Kansas History A Journal of the Central Plains Volume 37, Number 2 | Summer 2014

A collaboration of the Historical Foundation and the Department of History at Kansas State University The Battle of Mine Creek, October 25, 1864

A month after General launched his 1864 Colonels Frederick W. Benteen and John F. Phillips attacked on campaign to “rally the loyal men of ,” fill his ranks the Union left; Colonels Samuel J. Crawford and William F. with fresh recruits, and capture much needed supplies, he Cloud in the center; and Colonel Charles W. Blair on the right. A approached the Kansas border with a secondary objective brief but by all accounts fierce fight ensued, and the Confederate in mind. If compelled to withdraw from the Show-Me State, troops broke in panic, fleeing across Mine Creek “in utter and Price was to make his “retreat through Kansas and the Indian indescribable confusion,” according to Price’s official report. Territory, sweeping that country of its mules, horses, cattle, and The artist, Samuel J. Reader, a private in the Second military supplies of all kinds.” Turned back at Westport, the Regiment, Kansas State Militia, made this rendering of the Confederate general moved his troops and booty laden wagon victorious Union cavalry charge years later for his illustrated train south down the state line and crossed into Kansas at autobiography. Reader, who had been taken prisoner during Trading Post in Linn County. The campaign’s final, decisive the Battle of the Big Blue three days before, was well south of battle came on October 25 at Mine Creek. Price's retreat had Mine Creek with the main body of the retreating Rebel army, so been slowed when his wagons became bogged down in the creek, he did not personally witness the battle. Since the first reports and two of his division commanders were forced to make a that he received were those of his captors, Reader titled the stand and execute a rear guard action on the north side of Mine watercolor, quote, “It Went Against Us.” The original as well Creek. The Confederates numbered about 7,000 men and ten as the complete autobiography can be found on Kansas Memory artillery pieces, but before they had fully prepared their position, at http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/206900. Kansas History A Journal of the Central Plains Volume 37, Number 2 | Summer 2014

James E. Sherow Managing Editor

Suzanne E. Orr Fleeing Missouri Bloodhounds: 66 Assistant Managing Pappy Carr’s Escape to Free Kansas Editor edited by Mark Chapin Scott Virgil W. Dean Consulting Editor

Derek S. Hoff Book Review Editor Price's Raid and the 78 Daniel T. Gresham p. 66 Battle of Mine Creek Editorial Assistant by Edgar Langsdorf

Editorial Advisory Board Thomas Fox Averill Donald L. Fixico Kenneth M. Hamilton “I was a prisoner of war.” 100 David A. Haury M.H. Hoeflich The Autobiography of Thomas D. Isern James N. Leiker SAMUEL J. READER Bonnie Lynn-Sherow Patricia A. Michaelis edited by Virgil W. Dean Jay M. Price Pamela Riney-Kehrberg Kim Carey Warren p. 78

Cover: “Price Raid,” watercolor by Samuel J. Reviews 122 Reader, dated February 13, 1865. Back cover: “Free!” From the lithograph, “Journey of a Slave,” courtesy of the Library of Congress. Book Notes 127 Copyright ©2014 Kansas State Historical Society, Inc. ISSN 0149-9114

Printed by Allen Press, Lawrence, Kansas.

p. 100 Charles “Pappy” Carr in the yard of Luther Bailey’s Topeka home, ca. 1911. Courtesy of Mark Scott.

Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains 37 (Summer 2014): 66–77

66 Kansas History Fleeing Missouri Bloodhounds: Pappy Carr’s Escape to Free Kansas

edited by Mark Chapin Scott

uther C. Bailey (1866–1947) wrote the following slave narrative of Charles Carr several years before the latter’s death in 1914. A Topeka insurance agent, real estate developer, and writer/historian, Bailey sold accident insurance on his many business trips throughout Kansas. He regularly met people from all walks of life, and “Pappy” Carr was among those he thought the most interesting. Although the “colored” Topeka janitor seemed otherwise “the least likely hero,” Bailey strongly believed that the account of Carr’s harrowing escape from slavery should be recorded for posterity, even though Carr himself Lwas “exceedingly reticent in telling his story.”1 Bailey was so impressed by the story that he even persuaded the reluctant Carr to be photographed. Bailey’s own interests were not limited to his successful career in insurance and real estate. He was a popular after-dinner speaker, regularly addressed meetings of the Kansas Historical Society, and was a board member of the Topeka Public Library. Bailey also wrote poetry, an unpublished novel, and a variety of historical essays on American and Kansas history. He corresponded with Kansas author Margaret Hill McCarter, poet Edwin Markham, and Admiral George Dewey—the “Hero of Manila Bay.”2

Mark Scott was born in Topeka in 1948, attended Topeka schools, and received multiple degrees from the University of Kansas. He has been a college professor, intelligence analyst, political appointee, historian, translator, and business consultant. His continued interest in the history of Kansas is reflected in his work published in past issues of Kansas History: “The Little Blue Books in the War on Bigotry and Bunk” (Autumn 1978) and “Langston Hughes of Kansas” (Spring 1980). The Langston Hughes story was subsequently published in abbreviated form in the Journal of Negro History. It served as a major source for Arnold Rampersad’s two-volume biography of Hughes (1986), and Floyd Cooper later used the story as the basis for his children’s book Coming Home: From the Life of Langston Hughes (1994).

1. “The Dash for Liberty in Kansas by Charles Carr (Pappy Carr),” unpublished manuscript, personal collection of Mark Chapin Scott, Ojai, California. 2. See, for example, Margaret Hill McCarter to Luther Chapin Bailey, February 17, 1911; Bailey, “The Story of the Arickaree (or Beecher Island),” unpublished typescript; L. C. Bailey to William E. Connelley, Secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society, October 23, 1916; “Bailey May Enter Race,” unidentified newspaper clipping; and various poems and unpublished manuscripts in editor Mark Scott’s personal collection, Ojai, California.

Fleeing Missouri Bloodhounds 67 s far as history was concerned, Bailey was most interested in stories celebrating the lone hero fighting against overwhelming odds. In 1902 he wrote an article on the fall of the Alamo for an insurance periodical, and he was persistent in coaxing Charles ACarr to recount his flight from slavery. But the story Bailey thought most compelling was the Battle of Beecher Island, which was fought in 1868 in northeastern Colorado, although the frontiersmen involved had been dispatched from forts in Kansas. The battle featured fifty-one army scouts defeating as many as one thousand Indians. Bailey not only meticulously investigated details of this battle, but personally interviewed survivors. He also wrote a moving tribute to Roman Nose, the Cheyenne chief killed at Beecher Island, whom Bailey considered “one of the greatest of all Indian chieftains.”3 In a letter to Bailey dated February 17, 1911, Margaret Hill McCarter wrote, “I understand that you have spent much time in collecting the stories of the heroic deeds of great men, and of the events of history marked by daring and courageous action. It is a laudable pursuit. . . . It may seem a small thing to you. To me the pleasure you have given to many of us . . . seems a thing the recording pen must write large in the Great Story Book. And I thank you sincerely for it.”4 Topeka professional men interested in discussing issues of the day regularly met at the Bailey home at 909 Garfield Street. Among the members of this group was Arthur Capper, journalist, publisher, Kansas governor, and senator. At the time Bailey interviewed Charles Carr, Topeka was largely segregated along racial lines. Although the public Luther Bailey (right) wrote many historical essays, but the story he library did not refuse black patrons, African Americans lived found most compelling was the 1868 Battle of Beecher Island. Although in segregated neighborhoods, ate in segregated restaurants, and the battle was fought on the Arikara River in northeastern Colorado, attended segregated schools; this was the city that would later the army officers in command were based at Fort Wallace in northwest figure so prominently in the Supreme Court’s decision Brown Kansas, and their troops were fifty-one so-called Kansas scouts. Bailey meticulously researched the incident and personally interviewed v. Board of Education. Unlike his contemporary Theodore survivors, among them Allison Pliley of Kansas City, pictured here Roosevelt, Bailey never proclaimed the superiority of the with Bailey in 1911. Courtesy of Mark Scott. “Anglo-Saxon Race.” But like many of his peers, Bailey believed that races and ethnic groups possessed unique characteristics; solution to the race problem was intermarriage. It may be his belief that African Americans had a mild and gentle noteworthy that other than Bailey, no other individual—white disposition mirrored the views of Mark Twain.5 Nevertheless, or black—was so determined to document the story of Charles by the standards of his day, Bailey would have been considered Carr’s escape from slavery. radical in his attitude toward black Americans, even though Bailey’s typed account of the Pappy Carr story lay forgotten his mother’s family had been Virginia slave owners. Family for more than a century in a box of old documents until members never recalled him using a racial epithet of any kind. accidentally discovered in 2013 by his great-grandson Mark In fact, he once scandalized friends by stating that the ultimate Chapin Scott, the editor of this article. Scott edited another

3. Bailey, “The Story of the Arickaree.” Alfred A. Knopf, 1976); see Mark Twain, Mark Twain’s Autobiography 4. McCarter to Bailey, February 17, 1911. (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1924), 1:100–101; and for Roosevelt’s 5. On segregation in Topeka and the landmark Brown case, see, comments on race relations, see Theodore Roosevelt, The Winning of among many others, Richard Kluger, Simple Justice: The History of Brown the West, vol. 1, The Spread of English-Speaking Peoples (New York: The v. Board of Education and Black America’s Struggle for Equality (New York: Current Literature Publishing Company, 1905), 21, 29.

68 Kansas History previously unpublished Bailey story (an eyewitness recollection of a February 1895 train robbery in western Kansas), which appeared in Kansas History as “Insured Against Train Robbers: A Kansas Christmas Tale” (Winter 2009–2010).6

A Dash for Liberty in Free Kansas by Luther Chapin Bailey

In the western suburbs of Topeka stands a small frame school house. And each morning one can see an interesting figure who, with bell in hand, calls the children to their daily tasks.7 He is very tall, and in his prime stood about six foot three inches, weighing more than two hundred pounds, with as fine a muscular development as was ever possessed by an athlete. He is now very old, having reached his ninetieth year, but goes about his daily tasks with the greatest kindness.8 His lineage can be traced to a strange mixture. He inherited from a great-grandfather the sturdy and determined integrity of a Scotchman; from a Cherokee Indian that stoical courage which, when aroused, makes its possessor a most formidable antagonist, while the negro [sic] blood which courses his veins gives him that mild and gentle disposition so peculiar to that race. “I love God and little children” said the German Poet, and one might look long before finding a character so completely exemplifying Heine’s beautiful sentiment. A person cannot be bad or go far wrong who remains young at heart and finds great delight in the company of little children and animals. He was christened Charles Carr, but in recent years Luther Bailey was a popular after-dinner speaker who also wrote poetry, an unpublished novel, and a variety of historical essays on has won the name of “Pappy Carr” from innocent hands. American and Kansas history. He corresponded with Kansas author While this stalwart figure makes his daily rounds, one Margaret Hill McCarter, poet Edwin Markham, and other notables. sees something quite remarkable. As his majestic figure Bailey’s poem, “The Celestial Tryst,” was published in 1922, shortly stoops to grasp the hand of the talkative child in his path after the death of his wife, Ida. Courtesy of Mark Scott. and “Pappy Tarr” punctuates the conversation, both might mark him as the least likely hero. He has but one title, although like all courageous men he is exceedingly reticent to tell his story. 6. Mark Chapin Scott, ed., “Insured Against Train Robbers: A Kansas Christmas Tale,” Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains 32 (Winter He is passionately fond of horses, as he was reared on a 2009–2010): 267–73, available online at http://www.kshs.org/publicat/ Kentucky horse farm, and nothing arouses his resentment history/2009winter_scott.pdf. Bailey died on May 1, 1947, and was as much as the slightest indifference or abuse of one of buried with his head resting on his favorite book—English author 9 Charles Lamb’s Essays of Elia—in the family plot in Topeka Cemetery. these creatures. For many years, “Nell,” a splendid bay 7. The 1910 federal census listed Carr’s occupation as “Janitor, School carriage mare, has been consigned to his special care, House.” U.S. Census, 1910, Kansas, Shawnee County. 8. Burial Records of Topeka Cemetery; Topeka Cemetery, "Death Records Database," access restricted, Topeka, Kansas. Carr was born on 9. Even before Carr’s birth, the breeding of horses had become April 15, 1826, and died on April 9, 1914, so he was not ninety at the time increasingly profitable in Kentucky, and according to Dan White, “By of this interview. In Bailey’s unpublished outline for the story, he noted 1840, there were more than half a million people in Kentucky and the horse that Carr was eighty-five years old, which means that the interview took population numbered 431,000. . . . The state had become an important place in 1911. supplier of top-quality horses, sending them in droves of fifteen to thirty

Fleeing Missouri Bloodhounds 69 and the companionship of horse and man is so touching But the time came when all things changed. The Dred that it might have furnished inspiration to the author of Scott Decision annulled the , Black Beauty. It is not uncommon for this noble animal, in which had made the southern boundary of Missouri the passing along the streets of Topeka, to call to him in her northern limits of slave territory.12 The minister’s family plaintive whinny, detecting his presence even sooner than who owned Mrs. Carr decided to migrate to Missouri, the master detects her own. settling about four miles southeast of St. Joseph. Charles Carr’s master, moved by the pathos of that e was born a slave in the blue grass country separation, proposed to sell him to someone near the of Kentucky. His life was as happy as could home of his wife, who accompanied her master.13 fall to one of more than average intelligence, All this occurred but a few years before the Civil conscious of his lowly station. And yet he War, when Kansas had become free territory after a speaks in the most kindly terms of the Fleming family in desperate struggle in which Lawrence was sacked and whichH he was reared, and emphasizes with great emotion destroyed while other outrages of a heinous character that no master could have been kinder to him than the one were perpetrated upon this state by those who wished to with whom he grew up from childhood as playfellow as impress upon its Constitution the stamp of slavery.14 well as bedfellow in the old trundle bed.10 As the growing abolition sentiment heralded the On a neighboring plantation lived a Methodist minister approach of the war, those who held slaves in the North who had in his family a servant girl who became the wife wished to be rid of them, fearing that the separation of Charles Carr. Children were born to them, and the which the Secessionists threatened would entail a heavy happiness which blessed their lives—with the assurance that the pangs of separation might not come to them with such masters—kept them far removed from the conditions U.S. Census, 1880, Kansas, Shawnee County; Burial Records of Topeka Cemetery. which might ruthlessly banish father or mother to the 12. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was initially abrogated by cotton fields.11 the popular sovereignty provision of the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854, which, unlike the Compromise, allowed slavery in Louisiana Purchase territories north of Missouri’s southern border. Three years later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Dred Scott v. Sandford that, among other things, to the southern states, especially South Carolina.” Kentucky also became the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional and Congress could a leader in the breeding of race horses. Perhaps Carr was fond of horses not prohibit slavery in the territories. See, among many others, Nicole because he had once been a stable boy in Fleming County, Kentucky. Etcheson, “The Great Principle of Self-Government: Popular Sovereignty Kent Hollingsworth, The Kentucky Thoroughbred (Lexington: University and ,” Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains 27 Press of Kentucky, 2009), 17; Dan White, Kentucky Bred: A Celebration of (Spring–Summer 2004): 14–29, available at http://kshs.org/publicat/ Thoroughbred Breeding (Dallas, Tex.: Taylor Publishing Company, 1986), history/2004spring_etcheson.pdf. 70. 13. It was common at that time for Kentucky slave owners to relocate 10. The burial records of Topeka Cemetery clearly stated that Carr to Missouri. According to historian Diane Mutti Burke, “The forty- was born in Fleming County, Kentucky. In the narrative Carr seemed year period from 1821 to 1860 was one of extraordinary movement to be referring not to a location, but to an individual. “Fleming” may of settlers from Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia to have been the only name Carr’s fading memory could recollect when Missouri.” Most likely the Carrs lived and worked on a farm, rather than pressed by Bailey for the slave owner’s identity. In Bailey’s typed draft a plantation, for as Mutti Burke also wrote, “Most Missouri counties of the story, the name of Carr’s owner was left blank, then later penciled boasted of a few large estates that usually were patterned after those in, suggesting that Carr himself had difficulty recalling his owner’s found in Kentucky and Virginia, but more common were the thousands surname. Carr had evidently been both slave companion and servant of modest farms that were scattered throughout the countryside.” An of his young owner. The close association may help to explain why that average slaveholder in Missouri owned only five slaves, and the men owner, sympathetic to Carr’s desire not to be separated from his own usually worked as general farmhands alongside their white owners. family, was later willing to sell him to a slaveholder living very near the Unfortunately, there is not enough information available to determine Missouri farm of Carr’s wife and daughters (see below). precisely who the owners of the Carrs were. Connie McCoy, Northwest 11. According to cemetery records, Nancy Lewis Carr was born in Missouri Genealogical Society, St. Joseph, Missouri, email message to the “Kentucky” on November 9, 1827, but census takers recorded various editor, May 18, 2013; Diane Mutti Burke, On Slavery’s Border: Missouri’s years of birth—1831, 1829, 1830, 1827, and 1832. Carr said Nancy had Small-Slaveholding Households, 1815–1865 (Athens: University of Georgia been a “servant girl”—possibly a house slave rather than a field slave. Press, 2010), 24–25, 50, 98, 200. The 1870 federal census indicated that Nancy could read, but could 14. Lawrence was “sacked” in May 1856, but the real destruction not write. All other Kansas and federal censuses, except 1880, reported came during the Civil War with Quantrill’s raid on August 21, 1863; that she could neither read nor write. All of those censuses stated that nearly two hundred men and boys were killed and 182 buildings were Charles could not read or write. The 1870 federal census listed three destroyed, with property damage estimated “as high as $2.5 million—in children living in the home who had been born in Kentucky—Mary Civil War-era dollars.” Edward E. Leslie, The Devil Knows How to Ride: (1851), Pheobe [sic] (1852), and Rebecca (1855). See Kansas State Census, The True Story of William Clarke Quantrill and His Confederate Raiders (New 1865, Leavenworth County, Leavenworth; Kansas State Census, 1875, York: Random House, 1996), 237; Nicole Etcheson, Bleeding Kansas: Shawnee County, Soldier Township; Kansas State Census, 1905, Shaw- Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era (Lawrence: University Press of nee County, Topeka; and U.S. Census, 1870, Kansas, Jackson County; Kansas, 2004).

70 Kansas History Carr knew that he would be pursued and hunted like a wild beast, and because of the Fugitive Slave Law, could be apprehended and returned to the service of his master anywhere in the country. He also knew that many in the North were desperately opposed to that law, and so he resolved to die rather than submit to a fate that to a man of his character was worse than death. Having learned of the possibility of being sold, he planned his escape. The next morning, he visited the Missouri River, which lay but a few miles west of his home. In so doing, he carefully investigated the feasibility of crossing over into Kansas, determined to proceed northward when once across the river. He found a fisherman’s hut, and nearby—in a sequestered This engraving of a slave auction was published in The Child’s Anti-Slavery Book: Containing a bend of the stream sheltered Few Words about American Slave Children in 1859. Abolitionists countered proslavery propaganda by a clump of willows—the that depicted enslaved people as happy by showing the harsh effects of slavery on the family. Carr fled fisherman’s boat. This at once from his master to avoid sale to Louisiana and separation from his wife and children. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. defined his course. Marking the spot, he returned quietly to loss in such property. Large numbers were therefore sent await the coming of darkness. to the South. Early that evening, he visited his wife and children Some had been sent south from Charles Carr’s at the minister’s home, and said goodbye. He briefly neighborhood, but he determined he would never go. whispered to her why he had come, and told her of his A slave buyer visited the home of his master one day plans. The parting was especially painful because it in 1859 for the purpose of purchasing slaves. Charles was so hurried, with no time for any kind of emotional was offered for sale, but the buyer reserved a few days to farewell. Having assured her that if he survived he would investigate the character of his purchase. return to claim them when the danger had passed, he said In the meantime, Charles had learned that if he were his final farewell. His wife and children were safe, for her sold, his destination would be the cane fields of Louisiana. He already knew the story of Mrs. Stowe’s Uncle Tom. No Simon Legree for him. Knowing that he would be farmhands, slaves on the cotton and sugar plantations were brutalized separated from his family and forced into hard labor in in labor gangs working long hours in a harsh and often unhealthy climate. Transportation of slaves from the Upper to Lower South could the cane fields, he resolved to run away, and, if necessary, be extremely cruel. Missouri slave Marilda Pethy recalled, “Why, I seen 15 to fight for his life. people handcuffed together and driv [sic] ʼlong de Williamsburg road like cattle. Dey was bought to be took south.” Missouri slave William Wells Brown watched “a slave woman who leaped to her death from a 15. Slaves in the Upper South feared being “sold down the river” steamboat rather than be taken south, and another young slave man, en for many reasons. Sales would permanently separate them from their route to the Deep South, jumped overboard and was killed when struck family and friends. While Missouri slave men were usually employed as by the boat’s paddle wheel.” Mutti Burke, On Slavery’s Border, 124, 184.

Fleeing Missouri Bloodhounds 71 which would soon become his only guide, he heard the strains of “My Old Kentucky Home”:

Weep no more, my lady, Then weep no more today. I will sing one song of my old Kentucky home Of my old Kentucky home far away.

