Bushwhackers 02: Rebel County

Bushwhackers 02: Rebel County

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At Kirksville , Porter made a serious mistake in engaging Union forces under Col. John McNeil, whom he knew to have cannon — perhaps in overconfidence, as a result of his sharpshooters' ability to pick off the Federal artillerymen at Santa Fe. Traveling light had been Porter's great advantage -- "His troops lived off the country, and every man was his own quartermaster and commissary," in contrast to the elaborate baggage and supply trains of McNeil "History of Shelby County".

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Here Porter suffered unequivocal defeat, from which he would not recover. Poindexter in Chariton County, known to have 1, or 1, recruits; their combined forces would be able to force a passage of the Missouri River at Glasgow or Brunswick, and open a line to the Confederacy.

Alexander Woolfolk, coming up to unite with McNeil. There was a brief fight at Panther Creek, Friday, August 8.

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Porter was turned from his course and retreated toward the northeast, away from his intended line of march and ultimate goal. The next day, Col. At See's Ford, where he recrossed the Chariton, Porter set up an ambush on the east bank with men. Porter's forces opened fire at short range. Only two Federals were killed outright and 15 wounded, but the action seemed to have caused McFerran to break off pursuit. Porter passed on to Wilsonville, in the south-east part of Adair. Here, a mass desertion took place among his discouraged troops; in a few hours, had drifted away.

Porter wandered around the wilderness, his desertion-diminished troops feeding off the land, although there were some new recruits as well.

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On Friday, September 12, Porter, with men, captured Palmyra, with 20 of its garrison, and held the place two hours, losing one man killed and one wounded. One Union citizen was killed and three Federals wounded. Porter's objectives were to liberate Confederates held in the jail there, and to draw Federal forces away from the Missouri River, so as to open it to southward crossing by rebels seeking to join Confederate units.

The Confederates carried away an elderly Union citizen named Andrew Allsman. The fate of Allsman remains something of a mystery, and there is disagreement as well about his character and his legitimacy as a target see Palmyra Massacre. Porter quickly abandoned Palmyra to McNeil, and another period of wandering ensued, in the general direction of his own home near Newark.

There were further desertions, and a number of bands of organized rebels refused to place themselves under Porter's command, clearly indicating that he had lost public confidence. At Whaley's Mill, his men were definitively scattered, almost without a fight. Porter kept himself hidden for a few days. He abandoned the idea of raising a militarily significant force, and entered Shelby County on a line of march to the South with fewer than men remaining.

He made his way safely through Monroe, Audrain, Callaway and Boone counties, and crossed the Missouri River in a skiff, continuing into Arkansas. Here he organized, from the men who had accompanied him and others whom he found in Arkansas, a regiment of Missouri Confederate cavalry. From Pocahontas, Arkansas , in the latter part of December , as acting brigadier, he moved with his command and the battalions of Cols. Colton Greene and J. Burbridge, to cooperate with Gen. Marmaduke in his attack on Springfield. Through a mistake of Gen. Porter's command did not participate in this attack.

It moved on a line far to the east. After the expedition had failed, the commands of Marmaduke and Porter united east of Marshfield , and started to retreat into Arkansas. At the Battle of Hartville , in Wright Country on January 11, , a small Federal force was encountered and defeated, although at severe loss to the Confederates, who had many valuable officers killed and mortally wounded.

Among the latter was Colonel Porter, [15] commanding a brigade, shot from his horse with wounds to the leg from an artillery shell. In Oates 's account, , Porter died an hour later. According to Mudd, however, Porter was shot from his horse with wounds to the leg and the hand while leading a charge; in this account, Porter managed to accompany the army on a difficult trek into Arkansas, arriving at Camp Sallado on January 20, and at Batesville January 25, where he died from his wounds on February 18, The early date is refuted by Porter's own report, dated February 3, [16] referencing the journey after the battle, as well as eyewitness Major G.

