of that section were not slow in spreading it and making all the capital possible out of it. After the civil war broke out, often when federal troops first visited the town of Marshall, they would remark to the citizens : "Ah ! here is the place where you burn men at the stake, is it.'' " Let it here be recorded, however, that the leaders and chief instigators of this affair were not citizens of Saline county; Waverly and the region around about, where the relations and intimate friends of Hinton lived, furnished the leaders, and their aiders and abettors were chiefly the relatives and friends of Mrs. Habecot.

Judge Hicks was so much chagrined, mortified^ and indignant at the lawlessness of the people and the contempt they showed for his court, that he declared he would never again hold a term of court in Saline county. Accordingly, he tendered his resignation, which was accepted. He also published in the Lexington Exfresi, of the 29th, a long letter to the people, of which the following are the chief portions:

* * * While holding the Lafayette circuit court, a petition, signed by a large number of citizens of Saline, was presented to me, requesting a special term of the trial of the negro (John) as soOn as convenient. * * Some days before the special term was held, a negro, named Holman, compiitted an assault upon a young nian, named Durrett, inflicting a wound on one of his arms, which greatly endangered his life, and will, it is thought, make him a cripple for life. This occurred in the neighborhood of Arrow Rock. Again, a short time before the special term, a negro, named Jim, was charged with an attempted rape upon a white lady, in the vicinity of Marshall. Both of these negroes were in jail. And yet again, on the day preceding the special term, a negro, belonging to Dr. Price, at Arrow Rock, had attempted a rape upon a white girl, some twelve years of age. The girl was severely injured, and the negro, on Monday night, was hung.

I learned the facts about the three last named negroes on my arrival in Marshall on the morning of the special term. The sheriff, Mr. Sniith, and the circuit attorney, Mr. Bryant, both came to my room and informed me of the foregoing facts, (except the hanging of the negro at Arrow Rock, which was not known, but strongly suspected). I inquired if there was danger of popular violence, and they both promptly answered they thought there was. I observed to the sheriff that, in view of the above facts, a -posse must be had. He replied, somewhat to my surprise, that he did not believe an efficient -posse could be got. I inquired if it were not possible to prevent violence, at least during the term of the court. They both seemed to think it could. I made some inquiries of others as to the state of feeling of the people, in order to satisfy myself as well as I could of the danger to be apprehended and of the best course to be pursued in the approaching crisis. I might soon expect three distinct, exasperated parties in and about the court house, relations and friends of the deceased, of the outraged lady, and the injured young man. I felt the responsibility of my position in its full force. My resolution was soon taken I resolved to trust to the moral force the court could exercise, at least for a time, not in the least suspecting an outbreak until towards evening. I am satisfied in the end no different result could have been obtained by any other course.

Court was opened between eight and nine o'clock in the morning and a grand jury empanneled. After I had spoken to the grand jury in the usual way for a special term, I addressed the people in the court house (it was very crowded) in a mild yet firm manner, stating the rumors of expected popular violence that had reached me ; hoped there was no sufficient founda- -tion for the rumors ; that however well they could justify themselves to themselves for wresting the prisoners from the officers of the law and inflicting summary justice on them, it would not be so easy to justify themselves to the world, especially as the court was in session for their trial, and hinted that the enemies to our institutions would rejoice in and triumph over such a scene ; that, if guilty, in a short time the prisoners would receive in a legal manner the punishment due to their crimes; that however much their feelings were irritated and exasperated (justly, too,) they should think and consider that if they acted in a summary manner at the present time, it could not be so easily justified or excused as it could have been when the offenses were first committed and no court convened for the purpose of trial. I exhorted the old and thinking men of the crowd to keep down popular excitenient, if any should be shown, etc., etc. As I made these remarks I glanced rapidly around the court room, and thought I could see marks of approbation on the countenances of many, and looks of defiance on the countenances of but few.

John was put upon his trial for the murder of Hinton, and counsfel assigned him. A verdict of murder in the first degree was rendered by the.jury. The court, as is customary in such cases, remarked to the prisoner's attorneys, that time would be given to prepare motions in arrest of judgment, or for a new trial if they desired. At this time I saw, as I thought, signs of impatience on the countenances of some for the expected sentence. The thought flashed across my mind that if the prisoner was publicly ordered back to jail, he would never reach there.

Jim, for the attempted rape on the lady, was brought in. A jury was impanneled and sworn. The rush into the bar was such that the sheriff could hardly keep it clear. Dinner hour arrived. No formal adjournment of court was made, but a recess of an hour was announced. The prisoners, John and Jim, were by the court ordered to remain in the court house in charge of the sheriff. The sheriff" was afterwards privately told by the court that as soon as the crowd should have dispersed (as it was supposed it would), to convey John back to the jail. I kept upon the bench a few minutes, observing the movements of the people. Many left, but the court house was not cleared, as is usual on such occasions, and I observed men advancing into the bar whose countenances clearly, as I thought, indicated their purpose. I came down from the bench, took a fosition near the prisoners, and inquired for the sheriff', whom at the time did not see, but was informed by one of the deputies that he was not far oft". I remarked that the prisoners were in no danger in the presence of the court, and requested him to go and tell Smith to come to me. Smith came and I told him to take John to the jail and I would go with him. Smith started with the negro, I close behind. Before we reached the gate of the court house yard, the pace was quickened to a very rapid walk. By the time Smith cleared the court house yard I observed, to my right, crowds of men getting over the fence of the court house yard, and coming down the street in the direction of the jail. Their purpose, at least some of them, will be readily guessed. Smith again quickened his pace, and to such a degree that my unwieldy body and crippled leg could no longer keep up. The prisoner reached the jail and was locked up by Mr. Arnott, the jailor, a large crowd being assembled in front of the jail door. A gentleman named Shackleford mounted the steps at the jail door and harangued the crowd, inciting them to acts of violence. I requested Mr. Bryant, the circuit attorney, to go and address the crowd and see if he could not appease them. He went, but shortly returned and said that Mr. Shackleford, as respectable as any man in the county, was addressing the crowd, and that if such men as he had taken the matter in hand, it was aU over with the prisoners.

The crowd demanded the key of the jail, but Mr. Arnott, the jailer, refused to give it up, and made, for a single man, what defense he could. He was overpowered, the key taken from him, and the prisoners, John and Holman, the latter having never been before the court, were taken from the jail to a grove near the town, some two hundred yards, more or less, from the public square. In the meantime a party appeared in the court house, where Jim was in the custody of two deputies, and forcibly wrested him from their custody, presenting, as one of the deputies told me, pistols, and threatening to shoot them if they resisted. Jim was taken to the same grove, and there he and Holman were hung, and John burned to death.

So soon as the officers of the court could be again convened, an order in each of the cases was made requiring the sheriff to bring into court the prisoners, to which orders he returned substantially the facts above stated, and was by the court excused. Court then adjourned until court in course.

I have been thus minute with all I had to do, or that was done, so far as I know in this matter, as perhaps - it will appear in almost every paper in the union, arid many out of it, and the facts attending it knowingly, as well as imknowingly, misrepresented. * * * ]y[y feelings as a man, as well as a judicial officer, have been cruelly wounded. I have presided as a judge in this circuit for near three years. I was proud of the circuit in which I presided, and well I might be. Perhaps it is the most populous, most wealthy, and had the greatest amount of legal business in it of any circuit in the state, outside of St. Louis. I was proud to serve such a people. * * * "Yq flnd myself both morally and physically to be unable, wjth the assistance of the proper officers, to protect prisoners at the bar of the court while upon their trial ; to keep them from being dragged from the hall of justice by violence, and hung and

Judge Hicks was born in November, 1809, in Worcester county, Massachusetts. He was raised and educated in New York state. In 1826 he came to Saline county, and worked for a time at splitting rails and cutting cord wood. He read law with Judge Todd, at Old Franklin, and in 1832 went to Independence and opened a law office. He became a very prominent lawyer. In 1856 he was elected judge of this circuit, on the whig ticket. He lived in Jackson county, near Lone Jack or Hicks City, when the war broke out. Being an outspoken, southern man, he was soon compelled to leave home. He lived in St Louis during the war. At the close of the war, he went to Sedalia, and for a time was a member of a law firm with John F. Phillips and George G. Vest, as co-partners. He died at Warrensburg, April 19, 1876. Judge Hicks was very justly regarded as one of the ablest, purest, and best men of his day.

On the 15th of September, 1859, the old soldiers of the war of 1812, residing in this county, and the western part of Lafayette, met at the residence of one of their number, Benoni Robion. There were present. Col. Wm. Boyce, Boston Poisal and Jacob Funk, from Lafayette, and M. M. Marmaduke, P. W. Thompson, James Valdenar, G. T. Chrisman, B. Hale, John Murphy, Benoni Robion, and others from this county. Col. Marmaduke presided. Resolutions were adopted requesting the general government to grant aid to those of the old soldiers who were in distress.

