Civil War Ghosts of Southwest Missouri

Lisa Livingston-Martin

• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781609492670
• eBook ISBN: 9781614237440
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

For southwest Missouri, the Civil War was an unparalleled period of violence, sorrow and anger. As the torches burned the physical landscape, the depredations inflicted were also scorched upon the psyche of the people who lived through fires. Survey Carthage's battlefield for stubborn holdouts or hold vigil at the Kendrick House for innocent bystanders who were swept up into the stratagems of bushwhackers and guerrillas. Meet the Bloody Spikes, Rotten Johnny Reb and scores more figures from the region's past who continue to trouble its present.

THOMAS R. LIVINGSTON, SOUTHWEST MISSOURI GUERRILLA LEADER

Thomas R. Livingston, as discussed previously, was a secessionist from the outset. His experiences in southwest Missouri’s warfare are a good illustration of the complex relation between the guerrilla fighters, regular troops and the civilian population. Livingston had broad mining interests in southwest Missouri. He owned the mine at Minersville (now Oronogo) in western Jasper County, which in time became the largest pit, lead and zinc mine in the world, now known as Oronogo Circle. When the war broke out, it is said that Livingston dumped several thousand pounds of molten lead into Center Creek at his smelter in Minersville to prevent approaching Federal troops from confiscating it for making ammunition. He and his half brother, William Parkinson, also had a lead smelter at French Point, several miles west of Minersville, as well as a store and mill.

Livingston also held stakes in the lead mines at Granby, in Newton County, to the south, which at the outbreak of the war was the largest producing lead-mining district in southwest Missouri. The Confederate army occupied Granby until it was forced out of southwest Missouri after the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, in 1862. The strategic value of the Granby mines was such that official Confederate reports tracked the tonnage of lead being shipped to Fort Smith, Arkansas, and points east. The commanding officer in Granby was confident that the Granby mines would supply the Confederacy’s demand for lead for bullets. Each month, 200,000 pounds of lead were shipped from Granby. Livingston owned one of the four smelters in Granby and, by some accounts, at least one of the saloons as well. He also had business ties in Indian Territory, present-day Oklahoma. As discussed, Livingston had a reputation of being good-natured but willing and able to effectively fight. It was reported by the Bolivar Weekly Courier on April 14, 1860, that an attempt on the life of Captain Tom Livingston was made by John Tutt, a “desperate type,” at Granby.

As said previously, Livingston was drilling a militia unit before the war was officially declared and had been a captain in the Missouri militia for several years. He was well respected and well liked by the men who fought under him. George B. Walker, a local resident, gave his recollection of Thomas Livingston after the war. He said Livingston “never knew fear and his men during the war idolized him. They said that there was never a leader so good to his men as Major Tom Livingston.” His enlistment having expired in the Missouri State Guard, Livingston returned home and enlisted his men in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States, designated as the First Battalion Missouri Cavalry (First Indian Brigade). The group would come to be known as the Cherokee Spikes or Bloody Spikes.

By late July 1861, Livingston and his men were patrolling the Missouri-Kansas border and also protecting the lead mines at Granby and Minersville. By September, Livingston was cooperating with the Confederate partisan ranger John Matthews, who lived in Labette County, Kansas, and raided Humboldt, Kansas, which is southwest of Fort Scott, the principal Federal military installation along the Missouri-Kansas border. The town had been used as a base for Federal scouts along the border who had raided and burned Missouri towns. The town was burned, and horses and other property were seized. Not long afterward, Lieutenant Colonel James Blunt pursued John Matthews to the Quapaw Indian Agency, in Indian Territory, killed Matthews and scattered his men. Livingston was sent back to Humboldt as revenge for Matthews’s death. Confederate general McCullough made raiding into Kansas a part of his overall strategy, but the residents were allowed to remove property from their homes before the town was torched, and it was ordered that no men in the town be executed. McCullough also sent the Cherokee general (then still a colonel) Stand Waitie, based in Indian Territory, to move into Kansas and “destroy everything.” Although he reported directly to Waite, Livingston did not return to Kansas again but focused on border patrol, guarding and working the Granby mines, escorting lead shipments to Fort Smith, reconnaissance securing information on Federal troop and supply train movements. It also appears from correspondence of General Price that Livingston recruited men among the Osage Indians.

