Plan to attend Humboldt Civil War Days, Oct 7th & 8th, 2022, for the dance and re-enactment of burning. Documentary filming is also going to take place of the events.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/74323834/jesse-sill-webb
Mr. Webb came to Kansas in 1860, before it became a state and settled in Humboldt where he resided until three years ago when he came to Iola to make his home with his daughter. In 1861, he with one hundred other men enlisted in the home guards, later being mustered into the U. S. service, Company G., 9th Kansas Cavalry. Mr. Lou Bartels of this city is the only member of this company left.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/133652558/william-lewis-bartels
spring of 1860 he came to Kansas and located at Humboldt. In September, 1861, he enlisted in Company G. Ninth Kansas Cavalry, serving until January 16, 1865.
"It was the summer of 1861" said Judge Bartels this morning, that the 9th of Kansas was recruited. Eight companies of 100 men each were enrolled in Allen County, six of them in Iola and two in Humbolte. I joined one of Humbolt Company, Company G and John Walters was in Co. E, I think. Three companies of the regiment were recruited at Lawrence, and one at Council Grove, making up the 12 companies that then went to make a regiment. We spent the summmer scouting around to the south and southwest but were never regularly mustered into the service of the United States until the 16th of January, 1862.
Judge Bartels in a reminiscent vein, "Who saw the burning of Humbolte in 1861. There were about forty of us soldiers on the town site but there were four hundred of the Rebels so we took to the tall timbers. About half the boys and we and they thought their last hours had come, but after burning and looting the town, the Rebels left and turned the boys loose. John Tibbets who later became my father-in-law, The Rebels who burned the town were mostly from Carthage being under the command of Colonel Tom Livingston. The Tibbets family had lived at Carthage, but had been driven away because of their Union Settlements, soon after the Missourian struck the town. The girl who later became my wife and was visiting with friends, who lived above the store on the north side of the square came down on the street. At the same moment Colonel Livingston rode up. He recognized her at once, for they had lived next door neighbors at Carthage, and called her by name dismounted and shook hands with her, asking how she came to live there? "You wouldn't let us live at Carthage so we came to live here." was her reply. Why she stood there twenty or more of the boys she had known at Carthage came up shook hands with her and proceeded methodically to burn and loot the town. War, especially civil war remarked the judge as he proceeded on his way to his office, "Is a queer thing."
Mr. Bartels was associated with, and knew well, many of the prominent men of the times. Numbered among his friends were Jim Lane, Senator Pomeroy, John A. Martin, Governor Glick, Senator Ingalls, and many others. when Humboldt was sacked, he enlisted in a company under Jim Lane.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7th_Kansas_Cavalry_Regiment
Commanders
Colonel Charles R. Jennison
Colonel Albert Lindley Lee
Colonel Thomas P. Herrick
Lieutenant Colonel Daniel R. Anthony – arrested and relieved of command for issuing an order that prevented Tennessee slave catchers from entering the regiment's camp looking for escaped slaves
Captain John Brown Jr., Company K – Son of abolitionist John Brown
The 7th Kansas Cavalry was organized at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas on October 28, 1861. It mustered in for three years under the command of Colonel Charles R. Jennison. MEMORIAL ID 174698638
Moved to Humboldt, Kansas, January 31, 1862 and duty there until March 25. Moved to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, March 25; then to Columbus, Kentucky, May 18-June 2, and to Corinth, Mississippi, June 7, escorting working parties on Mobile & Ohio Railroad and arriving at Corinth July 10; then moved to Jacinto and Rienzi, Mississippi, July 18–28.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacking_of_Osceola
The Sacking of Osceola was a Kansas Jayhawker initiative on September 23, 1861, to push out pro-slavery Southerners at Osceola, Missouri. It was not authorized by Union military authorities but was the work of an informal group of anti-slavery Kansas "Jayhawkers".[2] The town of 2,077 people [3] was plundered and burned to the ground, 200 slaves were freed and nine local citizens were court-martialed and executed.
Following Sterling Price's secessionist Missouri State Guard victory over General Nathaniel Lyon's Union army at the Battle of Wilson's Creek, Price continued his goal of keeping control of Missouri from the Unionists.
Guerilla leader James H. Lane—often called the leader of the Jayhawkers—organized 1,200 troops to resist Price's invasion into Kansas. Price defeated Lane at the Battle of Dry Wood Creek near Fort Scott, Kansas. Lane retreated and Price continued his offensive further into Missouri to the Siege of Lexington.
While Price moved North, Lane launched an attack behind him. After crossing the Missouri border at Trading Post, Kansas on September 10, Lane began an offensive moving East on Butler, Harrisonville, Osceola and Clinton, Missouri.
https://civilwaronthewesternborder.org/timeline/battle-dry-wood-creek
Battle of Dry Wood Creek
Monday, September 2, 1861
Colonel James Henry Lane. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Colonel James Henry Lane. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Fresh off a victory at Wilson's Creek, the Missouri State Guard under command of Major General Sterling "Pap" Price advances toward Fort Scott, in southeastern Kansas. Colonel James H. Lane, in command of a jayhawker brigade of volunteers, confronts Price in the Battle of Dry Wood Creek, 12 miles east of the town. Heavily outnumbered in the two-hour battle, Lane is forced to abandon his mules and withdraw to Fort Scott and then to Kansas City. The Missouri State Guard switches course to attack Union forces at Lexington, Missouri. The skirmish is sometimes called "Battle of the Mules" to commemorate Lane's loss.
https://civilwaronthewesternborder.org/encyclopedia/sacking-osceola
Sacking of Osceola
Date: September 22-23, 1861
Location: St. Clair County, Osceola, Missouri
Adversaries: Brigadier General and U.S. Senator James Henry Lane with the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Kansas Volunteers vs. Missouri State Guard Captain John M. Weidemeyer and local militia and civilians of Osceola, Missouri
Casualties and damages: At least 10 casualties (including nine executions after the raid ended) and approximately $1 million in building and property damage
Result: The city of Osceola was left in ruins; Missouri bushwhackers sought retribution in the form of Quantrill's Raid on August 21, 1863
The sacking of Osceola was a significant military engagement that took place during the early stages of the Civil War in Missouri. After losing the Battle of Dry Wood Creek near Fort Scott, Kansas, the Free-State leader, U.S. Senator and Brigadier General James Henry Lane guided his 3rd, 4th, and 5th Kansas Volunteers in the looting and sacking of Osceola, Missouri. A proud "jayhawker" and fierce antislavery supporter, Lane used his military status to impede the Confederate war effort in the border state.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/10284/james-henry-lane
James Henry Lane
He was heavily involved in raising of Union troops of Kansas "Jayhawkers", and commanded a brigade of Kansas Volunteers known as "Lane's Brigade". The troops he raised would fight at the September 1861 Battle of Dry Woods Creek in Missouri, and the September 23, 1861 sacking of Osceola, Missouri, of which he was heavily criticized. In late 1862 he recruited the all-African American 1st Kansas Volunteer Infantry (Colored) regiment, who when skirmishing with Confederates in October 1862 became the first African-American Union soldiers to see combat. He was the main target of what became known as "Quantrill's Raid" and "The Lawrence Massacre"
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ks/county/allen/story/sketchespt3.html
Transcribed by J. Richardson, 21-July-2000
Originally published in the Humboldt Union, Humboldt, Allen County, Kansas 21-Mar-1918
Sketches of Early History - Part 3
In the Settlement of Humboldt and Allen County
By Watson Stewart
Military Period.
I name the period from the spring of 1861 to the spring of 1865 the military period, for both Allen county and Humboldt. But few men lived in the county at that time, but what took some interest in military matters. Early in the summer a company was organized in Humboldt for the volunteer service. N.B. Blanton was captain, S.J. Stewart, 1st lieutenant. J.H. Signor became 2nd lieutenant afterward. This company was mustered into the service at Fort Leavenworth August 7, 1861.