The capture of Harper's Ferry, by John Brown, in October, 1859, and other movements of the abolitionists of the north, greatly excited the people of the south, especially those of the border states.- Public meetings, at which speeches were made, and resolutions adopted, were very frequent, and attended by the leading men of all parties.

December 26, 1859, a public meeting was held in the court house at Marshall, pursuant to calls made by former meetings at Marshall and Arrow Rock. The meeting was presided over by R. E. Snelling, Esq., of Miami, and G. W. Allen and J. S. Davis, editors respectively of the Herald and Democrat, were the secretaries.

The objects of the meeting were fully explained by J. W. Bryant, and M. W. O'Bannon, Esq.; and Dr. M. W. Hall, Vincent Marmaduke, Dr. Elijah Clarkson, T. R. E. Harvey, Dr. C. E. Smith, and M. A. Gaulden were appointed a committee on resolutions. This committee reported nine resolutions, condemning in the severest terms, the Harper's Ferry, outrages and their sympathizers, aiders and abetters ; declaring that the Union would be prized, " only so long as the constitution, in letter and in spirit, is the supreme law of the land ;" that the southern states " have a right to demand of the northern states, that they shall pass such laws as will put a stop to the ceaseless war made on the southern people by their citizens, in abolition harangties, the circulation of incendiary papers, and resistence to or evasion of the fugitive slave law ;" " that the election to the presidency, in 1860, of Wm. H. Seward, or any other member of the Republican party, avowing the same principles, will be a virtual dissolution of the Union;" with other sentiments of the same spirit and purport.

A committee of three, W. B. Sappington, Dr. LeGrand Atwood, and T. R. E. Harvey, were appointed to memorialize the legislature upon the following subjects: First, Pledging the state of Missouri to unite with the other southern states in such measures as may be necessary for the maintenance of their rights under the constitution. Second, To revive the militia laws. Third, To make void negro testimony received in the courts against the citizens of those states where negroes are permitted to testify against white persons. Fourth, To amend the constitution so that negroes convicted of rape or other high crimes shoiold suffer death.

Another resolution was offered by Mr. Shackleford and adopted, as follows: "That in the event of the election of a black-republican president in 1860, that a convention of the southern states be called to take such measures as will conduce to the great interests of the south. "

There can be no question but that there was great distrust of the people of the north by the slaveholding portion of the country at this time, and, as subsequent events showed, with good reason. The people of the south had great capital invested in slave property, and there was a large element in the north, constantly increasing, that desired to deprive them of this property. It was in everybody's mouth that a dissolution of the Union would occur some day, and many were already preparing for such an event in both sections of the country.

The county election of 1859, was probably one of the most exciting ever held in Saline. Party lines were drawn with exceeding bitterness and a rigor never known before. W. A. Wilson, who for some years had held the consolidated offices of circuit and county clerk, the leader of the Americans, or whigs, as they were afterwards called, the Bell and Everett party, was a candidate for re-election. The democrats determined tO' bring out a separate candidate for each office, circuit and county clerk, and nominated John Sheridan for circuit clerk, and Jesse Davis for county clerk.

The Elections Of 1860

The August election, in 1860, was oiie of the most exciting ever held in Missouri. Claiborne F. Jackson, then a citizen of Saline county, was the regularly nominated democratic candidate for governor. Against him the Bell and Everett party nominated Sample Orr, and the campaign soon became warm. The division of the democratic party at Charleston, South Carolina, had, of course, resulted in its division everywhere. C. F. Jackson endeavored, at first, to conduct the canvass, so far as himself was concerned, without division, and without declaring whether he was for Douglas or Breckenridge. The St. Louis Republican, then, as yet, a power in Missouri, and a strong Douglas paper, forced Jackson to comp out for Douglas. Immediately the Breckenridge democrats in the state called a convention, and nominated Hancock Jackson for governor. The keenest interest was felt by the citizens in the result. The following is the

Attorney

The presidential election in November, 1860, stirred the popular heart to its profoundest depths. For ten stormy years the agitation of the slayery question had kept the people in a state of continued excitement and turmoil. All these stormy scenes, in and out of congress, culminated in the elections of 1860. The democratic party itself was rent in twain, and the southern states were divided between the Breckenridge, the Douglas and the Bell and Everett parties. The August election, triangular then, as in November, had been a test in Missouri, the passions of the people had been deeply aroused.

Saline, like almost every county in the state, was agitated to the utmost. As will be seen by the foregoing table. Saline gave a larger vote for Bell and Everett than for Douglas and Breckenridge combined. In Saline not a vote was cast for Lincoln. The vote of the state was, however, quadrangular, viz: for Bell, 58,372; for Douglas, 58,801; for Breckenridge, 31,317 ; and for Lincoln, 17,028, and Douglas carried Missouri (the only state he did carry) by a bare pluraHty of 429 votes.

The presidential election in November was followed by a great calm. Men were brought face to face, at last, with a disruption of the Union, and the very imminence and magnitude of the crisis seemed to calm and quiet both sides. But it was the calm before the storm - like the calm which, in nature, ever precedes the bursting out of stormy strife among the elements. In Saline county there were very few who were really secessionists fer se. All now saw from the attitude of the south that war was imminent, and all without distinction of past party affiliations, struck hands to do what they could do, to bring about reconciliation, compromise and peace. People came together and discussed the troubled state of the Federal outlook.

Mass Meeting At Marshall, December, 1860

December 15, 1860, a mass-meeting of the citizens was called to meet in the court house to consider the disturbed condition of the country; and to show the really union and conservative sentiment of the citizens of Saline as late as the winter of 1860-1, reference is here made to the proceedings of that meeting, as given by the Marshall Democrai oi even date. The best and ablest men of the county were present at this meeting, most of them now dead. Among those who took a part, still living, is Wm. H. Letcher of Marshall. Ex-Governor, M. M. Marmaduke, was called to the chair, and the editors of county papers requested to act as secretaries. On motion of Col. Allen, a committee consisting of T. R. E. Harvey, Dr. Price, Col. Allen, Dr. E. S. Clarkson, Q. A. Thomson, Col. J. M. Lewis, and T. W. Gaines, was appointed to draft business, or resolutions for the meeting. After a short absence the committee returned with two reports, majority and minority. After a warm discussion, both reports were referred to a special committee, consisting of Col. T. P. Bell, Dr. Towles, J. W. Bryant, Dr. Hardeman and E. D. Graves, and the meeting adjourned until Monday, Dec. 17, 1860. Present and active at this meeting, was the governor-elect, C. F.Jackson.

On Monday a very large mass-meeting assembled in the court house, and the special committee made its report, submitting the following resolutions, which, after much discussion by Messrs. Kelly, Mitchell, McDaniel, Letcher, Gov. Jackson, Clarkson. and others, were finally adopted unanimously :

Resolved, That the relation of the citizen to his government, requiring that he should render obedience and aid to it, while it, at the same time, extends to him security and protection, and it being a feature of the government under which we live, that the citizen has the government under his control and direction, he cannot, consistently, with honor or duty, abandon that government until the evils become such as to justify revolution, and until a fair and honest effort to redress them by constitutional means shall have been tried and failed.

2d. That we consider the constitution as the basis of the Union, and that the Union cannot be preserved if -the constitution, and the laws made in accordance with the provisions thereof, be contemned, disregarded, or nullified.

3d. That the unconstitutional and unfriendly action of the northern states in regard to the execution of the fugitive slave -law, evinces a determination on their part to interfere with rights conceded to the south by the constitution, and that the election of a president of these states upon a sectional issue is a just cause of irritation and alarm to the people of the south, that the principles upon which a republican president has been elected, if acted out, will be a just cause for dissolution of the Union.

4th. That in this emergency it becomes all good citizens, especially those of the south, to maintain , their constitutional rights - asking what the constitution grants to them, and giving what it concedes to others.

5th. That the south should demand as conditions upon which fraternal feelings can again be restored between the north and the south, a speedy repeal of all laws made to interfere with and defeat the execution of the fugitive slave law, the punishment of citizens who do interfere to prevent its execution, and non-interference by the north with slavery in the states, in the territories, and in the District of Columbia.

6th. That if these just demands be not acceded to by the north - much as we are attached to the Union and desire its preservation - we of the south will heartily unite for the maintenance of our rights, if need be, out of the Union.

7th. That we recommend to the legislature of the state of Missouri, a revival and reorganization of the militia laws, under such limitations and restrictions as to make it so efficient as to guard our rights against all hostile inroads.