While Livingston had been a secessionist even before the war’s start, it did not mean his allegiance was blind. As the war wore on and the Confederacy failed to devote resources to the border area, onlookers were surprised to hear Livingston speak publicly in Mount Vernon, Missouri, between Carthage and Springfield, where he stated that in his opinion, the Confederate army had not kept its assurances to help protect southwest Missouri and lamented that the secessionist cause had left southwest Missouri in a vulnerable position, without adequate support to protect the civilians in the area. Likewise, Livingston sent requests to the Confederate command requesting additional resources and men to prevent the people from being put in further peril. His frustration grew, as can be seen in his correspondence, and as time went on, he began sending requests directly to General Price, bypassing his direct superiors. Livingston engaged in negotiations with Union commanders operating in the region, attempting to secure mutual assurances to not disrupt farmers and to allow planting of crops without the risk of fields being torched. These actions indicate that Livingston had motives beyond mere plunder, revenge or military objectives. They also drew the condemnation of some of the Confederate officers.

The event that stands out the most in Thomas R. Livingston’s operations is the Rader Farm massacre in western Jasper County, Missouri, and the consequences of the events there. Fort Blair, a wooden fort, had been built in Baxter Springs, Kansas, by the Union army as a means of protecting the supply trains traveling the military road between Fort Scott, Kansas, some fifty miles north, and Fort Gibson, Indian Territory, approximately one hundred miles to the south. Fort Blair sat a mere fifteen miles inside Kansas and due west of central Jasper County, including Livingston’s concerns at Minersville.

The Union raised an all-black regiment at Baxter Springs, the First Kansas Colored Infantry, many of whom were escaped slaves from southwest Missouri. These black troops were under the command of James Williams. The First Kansas was the second colored unit officially mustered into service for the Union but was the first colored unit to see combat and suffer casualties in the Civil War, in October 1862, at the Battle of Mound Island, near Butler, Bates County, Missouri, along the northern edge of the burnt district in southwest Missouri.

Lisa Livingston-Martin at the site of Fort Blair, Baxter Springs, Kansas, where the black soldiers killed at the Rader Farm were stationed. Fort Blair was a timber fort and was destroyed at the Battle of Baxter Springs in 1864. Courtesy of L. Edward Martin.

Williams was anxious to prove the ability of his men, and perhaps this contributed to a rash decision to send them into Jasper County on May 6, 1863, to forage for food. The column was hard to miss, with wagons, infantry and cavalry—a column that seems ill-suited for foraging for food behind enemy lines. The troops raided homes, taking a carding machine that was used to turn cotton into thread, and Mrs. Scott, the lady of the house, was held for a time. A wagon of flour on its way to Livingston’s men was taken from a young boy driving the wagon, who also was held and later released along with Mrs. Scott. After capturing twenty horses and mules, two local women rode into the Federal line. When asked by Major Ward, the commanding officer of the foraging party, what they were doing, they responded that they were counting his men to tell Livingston how many soldiers were camped. Ward confiscated the ladies’ horses, and while walking out of the Federal camp, the ladies left with the parting words that they were still delivering the information to Livingston. The next morning, the women returned and demanded the return of their horses and saddles. Ward again refused their demand, and they complained loudly and in particular to Hugh Thompson, one of the Union soldiers whom they knew, threatening that Livingston and his men would hang him upon their return. Next, Williams’s men camped at the home of R.R. Twitty, one of Livingston’s men, and took three hundred pounds of bacon, a calf and corn from Twitty’s mother.

Troops often found themselves foraging for food and supplies while operating in southwest Missouri, leading to much hardship of the people living in the region and contributing to animosities. Reenactment photo. Courtesy of L. Edward Martin.

Williams didn’t merely send the men into Missouri—he sent them to Sherwood, which was the third-largest town in Jasper County and known as a strong Confederate enclave. Many of the men fighting under Livingston lived in Sherwood. Williams didn’t stop there; on May 11, 1863, he sent an insulting letter to Livingston, in which he failed to even address Livingston by name:

To Commanding officer of Southern forces in Jasper & Newton County,

MO,

Sir,

I came here by order of my Superiors under instructions to put a stop to the Guerilla or Bushwacking war which is now being carried out by the enemies of the United States in Jasper and Newton Counties, MO. It is my desire in this Business to follow as far as practicable all the rules applicable to Civilized warfare. I therefore propose that you collect all the enemies of the United States in your vicinity and come to some point and attack me, or give me notice where I can find your force and I will fight you on your own ground.

But if you persist in the System of Guerilla warfare heretofore followed by you and refuse to fight openly like soldiers fighting for a cause I feel bound to treat you as thieves and robbers who lurk in secret places fighting only defenseless people and wholly unworthy the fate due to Chivalrous Soldiers engaged in honorable warfare. And I shall take any means within my power to rid the Country of your murderous Gang.

