Civil War Era New Madrid, Missouri

In 1862, New Madrid, Missouri, had 85
businesses and two hospitals.

When 1st Lt. Louis Boedicker, 2nd MO. Art., Army Engineer, drew this map in March 1862. The Confederates still controlled New Madrid and Island Number Ten. The town was the county seat of government, it had 85 active businesses, two hospitals, and a thriving Port of New Madrid, and its citizens enjoyed freedom from the Union troops. Few people understand that Missouri saw more than 1,200 engagements within its boundaries when you count minor actions and skirmishes. Only Virginia and Tennessee exceeded this total. The movie "Gone With the Wind" implies that the Civil War was only fought in the Deep South. Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee citizens suffered much throughout the war. In my opinion, the high action in these three states was primarily because of the intense loyalty of its people to both sides. Even those citizens who supported remaining in the Union resented the invasion of Union Troops into Missouri and other border states.

Missouri was essential to the Union and Confederacy because of its strategic location on the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, natural resources, and manpower.

Missouri experienced some of the most violent conflicts of the Civil War, and its people came to symbolize the tragedy of the nation's divisive struggle. The fighting in Missouri was unique in the American Civil War. They experienced arson, murder, robbery, torture, and more from Bloomfield to Commerce, Cape Girardeau, and Jackson to Fredericktown, Benton, Bertrand, New Hamburg, and Sikeston. Citizens in Southern Missouri received more violence than other sections of the state, but the Kansas City area also suffered heavily. Often, local deaths were not among the numbers tallied as war deaths. All Missouri citizens experienced events from destructive guerrilla fighting, murders of neighbors, raids, and the pursuit of outlaws through their property, to the hunting down of Southern sympathizers. This was topped by citizens fearing Federal scouting parties across the state. Growing up in Southeast Missouri, I felt the recurring hatred of one generation to the next but failed to understand what I witnessed. Anger was prevalent toward the Germans in northern Scott County, above Benton Hill, who turned in Southern sympathizers, and Blacks just because of the color of their skin. Rebuilding and recovery were slow following the Civil War. After one hundred years, flames of passion still flared up from time to time. The divisiveness appears to be softening, but much healing is still needed.

This map shows a few of the battles
 fought around New Madrid, MO.

One minor battle in Southeast Missouri was near Belmont, across the Mississippi River from a Confederate stronghold at Columbus, Kentucky. November 6, 1961, Gen. Grant moved by riverboat from his base in Cairo, Illinois, to attack the small outpost near Belmont in Mississippi County, Missouri. (As information, Belmont is only 37 miles from Sikeston and 36 miles from New Madrid.)  Grant landed his men north of the camp and marched to Belmont. Grant's troops overran the surprised Confederate camp and destroyed it. However, the scattered Confederate forces quickly reorganized and were reinforced from Columbus, Kentucky. They were counterattacked, supported by heavy artillery fire from across the river. Grant retreated to his riverboats and took his men back to Paducah, Kentucky. Both sides declared victory. The battle was relatively unimportant, but with little happening elsewhere at the time, it received considerable attention in the press, and a Union General engaged the Confederates was well received in the North.

In mid-February 1862, some seventy miles south of Cario, Gen. Grant's Union troops captured Fort Henry on the Tennessee River. A week after winning Fort Henry, Grant marched his troupes twelve miles cross-country to Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River. After five days of fighting, the Confederates asked for terms of surrender. Grant demanded "Unconditional Surrender" from the commanding officer, and he got it. Both these forts were near the Kentucky-Tennessee border, only 135 miles overland to New Madrid, and about 45 miles less using a ferry to cross the Mississippi  River. The solid wins for Union forces led to the promotion of Big. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant went from an obscure officer to the rank of Major General.

Once these forts fell to the Union, the town of New Madrid and Island Number Ten, which stood about ten feet above the Mississippi River water line and just north of New Madrid, became the confederate solid point for defending the Mississippi River. It was a long battle turned siege, lasting from February 28 to April 8, 1862. Unfortunately, there is not enough space on this Blog to address the critical role Island Number Ten and New Madrid played in the war. However, many books are available on Island Number Ten and New Madrid during the Civil War. I encourage you to read one or two to better understand their pivotal role in the American Civil War.  

After the Confederates surrendered New Madrid, its citizens left the town for anywhere they could find a family to house them or work to support their families. Businesses were forced to close their doors until the war was over. I read in a statement from the General who took New Madrid that the only people found in the town were old men, women, and a few public officials running the County Courthouse.

To conclude this segment, we look at what happened to William Cline's children, starting with the marriage of Elizabeth to Theopholis Verlaque in 1856.  

Soldiers of Both Sides of Wars Are Heroes

Photo by permission of Stoddard
County Confederate Memorial website

Last week we learned that the once pro-southern town of Bloomfield, Missouri set on Crowley's Ridge in Stoddard County and often saw both the Confederate and Union forces in the Civil War.

Larry Arnold from Dexter, Missouri, saw a Civil War tombstone in a St. James, Missouri cemetery that had the soldier’s general name and dates on the front of his headstone. However, on the back was inscribed, “killed by the Yankees at the Battle of Booneville, Missouri.  Whenever he saw a military stone after that, he was always disappointed not to see the detail of the serviceman’s death on the back side of the headstone.

The Stoddard County’s Confederate Memorial’s website tells what happened next in the words of the memorial's creator.  "When Jim McGhee and Jim Mayo published their book, “Stoddard Grays“ (an informational book about Confederate soldiers from Stoddard County) in 1995, Arnold started to get an idea. “I thought it would be neat to order grave markers for the 117 plus Stoddard Countians (identified in Stoddard Grays) that died during the war and inscribe where and how they died on the back."