Oblivious to the impending danger, other negroes [sic] in an adjacent cabin were caroling the old Southern melody in such plaintive tones that he again saw the old home in the blue grass country, recalling how within the span of a few years he had become a refugee and an outcast, hunted with a price on his head. His fighting blood was aroused as he awaited the moment Congress passed a Fugitive Slave Act in 1850 that required people in free states to assist in the capture to flee when the curtains of and return of escaped slaves. Carr knew that the Fugitive Slave Law meant that he could be apprehended his master’s house would be and returned to the service of his master from anywhere in the country. Many Northerners resented this expansion of slavery’s power. This 1850 lithograph includes both a quotation from the Declaration of drawn for the night. Independence and one from Deuteronomy: “Thou shalt not deliver unto the master his servant which has Through the maples encir- escaped from his master unto thee. He shall dwell with thee. Even among you in that place which he shall cling the house he could see choose in one of thy gates where it liketh him best. Thou shalt not oppress him.” Courtesy of the Library lights that had been steadily of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. gleaming throughout the eve- ning now being extinguished. master had promised to keep her while he lived, freeing The house was in darkness, the family retired. Silence her at his death. reigned except for the ticking of the old clock. Even the A lonely and dreary walk of two miles brought him to watch dog lay asleep in the barn. This was his chance.16 his cabin. On the way back, he cursed the fate that had made him a black man, made him a slave. He repeatedly asked himself why any man should deprive him of his 16. Carr’s escape was apparently not in 1859, but in 1860, on a night when there was a “balmy autumn breeze.” The 1870 federal census liberty and claim him as a thing to be bought and sold like reported that in 1861 Nancy Carr gave birth in Missouri to a son, John. a beast of the field. Why should any man have the right to If Charles was the father of that child, it means that he was in the locale the previous year. Nancy bore no more children until 1866, when Eddy destroy his home? was born in Kansas. This suggests that the Carrs were reunited as early Reaching the hut, he carefully prepared a small pack as 1865. of clothing, then sat on an old stool just outside the door If local slave owners had feared expropriation of their slave property, the election of in November 1860 only intensified awaiting the chance to escape. At the last moment, he their concerns. From the perspective of many Missouri slave owners, decided to arouse two other slaves and give them the Lincoln’s election simply made a bad situation even worse, because opportunity to join in his desperate undertaking. they already had numerous reasons to fear uncompensated loss of their chattel property. Missouri’s western border south of the great bend in And so there he sat waiting in front of his cabin on that the Missouri River had no natural barrier, making it especially difficult balmy autumn night. Gazing at the friendly North Star, to prevent fugitive slaves from crossing into Kansas Territory, which was dominated by antislavery partisans after 1857. In 1859—the year

72 Kansas History Carr rushed to the hut where his companions had gathered, telling them what would probably be their fate if they decided to remain. He urged them to join him in his determined effort to escape.

hey quickly agreed. Then the three slaves, having packed their small kits of clothing, stealthily crept through neighboring bushes and tall grasses toward the Missouri River (for they shunned the public highway). They reached theT river where the fisherman had tied the boat. Quickly releasing it, they silently pulled it along the bank a sufficient distance up the river that the plash [sic] of the oars might not be heard by its owner, thereby revealing their movements.17 Reaching the opposite shore of the river, they quickly disembarked and stood for a brief moment on its banks. They were in Kansas, and Kansas—after the Border Ruffian War—was free territory. Yet under the Dred Scott Decision, they could be apprehended and dragged back to servitude.18 There would be no safety for them there. They reached the western bank of the river shortly after midnight and quietly pushed northward through

before Carr’s escape—a slave patrol in Platte County, Missouri, pursued fugitive slaves into Kansas, where they caught them along with white abolitionist Dr. John Doy, who had helped them escape. Doy was convicted of violating the Fugitive Slave Law and was incarcerated in the Buchanan County jail—not far from the farm where Carr himself lived. Doy’s friends soon rescued him from the jail. Mutti Burke, On Slavery’s Border, 176–77; U.S. Census, 1870, Kansas, Jackson County. 17. “In the 1850s, the beacon of freedom shone brightest in Kansas, where many western Missouri slaves believed they would receive assistance from the antislavery settlers who were pouring into the territory,” wrote Mutti Burke. “Some northwest Missouri This lithograph created in 1863, is part of a larger set of collectable cards slaves, such as the man Doy was convicted of enticing to freedom, showing the transformation of an enslaved man into a soldier in the Union escaped into Kansas Territory by commandeering small boats or army. Here, he strikes a white man who previously had whipped him. To simply walking across the frozen Missouri River in wintertime.” make his escape, Carr used a hastily made club to fight off the attack of an Mutti Burke, On Slavery’s Border, 177. armed posse and bloodhounds. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints 18. The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, not the Dred Scott decision, and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. gave slaveholders the right to pursue their slaves wherever those fugitives fled and ordered all agencies of the federal government to aggressively provide assistance. The act empowered court-appointed dollars in current dollars) on any official who refused to assist in the commissioners to arrest and imprison escaped slaves such as Carr, and capture of runaway slaves. Persons who helped slaves escape, gave it authorized them to take depositions and grant certificates to claimants them food, or provided shelter were subject to a one thousand dollar to retrieve their human property. It also empowered local officials to fine and a jail sentence of six months. Individuals who apprehended the “employ so many persons as he may deem necessary . . . and to retain fugitives collected a reward. Stanley W. Campbell, The Slave Catchers: them in his service so long as circumstances may require.” Such a posse Enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law, 1850–1860 (Chapel Hill: University would in fact pursue fugitive slave Charles Carr. The reward system of North Carolina Press, 1970), 112, 185, 187; for the above quotation and was weighted in favor of the claimant; if a commissioner ruled for a the full text of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 and the Kansas–Nebraska claimant, the commissioner received a fee of ten dollars (approximately Act, see United States, The Constitution of the United States, with the Acts of two hundred and sixty dollars in 2010 dollars). If the commissioner Congress, Relating to Slavery, Embracing the Constitution, the Fugitive Slave determined that the claimant was not the legitimate owner, the Act of 1793, the Missouri Compromise Act of 1820, the Fugitive Slave Law of commissioner’s fee was five dollars. The act further imposed a penalty 1850, and the Nebraska and Kansas Bill, Carefully Compiled (1854; reprint, of one thousand dollars (the rough equivalent of twenty-six thousand San Bernardino, Calif.: Ulan Press, 2012), 19–24.

Fleeing Missouri Bloodhounds 73 refuge for the day in a large brush heap. They remained there until about five o’clock in the evening, when they heard the baying of hounds. They did not worry about this at first. But suddenly a clear note rang out from the leader, which made them instantly apprehensive, for they recognized the deep bellowing howl of a bloodhound. They were being pursued, with a price of five hundred dollars on the head of Charles Carr.19 Having learned of their escape, a posse had immediately been formed the next morning. It consisted of a leader with four companions well- mounted and armed. They were accompanied by two bloodhounds. Assisted by the dogs, they took up the trail and followed it westward to the river. However, it was very difficult for the horses to cross at that location—the river there was deep and turbid. They were forced to take a circuitous route two miles south. Having crossed the river at that point and reaching the Kansas side, they followed it up to the place where the slaves had crossed. The dogs took the trail, eagerly pursuing the fugitives, finally overtaking them in a clearing. Hearing the baying of the hounds, Carr immediately emerged from his hiding place and called to his companions, telling them to come out quickly, as they would soon be forced to fight for their lives. He exhorted them to stand up to the fight and under no circumstances surrender. He assured them that if they did not, they would not escape the cane or cotton fields. The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, Suddenly seizing an ax, Carr cut declared free all enslaved people in states in rebellion against the Union. Carr always held that a small hickory sapling, careful to the Emancipation Proclamation was of comparably little importance to him personally, because he had won his freedom in that brutal battle with his hickory club. Courtesy of the Library of grub out a portion of the root with Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. the broken and uneven country of northeastern Kansas, 19. In offering a reward of five hundred dollars, Carr’s owner obviously considered him valuable property; five hundred dollars in thickly studded by dwarfed timber and underbrush. 1860 would be the approximate equivalent of twelve thousand dollars At about daybreak, they came to a clearing and took in 2010 dollars.

74 Kansas History the club. He quickly trimmed off its branches, and, when he looked into the muzzles of two deadly guns in the finished, made it a weapon capable of inflicting terrible hands of a brutal man. Quickly pretending to surrender, punishment on an enemy. It was about four feet long, and he began parleying with his enemy for terms, all the while the root on the end made a bludgeon like one loaded with advancing slowly, or rather edging closer to the man as lead. he leaned upon his club. He was calculating precisely Carr quickly helped his companions in the preparation how many strides lay between him and the slaver, and of similar weapons. They had scarcely finished the task the chances of striking him with his club before the man when the baying of the hounds warned them that the could shoot. fight was on. Quickly leaping in front of his companions, Carr took pproaching his enemy as closely as he thought the initiative. As the hounds emerged from the woods possible, he sprang at him with such terrific and caught sight of their quarry, they rushed at them rage that for an instant the slaver could not with the fury so characteristic of the breed. The lead dog fire. Carr’s club descended with such terrible sprang at Carr, who with the agility of an Indian stepped force that it barely missed the slaver’s head, striking to one side. Before the dog could reach him, the hickory Ainstead his horse—directly between the ears. The blow so club circled his head, striking it squarely behind the ears, thoroughly crazed the animal that it whirled in a circle, and crushing its skull. With a terrific howl, the vicious utterly oblivious to the furious spurs of its master. brute rolled on its back, whined piteously, jerked its legs, Carr again swung his club. As the horse wheeled and died. around, the slaver threw himself prostrate on the animal’s Carr scarcely recovered before the second bloodhound neck, piteously begging, “For God’s sake, don’t kill me!” attacked him more viciously than the first, its instinct for The entreaty fell upon deaf ears. The fugitive, driven to revenge thoroughly aroused. But with the same agility, desperation, knew that someone must die. As the hickory Carr again leaped aside and agilely brained the second club whirred and fell, it struck the rider squarely on the dog with a blow of the club. He kicked both dogs into a back of the head, fracturing his skull. He fell to the ground ravine, where the second one lay piteously moaning. like a log. The poor horse dashed through the woods, glad Carr had scarcely dispatched the dogs when the to escape the hellish combat. slave posse emerged from the woods into the clearing. Carr plunged without hesitation into the nearby With pistols in both hands, they spurred their horses on, cornfield. The rows ran north and south, and he selected charging the negroes [sic], shooting as rapidly as possible, one. A good distance in from the edge, he ran rapidly to determined to cower the fugitives into surrender. its northern edge. He fled under the cover of night, which Carr’s courage was superb. Again brandishing his by now was rapidly approaching. He rushed into an open club, he sprang to the shock of battle. He struck out boldly meadow, up an ascending hill, and lay down in tall grass within the circle of riders, rushing wildly at horse and so completely exhausted that for more than an hour he man, repeatedly striking the horses with such terrific fury did not move. Meanwhile, he could hear men on horses that the animals could not be urged forward. riding frantically around the field while uttering the vilest In the meantime, the posse was trying to kill him with curses against him. their withering gunfire. The fight quickly developed with When he had regained his strength, he continued his Carr alone against the field. At the onset of the battle, journey northward, but his pursuers were still patrolling his companions had fallen on the ground like craven the cornfield, confident they would capture him in cowards, begging for mercy. daylight. This was Carr’s salvation, for when the four members of Morning dawned. Having searched the fields so the posse leaped from their horses to bind his companions, thoroughly, the slavers were chagrined to discover that Carr—like a deer—fled several hundred yards into a their quarry had flown, chagrined especially because thicket. He was about to plunge into a cornfield when their leader had been fatally wounded. They returned to the leader of the posse mounted a fine gray horse, halted Missouri for all their pains with only the dying man and directly in his pathway, and with two guns drawn and two cowardly negroes [sic]. frightful oaths, commanded Carr to surrender. Meanwhile, Charles Carr plodded steadily onward to Carr now realized that this was a battle of one against liberty, guided throughout that night by the North Star.20 many, that the odds were all against him, with death staring him in the face. For as he stood on that lonely path, 20. Carr did not linger in “free” Kansas. Section 28 of the Kansas–

Fleeing Missouri Bloodhounds 75 Charles “Pappy” Carr was employed as a yardman at Bailey’s Topeka home, located at 909 Garfield Street. This circa 1915 photograph is courtesy of Mark Scott.

After his desperate battle, it seemed to Charles good At about 10:00 a.m. the next day—Sunday—he indeed to be on the broad, wide prairies of Nebraska, a approached a farm house near Plattsmouth, Nebraska.21 free man, for such he was. He has always held that the He was starving by then, having eaten nothing for nearly Emancipation Proclamation was of comparably little forty-eight hours. He begged a farmer for some food. importance to him personally, since he had won his The sympathetic soul, perhaps divining that he was a freedom in that brutal battle with his hickory club. fugitive slave, took him into the house and gave him a

Nebraska Act specifically stated that the provisions of the Fugitive 21. Carr did not indicate precisely where he and his two companions Slave Act were to “be in full force within the limits of” Kansas Territory. reached the Kansas side of the river; he probably did not know, “Runaway Missouri slaves were just as likely to be captured in particularly since their crossing occurred at night. The location was most bordering free states and territories, especially after the passage of the likely somewhere between Atchison in Atchison County and White 1850 Fugitive Slave Law,” wrote Mutti Burke. “Not only did owners Cloud in Doniphan County, near the Kansas-Nebraska border. Setting hunt their runaways—or employ others to do so—but many citizens of out for Plattsmouth at any point between these two towns would have Illinois, Iowa, and Kansas happily collected payment for their efforts.” involved traveling a considerable distance within a short time. In 2013 United States, The Constitution of the United States, 40; Mutti Burke, On the distance from Atchison to Plattsmouth was 107.7 miles, from White Slavery’s Border, 180. Cloud to Plattsmouth 77.8 miles.

76 Kansas History loaf of bread and jar of milk (his wife had gone to church). Pappy Carr brought his family to Topeka, and no man Charles ravenously devoured the food, then pushed on has lived a more exemplary life, always attending strictly to Omaha. to his own affairs, intensely industrious, and in all a In Omaha, he found employment with a party of splendid citizen.23 freighters who made the six-week trip across the plains between Omaha and Denver. He did this for several years, becoming thoroughly acquainted with the perils of Indians and massive herds of buffalo that roamed the plains. Later, he lived among the Potawatomi Indians on the Platte River near Fort Phil Kearny, and when the war was over, returned to find his wife and children in Leavenworth, where they were happily reunited.22

22. Either Carr or Bailey was slightly mistaken regarding the location. Whoever reported this undoubtedly meant that Carr lived near Fort home. In 1912 the city directory again listed Carr as “janitor.” Howard Kearny on the Platte River in Nebraska, not Fort Phil Kearny, which was R. Lamar, ed., The New Encyclopedia of the American West (New Haven, in northeastern Wyoming. There was also confusion regarding exactly Conn.: Yale University Press, 1998), 905; Noble L. Prentis, A History of when Carr lived “among Potawatomi Indians on the Platte River near Kansas (Winfield, Kans.: E. P. Greer, 1899), 34; U.S. Census, 1870, Kansas, Fort Kearny.” When the federal government initiated its Indian removal Douglas County; Kansas State Census, 1875, Shawnee County, Kansas; program in the early nineteenth century, it relocated the Potawatomis Radges’ Topeka Directory, 1878–1879 (Topeka, Kans.: Commonwealth Book to present-day Kansas, not Nebraska. Carr actually lived “among” the and Job Printing House, 1878), 50; U.S. Census, 1880, Kansas, Shawnee Potawatomis shortly after he left Nebraska, and by 1870 he owned a County; Donna Rae Pearson, Local History Librarian, Topeka and farm in Douglas Township, Jackson County, Kansas. That farm would Shawnee County Public Library, email message to the editor, August 15, have been very near the eastern boundary of the Kansas Potawatomi 2013; Shari Schawo, Genealogy Librarian, Topeka and Shawnee County reservation. When the census was enumerated, Charles and Nancy Public Library, email message to the editor, May 14, 2013; Radges’ Topeka Carr had six children living with them: Mary (age nineteen), Pheobe City Directory, 1910 (Topeka, Kans.: Polk-Radges Directory Company, [sic] (eighteen), Rebecca (fifteen), John (nine), Eddy (four), and James 1910), 165; Radges’ Topeka City Directory, 1912, 161. (one). By March 1, 1875, the Carrs had moved just south to a farm in 23. According to the burial records of Topeka Cemetery, Nancy died Soldier Township, Shawnee County, but soon Carr gave up farming and of “complications” on April 26, 1909. The following year, Charles was moved to Topeka, where he worked as a laborer. The family lived in living with daughter Phoebe Atkinson, a widow, at the same Grand several different locations in Topeka during the late nineteenth century, Avenue address. In 1912 only one African American named Carr was but during the 1910s the Carrs purchased a home at 1030 Grand Avenue listed in the city directory: “Charles M Carr (c), janitor, r 1030 Grand (now SW Plass Avenue, which lies between Woodward and MacVicar av.” His burial records stated that he died of “complications” two years Avenues), and Charles worked as a “janitor” at the African-American later—on April 9, 1914—and was buried next to his wife. His funeral Douglass School, which was located in west Topeka at Brooks (now expenses were paid by his sixty-five-year-old daughter, Mary Elizabeth Jewell) and Munson Avenues. In the last years of his life, Carr worked Carr Smith, who had been born a slave in 1851 on a Kentucky plantation, several jobs. In 1910 he was employed as a “y[ar]dman” at Bailey’s been a slave in Missouri, and had found freedom in Kansas. U.S. Census, 909 Garfield Street home. The following year, Bailey interviewed Carr 1910, Kansas, Shawnee County; Radges’ Topeka City Directory, 1912; Burial and arranged to have him photographed standing next to the Bailey Records of Topeka Cemetery.

Fleeing Missouri Bloodhounds 77 Confederate General Sterling Price (1809–1867) of Chariton County, Missouri.

Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains 37 (Summer 2014): 78–99

78 Kansas History Price’s Raid and the Battle of Mine Creek

by Edgar Langsdorf

ilson’s Creek was the first great battle of the war west of the Mississippi, and Mine Creek the last,” concluded historian Albert Castel in his 1968 biography of Confederate General Sterling Price. “Between these events is the story of a lost cause. After Mine Creek came limbo.” With this fascinating conclusion in mind, it seemed wrong to “Wallow the Kansas battle’s 150th anniversary year to pass without recognition. Thus, “Price’s Raid and the Battle of Mine Creek,” which was first published in the autumn 1964 issue of the Kansas Historical Quarterly to mark the centennial of that seminal event in Kansas Civil War history, is republished here in its entirety to commemorate the raid’s sesquicentennial. After fifty years Edgar Langsdorf’s fine study remains an important and interesting contribution to the history of the only Civil War battle between regular Union and Confederate troops fought on Kansas soil. It has been edited for style only, so that it might more closely reflect our twenty-first-century usage, and the editors have added a few clarifying comments and additional secondary source citations to the footnotes to reflect more recent additions to the scholarship.

In the spring and summer of 1864, when the Civil War was entering its fourth year, the situation of the Union armies was grim. In the east, they had suffered terrible losses in the battles of the Wilderness (May 5 and 6), Spotsylvania (May 12), and Cold Harbor (June 3), while west of the Mississippi campaigns in Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas had ended disastrously, allowing the Southern forces to assume the offensive. Major General Sterling Price, who had been placed in command of the Confederate District of Arkansas in March, had been urging Major General Edmund Kirby Smith to authorize an all-out invasion of Missouri, and by June, when Union troops had been repulsed in the Red River campaign in Louisiana, Smith was ready to consider the idea favorably.

Edgar Langsdorf was a native of Lawrence, Kansas, a veteran of the Second World War, and a longtime member of the Kansas Historical Society’s staff. He commenced his society work with the Historical Records Survey of Kansas, a Works Progress Administration program, and left as executive director emeritus in 1977. Langsdorf contributed several articles to the Kansas Historical Quarterly and perhaps most significantly published “The First Hundred Years of the Kansas State Historical Society,” a comprehensive history of the society from its founding, as the autumn 1975 issue of the Quarterly.

Price's Raid and the Battle of Mine Creek 79 hree cavalry raids into Missouri had been made by the Confederates in 1863. In January Major General John S. Marmaduke led a partially suc- cessful attack on Springfield and destroyed sev- eral small forts in southwest Missouri. In April and May This raid into southeastern Missouri, intended to relieve Federal pressure against Vicksburg and Little Rock, was a failure. The third raid, in September–October, command- ed by Colonel Joseph O. Shelby, was planned to obstruct or prevent Federal reinforcement of Major General Wil- liam S. Rosecrans at Chattanooga, to recruit, and to keep the Confederacy alive in Missouri. It was well planned and effectively executed, resulting in the capture or de- struction of large quantities of Federal military supplies, and it won Shelby a promotion to .1 The fourth raid, led by Price, was authorized by Smith in an order dated August 4, 1864, at Shreveport, Louisi- ana, the headquarters of the Confederate Trans-Missis- sippi department. Instructing Price to make immediate arrangements for the invasion, the order included the fol- lowing specific statements of purpose:

Rally the loyal men of Missouri, and remember that our great want is men. . . . Make St. Louis the objective point of your movement, which, if rapidly made, will put you in possession of that place, its supplies, and military stores, and which will do more toward rallying Missouri to your standard than the possession of any other point. Should you be compelled to withdraw from the State, make your retreat through Kansas and the , sweeping that country of its mules, horses, cattle, and military supplies of all kinds.

Price was directed to utilize the entire cavalry force of his district, to which were added the divisions of Major Generals James F. Fagan and Marmaduke and Shelby’s brigade. These were largely skeleton organizations which were to be filled out by the large number of expected Missouri recruits. Price was further ordered to “avoid all wanton acts of destruction and devastation, restrain your

1. Stephen B. Oates, Confederate Cavalry West of the River (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1961), 114–40. See also Alvin M. Josephy, Jr., The Civil War in the American West (New York: Knopf, 1991). Langsdorf’s article was first published as “Price’s Raid and the Battle of Mine Creek,” Kansas Historical Quarterly 30 (Autumn 1964): 281–306, and can be accessed at http://www.kshs.org/p/kansas-historical-quarterly-autumn-1964/17466. The introductory quotation is in Albert Castel, General Sterling Price and the Civil War in the West (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1968), General Sterling Price’s campaign map from 255. The editors' comments and new citations are in italics throughout. the atlas accompanying the Official Reports.

80 Kansas History men, and impress upon them that their aim should be to secure success in a just and holy cause and not to gratify personal feeling and revenge.”2 Sterling Price was the ranking Missourian in the Con- federate army, a former governor, member of Congress and officer in the Mexican War. He had had no experience with cavalry, although he was a veteran infantry com- mander. However, his stature in civil as well as military life made him an obvious choice to lead this expedition, which had in addition to its military objectives the aim of overthrowing the loyal government of the state and the installation of a pro-Southern administration to be headed by Thomas C. Reynolds. Marmaduke and Shelby were also Missourians, as were many of the officers and men of the command. The state, although it had remained in the Union, numbered thousands of secessionist sym- pathizers in its population who were active in stirring up disorder. These sympathizers were counted upon to assist in a Confederate occupation of the state by giving Price information as to the location and movements of Federal troops, pointing out property of Unionists which could be looted or destroyed, and in helping to line up recruits for his army. In addition, Price as a practical poli- tician was undoubtedly hopeful that his occupation of the state would have a considerable effect on the forthcoming presidential election, in which the South ardently desired the defeat of Abraham Lincoln by George B. McClellan.3

rice did not leave Camden, in southern Arkansas, Major General William S. Rosecrans (1819–1898), an 1842 graduate until August 28, because of a delay in receiving of West Point, commanded the Department of the Missouri with headquarters at St. Louis, during the late summer and fall of 1864. He the necessary ordnance stores from Shreveport. first learned on September 3, 1864, that General Price planned to invade Maramaduke’s and Fagan’s divisions were at Missouri soon and wired Major General Henry W. Halleck, Princeton when he arrived there on the twenty-ninth. On General U. S. Grant’s chief of staff, on September 6 requesting that Major General Andrew J. Smith and his infantry division, then PSeptember 7 they forded the Arkansas River at Dardanelle passing Cairo, Illinois, on its way to reinforce General William T. and moved on northeast, reaching Pocahontas on Sherman, be halted near St. Louis to wait until Price’s intentions were September 14. Here they were joined by Shelby’s brigade clarified. Rosecrans’s departmental troops at this time did not exceed and the expedition was organized into three divisions. 10,000 men, most of them scattered in small detachments over the state, while Price’s strength was estimated at about 15,000 to 20,000. From Pocahontas the march north was in three columns, Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.