Earnestly yours,

J.M. Williams

Col 1^st KS Col Vols

Williams’s choice of words was ironic in light of the plundering and theft from civilians his men had committed in Jasper County in the week prior to this letter. The week following this letter saw Livingston and Union major Eno’s men clashing in Jasper County, along Center Creek just west of Minersville. Williams was challenging a fight, but Livingston just vanished after the six-day running fight with Major Eno. On May 18, 1863, having received no reply to the May 11 letter, Williams ordered a smaller foraging party of the First Kansas Colored back into Jasper County on a second foraging detail. Again this was impetuous on Williams’s part, as many of the men in the foraging party were unarmed.

The same day, Livingston’s scouts reported sixty soldiers from the First Kansas foraging near Sherwood. Livingston led sixty-seven of his “best mounted men” to engage the Federal troops. Reports indicate between twenty-two and thirty-two African American troops of the First Kansas Colored Infantry and twenty to twenty-two white artillerymen from the Second Kansas Battery were at the home of Mrs. Rader. Mrs. Rader’s husband was an officer in the Confederate army and away in service, and her son was one of Livingston’s men. The Rader Farm was also a significant target from a psychological perspective, as the ten-room, frame farmhouse was the largest and most impressive home in western Jasper County and one of the best examples of a prosperous Confederate citizen. In other words, Williams and Ward were making a statement by raiding this particular farm, taking food stores and supplies. For some unknown reason, Williams sent a far smaller force than he had on the first foraging mission twelve days earlier. A mere twenty-five men of the First Kansas and twenty men of the Second Kansas Battery were with Ward now.

It seems Ward made a point of announcing his arrival to provoke an encounter with Livingston, rather than gathering supplies. The men of the First Kansas were riding in wagons and armed with muskets only. The Second Kansas were the only mounted Union troops and carried revolvers only. It is uncertain whether the teamsters driving the wagons were armed at all. This small column marched through Sherwood, stopping at the Hyden home, whose owner was fighting with Livingston. The Second Kansas rode ahead, leaving the wagons and First Kansas men at the Hyden farm. A group of ninety-seven of Livingston’s men rode up to the bottom of the hill but remained out of shooting range and then rode off. Regrouping, the Union troops rode on, passing the homes of more of Livingston’s men, including the Vivion home. Mrs. Vivion observed the black soldiers riding in the wagons, headed toward the Rader Farm, and had her daughter Eliza ride out to relay this information to Livingston.

Livingston had just spent six days frustrating Major Eno, who had led a force of 185 well-armed Missouri Militia cavalrymen against Livingston but failed to scatter Livingston’s unit. Now, Major Ward had just 45 men at the Rader Farm, where he found a large supply of corn hidden in the upstairs rooms of the farmhouse. Ward took the precautions of setting pickets and driving Mrs. Rader and her daughters off of her property, instead of the normal practice of confiscating supplies while the women stood watching. A wagon was brought to the south side of the house, and a lieutenant called for 20 of the black soldiers to leave their muskets along the fence and to throw the corn and valuables in the house out of the second-story windows and into the wagon.

One of the white Union soldiers, Hugh Thompson, the same one who days before had received a verbal threat from the local ladies who rode into the column that Livingston would hang him, sought out Captain Armstrong and Major Ward, who were at the pickets. His horse had been injured, and he sought permission to switch horses. Receiving word that Thompson needed to speak with them, Armstrong and Ward returned to the farmhouse. Before they or Thompson could begin speaking, shooting broke out behind them. Livingston’s men had cut off the six men on picket duty and were able to surprise the Federal troops at the Rader farmhouse. Three Union soldiers were killed within minutes, and another three white soldiers and two black soldiers were captured. Two white soldiers and the black soldiers were still in the house when the shooting started. Running outside, the white men escaped but the black men were shot down “before taking a dozen steps.”

Civil War rifles stacked in camp at the ready but useless if the soldiers are not close by, as was the fate of the First Kansas at the Rader Farm. Reenactment photo. Courtesy of L. Edward Martin.

Hugh Thompson was shot from his horse and received four or five gunshot wounds. Hit...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Embers on the Western Wind: Precursors to War in Southwest Missouri
• The Torch Is Lit: War Comes to Southwest Missouri
• The Battle of Carthage
• Wartime Experiences in the West Plains Area
• The Battle of Wilson’s Creek
• Springfield, Missouri: Civil War Headquarters
• Guerrilla Warfare: Southwest Missouri Becomes the “Burnt District”
• Thomas R. Livingston, Southwest Missouri Guerrilla Leader
• Bushwhackers Beware
• Newton County: The Confederate Capital of Missouri
• The Rothanbarger House: Union Man in Confederate Country
• A Civil War Haunting: Paranormal Science Lab Investigates Kendrick House and the Battle of Carthage Battlefield
• Bibliography
• About the Author