An unofficial black Union soldier in Civil War Missouri

During the summer of 1862, Confederate Colonel Joseph Porter rode around northeast Missouri recruiting men for the Southern Cause. He assembled about 2,000 recruits, many without any training or even weapons. Pursuing him came Colonel John McNeil of the 2nd Missouri Cavalry with about 1,000 trained and armed men. McNeil finally ran Porter to ground at the town of Kirksville on August 6, 1862.

In a three-hour battle, McNeil kicked Porter out of Kirksville and seriously weakened his force. Porter's scattered recruits would be hunted down over the next couple of weeks.

An interesting footnote to this battle is found in a letter by Union Lt.-Col. William Shaffer: "I must speak of Colonel McNeil's colored man Jim. To him belongs the honor of killing the first man in the fight. Armed with a Sharps rifle, he did splendid work through the entire afternoon. Whenever a rebel showed his head at long range, Jim was almost certain to get him."

While this was two months before the First Kansas Colored Volunteers became the first black regiment to see battle at the Battle of Island Mound, it isn't the first report of a black man bearing arms in Missouri. Even during the border wars with Kansas in the 1850s, there were scattered reports of Jayhawkers having black men in their ranks. These guys were probably slaves freed on previous raids by the Kansas Jayhawkers into Missouri territory.

One question is: was Jim a slave or a freedman? Despite the Emancipation Proclamation, slavery still existed in Missouri at this time because it wasn't considered a state in rebellion and therefore didn't come under the new law. Slaves were sometimes armed so they could go hunt for themselves and their masters, so a slave being a good shot isn't outside the realm of possibility. Some Unionists owned slaves and fought on the side of the North to preserve the Union, not free the slaves. Only some serious research could discover if Jim was a slave or a servant

It's also interesting to note that Jim was armed with a Sharps rifle, the finest gun at this time and a Jayhawker favorite. It's also the weapon of choice for the hero in my Civil War novel.

Photo courtesy Wikipedia.

Guest Post: The Red Legs

I'm always happy to take guest posts from writers and researchers of the Civil War and Old West, and so I'm pleased today to bring you Bill Hoyt, author of Good Hater: George Henry Hoyt's War on Slavery. He's here to tell us about Hoyt's role in the actions of the infamous Red Legs. Take it away Hoyt!


Depending upon who is telling the tale, the Red Legs of Kansas were either soldiers, scouts, and guides particularly fitted for service along the bloody border, or else they were pillagers as “full of the devil as a mackerel is of salt.” The truth was even more complicated.

The Kansas Seventh Volunteer Cavalry, known in Missouri as “Jennison's Jayhawkers,” began wearing red leggings as early as 1861. Quickly picking up the symbol, other Unionist Red Legs thereafter gained a reputation for thieving, looting, and even bank robbery. A number of such gangs pillaged both sides of the Missouri/Kansas border in late 1861 and early 1862, much to the chagrin of the general in charge at Fort Leavenworth, James G. Blunt of Kansas.

Another threat was rising in 1862 that scared Kansans even more than Red Legs: William Clarke Quantrill.  As the Confederate captain grew bolder, looting Shawneetown, Olathe, and a few other border towns that year, the cries grew for a protective force that could keep Quantrill at bay.

Enter Captain George Henry Hoyt, late of the Kansas Seventh Volunteer Cavalry. Though relatively new in Kansas, Hoyt was no stranger to the border. After serving as an attorney during John Brown’s 1859 trial in Virginia, Hoyt had come to Kansas in 1861 with John Brown, Jr., eventually replacing him as captain of Company K, perhaps the most fiercely abolitionist company in any Kansas regiment. As a member of Col. Charles R. “Doc” Jennison’s personal staff, Hoyt had led many raids on bushwhackers, raids from which any captured bushwhackers consistently died “trying to escape.”

While Hoyt’s poor health had forced his resignation from the Seventh, now serving in Mississippi, his July of 1862 return to Kansas made him available for a different kind of duty: running an irregular company of scouts and spies that would provide border “services” to Kansas regiments stationed in and around Kansas City.

He called his company the “Red Leg Scouts,” giving notice to Missourians that he intended to continue what Jennison’s boys had started the prior year. Into that company he gathered nearly three dozen men who knew the order, could not serve in the army for various reasons, and most importantly, were as fearless and as merciless as himself.

J is for Jayhawkers

I've talked about bushwhackers a lot on this blog. These rebel guerrillas were the terror of Missouri and Arkansas, but they weren't the only terror. Their Union counterparts were called Jayhawkers. Many were based in Kansas and raided across the state line into Missouri and Arkansas.