Fagan’s division in the center, Marmaduke on the right, 2. U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, ser. 1, vol. 41, pt. 1 and Shelby on the left. As they entered Missouri on (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1893), 728, 729. September 19, Price reported his strength at nearly 8,000 3. William Forse Scott, The Story of a Cavalry Regiment: The Career of the Fourth Iowa Veteran Volunteers; From Kansas to Georgia, 1861–1865 armed and 4,000 unarmed men, and fourteen pieces of (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1893), 304–6; U.S. War Department, artillery. Fagan’s division, he said, was much the largest, The War of the Rebellion, ser. 1, vol. 41, pt. 1 (1893), 192, 318, 375; Oates, Confederate Cavalry, 142. See also Robert E. Shallope, Sterling Price: Portrait with Marmaduke’s next, and Shelby’s consisting of only of a Southerner (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1971); Castel, two brigades.4 General Sterling Price and the Civil War in the West; Christopher Phillips, Missouri’s Confederate: and the Creation of Southern Identity in the Border West (Columbia: University of Missouri 4. Wiley Britton, The Civil War on the Border, Volume II (New York: Press, 2000). G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1899), 389, 390; U.S. War Department, The War of

Price's Raid and the Battle of Mine Creek 81 first information of the beginning of the raid and on the sixth wired Major General Henry W. Halleck, Lieutenant General U. S. Grant’s chief of staff, requesting that Major General Andrew J. Smith and his infantry division, then passing Cairo on the way to reinforce General William T. Sherman, be halted near St. Louis to wait until Price’s intentions were clarified. Rosecrans’s departmental troops at this time did not exceed 10,000 men, most of them scattered in small detachments over the state, while Price’s strength was estimated at about 20,000. Smith received orders from Halleck on September 9 to operate against Price, and thereupon moved to a point near St. Louis from which he would be able to shift quickly by rail or river transportation. The leisurely pace of Price’s northward march, during which he traveled often in a carriage rather than in the saddle and made “eloquent speeches along the way,” allowed reports of his progress to filter up to Union headquarters.5 Major General Samuel R. Curtis, commanding the , had spread his 4,000 man force over a vast area in an attempt to protect the frontier settlements and the Santa Fe and California Trails from Indian attacks. At the beginning of September Curtis himself was near Fort Kearny, Nebraska, with a force of volunteers and civilians, and Major General James An 1831 West Point graduate, Major General Samuel R. Curtis G. Blunt, who had recently assumed command of the (1805–1866) eventually settled in Keokuk, Iowa, where he pursued careers in engineering, law, and politics. Curtis, a veteran of the District of the Upper Arkansas, was in western Kansas. Mexican War, won a seat in the U.S. Congress in 1856 and was Curtis returned to his headquarters at reelected in 1858 and 1860. Soon after the outbreak of the Civil War, on September 17, leaving Blunt to continue the Indian Congressman Curtis accepted appointment as colonel of the Second campaign. On the same day he sent telegrams to Governor Regiment, Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and resigned his seat in Congress. Promoted to major general in the spring of 1862, Curtis commanded Thomas Carney of Kansas and to Generals Halleck and the that defeated Price at Pea Ridge, Arkansas. When Rosecrans, informing them that Price had crossed the Price invaded Missouri in September 1864, Curtis was in command Arkansas River with 15,000 men. He also sent a message of the Department of Kansas, which included Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, and the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). to Blunt ordering him to return to Council Grove with all possible speed.6 On September 20 Brigadier General Thomas Ewing, Jr., commanding the District of St. Louis, Rumors had been circulating for months in Kansas and received reports that Price was at Pocahontas. However, Missouri that Price was planning a large-scale invasion. the officer in charge of the patrol which obtained this Major General William S. Rosecrans, commanding information from a wounded Confederate soldier the Department of the Missouri with headquarters at indicated that he had no confidence in its accuracy. Other St. Louis, had been occupied most of the summer in reports were received, but it was not until September 23 uncovering a pro-Southern conspiracy instigated by an that Rosecrans was finally satisfied that Price had crossed organization called the Order of American Knights. He the Arkansas River. Apparently he had not put much had learned that Price counted on the cooperation of this group and other Southern sympathizers when he should enter the state. On September 3 Rosecrans received his 5. Richard J. Hinton, Rebel Invasion of Missouri and Kansas and the Campaign of the Army of the Border Against General Sterling Price (Chicago: the Rebellion, ser. 1, vol. 41, pt. 1 (1893), 622, 623, 626, 627. For a recent in Church & Goodman, 1865), 7, 8; U.S. War Department, The War of the depth study of the early portion of Price’s campaign, see Mark A. Lause, Price’s Rebellion, ser. 1, vol. 41, pt. 1 (1893), 307. Lost Campaign: The 1864 Invasion of Missouri (Columbia: University of 6. U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion, ser. 1, vol. 41, pt. 1 Missouri Press, 2011). (1893), 464, 465; Britton, The Civil War on the Border, 433.

82 Kansas History stock in the report sent in by Curtis a week earlier. Further word reached him that Shelby was south of Pilot Knob, Missouri, with 5,000 men, moving toward Farmington, but still he did not know the direction of Price’s main attack. As late as September 24 Rosecrans telegraphed Curtis that he placed no reliance in reports from Major General Frederick Steele that Price was at Pocahontas.7 As Rosecrans analyzed the situation, there were three possible invasion routes open to Price: into southeastern Missouri via Pocahontas, north toward Jefferson City by West Plains and Rolla, and north to the Missouri River either through Springfield and Sedalia or by way of the Kansas border. He believed Price’s main force would probably head north toward Jefferson City while secondary columns would move through southeastern Missouri, and he therefore alerted the militia garrisons in that part of the state and began concentrating regular units at St. Louis.8 Upon learning that Smith’s infantry was reinforcing Rosecrans at St. Louis, Price realized that he could not risk an attack there and so shifted his line of march toward Pilot Knob, eighty miles south of St. Louis. Reconnoitering parties sent out by General Ewing met his advance on September 26, and on the twenty-seventh the Battle of Pilot Knob took place. Ewing had barely 1,000 men, but they held off Marmaduke’s and Fagan’s divisions through the entire day in a defense that has been described as “one of the most brilliant deeds of the war.”9 Ewing’s losses were about 200 men killed, wounded, and missing, as compared to 1,500 Confederate casualties, and James Fleming Fagan (1828–1893) of Arkansas was assigned his first military command during the Mexican War. When his state seceded the punishment he inflicted on the Southern divisions from the Union in 1861, he enthusiastically supported the Confederacy was so severe, it is said, that they never entirely recovered and distinguished himself at Shiloh, Tennessee, in 1862. Thereafter, their morale during the rest of the campaign.10 he served in the Trans-Mississippi Department. He commanded a division of Price’s Confederates during the 1864 raid. Like Price, Fagan was reluctant to abandon the cause. He did not finally surrender until t this point Price decided to move against June 1865, two months after Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Jefferson City. Rosecrans had been concen- Court House. trating troops at various locations in hopes of intercepting Price. When he learned that them to parallel Price’s line of march and reinforce the invaders were definitely on the march toward the Brigadier General E. B. Brown, commander of the Astate capital he sent brigades under Brigadier Generals District of Central Missouri, whose headquarters were at John McNeil and John B. Sanborn from Rolla, ordering Jefferson City. Rosecrans also sent 4,500 men of the Third Division, Sixteenth Corps, and about the same number of men of Brigadier General Edward C. Pike’s division of enrolled militia, all under General Smith, to follow 7. U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion, ser. 1, vol. 41, pt. 1 Price. On October 7 Price reached Jefferson City, which (1893), 307; Hinton, Rebel Invasion, 15, 16; Britton, The Civil War on the Border, 392, 393. by that time was defended by about 7,000 men. From 8. U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion, ser. 1, vol. 41, pt. 1 reports reaching him he concluded that the defending (1893), 307, 308; Scott, The Story of a Cavalry Regiment, 317. forces numbered 12,000, and this overestimate, coupled 9. Scott, The Story of a Cavalry Regiment, 315. 10. Britton, The Civil War on the Border, 412; U.S. War Department, The with his knowledge that Smith was coming up, made him War of the Rebellion, ser. 1, vol. 41, pt. 1 (1893), 308, 445–52, 628–30.

Price's Raid and the Battle of Mine Creek 83 decide not to risk a battle but instead to push on toward military training or experience and most were without Kansas.11 arms. One later reminisced: “We were about as inefficient On October 8, Major General arrived a force as could have been mobilized anywhere on in Jefferson City with orders from Rosecrans to assume earth to check the advance of a seasoned army. . . . What command of all Union forces there. Four thousand were would have happened were we subjected to gunfire cavalry, and these troops, augmented by Colonel Edward can better be imagined than described. Fortunately the F. Winslow’s cavalry brigade of the Seventeenth Army Confederates were turned back before they reached us Corps and eight pieces of artillery, he formed into the raw recruits. After a service of about twenty-one days we Provisional Cavalry division which he commanded in were permitted to return home, where we received our the subsequent pursuit of Price and the battles which discharges.”14 followed along the Kansas-Missouri border. This division In obedience to Deitzler’s call, 12,622 men assembled consisted of four brigades under Generals McNeil, at Olathe, Atchison, Paola, Mound City, Fort Scott, and Sanborn, and Brown, and Colonel Winslow. Wyandotte City. More than 10,000 of this number were On the same date Governor Carney issued a procla- concentrated south of the Kansas River. Units detailed for mation, requested by General Curtis, calling out the state special duty at other points were not counted in these fig- militia for service along the border: ures, and it was estimated that a total of more than 16,000 Kansans were actually in the field.15 The State is in peril! Price and his rebel hosts On October 10 Price moved into Boonville with threaten it with invasion. Kansas must be ready to Marmaduke’s and Fagan’s divisions. Shelby was already hurl them back at any cost. there. For two days Price remained in camp, resting, The necessity is urgent. . . . recruiting 1,200 to 1,500 new troops, receiving visits from Men of Kansas, rally! One blow, one earnest, such guerrilla leaders as William C. Quantrill and “Bloody united blow, will foil the invader and save you. Who Bill” Anderson, and distributing portions of the booty will falter? Who is not ready to meet the peril? Who already acquired. Both Quantrill and Anderson were sent will not defend his home and the State? out by Price to destroy railroad lines, Anderson to tear To arms, then! To arms and the tented field, until up trackage of the North Missouri railroad and Quantrill the rebel foe shall be baffled and beaten back. to cut the Hannibal and St. Joe line. They effected some damage, according to Price, but none of any material The proclamation was implemented by General Order advantage. Anderson is said to have admired and No. 54, issued by Major General George W. Deitzler, the respected Price, and at Boonville presented him with a militia commander, on October 9, designating points of pair of silver-mounted pistols. When he was killed fifteen rendezvous at which the militia units were to assemble days later near Albany, Missouri, a letter was found on his with supplies and equipment for thirty days service. body containing Price’s orders to him. There was no such Curtis on October 10 declared martial law throughout the kindly feeling between Price and Quantrill, and in fact state and called on all men between 18 and 60 to arm and Quantrill remained in Price’s service only a few days.16 attach themselves to some military organization.12 These men were without uniforms, and to provide uring the night and early morning of October some means of identification Curtis directed that they 13 the Confederates resumed their march. wear a piece of red material as a badge. Most of them Sanborn’s brigade, which had been harassing accordingly sported a leaf from the ever-present sumach, Price during the Boonville occupation, turned scarlet at this season, and called themselves the followed him and continued the hit and run tactics which “Sumach Millish” or the “Kansas Tads.”13 Few had any Dwere designed to prevent Confederate side excursions

11. Samuel J. Crawford, Kansas in the Sixties (Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co., 1911), 140, 141; Britton, The Civil War on the Border, 414, 415, 421, 14. George A. Root, “Reminiscences of William Darnell,” Kansas 422; U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion, ser. 1, vol. 41, pt. 1 Historical Collections, 1926–1928 17 (1928): 505. (1893), 308–11, 375, 376, 630, 631. 15. Hinton, Rebel Invasion, 44–48. 12. U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion, ser. 1, vol. 41, pt. 16. Ralph R. Rea, Sterling Price, the Lee of the West (Little Rock, Ark.: 1 (1893), 311, 340, 467–70; Hinton, Rebel Invasion, 30–33. Leavenworth Pioneer Press, 1959), 130, 131. Rea cites Lucy Simmons, “The Life of (Kans.) Daily Conservative, October 15, 1864, was one of many Kansas Sterling Price,” (master’s thesis, University of Chicago, 1921), 101. U.S. newspapers which printed the full proclamation. War Department, The War of the Rebellion, ser. 1, vol. 41, pt. 1 (1893), 442, 13. Hinton, Rebel Invasion, 60. 631, 632.

84 Kansas History and delay Price until Rosecrans and Smith, who were moving west by river transport, railroad and forced overland marches, could come up in his rear. Sanborn marched along roads behind and to the south of the invaders. Price, as he left Boonville, learned of a cache of several thousand small arms stored in the city hall of Glasgow, and at Arrow Rock he sent a force across the river to capture the garrison and seize these arms and other supplies. This delayed his progress and gave Rosecrans and Smith time to join Sanborn. As Price moved out of Marshall, Missouri, toward Lexington, he found himself pushed from behind by 8,000 Federal troops while another 4,000 moved parallel to his course on his left flank.17 General Curtis meantime was collecting his troops, those under General Deitzler assembling at and near Shawneetown, Kansas, and those under General Blunt at Hickman Mills, Missouri. These two divisions were designated by Curtis as the Army of the Border. Blunt, commanding the first division, organized his units into brigades, the first under Colonel Charles R. Jennison, the second under Colonel , and the third under Colonel C. W. Blair. Militia units commanded by Brigadier General W. H. M. Fishback were directed to report to Colonel Blair. The militia units under Deitzler at Shawneetown were the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Twentieth, and Twenty-first regiments. Other militia regiments were added later.18 Curtis ordered Blunt’s first division to move toward Pleasant Hill and Warrensburg and Deitzler’s second division to move toward Independence and Lexington. Both were to send out cavalry to A physician who won recognition as Kansas’s first major general during the Civil War, ascertain the line of Price’s approach and to James G. Blunt (1826–1881) was born in Trenton, Hancock County, Maine, on July 21, harass his advance. Blunt reached Pleasant 1826, and eventually received a degree from the Starling Medical College of Columbus, Hill shortly after midnight on October 17 with Ohio. He moved to Kansas Territory in 1856, settled first at Greeley, becoming deeply his First and Second brigades and at daylight involved in free-state politics, and served as a delegate to the Wyandotte Constitutional Convention in July 1859. The general was actively engaged on the western frontier and moved on toward Warrensburg. Learning the border throughout the Civil War, but his military career was marked by successes that General Sanborn and his cavalry were and failure, plaudits, and controversy.

17. Rea, Sterling Price, 131, 132; Britton, The Civil War on the Border, 431, 432; U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion, ser. 1, vol. 41, pt. 1 (1893), 311, 312, 632. 18. U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion, ser. 1, vol. 41, pt. 1 (1893), 473, 474, 572, 614, 615.

Price's Raid and the Battle of Mine Creek 85 near Dunksburg and that General Smith’s infantry and The “silly rumors” to which Curtis referred had been artillery were within supporting distance, Blunt sent a a handicap to his military plans and operations since message to Sanborn suggesting a joint offensive. At the early in the month. Governor Carney believed it unlikely same time he requested Curtis to send forward Colonel that Price would actually attempt an invasion of Kansas. Blair and the Third brigade, and the Sixteenth Kansas He distrusted Curtis, whom he considered a supporter and Second Colorado Cavalry. That evening he began of his bitter political foe, James H. Lane, and in view of the march toward Lexington, where Colonel Moonlight the approaching elections Carney believed that the whole arrived with the advance on the morning of October 18. idea of mobilizing the militia was nothing more than a Next morning Blunt sent out scouts who encountered scheme of the Lane camp to take the voters away from their Price’s army moving in three columns from Waverly to homes, thereby making it impossible to hold an election Lexington. Blunt reinforced his outposts and ordered at all or giving the Lane faction the advantage. Carney’s that the enemy be resisted. Shelby, commanding the newspaper, the Leavenworth Times, clearly indicated this Confederate advance, pushed forward and after a suspicion, and an anti-Lane editor, Sol Miller of the White sharp encounter drove Blunt’s troops past Lexington Cloud Kansas Chief, on October 6, wrote: and on toward Independence. Blunt reported that the engagement and subsequent withdrawal, which began People of Kansas, do you know that Gen. Curtis shortly before noon and continued until dark, inflicted has entered into a conspiracy with Lane, to call out severe punishment on the enemy but more importantly the entire Kansas Militia, to compel their absence developed Price’s position, strength, and movements for at election time? It is the only hope Lane has of the first time since he had crossed the Arkansas River. The succeeding. They admit that danger is remote, rear guard in this action was the Eleventh Kansas Cavalry but are determined to make Price’s movements a under Moonlight.19 pretext for taking the voters away into Missouri, or Blunt withdrew to the crossing of the Little Blue River from their homes. . . . We have our information from nine miles east of Independence, and finding there a strong a trustworthy source. natural defensive position went into camp in line of battle on the morning of October 20. However, in response to urther, since Blunt himself was a bitter personal a request for reinforcements, he was ordered by General enemy of Carney and a “military and political Curtis to leave an outpost at the Little Blue, under the henchman of Lane,” Carney was unlikely to put command of Colonel Moonlight, and retire with the rest much faith in any information received from of his troops to Independence. Curtis’s message to Blunt him either directly or indirectly. Not until it was known read in part as follows: definitelyF that Price had left Jefferson City and begun moving west did Carney issue the proclamation calling Your troops must take position here [Independence] out the militia. For about ten days thereafter the state was where dry corn and provisions are arranged. The gripped by intense excitement. Charles Robinson, who militia will not go forward and the Big Blue must be had served as the first governor of Kansas, wrote to his our main line for battle. . . . Probably Moonlight had wife from Lawrence on October 9: “The rebels are in Mo. better be left in command of that point [Little Blue], in earnest & coming this way. The entire State Militia are not to fight a battle, but to delay the rebel approach, called out & will be in the field in a few days. . . . We and fall back to our main force. I will now be able had an alarm last night. Several guns were fired east of to bring forward to Kansas City a respectable force. the town & the guard alarmed the town. It proved to be We must pick our battle-ground where we can have nothing & we went to bed again.”21 united councils as well as a strong position. This we By October 16 some 10,000 militia had taken stations are securing at Big Blue and elsewhere. The blow along the border, almost all of them poorly armed and you gave the enemy is doing good in the rear. It is inadequately trained. Even at this time their patriotic en- crushing some of the silly rumors that had well- thusiasm had begun to wear thin. Since the issuance of nigh ruined any prospects of a successful defense.20

21. Charles Robinson to Sara T. D. Robinson, October 9, 1864, The Private Papers of Charles and Sara T. D. Robinson, 1834–1911, microfilm 19. Ibid., 312, 475, 573, 574, 632, 633, 657. MS640, State Archives Division, Kansas Historical Society, Topeka; See 20. Ibid., 476, 574. also “Astounding,” White Cloud Kansas Chief, October 6, 1864.

86 Kansas History Governor Carney’s proclamation on October 8 nothing Pro-Carney, anti-Lane newspapers, among them had been heard of Price, and even Robinson, serving on the Leavenworth Daily Times, White Cloud Kansas Chief, General Deitzler’s staff, wrote: Oskaloosa Independent, and Lawrence Journal, announced that Price had left Missouri and urged that the militiamen It is beginning to be thought that our being called should be released from service. Many regiments out is all a sham & trick of Lane & Curtiss [sic] to refused to go any distance into Missouri and some said make political capital. We cannot hear anything of that they would not cross the state line at all. General importance as to the movements of Price. We think Deitzler supported them, believing that Price was below that we are kept in ignorance of the true condition the Arkansas River. The situation as affecting military of affairs in order to keep the people out as long as discipline was so serious that Major H. H. Heath, provost- possible. . . . I have no doubt Price has gone South marshal-general at Fort Leavenworth, sent the following & that there are only a few guerillas [sic] prowling message to General Curtis on October 20: about. Nobody thinks we shall have anything to do but go home in a few days & attend to our busi- Leavenworth Times daily publishing demoralizing ness.22 articles, tendency urging militia to return home and disband. It condemns and seriously and offensively On October 16 Lieutenant Colonel James D. Snoddy criticises, generally and specially, your acts in of Mound City, commanding the Sixth Regiment Kansas keeping militia in arms and martial law in force. . . . State Militia, had asked Blunt’s permission to take his Am of opinion that the paper should be temporarily regiment back to Linn County. Upon Blunt’s refusal suspended, and editors and writers arrested as Snoddy started home anyway, and Blunt had no recourse enemies to the public and cause. Do not doubt that but to arrest both Snoddy and his immediate superior, its incendiary articles are the cause mainly of the Brigadier General William H. M. Fishback. This he did, in tendency to bad conduct of the militia. . . . Please person, and the Sixth regiment chose James Montgomery instruct. Course of paper is highly treasonable at to be its new commanding officer. In his report Blunt this time.24 stated that no other officers or men of the Fifth, Sixth, and Tenth Militia regiments, all of which had been brigaded At this juncture Curtis received a telegram from under the command of Colonel Blair, had refused to Rosecrans, dated October 18, reporting Price’s location at recognize his authority, nor Waverly on the sixteenth, with Union forces beginning to move in earnest. Reporting the disposition of his units, evinced any other disposition than to do their whole Rosecrans concluded that, “combined with yours, it duty and move against the enemy in Missouri seems to me we can push the old fellow and make him or elsewhere that he could be found. Nor could I lose his train. His horses’ feet must be in bad order for attach so much criminality to the acts of Brigadier- want of shoes.” Curtis thereupon arranged for newspaper General Fishback and Colonel Snoddy, especially publication of this intelligence in an attempt to convince of the former, and inflict upon them the summary the militia and state officials that the danger was real, and punishment prescribed by the rules of war, viz, his effort was bolstered by the news of Blunt’s clash with death, as would have been the case had I not known Price at Lexington.25 that they were the instruments selected by the On October 21 Price resumed his march to the Little Executive of Kansas and others, their superiors in the Blue, Marmaduke’s division in advance. Moonlight and militia organization, to carry out their mischievous the rear guard were driven back across the stream and a and disgraceful designs.23 hard-fought withdrawal, lasting nearly six hours, ended with the Union forces taking up prepared positions on 22. Charles Robinson to Sara T. D. Robinson, October 16, 1864, the Big Blue and Price’s army entering Independence. For Robinson Collection. See Albert Castel, “War and Politics: The Price Raid of 1864,” Kansas Historical Quarterly 24 (Summer 1958): 129–43, for a discussion of the political intrigues in Kansas as they affected the military situation at this time. See also “James Lane on Sterling Price’s 1864 24. U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion, ser. 1, vol. 41, pt. 4 Raid,” in Pearl T. Ponce, ed., Kansas’s War: The Civil War in Documents (1893), 148; U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion, ser. 1, vol. 41, (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2011), 139–42. pt. 1 (1893), 614, 615. 23. U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion, ser. 1, vol. 41, pt. 1 25. U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion, ser. 1, vol. 41, pt. (1893), 572, 573, 597, 619, 620. 1 (1893), 475.

