Bits
of Blue and Gray - July 2000 A NASTY LITTLE INCIDENT OF WAR
Once again I've got a guest author. His name is Frank
Crawford and he's from Caledonia, IL. Those of you on AOL who attend the
American Civil War History Special Interest Group on Thursday nights at 11 PM ET
in the Golden Gates room of the Genealogy Forum know him as IllinoisCW. He
is their "resident" expert on Illinois Civil War. He's been one
of my Civil War Mentors and doesn't laugh when I ask him "dumb
questions." He has had several articles published, appearing in
Illinois Magazine, Civil War Times Illustrated, America's Civil War and Civil
War magazine. He collects CDV's of Illinois soldiers, then finds out as
much about them as he can. He has written some pretty straightforward
poems about many of them. Maybe I can persuade him to allow me to use some
of them here one of these months. He also collects last letters home, one
of which appears in my May column Letters Home.
Frank is married. He and his wife Velma have a son, a
daughter and a granddaughter who is the apple of Granpa's eye. He is a
graduate of Northern Illinois University and holds a BS in Education and an MS
in Special Ed. He is now enjoying retirement and spends those cold
northern Illinois winters in the warm Florida climate where he pursues one of
his other hobbies, golfing, shooting in the low 90's. Believe it or not he
has time for yet another hobby ... baseball. He played in both high school
and college. He coached baseball at Belvidere High School as well as
independent baseball in northern Illinois. He collects 1914 Baseball
paraphernalia. When I asked him why only 1914, he said "That was the
year of the Amazing Braves. Came from almost last place to win the pennant
and then the series. Amazing year."
I want to thank Frank for agreeing to allow me to share this
story with you all. Without any further delay the following is indeed
"A Nasty Little Incident of War."
Southeast Missouri - 1864
By Frank Crawford
"St. Louis, Mo.
Oct. 29, 1864
Dear Wife and children
I take my pen in hand to inform you that I am about to be
shot between two and four o'clock this evening. I have but four hours to
remain in this unfriendly world. Six of us are sentenced to die in place
of six Union soldiers who were shot by Reeve's men. My dear wife, don't
grieve for me in heaven. I will meet you in heaven. I want you to
teach the children so that they may meet me at the right hand of God. I
can't express my feelings but you have some idea of them. You are left to
care for my dear children. Tell them to remember their father. I
want you to go back to the old place and try to make a support for you and the
children. Tell my friends that I have gone to rest. If you don't get
this letter before the St. Francis River gets up, you had better stay there
until you get to make a trip and you can go in the dry season.
It is now four thirty in the evening and I must bring my
letter to a close and leave you in the hands of God. I send you my best
love and my respect in this hour of death. Kiss all the children for me.
You need have no fear and uneasiness as to my future state for my faith is well
founded. I fear no evil. God is my refuge and hiding place.
Good-by, Amy.
Acie Ladd"
With this short poignant letter, Asa V. Ladd, Company A - 4th
Missouri Cavalry, CSA, went to meet his maker ending a nasty little incident
that happened in Southeastern Missouri during General Sterling Price's raid
through Missouri in 1864. It was a short incident -- lasting but
twenty-six days, but it touched the lives of many individuals.
On September 25, at the battle of Pilot Knob, Missouri, some
Federal soldiers were taken prisoner at an area called Ponder's Mill.
These men were captured in a "fair fight" after giving their best
effort by most military standards. They had become detached from their
unit, had holed up in an area of heavy underbrush with their major, James Wilson
of the 3rd Cavalry Missouri State Militia.
Major James Wilson had been born in Muirkirk, Prince George
County, Maryland, May 5, 1834. By profession he was a stone mason, married
and in 1855 moved to the state of Missouri, first living in Pike County and then
settling at Troy in Lincoln County. Just before the commencement of the
war, his wife, a Virginia lady, returned to that state after several discussions
regarding their differences of opinions regarding the political situation in the
nation. Therefore, when war broke out, Wilson was free to recruit a
company of men. He was elected captain of Company C of the 3rd Cavalry
Missouri State Militia on May 5, 1862, his twenty-eighth birthday. His
promotion to the rank of Major dated from June 20 1863, and it was that rank
that he held at the battle of Pilot Knob.
When it became obvious that Wilson and his men were finished
as effective soldiers, they did what thousands of soldiers in both armies had
done. They threw down their arms, held up their hands, and surrendered.
These men were prisoners of war and would be, for a short time, treated as such.
