Stone commented that Lawrence residents, “are chiefly new England people & had you ever been in Boston, you would have some idea of what Lawrance [Lawrence, Kansas] is, as it is a pocket Edition of that famous city.”2 Stone referenced Lawrence’s violent history and the bloody attack on the city by William Quantrill in August 1863. Quantrill and his Raiders were a group of guerrilla fighters who supported the Confederacy and terrorized citizens living along the Missouri-Kansas border. Quantrill and his band ambushed Lawrence, Kansas, on August 21, 1863. It was reportedly, in retaliation for the collapse of a federal prison in Kansas City, Missouri, which killed and injured the female relatives of Quantrill’s men who were confined there, including the sisters of William “Bloody Bill” Anderson. Quantrill and his gang killed every man that “was big enough to carry a gun.”3 About 200 men and boys were slaughtered in what was deemed the Lawrence Massacre.

You will rember that this is the place that Quantrell [William Quantrill], with his band of robbers, destroyed, during the war. I have often read of the account in the papers. but I never realized the magnitude of their fiendis brutality, until I read a mor minute accout in the city Directory Such deeds of barberism, never was recorded, even, of the most savage tribes, of hostile Indians, Such horrible deeds of cold blooded murder, & such wanton destruction of property without exhibiting the slightest spark of human feeling, is certainly without a paralel in the history of the world.
-W.T. Stone letter to W. S. Harbert—October 28, 1866

According to the 1870 Census there was a W.T. Stone who lived in Shawnee, Kansas, and resided with the White family. He was approximately 26 years old and worked as a farmer.4

Contributed by the Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield

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1. Letter by W.T. Stone to a friend in England, October 1866, Lawrence, Kansas, Wilson’s Creek National Battle Field, Republic, Missouri.
2. Letter by W.T. Stone to a friend in England, October 1866, Lawrence, Kansas, Wilson’s Creek National Battle Field, Republic, Missouri.
3. Thomas Goodrich, Bloody Dawn: The Story of the Lawrence Massacre (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1991), 78.
4. 1870 United States Federal Census; Census Place: Shawnee, Johnson, Kansas; Roll: M593_435; Page: 647B; Image: 772; Family History Library Film: 545934.

Charles P. Hutchinson was not a very enthusiastic solider and wanted to get a furlough to go visit his brother as soon as possible. He said, “I have nothing to do here but look after myself. I have not done any drumming for three months.”3 Hutchinson was part of the Illinois 44th Infantry. The regiment participated in General John Fremont’s advance on Springfield, Missouri, and marched to Rolla, Missouri, in early November, and remained there till February, 1862.4 They also participated in the Battles of Pea Ridge, Bentonville, Leetown, and Elkhorn Tavern, Arkansas. While most of the regiment went on to help with the siege of Corinth, Mississippi; Hutchinson was forced to stay behind due to his poor health.

Hutchinson mentioned that there were numerous dangers that the men had to face in trying to send supplies.

Three trains left here with supplies for the Army one after another was attached 30 miles from here, mules turned loose and wagons and contents burned up. The last train 92 wagons was attacked 30 miles out yesterday burned 12 of them. Bushwhacking around the wagons guerillas commanded by Coleman. [Thomas Coleman “Cole” Younger]
-Charles P. Hutchinson letter to his brother, Edgar Hutchinson – May 1862

Although, the 44th Illinois Infantry participated in several battles in Missouri and Arkansas, the largest threat they faced though were guerrilla fighters.

Contributed by the Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield

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1. Historical Data Systems, comp. U.S. Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2009.
2. Letter from C.P. Hutchinson to his brother Edgar Hutchinson, May 1862, Rolla, MO, Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield Museum, pg 2.
3. Letter from C.P. Hutchinson to his brother Edgar Hutchinson, May 1862, Rolla, MO, Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield Museum, pg 3.
4. UNION ILLINOIS VOLUNTEERS, 44th Regiment, Illinois Infantry, National Park Service Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System, http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/regiments.cfm

The bushwhackers have about “played out.” I have not heard of any one being troubled by them for a long time, and there is no regular organized rebel force here. They have all gone to Vicksburg [Mississippi], or Texas, except the Mo. troops, the most of whom have deserted, and are now at home with their families. The “army of the frontier” has been split up, part of it having went South, and the rest of it being scattered about in Missouri
-John Gray to a Friend in Springfield, Missouri—March 9, 1863

It was not only the regular soldiers who were deserting the Confederate Army, but the Native American troops as well. Gray stated that the Cherokees, Creeks, and Choctaws were good for skirmishes and being scouts, but were of little use to the Union Army as soldiers, stating, “they are not as good as whites.”4

While disease was spreading through camps in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Camp Solomon had a low number of men affected by illness. This was a good sign, but not everything was so pleasant. Gray wrote about the situations taking place in camp in a letter to a friend in March 1863.