Price's Raid and the Battle of Mine Creek 87 position we will bag Price, if I succeed, as I hope to do.”26 The Battle of the Big Blue began on the morning of October 22 with a skirmish on Deitzler’s wing. Curtis reported that Price found both this wing and the center too strong and avoided a full-scale attack. In fact, Price’s immediate concern seemed to be the safe passage of his train down the road to Little Santa Fe, about nine miles south of Independence. Shelby attacked Jennison at Byram’s Ford and forced a crossing, thus cutting off and capturing substantial numbers of militia under General M. S. Grant near Hickman Mills. Curtis threw in reinforcements to help Jennison, but by dark Price had penetrated and broken his right flank, taken Hickman Mills and all of the Blue south of Byram’s Ford. Blunt ordered Deitzler to withdraw his troops to Kansas City, and by nightfall all the Union forces except the regiments of Jennison, Moonlight, and Ford were positioned within the lines of fortifications which had been prepared.27 Early on the morning of October 23 the began. Blunt’s First, General Samuel Curtis’s campaign map, Westport area, from the atlas that accompanied the Official Second, and Fourth brigades Reports. were deployed into line of battle on the south side of the timber the defensive Battle of the Big Blue Curtis assigned Blunt along Brush Creek. Price’s army, with Shelby’s division to the command of the right wing and Deitzler to the in advance, began the attack and forced Blunt’s front left. His force totaled some 15,000 men, including militia, line to fall back across the creek. With the arrival of the volunteers, artillery, and a number of colored troops Sixth and Tenth regiments of militia under Colonel Blair, under Captains Richard J. Hinton and James L. Rafety, Blunt ordered a general advance which was successfully to oppose an enemy estimated at this time to consist of accomplished. At noon the center of the Confederate line nearly 30,000. Curtis telegraphed Rosecrans late in the afternoon of October 21 that he was confident of stopping Price and hoped the Missouri commander would come 26. Ibid., 478, 479, 592, 593, 633, 634. up on the Confederate rear and left. “If you can get that 27. Ibid., 479–84, 575, 634, 635, 658.

88 Kansas History was broken and the rebel retreat turned into a near rout Sixth, and Tenth regiments which were from southern with Blunt’s cavalry and artillery in rapid pursuit. When Kansas. He also revoked his Order No. 54, which had this had continued for two miles Blunt reported that he proclaimed martial law north of the Kansas River, adding: came up with Pleasonton’s forces, which were facing a “The enemy are repelled and driven south. Our success is portion of Price’s army. Blunt’s artillery threw a raking beyond all anticipation.”29 fire into Price’s flank just as the rebels were about to charge Pleasonton. This threw them into confusion and hat night the forces of Curtis and Pleasonton stampeded them with the main column of the retreating also camped at Aubrey and Little Santa Fe, enemy. Blunt’s cavalry continued to press Price’s rear, where they arrived at dusk. Early next morning, Pleasonton’s cavalry following closely behind, and thus October 24, they resumed the pursuit. Blunt as the pursuit continued until dark. Blunt’s Second brigade commander of the Kansas forces was given the advance, bivouacked that night at Aubrey and the remainder of his Twith Pleasonton following. Blunt’s force was now division at Little Santa Fe.28 designated the First division and Pleasonton’s, consisting The Battle of Westport, sometimes called the of Missouri, Iowa, Indiana, and other units, was called the Gettysburg of the West, was by far the most successful Second division. Moonlight’s Second brigade marched on Union operation of the campaign. However, Price’s main the Kansas side of the line, on Price’s right flank, in order objective was to cover the southward movement of his to protect the state against marauding detachments. enormous train as it withdrew along the road to Little At noon Curtis telegraphed General Halleck that he was Santa Fe, and this objective he was able to carry out. The on the State Line road opposite Paola. Price, he said, Union forces were also successful in protecting Kansas “makes rapid progress, but dead horses and debris show City and preventing Price from crossing the state line into his demoralized and destitute condition and my probable Kansas. success in overhauling him.” He also sent a message Ten miles south of Westport, at about 2:30 in the to Colonel Samuel A. Drake, commander at Paola, to afternoon, Generals Curtis, Pleasonton, and Blunt met inform him that the pursuit had passed far enough in a farmhouse and held a short conference. General south to guarantee the safety of the town and that it was Sanborn was also present, as were Governor Carney and continuing rapidly. “I hope fresh mounted troops will General Deitzler of the Kansas Militia. It was agreed that press down on Price’s flank by the Fort Scott road,” he Price must be pursued vigorously to prevent his taking added, “and by travelling night and day strike his train. any of the military posts along the state line between He is scattering his heavy baggage along the road, but the Missouri and Arkansas Rivers, a distance of about making rapid progress due south. I have fears he may 300 miles. Pleasonton’s army, the 10,000 militia, and move against Fort Scott, but shall press him so hard to- Curtis’s 4,000 regular volunteers were considered more night he will not dare to make the divergence.”30 than sufficient. Pleasonton wished to move his command At dark the pursuit halted for two hours near West toward Harrisonville, in Cass County, Missouri, and Point, Missouri. Price’s army was then camped in the mentioned the long march of some of his cavalry, which vicinity of Trading Post, in Linn County, Kansas, about had come up from Arkansas, as well as the importance twenty-five miles north of Fort Scott. When the march of allowing his Missouri volunteers to be at home for the was resumed by the Federal forces about eight o’clock approaching election. However, Governor Carney and Pleasonton’s division took the advance, a change for General Deitzler urged that the Kansas Militia be released which Curtis was criticized because it wasted time. first, since they had left their homes and served faithfully Pleasonton placed Sanborn’s brigade in the lead with in spite of inadequate equipment and pay, if indeed they orders to push forward until the Confederate pickets were were to be paid at all. Curtis supported this argument, met and driven in. The night was extremely dark and perhaps to clear himself of any possible charges of rainy, and the forward regiments, the Sixth and Eighth political shenanigans such as had been raised earlier, Missouri State Militia under Colonel Joseph J. Gravely, and Pleasonton agreed. Therefore Curtis immediately moved forward cautiously until they encountered Price’s released all the Kansas Militia whose homes were north of the Kansas River, retaining in service only the Fifth,

29. Ibid., 491, 492, 616, 617. 30. Ibid., 492, 493, 576. Price was indeed planning to attack Fort Scott. 28. Ibid., 485–91, 575, 576. See ibid., 636, 637.

Price's Raid and the Battle of Mine Creek 89 artillery during the rest of the night, but bad weather and washed-out roads made this impossible.31 Shortly after four o’clock in the morning a general advance was ordered. In accordance with instructions from General Pleasonton, Sanborn pushed his line through the timber to the Marais des Cygnes River. Curtis reported that the enemy deserted his camp in great confusion, attempted to make a stand at the river crossing, but was forced to retreat in disorder, leaving his guns behind, because the advance led by the Second Arkansas Cavalry was so close upon him that he had no time to organize. “Cattle, camp equipment, negroes, provisions partly cooked, and stolen goods were scattered over miles of the forest camp, and along the lines of the retreat. Few were killed on either side as the night and early morn attack created a general fright in the rebel lines and only random shots on either side.” Sanborn pursued for about a mile and then halted his brigade to allow the men to eat breakfast while Pleasonton continued to move ahead with the remainder of his division. This was the battle of the Marais des Cygnes, which ended shortly after dawn, October 25.32

leasonton’s leading units now consisted of the two brigades commanded by Colonel John F. Phillips and Lieutenant Colonel Frederick W. Benteen. Phillips, who was commander of the Seventh Missouri State Militia, had replaced Brigadier PGeneral E. B. Brown as commander of the First Brigade on October 23. Benteen, commanding officer of the Tenth Missouri Cavalry, had assumed command of the Fourth Brigade on the same date, when Colonel Edward F. Winslow was wounded and forced to retire.33 Phillips’s brigade, totaling some 1,500 men, was composed of the First, Fourth, and Seventh Cavalry, Missouri State Militia. Benteen’s included the Tenth Missouri, Third, and Fourth Iowa, and contingents of the Fourth Missouri and Seventh Indiana regiments, about 1,100 men in all. Against these two brigades were aligned the divisions of Marmaduke and Fagan, estimated to number 7,000 to 8,000 men. Crossing into Kansas in Linn County on October 24, General Sterling Price’s army camped near Trading Post where, before dawn on October 25, it was overtaken by the pursing Federal force. A running battle commenced, lasting the entire day, but the decisive engagement came 31. Ibid., 390, 413, 493, 494, 576. late in the morning as the Confederate divisions struggled to cross the 32. Ibid., 390, 391, 493, 494. steep, muddy banks of Mine Creek. The day’s troop movements are 33. Benteen is best known today as a member of the U.S. Seventh cavalry who was with Custer at the time of the battle of the Little Big depicted on this campaign map of the area that accompanied Major Horn in 1876, though he did not participate in that battle. After his Civil General Samuel R. Curtis’s official report. War service he entered the regular army as a captain in the Seventh cavalry, July 28, 1866. Most of his service until his retirement July 7, 1888, units near Trading Post. Curtis, when he was informed was connected with the Indian campaigns. Thomas H. S. Hamersly, Complete Army and Navy Register of the United States of America, From 1776 of the contact, ordered Sanborn to harass the enemy with to 1887 (New York: T. H. S. Hamersly, 1888), 296.

90 Kansas History About three miles from the crossing of the Marais des Cygnes Phillips came upon the enemy, drawn up in line of battle on the open prairie with Mine Creek, a tributary of the Marais des Cygnes, immediately behind him. Price’s train, passing slowly across the stream, had blocked the passage of the troops in the rear. Marmaduke and Fagan, defending the withdrawal, had no choice but to stop and fight, for the advance regiment of Phillips’s brigade, the First Missouri Militia under Lieutenant Colonel Bazel F. Lazear, was only 500 or 600 yards behind them. The Confederate commanders decided that they would not have time to dismount their troops, send horses to the rear, and fight on foot, as would have been the normal procedure in such a situation. Instead, their troops were thrown into line for immediate defensive action, Fagan’s division on the right, Marmaduke’s on the left. Shelby and his division had gone ahead in charge of the train, with an additional directive from Price to attack and capture Fort Scott, where Price had been told there were 1,000 Negroes under arms. The defense was formed in two ranks with a projecting angle in the middle and a battery of artillery at the apex of the angle and on each wing. In his report Colonel Phillips gave this description:

The enemy was formed at 600 yards distance in treble lines and in overwhelming force. My ground was high and commanding. Here the whole rebel army and train were in full view. General Price on his famed white horse was plainly visible directing and urging the rapid flight of his train. The scene Although technically only a Confederate rear guard action, the engagement on the was grand; the work before us of fearful north bank of Mine Creek was the decisive battle of the latter part of Price’s Raid. The map above of the Mine Creek vicinity, which was published in William F. Scott’s import. . . . The enemy’s vastly superior The Story of a Cavalry Regiment (1893), shows the location of both Union and numbers enabled him to outflank me, Confederate troops at midmorning on October 25, 1864, as General Curtis’s command which he evidently intended to do, by his approached from the north (bottom of map). movements.

Another writer who was on the scene commented: “In 341, 851, 352, 495, 637. The Battle of Mine Creek has continued to capture the view of the numbers engaged the spectacle is probably interest of local and regional scholars and buffs, and a number of important recent studies have resulted; see, for example, Lumir F. Buresh, October 25th 34 without a parallel in the war.” and the Battle of Mine Creek (Kansas City, Mo.: Lowell Press, 1977); Kip Lindberg, “Chaos Itself: The Battle of Mine Creek,” North & South 1 (no. 6, 1998): 74–85; in addition, the Mine Creek Battlefield State Historic Site 34. Scott, The Story of a Cavalry Regiment, 332, 333; U.S. War has been the focus of much state level research and considerable resources for Department, The War of the Rebellion, ser. 1, vol. 41, pt. 1 (1893), 330, 332, development, http://www.kshs.org/mine_creek.

Price's Raid and the Battle of Mine Creek 91 Phillips had no reserve force, and the Union artillery, delayed by obstructions placed by the enemy at the Marais des Cygnes crossing, had not yet come up. The Confederate batteries began to fire on him and the rebels appeared ready to move forward to the attack. At this moment Benteen’s brigade came up on Phillips’s left and two pieces of artillery got into position. The order to charge was given, Benteen against Price’s right and Phillips against his center and left. The Tenth Missouri started forward, bugles sounding, but they hesitated and came to a stop half way down the slope when the enemy showed no sign of breaking. In spite of repeated commands from Benteen and other officers they did not resume the charge, apparently brought up short by some strange psychological block. There was danger that the regiments following them would be thrown into confusion. Just behind was the Fourth Iowa, stretched out in a line which extended the length of two companies beyond the Missourians. Major Abial R. Pierce, commanding the Iowa regiment, galloped to the left of his line and gave the order to charge. The two companies on the left, A and K, responded and were followed by the others as quickly as they could force their way through the confused lines of the Tenth Missouri. This movement seemed to break the spell and the Tenth regained its poise and followed. They struck the enemy line from left to right, broke it, and Colonel Samuel J. Crawford (1835–1913), Second Kansas Colored “it all fell away like a row of bricks.”35 The Third Iowa Infantry, served as an aide to General Curtis during the campaign against Price, and on October 25, Crawford was acting as a scout followed the Fourth into the melee, and Phillips’s brigade with Pleasonton's advance units. At that time he was also a candidate quickly joined also. Phillips in his report wrote: for Kansas governor, and two weeks after the Battle of Mine Creek, Crawford won the election. In January 1865, at the age of twenty- The impetuosity of the onset surprised and nine, he took office as the state's third governor. Reelected in 1866, confounded the enemy. He trembled and wavered Crawford resigned his office on November 4, 1868, to again dona and the wild shouts of our soldiers rising above the military uniform to take command of the Nineteenth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, which had been organized to help subdue hostile Indians din of battle told that he gave way. With pistol we threatening white settlers on the state's western frontier. dashed into his disorganized ranks and the scene of death was as terrible as the victory was speedy and lines formed in their own rear and the whole force was glorious. almost immediately demoralized and panic-stricken. Benteen reported that the “enemy was completely routed This fighting at close quarters was described by Ben- and driven in the wildest confusion from the field; several teen as surpassing anything “for the time it lasted [that] I of his wagons were abandoned in the narrow road that have ever witnessed.” The rebel line was routed along its crosses the creek just in the rear of his position. Many of whole length within a few minutes for the long infantry his force were left dead and wounded upon the field and rifles with which many of the troops were armed were in our hands.”36 difficult to reload on horseback and therefore were almost useless in a cavalry fight. As the Union regiments charged, the Confederates fired and then turned their horses and 36. Ibid., 333–35; Britton, The Civil War on the Border, 493–96; U.S. fled. This, of course, resulted in breaking the defensive War Department, The War of the Rebellion, ser. 1, vol. 41, pt. 1 (1893), 332, 335–38, 352, 361, 495, 496, 637. William A. Mitchell, Linn County, Kansas, A History (La Cygne, Kans., 1928) reports on pages 238–40 the recollections of Henry Trinkle. Many Confederates were “forced over 35. Scott, The Story of a Cavalry Regiment, 335. the bluff and crushed. . . . The scene after the battle was terrifying. Fully

92 Kansas History n the bend of the creek, only a few acres in extent, 300 Confederates were killed or wounded and about 900 were captured. Among the prisoners were Generals Marmaduke and Cabell, the latter a brigade commander in Fagan’s division, and a number of Ifield and company grade officers. Marmaduke’s capture was credited to Private James Dunlavy of Company D, and Cabell’s to Sergeant Calvary M. Young of Company L, both of the Third Iowa Cavalry. Dunlavy was later awarded a Medal of Honor. Eight artillery pieces and two stands of colors were also taken, besides numerous wagons, small arms, and other equipment and supplies.37 Marmaduke, when he saw that he would be forced to fight at Mine Creek, had at once sent a note to General Price telling him of the situation. Price had been ill and at this time was riding in a carriage with his train, which was escorted by Shelby’s division. Apparently he was not, in spite of Colonel Phillips’s belief, astride his famous white horse until he received Marmaduke’s call for help. Then he mounted and rode back, first ordering Shelby to take command of his old brigade and do what he could to assist Marmaduke and Fagan. Price said that he met the troops of the two divisions “retreating in utter and inde- scribable confusion, many of them having thrown away their arms. They were deaf to all entreaties or commands, and in vain were all efforts to rally them.” Shelby himself said that as he returned he met “the advancing Federals, flushed with success and clamorous for more victims. I A native of Arrow Rock, Missouri, John Sappington Marmaduke (1833–1887) was an 1857 graduate of West Point. In 1861 he resigned knew from the beginning that I could do nothing but re- his U.S. commission to join the Confederate army and was promoted to sist their advance, delay them as much as possible, and brigadier-general following the . General Marmaduke, 38 depend on energy and night for the rest.” who directed the rear guard action at Mine Creek, was captured during So the Battle of Mine Creek came to an end.39 In time the battle and spent the remainder of the war as a Union prisoner. elapsed it had been scarcely half an hour from Benteen’s Subsequently, Marmaduke returned to Missouri, where in the 1880s he served the people of his state as governor. three hundred horses horribly mangled were running and snorting and trampling the dead and wounded. Their blood had drenched them and entirely devastated. For thirty miles lone chimneys and piles of brick added to the ghastliness of it all. One hundred and fifty Union dead and stone marked the site of once happy homes, now desolated by the were taken to Mound City for burial, and the rebels buried on the hand of war that for nearly four years has afflicted this border. About battlefield. A lady living there at the time says that three hundred were 4.00 P. M. we passed Price’s last nights camp. We reached West Point buried in one grave, while at numerous other places groups of rebel about ten P. M. Monday, where we passed Gen Blunt’s command and dead were interred.” This account appeared originally in the La Cygne continued our march nine miles when we struck the rebel pickets within (Kans.) Weekly Journal, June 21, 1895, and was reprinted in the Kansas a mile of the Maridezene River at three A. M. Tuesday morning. Gen. Historical Collections, 1923–1925 16 (1925): 654, 655. Curtis’s and Blunt’s forces came up at daylight and our whole army 37. Thomas Julian Bryant, “The Capture of General Marmaduke by moved forward. The enemy’s pickets were driven and his whole army James Dunlavy an Iowa Private Cavalryman,” Iowa Journal of History and was pressed back across the river at Choteau trading post, and about Politics 11 (April 1913): 248–57. two hundred head of cattle captured from him. Our forces crossed and 38. Scott, The Story of a Cavalry Regiment, 338, 339; Rea, Sterling Price, moved upon the enemy who were in position on Flint [Mine] Creek. 148, 149; U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion, ser. 1, vol. 41, After some skirmishing a cavalry charge was made by the 10th Mo. pt. 1 (1893), 637, 659, 660. According to Lindberg, Sergeant Young was also Cavalry under Maj. Benton [Benteen] which resulted in the capture of awarded the Medal of Honor for this action, “Chaos Itself: The Battle of Mine the rebel Major Gen. Marmaduke, Brig. Gen. Cabal [Cabell] and four Creek,” 84. colonels and nearly four hundred soldiers and seven pieces of artillary 39. A description of the events of October 24 and 25, from the [sic]. Many rebel dead and wounded were left on the field. Not a man view of a man in the ranks, is found in the diary of Fletcher Pomeroy, was killed on our side, though several were wounded. After this the quartermaster sergeant of the Seventh Kansas cavalry and a member of enemy made several stands as we pursued him, but was easily driven. Company D: “Our march was on the state line road. The country was The whole action of the day has been a succession of charges during

Price's Raid and the Battle of Mine Creek 93 charge to the panicky flight of the rebel divisions. Pleasonton was informed, as Curtis listened, that it was According to Samuel J. Crawford, an aide on General only two or two and a half miles to the fort, though Curtis Curtis's staff, after the two forces closed in battle a life protested that it was at least six miles. He urged Pleasonton and death struggle continued for about twenty minutes. not to abandon McNeil’s brigade and suggested that the Within thirty minutes Marmaduke and other officers were troops be allowed to rest in the field while supplies were prisoners and the rest of the Confederate troops were sent out from the fort. However, Pleasonton did not concur fleeing as though they felt the devil prodding them. The and General Sanborn continued to lead the march toward best efforts of Fagan and Shelby were unable to stem the Fort Scott. Curtis then sent word back to Blunt to hurry rout, which continued across the prairie to the crossing forward to support McNeil. Going into Fort Scott himself of the Little Osage River near Fort Lincoln, twelve miles after dark, Curtis had a further talk with Pleasonton, who northwest of Fort Scott. There Shelby posted a brigade, or said that he would have to withdraw personally from the part of a brigade, to cover the further retreat of the train campaign for reasons of health although his troops might and the rest of Price’s army. Sanborn’s brigade was now continue. Blunt also came into Fort Scott, either through the advance of the Union forces, and as he approached misunderstanding or failure to receive Curtis’s orders to Shelby withdrew to the timber along the river. From here reinforce McNeil, who, with Benteen’s brigade, was still he was pushed south another five miles. Sanborn stopped on the field. Curtis then ordered rations sent out to the to rest his horses and men and McNeil took over the men of McNeil’s and Blunt’s commands, but the supply pursuit with the Second Brigade. Benteen and the Fourth train met Blunt’s men coming in to Fort Scott and so Brigade soon joined him, and about six miles northeast of turned around and came back. McNeil’s troops were thus Fort Scott they came upon Price’s whole army drawn up left to spend a miserable night without food.41 for battle on Shiloh Creek. Artillery fire eventually broke By this time Price’s remaining troops had reached the the Confederate lines and near sundown Price again limit of their endurance. On the night of October 25, at the began a rapid retreat.40 Marmaton River, Colonel Sidney D. Jackman, one of Shel- It was at this time that one of the several inexplicable by’s brigade commanders, was given orders to burn most incidents connected with the Price raid occurred. Gen- of the remaining wagons and to blow up the surplus am- eral Curtis in his official report wrote that as twilight munition. Then the retreat continued. In two days Price approached and the enemy lines were slowly retiring, he put forty miles between himself and the Union army, saw a large portion of his own forces moving to the right as camping on October 28 just south of Newtonia, Missouri. if to turn the enemy’s left flank. However, as they contin- In this area crops had been good, and Price lost no time ued well beyond the flank he rode to the head of the in sending out foraging parties to get food for men and column to determine what was happening, and was told horses.42 by General Pleasonton that his troops were exhausted and they were going to Fort Scott to rest and obtain supplies. n the night that Price’s train was being destroyed General Curtis, at Fort Scott, issued an order rescinding martial law in the southern part of Kansas. Next morning he sent which we drove the enemy forty-five miles. We are halted to-night in a telegram to General Halleck in Washington announcing line of battle on the open prairie with nothing to burn, and nothing to hitch our horses to. I tied my horse to my saddle and used my saddle for Othat he had saved Fort Scott from attack by his constant my pillow. Some others ran their sabers into the ground and tied them to pressure against Price and that he intended to continue the hilts. We get corn for our horses from a field half a mile distant which is the first they have had to eat in thirty-two hours, during which time the pursuit with all the troops at his command. Meantime we have marched one hundred twelve miles.” Fletcher Pomeroy, Civil Pleasonton had reported to his superior, General War Diary: 1861–1865, Collection 475, State Archives Division, Kansas Historical Society. Rosecrans, that the enemy was beating a rapid retreat 40. Crawford, Kansas in the Sixties, 181; Scott, The Story of a Cavalry and that his own men and horses were exhausted from Regiment, 838; U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion, ser. 1, vol. 41, pt. 1 (1893), 391, 392, 502, 660. The twenty-nine-year-old Colonel Crawford, almost six days and nights of action. He said he would who had left his own command with the Second Kansas Colored Infantry be unable to do anything more until he could obtain fresh after accepting the Lane faction’s Republican Party nomination for governor of Kansas at the end of September, defeated the Republican-Union candidate in November and became the state’s third governor in January 1865. Homer E. Socolofsky, Kansas Governors (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1990), 90; Albert Castel, Civil War Kansas: Reaping the Whirlwind. The 41. U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion, ser. 1, vol. 41, pt. 1 Authorized Edition with a New Preface (Lawrence: University Press of (1893), 502, 503, 576, 577. Kansas, 1997), 177–83. 42. Ibid., 637, 861; Rea, Sterling Price, 149.

