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More
from Civil War historian Bruce Nichols mapmaker3@aol.com
– a continuation of the year with the heaviest
concentration of Monroe County activities of the entire
Civil War.
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Planned
Guerrilla Leader Meeting
Location:
Middle Grove, southwest Monroe County
Date:
night of 4/5 Aug 1864
Source:
"O.R." series 1, vol. 41, part 2, p. 544
Description:
The Yankee brass somehow heard there was a council of war at
Middle Grove planned for the night of 4/5 August involving
guerrilla leaders such as a Frank Davis, Elliot D. Majors,
as well as an unnamed Rebel colonel from Boone County and
possibly "Bloody Bill" Anderson and COL Caleb
Perkins. Whether the meeting took place or not is
conjecture, for the Union military in MO suffered from lots
of false or misleading reports particularly about
guerrillas.
Five
Reported Companies of Guerrillas
Location:
near Middle Grove, southwest Monroe County
Date:
7 Aug 1864
Source:
"O.R." series 1, vol. 41, part 2, pp. 624, 667
Description:
Another Union military report possibly from a spy or
informant said five different companies of guerrillas under
the same Frank Davis, Monroe County's own Elliott D. Majors,
and COL Caleb Perkins were located then in the vicinity of
the hamlet of Middle Grove. Actually, all three of these
leaders were in this region this summer, so this report is
at least partly true. However, these were more Confederate
recruiters than guerrilla leaders.
Train
Shooting
Location:
near Renick, southeast Randolph County
Date:
night 8/9 Aug and morning of 9 Aug 1864
Sources:
"O.R." series 1, vol. 41, part 2, p. 634; St.
Louis newspaper "Daily Missouri Democrat," of 12
Aug 1864
Description:
Unidentified guerrilla shot at a railroad train near Renick
that night although no one aboard was hit. Again near the
same location at nine the next morning guerrilla fired about
one hundred shots at another passing train, and, again, hit
nobody. Just the volume of shots would tend to add credence
to the earlier report of large numbers of southern
irregulars in this region.
Guerrilla
Depredations
Location:
at Middle Grove, southwest Monroe County
Date:
evening of 11 Aug 1864
Source:
"Daily Missouri Democrat," of 22 Aug 1864
Description:
On this evening three unidentified guerrillas or southern
recruits robbed sheriff F. G. H. McNutt and his deputy John
S. Conyers at the home of the brother of the sheriff, Dr.
John McNutt, in or near Middle Grove. The sheriff and deputy
had been collecting taxes and the guerrillas took from them
$45 and two revolvers.
Spy
Report of Large Bands of Southern Irregulars
Location:
Randolph and Chariton Counties
Date:
mid August 1864
Source:
"O.R." series 1, vol. 41, part 2, pp. 859-60
Description:
A Union spy named George Williams brought the report of a
number of Rebel recruiting bands and guerrillas in this
region just west of Monroe County. The spy named
"Bloody Bill" Anderson and COL Caleb Perkins there
and also bands under former Quantrill lieutenant George
Todd, Clifton Holtzclaw, and a Pitney. This seems
to
have been a reliable report.
Skirmishes
Location:
near Madison, west Monroe County, and Middle Grove
Date:
24 Aug 1864
Sources:
"O.R." series 1, vol. 41, part 2, p. 858;
"Daily Missouri Democrat" of 30 Aug 1864
Description:
CPT W. E. Fowkes with sixty men of Company C, 70th Enrolled
Missouri Militia from Paris, probably in response to all the
guerrilla activity reported in southwest Monroe County
searched for and found guerrillas this day and fought with
them. Fowkes' men found and fought Frank Davis' guerrilla or
recruit band near Madison killing one Rebel and wounding at
least one more, but they were outnumbered and requested
reinforcements. It appears that another EMM detachment from
Sturgeon in north Boone County (possibly of the 61st EMM)
perhaps riding to help rode into the village of Middle Grove
this same day and wounded
and captured heavily armed William Perkins, the brother of
COL Caleb Perkins, who was hiding under a bed in a house
there. After these militiamen took the wounded Perkins back
to Sturgeon they shot and mortally wounded him this time
while he was allegedly trying to escape. Meanwhile, 2LT H.
