Kelso, John R. Blood Engagements: John R. Kelso’s Civil War. Edited by Christopher Grasso. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017.

Private, spy, cavalry officer

Began writing memoir in 1880s

Preacher and school teacher before the war

Unhappy marriage, divorce and renounced his Methodist faith

Remarried and became a school teacher in Missouri

Grew up in a proslavery family but grew to hate slavery--a dissenter all around?

Joined Missouri home guards

Enlisted in 24th Missouri

By early 1862 a lt. in Missouri State Militia Cavalry

Wounded by Confederate bushwhackers; fought along Missouri-Arkansas border

Polite, bookish, brave--Wiley Britton deemed him a classical hero, xxiii

Others saw him as a terrorist who killed people without cause

He won a tight and disputed election to Congress in 1864 as an independent Republican candidate

Reports that he had promised “not [to] cut his hair and beard until he had killed twenty-five bushwhacker,” a pledge he said he had fulfilled, xxviii

Served as a Radical Republican in the House

Two more marriages

Defeated for election in 1868

Moved to California--an outspoken radical and atheist

Began autobiography in 1882

Regretted his bloody deeds toward end of his life--disullusioned from war and from the Union-- thought the war had gone for naught

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Chapter 1 Secession and War--deeply researched and extremely well annotated; very helpful chronology at end of the volume blending national and local events to Kelso’s activities

Then a teacher in Buffalo, Dallas County, Missour, Notes how firing on Fort Sumter produced a great blood lust on both sides, pp. 2-3 Blood lust both genders--good quotation--3 Religion added to the blood lust, 3 Teacher, students caught up in pro-Confederate excitement, 3 Support Unionist sentiment, denounced Claiborne Jackson as a traitor, 5 Confederate meeting, 6-7 He denounced secession with Biblical analogies, 8-9 Joined Unionist Home Guard, 10 John Mabury, Confederate leader, 11- Martial low proclaimed on his own hook, seized prisoners, 12 Camp approached by Confederates, great panic, 14-15 Status rose with men and loyal people generally, [not a modest fellow], 16

Chapter 2 Battle of Wilson’s Creek and First Spy Mission, August to September 1861 Nathaniel Lyon, 17-20 Wilson’s Creek, 19-20 Home Guard officers, morale, 21 Turned down chance to be an officer and volunteered as a private, 21-22 Accused of incitement to mutiny, officer election, 22 Elected Lieutenant, 24th Missouri Infantry, 22-23 Miser, foraging peaches, 23-24 Samuel R. Curtis, 25, 31, 63-64 Spying at Springfield, 26ff Wolves, 27 Problems with wife, 27-28 Unionist woman, 30

Chapter 3 Big River and Scouting the Southwest Corner, August to September 1861 Big River in pursuit of Jeff Thompson, 32ff Union dead, puddles of blood, 33 Pilot Knob, 34 Women, 35 Hardtack, 36 Unionist, 36-37 Mother and Confederate boys, 38-39 Pretends to be a Confederate, gives speech defending slavery, 39-40 Confederate woman, 40-41--he recounts a number of conversations??? Poor white, proslavery, sexual fears, 41-42 Confederate woman, 42-43

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Chapter 4 Federals in Retreat, Refugees in Snow, and Vengeance in Buffalo--October 1861 to February 1862 His house burned by Confederates, 45 Revenge as motive--worth quoting, 45 Fremont’s army, Fremont removed, 46-47 Weak Unionists, 48 Refugees, 49ff Taken prisoner by Texas Rangers, 50ff Snow, 51ff His family suffering in the cold as refugees, 52-53 Refugees women, 52ff Questions whether God is present in such situations, 53 Waxes angry at Christians killing each other, 54 Adulterous doctor, his wife, 57-58 Taken prisoner, 59ff Escapes execution, 60ff

Chapter 5 The March to Pea Ridge Marching, 67ff Food, bad beef, 68-70 Frightened Confederate woman, 73-74 Stragglers, 76 Foraging, plunder, 77-78 Dead soldier, 80-81

Chapter 6 Scouting, Recruiting, and the Cavalry, February to May 1862 Anomaly of a beautiful spring day and war, 83 Seizes food from train that had been burned, 85 Pea Ridge, 87 Wrongly taken prisoner by Union forces, 88ff Soldier pay, 91 Lt. in 14th Missouri State Militia Cavalry, 94ff Widow’s sons murdered by Confederates, 95 Jealousy, worried about his wife’s fidelity, doctor, 98