94 Kansas History of Sanborn and McNeil following. Benteen’s brigade remained under Curtis’s command but took no part in the remainder of the campaign. That night Curtis’s force camped near Shanghai, Missouri, where they struck Price’s trail, and on October 27 continued on his trace all day and most of the night.43 Blunt, in the advance, about one o’clock in the afternoon of October 28 allowed Colonel Moonlight to halt his brigade to feed his horses. McNeil came up behind Moonlight and also halted, and Curtis, assuming that Blunt had stopped his entire division to rest and feed, allowed the other troops to do the same. However, Blunt had gone on with Jennison’s and Ford’s brigades, and when Curtis learned this he ordered Sanborn to move on as quickly as possible, fearing that Blunt might overtake the enemy with insufficient force at his disposal. McNeil was also directed to follow as soon as he was able. As Blunt approached Newtonia he found Price encamped in the timber south of the town. The rebels, when they saw Blunt coming up, hastily broke camp and began to move out, deploying Shelby’s and part of Fagan’s divisions to cover their withdrawal. Blunt’s attack against this superior force nearly ended in disaster, but near sundown, after the fight had been underway for almost two hours, he was reinforced by Sanborn’s brigade. This turned the tide and the enemy retreated. By midafternoon, October 29, Blunt was ready to resume the pursuit, but that morning Curtis received a message from Pleasonton that he had been instructed by Rosecrans to send Generals Sanborn and McNeil to their home districts and to lead the other brigades of Born and educated in Washington, D. C., Alfred Pleasonton (1824– his command to Warrensburg. This left Curtis with only 1897) graduated from West Point in 1844, served with distinction the troops of Blunt’s division, less than 1,000 men, and throughout the Mexican War, and saw duty on the Indian frontier he therefore instructed Blunt to abandon the pursuit. of the 1850s. During the early years of the Civil War, Pleasonton won promotions and praise as a cavalry officer in the Army of the Curtis was greatly disappointed at this inconclusive end Potomac. At Chancellorsville, he engineered a successful stand against to the campaign, and was therefore pleased to receive a Confederate General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson and was promoted message from Halleck stating that General Grant desired to major general of volunteers in June of 1863. A subsequent setback in the pursuit of Price to continue to the Arkansas River. Pleasonton’s military career led to a transfer to the Western Theater, and during the campaign against Price, Pleasonton commanded troops Since this instruction overruled Rosecrans’s earlier order, defending Jefferson City, Missouri, and troops under his command Curtis at once sent messengers to each of the retiring played a major role in the victories at Westport and Mine Creek. brigades to recall them. On October 31 he moved toward Cassville and next day he was joined by Benteen and horses, and recommended that Sanborn’s and McNeil’s his brigade. With this force he continued to the vicinity brigades follow in support of Curtis as long as there was of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, and then south to Fayetteville, any prospect of damaging the enemy and then return to arriving there November 4. Thereafter he marched south their own districts. Rosecrans accepted this suggestion, to the Arkansas River, only to find that Price had already and accordingly Pleasonton, with Phillips’s brigade, withdrew from the pursuit and returned to Warrensburg, Missouri. Blunt, following orders from Curtis, moved out 43. U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion, ser. 1, vol. 41, pt. 1 in pursuit next morning, October 26, with the brigades (1893), 314, 338, 342, 504–7, 577.

Price's Raid and the Battle of Mine Creek 95 crossed. On November 8 he issued the final order of the The fate of the army hung upon the result, and our campaign, dismissing the troops who still remained with very existence tottered and tossed in the smoke of him and thanking them for their loyal and successful the strife. The red sun looked down upon the scene, service.44 and the redder clouds floated away with angry, Conflicting statements and over-enthusiastic reports sullen glare. Slowly, slowly my old brigade was of commanding officers make it difficult to evaluate sat- melting away. The high-toned and chivalric Dobbin, isfactorily the results of the Price raid. Obviously Price formed on my right, stood by me in all that fiery did not succeed in accomplishing the military objectives storm, and Elliott’s and Gordon’s voices sounded set forth in Kirby Smith’s order: the seizure of St. Louis high above the rage of the conflict: “My merry men, and its supplies and stores. He was unable to capture Jef- fight on.”46 ferson City, his secondary objective. He failed signally to achieve his political goal of revolutionizing Missouri by Criticisms of the Confederate plans and tactics overthrowing the pro-Union administration and install- were directed at Price personally and not against his ing a Confederate government with Thomas Reynolds subordinate commanders. After the raid it was said as governor. In Kansas he failed to inflict damage of any that Kirby Smith himself considered Price “as a military tactical significance as he retreated. Finally, he failed to man ‘absolutely good for nothing.’” Shelby, according influence the result of the national elections against Lin- to William E. Connelley, had a poor opinion of Price as coln. On the other hand, he claimed that he captured a commander and agreed with the comment of Major and paroled more than 3,000 Federal officers and men, John N. Edwards that Price had “the roar of a lion and seized large quantities of supplies and stores of all kinds, the spring of a guinea-pig.” However, Shelby added, in destroyed many miles of railroads and burned depots Missouri, where Price was highly esteemed and respected, and bridges, all this property amounting to not less than it was treason to say so, and Shelby himself had a high $10,000,000 in value, and added at least 5,000 new recruits opinion of Price as a patriot and a gentleman.47 One of to the Southern armies. His losses he put at about 1,000 Price’s chief military shortcomings was his ignorance prisoners, ten pieces of artillery, 1,000 small arms, and of cavalry tactics. He concentrated on supply problems two stand of colors. He failed to mention the hundreds of as an infantry commander would and was reluctant to wagons and horses and the tons of ammunition and other live off the country. He failed to realize the importance supplies and contraband which he was forced to abandon of mobility and attached undue importance to saving his or destroy during his retreat.45 train. He conducted a retreat “that one might expect of a worn-out infantry column” instead of a rapidly moving eneral Shelby, probably Price’s most capable cavalry force and allowed his units to melt away by and effective division commander, also was desertion.48 inclined, not unnaturally, to put the best A most scathing attack on Price was made immediately possible face on the incidents and outcome of after the raid by Thomas C. Reynolds, recognized by the the campaign. In his official report he found no difficulty, Confederacy as the governor of Missouri, in an open Gfor example, in describing the battle of Newtonia as letter dated at Marshall, Texas, December 17, 1864, and “another beautiful victory” for the Confederate arms printed in the Marshall Texas Republican on December when it should more accurately be classed as another 23. Reynolds was ostensibly defending Marmaduke and successful withdrawal. Shelby was a romantic who found Cabell against charges of drunkenness but actually was emotional release in the tensions of battle and who gloried in the clash of forces. During the Confederate retreats down the Kansas-Missouri line, and especially following 46. Ibid., 660, 661; Scott, The Story of a Cavalry Regiment, 351, 352; John the Battle of Mine Creek, the Southern troops were worn- N. Edwards, Shelby and his Men: Or the War in the West (Cincinnati, Ohio: Miami Printing and Publishing Co, 1867), 10. S. J. Crawford, Kansas in out, ragged, half-starved, and intent only on getting away the Sixties, 167, later commented on this description that it was indeed as rapidly as possible. Yet Shelby could describe one rear a fateful hour for Shelby, and the fate of his army did hang upon the result. However, he said, “nobody was ‘tossed in the smoke’ of battle, guard action in these words: and nobody on our side, in so far as I ever heard, was either killed, wounded, or turned up missing. It was simply a lively skirmish.” 47. Statement of William E. Connelley, September 19, 1908, William Elsey Connelley Collection, folder 405, box 43, State Archives Division, 44. Ibid., 314, 392, 507–18, 577, 578. Kansas Historical Society, Topeka. 45. Ibid., 640. 48. Oates, Confederate Cavalry, 151, 153.

96 Kansas History bitterly denouncing Price for ineptness, dilatoriness, confusion, ignorance, timidity, lack of leadership, somnolence, lack of discipline, and almost every other failure of command that can be imagined. With reference to the Battle of Mine Creek, Reynolds had this to say:

All these causes, and many others . . . had visibly affected the tone, spirits and efficiency of the troops. Military men had forebodings of disaster to an army that General Price’s mismanagement had converted into an escort for a caravan; God-fearing men trembled lest . . . some thunderbolt of calamity should fall upon our arms. It did fall, and like a thunderbolt. As the army left the Osage or Marais des Cygnes, Marmaduke’s division and Fagan’s were in the rear of the train, Tyler’s brigade guarded it, Shelby’s division was in the advance. A force of Federal cavalry, estimated by most who fought with it at twenty-five hundred, and without artillery closely followed us. To gain time for the enormous train to pass on safely, it was deemed necessary to form rapidly, and, without dismounting receive the attack; the ground was unfavorable, but the alternative was to sacrifice the rear of the petted but detested train. The two divisions were mainly the same heroic Arkansans and Missourians, well disposed and readily disciplined, who had, under Joseph O. “Jo” Shelby (1830–1897) was one of Missouri’s wealthiest slave owners. In 1861 he cast his lot with the Confederacy, enlisted, and the immediate direction of their own officers, aided rose to the rank of brigadier general in three years. During the 1864 in driving the well trained troops of Steele from the campaign, Shelby commanded one of General Price’s three divisions, Washita valley; but under General Price’s direct and his skill in fighting rear guard actions probably saved the army from total destruction. On the morning of October 25, however, command they had become seriously demoralized. Shelby's division was guarding the wagon train several miles south of The enemy, not mounted riflemen but real cavalry Mine Creek when the Rebel forces under Marmaduke and Fagan were using the saber, charged our lines. It matters little routed before Shelby could move his troops to the battlefield. After the war, Shelby eventually returned to Bates County, Missouri, where he to inquire which company or regiment first gave worked to rebuild his fortune. way; the whole six large brigades, were in a few minutes utterly routed, losing all their cannon, Marmaduke, Cabbell, Slemmons and Jeffers were officer mistaken. Marmaduke had sent him word captured, “standing with the last of their troops;” that morning that about three thousand Federal Fagan, almost surrounded, escaped by sheer luck; cavalry threatened our rear; he thought that Clark owed his safety to his cool intrepidity and his Marmaduke, having called on Fagan for support, saber. . . . could manage them. After a day’s march of only Seated in his ambulance, in which he had sixteen miles the army was ordered, to the general remained most if not all of that morning, at the head astonishment, to go into camp on the Little Osage, of the train, General Price was six or eight miles and had already commenced doing so, when news off when all this happened. Cabbell had informed of the rout reached General Price. He sent for Shelby him the night before that the enemy was actually and besought that clearheaded and heroic young attacking our rear; he believed that experienced general to “save the army.”

Price's Raid and the Battle of Mine Creek 97 And Shelby did it. Like a lion in the path of Another newspaper, more favorable toward other the triumphant Federals, he gathered around him commanders, wrote: “To Gen. Pleasanton [sic] we owe his two brigades, depleted in previous successive our gratitude. Through swift and tiresome marches fights, harassed and weary, but still defiant. he approached the enemy, caught him, flung his flying squadrons on him. . . . Gen. Curtis, for whom we have Price replied to these charges with a terse comment had no admiration did his part well. This we concede in the Shreveport (La.) News, January 10, 1865, which to him. Everything that he could do to contribute to our concluded: “So far as the communication pays tribute salvation, we learn that he did so.”52 to the gallantry displayed by the officers and soldiers Samuel J. Crawford, who said of Price that he “had no engaged in that expedition, I heartily concur in it. So far conception of the formation of a line of battle, nor did he as it relates to myself, however, I pronounce it to be a know how to handle troops in action,” also said that three tissue of falsehoods.”49 times in three days the Southern army had been trapped Price requested a full investigation by a court-martial and each time had been allowed to escape. At the end, but instead was granted a court of inquiry “to investigate he remarked, instead of moving into Fort Scott, Curtis, the facts and circumstances connected with the recent Blunt, and Pleasonton “should have moved around Price Missouri expedition.” The court was appointed by on the east and halted long enough for him to surrender. General Smith on March 8, 1865, and convened April 21 That would have saved the Generals a deal of trouble and at Shreveport. Hearings were held until May 3, but no their tired troops and jaded horses untold hardships.”53 accusers appeared and Reynolds, though invited, refused to testify. The end of the war brought the deliberations to eneral Steele, commanding the Department of an end and no judgment was ever handed down.50 Arkansas, was not involved in the campaign On the Union side there were equally severe criticisms against Price and for that very reason was of the conduct of the campaign. A Kansas newspaper, castigated by General Halleck, who complained commenting on Price’s escape across the Arkansas River, that he “neither opposed the crossing of the Arkansas said: GRiver by Price and Shelby, nor sent any forces in pursuit of them.”54 General Grant later removed both Steele and It is humiliating in the extreme to think that this Rosecrans for what he considered their incompetence hoary headed miscreant should make such a in allowing Price to maneuver almost at will through successful raid as he accomplished, with so little loss, Arkansas and Missouri, and Curtis was transferred to comparatively. Some terribly criminal negligence the Department of the Northwest. Rosecrans and his staff on the part of some of our Generals has been were reported to hold Curtis in low esteem, calling him a manifested during this great Price excursion. We are bungler and a “regular old muddle-head” and sometimes almost tempted to proclaim that the officials who going so far as to ignore his orders. Curtis and Pleasonton are responsible for Price’s escape are as deserving also differed sharply as to strategy. Curtis wished to drive of the rope as old Price himself. We believe that Price south, out of Kansas and Missouri and into the Gen. Curtis and his command did all that could be Arkansas hills where provisions for his troops and forage performed toward giving the old sinner his dues; for his animals was scarce or nonexistent, and thus by and had he (Gen. Curtis,) met with adequate and depriving him of the necessities force his army to disband. even the available co-operation from the other Pleasonton on the other hand wanted to overtake and departments that he ought to have received, the crush Price, although—to compound the confusion—it laxative Missourian and all his followers might was also reported that General Smith, commanding the have been bagged.51 infantry, five times sent orders to Pleasonton that he must attack and bring Price to bay so that the infantry could

49. Reynolds’s letter is printed in its entirety, with Price’s reply and a 52. (Lawrence) Kansas State Journal, October 27, 1864. rebuttal by Reynolds, in Edwards, Shelby and his Men, 467–74. 53. Crawford, Kansas in the Sixties, 171–73. 50. U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion, ser. 1, vol. 41, pt. 1 54. Major General Henry W. Halleck to Major General E. R. S. Canby, (1893), 701–29; Rea, Sterling Price, 153–58. October 17, 1864, in U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion, ser. 1, 51. (Burlington) Kansas Patriot, November 19, 1864. vol. 41, pt. 4 (1893), 24.

98 Kansas History close with him, and the fifth time threatened to send of antagonizing some of the officers of Pleasonton’s Pleasonton to the rear if he failed to obey. department, who interpreted it as meaning that credit There were errors on the part of subordinate for the victory was being taken from his troops and given commanders, too. McNeil, ordered by Pleasonton to instead to the Kansas department which had taken no move his brigade at full speed to Little Santa Fe, so as to part in the actual fighting. It was undoubtedly a factor in intercept Price as he retreated after the Battle of Westport, Pleasonton’s decision to withdraw from the campaign at delayed so long that Price made good his escape. If that point. Curtis himself, in his report, disclaimed any McNeil had accomplished his mission it might well have interest in where the prisoners were taken, stating merely led to Price’s complete destruction. At Newtonia Blunt his preference that “they should stop at Leavenworth, as attacked the Southern army with only two regiments, the an exchange will probably be made and delivery through Second Colorado and the Sixteenth Kansas, aided by two Arkansas may be most convenient and preferable.” sections of artillery. Jennison and his brigade came up to Pleasonton concurred in Curtis’s wishes in a letter of help, but the attack was foolhardy and Blunt was saved October 27 and said that he would furnish Curtis’s only by the arrival of Sanborn. One critic has written provost marshal with an adequate guard. To this extent, that Blunt’s action would hardly have been excusable at least, the two generals were in accord, but too many in a captain commanding a company, much less a major indications of disagreement are on record to dismiss the general commanding a division. Blunt’s own story, whole incident as without significance.56 written in 1866, is a strong defense of his conduct during The Battle of Mine Creek was the most important Civil the campaign, and indeed throughout the four years of War battle fought in Kansas. Including the supporting his military service, largely at the expense of Curtis and troops, the numbers involved were about 25,000. Its ma- other ranking officers with whom he was associated.55 jor significance, in addition to the prisoners, guns and One source of antagonism between Curtis and other material captured, was that Price was forced out of Pleasonton toward the end of the campaign was Kansas and was unable to carry out his planned attack on Curtis’s order to his provost marshal to take charge Fort Scott. It was the conclusive battle of the Price raid, of the prisoners, artillery and other spoils captured at after Westport, and it was the last significant battle of the Mine Creek and transport them to Leavenworth. This Civil War, with the possible exception of Newtonia, in the order, issued at Fort Scott on October 25, had the effect trans-Mississippi area.

55. U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion, ser. 1, vol. 41, pt. 1 (1893), 546–50; U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion, ser. 1, vol. 41, pt. 4 (1893), 126, 673, 674, 811; U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion, ser. 1, vol. 48, pt. 1 (1896), 656, 780; Castel, “War and Politics,” 143; James G. Blunt, “General Blunt’s Account of His Civil War 56. U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion, ser. 1, vol. 41, pt. 1 Experiences,” Kansas Historical Quarterly 1 (May 1932): 211–65. (1893), 338–40, 505–7.

Price's Raid and the Battle of Mine Creek 99 Portrait of Samuel J. Reader when he was eighteen years old in 1855.

Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains 37 (Summer 2014): 100–121

100 Kansas History “I was a prisoner of war.” The Autobiography of SAMUEL J. READER edited by Virgil W. Dean

orn in Greenfield, Pennsylvania, on January 25, 1836, Samuel J. Reader subsequently lived in Illinois before his removal to Kansas Territory in May 1855. He settled on a farm north of Topeka where he lived until his death on September 15, 1914. “Reader’s unique contribution to Kansas history,” wrote George A. Root, a long-time member of the Kansas State Historical Society staff, “was a diary which he began when he was thirteen years old and in which he wrote every day to the end of his life.” Reader’s formal education was “meager,” but he cultivated “an active and observant mind by reading and study. . . . BIn some places his diary is a strange mixture of shorthand, French and abbreviated English. It is illustrated throughout with marginal and full-page sketches, many in water color. During his later years he wrote his ‘Reminiscences,’ based upon the diary.”1 Reader, a free-state partisan, honed his skills as a diarist and artist during his first, strife-torn decade as a Kansan. He observed and participated in much of the conflict that marked the territorial and Civil War years on the Kansas border. At the first day’s battle at Hickory Point on September 13, 1856, Reader was with James H. Lane’s company, and during Confederate General Sterling Price’s attempted invasion of Kansas in October 1864, Reader served with the Second Kansas State Militia, the Shawnee County unit. Taken prisoner on the afternoon of October 22, “southeast of the Mockbee barn” in Jackson County, Missouri, during the Battle of the Big Blue, Reader chronicled the experience in one of his autobiographical volumes: “A Prisoner of War.”2

Virgil W. Dean, who received his PhD from the University of Kansas, edited Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains for the Kansas Historical Society from 1991 until his retirement in 2011, and currently acts as consulting editor. His publications include Territorial Kansas Reader (2005) and John Brown to Bob Dole: Movers and Shakers in Kansas History (2006).

1. George A. Root, ed., “The First Day’s Battle at Hickory Point: From the Diary and Reminiscences of Samuel James Reader,” Kansas Historical Quarterly 1 (November 1931): 28; see also “The Letters of Samuel James Reader, 1861–1863; Pioneer of Soldier Township, Shawnee County,” Kansas Historical Quarterly 9 (February 1940): 26–57; part two, 9 (May 1940): 141–74. 2. “A Prisoner of War” is actually the second half of the volume; the first is titled “Extracts from an old Diary, 1864; and Personal recollection of the Battle of Big Blue fought October 22d 1864. By an eyewitness,” all in the “Autobiography From Diary [of] S. J. Reader, 1864, Topeka, Kansas,” Volume 3, ca. 1907, State Archives Division, Kansas Historical Society, http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/206900. The complete “Autobiography” is in the collections of the Kansas Historical Society and available online through Kansas Memory: http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/206900. Page numbers reference the online version.

“I was a prisoner of war.” 101 “All hope of escape by flight was now at an end,” explained Reader years later.