Eighty-seven rebel Prisinars escaped from the Provist Guard at springfield. Two of whom were Cols, three Majors, ‘five Capts,’ and the remainder privates. They made an opening in the end of the guard House, by cutting through a brick wall 2 ft thick. It took them 11 days and nights, to make the opening The brick taken from the wall were concealed in their beds to prevent detection. The first things they did after getting out was to get to the Government correll, and supply themselves with Horses. they next set fire to a large Hotel in the subburbs of the city, and then made tracks for “Dixie.”
-John Gray letter to a Friend in Springfield, Missouri—March 9, 1863

In spite of the loss of the Confederate prisoners, Gray was anxious for the arrival of Gen. Blunt in Kansas. Gray thought very highly of Blunt and wrote, “He is the man for this country. It needs a man that will push ahead, and one that is not affraid to meet an enemy on an open field…He is worthy of the promotion few men would have encountered the difficulties, that he has, and came of victorious in every engagement. But he has, in every conflict with the enemy, he has conquered, and his name is is a terror to the rebels in South West, Mo. and North west, Ark.”5

John survived the war and was mustered out of service on July 17, 1865. He went back to live with his parents who had moved to Mound City in Linn County, Kansas.6 John’s father, Joseph filed to receive John’s pension in March 21, 1891 [1894].7

Contributed by the Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield
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1. Ancestry.com.. Kansas State Census Collection, 1855-1925 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com 1865 Kansas State Census. Microfilm reels K-1 – K-8. Kansas State Historical Society.
2. John Gray to a friend in Springfield, MO March 9, 1863, Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield, Republic, Missouri.
3. UNION KANSAS VOLUNTEERS, “1st Independent Battery, Kansas Light Artillery”, National Parks Service Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System, http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/soldiers.cfm.
4. John Gray to a friend in Springfield, MO March 9, 1863, Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield, Republic, Missouri.
5. John Gray to a friend in Springfield, MO March 9, 1863, Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield, Republic, Missouri.
6. Kansas State Census Collection, 1855-1925 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2009.
7. “John S. Gray”, Civil War and Later Veterans Pension Index, http://www.fold3.com/image/#5116151

In 1854, Sen. Stephen A. Douglas proposed repealing the Missouri Compromise and opening the Nebraska Territory to popular sovereignty. The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, meant slavery would be possible in the Louisiana Territory; a thought that outraged many Northerners who considered the Missouri Compromise a sacred trust.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act triggered a land rush in Kansas. Missourians were especially passionate about making Kansas a slave state. But their zeal was matched by many New Englanders, some like Eli Thayer and his New England Emigrant Aid Society, who sent equally determined free-state settlers into Kansas.

In the fall of 1854, 1,700 armed Missourians poured into Kansas to elect a pro-slavery delegate to Congress.2 Dubbed, “border ruffians,” by the anti-slavery newspapers; these Missourians flooded the elections with Southern votes. The territorial elections for Kansas took place in March 1855, and reports estimate as many as 5,000 Missourians crossed into Kansas to participate.

In September 1857, the Kansas Constitutional convention met in Lecompton, determined to make Kansas a slave state. Newly appointed Governor, Robert J. Walker, assured his free-state opponents that a fair and legitimate territorial legislature would be seated. The election results gave the pro-slavery candidates an edge, but it was soon discovered that Missourians were up to their old tricks. In one district, which had only 30 legitimate voters, 1,601 ballots were cast with names from the Cincinnati city directory.3 In total 2,800 fraudulent votes were discarded and the “Free-Staters” won the majority.

Dean was in Lawrence, Kansas, as many of the state’s leaders were gathered to discuss what actions would be taken if the Lecompton Constitution passed in Congress. In attendance at this meeting were Gov. Charles Robinson and Jim Lane.4 The Lecompton Constitution included a provisional article that guaranteed a slaveholder’s right to retain ownership of their slaves’ currently living in the territory, but it also prohibited future importation of slaves to Kansas. Voters would later decide to include or exclude this article in the constitution. If excluded, slavery would be prohibited in Kansas entirely. Like each of the previous constitutions, the Lecompton Constitution had its opponents and supporters. Two referendums were held, each boycotted by a different party.

Eventually Kansas would enter the Union as a free state, but the animosity and violence between Missourians and Kansans remained and the citizens living along the border would face constant fighting between military troops and guerrilla fighters.

Joseph Dean was actually the brother-in-law to Emmett MacDonald. When the Civil War broke out Joseph enlisted at Memphis, Tennessee in July 1861. At Camp Beauregard in Kentucky he was appointed Acting Aid de Camp to the 6th Brigade by General Order No. 1 on September 30, 1861. By January 1862, he was appointed Acting Aid de Camp to General John S. Bowen’s Brigade. While serving under General Bowen in Company C. of the 1st Missouri Infantry, Joseph was severely wounded at Shiloh, Tennessee in April 7, 1862 and died at Memphis a few days later.