8th. That the Federal union can only be maintained and preserved by securing to the people of the several states their equal and just rights. Any attempt, therefore, to coerce by physical force, any of the southern states into the Union (in the event of secession), should be condemned by every lover of his country.

take such steps, in concert with other states of the Confederacy, as the exigencies of the crisis may demand ; and we further recommend, that all the slave-holding states meet in convention at Nashville, Tennessee, or some other point, at as early a day as such convention can possibly be assembled, to consider the imperilled condition of our country, and to concert measures to harmonize conflicting opinions, and preserve the union, if it can be done; and if such desirable end cannot be accomplishej^, then to take measures for their own safety and union in a Southern Confederacy.

This was one of the largest meetings that ever assembled in the county, and there was great unanimity of sentiment among those who had lately been political enemies. *

The First Year Of The Civil War

Sixteen years have elapsed since the last gun was fired in the great sectional war, - since the last Confederate army surrendered, and it has been found extremely difficult to gather, locate, and date the various incidents of the war, as they happened m Saline county, especially as connected with the southern side. At the close of the war, those who had engaged on the southern side surrendered, and seemed to desire, and to endeavor to cast away from them the memories of all that had occurred in those four long years of war, and final failure; and now, after the lapse of sixteein year's, they have, in a great measure, forgotten many incidents, and nearly all dates. Hence, perfect exactness and completeness have been found very nearly impossible.

The real province of history is to relate events as they actually transpired, to deal with the philosophy of events ; and it is not history when the historian garbles facts, or colors events with personal or party passion. The war of the sections was, in reality, a civil war that continued fotir long and bloody years; in which all the fierce passions of human nature were aroused, and it is even yet too early for the historian to work out the true philosophy of that terrible struggle, in which blood and treasure were poured out like water, and the whole continent resounded with the clash of arms, and shook with the tread and shock of mighty, contending armies.

In dealing with this great military drama, so far as Saline county was concerned, only naked facts and events will be given, without shade of coloring upon either side, as entirely as it is possible to do so. A simple statement of facts and a record of events is all- that is required or desired here.

Few actual battles were fought within the limits of Saline county. The tread of either great army was rarely heard within her borders. But the sympathies of the people of Saline were earnestly enlisted upon one or the other side ; and the passions then engendered have not yet been fully calmed and subdued, and hardly will bcj while this generation survives. There were many brave and gallant sons of Saline, tender and true, who wore the Gray, and many who wore the Blue, and laid down their precious lives for home and country. Their bones whiten every battle-field from Lexington, Mo., to Savannah, Ga. It was a question of principle upon both sides, and both believed they were right. The war involved certain principles, among others, that had been antagonistic for four thousand years, and could not be promiscuously upheld among one common people. The war was a necessity to settle and solve certain problems that could not remain unsolved, and could be solved in no other way. There was no real treason upon either side. In the war was found the solution of many problems - the sword cut many Gordian knots, and swept them forever out of the way, leaving the United States an indissoluble Union of indestructible States. True and knightly were these sons of Saline who took their lives in their hands and went out to the war, whether they wore the blue or the gray, and as brave as ever the six hundred who rode into the jaws of death at Balaklava. Whether gray or blue - these heroes - they died for home and country.

Waiting the Judgment day ; Under the laurel the Blue, Under the willow, the Gray. During the last three years of the conflict, Federal troops were almost continually in the county, but they were generally outposts, or scouting parties; and on the southern side guerrillas, and at two different times only, can large armies be said to have been on her soil, and once only is there a record of any fight that approached the dignity of a battle. Most of the citizens of the county were engaged upon one side or the other,- and some of the sons of Saline, as, for instance. Gov. Jackson and Gen. Marmaduke, played leading parts in the mighty drama, as it was played out, west of the great river.

Election Of Delegates To The State Convention

ELECTION OF DELEGATES TO THE STATE CONVENTION. In January, 1861, the legislature then sitting in Jefferson City, passed the act to consider the disturbed state of affairs, and fixed the 18th day of February, 1861, for the meeting of this convention in Jefferson City. At the election the vote in this county stood as follows :

Vote For Delegates To The Convention

As .the result of the election and the sending of such pronounced Union men as Jno. F. Phillips, S. L. Sawyer, and Vincent Marmaduke proved that as late as the 18th of February, 1861, the Union feeling in Saline was still stronger than ever. And thus it continued until the proclamation of President Lincoln, on the 15th of April, 1861, calling for volunteers to suppress the rebellion.

At this time, nine out of every ten of the citizens of Saline were from Virginia, Kentucky, or Tennessee. They had a strong sentimental love oi the Union, but they were generally opposed to coercion; and the president's proclamation produced a complete revulsion of feeling and sentiment, leaving, for the time, hardly any Union men in the county.

Preparatioks For The War

After a much disturbed and stormy sitting, the first session of the twenty-first general assembly adjourned sine die, March 28, 1861. It was re-convened, however, by Gov. Jackson in a proclamation dated April 22, " for the purpose of enacting such laws, and adopting such measures as ma}^ be deemed necessary and proper for the more perfect organization and equipment of the militia of the state, and to raise money and such other means as may be required to place the state in a proper attitude of defense."

This legislature passed various acts in conformity to the governor's proclamation, one of which provided for calling out, organizing and supporting the military forces of the state, called "the Missouri State Guards." This bill passed within fifteen minutes after the receipt of the news of the Camp Jackson affair.*

Meantime, the people of Saline had been gradually preparing for actual war, for to this complexion they knew the troubles and excitement then engaging the public mind would come at last. Many of them deplored this; many sought to avert it; a few affected to disbelieve it, some desired it and even courted it, and all, or very nearly all, at heart felt that war would come. Everybody talked of the prospects, and of but little else. Those who wanted the state to secede, and cast her fortunes with the Southern Confederacy, were largely in the minority at first, but they were vastly more aggressive and in earnest than the " submissionists," and this fact, together with the startling events which followed the refusal of the Federal government to evacuate Ft. Sumter, strengthened and increased their numbers every day.

The governor of the state was a citizen of the county, and to him the people looked as a safe counselor. He was known by his intimate personal friends to be a secessionist, but his position and his desire to act for the best interests of his state and its people, made him more cautious and reluctant to openly express his sentiments. He was the author of many resolutions passed by meetings of the citizens of various counties, all expressing the strongest sympathy and looking to ultimate connection with the Southern Confederacy. Upon these resolutions he expected to; base his future action. The people of Saline county, the old neighbors and friends of Gov. Jackson, had full confidence in him, and obeyed his orders cheerfully and with alacrity. Companies were made ready for organization, and to take the field whenever he should call for them. The first company raised was named in his honor and commanded by his nephew, who had resigned his place in the Federal army, and offered his sword to his native state.

by sharply defined lines into southern and northern sympathizers, or those who wished Missouri to go with the Confederate states, and those who desired the state to remain in the United States, of which the former were very largely in the ascendency in the county.

The May Meeting At Marshall

Irritated by President Lincoln's call for troops, and carried away by the fierce wave of excitement which swept over the state and almost frenzied the people, caused by the capture of Camp Jackson and the killing of many innocent citizens, men, women and children, on the 10th of May, 1861, in St. Louis, the people of Saline county assembled in the court house in Marshall, to express their sentiments, and to determine what to do. Under the angry excitement caused by the events of the tenth of May in St. Louis, this meeting included some men who, afterwards, in cooler moments, became the most earnest of Union soldiers, but who seemed now ready to aid in carrying the state into the arms of the Southern Confederacy. The people gathered into Marshall by hundreds, and the excitement was intense. The meeting organized in the court house by electing Judge McDaniel president, and W. A. Wilson, vice-president. A series of resolutions were oflered by Col. W. A. Wilson and unanimously adopted, strongly reprobating the course of Gen. Lyon in St. Louis, the president's call for troops, and calling on the convention then sitting . to resist coercion and, if need be, for the immediate passage of some act that would vindicate the majesty of the state.

At this meeting a finance committee was appointed for the raising and disbursement of money for military purposes, which committee, as finally fixed, consisted of Dr. C. E. Smith, H. S. Mills and T. W. B. Crews, Esq. Col. Wilson, F. M. Fulkerson, with one or two other prominent men, guaranteed the sum of $5,000 for arming Saline soldiers; but as events shaped themselves these gentlemen soon withdrew their names from the guaranty.