W. Gleason with more of Company C, 70th EMM riding perhaps
to CPT Fowkes' rescue at a Mr. Bell's farm shot to death a
guerrilla named Beaty who rode up and later at Middle Grove
also shot a Thompson at his mother's house there.
Apparently, CPT Fowkes and his command made it safely back
to Paris as did 2LT Gleason's men, but their encounters tend
to support the earlier reports that the west side of Monroe
County was overrun with Rebel irregulars at that time.
Union
Expedition
Location:
Monroe and Ralls Counties
Date:
11 to 16 Sep 1864
Source:
Frederick Dyer's "A Compendium of the War of the
Rebellion" vol. 2, p. 812
Description:
Just from this one source it appears that a force of the
39th Missouri Infantry Regiment was operating at this time
in the two counties. There
are left to us no details and no reports of any casualties
on either side.
Union
Report of Southern Recruits or Guerrillas
Location:
in Monroe County
Date:
15 Sep 1864
Source:
"O.R." series 1, vol. 41, part 3, p. 206
Description:
Another Union military report said that elements of COL
Caleb Perkins' recruiting command (the report called them
guerrillas) under Frank Davis and an Arnold had 200 men in
Monroe County, but that they had been dispersed to their
homes for the time being awaiting a recall.
Guerrillas
Attack Railroad Train
Location:
near Hunnewell, southeast Shelby County
Date:
3 or 4 Oct 1864
Sources:
"O.R." series 1, vol. 41, part 3, pp. 618, 619,
620; "Daily Missouri Democrat" of 5 October 1864;
Richard Brownlee's "Gray Ghosts of the
Confederacy," p. 220; and 1884 History of Marion
County, pp. 539-540
Description:
Nine guerrillas under a Hughes robbed a passenger train and
burned two freight trains near Hunnewell. This happened when
the passenger train derailed holding up the two following
freight trains. The guerrillas robbed the express box of
about $25,000 but took little from the frightened
passengers. Some of the passengers were quick-thinking
enough to hide the identity of three Union soldiers who were
also passengers on the train, or the bushwhackers may have
captured them or worse.
Guerrilla
Raid
Location:
Paris, Monroe County
Date:
evening of 15 Oct 1864
Sources:
Dyer's "Compendium," vol. 2, p. 813; "O.R."
series 1, vol. 41, part
4,
pp. 13, 36, 47; Wiley Britton, "Civil War on the
Border," vol. 2, pp.
458-460;
Shelbyville "Herald" 27 May 1908 quoted in
Williams' "Civil War
Records
of Northeast MO," p. 37.
Description:
COL Washington McDaniel or McDonald and Major Elliott Majors
with an estimated 400 guerrillas or Rebel recruits raided
the Monroe County seat of Paris just as Confederate MG
Sterling Price's long-awaited MO raid was at it's zenith
south of the Missouri River and area Union troops were
struggling to counter it. The Rebels besieged the Paris
garrison of CPT William E. Fowkes and 60 to 70 men of 70th
EMM for about an hour before the militia surrendered at
about 8 pm having suffered the loss of one man slightly
wounded. CPT Fowkes was persuaded to surrender when the
southerners set fire to a nearby building and got his wife
to persuade Fowkes to surrender to prevent needless loss of
life. COL McDaniel kept his victorious Rebels in Paris the
rest of the night then set out at two the next afternoon for
Shelbina. No other details are given regarding these Rebels
in Monroe County, but the 1908 newspaper article says they
took what they needed from locals in Shelby County later.
This article conjectured that "Bloody Bill"
Anderson's men could have been in the Rebel force, but this
is unlikely since that gang was on that date raiding
railroad facilities in nearby Montgomery County.
Large
Guerrilla Band
Location:
Monroe County
Date:
about 20 Oct 1864
Source:
"O.R." series 1, part 4, pp. 136-7, pp. 162,163
Description:
A sketchy Union military report says that a Green with about
300 Rebel guerrillas (or recruits) were in Monroe County and
briefly occupied Paris. The report says "the rebels
hold high carnival in Monroe County." It is very
possible with hindsight that this is the same group that
raided Paris on 15 October, but events were transpiring so
quickly at that time in other parts of MO that little
attention was paid to this. About this same day a large body
of Rebels was also reported nearby in west Ralls County.