Contributed by the Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield

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1. Joseph Dean Letter to His Sister, February 24, 1858, WICR30890, Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield, Republic, Missouri, pg 1.
2. James M. McPherson, Ordeal by Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001),102.
3. McPherson, Ordeal by Fire, 115.
4. Joseph Dean Letter to His Sister, February 24, 1858, WICR30890, Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield, Republic, Missouri, pg 1.

James Otis Gower was commissioned as an officer in Company F, 1st Iowa Cavalry Regiment in August 1861.2 This famous regiment was organized June 5, 1861, and ordered into quarters at Benton Barracks near St. Louis, Missouri, in the middle of October in the same year.

During the entire winter of 1861, eight companies of the 1st Iowa Cavalry were engaged in patrolling western Missouri. Ever on the alert, their engagements and skirmishes were numerous. In December, they took part in an important expedition to Van Buren, Arkansas, resulting in the defeat of some Confederates and the capture of immense military stores.3

James Otis Gower survived the war and mustered out of service in August 1863, but died two years later in September 1865.4

In 1874, James Henry Gower extended his business ventures to Lawrence, Kansas, where electrical power to businesses was made possible that year by completion of a dam across the Kansas River. He and other investors constructed a flour mill, called the Douglas County Mills, contracting with the Lawrence Land and Water Company for the mill’s water power. The Gower family moved from Iowa City, Iowa, to Lawrence in 1877, as did Gower’s daughter, Mary, and her husband Justin DeWitt Bowersock. Within days of their arrival, part of the Kansas River dam washed out, forcing the Lawrence Land and Water Company into bankruptcy.5 Gower purchased the company which was sold by order of the Court. Following James Henry Gower’s death in 1879, his son-in-law, Bowersock, oversaw the company and the dam’s repair.6 Gower, his wife, Borredell, and several of their sons are buried at Oakland Cemetery in Iowa City, in Johnson County, Iowa.

The papers contain two Civil War letters from Gower’s son James Otis Gower of the 1st Iowa Cavalry–one in which he describes the Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas, and a copy of Confederate general, Thomas Carmichael Hindman’s, address to his soldiers prior to the battle of Prairie Grove. The address was discovered during the policing of the battlefield by Federal troops and was widely reprinted in Midwestern newspapers as a “masterpiece of scoundrelism.”7

Contributed by the Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield

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1. 1860 U.S. Federal Census; Census Place: Iowa City, Johnson, Iowa; Roll: M653_327; Page: 784; Image: 300; Family History Library Film: 803327.
2. “James Otis Gower”, UNION IOWA VOLUNTEERS, 1st Regiment, Iowa Cavalry, National Parks Service Civil War Soldiers and Sailors, http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/soldiers.cfm
3. Historical Data Systems, comp. American Civil War Regiments [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 1999.
4. Iowa Cemetery Records [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2000. Original data: Works Project Administration. Graves Registration Project. Washington, D.C.: n.p., n.d.
5. William Elsey Connelley, A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans, Volume Five (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, 1918), 2409.
6. Bowerstock Mills and Power Company, http://kansastravel.org/lawrence/bowersockmill.html
7. William L. Shea, Fields of Blood: The Prairie Grove Campaign (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009), 264.

Being from Pennsylvania, it was natural that the Tallman and Brown boys served in the Union Army. William Tallman’s son, John B. enlisted in 1861, at the age of 22, in the Osage County Regiment, Missouri Home Guard. His cousin Jeremiah “Jerry” C. Tallman also joined the same regiment. In mid-1862, John B. joined the 8th Missouri Cavalry as a sergeant and was later promoted to adjutant. John B. Tallman’s brother, Jeremiah “Jerry” W. Tallman, joined Capt. Cary Gratz’s Co. F. 1st Missouri Infantry Volunteers in 1861, which was reorganized as the 1st Light Artillery Missouri Volunteers. Jerry W. later joined the 48th Missouri Infantry and then the 50th Missouri Infantry in 1864, along with his cousin William B. Tallman. That same year, their youngest brother, Robert Thomas “Tom” Tallman and their cousin Charles W. Tallman, joined the 47th Enrolled Missouri Militia in April 1864, and then the 48th Missouri Infantry in August 1864.3

Matthew Brown’s son, John D., also enlisted in the Union Army. John D. Brown served with Jeremiah “Jerry” W. Tallman in Capt. Cary Gratz’s Co. F. 1st Missouri Infantry, which would later become the 1st Missouri Light Artillery Volunteers. John though had to be admitted to the Insane Hospital in Washington D.C. on September 24, 1863.4

The 1st Missouri Light Artillery Volunteers had been involved in numerous large campaigns prior to John D. Brown’s hospitalization. They participated in the Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee (April 6–7, 1862), the Battle of Corinth, Mississippi (April 29 – May 30, 1862), the Siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi (May 18 – July 4, 1863), and then they repulsed Confederate General Theophilus Holmes’ attack on Helena, Arkansas in August 1863.5