In a few more jumps they would ride me down, even if I escaped their bullets. Instinctively I threw myself on my face among the old cornstalks and dried up weeds. . . . In less than half a minute, two more horsemen galloped past, but instead of going on after the main party, pulled, and rode back to where I lay. I was still breathing heavily from my little sprint, and knew well enough I should never be able to counterfeit death in such a condition. I would surrender and take my chances. I had said, and believed, that instant death on the battlefield would be far preferable to the torture and starvation of a Southern prison; but I somewhat modified my resolution when the test was applied. A soldier’s glorious death could now be mine. The slightest resistance—motion of a hand toward my weapons, would bring it about, swift and sure. But I was in no mood for martyrdom. Sudden Death has an ugly look, when he sternly and unexpectedly stares one in the face. One naturally clings to life under almost any circumstances, and I decided to not throw it away in this particular case. . . . As the two confederates halted beside me, I arose deliberately from the ground. . . . side of the border. On October 26, 1864, he “came to a number “I surrender,” I cried out, as my carbine fell from my hand, of fields lying west of a creek. But all the fences were gone, and and hung suspended by the sling. . . . I was a prisoner weeds covered the ground. The remains of chimneys showed of war.3 where the buildings had formerly stood. This was the handi- work of Gen. Lane, when he laid the country waste, the year Reader wrote of his journey south with the retreating before.”4 Confederate army and his treatment at the hands of his What follows is excerpted from the “Autobiography, Samuel captors. His was a unique perspective on Price’s campaign, J. Reader, From Diary of 1864, Topeka, Kansas,” which Reader as the rebel troops moved and fought their way through compiled, with illustrations, in the late nineteenth and early eastern Kansas. As Price’s army “hurried on over the twentieth century. To add additional color and explanation, open prairie . . . [Reader] heard the thunder of artillery. . . . Reader interspersed quotes from official reports, various When a few miles north of Ft. Scott, the rebels turned us to the writers, and even Macbeth, in addition, of course, to his many left in a south-easterly direction, at a double-quick. I could see drawings/watercolors.5 Most of these original embellishments nothing myself, but knew that Price was headed off from his have been omitted from the reprint version, but all can be prey. . . . The road was now littered with cast-away plunder. Like a ship in a storm, the cargo was being thrown overboard.” Soon, Reader made his escape, fleeing north on the Missouri 4. “Autobiography,” 350. 5. “Autobiography,” 323. Lines from Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 3, appear under one of Reader’s many drawings: “And let’s not be dainty of leavetaking, / But shift away. There’s warrant in that theft / Which 3. “Autobiography,” 130–38. steals itself, when there’s no mercy left.”

102 Kansas History examined online in the original or text versions. The portion printed below reflects Reader’s experience during the Kansas retreat of General Sterling Price’s Confederate command through eastern Kansas, which most notably included the Battle of Mine Creek in Linn County on October 25, 1864.

From the Autobiography

The twilight faded out and was gone. The night was clear, but quite dark. After considerable marching we were filed through a gate way and halted in front of a one-story frame house. It was painted white, and a porch extended along the east side. (It was called the “Boston Adams Place.”)6 Half a dozen fires, or more, were burning brightly in the yard between the house and a stone wall or fence that enclosed the yard from the road. By these fires a number of men were sitting, with others standing or walking about amidst much noise and bustle. We were ordered to go to the fires and sit down. . . . About sunrise I heard a sound off to the west, like the violent slamming heavy door. In two or three seconds came a similar sound, almost equally loud—A cannon shot, and the explosion of a shell—It was the opening of the Battle of Westport. Sunday October 23rd 1864.7 The rebels were evidently feeling for the Federal position. The reports now followed each other with more and more rapidity, which showed plainly enough that the Union Batteries had taken a hand, and the Battle was on. The road in front of the house was now crowded with mounted men, all hurrying forward to the sound of the cannonade. Some passed at a trot. And all seemed eager to get to the front. It was a brave sight but no doubt there were innumerable. That our own forces could successfully plenty of men in that motley throng whose hearts chilled cope with them, I considered extremely doubtful. There at the sound of those murderous engines of war. was to be a second day defeat and disaster to our arms. For some little time I watched this constant stream So I dismally inferred. of humanity with feelings of the deepest dejection. To The bustle and hurry at the house and about the out my unaccustomed eyes the hostile host seemed almost buildings, increased. Gen. Price came out on the porch several times but if I saw him I did not know. A young man in a neat grey uniform wore a large 6. “Autobiography,” 195, http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/ white plume. He was very conspicuous. 206900/page/195. 7. “Autobiography,” 223, http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/ Another man in Confederate grey came out to us. He 206900/page/223. was a surgeon, and came to see if any of our wounded

“I was a prisoner of war.” 103 I came near telling him, I had been at Hickory Point, in 1856, but fortunately did not. There was odium enough in being a Union Yankee; but a Kansas Free-state Yankee was looked upon as something dreadful by the average Southerner. I asked him a few questions myself: “How many men has Gen. Price?” “About thirty five thousand.” “Do you think he will remain here during the winter?” “Don’t know. Think he will.” My heart sank at the bare possibility. After a moment he inquired in his drawling tone of voice: “Do you always have such cold weather in the Fall?” “Often,” I replied. “It’s a H___ of a climate,” remarked another of our guards.” “I don’t want any more of it.” I was more than willing they should dislike it. I hinted about breakfast to my butternut custodian, but he could give me no satisfaction. I learned that most of the rebels in Price’s army lived on parched corn, and fresh beef. That few had tents or sufficient clothing. I could see for myself that many were poorly armed. But they all seemed to worship “Grand-Pap” as they affectionately called the old General. . . . We marched south a little way; and then turned west, toward the sound of the cannonade which was now quite heavy. . . . Wagon trains and soldiers filled the crowded highway, or traversed the adjoining fields; all pushing toward the front.9 had been overlooked. He made the round of our fires, To my mind there could be but one explanation. and left us. A kindly mannered, quiet gentleman. . . . The rebels were driving our forces from the field— Another set of guards came. One, who was posted near Kansas would be over-run, and the National cause itself our fire, was a lank, sallow faced man of uncertain age. imperiled. I gave up all for lost, and was sunk in the He wore a long skirted butternut coat, with large smooth lowest depths of despondency. I said to Bickell: brass buttons. The color of the coat was a dingy yellowish “Kansas will be invaded, and our homes destroyed. brown. As quite a number of the rebels wore similar coats They’re beating us.” to this I concluded it was a sort of uniform among them.8 Pretty soon we came in the neighborhood of our The man seemed somewhat interested in me, and battlefield of the day before. Here I noticed the wagons asked me a number of questions. One of the first was: ahead of us were turning south, and going at a lively rate. “Ever been in a fight before?”

8. “Autobiography,” 229, http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/ 9. “Autobiography,” 238, http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/ 206900/page/229. 206900/page/238.

104 Kansas History In a few minutes we also were led southward through About the middle of the forenoon we were started on the eastern portion of the old cornfield where our battle again, marching almost due south. had been fought. My relief was immense. I said to those And now began that terrible, weary march, never to be about me: forgotten by the surviving participants. “They must be getting whipped.” . . . Fatal to some—injurious to the health of many—all All this time we could hear the roar of battle over were subjected to such tortures of hunger and thirst, toward Westport. Our halt made me fear that the rebels fatigue and exposure, as few mortals are called upon to were gaining some advantage. But the wagons kept on suffer. and that looked encouraging, for us. The country we traversed was mostly rolling prairie I saw some of our men taking the badges from their land, with here and there a cultivated field. hats. Mine was a piece of red flannel, one inch square, Our pace was rapid. At first I suffered little distress, pinned to the band of my hat. I removed it and put it in being well seasoned to walking, but toward noon my feet my pocket for possible future use. (I noticed that some of and ankles were chafed. . . . the rebels had badges of pale blue ribbon fastened to their We were now being forced onward at a fearful rate. hats, also.)10 Many of the prisoners were utterly unable to walk as fast as we were being driven; and as a consequence intervals were forming here and there in our column, all the time. “Close up! Close up!” could be heard almost 10. The Kansas State Militia, which initially numbered about ten thousand men, was called into service by Governor Thomas Carney continually; and then we would have to double-quick to on October 8, 1864. The militia was poorly armed (the men supplied overtake those in our front, and close up the gaps. The their own arms and ammunition, as well as clothing, blankets, etc.), and its only uniform was a red badge pinned to each man’s hat. Edgar prisoners walking at the front, naturally suffered the Langsdorf, “Price’s Raid and the Battle of Mine Creek,” Kansas History: A least—those at the rear, the most. I spoke to one of the Journal of the Central Plains 37 (Summer 2014): 84. Albert Castel, Civil War Kansas: Reaping the Whirlwind (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, guards, and told him we could not keep on much longer 1997), 186–89; Albert Castel, “War and Politics: The Price Raid of 1864,” at such a pace. Kansas Historical Quarterly 24 (Summer 1958): 129.

“I was a prisoner of war.” 105 “Yes you can,” said the fellow. “I was a prisoner myself, Mid-day had passed without a hint of dinner, or a once, and a Yankee tied a rope to me, and trotted his horse desire for it on my part. My mouth was parched, and a ten miles and I had to keep up. This is nothing. You can feeling of nausea invaded my stomach. A sip of clear cold stand it well enough if you only think so.” water, would have seemed worth its weight in gold. Now There were few settlers on our line of march, and a and then a cluster of trees would awaken hopes of relief, great scarcity of woodland and water. always to be disappointed.11 The season had been dry and most of the small streams My wounded foot was sore, and both were badly were dried up, causing us great suffering from thirst. This blistered. One of our men had given out and was mounted was aggravated by the day being rather warm and the on a large raw-boned mule. I received permission to get on roads dusty. . . . behind. In my exhausted condition I had great difficulty At one time I noticed some of our men almost in doing so, which excited the jeers and laughter of some completely exhausted. I think E.B. Williams was one— of our unfeeling custodians. I ran forward and called out: “Lieutenant, can’t you The relief I experienced was immense; and I could well give us a rest?” “Some of the men back here are about say: “Let those laugh who win.”—although I must admit, tuckered out.” I found their mirth more disagreeable than their curses— Capt. Huntoon—who was walking at the front, also spoke up: “Yes, yes, give us a rest.” Sentelle looked around, and without comment, 11. “Autobiography,” 258, http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/ ordered a halt. . . . 206900/page/258.

106 Kansas History Soon after this we came to an old well. I do not think there were any buildings near it. Very likely they had been burned, as the whole country looked desolate. I slipped from the mule and crowded up to the well. Someone had drawn up a bucket full, and I heard a man say that the water was not good, as there was a half-rotten skunk in it. I was told long afterwards, that there were also the bodies of two men at the bottom of this well—When my turn came, I drained the pint cup to its last drop, in spite of the terrible stench and flavor. . . . Then on again we went. Quite a number of rebel soldiers overtook, and passed us, probably to guard against a possible flank attack on their train. Some of these soldiers gave us greeting as they passed. Most of their remarks were directed at the Negro prisoner. His life would not have been worth a straw out-side the guard- line, judging from their expressions of deadly hatred. But the rest of us were not overlooked. A rebel officer galloped up. The very sight of us seemed to enrage him beyond all bounds. Interlarded with the most savage profanity, he fairly yelled: “Kill them! Shoot every last one of them—They don’t take us prisoners— What are we keeping these men for?” “I know what I’m talking about—I’ve been at the front all day—I’ve seen the Sketch of Confederate General Sterling Price. Yanks ride up to our wounded as they lay on the ground, and shoot them in cold blood!” During this bloodthirsty ebullition I watched Lieut. Sentelle. He partly turned ate it with a relish, and wished I could have it duplicated in his saddle, and after glancing at the officer, paid no many times. further attention to him. . . . We had very good fires, and the night was quite About dark we reached a stream, and went into camp pleasant. among a lot of young trees. The ground was rough and The guards were stationed about us, on all sides, and broken. A number of the guards and prisoners, brought were very strict and watchful. None of them talked with us plenty of clear spring water. us as they did the night before. In fact we prisoners were For the first time, the rebels issued rations to us. We too utterly worn out to talk among ourselves. . . . ten Indianola men were in a mess together, and received The guards started us on our way at a very early hour a few handfuls of course flour for our share and nothing [Monday Oct. 24 1864]. more—12 There was not even a pretense of giving us breakfast. . . . I was at a loss what to do with our provision, when Water was scarce, and few houses were to be seen. . . . Sergeant John Kemp spread a large pocket handkerchief We were marching a little west of south, and after on the ground, and upon it mixed our flour into a stiff awhile crossed the line, and entered Kansas. The exact dough, and gave each man as near an equal share as time and place I cannot state with any degree of accuracy. possible. Mine was about the size of an ordinary biscuit. I We now saw more houses and improvements, and the took a forked twig, wrapped my dough about it, and held rebels began to burn everything in the shape of forage. it in the fire until it was partly cooked, and partly burnt. I No houses were fired, so far as I could see. All kinds of stock were collected and driven along. Sometime during the day a number of soldiers passed, 12. Just north and a little west of Topeka in Shawnee County near Soldier Creek, Indianola was the site of Reader’s initial claim upon going on ahead of us. I saw a battery of artillery go by at moving to Kansas Territory in July 1855. “Autobiography,” 266, http:// a brisk trot. www.kansasmemory.org/item/206900/page/266; see also Kansas Memory (http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/90350) for Reader’s I heard a guard call attention to a pet bear, that he said account of the Battle of Indianola, August 30, 1856. was riding on one of the gun carriages. I looked, but failed

“I was a prisoner of war.” 107 “What is it?” “Yankees,” was the reply. I looked, and saw something that resembled the shadow of a cloud resting on the slope of the hill. By close watching I could see that it was moving south. In all the time I was a prisoner, I never longed for liberty as I did at that particular moment. It was indescribably tantalizing to know that only a little strip of open prairie was between me and my freedom. It was Dives regarding Lazarus, across the gulf.13 At one place we passed a shanty that stood by the roadside. The people were gone, and the door stood wide open. How inviting it looked, and how I longed to enter and drop my weary frame upon the floor. But the hateful: “Close up:—Double quick!” soon hurried us by. . . . During the afternoon, time dragged fearfully. The sun seemed almost at a stand still, and minutes seemed hours. Would the night ever come? At sun-set we came to a heavy body of timber land near a place called “Trading Post.”14 Under the trees, lying side by side I saw a number of men—whether corpses or wounded men, it was impossible to tell. A man was riding a grey horse just outside the line of guards. One of them asked: “Are you one of the prisoners?” The man nodded. It was G.G. Gage. Prevarication might have secured his liberty at this time, or it might not. No doubt the risk was too great, in spite of the gathering obscurity. We soon reached a large stream of water, and camped to see it. But I saw something else, of more interest to me. on the north bank. As we halted I was startled by a series As a cannon swept past a few rods to our right, my eye of heart rending groans. caught the inscription on the limber chest: One of our men being maltreated or murdered, was “Capt. W.W.H. Lawrence Topeka Kansas.” my instant thought. In a few moments all was quiet. It was our old brass howitzer, and I then and there The second Lieutenant—whose name I have probably saw the last of it. forgotten—called out to the guards: As usual, many of the rebels reviled us, in passing. “Treat these prisoners kindly but let no man escape.” Some of the officers rode close along side to look at us. “Your head’s level,” one of our men responded. Some of these were gentlemen; some were not. Sentelle drew his revolver, and told some of us to One foul-mouthed fellow swore himself nearly hoarse, follow him to the water. Half the prisoners sprang to their at the bare sight of us. A small man, wearing a cloth cap, feet. especially excited his animosity. “Sit down! Sit down!” yelled the Lieutenant. “Why, you can’t look an honest man in the face!” yelled We all dropped to the earth as if we had been shot. the rebel. Then followed a torrent of threats and profanity. He, then selected about a dozen of us and led us down But he was not partial. As he worked his way up along to the creek; a strong guard enclosing us on all sides. I our column, men were singled out, here and there for special abuse. . . . We marched over a long stretch of prairie, with higher 13. Reader here alluded to the biblical parable of the rich man (Dives) ground some two miles off to our right. I noticed our and Lazarus found in Luke 16:19–31. 14. Trading Post is located on the north bank of the Marias des guards were watching something in that direction. One Cygnes River in eastern Linn County, Kansas. “Autobiography,” http:// of them asked: www.kansasmemory.org/item/206900/page/282.

108 Kansas History drank and drank, and then filled my hat. As we climbed the bank on our return, Sentelle and I were a little in advance of the party. The night was very dark. A bold leap, and I might escape. But the thrill of half formed resolve, was but momentary. The rebel Lieutenant turned, and my opportunity was lost. It was here that our first man—Jake Klein— escaped. Some of the prisoners were overlooked, and got no water at all. I passed my hat around to my nearest comrades; then drank all my stomach would hold, and emptied out the muddy settlings—as I needed my hat. “Rations for the prisoners” was announced. They consisted of fresh beef and corn meal. Captain Huntoon took charge and issued. I felt too miserable to even offer to help. My old knife was borrowed to cut up the beef, and when the Capt. returned it, he remarked that I kept “a very dull knife.” But there again, the beef was exceedingly tough, and hard to cut. My share of the meat was about half a pound. I soon had it scorched and devoured. The corn meal could not be cooked—there being no water to mix it. I had an ear of corn which I half parched, half burnt on the cob and ate as best I could. The outside was black as a coal, the inside, raw. We were in a heavy wood. Many old logs and stumps were about us, but for some reason We waded the stream—which seemed to me rather our fires were poor. wide and shallow—and reached the up-land beyond. There was a chilly east wind, and the western sky was I saw a number of fires on ahead and at first supposed over cast. Altogether, a most gloomy prospect above and them to be the smoldering fires of a burned village; but below. they were only campfires. The only possible solace was sleep. I wrapped the old After tramping several miles we were halted, and quilt over my butternut coat, pulled my muddy, water waited for daylight. The rain had now increased to quite soaked hat well on my head, and dropped down under a shower. But my rebel coat and the old quilt kept me the shelter of a big log. . . . tolerably dry. . . . Long before daylight [Tuesday October 25 1864] we Day light slowly appeared. . . . were aroused and started on our way.* It was exceedingly Lieut. Sentelle formed us in line and looked us over. dark, and a misty rain added to the obscurity as well as His inspection was seemingly unsatisfactory, for our general discomfort.15 presently he cried out with a savage malediction:

15. “*Note—‘Gen. Curtis with the Kansas men took the lead in Osage.’” Reader referenced and quoted Horace Greeley’s The American the pursuit, but soon gave place to Pleasonton’s horsemen, who after Conflict: A History of the Great Rebellion in the United States of America, a march of 60 miles, struck them about midnight at the Marais-des- 1860–’65. (Hartford, Conn.: O.D. Case & Company, 1867), 561, on page Cygnes, [Trading Post] opening upon their bivouac at 4 A.M., with 289 of the original, online version of the autobiography (http://www. artillery, setting them at once in motion, and chasing them to the Little kansasmemory.org/item/206900/page/289).

“I was a prisoner of war.” 109 him up with the old story of one being paroled. But hope was about dead with both of us. Then on again we went. The rain ceased, and after awhile the clouds cleared away. I felt much better than I had the day before. The air was fresh, and the rain had softened the road so I could walk with less pain from my lame feet. I began to hope that I was getting my “second wind”, and would stand the trip all right. I even tried to whistle at one time, but it was a lamentable failure. For awhile I walked near the head of the column, J.S. Stanfield was at my side. “Mr. Reader!” he suddenly called out. “This is a little harder than running for office, isn’t it?” The man was actually laughing aloud, and looked as merry as if there were not a rebel within a thousand miles. Amid our dismal surroundings, it was encouraging to see and hear him giving vent to his irrepressible gaiety. Another man who seemed to stand tramping remarkably well, was a tall young Missourian. He told me he had been a prisoner about two weeks, and that after a few days of distress he had seemingly become seasoned to hard marching and now suffered little pain or fatigue. He also told me that he had neglected several good chances to escape—preferring to be paroled. Some of our men declared he was put among us by the rebels in order to more closely watch us. Possible, but not probable. “Men, you’ve let half a dozen or more gat away last Nothing seemed to escape the notice of Lieut. Sentelle. night!” He then made another count, and looked us all He saw my coat, and demanded how I came by it. I told over carefully—as I have frequently seen stockmen do in him. He nodded and at last, rather gruffly said: “All rounding up a herd of cattle. right.” “One hundred and ten.” Was announced as our One of the guards called out: “Say, have any of you number, all told. fellows ever been across the plains?” Again the rebel lieutenant rode up and down our line “Yes, I have,” answered a prisoner. They talked for carefully scanning each face as he passed. It was not so some time. I heard the rebel say: “When this war is over bad as he had feared. Only one man was missing. He I’m going to make the trip myself.” It was pleasant to hear merely remarked in a surly tone: him say that. “That damned little Dutchman is gone!” But the end of the war seemed a long way off, not with- Someone said to me: “It’s Jake Klein.” standing. John Kemp was quite sick. He showed his tongue, Another guard was a good vocalist. At one time he and it was very badly coated. He was of course quite sang Kingdom Coming—a rank abolition song of the despondent, and remarked: incendiary type— “Sam, We’ll never see home again.” “That song can hardly be popular, down South.” I en- His words depressed me extremely, but I tried to cheer quired.

110 Kansas History He laughed good humoredly: “Well no, it isn’t.” refused, fearing the cane would make them sick. I ate They were not all so peaceable. Two of the guards had mine without bad effects. About noon we crossed a creek a fierce quarrel, and threatened to shoot. One—fellow and took a short cut through the woods. Here I picked up with fiery red hair—leaped from his horse, close by me, two large hickory-nuts. and called to the other to come on with his gun. But his We scrambled up a very steep bank at the edge of the challenge was declined, much to my relief if they were woods, and found a number of cannons placed in position going to shoot among us prisoners. . . . at the top, and a line of battle forming. We were hurried We suffered for want of water but not so terribly as on on over the open prairie to the south.16 Sunday and Monday. The rain had left some water on the We met numerous parties of rebels returning at a trot. ground, and at one place I drank from horse tracks. We Half a mile from the creek, a long thin line stretched passed more streams and found water more frequently far across the open ground, to stop and turn back the than before. stragglers. They halted us too, but immediately opened I also secured a few eatables. Turnip parings and cabbage leaves were scattered along the road and I gathered up a handful or so. A piece of a turnip I also 16. Here Reader described the crossing of Mine Creek and the picked up, which was quite a prize. Confederate preparation for battle. He again referenced and briefly quoted Greeley, American Conflict, 561, who incorrectly identified A rebel Samaritan brought us an armful of sugar cane. this action as on the Little Osage, a few miles south (http://www. I very thankfully received one, although some of our men kansasmemory.org/item/206900/page/302).