Skirmish
Location:
at or near Paris, Monroe County
Date:
about 26 Oct 1864
Source:
"O.R." series 1, vol. 41, part 4, pp. 254, 276
Description:
This scanty report only tells us that COL William Forbes'
force of 42nd Missouri Infantry
(mounted)
or part of it lost one man killed at or near Paris fighting
guerrillas about this date, evidently while chasing COL
Washington "Wash" McDaniel and his 400 or so
Rebels who were riding fast through the county heading south
into Audrain County and perhaps to later catch up with
General Price's forces then in far west Missouri at the
Kansas line.
Union
Troop Disposition Report
Location:
near Monroe County
Date:
31 Oct 1864
Source:
"O.R." series 1, vol. 41, part 4, p. 371
Description:
This routine Union report telling where troops were on that
date stationed identifies the only Yankee troops in the
Monroe County area to be LTC Alexander F. Denny and four
companies of 46th EMM at Allen in east Randolph County and
CPT Lewis F. Carrothers and a provisional company of 70th
EMM at Shelbyville, Shelby County.
Sketchy
Union Report of Rebels in Region
Location:
Monroe and surrounding counties
Date:
about 12 or 13 Nov 1864
Source:
"O.R." series 1, vol. 41, part 4, pp. 566-7
Description:
Union militia official BG Joseph B. Douglass at nearby
Mexico, Audrain County, estimated for his superiors that
there were at that time about 200 active Rebels in Howard
County, about 250 in Boone County, about 100 in Randolph
County, and about
250
in Monroe County.
Guerrilla
Depredations
Location:
in Monroe County
Date:
evening of 24 Nov 1864:
Source:
"O.R." series 1, vol. 41, part 4, pp. 682, 890
Description:
Three citizens of Monroe County (Fox, McBride, and
Alexander) and LTC Graham of the 70th EMM at Paris reported
to Union authorities that six bushwhackers allegedly
formerly of "Bloody Bill" Anderson's band
committed atrocities in the county. They killed a northern
sympathizer named Piper, hung a black man who formerly was a
slave of the Rebel recruiter Clay Price, and then rode south
toward Callaway or Boone County. These guerrillas also
threatened to kill "all who had organized themselves
into the militia of this county.”
Guerrilla
Depredations
Location:
at Middle Grove, southwest Monroe County
Date:
night of 28/29 Nov 1864
Source:
"O.R." series 1, vol. 41, part 4, p. 715
Description:
A Union lieutenant at nearby Sturgeon reported that 15
bushwhackers in Union uniforms robbed Tucker's Store at
Middle Grove of $500 cash and $1000 in goods.
Guerrilla
Depredations
Location:
at Monroe Station, northeast Monroe County
Date:
9 Dec 1864
Source:
"O.R." series 1, vol. 41, part 4, pp. 841-2
Description:
This Union military report only says that two guerrillas
"did a little mischief" at Monroe Station.
Guerrilla
Depredations
Location:
in or near Monroe County
Dates:
about 17 to 24 Dec 1864
Source:
newspaper "Louisiana Journal" (Pike County) of 24
Dec 1864 quoted in
"California
Weekly News" (Moniteau County) of 14 Jan 1865
Description:
The news article says that William Kingston was shot and
killed evidently while trying to stop John and James Lindsey
(known as "the mule thieves") from stealing
Kingston’s horses in or near Monroe County.
Union
Troop Disposition Report
Location:
near Monroe County
Date:
31 Dec 1864
Source:
"O.R" series 1, vol. 41, part 4, p. 983
Description:
This routine Union report says that the only northern troops
in or near Monroe County as of this date were one company of
46th EMM under CPT Charles F. Mayo at nearby Huntsville and
a provisional company of 70th EMM under LT Martin O. Miller
at Shelbyville as well as three companies of 49th EMM under
CPT John F. Dierker at nearby Mexico.
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