Bennett's reference [17] to "Porter's column" on the march several days after and dozens of miles away from the battle, and finally by Marmaduke's noting Porter among the wounded, [18] [19] in contrast to the listing of officers killed; additional near-contemporary sources also affirm Porter's survival of the journey to Arkansas. The location of Col. Porter's grave remains unknown. Oral traditions suggest that he was at some point buried on the farm of his cousin Ezekiel Porter said to be a volunteer ambulance driver during the war , just north of Hartville, in what is now known as Porter's Cemetery, near Competition, Missouri.

Porter is credited variously with five and nine children, only two of whom were living at the time of Mudd's book, his daughter, Mrs. White, and his son, Joseph I. Porter of Stuttgart, AR, who wrote: I hope never to read a history of it. Porter's character is hard to estimate: Reed, three members of Chilton's group were shot during an exchange of fire with the northern troops and a fourth was shot trying to escape.

Thomas Reed and his sons were local political rivals of the Chiltons and, in March , he and two sons were taken from their homes and shot by "bushwhackers. Based on several military reports, "shot while trying to escape" was a common epitaph of prisoners taken by the state militia. A report of a militia officer of another expedition through Shannon County illustrated the "character of such raids":. In compliance with Special Orders, No. Marched that day 25 miles, without discovering anything worthy of note.

Visited the residences of Benjamin Carter and Wilson Farrow, that were engaged in burning Houston; they were gone. Burned Carter's house, November 5, divided the scout.

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I proceeded with the balance of the command by way of leatherwood or Wollsey's trail; found fresh trail of horses; followed them on Jack's Fork to the residence of Miles Stephens and brother, Jack Stephens, whom I was satisfied were bushwhackers. Heard that Fred Taylor had been at Stephens' last week with 25 men. Proceeded down Jack's Fork 10 miles, having marched 30 miles that day.

Camped at Widow McCormick's. Had positive evidence that the widow had kept a general rendezvous for Freeman's and Coleman's guerrillas. On the morning of the 6th, burned the buildings. Learned from the widow's son, a young lad, that on the previous evening James Mahan had got him to give news of our approach. Sent back and took Mahan prisoner. Went down to Jack's Fork to mouth of Mahan's Creek: Prisoner Mahan attempted to escape, and was shot by the guard.

Camped at William Mahan's that night, having marched 24 miles. On the morning of the 9th, marched up Mahan's Creek. About 9 o'clock discovered about 20 of the enemy on the bluff above us; fired a few shots at them, when they fell back. I took 20 men up the hill and reconnoitered, expecting to find them in force to give us battle, but they had all fled into the rocky ravines and hills, where it was impossible to pursue to advantage, mounted; returned to the road, gone about 1 mile, and met 3 men, who started to escape on seeing us; killed 2 of them, whom I ascertained from papers found on their persons to be William Chandler supposed to live in Dent County, and a man named Hackley, who had in his pocket a discharge as lieutenant from Company F, Mitchell's regiment, rebel army.

He also had several packages of letters from persons in the rebel army and citizens in Arkansas, directed to persons in Dent and Phelps Counties all of which are submitted for your disposal. Two miles farther on we captured William Story on a United States horse. He was recognized and well known as a notorious horse-thief and house-robber. He attempted to escape, and was killed. Camped that night at Morgan Dean's, on Birch Prairie. One of them had a horse that was stolen some time since from one of our men; also goods of different kinds.

The first three, viz, the Hulseys and McCuan, were killed. Jones, on account of his extreme youth and apparent innocence, I had brought in, a prisoner. Five miles farther, at the house of John Nicholson, a known rebel and bushwhacker, we captured the said John Nicholson, Robert B. Richards, alias Bruce Russell, and Jesse Story, all of whom were killed. We then marched by way of McCobbin's Mill to Spring Valley, and camped at Wiley Purcel's, November 9, started direct for this post, ending [sic] a few men by way of Upper Jack's Fork, and all arrived here in the evening, all in good health, having been out six days, marched miles, killed 10 men, returned 1 prisoner, burned 23 houses, recaptured 9 horses that had been previously stolen, and took 6 contraband horses and mules.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

The lawlessness and the accompanying social discord continued in the Ozarks after the South surrendered in Discharged soldiers returned home to find burned out settlements and villages. For example, in West Plains, the seat of Howell County, guerrillas burned every building in the small town.

