Newsletter of the Civil War Round Table of Kansas City EXECUTIVE OFFICERS President Dennis Garstang First Vice-President Dave Pattison Second Vice-President 460th REGULAR MEETING Simon Bolivar (Chip) TUESDAY, Sept 23, 2014 Buckner Meadowbrook Country Club Treasurer Paul Gault 9101 Nall Ave., Prairie Village, Kansas 66207 Assistant Treasurer Social Hour - Cash Bar - 6:00p.m. Howard Mann Dinner - 6:30p.m. Corresponding Secretary & Recording Secretary September Speaker Judy Smith Preservation Director Walter Busch Arnold Schofield Board of Directors Battle of Pilot Knob, Mo. Les Thierolf Dave Schafer Walter E. Busch, site superintendent and director of the Fort Davidson State Don Bates Sr. Past Presidents Park and Pilot Knob Battlefield site, will speak to the Civil War Round Table of Don Bates Sr. Kansas City this month. Lane Smith In September 1864, Major General Sterling Price’s army of 12,000 Howard Mann Confederate soldiers marched into Missouri in a bid to foment a popular revolt in the Chairman of Board state. This massive cavalry force soon arrived at the southern terminus of the St. Monnett Battle of Louis and Iron Mountain Railroad in Pilot Knob. There, Fort Davidson stood Westport Fund garrisoned by only 1,500 Union soldiers led by the detested Brigadier General (Ex-Officio) Daniel L. Smith Thomas Ewing Jr. General Price saw an opportunity to overwhelm the much smaller Sergeant at Arms Union command and obtain additional arms for his army. Our speaker will explain Lane Smith the actions of the two opposing forces on September 27, 1864 in the Arcadia Valley of southeast Missouri and the battle’s larger impact upon the remainder of Price’s Chaplain Rev. David B. Holloway Missouri Expedition. Historian For the past 14 years, Mr. Busch has been the historian and site director of Betty Ergovich Fort Davidson State Historic Site which includes the Pilot Knob Battlefield. During Border Bugle Editor his tenure he has supervised four reenactments at the Pilot Knob site. Michael J. Epstein [email protected] Continued on page 2 Civil War Round Table of Kansas City Attendance requires a paid dinner reservation. P.O. Box 6202 Please be sure our Treasurer receives all reservations by Tuesday, September 16, 2014 Shawnee Mission, KS along with payment of $26.00 per person. Mail to: 66206 Paul Gault, 7118 N. Congress Ave., Kansas City, MO 64152 Homestead’s deadline for reservation changes is the following Monday afternoon, so An IRC 501(c)(3) promptly report any necessary adjustments to Paul at 816-741-2962 or 816-522-8021. Charitable Organization Use your credit card at our website, http://www.cwrtkc.org and hit the Meeting & Event tab fill out the reservation form and then make your payment in the box to the Website- http://cwrtkc.org/ left on that page through PAYPAL If you are using this service please send Join us .on Facebook! me an email so I will not miss your reservation. [email protected]. Speaker: Walter E. Busch, continued…… Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion. Lane As the site’s historian, he has Smith confirmed with Kraig Smith, Sr. Coordinator for compiled an astounding on- Public Affairs, Metropolitan Museum of Art. The St. line database of Union Louis CWRT has scheduled Harold Holzer to speak on Solders at Pilot Knob and 2-25-15. Confederate Soldiers of March 24, 2015 (confirmed): Appomattox Courthouse. Price's Raid, currently Lane Smith and Randy Dubin will present a two-part standing at over 21,000 play about Appomattox. Part 1 of the play is titled: names. He has also served “April 9, 1865 - Road to Appomattox.” Part 2 of the for 18 years as a professor of play is titled: “April 10, 1865 - Road from history at Mineral Area Appomattox.” Lane will portray General Lee and Randy College. will portray General Grant. He is a past April 28, 2015 (confirmed): Troy Strahan and his son, president of the Civil War Liam, will be giving a first person presentation on Round Table of St. Louis and Abraham Lincoln and Todd Lincoln. Troy and Liam is currently secretary of the will re-enact the famous photo of Abraham Lincoln and Missouri State Parks’ Civil Todd Lincoln looking at a book together. Using this War Sesquicentennial scene, Abraham and Todd Lincoln will be discussing Committee. famous people and the events that took place near the He has also been active in the Sons of Union end of the Civil War. Veterans. He is a recipient of that organization’s May 26, 2015 (confirmed): Trial of the Conspirators. prestigious Cornelius Whitehouse Award. He has been Daniel Weinberg, owner of the Abraham Lincoln Book the commander of the Missouri Department of the SUV Shop in Chicago IL, will be speaking about his book and is serving as the Chair of the SUV’s National titled: Lincoln's