War Crimes Against Southern Civilians

by Walter Cisco

  There was more bloodshed on May 11 as another hastily recruited German regiment was issued weapons. This time Lyon reported ten civilians killed along with two of his soldiers."

  Over the next few days as many as ten thousand citizensterrified by Federal violence-fled St. Louis. Convention delegate Uriel Wright had opposed Missouri's secession but now wondered if he had been wrong. "If Unionism means such atrocious deeds as I have witnessed in St. Louis, I am no longer a Union man."

  Exactly one week after the St. Louis massacre, Nathaniel Lyon's Washington superiors promoted him from captain to brigadier general.'' Lincoln's aggressive policy was now out in the open, but it was no longer possible for Missourians to freely choose their own political future, as Lyon had marched his troops on the capital of Jefferson City. Governor Jackson and other elected leaders were forced to flee, the Union military soon overran most of the state, and a regime approved by Washington was installed. Later that year a state government-inexile was formed that adopted an ordinance of secession, and Missouri was formally granted admission as one of the Confederate states.'' Yet until liberation might be achieved, the people of Missouri were at the mercy of Federal occupiers.

  Decrees were not long in coming from their blue-uniformed masters. In December 1861, Maj. Gen. Henry Halleck, commanding the Department of Missouri, issued orders that those "known to be hostile to the Union" would be taxed "in proportion to the guilt and property of each individual," proceeds supposedly earmarked for "suffering" Unionists. Those assessed had one week to appeal, but if they were unable to prove their loyalty to the United States, the amount due would increase 10 percent. "Any one who shall resist or attempt to resist the execution of these orders will be immediately arrested and imprisoned."" Those who could not pay cash had their furniture and other property seized and auctioned, typically at a fraction of its true value."

  On January 1, 1862, Halleck declared that it was the responsibility of the military to punish undefined "crimes and military offenses" committed within his department. Though he seemed to realize that his order was without legal authority, the "good of society and the safety of the army imperiously demand this." Under Halleck's edicts partisans and guerrillas were denied the rights of combatants "and are liable to the same punishment which was imposed upon guerrilla bands by Napoleon in Spain and by Scott in Mexico."" Confederate authorities had begun commissioning officers and organizing independent companies to resist the Union occupation of Missouri, but to Halleck "every man who enlists in such an organization forfeits his life and becomes an outlaw."

  Commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department, Lt. Gen. Theophilus Hunter Holmes, protested.

  Looking at these matters as calmly as the facts will admit of, I can see but one result of the course which the Federal Government and its officers are thus adopting. That result is-a war of extermination.... We cannot be expected to allow our enemies to decide for us whether we shall fight them in masses or individually, in uniform, without uniform, openly or from ambush. Our forefathers and yours conceded no such right to the British in the first Revolution, and we cannot concede it to you in this.

  Holmes' reasoned response made no impression on Federals. Little wonder. That year, fewer than four thousand Confederate guerrillas in Missouri were tying up as many as sixty thousand Union troops badly needed elsewhere.''

  In order to make it easier to identify the "disloyal," a series of general orders were issued in July 1862 requiring every able-bodied man to report for duty in the "Enrolled Militia" of Missouri. Exemptions could be obtained by those willing to first join and then pay a fee, and those deemed "disloyal" were assessed huge sums to support this organization. "All arms and ammunition of whatever kind and wherever found, not in the hands of loyal militia, will be taken possession of," read General Order No. 19, forbidding citizen ownership of firearms of any kind for any purpose in the state of Missouri."

  Loyalty oaths and the posting of huge performance bonds to guarantee their observance became widely imposed. By this device tens of millions of dollars were extorted from Missourians. Additionally, an elaborate array of fines and assessments charged local citizens thousands of dollars whenever a Federal soldier was killed or wounded in their neighborhood or when property was lost-regardless of who might have been responsible.'''