John D. Brown and the 1st Missouri Light Artillery Volunteers had endured hard service and witnessed horrific scenes of death, which was perhaps more than John’s mental capacity could handle. He received a medical dis¬charge in July 1864, and returned to Miller County, Missouri.6 Apparently, his condition improved, because he married July A. in 1866, and had four children, Bell, Mary E., Marcus W., and Frank R. by 1880.7

Handwritten letters were the main form of communication between soldiers and their relatives during the Civil War. Letters from this time read as long, continuous conversations between the two parties, always hoping for a rapid reply from the addressee. However, due to the inefficiencies in the mail system, relatives would often repeat the same information in several letters, because they did not know which, if any of their letters, had made it to their loved ones. In 1862, Martha Tallman wrote to her brother, John B. Tallman, on the subject of letters.

My dear brother Hanna [Hannah M. Brown] came up this afternoon she had just received your letter & a note from John [D. Brown], your cry seems to be letters from home, well it is strange you don’t receive them for I assume you have written Father [William Tallman] & Tom [Robert T. Tallman] have written & I can’t tell how often I have. I wrote you last day before New Years, John [B. Tallman] too has, I don’t suppose they will reach you,
-Martha Tallman letter to Jeremiah Tallman – January 9, 1862

Soldiers became desperate to hear from their families and for news from home. They even gladly read each other’s letters just to hear about familiar places and everyday situations; anything to take their mind off the war and their struggles. Robert T. Tallman, wrote to William Brown, with an interesting suggestion as a possible means to encourage more communication.

I have not had a letter for two weeks what is our folks doing. tell them I am dead and mabe they will send for my bounty and wages, and I will hear from them that way if no other.
-Robert T. Tallman letter to William Brown – February 11, 1865

John D. Brown’s letter to his sister, Hannah, in August 1862, held a lot of information regarding his location and the route which his unit was taking. “We are on the Fayetteville road, 26 miles south of Springfield, but I don’t know how long we are to stay out. I think not very long though, as we did not fetch a large supply of provisions with us. I am sorry that we did not stay at Springfield longer”8

While letters were the soldiers’ primary source of information on their home towns, families, and friends; newspapers helped to keep the soldiers abreast of current events. John D. Brown informed his sister, Hannah, “I am going to send tomorrow for theTribune and Harpers Weekly. I will have them sent in my name to Rolla”.9 He asked Hannah to make sure to “Save all the papers, Tribune Harpers. I want to look at them when I get home.” 10 He also expressed his frustration about the postal delivery problems in a letter to his sister on October 13, 1862. “The Tellegraph is in operation between here and Springfield, so I think if they can keep that from being cut, they can take letters through safely.”11

Both John D. Brown and Jeremiah “Jerry” W. Tallman were engaged in serious combat and recorded their experiences in battle through their letter to their sisters.

The Kansas troops had a fight on the 30th of Sept at Newtonia about 18 or 20 miles south of here. We were camped about two miles north west of this place when the battle commenced we could hear the artillery quite plain. We hitched up immediately and our whole brigade was ready in a short time. It consited of the 2nd & 3rd [Missouri] militia 1st Arkansas [Cavalry], one battallion of the 1st Mo. Cavalry, & one of the 6th Mo Cavalry. Also our battery. [1st Missouri Light Artillery] Orders soon came to move and away we wint, five or six miles on the road. There was orders from the front not to be in a hurry, then soon again to push forward. We got within a mile or so of the battle field & were ordered to comp, but no sooner in parke, than ordered to the field, that the enemy were advancing. Away we dashed to the prairie come up in battle line. The enemy were already in line about 1 ½ miles distant. We could just see them. it was getting dark. They did not advance on us, but soon opened a brisk fire on us from a battery, doing us but little injury oweing to the darkness. Only one man wounded, he belonged to the third militia. We then opened & fired twelve rounds. Then our men fell back through the woods to another prairie about five miles distanct, lay there till morning then come to where we are now to await reenforcements. Gen. [John M.] Schofield & [James] Totten have arrived with several thousand & more are said to be comeing.
-John D. Brown letter to Hannah M. Brown – October 3, 1862

After the Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas, in December 1862, the 1st Missouri Artillery won the commendation of General James Blunt for its effective service. Soon after this, the battalion was ordered to St. Louis, Missouri, where it renewed its equipment, after which it was sent to Vicksburg, Mississippi, where they remained until the its surrender on July 4, 1863.12 After Vicksburg, the companies were dispersed, with Company F being sent to Texas and Louisiana, where they remained for the next year.