They were mustered in as a part of the 4th Kansas, under Colonel Weir; afterward they were mustered into the 10th upon the consolidation of the 3rd and 4th regiments.
The names of those enlisted at Humboldt were: B.H. Witlow, Benj. H. Witten, David H. Nichols, Philip Beck, Wm. Burgeous, N.D. Bingham, Geo. Cole, Thos. R. Morris, John E. Stewart, Calvin Webb, D.R. Webb, Davis W. Webb, James C. Woodward and Hiram K. Loomis.
This company participated in a number of battles, among which were those at Osceola, Mo., Locust Grove, Cherokee Nation, and Prairier Grove, Arkansas.
The only persons enlisting at that time in the company, now residing near Humboldt, are S.J. Stewart, Philip Beck and J.E. Stewart. Lieutenant Stewart became captain before coming out of the service.
Humboldt was considered greatly exposed to rebel invaions from Missouri or the Indian country.
The militia were pretty thoroughly organized. Captain Isaac Tibbetts had a company of infantry; Captain I.N. Phillips, one of cavalry. They with other companies in this and Woodson counties were organized into a regiment, Orlin Thurston, colonel; James Kennar, lieutenant colonel, and N.S. Goss, major.
General James H. Lane was during the latter part of the summer busy organizing the militia forces of Kansas, and this regiment was tendered to him as the 7th Kansas regiment for the defense of Kansas.
About the first of September, a fight occurred on the Drywood, below Fort Scott, between Lane's forces and General Rains. Fort Scott was in danger, and Colonel Thurston's command was ordered over there. Before reaching Fort Scott, the order was countermanded, and they were ordered to Barnsville, where the command occupied a position as picket guards, while the main force fortified a point about si miles back, which was called Fort Lincoln. This point Lane designated as the "Key to Kansas".
Here most of the men of Humboldt were holding this key, while a band of rebels came in by another door and sacked the town.
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ks/county/allen/story/sketchespt4.html
September, 1864
After the militia were disbanded, the major sent a force of men down to Captain Newman's home and brought him to Humboldt under arrest. They kept him over night and let him go. After remaining here in camp some three weeks we were ordered to Fort Scott with two companies. Captain Newman's company was left here with a few colored men under Captain E. Gilbert. We left Humboldt about sundown and reached the Marmaton creek about midnight; there we received orders to go to Fort Lincoln. That night the rebels burned Marmaton, a few miles down the creek.
In the morning we moved in the direction of Fort Lincoln, but on reaching Raysville we were ordered to Fort Scott; arived there about 11 o'clock at night. Colonel Thurston was on General Scott's staff. He met us and led us out northeast to a position occupied by Colonel Twiss. Soon it began to rain and we were in a sorry plight to meet the enemy, which were expected at any moment.
An incident occurred that night showing how abject fear will control a good man. One of our men contended from the start that it would be of no use to take him along, as he knew he could not fight, etc., but we took him along; he had no horse, and was taken with others in a wagon. As we were moving out to take our position a signal gun was fired at the fort, when he jumped from the wagon into the brush and was seen no more that night. The next evening he returned to Humboldt, having walked all the way.
The next day Price's army, hard pressed, passed south along the Missouri line east of Fort Scott. We did not see them but could hear the guns as the battle waged.
The only feat our men performed worthy of note during that day was what we called then a grand flank movement of 5 or 6 miles up the Marmaton. The men were not to blame, and I do not know if officers were to blame. It was reported that the forces in Fort Scott had concluded to abandon the place and fall back to Marmaton, some 9 miles. A body of men were seen moving south in the direction of Fort Scott and were supposed to be Price's men. We were ordered to retreat in the direction of Marmaton, which we did on the double quick, major general leading.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/149118036/minerva-davis
Minerva Winstead Davis
History of Neosho County, Kansas, Vol 1 of 2, Page 305-308, by W. W. Graves, Journal Press, St. Paul, Kansas, May 1, 1949
We removed to Neosho county in the Spring of 1857 and located on a claim one mile west of where the Harmony school house now stands and about three miles northeast of Chanute. In 1860 Kansas experience the greatest drouth of which the white people have any record. The Neosho River ceased to run for several months and had water only in the very deep places. There was no grain of any kind raised that year, and about half of the people around here left Kansas and went back east. Those of us who stayed here received aid from the eastern states. There was no way to get clothing and provisions into this state only to haul it in wagsons from Ft. Leavenworth, Westport or other places, and it seemed to us that the ones who did the hauling treated themselves to a very liberal helping from the provisions, as the supplies would often be pretty well exhausted by the time they arrived. My brother, Wiley Winstead, drove all the cattle we had to Leavenworth, excepting a few cows, and sold them and with the proceeds bought clothing and provisions, and by skimping very close, we had enough to tide us over until we raised something.
There was but one doctor for many miles, Dr. Phillips who lived near Humboldt. On one occasion during the Civil War my sister, Mrs. Robert Jordan, was expecting the stork one evening, and her husband started for Dr. Phillips but was captured by the rebels and held until morning. They kept his horse, and the best he could do was to get the doctor the next day at noon. When the doctor came he was so well stewed that mother had to pour hot coffee into him to sober him enough to see if he could be of any service. We had him on other occasions, and his big idea for all diseases was to take a quantity of blood from his patients.
When the rebels burned Humboldt it caused quite a temporary hardship, as they burned the grist mill. Twelve or fifteen of them came on down to our house and ordered mother to cook for them. They ate very heartily and stayed until morning. As they had all the guns they could carry, they took my father's gun and broke it over a stump. In the evening they had our family line up and counted us and informed us if any one was missing they would burn the house. They took my brother, Wiley Winstead, with them for seven or eight miles, then let him walk back.
Another incident I remember was when a rumor came through the country reporting that a large band of rebels and Indians was coming and killing everyone in their path. Upon hearing a report of this kind we always went to the timber to hide, and as the horses were out on the prairie grazing we decided to load the wagon with bedding and a few other important articles, run it down hill by hand and hide it. We started it but were not able to control it and let it run into a tree and broke the tongue out. We stayed in the timber all night. Two of my sisters held the dogs so as to keep them from barking. When morning came we found we had stayed in an old Indian trail and that the report was a false one. Yet to give this false report 300 people on horses riding over the rise about where the Union school house now stands. They were Indians getting away from the rebels, as we found out the net day. They went into camp near where Village creek empties into the river.
These Osage Indians were the most numerous in this locality. They did quite a lot of stealing. One day they came and shot some of our hogs, put them on their ponies and carried them away to camp. I do not recall that the Indians killed any white people around here, but fity or seventy-five miles northwest of here they did quite a lot of killing. However, West Garroute, who lived about two and a half miles north of Chanute on what is now known as the Dr. Barker farm, shot and killed an Indian. In order to keep the Indians from going on the war path, it was necessary for Mr. Garroute to pay for him. If I remember correctly, he gave them a pony.
The people of today can hardly realize the sacrifices, loneliness, sickness and fears from many sources that we had to go through. We did not get any mail for several days apart. Frontier life was harder on account of the strife and warfare of that time. There were no churches or schools for several years after we came, yet as we had a large two-room house, they often had church services at our house, and many times the whole congregation would stay for dinner. Yet, in spite of the drouth, grasshoppers and other troubles, we had a great many good times also. We had camp meetings, dances and other gatherings. Some people would go fifteen or twenty miles to a dance. A few of the young men at that time had the distinction of dancing with Kate Bender, the daughter of the notorious Bender family.