  General Order No. 35, issued Christmas Eve 1862, required provost marshals to "arrest and take evidence against all persons guilty of disloyal conduct"; guilt was assumed prior to arrest and without any need for evidence. Jailed were Missourians "who encourage the rebellion by speaking, writing, or publishing any disloyal sentiments, or induce the same in others." Not overlooked were those who "while pretending that they are better Union men than those charged with the control of the Government, constantly denounce the Government. . . . They will be arrested, the evidence taken against them, and be proceeded against as criminals." Federal authorities would not be deterred by any difficulty in obtaining evidence. Provost marshals were to arrest "notoriously bad and dangerous men, where peace and safety require it, though no specific act of disloyalty can be proven against them; and such may be put under bonds, imprisoned, or required to leave the state."""

  Often the authorization for arrest and exile came long after the actual persecution had taken place. In the fall of 1862 the president of McGhee College in Macon County was exiled with five other citizens to northern Illinois." In November, Brig. Gen. Benjamin Loan reported on his activities to Maj. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis, his superior in St. Louis. "La Fayette [County] will require a good deal of severity before it can be restored to its allegiance," wrote Loan. "I left about 250 of the inhabitants in confinement and ordered others to be arrested. Some 50 men fled the country to avoid arrest, who will probably never return, and some 50 others gave their parole to leave the State in ten days, not to return during the war." Loan recommended that prominent individuals be arrested and held "in close confinement" out of state since that "would be a manifestation of power and determination on the part of the Government that would strike terror into the souls of these craven rebels, for most of them are cowards."22 Curtis would himself later defend the policy of banishment, sure that it did much to promote "the success of our arms and the progress of our principles."':'

  Dr. Joseph McDowell of St. Louis was no coward. For speaking out in favor of the Confederacy, the physician had his property seized and converted into a prison by the military, one of but many they would need. Formerly a medical college and academy, what became the Gratiot Street Prison held five hundred inmates, but that number soon reached eleven hundred men and women. Overcrowding, lack of food, and filthy conditions led to outbreaks of disease that killed nearly half the prisoners one year.L4

  Lucy Nicholson Lindsay was imprisoned there. She described the warden, one Masterson, as "a horrid man." Upon her arrival, he called her a "Southern aristocrat," inquiring sarcastically, "how she'll like prison fare?" Another lady sharing the same cell suffered repeated hemorrhages of the lungs, apparently tubercular. Masterson had an officer bring her the false news that one of her children had died. "She commenced screaming and had another coughing fit," said Mrs. Lindsay, who called the Yankee a liar and condemned his cruelty. "He laughed and said, `I just wanted to see how much grit she had."'L'

  It was not unusual for women to be jailed in Union-occupied Missouri. In August 1862 two women from Hainesville, Clinton County, were arrested for refusing to swear allegiance to the United States. In early December, Union troops captured letters penned by Confederate soldiers from Missouri serving in Arkansas. Addressed to their loved ones at home, these letters proved a bonanza to Federal authorities, allowing them to identify the "disloyal" and target them for arrest and punishment.26

  It took extraordinary courage to publicly voice opposition to what was going on in Missouri. Among newspapers shut down by Federal authority or Unionist violence were the Morning Herald and Missouri State Journal in St. Louis, the Expositor and the Express of Lexington, Pla
tte City's Sentinel and Argus, the Cape Girardeau Eagle, the Hannibal Evening News, the Banner of Fayette, the Border Star of Independence, the Carrollton Democrat, the Franklin County Weekly Advertiser, the Shelby County Weekly, the Columbia Standard, the Macon Register, and at least seven others.27

  By the spring of 1863, Loan decreed that only those loyal to his government might engage in business or grow crops. Eighty Lexington businessmen raced to sign a resolution proving their loyalty but were placed under arrest and had their places of business closed because they signed late!"