First Organization Of Military Companies

On the same day of this meeting. May 13, the organization of the "Saline Jackson Guards" was completed at Marshall, and there was a parade of the company and an election of officers. John S. Marmaduke, formerly of the Federal army, was chosen captain ; L. J. Gaines first lieutenant; Jas. H. Eakin second lieutenant, and P. D. Craddock third lieutenant. The company numbered 110 men, who were mostly from all parts of the county. This company was organized, pursuant to orders of Gov. Jackson, for state service, and was ordered to Jefferson City for purposes of drill and other work. It was mustered in the preceding day by Col. Clark, the district inspector.

beautiful flag to this company, on the daj' previous to its departure for Jefferson City (Wednesday, May 15). This flag was designed by and constructed under the direction of Mrs. John S. Davis, wife of the editor of the Democrat. Its design was the state coat of arms, in blue, on a white field, bound with blue, and finished with blue cord and tassels. It floated over the headquarters of the state troops during their stay at Jefferson City, and the design was afterward adopted by the authorities as the state flag of Missouri. The names of the ladies who made the flag were embroidered in the corners.

Gentlemen of the Saline Jackson Guards : I have the honor of presenting you, in behalf of the ladies of Marshall, with this banner, the emblem of your state, hoping you will receive it as a slight token of the high regard which is entertamed by them toward you, for the valor and patriotism you have displayed in the ready willingness to go where your country calls ; and while we feel confident that its honor will ever by you be gallantly protected and sustained, we hope that it may be to you in the hour of trial and of battle, an evidence of the interest that will ever be manifested by the ladies of your county in the glorious cause you have so nobly espoused, and which we hope, by the assistance of a Divine Providence (which we invoke), you may be ever as able, as we know you are willing, to maintain.

Captain Marmaduke gracefully received the flag, and made an appropriate acceptance speech, in true soldier style. Turning to the volunteers, he asked them if they were willing to stand by it, and the loud response was, "We will! we will!" The Captain then delivered it over to its bearer. Sergeant R. Gaines, who made a very pretty speech, in which, among many other things, he said: " We are called to repel the invasion of our territory and of our liberties as a state, and until that be effected this banner shall float over our contending hosts. It is for you that we fight. The weakness of woman is no defense against the violence of fanaticism. It is to avenge the slaughter of women and children that we take our arms, and our grasps shall not be relaxed, nor our energy abated until the barbarian emissaries of a ruthless tyrant shall be driven beyond our borders. I am proud that to my keeping is committed this banner, and, though it may be shattered and torn in the conflict, you have my pledge that it shall never trail in disgrace ; but, as the combat deepens, we will rally in very desperation of energy and proudly bear it aloft in the hour of victory, or compose it about us in the hour of death . It shall ever be found above us or around us ! "

The next day the company went in wagons to Sedalia, and from thence to Jefferson City over the Pacific railroad. Upon its arrival at the capital, Capt. Marmaduke was made colonel, and Lieut. Gaines became captain of the company. It was well armed and drilled, and attracted the admiration of all who saw it. It and three other companies from this county were present at the first fight at Booneville, June 17, famous as the first fight of any consequence after Ft. Sumter, between Federal and Secession troops - and also famous for the fast time made by some of the state troops (a few of the Saline boys included) in retreating. Indeed, this fight is yet often called from this circumstance, not the Booneville fight, but the " Booneville races."

At the time of the departure of the Jackson Guards for Jefferson City, there were other companies either wholly or partially organized, awaiting marching orders. Some of these were cavalry companies; one was commanded by Capt. Wm. B. Brown, and was raised in the eastern and northeastern portion of the county. Another was called the "Saline Mounted Rifles," and was formed chiefly of men from Miami township. T. W. B. Crews was captain, and John C. Barclay, Frank S. Robertson, and O. T. Sims were respectively first, second and third lieutenants. Another was raised near Fairville (then called Fairview), and was commanded by Captain Edward J. Brown. J. H. Irvine, R. T. Hutchinson, and John H. McDaniel were the lieutenants.

To Capt. Wm. B. Brown's company was presented a beautiful flag the next day after the presentation to the Jackson Guards. Miss Ethel Lewis made the presentation speech on the occasion, a very beautiful effort. Capt. Brown, Sergeant Robinson, and Mr. Tompkins responded. The design of this flag was fifteen stars on a blue field in a comer, the remainder of the banner being white. The ceremonies took place in front of the court house at Marshall.

C. M. Sutherlin, Joseph Elliot, and Richard Durrett were the lieutenants of this company, which, it is claimed, was the first cavalry company organized in Saline county.

Capt. Crews himself states that his company was neatly uniformed in gray, and was the first and only uniformed company of. Confederates to leave the county.

The Union Men Of Saline

Meantime, what were the Union men of Saline county - those who sympathized with " the North," as the Federal government was called - what were they doing? Nothing. Only waiting, watching and hoping. A few only wished to fight against their old neighbors and friends . The rest were waiting to see what time would tell, watching the movements of the Secessionists, and hoping for the best. Some of them, living in the northern part of the county, crossed the river later in the season, and making their way into northern Missouri, jomed the Union organizations, known as Home Guards. Others went to Georgetown and joined a company making up in Pettis county, and possibly a few went to Boonville and joined Eppstein's battalion, of German Unionists.

Not until the spring of 1862 was there a full company of Federals organized in the county, Capt. Benj. H. Wilson's company F, 7th cavalry, Missouri state militia, being the first organized at Marshall.

In July, 1861, a camp of state troops was organized at Robion Springs, a short distance east of Marshall. Here were gathered at one time about 3,000 troops. The camp was under the command of Col. Ed. Price, son of General Sterling Price; and Col. Congreve Jackson, who hadbesn Lieut. Colonel of Doniphan's regiment, on the famous expedition to Mexico. Re-enforcements from all parts of the state poured into this camp daily - by squads, by companies, by battalions. From north Missouri, especially, there came quite a number of volunteers, who, for the most part, crossed the river near Brunswick.*

" Camp Marshall," as it was called, was well arranged and quite well equipped with tents and other accommodations for its occupants. Provisions and blankets had, for the most part, been furnished by the soldiers themselves, but what was lacking in this particular, was provided by the people of the county, large numbers of whom visited the camp from time to time. The men were mostly mounted, and required not only food for themselves, but forage for their horses.

The camp was under a very rigorous discipline. The organizations' were mostly temporary and imperfect, and the men were without any previous military experience. No camp guard was established and the volunteers went where and when they pleased. On one occasion, a squad of men refused to go on a scout down towards Booneville, because it " looked like rain! " Privates fought at fisticuff with their officers, whenever the latter undertook to enforce obnoxious rules or orders, or attempted to " put on airs."

At Camp Marshall the news of the battle at Wilson creek and the victory won by Price and McCuUough greatly elated the volunteers, who though armed with only such weapons as they could easily obtain, were now more than ever "eager for the fray," and impatient at the delays which kept them in camp away from the enemy. But the bad news was mingled with the good. Col. Geo. W. Allen, a Saline county man, and an aid of Gen. Price,, had been killed on the field while bearing an order from his general.

At last the " armj- " broke up camp and marched away to join Gen. Price's army, which was reached, after an easy march, at Nevada, on September 2d. Thereafter the history of the men who were at Camp Marshall becomes the province of the historian who writes of the civil war in general.

Fibst Battle Op Booneville

This battle (if battle it could fairly be called) was not only the first in which citizens of Saline county were actively engaged, but was also the very first engagement on land between Federal and state troops - the actual beginning of that long and bloody war.

In the spring of 1861, Lieut. John S. Marmaduke of Saline, resigned his commission, and proceeded to raise a company in his native county. Under Gov. Jackson's call for 50,000 state troops on the 13th of June, 1861, this company was immediately received and mustered in. Soon after reaching headquarters, Capt. Marmaduke was elected colonel of a regiment composed of his own and other companies. At this time, when the Federal forces under Gen. Lyon were known to be approaching, Gen. Price was sick in bed at his home in Chariton county, the brigadier generals were all in different parts' of the state, organizing their commands under the call of the governor, and the state troops at Booneville were commanded by Col. Marmaduke (under Gov. Jackson). They did not number, all told, over eighteen hundred men; and hardly one-third (not over six hundred), of these had any arms at all, and these were mostly armed with shot-guns and no artillery. In the council of war at Booneville both Gov. Jackson and Col. Marmaduke were strongly opposed to giving battle at all, to the well appointed and well disciplined army of from 1,500 to 2,000 men, moving against them under Gen. Lyon. But the raw volunteers, though without discipline, and almost without arms, were full of enthusiasm and fight, and would hear to no counsels of prudence. Col. Marmaduke did all in his power, by arguments that were absolutely unanswerable, to prevent a battle, and to carry his advice, of immediately removing the governor and the troops under his command, to a fixed point in the southwest part of the state, as headquarters and rendezvous. But Gov. Jackson, though convinced that he was right, was overpowered by the zeal and enthusiasm of the raw captains and men, and issued peremptory orders to Col. Marmaduke to meet Gen. Lyon and deliver battle.