“When I conceived the idea, there was 117 known Stoddard Countians. We now have placed markers for 152 soldiers, nine civilians ‘political prisoners’ who died in prison at Alton, Illinois, plus 22 non-Stoddard Countians buried in this location; their home counties are inscribed on the back of the stones.”

“Even though their bodies lie from Mine Creek, Kansas, in the West, to Petersburg, Virginia, to the East, on the battlefields of the South, and under the former POW camps of the North, their names and sacrifices will once again be remembered and spoken of in their home county they loved so much and were willing to die for.”

In 1992, Larry Arnold began steps to make his vision a reality.  Arnold is quick to give credit to many others who also contributed to the development and implementation of the Stoddard County’s Confederate Memorial.  Two of his dedicated workers in the cemetery was Jim Mayo, along with Ruth Wilson, who provided the necessary administrative services as well as manual labor.  Arnold also acknowledged the support of members in the Col. A.S. Riley Camp, No. 791 of New Madrid and Whitener's Monument and Lily's Monument companies generously completed the engraving of the stones.  Christian and Dowdy Lumber Company, of Dexter, furnished lumber, and Ray Ezzell if Dexter installed the shingles, and Pruitt Glass Company donated the bulletproof glass. Arnold said the Veteran Administration also provided the headstones. Many individuals, too many to list, contributed financially and with other support.

My husband Tom and I visited this cemetery in 2005.  The interesting difference about this cemetery from other military cemeteries is inscriptions on the back side of each headstone telling how and where the soldier died. This difference makes one think about that soldier as a person.  It was a sad, humbling, and moving experience to walk among those graves and to think of the horror that those men must have gone through over one-hundred and fifty years ago.  They fought bravely and with pride for what they believed, the same as Union soldiers fought for what they believed. These markers represent our ancestors, who deserve our honor. 

Thousands of soldiers fought in the Missouri Home Guard (USA) and  Missouri State Guard (CSA) who are often forgotten.  For many, no confirmation of their deaths was sent to Washington, DC for inclusion in Civil War records at the National Archives.  I was pleased to see the following Missouri State Guard (MSG) soldiers honored at the Stoddard County Civil War Memorial.  

    2^nd Lt. Billington Offut,         Company A, 2nd Inf. Regt, 1 Div.          Stoddard County

    Pvt. Theophilus J. McKee     Company A, 2nd Cav. Regt.                   Cape Girardeau County

    Pvt. W. Shelton                       Company G, 3rd Inf. Regt.                     Iron County

    Pvt. J. Robert Kirkpatrick      Company E, 4^th Inf. Regt.                     Scott County 

In the Battle of Fredericktown, Gen M. Jeff Thompson's Missouri State Guardsmen suffered a total of 25 dead on the battlefield, 40 wounded, and 80 captured.  After their retreat, they brought the 40 wounded back to a hospital in Bloomfield.  At least six of the wounded died in the hospital and were buried in the Bloomfield Cemetery and now are honored in the memorial section of the cemetery.

     Cpt. W. M. Walker                    Company B, 1st Inf. Bn.                      Mississippi County

     Pvt. Nathaniel Wheat,             Company B, 2nd Inf. Bn.                     Butler County

     Capt. Thomas C. Neville         Company G, 2nd Inf. Regt.1 Div.        Stoddard County

     Pvt. Calvin Watts                     Company H, 3rd Inf. Regt.                  Mississippi County

     2^nd Lt. Allen Seabaugh           Company E, 4th Inf. Regt.                  Bollinger County

     Pvt. H. H. Kinder                      Company B, 4th Inf. Regt.                  Bollinger County

The above Missouri State Guardsmen are but ten of the total 152 men represented in the Memorial.  Most of them were just local kids who joined the MSG to fight against what they saw as illegal invaders who violated Missouri’s autonomy.  There were also thirteen young men with the MSG who were captured and sent to federal prisons in the region.  Four died of illness in the Alton, Illinois prison, and Pvt. William H. Neal died aboard the USS John Rice, with the others dying in St. Louis at Gratiot Prison, Jefferson Barracks, or the Myrtle Street Prison, and Pvt. David Shrum died at the Rock Island Prison in Illinois.

The war was over for the men in the Stoddard County Confederate Memorial grounds, but for the men who returned to their southern homes, many soldiers found them burned to the ground.  Many didn’t know where their family members were at the time of their return.  The Southern soldier lived with the results of the loss of the war and reconstruction for the rest of his life.  They fought as hard and with as much passion as the Union soldier, but there was no hero’s welcome home for them.  I would compare their return home with what the returning Viet Nam soldiers experienced.  Many of Viet Nam veterans lost their jobs and were changed men by battle, both the Confederate soldier and the Viet Nam soldier were champions for Freedom.  They deserved our respect and earned the honor in fighting for their beliefs.  My father’s side of my family fought for the Southern cause, and the men on my mother’s side fought for the Northern cause.  I believe all the men who fought in the Civil War deserve my honor and respect.  It is for this reason that I found the Stoddard County Confederate Memorial a moving experience.  I thank Larry Arnold for his vision and for spearheading the Confederate Memorial project completed in 2002.  I thank all the many others that contributed to the construction, the financial contributions, the in-kind services, and those who continue in the maintenance of the site.  I also salute and respect the soldiers who gave their lives for the belief they were defending the state of Missouri.

Residents of Bloomfield are proud to have both the Stoddard County’s Confederate Memorial and the Bloomfield Missouri Veterans Cemetery in their town.  Next week we I will write about the Missouri Veterans Cemetery.  I encourage you to leave a message on items in the Bootheel you would like to learn more about, or you can contact me at mcharmon1@gmail.com.  Have a great week everyone.