  In the rural areas and small towns of Missouri arson, theft, and murder became so common that vast sections of the state were uninhabited by war's end.24 "We believe in a war of extermination," said Brig. Gen. James H. Lane. "I want to see every foot of ground in Jackson, Cass and Bates counties burned over-everything laid waste. Everything disloyal from a Shanghai rooster to a Durham cow must be cleaned out." On September 23, 1861, his artillery opened fire on the Saint Clair County courthouse. It burst into flames, and soon the rest of Osceola was blazing as well. The bank was robbed, and Lane's men downed a large quantity of whiskey. Theft went on everywhere in town, the general himself taking a carriage, piano, and supply of dresses. Lane's chaplain, Rev. Hugh D. Fisher, stole the altar furnishings from a local Osceola church, explaining that he needed the items for his own church in Lawrence, Kansas. A long wagon train loaded with plundered goods accompanied the troops back to their Lawrence base. On November 14, 1861, Kansas cavalry commander Charles Jennison and his troopers took everything of value from the people of Independence, leaving with a similar train of spoils. According to Jennison, his was a "Self-Sustaining" regiment. Lt. Col. Daniel Anthony spent the fall of 1861 raiding in Cass and Jackson Counties. He wrote to his abolitionist father back in Massachusetts, urging that brother Merritt come to Missouri since "I could give him a chance to make money fast." Colonel Anthony bragged of all the property he had taken from the "Secesh." He was especially proud now to have four black servants waiting on him, he told sister Susan

  In January 1862 troopers of the Seventh Kansas Cavalry burned 45 buildings in Dayton, Cass County, before turning their attention to Rose Hill in Johnson County. There 42 structures were torched. The owner of one home was shot to death, and the Kansans helped themselves to livestock and wagons. Union troops in the field were expected by their superiors to take what they needed. In northwest Johnson County, troopers from Kansas set fire to another 150 homes belonging to suspected Southern sympathizers. They looted the village of Kingsville, notching the ear of one man so that "We'll know you the next time you are caught." Eight other local residents were killed by the raiders. A few days later they burned the town of Columbus. That spring another Kansas cavalry regiment burned more than 20 homes near Greenfield.'

  Union regiments recruited in Missouri were no less brutal. Their depredations included the killing of six Southern sympathizers in Warrensburg and vicinity in March 1862. "Loyal" militia also burned houses there. Militiamen in search of Southern partisan Sam Hildebrand failed in their efforts to find him, so they burned the home of his mother and murdered his uncle. That summer five prisoners in the custody of the Third Missouri Cavalry Regiment were shot and killed "while trying to escape," according to their executioners. One of the dead was Joshua Chilton, a former state senator. Union soldiers arrested Columbus Spencer at his home in Buchanan County, then shot him a half-mile away. A similar fate awaited Dr. George W. Main. Although a native of Scotland and still a British subject, Dr. Main was arrested on August 14, 1862, as a suspected Southern sympathizer. His body was found later in the Missouri River. Unionists arrested Livingston County resident Jesse P. Clark around the same time, only to murder him and leave his body on a road. They thought he might be on his way to join the Confederate army. When five Cooper County Confederate sympathizers enrolled in the militia, as required by law, they were followed home by Union cavalrymen who killed three. Federal troops under the command of Brig. Gen. John Wynn Davidson torched every structure in Carter County near the end of 1862 on the theory that the whole county was "disloyal." In Benton County, cavalrymen took six local Southern sympathizers from the Warsaw jail, telling them they must gather firewood. All were found shot on the bank of the Osage River. William R. Green, his son David, and a neighbor named Charles Hill were arrested near Fulton by Union cavalrymen on suspicion of their having helped a wounded Confederate guerrilla. The three were killed. On July 14, 1864, Federals robbed a grocery store, stole many bottles of wine, burned homes, and then torched the Methodist church in Platte City. It was, said one of them, a "wholesome and admonitory" lesson.'

  Union horsemen made it a practice to ride up to a home at night and pretend to be Confederates themselves in the hope that their victims would reveal similar sympathies. Those who did were immediately executed. "The ladies generally went to the door," remembered one, "for they [Federals] were in the habit of shooting down the men." Another method of exposing "disloyalty" was to search for guns or ammunition since no citizen was permitted to own these items.''