During the war years , the population of Howell dropped from about 3, persons to only 50 families. The courthouses in both counties were burned. In Carter County, the residents revived the court in the spring of , and the people of Shannon County, while retaining the name Eminence, abandoned the razed political hamlet near Round Spring and moved the county seat to the wide valley of lower Jacks Fork in Many refugees displaced from the Current valley and surrounding region during the war feared returning to their homes in the immediate years after the official truce.

In , Pennsylvanian Daniel Fogle, scouting out land prospects in Missouri, traveled into the south central counties of Missouri. In the vicinity of Rolla, he encountered a number of Union veterans and sympathizers who had fled their homes in areas dominated by southern supporters. He noted that counties around Rolla and those farther south fought a "regular pitch fight during the war" and a hostile atmosphere remained.

In the Ozark counties and districts with a strong southern bias, such as Texas, Shannon, Oregon and Howell Counties, it was hazardous to purchase any of the thousands of acres of land being sold for back taxes. Much of this property belonged to men who had enlisted in the Confederate army, and secret societies protected their land by running off or even murdering anyone who tried to occupy these homes.

In Shannon and Oregon counties, guerrilla bands thwarted an effort to restore civil law after the war. The groups were a mixture of Union army deserters and bitter and Confederate supporters who targeted their wrath on discharged federal veterans. A guerrilla commander, Col. Jamison, led a band of about fifty men, and a group of southern sympathizers formed the Secret Order of the Sons of Liberty to disrupt efforts to restore civil law.

They continued to control the counties after state authorities ordered a resumption of civil control in the area and, in the fall of , Missouri Governor Thomas C. Fletcher invoked martial law. He commissioned William Monk, a leading supporter of the Union in Howell County, with the power to lead the state militia against the guerrillas. The militia quickly captured members of the Secret Order who tried to disrupt a meeting of Union veterans at Warm Fork on Spring River.

Monk also organized an attack that defeated Jamison's band. In December , the governor reinstituted civil law and disbanded the militia; however, several years passed before the hostilities really subsided. During the war, an estimated one-third of Missouri's population moved out of the state.

In the heavily looted counties of the southeast Missouri Ozarks, the population loss was especially marked. The town of Salem, the seat of government for Dent County, was burned during the war, and its population fell from about 75 to 25 families. In his search for land speculation opportunities, Fogle commented during his walk through the Ozark uplands that he found "few men but many widows. By , Missouri experienced a Carter County, however, demonstrated a higher growth of 18 percent from 1, in to 1, in The damaged economy of the Ozark hills recovered slowly after the war.

During the s, the number of farms in the Ozark region, as defined above, increased but production dropped. The number of cultivated acres per farm declined. For example, the bushels of corn harvested in were 6 percent less than in Losses in livestock production hurt the region the most because the animals represented the keystone of the uplander economy and because of the relatively long time frame needed to replenish the herds. In , the number of cattle in the area totaled about 7,, a good 25 percent below that of the pre-war years. The economic data suggests that the violence during the war and its aftermath hit Shannon County particularly hard.

In this county, both the number of farms and improved acres declined. The small percentage of the county's land cleared for farming before the war equalled 1. The war hostilities consumed so much of the livestock of Shannon County that by the number of cattle stood at only one-half the total of Any lasting changes to the Ozarks culture, however, are hard to measure. Lanagan series Bushwhackers 2. Buy the eBook Price: Available in Russia Shop from Russia to buy this item. In this series View all Book 3. Ratings and Reviews 0 1 star ratings 0 reviews.

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