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From: "John Bennett" <>
Subject: RE: [MOAndrew] Re: Civil War Militias
Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 20:56:59 -0500
In-Reply-To: <005301c43448$fc7d0d40$ca0f60d8@Trix>


Don't know if this is in any history books, but is part of the Bennett
family history. The Bennett family came to Empire Prairie in NE Andrew
County in the mid 1850's from Sussex Wisconsin, having been there only a few
years from earlier coming to the US., and into Canada. Regardless the
family had little if any feeling for political aspects of the US at that
time, and certainly had no interest in the civil war. However, as shown in
some notes here, other folks had some fairly strong emotions and took sides.
The Bennett's lived on an E-W road that ran 1 miles North of the Empire
Prairie store. When the Confederates (hooligans, as they were viewed by the
Bennett family) were riding down the road looking for northern sympathizers,
my great-great grand father would place himself in the basement, in the
bottom of the chimney well/flue, until they passed. The next night or two
the Yankee (hooligans still) sympathizers would come down the same road
looking for confederate supporters, and Gramps would find himself back in
the basement and chimney. That's the extent they had in the war effort.
Apparently that's all they knew about it, and all that was ever said.

John L. Bennett


-----Original Message-----
From: Marlyn Eshelman [mailto:]
Sent: Friday, May 07, 2004 10:36 AM
To:
Subject: [MOAndrew] Re: Civil War Militias

Wayne & all,

Goodspeed's 1888 History of Andrew & DeKalb Counties has quite a few pages
on the county in the Civil War. For copyright reasons (I believe that the
AC Historical Society holds the copyright) I can't totally copy pages
222-228, but I'll try to give you some of the highlights:

Summer of 1861 "the Southern men raised and drilled military organizations
throughout the county, and in August of that year Camp Highly was
established in the eastern part of the county, where within a short time
about 1,500 men were collected and organized as State Guards, the object
being to join the army of the Confederacy." Two battalions, commanders J.
P. Sanders (Andrew Co.) and Jefferson Patton (Gentry Co.) A battery of "two
pieces", commander Capt. Fisher; several other (nameless) companies raised
by Capt. Campbell near Fillmore, Samuel Gant and Lewis Furnish near
Rochester.

"Quite a number" of Andrew Co. men joined Col. Craynor's Union camp in
Gentry Co, 1,500-2,000 men total. "...after a short time in camp, moved
northward toward the Iowa line in order to gain reinforcements preparatory
to moving upon the rebel camp in Andrew Co." This gathering caused the
breakup of the Confederate Camp Highly; some of those forces marched toward
Lexington to join the Confederates, were followed by Craynor's men, and
there was a battle in Clay Co. That "ended the Confederate domination in
Andrew, and from that time forward no public efforts were made toward
recruiting for the Southern army in the county."

1861, "the Forty-first Regiment, Missouri Militia, numbering between 700 and
800 men, was raised in Andrew County, ostensibly for home protection, but
subject to be called upon for duty in any part of the State." Cavalry,
commanded by Col. William Herren of Savannah, Maj. J. McLain. The 41st was
kept up until early 1863.

Then the Third Provisional Regiment, Enrolled Missouri Militia, was formed.
William Herren commanded again. Made from men from Andrew, Nodaway, Holt
and other counties. Disbanded and mustered out in late 1864.

26 Sep 1861, Kimball's Regiment (about 1000 men) was sworn in (from Nodaway,
Holt and Andrew counties). Commanded by Maj. Sturgis, "subsequently attached
to Gen. Prentiss' brigade, with which it did gallant service in various
parts of the state, principally in Clay, Platte, Buchanan and Andrew
Counties." Mustered out 2 Apr 1862.

Spring 1862, Fifth Cavalry Missouri State Militia formed at St. Joseph, with
one company (G) "made up altogether of Andrew County men." Commissioned
officers were: Robert G. Hubbard, captain; Henry M. Ogle, 1st lt, Mr.
Miller, 2nd lt. (Miller died at Lexington and was succeeded by John B.
Majors, formerly 1st sgt.) "[Majors] subsequently resigned, and took
command of Company G, of Home Guards, stationed at Savannah... Nearly if not
quite all the members of Company G re-enlisted in other regiments, and did
faithful service until the close of the war."

Non-militia company information: "Company G, Twelfth Missouri Cavalry, R. G.
Hubbard, captain, was largely made up from Andrew County; John Anderson,
first lieutenant; ___ Stanley, second lieutenant; D.C. Stotts was promoted
to the second lieutenancy after the death of Stanley." This Co. G was at
battles in W. Tennessee, N. Miss., and Alabama, and after the war went west
and "was engaged against the Indians on Powder River," including at Little
Big Horn. They were mustered out 10 Apr 1866, "after which the boys from
Andrew County returned to their homes."

"Company M, Ninth Cavalry, Missouri State Militia, was recruited at Savannah
in the summer of 1863...." Officers: Samuel Hunter, captain; ___ Decker,
1st lt; David Middleton, 2nd lt. Many of them were captured at the battle
at Glasgow, Mo., kept prisoners 3 months, and exchanged. Mustered out 1865.

1 Sep 1864, Companies B & D of the 43rd Missouri Volunteer Infantry were
from Andrew Co. Co. B Officers: John B. Majors, captain; Henderson Edwards,
1st lt; John P. Herren, 2nd lt; Irwin Mindes, orderly sgt. Company D
Officers: Henry M. Ogle, capt; Charles S. Pickett, 1st lt; Richard Buis, 2nd
lt.

1865, Fifty-first Regiment Missouri Volunteer Infantry recruited at St.
Joseph, with N.B. Giddings, Savannah, as Lt. Col. "Two companies were
raised in Andrew Co., one commanded by Capt. Harvey Tilson, and the other by
Robert Cole." Mustered out fall 1865.

Wayne, I know you only asked for information on the militias, but I thought
some others might be interested in the rest. If anyone wants any more
specific facts that I might have missed, I'd be glad to try to answer
questions. From my experience, Goodspeed got the "facts" from local
newspapers, so there certainly could be errors in the information.

Happy trails,
Monica Eshelman
Lindsborg, Kansas



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