Chapter 7 A Defeat and a Victory--May to July 1862 Colonel and Confederate women, 102-4 Skirmish at Neosho, 100ff--wonderfully detailed account lax defenses and Confederate attack Hairbreadth escape on his horse, 108 Wounded men, 109 Confederate women, 110 Blames colonel Richardson for the whole disgraceful affair, 111 Serves as provost marshal, brags of his popularity with the men, 113 Victory at Ozark over the rebels, 114-16--revenge

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Chapter 8 Battle at Forsyth, and a Raid on Thieves and Cut-Throats, July to August 1862 Forsyth, Missouri skirmish, 117- Large shotgun, 120 Marriage, 121 Major, and forced to undertake three demanding jobs at once, 122 Scouting, 122ff Goes after Medlock, Confederate gang, 122ff Spares a captured horse thief, Confederate largely out of consideration for his wife, 128-29

Chapter 9 A Plundering Expedition September to October 1862 Wife and children with him in Ozark, 130 Plundering expedition into Arkansas, 130ff Clashes with other officers, 131 Brutal treatment of a young mother, 132 Thieving troops who also molest women, 133 Officers take black women as mistresses, 134 A bank robbed, 135 Gets in argument with major over plundering expedition

Chapter 10 Fighting Rebels in Arkansas, October to November 1862 Expeditions into Arkansas, 138 Captured four federal prisoners who were obnoxious and he proposed to hang, pretending to be a be a rebel guerilla, 139 Confederate women, 139-40 Great trick into getting a Confederate force into surrendering to a roughly equal federal contingent, 141 They so frighten a young governess that she dies, 143-44

Chapter 11 Capturing the Destroying November to December 1862 Officers on opposite sides who were cousins, 145 Salt peter caves, 145-46 “coarse” confederate woman goes after federals with an axe [a common description here]. 147 Threatens to kill all prisoners, 147 Chivalric Confederate and his gun, 148 Forced prisoners to destroy salt peter works, 151 Captured many prisoners, horses and guns, praised by Curtis, 154

Chapter 12 The Battle of Springfield January 1863 Retreating from Marmaduke’s cavalry, 156ff Notes that enemy error gave Federals victory at Springfield, 159--interesting analysis of various skirmishes Thrown from his horse into rocks and barely escaped Confederates, 163 Laying among wounded men trying overhear Confederate intentions, 166 Vivid description of wounded men, 167 Play dead in a cart, 168 Hairbreadth escape from Confederate guards, 169

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Feigned ignorance of the word surrender, 172 Horses, oath, 173 Starving horses, 177 Doctor having affair with his wife while he was gone--they separated in 1871

Appendix 1 Speech Delivered at Mount Vernon, Missouri, April 23, 1864 Age of revolution, 179 Union and destiny of nations, 180 Treason and slavery, 181 Emancipation of slaves everywhere, 182 Colonization, Mexico, 183 Black soldiers, equal rights, racial equality, 184 Miscegenation, 184 Black suffrage, 185 Disfranchisements, confiscation, 186-87 S. H. Boyd, congressional election, 188

Appendix 2 Speech Delivered at Walnut Grove, Missouri, September 19, 1865 (Excerpts) War of principles, slavery, 189 War continues as a political contest, 190ff Confederates still cling to slavery and disloyalty, 191-94 Oath, 191-92 Need for confiscation of Confederate property, disfranchisement, 194-95 Refuges, 196 Christian principles and black suffrage, 197-202 Now opposes colonization, 198 Ridicules miscegenation fears, 199 Blacks as friends to escape Union prisoners, 200-201

Appendix 3 Government Analyzed, 1892 (Excerpts) Rails against authority of gods and governments, 203 Talks of “our own government called upon its ignorant and superstitious devotees to go out and butcher our brothers of the South.” p. 205 Great cost and destructiveness of war to make poor the slaves of the rich, 205 Told to slay “brother Christians” who had never done us any harm--[forgets his old antislavery zeal], 205 Saving union meant saving government “an immense band of robbers and murderers,” 206 Did not really free slaves but changed their condition “from bad to worse,” 206 Really only freed slaves out of military necessity, 207 War part of great conspiracy of American and European capitalists to create an enormous national debt, 207 No right to free slaves without compensating owners, 208

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