  Reverend Payne of Clinton County was arrested and carried away by a squad of Federal soldiers. The pastor was "loved by all who knew him," said a friend. "He was a good man and a good preacher." Worried, his daughter went to army headquarters at Plattsburg. "To her pathetic appeal," said a friend, "the commander gruffly replied: `You had better look in the woods for him."' The daughter returned home and organized a search party from the women of the neighborhood, who found him, buzzards feeding on the dead body. A witness recounted that a few nights later,

  The same Federal soldiers went to the house of John Morris . . . [and] began beating him over the head with pistols. When almost unconscious, his gray hair matted with blood, they dragged him out of the house, with his wife clinging to him. Breaking her loose from him, they dragged him out into the yard and riddled his body with bullets.'"

  In Lafayette County a group of farmers returning from the market in Lexington camped for the night beside the road. Union soldiers fired on them, assuming they were guerrillas instead of unarmed citizens. The same thing happened to other unoffending farmers a few weeks later when they were shot at by German-speaking Federals.''

  Yankee troops having earned a reputation for shooting first and asking questions later, it was not unreasonable for people of all political persuasions-or even those who were entirely neutral-to run when approached. Unfortunately, Federals viewed fleeing itself as an admission of "disloyalty." Two citizens were shot by members of the Second Ohio Cavalry Regiment when they bolted on seeing blue uniforms. Troopers of the Third Missouri Cavalry shot three men who tried to flee their approach. Near the village of Miami, a former judge named Robert G. Smart ran out the back door of his home when troopers of the Seventh Missouri Cavalry rode up. Though the judge was no Confederate, troopers assumed that running was an admission of guilt and gunned him down.'

  "The military of this county are getting very careless of late," joked the Unionist editor of the Kansas City Journal on April 7, 1863, commenting on the widespread killings. "It can't be helped, `accidents will happen."''?

  Chapter 3

  "Burnt District"

  Order No. 11

  By the summer of 1863 the second floor of the three-story Thomas Building on Grand Avenue in Kansas City had become a Federal prison for women. Incarcerated there in August were as many as twenty-seven female inmates, all accused of aiding the Southern cause and many the family members of Confederate guerrillas. Josephine, Mary, and Martha Anderson were sisters of partisan Bill Anderson. Susan Vandiver and twin sister Armenia Gilvey had a brother serving with William C. Quantrill, and both were cousins of Coleman and James Younger, all fighting in the guerrilla cause. Mollie Grindstaff and Nannie Harris had brothers riding with Quantrill, as was the brother-in-law of Nannie McCorkle. Christie McCorkle Kerr's husband and brother served with Quantrill. Most of the girls were in their teens and none was over the age of twenty. Martha Anderson, the youngest pr
isoner, was but thirteen.

  A general merchandise store occupied the first floor of the Thomas Building. Beneath that, in the basement, was a cell that held arrested prostitutes. Next door and sharing a common wall was a structure owned by Elizabeth Cockerel and used as a Union army guardhouse. Over time, soldiers made three large entrances through the cellar wall in order to visit the prostitutes-in the process carelessly removing weight-supporting columns. Though these facts did not come to light until months later, two witnesses swore that on August 11 girders in the cellar were observed to have sunk, leading them to believe that the building was in imminent danger of collapse. Others saw the elderly merchant, assisted by the guards, hurriedly removing stock from his store and piling it on the sidewalk.

  On the morning of August 13, spirited Martha Anderson so irritated her guards that for punishment they fastened a twelve-pound ball to one ankle of the thirteen year old. A little later that morning there was a deafening roar and screams of terror as the building collapsed. When the huge cloud of dust cleared, citizens came running to see what had happened and what they might do. Cries for help were coming from the rubble. The voice of Josephine Anderson was heard pleading for someone to take the bricks from her head. Too late, rescuers found her dead. Twin sisters Susan and Armenia were crushed to death, as was Christie Kerr. One victim, known only as Mrs. Wilson, was injured and died later. Of the survivors, only Nannie McCorkle escaped unhurt, miraculously delivered when she jumped from a window. Little Martha Andersonshackled by her jailers-had both legs and back broken and her face disfigured by lacerations.