Pilot Knob, Civil War Telegram Collection (R0137)

Collection Number: R0137

Collection Title: Pilot Knob, Missouri Civil War Telegram Collection

Dates: 1862-1863

Creator: Iron County Historical Society

Abstract: The Pilot Knob, Missouri Civil War Telegram Collection contains photocopies of telegrams sent and received by Colonel John B. Gray, commander of the Union post at Pilot Knob, Iron County, Missouri. The dispatches include communications with district headquarters at Saint Louis, and with detachments throughout southeastern Missouri, especially those at Fredericktown, Patterson, Van Buren, and Barnesville. The telegrams cover the period from November 1862 to April 1863.

Collection Size: 0.02 cubic foot (2 folders)

Language: Collection materials are in English.

Repository: The State Historical Society of Missouri

Restrictions on Access: Collection is open for research. This collection is available at The State Historical Society of Missouri Research Center-Rolla. If you would like more information, please contact us at [email protected]. Collections may be viewed at any research center.

Restrictions on Use: Materials in this collection may be protected by copyrights and other rights. See Rights & Reproductions on the Society’s website for more information about reproductions and permission to publish.

Preferred Citation: [Specific item; box number; folder number] Pilot Knob, Missouri Civil War Telegram Collection (R0137); The State Historical Society of Missouri Research Center-Rolla [after first mention may be abbreviated to SHSMO-Rolla].

Donor Information: The collection was loaned for photocopying to the University of Missouri by the Iron County Historical Society on December 10, 1982 (Accession No. RA0155).

Custodial History: Mrs. Pollie Hollie, the archivist and historian of the Immanuel Lutheran Church, where the telegrams were found, located the Pilot Knob telegrams. Records of incoming and outgoing dispatches were kept separately and in chronological order, although there is some

(R0137) Pilot Knob, Missouri Civil War Telegram Collection Page 2 mixing of the two types of telegrams, and there are some irregularities in dates, especially in March and April 1863. A few dispatches are missing where pages were torn from the original volume. The telegrams were given to the Iron County Historical Society.

Related Materials: Additional materials related to the Pilot Knob, Missouri Civil War Telegram Collection can be found in the following collections:

Richard Goodridge Woodson Papers (R0410)

Processed by: Processed by John F. Bradbury, February 15, 1983. Revised by Kathleen Seale, May 7, 2020.

Historical Note:

Located south of Saint Louis at the end of the St. Louis and Iron Mountain Railroad, Pilot Knob was one of three strategic railhead installations through which Federal military effort was directed during the Civil War in Missouri. Union armies operating in southeastern Missouri and along the Missouri- border were supplied and reinforced via long lines of communication stretching back to the railhead at Pilot Knob. The post also stood squarely in the path which would be taken by any rebel forces attempting to advance on Saint Louis through southeastern Missouri. ’s Confederates followed this route in their invasion of Missouri in 1864, battling the Union defenders of Pilot Knob at Fort Davidson.

Although the post was included as part of the Military District of St. Louis, Pilot Knob was of sufficient importance to rate the assignment of a colonel or brigadier general to its command. The First Regiment of Missouri State Militia Infantry, commanded by Colonel John B. Gray, was stationed at Pilot Knob in September 1862, and Gray was named to command the post, which also included guard stations along the Iron Mountain Railroad at Mineral Point and Sulphur Springs. Gray remained at Pilot Knob until March 1863, when he was promoted to brigadier general and appointed Adjutant General of Missouri.

Arrangement:

The collection has been arranged into one series:

Telegrams

Scope and Content Note:

Telegrams

The telegrams concern routine military business at the post, and were not published in The War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. There are many communications with commanders of the Saint Louis district, generals John W. Davidson and Eugene A. Carr, and several concerning operations of the Army of Southeast Missouri. The dispatches concern transportation and troop movements, prisoners, deserters, spies, and noncombatants moving through the district. One interesting exchange of telegrams concerns the wife of Confederate Colonel John Q. Burbridge, who was moving south through Federal lines to visit her husband in Arkansas. She was stopped and searched twice by army authorities who were convinced that she was carrying rebel mail. The telegrams also include communications

Go to top (R0137) Pilot Knob, Missouri Civil War Telegram Collection Page 3 with garrisons at Fredericktown, Van Buren, Patterson, and Barnesville, details on an attempted mutiny by the Second Missouri Artillery at Pilot Knob, and reports of a skirmish with six companies of guerrillas at Bloomfield, Missouri. A complete index of the telegrams can be found in each folder.

Container List: f. 1-2 Telegrams Box 001 f. 1 Telegrams received, November 1862-March 1863 f. 2 Telegrams sent, November 1862-April 1863

Index:

Index Term Folder Barnesville (Mo.) 1-2 Bloomfield (Mo.) 1 Burbridge, John Q., Mrs. 1-2 Carr, E.A. 1-2 Carter County (Mo.) 1-2 Davidson, John W., 1825-1881 1-2 De Soto (Mo.) 1-2 Fisk, Clinton Brown, 1828-1890 1 Fredericktown (Mo.) 1-2 Gray, John B. 1-2 Hummel, G. W. 1-2 Iron County (Mo.) 1-2 Iron Mountain Railroad 2 Ironton (Mo.) 1-2 Jackson (Mo.) 2 Lazear, Bazel F. 1-2 Lindsay, James 1 Madison (Mo.) 1 Middlebrook (Mo.) 1 Mineral Point (Mo.) 1-2 Missouri. Artillery Regiment, 2nd 1 Missouri--History--Civil War, 1861-1865 1-2 Patterson (Mo.) 1-2 Pilot Knob (Mo.) 1-2 Reeves Station (Mo.) 2 Reeves, Timothy, 1821-1885 2 Saint Louis (Mo.) 1-2 St. Louis and Iron Mountain Railroad Company 2 Sulphur Springs (Mo.) 1-2

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Index Term Folder Van Buren (Mo.) 1-2 Wayne County (Mo.) 1-2

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