There was a lot of game and fish here at that time. We had coyotes, bobcats, turkey, deer and prairie chicken by the acres, and it was very interesting to hear them booming in the springtime. To offset this, however, we had the frequent cry of the bobcat and screech owl to keep our already nervous brain unstrung.
My folks kept sheep and raised cotton and made some of our own clothes. We planted all our corn by hand and tended it with one-horse plows. All our stock ran at large, but we fenced in our fields with rails. I have seen more than one fire that was said to start in Oklahoma come over the rise where Chanute now stands.
http://kancoll.org/books/cutler/allen/allen-co-p2.html
As soon as the news of the breaking out of the Rebellion reached Allen County nearly all the able-bodied men hurried to enlist in defense of the Union. In 1861 the Iola Battalion was formed, and from the county were three companies, commanded by Captains Coleman, Flesher, and Killen, which served in the Ninth Kansas. In the Tenth Kansas Regiment were two companies, one commanded by Capt. W. C. Jones, and the other by Capt. N. B. Blanton.
The county being on the southern border of the State, it was considered in danger of invasion from the Missouri guerrillas and the hostile Indians of the Territory. The scene of most the military operations in the county were in and about Humboldt. In the summer of 1861 a company was organized there with N. B. Blanton, Captain; S. J. Stewart, First Lieutenant. J. H. Signor was afterward Second Lieutenant. Capt. Isaac Tibbetts organized a company of infantry, and Capt. I. N. Phillips a company of cavalry. During the same summer a regiment was organized in Allen and Woodson counties. Orlin Thurston was Colonel; James Kennar, Lieutenant Colonel; and N. S. Goss, Major. This was the Seventh Kansas Regiment, for the defense of Kansas, and was under command of Gen. J.H. Lane. While this regiment was with Lane in Missouri there were but very few men left at home to protect the settlements, and the most of the farming and other work for the maintenance of the families of the soldiers was done by the women and children.
CONFEDERATE FORCES BURN HUMBOLDT, KANSAS ON OCTOBER 14, 1861
The following article courtesy of The Civil War Courier
The burning of Lawrence, Kansas in 1863 by Quantrill's raiders has always been the highlight of Kansas history during the Civil War. However, Lawrence was not the first town burned during the war and little attention has been gleaned in the history of the war in Southeast Kansas, especially in Humboldt, Allen County, Kansas. Humboldt is located about 95 miles southwest of Kansas City.
Perched on the cliffs of the Neosho River, Humboldt was settled in 1857 by German immigrants through the financial support of the abolitionists of the Massachusetts Immigrant Aid Society of Boston. In 1854 Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska act which opened settlement to Kansas and left the decision to the voters to determine if it would be a slave or free state. At the time the Kansas Territory was under the control of Southern sympathizers and on its eastern border the State of Missouri, a slave state and on the south by Indian Territory of the Cherokees and Creeks, who were also slave owners. The border wars were triggered by the settlement of Kansas and a hotbed of turmoil. The abolitionists literally came in and overthrew the territorial Federal government, which would be considered an act of treason and established a new government. To make matters worse these same men were forming railroad companies and establishing their sights on running railroads from Lawrence, Leavenworth and other northern locations to the Gulf of Galveston Bay, Texas. They made little secret of their intentions and ran ads in northern Kansas newspapers of their intentions in 1854 of using southern commodities to purchase at a cheap rate for their venture to be shipped to many destinations through these connections to the western building of the transcontinental railroad that was already in the process of being built through to Kansas in its northern counties. Humboldt was strategically chosen for its central location to Indian Territory and treaties were already being made with the Cherokee Indians to run through their lands long before the war. The ads were very specific about obtaining cheap lumber from Arkansas which was also had southern leanings. There is little doubt this further infuriated the South after being exploited by these same northern men and when Kansas became a state on January 29, 1861 it was the straw that broke the camel's back and we all know what happened next. It is my conjecture that Kansas entering the Union as a free state was the final catalyst that triggered the war in April. These plans made it imperative they didn't lose the war, it meant millions of acres of land were up for grabs and tons of money to be made.
Kansas Senator, James Henry Lane, is a well known dubious character in Kansas history and was among those who participated, including well -known Jayhawker, Charles R. Jennison, in all of these actions for personal gain. Also involved was John Brown, Jr., son of old John Brown of Harper's Ferry fame and Daniel Anthony, brother of Susan B. Anthony. Lane was friends with some of the early settlers of Humboldt and is well known for his "Jayhawking" into Missouri which eventually led to Lawrence being burned in 1863, but it wasn't the first town to be burned, Humboldt was raided and burned in 1861 by Confederate forces. Two of the main characters he was friends with in Humboldt were Orlin Thurston and Watson Stewart, both early settlers in Humboldt. What I thought was so interesting is why this small hamlet in no man's land was chosen as a target by the Confederate forces. What reason could there be for these attacks to a seemingly innocent population here. In the last few years I have uncovered previously unknown details about some of the citizens of Humboldt which eventually led to its demise on the evening of October 14, 1861.
Before any troops were mustered officially in Kansas, Lane took it upon himself to appoint Orlin Thurston as a Colonel for the 7th Kansas State Militia made up of men from Allen and Woodson counties in 1861. The reason it makes it so difficult to track the men involved is because there are no official records for these militia regiments in the Federal or Kansas records, therefore hiding their involvement in the Jayhawking with Lane and Jennison.
My first discovery was a discharge of another early settler in the German settlement, Charles Fussman. He was a tinner by trade and had positioned himself with a business on the corner of the town square at 8th and Bridge Streets. His business and home were burned to the ground. This discharge reads as follows:
7th Regiment Kansas State Militia
enlisted 31 Aug 1861
Certificate
This certifies that the within named Charles Fussman a private of Captain Dornberg Company (who was a doctor here) of the 7th Regiment of Kansas State Militia who volunteered at Humboldt in Allen county State of Kansas August 31, 1861, to repel an invasion of Kansas by General Rains and is now honorably discharged by reason of the retreat of the secession army. The said Charles Fussman has pay due from that time to the present date. There is due him from the U.S. the sum of six and 50/100 dollars.
Given in duplicate at Barnesville this 14th day of September 1861
Orlin Thurston, Col. Commanding
James H Lane, Commanding Kansas Brigade
Barnesville, Kansas is in Bourbon County close to Ft. Scott, and east of Humboldt about 40 miles, was the site of military camps for stretches of time during the war. The first mention of a camp there came from a report written on September 4, 1861, by Sen. James Lane. This was during the time Lane had evacuated Fort Scott and moved his forces to areas north of that post. A post was established at Barnesville. Lane wrote to Capt. W. E. Prince, then commanding Fort Leavenworth, "I am holding Barnesville . . . with an irregular force of about 250 men, stationed in log buildings, and am now strengthening their position with earth entrenchments."
The book "Jayhawkers: The Civil War Brigade of James Henry Lane" by Bryce Benedict – 2012, reveals the Battle of Drywood, Missouri. "pg 74 Jayhawkers
Lane dispatched a rider to Jennison with orders to bring forward his men from Barnesville, Kansas. Jennison arrived Monday morning, all the available cavalry from the regiments of Montgomery, Weer, and Johnson were already out in pursuit of the raiders, together with Moonlight's howitzer and Harris Greeno's company of home guards. The rebels were overtaken inside Missouri at Drywood Creek.
pg 76
Although Lane lacked the authority to do so, he called for the Kansas militia to take the field. Colonel Orlin Thurston's Seventh Regiment Kansas State Militia, from Allen and Woodson counties, responded."
The Battle of Dry Wood Creek (also known as the Battle of Big Dry Wood Creek or the Battle of the Mules) was fought on September 2, 1861 in Vernon County, Missouri. Federal losses were 14 men. Missouri State Guard losses were 4 killed and 16 wounded, all in Brigadier General James S. Rains' Eighth Division, Missouri State Guard. The battle site is just south of Deerfield, Missouri, on Highway 54 between Nevada, Missouri and Fort Scott, Kansas.