They were disarmed, taken to a holding area near the small towns of Pilot Knob
and Ironton, and placed under guard with men of like fate taken at other areas
of the battlefield.
As General Price's forces continued their movement toward the
city of St. Louis, these prisoners were marched to the Franklin County area --
to the West of that city, with the command of General James Fagan. Report
that some of the men, those from the 3rd Cavalry Missouri State Militia, were
stripped to the waist and deprived of their boots seem to be well founded.
There in Franklin County, ten miles west of the little town of Union, is where
the incident began to turn nasty.
According to Captain Franz Dinger of the 47th Missouri
Infantry, also a prisoner of war from Pilot Knob, most of the prisoners were
paroled. However, Major Wilson and six fellow soldiers from the 3rd
Cavalry Missouri State Militia were not released. It seems that Wilson,
slightly wounded in the head at the skirmish at Ponder's Mill, was a prize.
Not only was he a prize but his fellow members of the regiment were prizes also.
The men of this regiment were experienced and aware of their possible fate.
Just a few weeks earlier, September 3, 1864, twelve men of their regiment were
surprised and killed by bushwhackers.
Therefore, Major James Wilson, Corporal William Gourley and
Privates John Shaw, William Grotts and William Scaggs -- all of Company I, and
John Holabaugh of Company K, were not paroled. The sixth enlisted man,
identified only as an artillery bugler because of the trim on his jacket,
remains unknown. As Dinger left the area, he noticed these men all
assembled in a small group. It was obvious to him that their destiny was
to be far different. The officer of the day had announced that these men
would be turned over to Tim Reeves.
Timothy Reeves, often spelled Reves, Rives, Riyes and even
Reyes, was a well known guerrilla fighter in south eastern Missouri. His
fame never reached the proportions of William Quantrill or Bill Anderson, but to
the Federal forces in this area of Missouri, he was just as feared. As
early as September 1863 Reeves was making a name for himself. As a member
of the 15th Missouri Cavalry, his ruthlessness dealing with Federal commands and
his hatred for Federal soldiers was well known. Not without reason did he
have this hatred. Many reports suggest that men under his command had been
brutally murdered as prisoners of war and during combat. The battlefield
atrocities of Fort Pillow, Tennessee or Saltville, Virginia were not unknown in
Missouri. Who or what started such activities is a debate that will never
be properly satisfied. It is well documented that by this time in the
Civil War men who were operating under the command of Reeves and other guerrilla
leaders, had suffered execution by Federal forces, the numbers reaching well
into the hundreds. In a report dated March 26, 1864, Major Wilson himself
reported the death of at least twenty-one of Reeve's men between March 16 and
23. Other reports indicate week or month long killing binges reaching
close to one hundred in numbers. One report from the 10th Kansas Infantry
indicates 53 bushwhackers killed or mortally wounded in a two week expedition
around Cape Girardeau. It is not surprising, then, that shortly after
Reeves arrived, the prisoners of war that had been saved for him, were dead.
The actual details of the killing of the Federal Missourians
by the Confederate Missourians is somewhat lost in time. However, in a
letter signed simply "Henry" to General Thomas Ewing, dated November
3, 1864, some details are alluded to. It seems there was a bit of honor,
even amongst the terror of the Missouri war. This letter writer reported
that Reeves was heard, by two civilians who witnessed the execution, to say to
Major Wilson, "Major, you are a brave man - but you never showed my men
quarter, neither will I give you quarter." Henry even went so far as
to report that Major Wilson was given the opportunity to give the final commands
to the firing squad that executed himself. He was quoted to have
commanded, "Ready! Aim! Fire!" to the squad that fired the
death shots at himself and his brave men. In its own bizarre way, the
honor and respect shown by these two warring individuals is quite unique.
Shortly after the murder of these seven Federal soldiers,
word was received of the incident and retaliation began. On October 6,
Special Order #277 was issued from the Headquarters of the Department of
Missouri, General William Starke Rosecrans commanding, stating that "the
provost-marshall-general of the department will send a major and six enlisted
men of the rebel army in irons to the military prison in Alton, Ill., to be kept
in solitary confinement until the fate of Major Wilson and his men are known.
These men will receive the same treatment Major Wilson and his men
received."
By October 24, that fate was confirmed. In a letter
from Colonel G. Harry Stone at Washington, Missouri to General Thomas Ewing, it
was stated that the bodies had been recovered and "Major Wilson was shot
through the body several times." A man picking persimmons near the
Jeffrey Farm on the old State Road had discovered the bodies in shallow graves.