Marmaduke marched his six hundred half armed troops down six miles below Booneville, and strongly posted them on the blufl's, just where the state road rises from the river bottom and ascends to the bluffs. Here they were encountered by Gen. Lyon with an admirably appointed little, army, consisting of regulars, and German volunteer regiments, and a full battery of artillery. The state troops received the first onset of the Federals with a courage and steadiness that proved their metal, and redeemed somewhat the rashness of their former counsels, and none more so than the Saline men, led by Capt. Brown, who had been foremost in the unwise counsels of the previous day. The explosion of nine pound shells from the battery of the enemy was soon, however, too much for them, and they fell back into a wheat field on the crest of the bluffs. Here, for half an hour, they stood so steadily and received the Federals with a fire so galling and well sustained, that, what before was a mere skirmish actually assumed the appearance of a battle. But the odds were too great, and the battle was speedily over. ,

Finding, as he expected, that the Federals were too numerous, too well armed, and too well drilled to be successfully resisted by raw recruits, Col. Marmaduke gave the order to retreat. The state troops had now become fully satisfied that Marmaduke was right in his previous counsels, and the order to retreat was obeyed with a lively vim that has caused this battle to be often designated by the Missourians themselves, "the Boonville races." It is said that it only took some of the Saline men, who made Marshall their objective point, three hours to reach it, though forty-two miles from the scene of action. The number of killed and wounded was, of course, greatly exaggerated on both sides, at the time. Two men were killed on the Federal side, and nine wounded, none seriously - three also were killed on the side of the state troops and the number of wounded never reported. The Federal forces under Gen. Lyon marched on to Booneville and took quiet possession, the state troops, those of them who had not dispersed for their homes under the impetus of the " races " retired to Syracuse, where they met Gen. Parsons with several pieces of artillery, from whence they retreated to the southwest.

Quite a number of the Saline county men who participated in this fight received a great deal of chaffing and teasing on their hasty retreat, as they deserved, but the most, if not all, of them afterward redeemed themselves, on other fields and amid other«scenes.

In the summer and early fall of 1861, a circumstance occurred which was of some importance to Gov. Jackson's troops, and interested many of the citizens of Saline county.

Before the battle of Booneville, and just previous to the abandonment of Jefferson City by Gov. Jackson with the state troops and government, 12,000 kegs of gunpowder were sent off from the capital to Booneville by boat, and from there scattered in wagons through the counties of Cooper, Saline, etc., and there secreted by a detachment under Capt. Kelly of the State Guards. This powder belonged to the state, and about one-half of it was secreted on different farms in Saline, where it remained concealed until it was gradually collected by the Missouri soldiers, nearly all of it passing finally into the service of the Confederacy. It was concealed on the farms in every imaginable way, and in curious and unique places, for it was necessary to baffle not only the search of Federal soldiers, but also the keen and indefatigable curiosity of the negro slaves, then on every farm, and who were continually on the watch, and prompt to report every suspicious movement of their masters. The hiding had to be accomplished in the "wee sma' hours," when even the negroes were generally asleep. As an instance - ex-Senator Parsons, of Miami, successfully concealed about thirty kegs, of this powder in his hog-pen, in a comer of it where he had prepared a sort of bed for the hogs, and under this hog-bed of straw and fodder the thii ty kegs of powder were buried. It would be impossible to give the names of all those who received and concealed this powder, and it would require volumes to describe the different methods by which they all effected its concealment. In a few rare cases it was discovered by the negroes and reported, but these cases were very few.

At the battle of Lexington much of this powder was used in compelling the surrender of the gallant Col. Mulligan and his men. Indeed, it proved very serviceable and "handy to have around" on many occasions.

Shortly after the battle of Lexington, and the retreat of Gen. Price to the southwest, the Second Missouri Cavalry Volunteers, sometimes called Merrill's Horse, froai the colonel, Lewis Merrill, made its appearance in Saline, being the first Federal troops to invade the county. The regiment crossed the Blackwater at the Napton bridge, passed around by Arrow Rock, across the northern part of the county, to Waverly; from thence to Marshall, and back to Sedalia, from which point it had started on its scout, or raid. At Marshall the regiment stopped a few hours, slaughtered a beef for dinner, and made the acquaintance of a number of the citizens. There was no disorder- or lawlessness on the part of the soldiers. Col. Merrill had been an officer in the regular army, and was a strict disciplinarian, who kept his men under complete control.

The appearance of Col. Merrill's men in the county was regarded with much interest by the citizens, many of whom beheld Federal soldiers for the first time. They were well armed, mounted, and clothed, and in these particulars made a much better appearance than had the southern troops that had been in the county, although they were not capable of doing any braver fighting.

Capture Of Robinson'S Regiment

About the middle of December, 1861, a regiment of southerners, nearly all of whom were citizens of Saline county, and destined for Gen. Price's army, rendezvoused at the Grand Pass church, and there elected their officers, and effected a temporary organization. Col. Frank Robinson was elected colonel, and Col. Alexander, lieutenant-colonel. The regiment was about 600 strong. Captains Ruxtofi and Garrett were among the number of Saline county men elected captains on that occasion. On the 16th of December, 1861, this regiment commenced its march south, and on that same night reached Blackwater creek, in Johnson county, and encamped in a horse-shoe bend of the creek. Worn out with their long day's march of near 40 miles, the whole regiment slept, sentinels, pickets, and all, and two prisoners whom they had captured, escaped, and, it is supposed, carried the news of their whereabouts to Gen. JefF. C. Davis, who, with two or three thousand Federal troops, was cruising about to intercept just such gatherings of men as this.

At any rate, early the next morning the regiment found themselves surrounded in the bend of the creek by a portion of Gen. Davis' command. The Federals had approached very close before they were observed. The regiment was immediately drawn up in line, and delivered one fire, which the Federals returned, killing one man, and then retired about 400 yards. Gen. Davis then sent, under a white flag, a communication stating his force and position and demanding an unconditional surrender. Comparatively unarmed, and wholly undisciplined as thej^ were, to fight with any hope of success, was out of the question, and the whole regiment surrendered - except a few, who by scattering, each man for himself, escaped and returned home, and fewer still, who in the same manner, succeeded in reaching Col. Clarkson's command, sent up by Gen. Price to convey through a body of men who had crossed the river at Lexington. Many of the very best and most substantial citizens of Saline county were in this Blackwater capture. The prisoners, in all nearly 600, were marched to Sedalia, and there put upon a train and sent to St. Louis, where they were incarcerated in the old McDowell college. Here, and afterwards at Alton, Illinois, they were held until ihey all gradually took the prescribed oath and were released, except about 100 of them, who were regularly exchanged in the summer or fall of 1862, and entered the Confederate army.

Upon the authoritj' of a certain Federal officer who was engaged in the capture of Robinson's command, it may be stated that the Federals had information of the raising of the regiment and its designs long before it left Saline county.

The summer of 1861 wore on apace, and the pall of war hung heavier and heavier over Saline, as well as over the whole country. In June, 1861, the Saline County Herald, edited by Col. Allen, and the Democrat, edited by John S. Davis - the Herald the earnest advocate of Bell and Everett, and the Democrat either of Douglas or Breckenridge - were consolidated into the Marshall Democrat, and finally suspended July 31, 1861, and no further effort was made to establish a newspaper in Saline county during the war, or until the Progress was established in Marshall, in 1866.

About the first of July the mails stopped in Marshall, and were suspended until the county was reorganized under the Gamble provisional government in the spring of 1862. Money became exceedingly scarce, necessaries were very diflScult to obtain, and the merchants were compelled to adopt the cash system. Sugar and coffee soon became an unknown quantity, and many shifts were made to supply their places.

When Governor Gamble, then provisional governor of the state, issued his call for 42,000 state militia, to defend Missouri against the public enemy, /. e. the Confederate states, very few individuals, even, had, up to this time, enlisted or volunteered in the Federal army. Under the stimulus of Gov. Gamble's call, however, Union men volunteered, and several different companies were organized in the county, besides the individuals who joined other military organizations. At the battle of Lexington, September 12, 1861, in which, after an obstinate defense of eight days. Col. Mulligan, finally surrendered, many citizens left their homes in Saline, and repaired to Lexington, to witness the siege or battle. Both Unionists and Secessionists were there as mere spectators, and some of the latter were there, with their squirrel rifles and shot-guns, to aid, on their " own hook," without joining the army.

In the latter part of November, Gen. Price issued his second call, a most earnest and eloquent one, for 50,000 men. Stimulated by it, large numbers of citizens prepared to join his standard.