Constant violence and guerrilla warfare made Southwest Missouri and Northwest Arkansas some of the most dangerous territory in the entire country. Charles Tallman told his brother Jeremiah that “There are plenty of Bush-whackers in the County, Killing & Robbing the Loyal Citizens frequently.”13 And this kind of violence did not end even after the War was over as J.R. Moore wrote to Hannah Brown warning her to keep an eye out for a fugitive who was a “notorious Ladie Killer.”14

In the middle of the collection appears a letter from Jane Brown, Hannah and John Brown’s sister. Jane was a student in Jefferson City, Missouri, and reported about her school activities and the daily appearance of soldiers in the city. Jane Brown witnessed the War through a different lens than her brother or sister. She did not face as many hardships and the threat of guerilla warfare was almost non-existent since the Federals held control of the city. She stated in her letter that she saw, “The Soldiers march up and down street every evening I saw a couple of canon and a pile of canon balls for the first time in my life.”15 Jane would go on to marry Robert T. Tallman after the war ended.

Life seemed to return to normal rather easily for the families after the War ended in 1865 and they seemed to prosper during Reconstruction. However, Jeremiah “Jerry” C. Tallman struggled to find his purpose in life once the War ended as he remained in Tuscumbia, Missouri, in 1868. For many men, when they returned to their hometowns, they returned to nothing. Their homes burned, property stolen, and loved ones dead. Life after the War for many young men was as bleak as the War itself.

The Tallman and Brown families were brought together with the marriage of Jeremiah W. Tallman to Hannah M. Brown in 1869. Their union is the reason this collection of correspondences exists. According to the 1870 census, Jeremiah and Hannah, along with their six-month old son were residing in Equality Township in Miller County, Missouri. Tallman was active politically and served terms as Miller County treasurer, sheriff, and probate judge. The Tallman family moved to Crocker in Pulaski County, Missouri in the 1890s where Jeremiah engaged in the furniture business. Hannah died in 1878 and by 1910, Jeremiah had moved back to Miller County.16

Contributed by the STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY of MISSOURI RESEARCH CENTER – ROLLA

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1. Year: 1860; Census Place: Richwoods, Miller, Missouri; Roll: M653_633; Page: 392; Image: 397; Family History Library Film: 803633.
2. Tallman family.Tallman-Brown families, letters, 1861-1868. The STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY of MISSOURI RESEARCH CENTER – ROLLA, accessed 8 November 2010, http://web.mst.edu/~whmcinfo/shelf18/r447/info.html
3. Missouri Digital Heritage, Missouri Office of the Secretary of State, Missouri State Library, Missouri State Archives, Soldiers’ Records: War of 1812 – World War I, The State Historical Society of Missouri, (c) 2007-2011, http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives
4. Ibid.
5. Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System, National Park Service, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C., accessed July 5, 2011, http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/index.html
6. Tallman family.Tallman-Brown families, letters, 1861-1868. The STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY of MISSOURI RESEARCH CENTER – ROLLA , accessed November 8, 2010, http://web.mst.edu/~whmcinfo/shelf18/r447/info.html
7. Year: 1880; Census Place: Richwoods, Miller, Missouri; Roll: 703; Family History Film: 1254703; Page: 226C; Enumeration District: 106; Image: 0455.
8. John D. Brown letter to Hannah M. Brown, Aug. 22, 1862, Tallman-Brown Family Collection, 1861-1868, R447, The STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY of MISSOURI RESEARCH CENTER – ROLLA .
9. John D. Brown letter to Hannah M. Brown, Apr, 19, 1862, Tallman-Brown Family Collection, 1861-1868, R447, The STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY of MISSOURI RESEARCH CENTER – ROLLA .
10. John D. Brown letter to Hannah M. Brown, Apr, 19, 1862, Tallman-Brown Family Collection, 1861-1868, R447, The STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY of MISSOURI RESEARCH CENTER – ROLLA .
11. John D. Brown letter to Hannah M. Brown, Oct. 13, 1862, Tallman-Brown Family Collection, 1861-1868, R447, The STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY of MISSOURI RESEARCH CENTER – ROLLA .
12. The Union Army, vol. 4, p. 279, Historical Data Systems, comp. American Civil War Regiments [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999.
13. Charles Tallman letter to Jeremiah W. Tallman. Oct. 14, 1864. Tallman-Brown Family Collection, 1861-1868, R447, The STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY of MISSOURI RESEARCH CENTER – ROLLA .
14. J.R. Moore letter to Hannah M. Brown. Mar. 19, 1867. Tallman-Brown Family Collection, 1861-1868, R447, The STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY of MISSOURI RESEARCH CENTER – ROLLA.
15. Jane Brown letter to Hannah M. Brown. Sep. 21, 1862. Tallman-Brown Family Collection, 1861-1868, R447, The STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY of MISSOURI RESEARCH CENTER – ROLLA .
16. Hannah Brown Tallman, Find A Grave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GScid=1986677&GRid=8971918&

the Election lies between Buchanan an freemon it will be uncertain which will gite the State it will be a cloce race between Buchanan an freemon – Boath parties are doing all thea can but we the old sothren whigs will stand to Buchanan and fite Disunion as long as we have a Button on our coats the Democrats are up to a doing all thea can as the whigs are at thear Back to helpe them all they can and we will have a majority for Buchanan in this State
-Jonathan Pugh to Henry King, August 20, 1856