They had been unearthed and mutilated by hogs. Papers on Wilson's body had
confirmed his identity.
General Ewing immediately sent for confirmation of the story
reported by Captain Dinger that he had seen the men turned over to Reeves.
The fates of Asa V. Ladd and others were now sealed. They were to be the
retribution. On October 25, General Ewing made the following
recommendations to General Rosecrans. "I therefore earnestly
recommend that fourteen privates of Price's command be executed in retaliation
-- eight for Wilson and six for his murdered associates."
A series of events took place now that simply added fuel to
the already hot fire. On October 26, General Ewing announced the atrocity
to the troops. In his General Order #51, Ewing described Wilson and
"an officer of rare intelligence, zeal, courage, and judgment, and his
soldierly virtues were adorned by a purity, unselfishness, and integrity of
character which won the love, respect and trust alike of his subordinates and
superiors." He continued by asking the men to "cherish the
memory of his resplendent virtues, follow his patriotic example, and justly
avenge his fiendish murder." If nothing else, Brigadier-General
Thomas Ewing knew how to inspire men.
On the 28th of the month, from Independence, Missouri, the
men of the Federal Cavalry regiment -- Lt. Col H. M. Mathews, the Regimental
Surgeon W. L. Short and five others -- issued the following request of General
Rosecrans. That Special Order #277 be followed to the letter and
"immediately fulfilled." They wanted their men revenged.
In fact, for them, the "eye for an eye" retaliation was not
sufficient. They requested that the condemned Confederates be taken from
men that were held by the Third Cavalry Missouri State Militia. They also
requested that men of the Third Cavalry Missouri State Militia be allowed to
participate in the executions. Blood was indeed running hot within the
ranks.
Also on the 28th, the men to serve as retribution were
chosen. They were, Asa V. Ladd, from Stoddard County [Company A - 4th
Missouri Cavalry], James W. Gates from Cooper County [Company H - 3rd Missouri
Cavalry], John N. Furgeson, Company A - Crabtree's Arkansas Cavalry, Harvey
(Henry) H. Blackburn, Company A - W. O. Coleman's Arkansas Mounted Regiment,
Charles N. Minneken (Mineckin) Company A - Crabtree's Arkansas Cavalry, and John
Nichols (Nicholds) of Cass County [Company G - 2nd Missouri Cavalry]. They
were al prisoners of war being held at Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, Missouri.
These men had their doom sealed. Or so they thought.
The following day, October 29, John Furgeson's name was
removed from the list because it was confirmed that he was "only employed
as a teamster" and never bore arms. He was replaced by George F.
Bunch from Washington Country [Company B - 3rd Missouri Cavalry]. These
six men, Asa Ladd, James Gates, Harvey Blackburn, Charles Minneken, John Nichols
and George Bunch, were to meet their destiny at the hands of the firing squad
that afternoon.
Meanwhile the remains of Major Wilson had been recovered and
returned to his home town of Toy for burial. His tomb stone -- a monument,
states "At the battle of Pilot Knob, Sept. 26, 1864 he was taken prisoner
and murdered by his captor 10/3/1864. Preserve, what he gave his life to
defend, our Nationality."
The six Confederate soldiers met their fate by firing squad,
commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Gustav Heinrichs of the 41st Missouri Infantry,
superintendent of military prisons. Later that day, a final report to
General Rosecrans' office simply stated "I have the honor to inform the
commanding general that on this day the following rebel soldiers .... were
executed by being shot to death by musketry in retaliation for the murder of six
men of the Third Cavalry Missouri State Militia by Tim Reyes' guerrillas."
The men were buried in the prisoner of war cemetery that is
now incorporated into the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. Their
graves, in section #20, are numbered consecutively from #4605 to #4610.
Asa Ladd, author of the letter, is in grave #4608.
Some days later, Mrs. Asa Ladd received the following letter.
"Mrs. Ladd
It becomes my painful duty to inform you that your husband
was shot to death on the 29th of this October last, in retaliation for the
murder of Major Wilson and six of his men by the rebels.
I have attended your husband from the time he received the
sentence of death and I am happy to say that he bore his fate with Christian
faith and fortitude. At his request, I placed the testament which he had
carried thru the war on his chest in the coffin. God comfort you and your
family is my prayer.
Your humble servant, Phillip McKim,
Chaplain, U.S.A."
A final act of intended kindness ending this nasty little
affair.
Well... that's about it for now. Again, I hear the bugler in the distance so
it's time to post the pickets and blow out the candles.
Return to the Archive