In the memoirs of Major Watson Stewart of the Kansas State Militia he reports in his many articles published in The Humboldt Union newspaper in 1876 revealing the same story, but he didn't tell what they had been doing previously nor what was going on later with plundering, killing, and burning of towns in Missouri. He puts it off to the fact Humboldt was burned due to the burning of Osceola, Missouri, but it was going on long before that happened. Of course the victors never tell the whole story nor do they admit to any wrongdoing.
"For our better protection, we organized ourselves into companies of Militia, and armed ourselves as well as we could. General Lane, was, during the latter part of the summer, busy organizing the Militia of the state, for its protection; the Militia of our county were under the command of Colonel Orlin Thurston, of Humboldt.
About the first of September (1861), Ft. Scott was threatened with a raid, and Colonel Thurston was ordered there, with a portion of his command. Those in the south part of the county were left, as a protection to their homes. Before reaching Ft. Scott, the order was received to go to Barnesville, a point on the State Line, to act as picket guards, while the main force fortified a point about six miles back, which was called Ft. Lincoln, this point General Lane designated as the "Key to Kansas." There, most of the men of Humboldt were holding the "Key" while a band of Rebels came in by "another door" and sacked their town. This was on the afternoon of September 8, 1861. There was one company of Missourians, under Captain Livingston, and one of Cherokee and Osage Halfbreed Indians, under Captain Mathews. They passed about a mile east of us, on their way to Humboldt, and we did not know of their presence until after their departure. But few men were in Humboldt, and the town fell an easy prey to their hands; they did not kill anyone, but robbed the stores and private houses of such things as they could carry away. They hastened off, making a few calls on the way, as they returned south. On the following day as many of the settlers as were at home pushed after them with as much dispatch as was possible. On reaching Lightning Creek, we were joined by a force of regular volunteer soldiers from Ft. Scott, under command of Col. Jas. G. Blunt, afterwards a Major General. We placed our force under his command, and we were led along down the Neosho river, hoping to find some of the Rebels at or about the residence of Captain Mathews. He was living on a fine ranch, just where the town of Oswego has since been built; he had a half-breed Osage Indian wife, and had a lot of fine horses and other stock. However, we found that he was not here, but had gone on further south, and that his men had scattered. This move, we were making in the night time, and with great caution, having with us a guide who was well acquainted with every trail, much of the way being through dense woods; passing on down the river, we obtained information that a part of the raiders were at the house of a Cherokee Indian, about three miles below where the town of Chetopa now is, and just over the line into the Indian Territory; we reached the place just about daybreak, and surrounded the house. Having discovered us, two of the occupants broke out into the bush and escaped; one, we took prisoner; Captain Mathews himself, with a double-barreled shot gun in his hands, ran out of the house and was shot down."
"The people of Humboldt now took extra precautions to prevent another raid. They kept one company of Infantry in town, and they were building a fortification around O'Brien's mill; and one company of cavalry was kept out, for most of the time, as scouts, in the direction of the Indian Territory.
On the 14th of October, (1861) this company of cavalry returned from a scout of several days to the south line of the state, reporting that no sign of rebels had been seen. This report quieted all fears, at the time, and the people were wholly off their guard when, later in the evening, a force of three or four hundred rebels, under Col. Talbot from Arkansas, of the Confederate Army, came dashing into the town and easily captured the place, taking most of the Militia force prisoners. One man, in attempting to get away on a mule, was shot and killed. Captain Livingston, who was with the former raid, was also in this party. After setting fire to nearly every house in town, and robbing them of such things as they could carry away, they liberated the prisoners and returned south with all possible dispatch, small detachments calling, as they went, on most of the settlers on their routes.
We learned of this raid upon Humboldt just about sundown, and we expected a visit from them on their return, probably some time during the night; and, from the fact that since the former raid, General Lane's forces had captured and burned Osceola, Missouri, and on the south line of the State, in Cherokee County, a reputed Southern sympathizer running a small store, had been robbed and murdered by some irresponsible persons claiming to be Union men; and, from the further fact of my own part in the pursuit of the former raiders and the killing of Mathews; I did not feel like trusting myself in their hands."
Another character of Humboldt was the first sheriff, Josiah Clark Redfield. One of his descendants has searched endlessly for his civil war record to no avail and writes "And a mystery remains: the aunt mentioned above (alert at 81) insists that Josiah served during the Civil War. Yet he was sheriff in Allen County throughout the war, and searches at the National Archives have been negative. On the other hand, his two brothers, Richard R. Redfield and Orrin S. Redfield (who also followed him to Kansas after the war) both served in the Civil War, and their records have been obtained from the Archives. Did Aunt Dana have the family mixed up? Perhaps. Or perhaps Josiah was simply a Jayhawker, without formal enlistment. These are the things that make searching for your roots never ending!"
Josiah was found to be involved in several dubious land deals while he was sheriff with the land office register, Jonathan Coleman Burnett, whose sister, Kate Burnett, saved the land records during the burning. The land office had been moved to Humboldt from Ft. Scott due to the dubious relationship with Lane of these men. This led to the discovery in a probate file of a man named Pleasant Turney who had come to Allen County in 1860 from Arkansas and purchased a farm on the Allen/Woodson county line about 5 miles west of Humboldt. After the burning he left to go back to Arkansas, joined the Union forces and died within six months. He had left a written agreement for the care of his farm to a neighbor, Jesse Webb, to continue building fences and maintaining his store of goods in his absence. None of his family lived here, but after the war one of his single daughters, Sarah, showed up in 1866 to discover that the farm was no more and there was no estate to settle. She discovered that Redfield and Burnett had confiscated the property with their cronies in Topeka accusing him of being a Confederate and under the confiscation act stole his property and sold it on the courthouse steps in which they both purchased it for a song. By 1872 after she sued them she got her father's farm back from them. While digging through his probate file I discovered about 40 pages of testimony of the man he left the property in care of and the neighbors and discovered that Jennison and his men were here raiding the farm in the early months of 1862 stealing everything they could get their hands on. They had been sent here to "cool off" their jayhawking antics because they were causing a major embarrassment to the Union army. At the same time, John Brown, Jr. was here and writing letters to his wife witnessing the execution of a deserter who had stolen Daniel Anthony's horse trying to escape from the camp as a prisoner in the southern part of Humboldt after he had stabbed another soldier in a ruckus.
In the diary of Confederate John W. Fisher, (MEMORIAL ID 9123635) Company C, 10th Missouri Cavalry State Guard, 8th Division, 2nd Lieutenant, who was at the burning, tells his side of the story. His father-in-law was the well- known Confederate Colonel Thomas H. Rosser, who was given a sword by General Sterling Price for his dedicated service in Missouri. Colonel Rosser was in command of infantry and artillery in the battles of Carthage, Springfield, Lexington and Drywood in Missouri. In his letters to his wife, Bettie, who was residing in Westport, Missouri at the time, writes: "Preston, Mo Oct 13, 1861 My dear wife I promised you to write a diary for your perusal at when we meet so I will commence this morning. I wrote to you day before yesterday from our camp at Carthage, where we arrived that day, about 150 of our Regiments [10th Cavalry, Missouri State Guard] started from there last night for Humboldt, Kansas for what purpose I do not exactly know, we arrived at this place, some 7 or 8 miles from our camp about 10 ½ Oclock and after feeding our horses we spread our blankets on the ground and our saddles under our head we were soon enjoying ourselves with a good nap,
this morning, Sunday, is a beautiful day, and we are all saddled up waiting for another detachment of men from Col [Sanford J.] Talbots Reg. [11th Cavalry, Missouri State Guard] consisting of 160 men who start with us for Kansas this morning, we may have a hard time of it as it is reported that there is a force of 500 men with 4 pieces of Cannon at Humboldt and several detachments at LeRoy, Emporia and Cofachique, if they are there they will give us "fits", but our cause is just and the God of battles has been with us in every fight yet and with Him on our side we are sure of success may he be with us and prosper us. I heard the Governor Jackson [Claiborne Fox Jackson] make a speech night before last in which he said he intended to burn Kansas from one end to the other.