Pugh was a strong union man and that fact seemed to affect his political preference more than whether or not he supported slavery. Pugh recalls that when he was back living in Tennessee, that both the Whigs and the Democrats contained Union men and now it was divided into union and disunion.1

Some neighbors of the Pughs had been in Kansas and reported that General James Lane and his army would not submit to the laws of Kansas. The Missouri men were beginning to raise their own companies to fight against the Kansans. Jonathan reported that “a battle is expected in a short time, the northern disunion men and the union men will have to kill a good many of them before this thing of disunion is stopped.”2

Jonathan also took the time to mention that his crops and health were improving and that he and Minerva have no intention of going back to Tennessee. If the family decided to move he stated that they would probably go further west. Their friends John and Rachel Snapp were considering moving back to Tennessee, even though Jonathan believed that John could make good money with his saddle shop in their current location.

Jonathan Pugh died in 1861 and was buried in the Ogden Cemetery in Warren County, Illinois.3 According to the 1880 Census Minerva Pugh was living with her daughter Mary and son-in-law W.H. Barnett in Galesburg, Knox County, Illinois.4

Contributed by the Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield
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1. Jonathan Pugh Letter to Henry King. 20 Aug. 1856. Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield, Republic, Missouri.
2. Jonathan Pugh Letter to Henry King. 20 Aug. 1856. Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield, Republic, Missouri.
3. Jonathan Pugh, Find A Grave, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Pugh&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSst=16&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GSsr=201&GRid=53006743&df=all&
4. 1880 United States Federal Census; Census Place: Galesburg, Knox, Illinois; Roll: 220; Family History Film: 1254220; Page: 162D; Enumeration District: 135; Image: 0327.

Jacob M. Dachenbach was born in 1843 in Pennsylvania but was living in Le Clarie, in Scott County, Iowa, with his parents and siblings in 1860.1 Jacob (Daughenbaugh) on October 11, 1862, wrote from Gadfly, Missouri, to his mother, Mary A. Dachenbach. He stated that the 1st Iowa Cavalry was the best regiment he had ever seen and that they captured many prisoners. He noted that military life was difficult for some men who had never left their homes but stated “you learn more here in a week than you will at home in one year”.2 He complained about his rheumatism after being wet for too long and about the constant stealing by other soldiers.

The 20th Iowa Infantry participated in Schofield’s Campaign in Southwest Missouri October, 1862, to January, 1863. As Jacob Dachenbach mentioned in his letter to his mother the regiment would soon be moving to Arkansas to consolidate with other Union troops near Pea Ridge Arkansas and would fight in the Battle of Prairie Grove in December of 1862.

In a letter written to his father, Isaac Dachenbach, on December 24, 1862 Jacob said the Union boys had a good skirmish with the “Deviled” rebels at Prairie Grove, Arkansas, although he was not involved in the actual fighting.3 Not only did the Union men have to worry with fighting Confederate soldiers, but guerrilla fighters as well. “For you may go to a man’s house and he has papers that he is a good union man and at the same time he will get you the first opportunity he gets.”4 Also, the irregular pay schedule made survival in the army difficulty for both the men in both the blue and grey. Jacob’s regiment had not been paid in some time and did not know when they might be, so he asked for his parents to send stamps. The regiment continued to move through Arkansas and then returned north to Missouri or “Misery” as Jacob referred to it in his writings. Jacob hated having to stay in Missouri and wanted to head further east to help with Union’s campaign there. Eventually, he would get his wish and Company K of the 20th Iowa would go to Vicksburg, Mississippi in June 1863.

Dachnebach’s regiment had captured many Confederate prisoners while at Vicksburg, who reported that the Union had killed many of their men. Jacob described the enemy prisoners, “as some very smart men amongst them while there is some awful drunk and ignorant and don’t know what the devil they are fighting for; but they are not so dumb as the men we took in Arkansas.”5 By July 1863 Dachenbach was on a steamer headed out of Yazoo City, Mississippi, he had been very ill and unable to march with his unit. In the letter to his father he described the condition of the slaves and what actions the Union soldiers took when they encountered a Confederate household.

I would sooner see them stay where they are than to see them freed if it could have been so but anyway to end this rebellion if we have to kill the damned niggers masters and all but the masters skedaddle as soon as they hear of us coming and then we rummage their houses and anything we find valuable we keep it and destroy what is left.
-Letter from Jacob Dachenbach to Samuel Dachenback, July 18, 1863

Jacob hoped the war would end soon so that he could return to his family and see some Iowa women and partake in some Iowa grub.6 Unfortunately, Jacob would not get that opportunity; he died of disease in Port Smith, Louisiana in August 1863.