Assassins: Their Trial and Execution. Committee on Civil War Memorials. Among his other June 23, 2015 (confirmed): Battle of Palmito Ranch, honors, he was inducted into the Honorable Order of Texas on May 13, 1865: Last Battle of the Civil War, Kentucky Colonels. U.S.C.T. Speaker: Arnold Schofield. Mr. Busch’s published works include the following: General You Have Made the Mistake of Your Life or “The Sergeant Major’s Roar” Myths & Mistakes: the Life of General Thomas Ewing. Two Trails Publishing. Battlefield Dispatches #400 Fort Davidson and the Battle of Pilot Knob: Missouri’s Alamo. The History Press General Sterling Price's Great Missouri Raid: The Missouri Democrat “Bits & Pieces” Articles. Mo Div. of State Parks. “Found! One Undocumented Civil War Rank” A fascinating aspect in the study of the Civil The Company of Military Historians. 2006. War is that there are many smaller interesting threads that are incidents or happenings which are often Speakers 2014 overlooked, but help bind the fabric into the mosaic of the entire war. This column contains a number of such * October 28, 2014: Dan Smith - Battle of incidents that occurred in September of 1864 that are Westport. briefly described in Series I, Vol. 41, Part III * November 18, 2014: Arnold Schofield - Correspondence of the Official Records of the War of Aftermath of Westport (Price's retreat to Texas). the Rebellion on the following pages: * December 16, 2014: Dr. Ethan Rafuse – Sherman’s March to The Sea. Page 12; Deer & Bear Hunting Tactics: “Saint Louis, September 1864. Programs for 2015 Brigadier General Douglas, January 27, 2015 (confirmed): Dr. Ethan Rafuse, of Mexico, Missouri: the US Army Command and General Staff College, will Turn all your wits to teach our men the secret of speak about the Petersburg Campaign and Siege. Dr. expeditions to STILL HUNT and SURPRISE the enemy. Rafuse recently published his Guide to the Richmond- All that is wanted is to adopt the DEER and BEAR Petersburg Campaign. HUNTING TACTICS! Our men must have routes and at February 24, 2015 (confirmed): Harold Holzer has times to avoid being seen at all. No stopping at farm agreed to speak on his book titled: Lincoln and the houses or any other place to be seen. they get in. My posts are all weak, but as soon as I can W. S. ROSECRANS, locate this Rebel force I will concentrate and move Major General.” against them. H. M. HILLER, Page 31: Wartime Work Release: Lieutenant Colonel, Commanding.” “Glasgow, Mo., September 2, 1864. Major General Rosecrans, [Note: According to both the Union & Confederate The steam ferry belonging to the State Articles of War a captured SPY could be and was Penitentiary left Jefferson [City] Thursday morning, executed on the spot without a trial or Court Martial.] manned, piloted and crewed by convicts. She was fired into at Rocheport and taken after her Captain was killed Page 12: NIGHT PATROLS: and Pilot mortally wounded. Capt. Eads of the [Steamboat] Tutt reports that the commanding officer at “Headquarters Sub-District 3, Dist. of South Kansas Jefferson told him about 200 Rebels crossed near Paola, Kansas, September 1, 1864. Rocheport during Tuesday night and that the boat was Captain Henry Pearce, released the next morning. Company C, Eleventh Kansas Vol. Cav., Coldwater Grove, Kansas. HENRY SUESS, Captain: Lieut. Col. P.B. Plumb has made the Major.” following change in the patrol system in his command [Note: Quite a form of 19th Century work release by on the border to wit: Two men will leave Aubrey, going crewing a ferryboat only to be captured by Confederate SOUTH, EVERY 10 MINUTES after 7 P.M. for TWO Guerrillas / Bushwhackers. It is not known if the convict HOURS, making twenty four men. They will go to a crew was killed or recruited by the guerrillas. ] point halfway below on the Aubrey and Coldwater Grove Road and meet the pickets from Coldwater and Page 95: An INFERNAL MACHINE: then go East or West, as the case may be to another road “Saint Louis, Mo. September 7, 1864. and observe the same order in going back. North of Col. E. D. Townsend, Aubrey the patrol will consist of one man instead of Assistant Adjutant General: two. You will make the same change in your system of A fact proper to be known in connection with others patrols until further notice. previously reported to the Secretary of War is that an INFERNAL MACHINE exploded last night in the IRA I. TABER, principle storehouse of Quartermaster’s Stores in this First Lieut. and Acting Assistant Adjutant General.” city and but for the vigilance of the watchman in charge Page 83, SALUTES: $1,500,000 of government property would have been “Headquarters, Dept. of the Missouri, destroyed. It was contained in a VALISE filled with Saint Louis, mo., September 6, 1864.