Like the bushwhackers, some were ardent if somewhat lawless supporters of their cause. Jim Lane, for example, stole slaves from Missouri and Arkansas and created the First Kansas Colored Volunteers, the first black regiment in the U.S. army to see combat. Others were little more than bandits. Charles "Doc" Jennison, pictured above in a very dapper frontier outfit, leaned more toward the bandit side. While he did fight bushwhackers and Confederate regulars, he also ransacked secessionist and proslavery homes, mostly for personal gain.

The Jayhawkers and bushwhackers personified the bitter border war that helped lead to the start of the Civil War. The hatred had grown so great that mercy was in short supply and thieves and killers rode beside patriots. The downward spiral of brutality and bloodshed has left animosities that are still felt by some in the region today.

Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Today in the Civil War: hunting for Quantrill in Missouri

By early 1862, William Clarke Quantrill was already making a name for himself as a rebel guerrilla. He had been involved with the border war for several years, serving on both sides before finally throwing in his lot with the South in 1861 when the war started in earnest.

Now he led quick, effective raids against Union outposts and infrastructure. In late March he burned an important bridge between Kansas city and Independence. Colonel Robert B. Mitchell of the Second Kansas Cavalry set out with about 300 men in pursuit. On this day 150 years ago he caught up with Qauntrill's band at Little Santa Fe, Missouri.

In his report in the Official Records, Mitchell says,

"I. . .reached Little Santa Fe about 10 o'clock that night, and sent Major Pomeroy about 3 miles from the town, with instructions to arrest one David Tate, whom I had reason to believe was connected with Quantrill. Major Pomeroy had with him a detachment of Companies D and E. . .When Major Pomeroy reached the house he demanded entrance, and a gun was immediately fired through the door. He then called upon them to surrender, and to send out their women and children if they had any in the house. After waiting some time, while shots were fired from the house, he ordered a volley to be fired into the house. The cries of women were then herd, when he ordered the men to cease firing. The women and children then came out and firing was resumed on both sides."

"Two of the men then came of one the windows and surrendered. They stated to Major Pomeroy that Quantrill was in the house with 26 men. Major Pomeroy then threatened to fire the house, and upon their continued refusal to surrender he ordered the house to be fired, and an attempt was made to fire it, but without success. Major Pomeroy and Private Wills, of Company D, were at this time shot. Major Pomeroy becoming disabled, Captain Moore took command, and sent back to me requesting re-enforcements, so as not to let any of the men escape. Captain Moore the house and they still refusing so to do,[unclear in the original] he ordered the house to be against set on fire, and this time the flames rapidly envolved [sic] the house."

The men in the house who were not wounded then burst out the weatherboarding at the back of the house and ran for the timber immediately in the rear. Two were shot down as they ran - 1 killed instantly and 1 mortally wounded. . .The others escaped, and though the woods were carefully scoured, no traces of them were found. While the firing was taking several men were seen to fall in the house, and the prisoners stated when they were first taken that there were 4 or 5 wounded. Five bodies could be distinctly seen in the flames at the time I reached the spot with that part of the command which was left behind."

"I caused all the horses and horses equipments of the enemy to be gathered together and guarded and remained at the house until 6.30 o'clock in the morning, when I started for the house of one Wyatt. As we nearer the house 6 or 7 men were seen to break from it into the brush immediately adjoining the premises. I immediately dismounted some of my men and sent them into the brush, but succeeded in capturing only 2."

"The command being without provisions, and being satisfied that Quantrill and those of his gang who had been in the locality had undoubtedly fled, I returned to the Tate House and started back to camp, leaving Captain Moore's command, with 1 wounded. We reached camp about 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon."

"Our loss was as follows: Major Pomeroy, severely wounded with a Minie ball in the right thigh near the femoral artery; Private William Wills, of Company D, since died, with a Minie ball in the right arm near the shoulder, and also with buck-shot in the groin and abdomen. We also lost 2 horses in the fight. The jayhawkers' loss was 5 killed or wounded and burned up in the house, 2 killed outside, and 6 prisoners. We took 25 horses, some of which have already been identified as belonging to parties in this State, from whom they were stolen, and about 20 sets of horse equipments."

It's interesting that in this Union report, Quantrill's rebel band is referred to as "jayhawkers". Modern historians generally use this term only for Unionist or supposedly Unionist irregulars. Back then, apparently, the definition wasn't so clear.

Friendly fire in the Civil War, part 2

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, friendly fire became an increasing problem in Civil War Missouri. The happened because bushwhackers and Jayhawkers (as guerrillas were called in those days) dressed as civilians or wore the uniforms of the opposite side.

To fight the rebel bushwhackers, the Union army in Missouri soon developed a series of hand signals to deal with any approaching force. The signals were changed on a regular basis. While this was a good idea in theory, the Union militia included many Confederate sympathizers who only served because they'd been drafted. Often these rebels-in-blue would relay the current signals to local bushwhackers and they'd use them to get the drop on unsuspecting groups of militia. In my Civil War novel, A Fine Likeness, Captain Richard Addison has to deal with just such a situation.