The Dachenbach Collection is quite extensive and highlights the journey of a Union solider through all five years of the war. The Dachenbach collection is housed at the Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield Museum in Republic, Missouri.

Contributed by the Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield

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1. 1860 United States Federal Census; Census Place: Le Claire, Scott, Iowa; Roll: M653_340; Page: 86; Image: 108; Family History Library Film: 803340.
2. Jacob M.Dachenbach Letter to Mary A. Dachenbach. 11 Oct. 1862. WICR 11900B, Dachenbach Family Papers, Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield, Republic, Missouri.
3. Jacob M.Dachenbach Letter to Isaac Dachenbach. 24 Dec. 1862. WICR 11900B, Dachenbach Family Papers, Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield, Republic, Missouri.
4. Jacbob Dachenbach to Isaac Dachenbach, At Camp in Arkansas, Stuck in the mud, Jan. 21, 1863, WICR 11900B, Dachenbach Family Papers, Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield, Republic, Missouri.
5. Jacbob Dachenbach to his brother, Vicksburg, Mississippi, June 27, 1863, WICR 11900B, Dachenbach Family Papers, Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield, Republic, Missouri.
6. Jacbob Dachenbach to Samuel Dachenbach, Yazoo City, July 18, 1863, WICR 11900B, Dachenbach Family Papers, Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield, Republic, Missouri.

defendants then & there set fire to plaintiffs house & burned it down & burned all plaintiffs house hold furniture…All the possessions of plaintiff then on hand.

Plaintiff states that defendants at the time & place aforesaid greatly alarmed his family by burning his house. He further states that while one of his daughters were carrying out various articles defendants either set her clothes on fire or set fire out in such a place as she did not expect & in carrying out some articles her dress caught fire & burned her to death.
-Alexander, Thomas. Writ of Attachment. 4 Jul. 1865. Thomas Alexander vs. Rice and Hugh Challas.

Alexander did not know the men and believed that they were not residents of Missouri; therefore the judge ordered that the notice of the lawsuit against them be published in the Springfield Journal for four consecutive weeks, allowing the defendants’ time to prepare their case and appear in court.2 One of the attorneys representing the defendants was John S. Phelps, former Union Colonel of the Phelps’s Regiment.

The results of case are unknown, but Jasper County’s location along the Missouri-Kansas border made guerrilla warfare a constant threat to its citizens. Bushwhackers or those who were not officially aligned with either side took advantage of the chaos for their benefit. These bands of men were responsible for huge amounts of violence and destruction in the county.

Contributed by the Jasper County Records Center
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1. 1860 United States Federal Census; Census Place: Jackson, Jasper, Missouri; Roll: M653_624; Page: 866; Image: 326; Family History Library Film: 803624.
2. J.W. Boren, Order of Publication. 30 Aug. 1865. Thomas Alexander vs. Rice and Hugh Challas. Box 23 File 128. Jasper County Records Center, Carthage, Missouri.

John S. Phelps was born in Simsbury in Hartford County, Connecticut in December 22, 1814.1 Phelps attended Trinity College, where he studied law. After graduation, he returned to Hartford and worked in his father’s law office. Phelps moved to Missouri in 1837 and eventually settled at Springfield, in the southwest corner of the state. He prospered in the growing town and in 1840 Phelps was elected to represent Greene County in the Missouri General Assembly. Just four years later, Phelps was elected to Congress and served in Washington for 18 years.

Unlike most of his neighbors, Phelps was a slaveowner. Phelps owned 10 slaves in 1860, a significant sign of his wealth and status.2 He was also a staunch Democrat who opposed wartime emancipation efforts. Although party affiliation and slave ownership did not affect the strong Unionism of him and his family, Phelps was concerned as the destruction of slavery became a goal of the Northern war effort. It also left him at odds with many of his pro-Union neighbors who were increasingly likely to be Radical Republicans during and immediately after the war.

Phelps was elected colonel of the Greene and Christian County Home Guards when the Civil War broke out. Authorized by Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon, Home Guard companies were important local defense forces. Lyon’s forces quickly secured the Missouri River Valley and drove the state government, including Governor Claiborne F. Jackson from office. As Jackson and the Missouri State Guard retreated into the southwest corner of the state, Phelps and his regiment provided important intelligence to Union commanders. Phelps wrote the Commanding Officer of U.S. Troops for Southwest Missouri on June 19, 1861, warning them that “Jackson will make his escape via Laclede & Texas Cos. Or via Benton & Jackson Cos.”3 He also commented on the difficulty the German soldiers were having in following orders, because they did not speak or understand English very well. Two days later, Phelps wrote Colonel Franz Sigel informing him that if he wanted to capture Gov. Jackson, he needed to send men to Neosho, Missouri immediately.4