“I was a prisoner of war.” 111 and let us go on. We marched rapidly. After a while we The afternoon was bright and warm, and I began to get heard the thunder of artillery, and knew that the battle very tired. Several of us asked the guards for a ride, but was begun. were told they had no extra horses. We heard firing off and on, for several hours afterwards. A Negro was riding along, leading a horse. One of our It was a running fight, as we could easily guess; and the men pointed him out to a guard: “There, that fellow has rebels were seemingly hard pressed by our forces. Many an extra horse.” soldiers passed us, as if to guard against a flank attack The rebel looked, and then turned savagely on the on the right. Some of the Federals were quite close to us prisoner. at one time. John P. Mayors expressed the wish that they “So you call that a fellow? Hell! That’s a nigger!” would charge right over us all. My corrected comrade was abashed and silent. “I would be willing to die right here, to see it done.” When a few miles north of Ft. Scott, the rebels turned He said to me in an undertone. us to the left in a south-easterly direction, at a double My own feelings just then were less self-sacrificing, quick. I could see nothing myself, but knew that Price perhaps. was headed off from his prey. The excitement of battle seemed to infuse fresh ferocity Many of our men were nearly exhausted; especially in some of the rebels, and we received an additional E.B. Williams. He told me that he was suffering with a share of abusive language. Some of them yelled like wild severe head-ache, as well as from fatigue. He had also Indians at sight of the Negro prisoner, and various were been thrown from his horse during our Battle, and the modes proposed of killing him. several of his ribs were injured. On the other hand, John “Don’t shoot him! Kill him with a white oak club!” Kemp seemed better. He proposed that we lean our backs shouted one ruffian. together, instead of lying flat on the ground during our The Negro happened to be walking by my side, and I rests. It was a decided improvement. took an opportunity to advise him to escape at the first We stopped at a large pond of water on the prairie. I opportunity. was in such a state of exhaustion that everything seemed “Yes sir.” Was his stolid response. misty and dream-like while we remained there. I have He exhibited no alarm, and probably felt none. an uncertain remembrance of seeing a wounded rebel

112 Kansas History sitting near us by the water; and of thinking that his plight was perhaps worse than my own. We drank our fill of the water, then up and on again. The road was now littered with cast away plunder. Like a ship in a storm, the cargo was being thrown overboard. I first picked up a book. To my surprise it was Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Next was a ledger. It was too heavy to carry, and I cut out what paper I wanted for a diary, and left the two books on the ground. More than a dozen new axes were scattered along the roadside, in one place. . . . Near the road I saw two barrels that had been emptied of their contents on the ground. By the smell, it was whisky. . . . Then on and on we went, often at double quick, until at times I felt ready to drop from sheer exhaustion. To do so meant death, and I told one of the guards he had better shoot me then and there, as I could hold out but “Marmaduke’s men, fall in.” It was a perfect bedlam of little longer. He looked at me without reply. Had he shown orders and confused outcries.17 the least disposition to take me at my word, no doubt it The road was thronged with mounted men, evidently would have infused me with fresh life and energy. The very badly demoralized. Some no doubt fell in with their ordinary individual will endure an incredible amount of commands, but the greater part seemed anxious to go on. misery before he will part with life, and I would not have At this time I did not know that these were fugitives been an exception. from a lost battle-field. Again I clung to the tail of a rebel’s horse, and stumbled It was quite dark when we entered the woods. (The on as best I could. stream was the Marmiton, and we were now back in About sunset, Bickell seeing how badly off I was, told Missouri.) me to take the pony. It had a rope halter, but no saddle Near the creek the jam and uproar increased four-fold. or bridle. . . . I had walked all day long, and the relief Our guards halted us every few rods to allow those in front experienced from riding was to my tired frame, “like beds of downy ease.” My boots were tied together and I hung them over the pony’s neck. Bickell held the end of 17. “Shelby” was General Jo Shelby, a commander of one of Price’s the rope and led the animal along side our column, and three divisions during the 1864 raid and one of Missouri’s wealthiest slave owners. In 1861 he cast his lot with the Confederacy, enlisted, and just inside the line of guards. rose to the rank of brigadier general in three years. His skill in fighting We were approaching a heavy body of timber. Just rear guard actions probably saved the army from total destruction. On before we reached it, we entered a lane, with a fenced field the morning of October 25, however, Shelby’s division was guarding the wagon train several miles south of Mine Creek. The Rebel forces on the left hand side. In the field were many horsemen. under General John Sappington Marmaduke, a native of Arrow Rock, Some were shouting: Missouri, who was captured during the battle, and General James Fleming Fagan were routed before Shelby could move his troops to “Shelby’s men, fall in here!” A little farther on, others the battlefield. “Autobiography,” http://www.kansasmemory.org/ were calling out: item/206900/page/314.

“I was a prisoner of war.” 113 “What have you got there?” he asked in some surprise. Up to this moment I had believed that escape would be next to an impossibility. I had even advised Mat. Clark that afternoon to not attempt it. That he would be recaptured and shot, almost to a certainty. Our custodians had impressed it upon our minds, that the man who attempted an escape would be shown no mercy at their hands when recaptured. But here was a chance that might never occur again. My questioner evidently took me for a rebel. I could encourage that belief and perhaps gain my liberty. For one moment the gates of Paradise stood ajar—I would take the risk at all hazards, for escape. The contending emotions of hope and fear rushed over me with such tumultuous force, that I could scarcely control my voice as I answered: “Yankee prisoners.” To keep him from going, I added that we had one hundred and ten in all; the greater part captured near Westport. He seemed interested for the moment. I then asked: “How did the battle go today?” The rebel lowered his voice: to make way. Ahead of us I heard a terrible yelling and “It went against us.” Remembering the battery that cracking of whips, and supposed the train was crossing I had seen in position during some part of the day, I at a ford. At our first halt in the woods the prisoners as questioned further: usual, dropped flat upon the ground. “Did we lose any guns?” Bickell gave me the rope for fear the pony might tread “Yes,” he replied “a good many.” My confidence had on some of the prisoners. increased amazingly. The soldier was reining up to go When we started up again the animal found an opening on, when I kicked up the pony and left the guard line, in the rebel guard line, and crowed in. I was well enough with the excuse that I wanted a drink of water from his pleased, seeing I could do little in guiding him with the canteen—which I saw the man was carrying, as it had no rope. We kept on—starting up and halting again, for the cover— space of several minutes. I heard the guards now and then “You can have a little sip,” he responded, as he gave it warning outsiders to keep off and not break their line. me. I was terribly thirsty, but the nervous tension was so I was riding on the left hand side of the column. great I could scarcely drink a drop. In the meantime, the We had come to another halt. The shadows of the over prisoners were still at rest—the guard who rode behind hanging trees made the night additionally dark at that me, only a few feet distant from us. particular place. Was he deceived, or willfully blind? I may never know. A man rode up to me and inquired: “Where can I find The suspense was more than I could endure. Col. Ellis’s men?” Returning the canteen with a mumbled statement I told the man I didn’t know. He was turning to go away that I would get water from the creek—which I saw was when he happened to see our men lying on the ground—a just alongside the road—I seized my boots, and slipped dark mass indistinguishable in the obscurity— from the pony’s back. As I did so, the soldier exclaimed:

114 Kansas History “I see you’ve lost your saddle.” My heart was in my mouth. For an instant I feared all was discovered. But he drew no weapon; he did not appear to suspect. “Yes, I have,” I replied, “then I used a wagon cover, and lost that too.” A lame story—lamely told—but it sufficed. He too, was blind as a bat. “Yes sir,” he remarked; turned, and rode away. My involuntary deliverer, in truth. Hastily I tied the pony to a branch— to help prove that I intended to get a drink, and return, if re-captured—and plunged down the steep bank to the water’s edge. My first frantic intention was to wade across the stream, but when I stepped in I found the water too deep. I took a hasty drink, returned, and pulled on my boots. Exhaustion was gone. I felt I could travel to the ends of the earth. I ran north, under the creek bank, for about fifty yards, where I saw several foot-men coming down a cow-path, from the road above. I had to meet them, unless I turned back. I foolishly feared they would detect me, even in the dark. Had they been as many grizzly bears, they would hardly have inspired me with a greater terror. In sheer desperation I rushed up to them and called out: “O say! Have you seen a loose horse run by?” number, brigade and division I was entirely ignorant of. They stopped, and with real concern in their voices, To claim membership with this organization, however, said they had not. would be my best course if brought to bay. A broken “I’ve lost mine.” I cried as I ran past them up the bank. reed, no doubt, but still one poor little chance for life and Here I found myself in the road again, surrounded by liberty. men mounted and dismounted. I pushed on up the road against the tide of fugitives “A bay horse,” I cried breathlessly to the first man I that crowded the roadway. I met footmen, and to met, “Have you seen him pass this way?” several of them related my fabricated story of loss. Some “No I haven’t,” he replied. Safe so far. In the darkness responded, some did not. One of these men seemed to and confusion I saw there would be little trouble in recognize in me, one of his comrades. personating a rebel soldier, as long no searching questions “Jim is back there a little way, and wants to see you.” were asked. I replied that I would look for him, and hurried away. I had learned that the Provost Guard belonged in (“Jim” was certainly one of the last persons in the world part, to a regiment commanded by Col. Crawford; but its that I wanted to see just then.) The next man I spoke to

“I was a prisoner of war.” 115 showed considerable sympathy, and I almost feared he would volunteer to help me in my hunt. Embroidered by his friendliness, I asked him if the pickets were out. “No,” he replied, “not likely.” His tone expressed surprise at my question, and fearing I had aroused his suspicions, I hurried away. After following the road north for about one hundred yards, the creek made a bend to the eastward. At this point a country road left the highway and turned to the right; and here a party of soldiers had started a number of bright fires. I halted. It would be impossible to take the right hand road without passing close to several of the fires, and their light would betray me. Sentinels were no doubt posted near by, and I would certainly be challenged, and made to give an account of myself. The simple question: “What command do you belong to?” would probably be my death sentence. But hesitation only increasing my peril, and with many misgivings I walked rapidly toward the fires determined to put the matter to the test. A dozen men were warming themselves or walking about. In spite of myself I could not get rid of the feeling that they would see by my very countenance, that I was a Yankee. But when I was fully within the circle of firelight, my fears proved groundless. Not a man paid the slightest attention to me. I had to pass very close to one of them. He turned and I immediately fell on my face and listened with bated looked me full in the face, as I almost jostled against him. breath for what seemed to me half an hour. I could now (Perhaps it was “Jim?”) hear movements in several different directions, but could “Did you see a loose horse going this way?” see nothing. I was very much alarmed, but resolved to “No.” resist re-capture to the last extremity. My life was forfeit, “Mine got away.” but even if it were spared I could not endure the thought With rapid strides I passed on, nor slackened my of returning to the miseries of captivity. The blade of my pace until I was again within the friendly shelter of the knife was pointed, and more than three inches long. In a darkness. My spirits rose. No sentinel had challenged me nocturnal encounter it would possess some advantages so far; but fearing to meet a patrol or foraging party on over firearms. I held it open in my hand. No one man the road, I left it as soon as possible, and turned off to the should take me, without a desperate struggle, at all left. events. Presently I came to a flat common overgrown with tall The night was quite still, and I could hear every weeds and bushes. There was a movement and rustling of movement of the hidden enemy. Some of them were some kind, directly in front of me. A rebel picket, without almost upon me, when I heard a grunt, that unmistakably a doubt. betrayed the nature of my foe.

116 Kansas History Ashamed, but immensely re- lieved, I sprang to my feet, while a number of hogs scampered away with their familiar “wouf-a-wouf!” But the time had not been lost. It had given me a breathing spell, and time to think. I was now quite certain of being outside the rebel outposts, even if there were any. I stopped a moment to listen. The noise from the direction of the rebel army was peculiar. At that distance the shouting of soldiers and teamsters resembled a continuous roar. Now and then it would rise, and swell into a more formidable volume of sound; then it would sink again as the light breeze wafted it away. A vivid imagination could easily compare it to a wait of distress, and I failed not to remember that my unfortunate comrades were still in the midst of all that din and misery. It was a saddening thought, as I turned to go. I walked rapidly in a northerly direction, across field and prairie. My thirst became intolerable. All the moisture of my system seemed to be drying up. I chewed the rebel bullet without relief. My mouth remained dry as ashes. In all my three days of torture, I had never suffered from thirst like this. It is something that I have never been able to understand, for the night was sufficiently cool. But relief was nearer than I expected. the Federal soldiers would undoubtedly take me for a I stumbled across a ravine and found a puddle rebel at first sight. I concluded it would be safer to have a of stagnant water. How much of it I drank, I should flag of truce ready for an emergency. My outer shirt was probably hesitate to tell, even if I could remember. I white, and would answer the purpose admirably. I cut a bathed my blistered and inflamed feet, and took a good stout stick that would serve as a cane and a flag staff, as rest. Remembering the two hickory–nuts in my pocket, I occasion required. cut them open with my knife and ate them as best I could. For the purpose of identification, in case I should be From another pocket I fished up the stem of a cabbage leaf, killed, I wrote on a scrap of paper: “S.J. Reader, Indianola and devoured it to the last fiber. I do not think I was ever Kansas. Second reg’t. K.S.M.” This I pinned to my happier in my life. My spirits were buoyant as a feather, waistband. in spite of the knowledge that I was far from absolute Soon after leaving the ravine, I came to a house. There safety. There was danger from rebel ; and was a light inside, but I did not dare venture too near.

“I was a prisoner of war.” 117 were now gathering, with some lightening. There were sounds like cannon shots, from the direction of the Marmiton Crossing. Off to the west the prairie grass had been fired, and the light was reflected on the clouds. I stood for a few moments and viewed my surroundings. I could hardly realize that all was not a dream. I was supremely happy. But the tremendous mental and physical strain of the last two hours could not be longer sustained. I pulled up some dead grass for a pillow, and was soon luxuriously couched. Before I closed my eyes, the shrill bark of a wolf broke the silence of the night. My first thought was, that he was on his way to the battlefield, to feast on the slain—but the field was probably too far away for that. All the same, it was not a pleasant sound to hear under the circumstances, and I was glad when his vocal efforts ceased. I must have slept five or six hours, when I was awakened by a feeling of chilliness, and found that a very light rain was falling. I started up, and guiding myself by a slight breeze, set out on my way again. After an hours walk, I was I passed to the east of it through a stable yard and warm, but very tired and sleepy. I threw myself down in remember to my credit, pulling up the bars after me. the grass, and slept, in spite of the showers of rain that I then came to a small stream of running water. I drank still continued at intervals. I soon waked up again feeling my fill, and started on again, with a quart or so in my hat. cold and wet. I reached open ground and attempted to lay my course Then on again I went, to repeat the alternate tramping by the stars. Ursa Major was low in the northwest; the and sleeping, until the grey light of morning struggled Pleiades just above the eastern horizon. I had some through the overcast sky. trouble in locating the “pointers of the dipper,” so as to The drizzly rain had ceased and the clouds broke away find the North Star. Brightly it shone in the clear northern [Wednesday, morning, October 26]. I was now getting sky, the fugitives friend in all ages, past and present. fearfully weak. The sun presently came out, bright and The familiar hymn: “Lead Kindly Light,” might with warm. I sat down for a long time. little change apply to my condition at that moment. . . . There were no signs of habitations to be seen in any di- I went on at a brisk pace until I came to an elevated rection. Nothing but the undulating swells of the prairie, spot on the prairie. It must have been four or five miles and a line of woodland to the east. from where my escape was effected; and a little east I was on the crest of a ridge and had an extensive view. of north. A small creek was to my right. A few clouds I took out my memorandum book, and jotted down in

118 Kansas History a rough way, the exciting incidents of the last four days. together with clear running water: My breakfast lacked As I sat writing, a flock of merry crows serenaded me in variety, but not in quantity. from a neighboring knoll. After leaving this place I came to a number of fields I will here give verbatim the closing lines as I wrote lying west of a creek. them, sitting in that vast solitude: But all the fences were gone, and weeds covered the “I slept a little, and walked a lot in the night—I am ground. The remains of chimneys showed where the very weak—I hear crows cawing—Some clouds, now and buildings had formerly stood. This was the handi-work then—I must go—.” of Gen. Lane, when he laid the country waste, the year I put up my book, and started on again. before. The prairie grass had dried off, and the walking I was now so completely worn out, that I was unable became exceedingly difficult and slippery. to walk more than a few minutes at a time. I would then I generally kept in sight of woodland, that I might have have to lie on the ground awhile to rest. a better chance of escape if pursued by horsemen. I began to bear off more to the west and toward mid- In a wooded ravine I found grapes and elm bark, day came to an enclosed field in which were a number of

“I was a prisoner of war.” 119 cabbages. I lost no time in securing a head, and after eating all I dared, filled my pockets. I then struck a road which I followed to the northwest, and soon after came in sight of a farm house. As I approached it, an old man rode out from an adjoining field, and came toward me. A short distance behind were other armed and mounted men. I never thought about my flag of truce, and it was not displayed, very fortunately. When the old man had approached near enough, I called out to him: “Are you a Union man?” He nodded and said: “Yes.” “Then I’m all right!” I cried, immensely relieved. “Well, I don’t know about that,” he rejoined, “You must be a rebel!” His words were harsh, but there was something about the man that pleasantly reminded me of old Osawatomie Brown. I hastened to explain to him, that I was a Union soldier, and had escaped from the rebels during the night. He looked at my butternut coat and my dilapidated appearance generally, and shook his head. “Several of you fellows have already been picked up, straggling about the neighborhood.” Then he added: “There’s just one thing in your favor. You were going the wrong way for a rebel.” The other men now joined him and they took me to the house. From their glum and sullen aspect it was easy to guess their opinion of me. I sat on a log at the wood-pile, while the men talked together, a little apart. For myself I was perfectly at my ease; and was rather amused than otherwise. The women in the house looked out, and viewed me with considerable curiosity. Perhaps I was

120 Kansas History the first real live rebel they had ever seen. Dead rebels, my gun ready I thought I wouldn’t shoot him—he begged some of them had just seen on the battlefield—which was so—But I wish now, I’d shot him.” I [Reader] felt a great not far away—as I heard them speaking about it. desire to read this young ruffian a lecture on the proper I took out my book and began writing up my diary for treatment of prisoners, but as I was to all appearances a that morning. One of the men held out his hand: “Give Confederate prisoner myself, and the disappointed youth me that book.” possessed a breach loader, I wisely concluded to waste no My diary was written in shorthand. He looked puzzled words on him. and suspicious. But I had him turn to the business part When we reached Barnsville Mr. McNeal turned me of the book—which was in longhand—and explained to over to Sergeant Pickerell of the 15th Kansas Cavalry. them all who and what I was, and all about my capture and I was not personally acquainted with the Sergeant, escape. My statement of facts appeared to be convincing. although he was a resident of Topeka. The old man said: He was very thorough in his examination of me, and “Well I suppose you are all right, but we must be sure among other things, asked me to name a number of about it. After dinner I will take you to Fort Scott and turn prominent citizens of Topeka. you over to the soldiers there.” I remember giving the names of Jake Smith, and Dan I was now taken indoors. On the margin of a newspaper Horne; and a personal description of these gentlemen was “Juo. McNeal.” This I suppose was the old man’s was required and given, as well. name; and so I call him. But my memorandum book served me better than The dinner hour arrived—to me, an epicurean feast— anything else. Sergeant Pickerall carefully examined biscuit, fresh pork and sweet potatoes, were, I remember it, and after a few more searching questions, which I a part of the bill of fare. I was treated as an honored guest could readily answer, he declared himself satisfied, and by my kind entertainer, and all offers of payment on my pronounced the welcome words: “You are free.” part were politely declined. “If you’re a Union man—as I think you are—I am very In grimy, footsore, woful plight, glad to serve you. And if you’re not—well, that will be all But free, and filled with glory. right, too.” Distant home has loom’d in sight, Mr. McNeal furnished me with a horse, and in company And here I’ll end my story. with him and another militia man, we started for Fort Scott—some ten miles to the southwest. My account properly ends here. I will add however that I was told that we would pass over one of the I started the next morning, on foot, and reached Topeka at battlefields of the day before. But pretty soon wemet noon, Sunday Oct. 30th. a party of men who advised Mr. McNeal to take me to I reported to Col. Veale in person; crossed the Kansas Barnsville—which was only six miles to the northwest— river and reached home at about three o’clock p.m.18 We accordingly changed our course, and by so doing, missed seeing the battlefield—no doubt a gruesome sight enough, and better avoided. One of the members of the new party joined us. He was a self-confidant chatter-box of sixteen, and claimed that he had participated in the fight—or at any rate the pursuit—of the day before. He showed us a Sharp’s carbine, that he had picked up on the field. 18. Colonel George W. Veale of Topeka commanded the Second “The rebels don’t look like our men,” he remarked. Kansas State Militia, Reader’s Shawnee County regiment, which “And I saw so many of the dead rebels who had red hair. contained nearly six hundred men. According to Adjutant General Cyrus K. Holiday, the Second suffered the only serious casualties of the action I helped guard prisoners for awhile,” he continued. “I around Kansas City; on October 23 the regiment fought “Jackman’s asked one of them: ‘We’ve whipped you good, haven’t Brigade of Shelby’s Division—six times our numbers—for three quarters we?’ and he says: ‘yes’. Then says I: ‘You’ve been fighting of an hour.” The colonel reported critically on the command decisions that placed him in a numerically vulnerable position: “I acted under on the wrong side! Don’t you feel sorry?’ And says he: ‘I orders, and by so doing lost twenty-four brave Kansans killed, about the believe I do.’ When he said that, it made me mad, and I same number wounded, and sixty-eight taken prisoners.” Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Kansas, 1864 (Leavenworth: P. H. Hubbell says to him, ‘Now I’m going to shoot you!’ I began to put & Co., 1865), 64; “Autobiography,” http://www.kansasmemory.org/ a cap on my gun, and the rebel began to beg. When I got item/206900/page/363.

“I was a prisoner of war.” 121 REVIEWS

Willard Garvey: An Epic Life by Maura McEnaney xix + 309 pages, illustrations, notes, index. Oakland, Calif.: Liberty Tree Press, 2013, cloth $26.95.