Osage Catholic Mission, Osage Nation Oct 14 1861 After leaving Preston we started for this place it is about 55 miles, we traveled all day until 9 oclock at night when we stopped and slept until 2 oclock when we started and arrived home about 7 oclock this morning, while marching yesterday we saw two men who were very much surprised at our appearance and as soon as we come in sight of them they ran off as fast as there horses would carry them I suppose they were Yankees we have seen no houses where owners were in them since we left Missouri every body has left where we stopped to eat our dinner yesterday at a Man's house (Hoover) we found the greatest quanity of very large water melons, more than our 300 men could destroy but we all ate as many as we could hold, the priests at this mission gave us all our breakfast of Coffee and Bread and biscuits and a fine meal it was to tired soldiers who had been marching nearly all night, they gave myself, Col. [William H.] Erwin and one or two others a large slice of apple pie, after eating breakfast, I went into their Chapel which is arranged very nicely inside with good pictures, the inside was fitted up by Indian workmen and it would do credit to any kind of workmen, I saw one picture in needlework done by an Indian girl which is one of the finest pictures I ever saw, it was "The Crown of thorns" it was as beautifully executed as could be done by any lady, we start in few minutes for Humboldt out in the prairie on Neosho River 20 miles from any where.
Oct 15.1861 We started for Humboldt about 10 o'clock and traveled along slowly, I stopped to see an Indian village which is a very curious sight to one who never saw one, it is laid out like a city with streets running parallel to each other, the houses one built of small poles, both ends stuck into the ground similar to an arbor, these were about 20 feet long 12 feet wide and 8 feet high. I suppose there were upwards of 100 but there were no Indians in them as they, the Osage, have all gone on a buffalo hunt we arrived to within 4 miles of Humboldt about 4 oclock when we took a dutchman prisoner who reported that there was a force of about 300 men there, we then formed and started to go in on the south side of town, we arrived just in the edges of the town a little before sundown while the people were eating their suppers, our Regiment [10th Cavalry, Missouri State Guard] took the East side and Col [Sanford J.] Talbots the west we all started on a charge yelling like Indians and rode right into the town without their soldiers firing a shot at us, we took them so completely by surprise and they were so frightened that they left as soon as they could get out, we took some 45 or 50 prisoners and I believe some 3 or four of them were Killed who would not stop our men did not fire a gun, we then broke into all the houses searching for men and for what ever our men wanted, we did not hurt any lady or take anything from them, but we took every thing that we needed out of the stores that we could Carry and then set fire to the town and laid it in ashes leaving two or three houses for the women and children, I got me a shirt and two Comforts and a shawl two over coats (which I gave to our boys) a fine piece of satin for a vest a Can teen; tin cup 4 knives & forks and two tents and could have gotten any amount of other things if we could have found their wagons, we burnt up two mills and a large lot of flour perhaps 300 sacks about 5000 lbs Bacon and and amount of other provision that we could not carry away Humboldt was a very pretty town nearly as large as Paola and prettier, there were some fine houses in it, a large hotel nearly as large as Morris' Mill I hated to see the town destroyed but that is the only way we can get rid of them and it was what the governor [Claiborne Fox Jackson] sent us there to do, the women said they thought it was hard but it was just, as their men had been doing the same in Missouri. I think it is hard too and I do not approve of it, they were all very badly frightened supposing us at first to be Cherokees, but after they found us out they were not so badly frightened, they did not have your spunk however and did not abuse us any our men assisted them in getting their things out into the square before we set fire to the town and treated them very kindly, after we got ready to start we released all the prisoners without injuring one of them, we left there about 9 o'clock that night and started back to camp we traveled all day yesterday until 11 oclock last night and camped on Cherry Creek about 20 miles from here."
There is little doubt there were many men who resided in Humboldt who were involved in the jayhawking of Missouri towns with Lane and Jennison. As time passes tidbits seem to fall at my feet with another piece of the puzzle when I least expect it. That's the beauty of taking a look at the real history of our country from the true actors who created it and not the ones who try to cover up the truth of it all. And after the war it didn't stop there, they continued with their lust for power and money and left our town bankrupt, and without a city government for over 20 years by their scandalous deals in building the railroads here and stealing the funds. Nothing has really changed and it doesn't seem as though we have learned anything. Lest we forget.
Humboldt is a unique town in small-town America that still thrives graced with historic buildings on the town square, two museums, a working blacksmith shop started in 1876 on the National Register of Historic places, a vintage woodworking shop, and a 12 site tour of Civil War sites. New sidewalks surrounding the town square graced with vintage lamp posts are almost complete. Old buildings are currently being restored for space for new businesses. The South Wind Bike Trail starts at the north edge of town and can be ridden to the northern cities in Kansas. Camping facilities are also available. Further lodging plans and development are in the process.
Humboldt's rich civil war history is re-enacted every three years sponsored by the Humboldt Civil War Days committee. An official string band performs civil war music featured with a "caller" for vintage civil war dancing at the Friday night dance and the re-enactments occur on Saturday, with a 12 site tour of the civil war sites on Sunday.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/74323834/jesse-sill-webb
Mr. Webb came to Kansas in 1860, before it became a state and settled in Humboldt where he resided until three years ago when he came to Iola to make his home with his daughter. In 1861, he with one hundred other men enlisted in the home guards, later being mustered into the U. S. service, Company G., 9th Kansas Cavalry. Mr. Lou Bartels of this city is the only member of this company left.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/133652558/william-lewis-bartels
spring of 1860 he came to Kansas and located at Humboldt. In September, 1861, he enlisted in Company G. Ninth Kansas Cavalry, serving until January 16, 1865.
"It was the summer of 1861" said Judge Bartels this morning, that the 9th of Kansas was recruited. Eight companies of 100 men each were enrolled in Allen County, six of them in Iola and two in Humbolte. I joined one of Humbolt Company, Company G and John Walters was in Co. E, I think. Three companies of the regiment were recruited at Lawrence, and one at Council Grove, making up the 12 companies that then went to make a regiment. We spent the summmer scouting around to the south and southwest but were never regularly mustered into the service of the United States until the 16th of January, 1862.
Judge Bartels in a reminiscent vein, "Who saw the burning of Humbolte in 1861. There were about forty of us soldiers on the town site but there were four hundred of the Rebels so we took to the tall timbers. About half the boys and we and they thought their last hours had come, but after burning and looting the town, the Rebels left and turned the boys loose. John Tibbets who later became my father-in-law, The Rebels who burned the town were mostly from Carthage being under the command of Colonel Tom Livingston. The Tibbets family had lived at Carthage, but had been driven away because of their Union Settlements, soon after the Missourian struck the town. The girl who later became my wife and was visiting with friends, who lived above the store on the north side of the square came down on the street. At the same moment Colonel Livingston rode up. He recognized her at once, for they had lived next door neighbors at Carthage, and called her by name dismounted and shook hands with her, asking how she came to live there? "You wouldn't let us live at Carthage so we came to live here." was her reply. Why she stood there twenty or more of the boys she had known at Carthage came up shook hands with her and proceeded methodically to burn and loot the town. War, especially civil war remarked the judge as he proceeded on his way to his office, "Is a queer thing."