Second Battle Of Booneville

On the 13th of September, 1861, Colonel William Brown of Saline, at the head of a raw, undisciplined and half-armed regiment, recruited from Saline and neighboring counties, numbering about 600 men, instead of proceeding immediately to the southern arm3', determined to attack the troops (home guards), stationed at Booneville, and thus was fought the SECOND BATTLE OF BOONEVILLE.

Col. Brown, a native of Kentucky, was not only one of the bravest, but also one of the rashest of men. The Federals were strongly intrenched in the Booneville fair grounds, and their positionjwas absolutely impregnable without artillery. Col. Brown was earnestlyadvised before and after he reached Booneville, to abandon the enterprise. But the same headstrong rashness that characterized him at the first battle of Booneville, possessed him here, and led him on to his death.

The fortifications were attacked simultaneously and impetuously at three points. On the southeast. Col. Brown led the attack in person, and made two determined charges up to the breastworks, but each time was compelled to fall back. In the second charge Col. Brown fell mortally wounded within a few feet of the breastworks, and his brother, Capt. Mason Brown, in command of a Saline county company, fell dead close , by him. The same result attended the attacks at both the other points; and, after the death of Col. Brown, the command devolving on Maj.

Poindexter, a cessation of hostilities ensued. Under a flag of truce, an arrangement was entered into by the two commanders for an armistice of six days, during which Maj. Poindexter withdrew his forces from the city, returned to Glasgow, and from thence marched to Price's army, then on the way to the southwest.

In August, 1861, the convention, having declared the offices of governor, lieutenant-governor and secretary of state vacant, and appointed H. R. Gamble, of St. Louis, provisional governor; W. P. Hall, of Buchanan, lieutenant-governor, and Mordecai Oliver, of Greene, secretary of state, proceeded to vacate the offices of all the other state and county officials who should fail to take the prescribed oath of allegiance, and file the same. The county court of Saline consisted of Robt. Dysart, presiding judge; Joseph Field and E. P. Garnett, judges, and Jesse Davis, clerk, and D. W. Marmaduke, sheriff. The last court under the old regime met December 3d, 1861. The court met with Dysart and Field present, Davis, clerk, and J. H. McAllister, sheriff, and adjourned to meet on the first Monday of February, 1862. But before that time their offices were declared vacant, and the February session never took place. The governor (by the grace of the convention), had appointed three other county judges, and had called the court to meet April 21, 1862. On that day the court did meet, and the record begins with the following entries:

Robert Dysart, Joseph Field, and E. P. Garnett, late justices of the county court for Saline county, having failed to take the oath of allegiance to the government of the United States, and the provisional government of the state of Missouri, as prescribed by an ordinance of the state convention of the state of Missouri, their offices, as such, were in consequence thereof, vacated, in accordance with the provisions of said ordinance. Whereupon Lieut.-Governor Hall, acting governor, appointed Wm. O. Maupin, Fred M. Fulkerson, and Ed. W.Sims, to fill said vacancies; who, having been commissioned and qualified according to law, and having given the requisite notice, as required by law, called a special term of the Saline county court to meet in Marshall, on the 2 1 st of April, A. D. 1862.

The county court, having met on said day, in pursuance of said call, at which were present Wm. O. Maupin, F. M. Fulkerson, Edward Sims, judges, and Paschal E. Maupin, coroner, proceeded to the transaction of business.

The judges then proceeded to draw lots for the terms, which resulted as follows: E. W. Sims drew the term ending August, 1862; Wm. 0. Maupin, the term ending August, 1864, and F. M. Fulkerson, the term ending August, 1866.

It is ordered. By the court that all attorneys af law be, and they are hereby required to lake and file the oath of allegiance, as prescribed by ordinance of state convention, before they be permitted to practice in this court.

It is ordered, That James R. Berryman be, and he is hereby appointed clerk of the Saline county court, to fill the vacancy occasioned bj' the failure of Jesse Davis, late clerk, to take and file the oath of allegiance, as required by an ordinance of the state convention.

In the winter of the years 1861-2 there were no military movements in Saline county of very great importance or interest. There were no Federal troops stationed in the county for any length of time, and the Confederate troops were far away. Agents of the latter visited the county, however, on recruiting service and were fairly successful. Squads of men for the southern army were organized in nearly every part of the county and made their way to " Old Pap Price " through the blockade established by the Federals.

Capture Of Jo. Inglehart And His Company

In the winter of 1861-2, in January and February, Captain Jo. Inglehart was busy raising a company in Marshall, which, by the last of February was about ready to march for the southern army. About this time the stage from Booneville carrying the U. S. eastern mail, was halted by disguised men in the woods near Marshall. The mail bags were taken from it, taken out into the woods off the road and gutted. Instead of leaving for the southern army immediate!}', Capt. Inglehart with his company still loitered in Marshall, until one fine day early in March, 1862, they suddenly found themselves and the town of Marshall in the hands of Captain Kiser from Booneville with a battalion of U. S. troops. Not a gun was fired. Inglehart was taken to St. Louis and tried for robbing the U. S, mail, but as no direct evidence could be found against him, he was finally acquitted, and exchanged. Afterwards he served in Shelby's Missouri brigade.

Capture And Rescue Op Capt. Riser'S Men

In the early spring of 1862, company A, of Eppstein battalion of "home guards," at Booneville, came up into Saline county on a scouting expedition. The company was commanded by Capt. John B. Kiser or Kaiser (pronounced Kizer), and numbered about sixty men, very nearly all of whom were Germans. Making Marshall their headquarters and general place of rendezvous, the company was divided up into squads and sent throughout the county to reconnoiter, etc. While one of these squads, numbering about a dozen men, was marching along north of Salt Fork and between Miami and Marshall, they were suddenly surrounded and captured, without the firing of a gun, by a large company of newly recruited Confederates, from north Missouri, under a Captain Small, making their way to Price's army.

The Germans were kept as prisoners for a few days on Cow creek, and were confined for a time in the Rock Church, in Marshall township. They were guarded for a while by volunteers from the neighborhood. At last their comrades procured re-enforcements from Marshall and Booneville, and making an incursion into the neighborhood where they were held, re-captured them, at the church, without difficulty, and returned in triumph with them to Marshall. The church was set on fire and destroyed. Upon meeting with each other, the two detachrnents - the prisoners and their rescuers - set up a joyful jabber in German, which was kept up until long after their arrival in Marshall.

One of the volunteers, who guarded the Germans at the Rock Church, was a young man who had returned a few months before from service in Price's army, his term having expired. He therefore was performing military duty while not in the military service, a very serious violation of the laws of war. A few weeks thereafter, he decided to leave the county for his own good, and boarded a steamer at Arrow Rock, bound down the river. When he sat down at dinner, lo! there confronting him at the table, was one of those same Germans! Luckily, the Teuton did not remember faces well, but the patriotic Confederate saw him leave the boat at Booneville, with great relief. Upon that voyage, as upon all others down the stream of life, he was luckily able to steer his Boat right, and he is now a prosperous real estate dealer in Marshall.

The first U. S. troops regularly stationed in Marshall came in the spring (April), 3862, consisting of Captain Wakefield's Irish company (Co. D.), of the Seventh regiment, Missouri infantry volunteers. Col. John D. Stevenson. From this time on, Marshall was almost continuously a post occupied by U. S. troops. Capt. Wakefield's company remained only a short time, and was succeeded, in May or June, 1862', by a battalion of the Seventh regiment, Missouri cavalry volunteers, under Maj. McKee. Under the general order of Gen. Fremont, declaring martial law, Maj. McKee established the post, an-d appointed Capt. Love, company L, same regiment, provost marshal of Saline county. Maj. McKee remained in command only two or three months, and was succeeded by Lieut.-Col. W. A. Wilson, of Marshall, then of the 71st enrolled Missouri militia. A large force of Confederates had organized, under Colonels Cockrell, Jackman, Coffey, and others, and were in Jackson and Johnson counties, threatening Kansas City and Lexington. Col. Huston, then in command at Lexington, called in all of the militia in Lafayette and Saline counties to defend his post. A "big fight" was expected. It came ofi", but at Lone Jack, in Jackson county, instead of at Lexington.

Upon the receipt of his orders from Gen. Totten, Maj. McKee issued the following order to Lieut. A. Burnsides, of the Seventy-first enrolled Missouri militia:

Lieutetiant: Orders have just been received from Gen. Totten, by telegraph, directing that the companies of the 7th Cav., now at Marshall, and all loyal militia of Saline county be ordered, forthwith, to march to Lexington. You will, as soon as possible, on receipt of this communication, march, with your entire command, including the militia, to this post. You will, before leaving, publish an order, directing all the loyal citizens between the prescribed ages, in Saline county, to repair forthwith to Lexington, and state therein, that all who do not come will be held as traitors, and hereafter can claim no protection from the Federal government. You will subsist and forage the militia upon rebels of all shades. When it is absolutely necessary to take from Union men, give them receipts in the name of the state of Missouri. Arms and ammunition will be furnished at Lexington to those who have not got them.