Sigel met Jackson and the Missouri State Guard in a small battle at Carthage on July 5. Sigel was defeated and retreated back to Springfield where he was soon joined by Lyon and his command. The State Guard joined forces with Confederate troops from Arkansas under the command of Benjamin McCulloch and advanced on Springfield. Lyon attacked their encampment along Wilson’s Creek on August 10. Lyon was killed in the battle and as the Union army retreated to Rolla, Phelps’s wife, Mary Whitney, protected his body.5

The Greene and Christian County Home Guard was only a ninety-day regiment and when its enlistment expired, Phelps organized a new unit in September. Named for its commander, it was known only as Phelps’s Regiment and would serve for six months. Colonel Phelps led his command in heavy fighting at the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas on March 7-8, 1862. Although the troops fought well, Phelps’s regiment suffered heavy casualties and were driven back by a Confederate advance near the Elkhorn Tavern. Once again, Mary Whitney assisted the Union cause, this time by treating the wounded. She had followed the army on its advance into northwest Arkansas and was on hand immediately after the battle.

Pea Ridge permanently altered the strategic situation in Missouri and Arkansas. The battle forced Confederate commanders to seriously question their ability to hold the Trans-Mississippi Theatre. Soon, most of their troops had been transferred east of the Mississippi River. In July 1862, Col. Phelps was appointed the Military Governor of Arkansas by President Lincoln. As governor, Phelps was disappointed with the performance of General Samuel R. Curtis, the victor of Pea Ridge. Phelps complained that instead of occupying more of the state, Curtis led his army to Helena. From here the Federals controlled just a tiny fraction of the state, while officers openly speculated in the lucrative cotton market.6

Phelps’s status as a slaveowner was clearly evident during his administration. As they had in other parts of the South, slaves ran away from their plantations as the Union army approached. Curtis often granted them freedom with unofficial “freedom papers,” months before Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation would take effect. Phelps challenged the legality of Curtis’s actions and the slow movement towards Emancipation left Phelps out of step with a growing number of officers and the administration. Still a stalwart Democrat, Phelps found himself with few allies in Republican dominated Washington. Phelps’s controversial administration ended in July 1863 when his office was dissolved. In reality, Phelps had been sick during most of his tenure and was forced to remain in St. Louis.7

In 1864, Phelps returned to his law practice at Springfield. The next year he tried his most famous case, a successful defense of James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok who had killed Dave Tutt in a duel on the Springfield square.8

Phelps returned to politics in 1868. Transformed by war, Missouri’s political landscape bore little resemblance to the time when he last held elected office. Now Missouri was bitterly divided between Radical Republicans and Conservatives. Since thousands of Missourians had been disenfranchised by the Iron-Clad Oath due to their Confederate sympathies, political participation was limited to Unionists. Radical Republicans dominated in the immediate post-war years, but a number of men like Phelps were still deeply Conservative, despite their commitment to the Union. Because of this, Phelps lost the election in 1868, but he was nominated again in 1876. By this time the Radicals had largely been driven from power and Phelps won. Phelps was a popular governor and when he left office in 1881, the St. Louis Globe Democrat wrote, “it will hardly be disputed that Missouri never had a better governor than John S. Phelps.”9

Phelps passed away in St. Louis, on November 20, 1886 and is interned at Hazelwood Cemetery in Springfield, Missouri. Phelps Grove Park in Springfield, Missouri is named in his honor.10

Contributed by Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield

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1. Lawrence O. Christensen, Dictionary of Missouri Biography. (Columbia: University of Missouri Press), 614; R.I. Holcombe, “Chapter 18: Biographies of Prominent Citizens,” History of Greene County, Missouri 1883, http://thelibrary.springfield.missouri.org/lochist/history/holcombe/phelps.html
2. Greene County, Missouri, 1860 U.S. Federal Census – Slave Schedules [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Eighth Census of the United States, 1860. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1860. M653, 1,438 rolls.
3. Phelps, John S. Letter to Commanding Officer of U.S. Troops for Southwest Missouri. Jun. 19, 1861. John S. Phelps Papers, WICR 31002, Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield, Republic, Missouri.
4. Phelps, John S. Letter to Franz Sigel. Jun. 21, 1861. John S. Phelps Papers, WICR 31003, Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield, Republic, Missouri.
5. R.I Holcombe & Thomas W. Adams, An Account of the Battle of Wilson’s Creek or Oak Hills. (Springfield: Greene County Historical Society), 96-104
6. Michael B. Dougan, “John Smith Phelps 1814-1886,” The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture, http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=4469
7. Dougan, “John Smith Phelps.”
8. “John Smith Phelps, 1877-1881”, Office of Governor, Missouri State Archives Finding Aid 3.23 http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/findingaids/rg003-23.pdf
9. Dumas Malone, ed., Dictionary of American Biography Volume XIV. (Charles Scribner’s Sons: New York: 1934), 530.
10. Missouri Death Records, 1834-1910 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2008.