Mr. Bartels was associated with, and knew well, many of the prominent men of the times. Numbered among his friends were Jim Lane, Senator Pomeroy, John A. Martin, Governor Glick, Senator Ingalls, and many others. when Humboldt was sacked, he enlisted in a company under Jim Lane.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7th_Kansas_Cavalry_Regiment
Commanders
Colonel Charles R. Jennison
Colonel Albert Lindley Lee
Colonel Thomas P. Herrick
Lieutenant Colonel Daniel R. Anthony – arrested and relieved of command for issuing an order that prevented Tennessee slave catchers from entering the regiment's camp looking for escaped slaves
Captain John Brown Jr., Company K – Son of abolitionist John Brown
The 7th Kansas Cavalry was organized at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas on October 28, 1861. It mustered in for three years under the command of Colonel Charles R. Jennison. MEMORIAL ID 174698638
Moved to Humboldt, Kansas, January 31, 1862 and duty there until March 25. Moved to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, March 25; then to Columbus, Kentucky, May 18-June 2, and to Corinth, Mississippi, June 7, escorting working parties on Mobile & Ohio Railroad and arriving at Corinth July 10; then moved to Jacinto and Rienzi, Mississippi, July 18–28.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacking_of_Osceola
The Sacking of Osceola was a Kansas Jayhawker initiative on September 23, 1861, to push out pro-slavery Southerners at Osceola, Missouri. It was not authorized by Union military authorities but was the work of an informal group of anti-slavery Kansas "Jayhawkers".[2] The town of 2,077 people [3] was plundered and burned to the ground, 200 slaves were freed and nine local citizens were court-martialed and executed.
Following Sterling Price's secessionist Missouri State Guard victory over General Nathaniel Lyon's Union army at the Battle of Wilson's Creek, Price continued his goal of keeping control of Missouri from the Unionists.
Guerilla leader James H. Lane—often called the leader of the Jayhawkers—organized 1,200 troops to resist Price's invasion into Kansas. Price defeated Lane at the Battle of Dry Wood Creek near Fort Scott, Kansas. Lane retreated and Price continued his offensive further into Missouri to the Siege of Lexington.
While Price moved North, Lane launched an attack behind him. After crossing the Missouri border at Trading Post, Kansas on September 10, Lane began an offensive moving East on Butler, Harrisonville, Osceola and Clinton, Missouri.
https://civilwaronthewesternborder.org/timeline/battle-dry-wood-creek
Battle of Dry Wood Creek
Monday, September 2, 1861
Colonel James Henry Lane. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Colonel James Henry Lane. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Fresh off a victory at Wilson's Creek, the Missouri State Guard under command of Major General Sterling "Pap" Price advances toward Fort Scott, in southeastern Kansas. Colonel James H. Lane, in command of a jayhawker brigade of volunteers, confronts Price in the Battle of Dry Wood Creek, 12 miles east of the town. Heavily outnumbered in the two-hour battle, Lane is forced to abandon his mules and withdraw to Fort Scott and then to Kansas City. The Missouri State Guard switches course to attack Union forces at Lexington, Missouri. The skirmish is sometimes called "Battle of the Mules" to commemorate Lane's loss.
https://civilwaronthewesternborder.org/encyclopedia/sacking-osceola
Sacking of Osceola
Date: September 22-23, 1861
Location: St. Clair County, Osceola, Missouri
Adversaries: Brigadier General and U.S. Senator James Henry Lane with the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Kansas Volunteers vs. Missouri State Guard Captain John M. Weidemeyer and local militia and civilians of Osceola, Missouri
Casualties and damages: At least 10 casualties (including nine executions after the raid ended) and approximately $1 million in building and property damage
Result: The city of Osceola was left in ruins; Missouri bushwhackers sought retribution in the form of Quantrill's Raid on August 21, 1863
The sacking of Osceola was a significant military engagement that took place during the early stages of the Civil War in Missouri. After losing the Battle of Dry Wood Creek near Fort Scott, Kansas, the Free-State leader, U.S. Senator and Brigadier General James Henry Lane guided his 3rd, 4th, and 5th Kansas Volunteers in the looting and sacking of Osceola, Missouri. A proud "jayhawker" and fierce antislavery supporter, Lane used his military status to impede the Confederate war effort in the border state.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/10284/james-henry-lane
James Henry Lane
He was heavily involved in raising of Union troops of Kansas "Jayhawkers", and commanded a brigade of Kansas Volunteers known as "Lane's Brigade". The troops he raised would fight at the September 1861 Battle of Dry Woods Creek in Missouri, and the September 23, 1861 sacking of Osceola, Missouri, of which he was heavily criticized. In late 1862 he recruited the all-African American 1st Kansas Volunteer Infantry (Colored) regiment, who when skirmishing with Confederates in October 1862 became the first African-American Union soldiers to see combat. He was the main target of what became known as "Quantrill's Raid" and "The Lawrence Massacre"
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ks/county/allen/story/sketchespt3.html
Transcribed by J. Richardson, 21-July-2000
Originally published in the Humboldt Union, Humboldt, Allen County, Kansas 21-Mar-1918
Sketches of Early History - Part 3
In the Settlement of Humboldt and Allen County
By Watson Stewart
Military Period.
I name the period from the spring of 1861 to the spring of 1865 the military period, for both Allen county and Humboldt. But few men lived in the county at that time, but what took some interest in military matters. Early in the summer a company was organized in Humboldt for the volunteer service. N.B. Blanton was captain, S.J. Stewart, 1st lieutenant. J.H. Signor became 2nd lieutenant afterward. This company was mustered into the service at Fort Leavenworth August 7, 1861.
They were mustered in as a part of the 4th Kansas, under Colonel Weir; afterward they were mustered into the 10th upon the consolidation of the 3rd and 4th regiments.
The names of those enlisted at Humboldt were: B.H. Witlow, Benj. H. Witten, David H. Nichols, Philip Beck, Wm. Burgeous, N.D. Bingham, Geo. Cole, Thos. R. Morris, John E. Stewart, Calvin Webb, D.R. Webb, Davis W. Webb, James C. Woodward and Hiram K. Loomis.
This company participated in a number of battles, among which were those at Osceola, Mo., Locust Grove, Cherokee Nation, and Prairier Grove, Arkansas.
The only persons enlisting at that time in the company, now residing near Humboldt, are S.J. Stewart, Philip Beck and J.E. Stewart. Lieutenant Stewart became captain before coming out of the service.
Humboldt was considered greatly exposed to rebel invaions from Missouri or the Indian country.
The militia were pretty thoroughly organized. Captain Isaac Tibbetts had a company of infantry; Captain I.N. Phillips, one of cavalry. They with other companies in this and Woodson counties were organized into a regiment, Orlin Thurston, colonel; James Kennar, lieutenant colonel, and N.S. Goss, major.
General James H. Lane was during the latter part of the summer busy organizing the militia forces of Kansas, and this regiment was tendered to him as the 7th Kansas regiment for the defense of Kansas.
About the first of September, a fight occurred on the Drywood, below Fort Scott, between Lane's forces and General Rains. Fort Scott was in danger, and Colonel Thurston's command was ordered over there. Before reaching Fort Scott, the order was countermanded, and they were ordered to Barnsville, where the command occupied a position as picket guards, while the main force fortified a point about si miles back, which was called Fort Lincoln. This point Lane designated as the "Key to Kansas".
Here most of the men of Humboldt were holding this key, while a band of rebels came in by another door and sacked the town.
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ks/county/allen/story/sketchespt4.html
September, 1864
After the militia were disbanded, the major sent a force of men down to Captain Newman's home and brought him to Humboldt under arrest. They kept him over night and let him go. After remaining here in camp some three weeks we were ordered to Fort Scott with two companies. Captain Newman's company was left here with a few colored men under Captain E. Gilbert. We left Humboldt about sundown and reached the Marmaton creek about midnight; there we received orders to go to Fort Lincoln. That night the rebels burned Marmaton, a few miles down the creek.