The above is an order of Col. Daniel Huston, received by me this day. Bring all the arms and ammunition you can raise ; also for every man that has a horse, to bring him. You must provide yourselves with the necessary cooking utensils and blankets. Let every man bring with him two or three days provisions, and report yourselves at this post irhmediately. I shall move from this post Tuesday at 12 o'clock.

Col. Wilson was in command of the post at Marshall until June, 1863, when he was succeeded by Major Geo. W. Kelly, of the 4th cavalry, Missouri state militia, who continued in command for some months.

In consequence of apprehended trouble from guerrilla bands at this time infesting the country, no court was held according to adjournment. The court thereupon gave legal notice that a special term of said court would be held at the court house in Marshall on the 15th day of September, 1862.

In the early spring of 1862 quite a number of the Union men of Saline county enlisted in the Federal service in the various companies then being formed in the county. Many men who had been secessionists at the breaking out of the troubles now became ardent loyalists, ready to justify their pretensions and seal their faith with their blood! The imposing display made by the Federal troops that had passed through the county, their superior equipment to the half-armed, half-clad Confederates; the magnitude of the preparation then being made by the authorities at Washington "for the suppression of the rebellion;" the continual demonstration of the immense resources of the north, and the probable failure ultimately of the Southern Confederacy, and the certainty of good pay in money of nearly par value - these considerations may have moved some to abandon the stars and bars and rally around the "old flag." And yet, without any positive evidence that this is so, it is but fair and just to believe that there was an actual change of heart, honest and sincere, among these men, and that they abandoned the Confederate and embraced the Union cause for the reason that they believed the former to be wrong and the latter to be right.

March 24, 1862, Capt. R. L. Ferguson, then of Miami, received a commission to recruit a company for the Seventh regiment of enrolled Missouri militia. The company ("B") was made up of men from Saline and other counties in this part of the state. April 17, 1862, Capt. Ben. H. Wilson and Lieut. John S. Crane recruited company " F" of the same regiment, mostly in Saline county.

The Seventh regiment, whose colonel was John F. Phillips, afterward member of Congress, and whose lieutenant-colonel was T. T. Crittenden, afterward governor of the state, did a great deal of service for the Union cause from first to last in Missouri.

Fighting Begins In Earnest

Hitherto there had been no collisions between the forces in this county of any consequence, but from the spring of 1862, to the close of the war, there were many small skirmishes and unimportant encounters between the Confederates and Union men, or Federals. These were for the most part between scouting parties of the Federal militia and the Confederate partisan rangers, or "bushwhackers," or "guerrillas," as they were termed - the latter being organizations led by men who held no rnilitary commissions, but did as they pleased, or as they could. They lived on the country, armed and uniformed themselves, and took their pay out of what they could capture.

These little skirmishes usually amounted to an exchange of shots, the killing or wounding of one or two men, and a speed)^ retreat. Probably the first of these encounters was the ^

Fight At Meadow Spring

In May, 1862, Capt. Hawk, of a conipany of Iowa cavalry, of the Federal army, having been stationed at Waverly for some time, was informed by two negroes, belonging to Baltimore Thomas, that the bushwhackers were near that place. He immediately started with his company in pursuit of them. Following up the trail into the timber, north of Mr. Thomas' house, they came upon seventeen guerrillas, seated around what is known as the Meadow Spring, eating their breakfast, and charged them. The guerrillas at once scattered and took refuge in the brush. A sharp fight then ensued, which resulted in the death of Lieut. Woods, whose breast was literally riddled with buck-shot, and the wounding of Capt. Hawk, in the right arm.

The guerrillas made good their escape. Capt. Hawk was tenderly cared for at the residence of Mr. Geo. Hall, a southern man, in Waverly, and the dead lieutenant was buried with military honors, at the Waverly graveyard, at night, making a most impressive scene.

The guerrillas were commanded by Wm. B. Edwards, afterward a captain in Shelby's regiment, and known as " Squirrel-tail " Edwards, from the circumstance of his having worn a squirrel-tail plume in his hat when he was in command of this irregular organization. He afterward deserted Shelby's regiment, and engaged in robbing the people of Arkansas, without regard to their politics. He was killed by a company of Arkansas Confederate militia.

The War During 1863

In 1863 the county was under the control of the Federals, as it had been from February, in 1862. Federal garrisons were stationed at Marshall, Arrow Rock, and Miami, from time to time and with but few intervals. Federal scouting parties were almost constantly in the county, scouring it thoroughly from one border to the other. Federal militia were organized, armed, and equipped in various parts. Federal affiliators and sympathizers held all the offices in the county.

But, Federal rule was very obnoxious to the majority of the citizens. For one reason it was distasteful because it was, or seemed so, rigorous and oppressive; for another, and the stronger reason, it was obnoxious because it was Federal, and not Confederate, For there was no mistaking the fact that a majority of the people were at heart Confederates and sym- pathized and acted with the southern cause. Many of them had been Union people at the beginning of the troubles, but the course of the Federal commanders, and the conduct of the men under them changed them into pronounced Confederate sympathizers, and indeed made many of them Confederate soldiers. There were those who wished to take no part in the fighting then going on ; they wished to remain at home and to pursue their ordinary avocations in peace and unmolested ; they desired that the soldiers of both armies should keep out of their neighborhoods and avoid all collision in their vicinity. They did not wish to fight against the flag of the stars and stripes, nor against their own race, neighbors and kindreds.

But the Federal theory of the war was that there were but two parties. Unionists and Confederates; there could be no such thing as neutrality. He that was not for them was against them ; and he that was for them must show his faith by his works. Hence they called on men freely for their property and their services, and demanded ready compliance. "If you are a loyal man, you will not complain; if you are a rebel, it but serves you right," was the uniform reply to any remonstrance, protest, or expostulation.

This theorj' had its advocates among the Confederates, who quite often carried it into practice, and mayhap it was the correct one after all. In time of and in the immediate presence of war, men can hardly expect to till a cornfield in peace when every day there is a probability that it will be the scene of a cavalry charge ; to plow another field for wheat one day when the next it may be plowed by shot and shell ; when the horses used to draw the wains of grain and hay are bestrode by troopers or harnessed to gun carriages in an hour or two; when dwelling houses are used for hospitals, and barns converted into barracks.

In Saline county the people felt the hand of war, and it was hard and heavy. Bands of militia daily rode up to the houses of men of southern proclivities and demanded food for themselves and provender for their horses, and obtained them without money and without price . Companies of Confederates paid similar visits to the homes of Union men. Horses were "pressed," and provisions and material were confiscated by both parties. Excesses, not to call them outrages, were daily perpetrated. The bad men, the scoundrels and villains of both sides found opportunity to pillage, to rob, and to murder. The details of many instances of these crimes against humanity, even against the laws of war, ought not to be perpetuated, and will not here be given.

During the year 1863 there were a number of encounters in the county, too many and too unimportant to be enumerated. The principal military event was the invasion of the state by Gen. Shelby, then a colonel, and known as Shelby's raid. _

Shelby'S Raid

In September, 1863, Col. Jo. O. Shelby, then with the trans-Mississippi department of the Confederate army, in Arkansas, selected a body of men from the Missouri cavalry regiments of that army and began the now famous " Shelby's raid." The objects of this raid, as stated by Shelby himself, were to obtain recruits for the Confederate army from among the many then in Missouri who were strong sympathizers with the southern cause, many of whom had seen more or less service already, and were at home on parole, to capture supplies from the Federals, and to let the world, and especially the people of Missouri, know that this portion of American soil was still claimed as a part of the Ccr:'"ederate states, and was not to be abandoned. The presence of a Confederate force was thought to be necessary to restore and maintain confidence in the breasts of those who had begun to doubt the success of their cause, which had no other representatives in this territory save the guerrillas, and who had for months been under the control of the Federal troops.

Just how many men Shelby had with him when he left Arkansas cannot now be known. Maj. Edwards, of Shelby's stafi", and author of " Shelby and his Men," places the number at eight hundred. There were Shelby's regiment, commanded by Capt. Geo. P. Gordon ; Shank's regiment, commanded by himself; Thompson's regiment, commanded by Lt.-Col. Hooper; Elliott's battalion, and two guns of Collins' battery, in charge of Lt. David Harris, when the expedition started. Afterwards it was joined by Col. Coifey's and Col. David Hunter's regiments, m!aking a force of probably one thousand men. One of the guns was a ten-pound steel Parrott gun, captured at Springfield, and the other was a six-pounder brass piece captured from the Federals at the battle of Lone Jack, in August, 1862.