Maura McEnaney’s Willard Garvey: An Epic Life is an engaging biography of Wichita entrepreneur Willard Garvey. The son of Ray Garvey, who transformed Kansas’s grain industry in the 1930s and 1940s, Willard Garvey built on his father’s business endeavors and then went further to develop a multitude of projects and ventures from real estate to ranching. The book is a celebration of Garvey and his dedication to the ideals of self-reliance, capitalism, and the free market. The tone is understandable given McEnaney’s background as a researcher affiliated with the libertarian-leaning Independent Institute, which itself has ties to the Garvey family. The publisher is the institute’s Liberty Tree Press. In addition, the accolades for the work in the beginning pages read like a who’s who of Kansas conservative/libertarian figures. McEnaney chronicles the life of Garvey from his youth in Depression-era Wichita through his World War II military service to his death in 2002. With wife Jean at his side, Willard displayed a nearly inexhaustible energy and creativity, firing out ideas and plans often faster that those around him could handle. Garvey developed a talent for organizing activities with military-like precision, insisting that everyone around him, from employees yet still an ordinary human being who happened to see to his own children, report regularly on their efforts based on a opportunities that many of his colleagues did not. McEnaney’s “GO” (“Goal-Oriented”) format. Willard Garvey appears as a confident, larger-than-life leader, The study presents a resoundingly positive view of Garvey and from childhood mostly free from the insecurities that and his legacy. Miscalculations in business practices do figure plague the rest of us. In Willard Garvey: An Epic Life, the reader prominently, such as his unsuccessful efforts to promote private gets a sense of setting, such as Wichita of the 1950s, but merely home ownership in developing countries. Family ties to John as backdrop instead of as the context in which he functioned. Birch–related figures are presented openly. However, the author In Harvesting the High Plains, John Kriss is a revealing foil; in offers little detailed analysis of controversial racial, economic, Willard Garvey, other figures, such as wife Jean or assistant Bob and social issues in the city, much less of how the Garveys Page, are influential and significant yet remain supporting cast figured in those dynamics. Critical voices appear in the text members to the leading man. only in passing, just long enough for Garvey to dismiss them It is hard for locals, including myself, to ignore the legacy of and move on. For a deeper sense of the social debates of late Willard Garvey in Wichita. Craig Miner was my first department twentieth-century Wichita, other books such as Gretchen Eick’s chair. I bought my first house in Garvey’s first major suburban Dissent in Wichita may be more useful. project, Bonnie Brae, with a backyard that overlooked the It may be helpful to compare this work with that by another Garvey-founded Independent School. Willard Garvey, An Epic Garvey biographer: historian Craig Miner, who held a Garvey- Life, therefore, is a useful, entertaining, and revealing window endowed chair in business history. Miner wrote Harvesting the into a person and a family that has left its mark on Wichita, on High Plains, the story of how Willard’s father Ray and John Kriss Kansas, and on the nation. Moreover, there are few scholarly created a dynamic agricultural business model in the midst of books about Wichita in the later decades of the twentieth century, the Great Depression. Like McEnaney, who describes herself as Miner’s Wichita: The Magic City and Eick’s Dissent in Wichita a family friend, Miner worked with the Garveys. Both authors being the most prominent. This book fills an important niche in are gifted storytellers and present their respective Garveys as explaining how Wichita developed from the 1950s through the exemplars of American business acumen. Miner, however, better dawn of the twenty-first century. explores the context of agriculture and business, helping explain why the elder Garvey functioned the way he did. Thus, Miner’s Reviewed by Jay Price, professor of history, Wichita State Ray Garvey comes across as remarkable and accomplished, University.

122 Kansas History Harry Truman and the Struggle for Racial Justice by Robert Shogan xi + 233 pages, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2013, cloth $34.95.

Recent years have brought a number of studies on American presidents and their civil rights records, in particular many attempting to reevaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the modern civil rights movement–era presidents—Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson. The best of these studies include: Nick Bryant, The Bystander: John F. Kennedy and the Struggle for Black Equality (2006); David Allen Nichols, A Matter of Justice: Eisenhower and the Beginning of the Civil Rights Revolution (2007); and Nick Kotz, Judgment Days: Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Laws that Changed America (2005). Robert T. Shogan’s Harry Truman and the Struggle for Racial Justice is a worthy addition to the literature. Shogan, a former national political correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, outlines how Truman, born and raised in former slaveholding Missouri, grew from a racially prejudiced individual who did not fully embrace civil rights and African American equality into a president praised for having awakened the nation’s conscience and ushering in the modern struggle for civil rights and American democracy. Shogan tracks the Missourian’s development as a politician, especially his tutelage under “Boss Tom” Pendergast, who taught Truman the value of African American votes in Kansas City. As a county judge and a director of reemployment, Truman won the hearts and minds of the African American community as he dealt fairly with many who sought his assistance or came before his bench. These actions paid off when he ran for the U.S. Senate and secured nearly 90 percent of the black vote. According to C. A. Franklin, the editor of the Kansas City Call, Truman earned the landslide support from his years of service: “If ever a man deserved public civil rights president. According to the author, Truman’s legacy confidence on the basis of the record made in public’s service speaks for itself. “To compare Truman’s civil rights record to that that man is Harry S. Truman” (p. 48). of any of his predecessors in the White House,” argues Shogan, According to Shogan, Truman gathered what he had learned “is like comparing Gulliver to the Lilliputians” (p. 180). in Kansas City and Missouri politics and took it onto the In the end, Harry Truman and the Struggle for Racial Justice national stage. Once elected president he became the first in the successfully demonstrates that Truman was centrally important office to denounce segregation and make racial justice a priority. to the modern civil rights movement. It was his presidency that He created the President’s Committee on Civil Rights, which set the tone and laid the foundation. Truman was the “first to “would ultimately give new focus to his presidency and lead to make the struggle for racial justice part of the national agenda, a transformation of race relations in the country” (p. 99). In the to define bias against Americans of color as an evil that violated summer of 1947, Truman made an unprecedented address before the Constitution, and . . . to define segregation, as distinguished the NAACP in which he deliberately connected the struggle for from discrimination, as inherently a component of that evil” civil rights to the fundamental principles of America’s values (p. 180). Shogan’s well-executed study provides us with a and the international fight against communism. The following fuller understanding of Truman’s importance in the civil rights year he ordered the desegregation of the armed forces. struggle and the role of the executive branch in the overall Additionally, Truman’s Justice Department, with his guidance modern civil rights movement. and encouragement, began to push for desegregation in housing and ultimately in education. Based on these actions and others, Reviewed by Shawn Leigh Alexander, associate professor of Shogan maintains that Truman was the most influential pro– African and African American Studies, University of Kansas.

Reviews 123 Edmund G. Ross: Soldier, Senator, Abolitionist by Richard A Ruddy xvi + 328 pages, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2013, cloth $39.95.

There was a time when one might safely assume that most Kansans knew the name Edmund G. Ross. In recent years, however, the Kansan celebrated in John F. Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage (1955) alongside John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, and a handful of other notable American politicians has passed from our collective memory. Ross was omitted from two popular Kansas histories for school-age students and is nowhere to be found in the index to Craig Miner’s impressive Kansas: The History of the Sunflower State(2002). Richard Ruddy, a retired photographer and student of Albuquerque history, seeks to reinsert Ross into our historical consciousness and to enhance our understanding of the Kansas senator and New Mexico governor’s true place in Civil War and Gilded Age America. For the most part, Ruddy succeeds. Indeed, as the author demonstrates in this first comprehensive, scholarly biography of Edmund G. Ross, “There is . . . more, much more, to be known of the life” of the man who famously “looked down into [his] Samuel J. Crawford wired that Kansas demanded a guilty vote, open grave,” politically speaking, and cast the decisive acquittal and the irascible Leavenworth editor Daniel R. Anthony wrote, vote in the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson on “Kansas has heard the evidence and demands the conviction May 16, 1868 (pp. xi, 272). of the President.” When Ross insisted that he would be guided To those Kansans, such as this reviewer, who got their by his own conscience, Anthony exclaimed: “Kansas repudiates early Kansas history during the years of Kansas’s centennial you as she does all perjurers and skunks” (pp. 129, 137). And commemorations and of President Kennedy’s “Camelot,” the so they did. Press and public reaction was bitter, but the people basics of the Ross story are or at least were familiar. A native of of Kansas, for the most part, quickly forgot and forgave, and as Ohio, Edmund Ross came of age as the agitation against slavery early as 1871, some papers were applauding the “courage” that became more and more militant—according to Ruddy, the Ross the future president rediscovered in the 1950s. Nevertheless, “siblings were raised to be abolitionist” (p. 2). Ross trained as a time and forgiveness did not mean a revival of Ross’s political printer and newspaper man and moved west during the mid- fortunes in Republican Kansas. Eventually he joined the nineteenth century like so many of his contemporaries, and Democratic Party and accepted President Grover Cleveland’s in 1856 he led a small party of free-state settlers that included 1885 appointment as governor of New Mexico Territory. his father, mother, wife, and three small children to Kansas Ruddy does a more than credible job chronicling and Territory, soon to be known nationally as Bleeding Kansas. analyzing the ups and downs of Ross’s Kansas and New With his brother William, who made the move in 1855, Edmund Mexico life and career. Although he may be too quick to give entered the newspaper business and served as Wabaunsee Ross the benefit of the doubt and is often a bit too speculative, County delegate to the Wyandotte Constitutional Convention, for the most part his research is solid and thorough. With a bit which gave Kansas the free-state constitution under which it more he might have tied up some annoying loose ends—for was admitted to the Union in 1861. In early 1862, Ross helped example, “a Judge Adams” (p. 54) was Franklin G. Adams, an raise the Eleventh Kansas Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, was important early Kansas journalist and the first director of the elected captain of Co. E, and saw action along the Kansas- Kansas State Historical Society; and a “Kansas editor named Sol Missouri border and south. After the war, Ross pursued his Miller” (p. 131) was the influential, long-serving (1857–1897), newspaper career in Lawrence until his July 1866 appointment and often cantankerous editor of the Kansas Chief, White Cloud to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy left by the suicide of James and Troy, who probably never forgave Ross for his 1868 vote. H. Lane. The following January, the Kansas legislature elected But these oversights are insignificant in the context of a 300- Ross to the U.S. Senate for the short term ending in January page biography, which is also good history and a significant 1871. His political career all but ended in 1868, however, when contribution to the literature. he defected from the Radical Republicans and voted to acquit President Johnson of impeachment charges, despite the chorus Reviewed by Virgil W. Dean, consulting editor, Kansas History: of Kansas voices calling for Johnson’s ouster. Kansas governor A Journal of the Central Plains.

124 Kansas History Oklahoma’s Indian New Deal by Jon S. Blackman ix + 225 pages, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2014, cloth, $24.95.

The New Deal of the 1930s is much in the news these days as each signatory piece of the social safety net is held up for critical review by politicians and the media. The New Deal’s changes to Indian policy, however, are virtually unknown today. The Wheeler–Howard Act, also known as the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA), provided a limited framework for a new relationship between the federal government and Native nations. Although the federal government continued to hold the vast majority of Native lands and resources in trust, the Indian New Deal opened the door for Indian leadership and eventual control of their own resources, schools, health care and justice. In short, the IRA marked the first real opportunity for Native sovereignty in the United States since the Revolutionary War. Changes in federal Indian policy also spurred developments at the state level, none more significant than Oklahoma’s version of the Indian New Deal. In his study of this unfamiliar portion of an already underappreciated slice of FDR’s legacy, Jon Blackman lays out the history of what he calls the “mongrelized compromise” that became the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act. by providing tribal governments with a line of revolving credit Until the appointment of social worker John Collier as with which to develop their own extraction and agricultural Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1933, the unapologetic goal industries. Blackman concludes that the contentious national of every federal program for Indians, beginning with Thomas debate that shaped the passage of the OIWA undermined its Jefferson, was their assimilation into mainstream non-Indian effectiveness through needless compromise and piecemeal cuts society. Collier’s approach was the antithesis of assimilation. and additions. In principal, Collier’s 1934 Indian New Deal would celebrate, Blackman’s story is supported mainly by the records of the enhance and empower cultural difference, or pluralism, by Bureau of Indian Affairs and its tribal offices. As an employee allowing a greater level of self-rule by Native peoples, help of the U.S. State Department, Blackman’s familiarity with the reconstitute homelands broken up by allotment in the 1890s, official records of the OIWA is valuable. What his interpretation and provide development assistance for tribes to restart lacks, however, is a clear narrative of Native perceptions of the economic and artistic traditions. Although the practical results passage and implementation of the OIWA. Blackman rightly of the Indian New Deal were mixed, historians are united in points out that only a fraction of tribes in Oklahoma chose their interpretation of the IRA as the start of a new era of self- to participate in any of the programs provided by the OIWA, determination. very likely because funding for them was delayed until nearly Collier’s biggest challenge in administering his new policies the end of 1937, and because much of the damage to Indian stemmed from his need to work with a Congress steeped resources had already taken place—long before the passage of in assimilationist theory and practice, and even from some the original Wheeler–Howard Act. Any legacy that Blackman Indians themselves who continued to value assimilation as the claims for the OIWA then is largely symbolic. According to ultimate solution to the “Indian Problem.” Many Native leaders, Blackman, although Indians were reluctant to take up the terms understandably, were reluctant to trust in new programs or of the OIWA at the time, this offer of self-determination beat a agreements of any sort, citing previous disappointments in their new path toward sovereignty in the 1950s that continues today. dealings with the Bureau. Oklahoma’s add-on legislation to the Regardless of the merit of Blackman’s claims for the significance Indian New Deal, the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act (OIWA), was of the OIWA in the history of American Indian policy, Oklahoma’s a response to the special circumstances faced by the tribal nations Indian New Deal serves as a succinct summary of a messy tangle of that state. Unlike Native groups in other states, Oklahoma’s of differing non-Indian interests attempting to shape the future Indian population was highly diverse, composed of indigenous of American Indians. and immigrant tribes, and complicated by the presence of valuable resources, primarily oil, on tribal lands. The OIWA Reviewed by Bonnie Lynn-Sherow, associate professor of history, sought to address the rapacious exploitation of Native resources Kansas State University.

Reviews 125 Standing Firmly by the Flag: and the Civil War, 1861–1867 by James E. Potter xxi + 375 pages, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2012, paper $29.95.

James E. Potter has provided a much-needed study of the tumultuous events in territorial and Civil War–era Nebraska. With neighboring Kansas generally receiving the lion’s share of historical attention given its importance to the coming of the war, this book fills a pronounced gap in the literature on the period as it details the links between wartime and postwar events in Nebraska Territory—something lacking in nearly all books on the Civil War in the American West. Using evidence drawn from an array of traditional sources, from letters and diaries to newspapers to government documents, Potter, a senior research historian at the Nebraska State Historical Society, largely succeeds in depicting Nebraska—as many scholars have done for neighboring Kansas—as something of a proving ground for the politics of slavery and antislavery by way of the national fiction of popular sovereignty. Nebraska lay at the center of the nation’s ideological struggle for its future, and Nebraska’s politics resembled those of its neighboring territory to the south. Although historians have long viewed the triumph of antislavery in Nebraska as a foregone conclusion, Potter reminds us that the politics of slavery were alive and well, and that the activism of the freestaters was essential to staving off proslavery efforts to extend the peculiar institution there. Like Kansas and other border areas of the nation long overlooked by historians, Nebraska’s fault lines reveal the war’s truest nature better than in other areas of the nation. By extending his study through the war years to statehood, Potter has offered a fuller explanation of the local contest not only for and against slavery in Nebraska, but also for and against wartime Helpful as it is, this book is not without flaws. Potter’s emancipation. The territory’s freestaters, mostly Republicans, extended focus on the military exploits of the First Nebraska were products of activist traditions and exerted political Infantry Regiment detracts from the war on the home front, agency against wartime dissenters just as they took up arms purportedly his main focus. In truth, that focus is itself too often against guerrillas, especially in the southeastern counties. They cursory. Readers will find plenty of information on state-level liberated the territory’s few slaves, helped them to escape, and politics, but far less on the shifting nature of the war’s meanings assisted their enlistment in federal ranks. The settlers themselves among common people and the intra-community contests, enlisted as well, invading Missouri to punish former antagonists political and ideological, that it unleashed throughout the West. with a hard war policy that predated the employment of that The concluding chapters on postwar Nebraska and statehood are strategy in the eastern theaters of war. Then they moved on to less integrated with the war narrative than they might have been, other campaigns farther south in Arkansas before returning to leaving readers a largely flat political narrative of the statehood their home to combat Native Americans who used the war as an process. The Civil War seems merely a political obstacle rather opportunity to defend traditional homelands from further white than a deep scar not fully healed owing to the divided nature of expansion, especially after Congress passed the 1862 Homestead race and war memory on the Nebraska landscape. Nonetheless, Act. Potter’s study offers a realistic portrayal of the often violent Standing Firmly by the Flag will likely stand for a long while as wartime negotiations between neighbors, white, black, and red, the most appealing history of Nebraska’s civil war within the on the windswept prairies of Nebraska. The dichotomous terms Civil War. “Border Ruffian” and “” more delineated on which side of the border the users of the terms lived than any real Reviewed by Christopher Phillips, professor of history, University distinction between paramilitary and even terroristic activities. of Cincinnati.

126 Kansas History BOOK NOTES

The Dairies of John Gregory Bourke: Volume Five, May 23, 1881– Meaningful Places: Landscape Photographers in the Nineteenth-Century August 26, 1881. Edited and annotated by Charles M. Robinson III. American West. By Rachel McLean Sailor. (Albuquerque: University (Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2013, xiv + 482 pages, of New Mexico Press, 2014, xxviii + 207 pages, cloth $45.00.) cloth $55.00.) Minnehaha Falls, Minnesota, the Big Mound near St. Louis, and As mentioned in the journal’s note on volume four of his the Grand Canyon are a few of the places that Rachel Sailor writes diaries in the winter 2010–2011 issue, John Gregory Bourke was about in Meaningful Places. Drawing from archival collections aide-de-camp to Brigadier General George Crook and a firsthand from all over the West, Sailor demonstrates the role that landscape witness to the early Apache campaigns, the Great Sioux War, the photographs played in perpetuating the national conception of a Cheyenne Outbreak, and the Geronimo War. He also was a prolific frontier and how “local communities found site-specific meaning diarist, filling 124 manuscript volumes with notes, sketches, and in images of the local and regional places they inhabited” (p. xix). photographs. Volume five, edited and annotated by Charles M. For example, Crater Lake, Oregon, ringed by a mountainous Robinson III, finds Bourke at Fort Wingate, New Mexico, in May crown, appealed to local settlers because it evoked “completion 1881; on the Pine Ridge Agency; and back in the Southwest among and culmination,” whereas Yosemite Valley, a gateway to mist the Zunis, the Rio Grande Pueblos, and the Hopis. This fifth volume shrouded mountains, denoted “beginning” and appealed to the is of special interest “because it is the first to deal almost exclusively national concept of manifest destiny (p. 71). Late nineteenth-century with Bourke’s ethnological research” and is also noteworthy for its photographers, explains Sailor, conveyed these ideas through treatment of the Sun Dance (p. 1). It is effectively annotated and deliberately chosen perspectives. Rich with pictures, Meaningful includes an appendix of “Persons Mentioned in the Diary” with Places teases out the layers of meaning in late nineteenth-century brief biographical sketches of each. western photography and recounts the experiences of some fascinating, albeit lesser known, landscape photographers. Harry S. Truman: The Coming of the Cold War. By Nicole L. Anslover. (New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2014, x + 225 pages, An Osage Journey to Europe, 1827–1830: Three French Accounts. paper $29.95.) Edited and translated by William Least Heat-Moon and James K. In this fine little biography of the nation’s thirty-third president Wallace. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2013, xiii + 154, for the Routledge Historical Americans series, Nicole L. Anslover, cloth $29.95.) effectively situates Harry S. Truman and his presidency in the In 1827, for reasons not entirely clear, four Osage men and two context of his times. The author clearly states the book’s primary Osage women travelled to Europe and toured France, Belgium, objective at the outset: “to demonstrate the lasting impact that Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Italy. Initially, Truman had on American society and America’s role in the world” European spectators vied with each other for glimpses of the (p. vii). And she does so in seven concise chapters—beginning with Osage sojourners, but when their New World novelty wore off Truman’s life experiences before 1945 and ending with his post- the six companions were reduced to begging for their return fare. presidency back in Independence, Missouri—and a “Document Travel writer and historian William Least Heat-Moon and James K. Log” that should make the volume especially conducive to Wallace, professor emeritus of French at the University of Missouri, classroom use. Although Anslover’s subtitle seems to promise a compiled and translated three obscure contemporary French focus on foreign relations, there is plenty of domestic policy and booklets that document the Osage’s trip to Europe. The editors politics as well, including coverage of the mostly ill-fated Fair Deal explain how “the booklets present a telling picture of two cultures and “the Miracle of ’48” (p. 98). from different hemispheres . . . each trying to make sense of the other during a massive re-ordering of society” (p. 23). In addition to the Kenneth and Helen Spencer of Kansas: Champions of Culture and documents, readers will appreciate An Osage Journey’s explanatory Commerce in the Sunflower State. By Kenneth F. Crockett. (Charleston, footnotes and its vibrant color illustrations of the Osage travelers. S.C.: The History Press, 2014, 206 pages, paper $21.99.) Although their names live on in places like the Spencer Research Fried Walleye and Cherry Pie: Midwestern Writers on Food. Edited by Library at the University of Kansas and the Kenneth A. Spencer Peggy Wolff. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2013, xvii + Chemistry Building at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, 258 pages, paper $19.95.) most Kansans are probably unaware of the eponymous couple’s In Fried Walleye and Cherry Pie, editor Peggy Wolff brings history. Kenneth F. Crockett seeks to reintroduce Kansans to this together thirty authors to reminisce about the significance of food philanthropic duo in Kenneth and Helen Spencer of Kansas. Drawing to midwestern culture and their own experiences of living in the heavily from Kenneth’s and Helen’s manuscript collections, heartland. In this collection of “stories told around and about the Crocket relates how Kenneth Spencer worked his way up in the table,” contributors remember county fairs, corndogs, cherry pie family business, Pittsburg and Midway Coal Mining Company and homemade fudge (p. xiv). Yet while some authors long for (P&M), in the 1930s, and, proving his own ability as an industrialist, comfort foods made with recipes found on box tops, others point founded the Spencer Chemical Company. Helen, who greatly to the region’s diverse food culture influenced by migrants from supported Kenneth yet remained aloof from business management around the U.S. as well as from Europe, Latin America, and Asia. during their marriage, became more active in the family business Authors share local secrets, like the hot dog truck in Ann Arbor, upon her husband’s death in 1960. She also became a leading Michigan, that sells Hungarian paprikash, and remind us that the philanthropist in her own right by directing the Kenneth and Helen corn so ubiquitous on the highways of Indiana becomes both General Spencer Foundation. Crockett pays tribute to a Kansas couple that Mills breakfast cereal and fresh tamales with spinach. Many stories generously gave back to their native state. include recipes, from Bundt cake made with instant pudding to goat cheese panna cotta. Through its tour of midwestern fare, Fried Walleye and Cherry Pie emphasizes the importance of examining this often overlooked region to current food studies.

Book Notes 127 Department of History KHistoricalansas Foundation

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