In the morning we moved in the direction of Fort Lincoln, but on reaching Raysville we were ordered to Fort Scott; arived there about 11 o'clock at night. Colonel Thurston was on General Scott's staff. He met us and led us out northeast to a position occupied by Colonel Twiss. Soon it began to rain and we were in a sorry plight to meet the enemy, which were expected at any moment.
An incident occurred that night showing how abject fear will control a good man. One of our men contended from the start that it would be of no use to take him along, as he knew he could not fight, etc., but we took him along; he had no horse, and was taken with others in a wagon. As we were moving out to take our position a signal gun was fired at the fort, when he jumped from the wagon into the brush and was seen no more that night. The next evening he returned to Humboldt, having walked all the way.
The next day Price's army, hard pressed, passed south along the Missouri line east of Fort Scott. We did not see them but could hear the guns as the battle waged.
The only feat our men performed worthy of note during that day was what we called then a grand flank movement of 5 or 6 miles up the Marmaton. The men were not to blame, and I do not know if officers were to blame. It was reported that the forces in Fort Scott had concluded to abandon the place and fall back to Marmaton, some 9 miles. A body of men were seen moving south in the direction of Fort Scott and were supposed to be Price's men. We were ordered to retreat in the direction of Marmaton, which we did on the double quick, major general leading.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/149118036/minerva-davis
Minerva Winstead Davis
History of Neosho County, Kansas, Vol 1 of 2, Page 305-308, by W. W. Graves, Journal Press, St. Paul, Kansas, May 1, 1949
We removed to Neosho county in the Spring of 1857 and located on a claim one mile west of where the Harmony school house now stands and about three miles northeast of Chanute. In 1860 Kansas experience the greatest drouth of which the white people have any record. The Neosho River ceased to run for several months and had water only in the very deep places. There was no grain of any kind raised that year, and about half of the people around here left Kansas and went back east. Those of us who stayed here received aid from the eastern states. There was no way to get clothing and provisions into this state only to haul it in wagsons from Ft. Leavenworth, Westport or other places, and it seemed to us that the ones who did the hauling treated themselves to a very liberal helping from the provisions, as the supplies would often be pretty well exhausted by the time they arrived. My brother, Wiley Winstead, drove all the cattle we had to Leavenworth, excepting a few cows, and sold them and with the proceeds bought clothing and provisions, and by skimping very close, we had enough to tide us over until we raised something.
There was but one doctor for many miles, Dr. Phillips who lived near Humboldt. On one occasion during the Civil War my sister, Mrs. Robert Jordan, was expecting the stork one evening, and her husband started for Dr. Phillips but was captured by the rebels and held until morning. They kept his horse, and the best he could do was to get the doctor the next day at noon. When the doctor came he was so well stewed that mother had to pour hot coffee into him to sober him enough to see if he could be of any service. We had him on other occasions, and his big idea for all diseases was to take a quantity of blood from his patients.
When the rebels burned Humboldt it caused quite a temporary hardship, as they burned the grist mill. Twelve or fifteen of them came on down to our house and ordered mother to cook for them. They ate very heartily and stayed until morning. As they had all the guns they could carry, they took my father's gun and broke it over a stump. In the evening they had our family line up and counted us and informed us if any one was missing they would burn the house. They took my brother, Wiley Winstead, with them for seven or eight miles, then let him walk back.
Another incident I remember was when a rumor came through the country reporting that a large band of rebels and Indians was coming and killing everyone in their path. Upon hearing a report of this kind we always went to the timber to hide, and as the horses were out on the prairie grazing we decided to load the wagon with bedding and a few other important articles, run it down hill by hand and hide it. We started it but were not able to control it and let it run into a tree and broke the tongue out. We stayed in the timber all night. Two of my sisters held the dogs so as to keep them from barking. When morning came we found we had stayed in an old Indian trail and that the report was a false one. Yet to give this false report 300 people on horses riding over the rise about where the Union school house now stands. They were Indians getting away from the rebels, as we found out the net day. They went into camp near where Village creek empties into the river.
These Osage Indians were the most numerous in this locality. They did quite a lot of stealing. One day they came and shot some of our hogs, put them on their ponies and carried them away to camp. I do not recall that the Indians killed any white people around here, but fity or seventy-five miles northwest of here they did quite a lot of killing. However, West Garroute, who lived about two and a half miles north of Chanute on what is now known as the Dr. Barker farm, shot and killed an Indian. In order to keep the Indians from going on the war path, it was necessary for Mr. Garroute to pay for him. If I remember correctly, he gave them a pony.
The people of today can hardly realize the sacrifices, loneliness, sickness and fears from many sources that we had to go through. We did not get any mail for several days apart. Frontier life was harder on account of the strife and warfare of that time. There were no churches or schools for several years after we came, yet as we had a large two-room house, they often had church services at our house, and many times the whole congregation would stay for dinner. Yet, in spite of the drouth, grasshoppers and other troubles, we had a great many good times also. We had camp meetings, dances and other gatherings. Some people would go fifteen or twenty miles to a dance. A few of the young men at that time had the distinction of dancing with Kate Bender, the daughter of the notorious Bender family.
There was a lot of game and fish here at that time. We had coyotes, bobcats, turkey, deer and prairie chicken by the acres, and it was very interesting to hear them booming in the springtime. To offset this, however, we had the frequent cry of the bobcat and screech owl to keep our already nervous brain unstrung.
My folks kept sheep and raised cotton and made some of our own clothes. We planted all our corn by hand and tended it with one-horse plows. All our stock ran at large, but we fenced in our fields with rails. I have seen more than one fire that was said to start in Oklahoma come over the rise where Chanute now stands.
http://kancoll.org/books/cutler/allen/allen-co-p2.html
As soon as the news of the breaking out of the Rebellion reached Allen County nearly all the able-bodied men hurried to enlist in defense of the Union. In 1861 the Iola Battalion was formed, and from the county were three companies, commanded by Captains Coleman, Flesher, and Killen, which served in the Ninth Kansas. In the Tenth Kansas Regiment were two companies, one commanded by Capt. W. C. Jones, and the other by Capt. N. B. Blanton.
The county being on the southern border of the State, it was considered in danger of invasion from the Missouri guerrillas and the hostile Indians of the Territory. The scene of most the military operations in the county were in and about Humboldt. In the summer of 1861 a company was organized there with N. B. Blanton, Captain; S. J. Stewart, First Lieutenant. J. H. Signor was afterward Second Lieutenant. Capt. Isaac Tibbetts organized a company of infantry, and Capt. I. N. Phillips a company of cavalry. During the same summer a regiment was organized in Allen and Woodson counties. Orlin Thurston was Colonel; James Kennar, Lieutenant Colonel; and N. S. Goss, Major. This was the Seventh Kansas Regiment, for the defense of Kansas, and was under command of Gen. J.H. Lane. While this regiment was with Lane in Missouri there were but very few men left at home to protect the settlements, and the most of the farming and other work for the maintenance of the families of the soldiers was done by the women and children.
CONFEDERATE FORCES BURN HUMBOLDT, KANSAS ON OCTOBER 14, 1861
The following article courtesy of The Civil War Courier
The burning of Lawrence, Kansas in 1863 by Quantrill's raiders has always been the highlight of Kansas history during the Civil War. However, Lawrence was not the first town burned during the war and little attention has been gleaned in the history of the war in Southeast Kansas, especially in Humboldt, Allen County, Kansas. Humboldt is located about 95 miles southwest of Kansas City.