Starting from camp on the Washita river, in southern Arkansas, Sept. 22, 1863, Shelby struck straight for central Missouri. It seemed a desperate undertaking to ride with so small a force into what was virtually an enemy's country, filled as it was with Federals at nearly every county seat and important town, easy to concentrate into an overwhelming force upon either of his flanks, his front, or his rear, or upon all sides; but Shelby was a desperate fighter who took desperate chances, and his men were ever ready to follow where he led. They would do so upon any occasion, and now they were going back to old Missouri and all of them were old Missourians! Such a ride meant iron endurance and incessant fighting with the alternative of death or capture - and probably capture meant death.

the town. Maj. Leonard, with 250 Federal militia, began to cross from the Howard county side on a steam ferry boat into Booneville. As they were about to land they were informed of Shelby's presence in the place, and immediately they put back for the northern shore. Harris's cannon were turned on the ferry boat, striking it twice before it reached the north bank. The guns continued to play on the troops as they landed, causing them to beat a hasty retreat into the country back from the river. Col. Crittenden, (now governor of the state) with a detachment of the 7th cavalry, Missouri state militia, was in sight of Booneville, on a boat bound up the river, and learning the condition of affairs, also landed on the northern shore.

As Shelby left Booneville for Marshall, on the morning of the 12th, Gen. E. B. Brown with a force of Missouri state militia, marched in with his command in pursuit of Shelby. It seems impossible at this time to - determine how many troops Gen. Brown had with him. There were about 650 men of the 1st M. S. M. under Lt. Col. B. F. Lazear; 360 of the 4th M. S. M. under Maj. G. W. Kelly; a portion of the M. S. M., under Col. John F. Phillips, since member of congress from the Sedalia district; and some enrolled militia under Maj. Wear, or Ware, of Booneville.

Sunrise on the 12th found Shelby on his march for Saline and Lafayette counties, the homes of very many of his men. Instead of taking the direct road from Booneville to Marshall by way of Arrow Rock, Shelby turned southwest on the Sedalia road, and pursued it for several miles in order to cross the Lamine river at Dug ford instead of at the regular crossing on the Arrow Rock road. All the morning his rear guard skirmished with Brown's advance. Col. Lazear and other officers of the Federal force were anxious to bring on a general engagement with Shelby before he crossed the Lamine, but for some reason Brown would not permit such action to be taken. He had been informed by what he deemed good authority, that the Confederates outnumbered him, and probably he was expecting and waiting for re-inforcements frOm Gen. Ewing's command, a portion of which was at Sedalia, and could easily move in Shelby's front.

At Dug ford, Shelby crossed and ambushed Hunter's battalion, Jones' Langhorn's, Ferrill's, and Lea's companies, upon the west bank of the stream. When Brown's advance was almost across, it was met by a terrible and destructive fire from the carbines and revolvers of the concealed Confederates, and driven back with a loss of from eight to ten men killed, and three times that many wounded. Maj. Edward's account (" Shelby and his Men," p. 217), of this affair places the number of Federal killed and wounded at one hundred and eleven. Levens & Drake's HistoVy of Cooper County, p. 114, says there were "two Federals killed."

No attempt is here made to reconcile the wide discrepancy in the statements of other histories. What is here set down has been derived from participants in the Dug ford fight upon both sides, the Federal surgeon who cared for the wounded among others.

The Confederates were not troubled any more that day until in the evening, when near the Salt Fork, in the township of that name, and close to the residence of Mr. George A. Murrell. Here the Federals ran up a section of artillery (two brass six-pound guns), from Thurber's Missouri battery, and opened fire upon Shelby's rear. Harris's guns returned the fire, and one Federal and one Confederate were killed. The Federal had both legs shot off. He was carried into th^ house of Mr. Murrell and died in a few minutes. The Confederate was buried where he fell.

The Fight At Marshall

Shelby left Arrow Rock to the right and pushed on to the farm of Mr. George Nave, where he encamped for the night. His camp-fires were in plain sight of those of Gen. Brown, and the pickets were still closer to each other. Shelby's men helped themselves quite freely to the supplies which were found in abundance upon the Nave farm, and of which they stood very much in need. During the evening Mr. Nave visited Shelby's headquarters to obtain pay for what had been taken. He was promptly paid $500 - in Confederate money I

The following account of the subsequent movements of Shelby's forces and those of the Federals is taken from " Shelby and his Men," p. 217, et seq. :

A wet, clinging morning, cold a:nd disagreeable, came at last, and Shelby began the march early for Marshall. There might be danger ahead, and he expected it, but not so sudden and appalling. When within two miles of Marshall, Thorp sent a swift courier. Weed Marshall, back with information that a heavy body of Federals were forming in his front. "Charge them ! " was the laconic order. " But, Colonel, they are four thousand strong," replied the heroic Thorp, as he formed for the desperate attempt. "Ah! what.'"' said Shelby; "four thousand devils! Then we are in for it deeper than I expected."

True enough, just emerging from the little prairie town of Marshall, and forming their lines so as to cover it, could be seen four thousand Federals, of all arms, under General Ewing. * * * Previous to Shelby's advance into the state, Quantrell had destroyed Lawrence and annihilated Blunt's escort at Fort Webster, which concentrated a large force immediately to pursue him, and this force, after his escape south, had returned to meet Shelby and crush him wherever encountered. In conjunction also with Ewing came Gen. Brown from Jeft'erson City, with four thousand additional troops in the rear, and when at last Shelby was brought to bay, eight thousand soldiers girt him round with walls of steel. Two miles east of Marshall ran Salt Fork, a stream sometimes deep and rapid, but now offering small impediments against its crossing. A large bridge spanned it where the main road crossed, which he immediately destroyed after everything had passed, and Colonel Shelby then called up Major Shanks, commanding the rear battalion, and said to him, very calmly, but with the deliberate utterance of a man terribly in earnest: "Major, General Brown will be here in half an hour. How long can you hold this crossing with two hundred against four thousand?" "As long as you wish it. Colonel - an hour, a day or a week." "Very well; I shall attack Ewing in front and endeavor to drive him from my path, but it is an up-hill business, I fear. However, if it takes just two hundred of your two hundred men, and yourself besides, never let go your hold on yonder stream until I order it; and when you do come to me come like the wind, for I shall be pressed to the wall before I cry for help." "Mounted or dismounted, Colonel, had I better form?" asked Shanks, as if the most ordinary commission in life had been given him. " Dismounted, for your horses' sake. They will all be needed."

Shanks threw forward two companies on either flank for a mile up and down the river and waited coolly for the avalanche. Shelby galloped to the front after grasping this peerless officer's hand' as one he never expected to see again. The Confederate war for independence furnished no grander example of heroic courage and defiance than was exhibited this day by Marshall town. The battle field, rent and broken by huge gullies, and covered with a thick growth of hazel bushes, was peculiarly unfitted for the desperate charge Col. Shelby intended to make squarely upon Ewing's center, and he was forced to dismount his brigade and fight at a disadvantage. Hunter and Coffey were on the extreme right, operating directly against the town, Hooper in the center and Gordon on the left. Ewing formed his lines in the shape of a V, the point resting on Marshall, and the two prongs extending to the right and left of Shelby's position, thus enfilading his lines with artillery and musketry. Lieutenants Ferrell and Plattenburg, leading the skirmishers on the left, sprang away from Gordon's lines and engaged fiercely. Hunter and Coffey advanced upon the right through the dense bushes and under a dreadful fire, while Hooper and Gordon, moving up to support their skirmishers, the action became bloody almost immediately. Eighteen pieces of artillery concentrated upon Shelby's two guns a withering fire, and not a portion of his fines were exempt from the bullets of the enemy. A charge along the whole front drove Ewing back upon the town, fofced him to change his position and retire two of his batteries, which were admirably served. He in turn concentrated upon Hunter and Coffey, and drove them a short distance with a severe loss, but Hooper swinging round by a well-executed flank movement swept Ewing's left wing bloodily back and followed the survivors into the streets of the town. Fresh masses poured from the rear and made good the losses, and the battle raged evenly for two hours, eight hundred men fighting four thousand and driving them at all points. Confederates fell fast and Col. Shelby saw go by him to the rear his best and bravest, now all pale and bloody, and the dark hour was on Saul. Ewing extended his cavalry to Salt Fork above and below, and thus surrounded completely the little band of determined men fighting for dear life. Look where one would, the prairie was dark with uniforms and bristling with glittering steel.