By the end of the war, nobody trusted anybody, and so it came as no surprise that when Jesse James and his bushwhacker buddies tried to surrender on May 15, 1865, to the garrison at Lexington, they were fired upon. Jesse was shot through the chest and nearly killed. He and his friends and supporters thought this shooting to be treachery of the vilest stripe, but in reality he and the other bushwhackers were the victims of their own tactics.

Breaking the rules of war can give you an advantage, but it's a two-edged sword!

Northern Arkansas in chaos during the Civil War

In my last post about foot burning in the Civil War, I talked about how northern Arkansas was a No Man's Land during the late Civil War.

For the first two years of the war, most of Arkansas was firmly in Confederate hands. The Ozarks in the northern part of the state, however, went their own way as they always have. Some people were for the south, others for the north, and many simply wanted to stay out of it. When Little Rock fell on 10 September 1863, central Arkansas came under the control of the Union. The rebel armies retreated to southern Arkansas and were too weak to challenge the Union troops in the center of the state.

The Union troops in Arkansas were undermanned, and could do little more than hold the line. Large swaths of the Arkansas Ozarks were left unguarded and soon became prey to roving bands who robbed civilians. Some of these groups claimed to be on one side or the other, but many were simply bandits.

In the fall of 1864, Confederate General Sterling Price decided to launch an ambitious plan to march north from southern Arkansas and invade Missouri. This is the setting for my Missouri Civil War novel A Fine Likeness. In preparation for the invasion, Price sent Confederate cavalry raider J.O. Shelby and his Iron Brigade to slip across the Arkansas River into northern Arkansas to round up deserters and conscript locals. Shelby reported “the entire country overrun with able-bodied men; recruiting officers quarreling or sunk in total apathy; predatory bands of thieves roaming over the country at will, killing some, burning the feet of others, and all hungering with the lust of robbery; one officer refusing to report to another, no organizations, no discipline, no arms, no leader, no desire to fight, no anything.”

Currently I'm writing another book in the House Divided series that is loosely tired to A Fine Likeness. One of the protagonists is a member of Shelby's Iron Brigade who deserts after Price is defeated and retreats south. He finds himself hiding out in this chaotic region. It's a great setting for a historical novel because anything can happen there, and everything does.

For more on Shelby and his Iron Brigade, check out my book Ride Around Missouri: Shelby's Great Raid 1863.

Foot burning in the Civil War

As I've noted before in my post about scalping (Warning: graphic image) the Civil War was anything but civil in some parts. One common method of torture in the Trans-Mississippi theater was foot burning.

An example from Turnbo's Tales of the Ozarks: War and Guerrilla Stories is typical. Silas Claborn Turnbo was born in Taney County, Missouri in 1844 and fought with the 27th Arkansas Confederate Infantry. After the war he collected many tales from the Ozarks about the chaotic times that region experienced. In one story, he relates how a man named John Sights or Sykes living in Madison County, Arkansas, lived alone in a sparsely populated region. Two of his sons were in the Federal army and two in the Confederate army. He himself was for the South. Sights/Sykes sent his daughter and slaves to Texas for the duration of the war and sent all his valuables with her.

Turnbo relates: "One night in the fall of 1864, a set of cut-throats rode up to Sight's house and told Mr. Sights in a threatening way to give up his money. His answer was, 'I won't do it, you devils.' They told him they would make him do it.

"'Well,' said he, 'go to work if you think you can make me do it, you heathenish set of scoundrels.'"

The gang then strung him up as if to hang him, then let him drop. They did this twice but he refused to tell them anything. Interestingly, this is the same method of interrogation used on Reuben Samuel, the father-in-law of Jesse James in an attempt to learn the whereabouts of Frank James and his guerrilla buddies.

When hanging didn't work on poor Sights, they "tied his feet fast together and his hands behind his back and took his shoes and socks off his feet, and when this was accomplished, the wretches picked him up and poked him feet foremost into the fire and pulled him back, then jabbed them into the fire again." They continued this torture until "the flesh on his feet was burned to a crisp and the flesh on his legs was cooked half way to the knees."

Eventually they left him for dead. Later one of his few neighbors happened by and summoned a doctor from the Federal army, who had no choice but to amputate both legs. Sights survived the war for four years and all his children survived too, but they must have all been forever traumatized by what had happened.

Note that Turnbo doesn't state which side the ruthless gang was on. Chances are they weren't on either side. Northern Arkansas was sort of a No Man's Land at that time, filled with deserters from both sides, bushwhackers who claimed to fight for the South, Jayhawkers who claimed to fight for the North, and simple bandits. More on that next time.