Perched on the cliffs of the Neosho River, Humboldt was settled in 1857 by German immigrants through the financial support of the abolitionists of the Massachusetts Immigrant Aid Society of Boston. In 1854 Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska act which opened settlement to Kansas and left the decision to the voters to determine if it would be a slave or free state. At the time the Kansas Territory was under the control of Southern sympathizers and on its eastern border the State of Missouri, a slave state and on the south by Indian Territory of the Cherokees and Creeks, who were also slave owners. The border wars were triggered by the settlement of Kansas and a hotbed of turmoil. The abolitionists literally came in and overthrew the territorial Federal government, which would be considered an act of treason and established a new government. To make matters worse these same men were forming railroad companies and establishing their sights on running railroads from Lawrence, Leavenworth and other northern locations to the Gulf of Galveston Bay, Texas. They made little secret of their intentions and ran ads in northern Kansas newspapers of their intentions in 1854 of using southern commodities to purchase at a cheap rate for their venture to be shipped to many destinations through these connections to the western building of the transcontinental railroad that was already in the process of being built through to Kansas in its northern counties. Humboldt was strategically chosen for its central location to Indian Territory and treaties were already being made with the Cherokee Indians to run through their lands long before the war. The ads were very specific about obtaining cheap lumber from Arkansas which was also had southern leanings. There is little doubt this further infuriated the South after being exploited by these same northern men and when Kansas became a state on January 29, 1861 it was the straw that broke the camel's back and we all know what happened next. It is my conjecture that Kansas entering the Union as a free state was the final catalyst that triggered the war in April. These plans made it imperative they didn't lose the war, it meant millions of acres of land were up for grabs and tons of money to be made.
Kansas Senator, James Henry Lane, is a well known dubious character in Kansas history and was among those who participated, including well -known Jayhawker, Charles R. Jennison, in all of these actions for personal gain. Also involved was John Brown, Jr., son of old John Brown of Harper's Ferry fame and Daniel Anthony, brother of Susan B. Anthony. Lane was friends with some of the early settlers of Humboldt and is well known for his "Jayhawking" into Missouri which eventually led to Lawrence being burned in 1863, but it wasn't the first town to be burned, Humboldt was raided and burned in 1861 by Confederate forces. Two of the main characters he was friends with in Humboldt were Orlin Thurston and Watson Stewart, both early settlers in Humboldt. What I thought was so interesting is why this small hamlet in no man's land was chosen as a target by the Confederate forces. What reason could there be for these attacks to a seemingly innocent population here. In the last few years I have uncovered previously unknown details about some of the citizens of Humboldt which eventually led to its demise on the evening of October 14, 1861.
Before any troops were mustered officially in Kansas, Lane took it upon himself to appoint Orlin Thurston as a Colonel for the 7th Kansas State Militia made up of men from Allen and Woodson counties in 1861. The reason it makes it so difficult to track the men involved is because there are no official records for these militia regiments in the Federal or Kansas records, therefore hiding their involvement in the Jayhawking with Lane and Jennison.
My first discovery was a discharge of another early settler in the German settlement, Charles Fussman. He was a tinner by trade and had positioned himself with a business on the corner of the town square at 8th and Bridge Streets. His business and home were burned to the ground. This discharge reads as follows:
7th Regiment Kansas State Militia
enlisted 31 Aug 1861
Certificate
This certifies that the within named Charles Fussman a private of Captain Dornberg Company (who was a doctor here) of the 7th Regiment of Kansas State Militia who volunteered at Humboldt in Allen county State of Kansas August 31, 1861, to repel an invasion of Kansas by General Rains and is now honorably discharged by reason of the retreat of the secession army. The said Charles Fussman has pay due from that time to the present date. There is due him from the U.S. the sum of six and 50/100 dollars.
Given in duplicate at Barnesville this 14th day of September 1861
Orlin Thurston, Col. Commanding
James H Lane, Commanding Kansas Brigade
Barnesville, Kansas is in Bourbon County close to Ft. Scott, and east of Humboldt about 40 miles, was the site of military camps for stretches of time during the war. The first mention of a camp there came from a report written on September 4, 1861, by Sen. James Lane. This was during the time Lane had evacuated Fort Scott and moved his forces to areas north of that post. A post was established at Barnesville. Lane wrote to Capt. W. E. Prince, then commanding Fort Leavenworth, "I am holding Barnesville . . . with an irregular force of about 250 men, stationed in log buildings, and am now strengthening their position with earth entrenchments."
The book "Jayhawkers: The Civil War Brigade of James Henry Lane" by Bryce Benedict – 2012, reveals the Battle of Drywood, Missouri. "pg 74 Jayhawkers
Lane dispatched a rider to Jennison with orders to bring forward his men from Barnesville, Kansas. Jennison arrived Monday morning, all the available cavalry from the regiments of Montgomery, Weer, and Johnson were already out in pursuit of the raiders, together with Moonlight's howitzer and Harris Greeno's company of home guards. The rebels were overtaken inside Missouri at Drywood Creek.
pg 76
Although Lane lacked the authority to do so, he called for the Kansas militia to take the field. Colonel Orlin Thurston's Seventh Regiment Kansas State Militia, from Allen and Woodson counties, responded."
The Battle of Dry Wood Creek (also known as the Battle of Big Dry Wood Creek or the Battle of the Mules) was fought on September 2, 1861 in Vernon County, Missouri. Federal losses were 14 men. Missouri State Guard losses were 4 killed and 16 wounded, all in Brigadier General James S. Rains' Eighth Division, Missouri State Guard. The battle site is just south of Deerfield, Missouri, on Highway 54 between Nevada, Missouri and Fort Scott, Kansas.
In the memoirs of Major Watson Stewart of the Kansas State Militia he reports in his many articles published in The Humboldt Union newspaper in 1876 revealing the same story, but he didn't tell what they had been doing previously nor what was going on later with plundering, killing, and burning of towns in Missouri. He puts it off to the fact Humboldt was burned due to the burning of Osceola, Missouri, but it was going on long before that happened. Of course the victors never tell the whole story nor do they admit to any wrongdoing.
"For our better protection, we organized ourselves into companies of Militia, and armed ourselves as well as we could. General Lane, was, during the latter part of the summer, busy organizing the Militia of the state, for its protection; the Militia of our county were under the command of Colonel Orlin Thurston, of Humboldt.
About the first of September (1861), Ft. Scott was threatened with a raid, and Colonel Thurston was ordered there, with a portion of his command. Those in the south part of the county were left, as a protection to their homes. Before reaching Ft. Scott, the order was received to go to Barnesville, a point on the State Line, to act as picket guards, while the main force fortified a point about six miles back, which was called Ft. Lincoln, this point General Lane designated as the "Key to Kansas." There, most of the men of Humboldt were holding the "Key" while a band of Rebels came in by "another door" and sacked their town. This was on the afternoon of September 8, 1861. There was one company of Missourians, under Captain Livingston, and one of Cherokee and Osage Halfbreed Indians, under Captain Mathews. They passed about a mile east of us, on their way to Humboldt, and we did not know of their presence until after their departure. But few men were in Humboldt, and the town fell an easy prey to their hands; they did not kill anyone, but robbed the stores and private houses of such things as they could carry away. They hastened off, making a few calls on the way, as they returned south. On the following day as many of the settlers as were at home pushed after them with as much dispatch as was possible. On reaching Lightning Creek, we were joined by a force of regular volunteer soldiers from Ft. Scott, under command of Col. Jas. G. Blunt, afterwards a Major General. We placed our force under his command, and we were led along down the Neosho river, hoping to find some of the Rebels at or about the residence of Captain Mathews. He was living on a fine ranch, just where the town of Oswego has since been built; he had a half-breed Osage Indian wife, and had a lot of fine horses and other stock. However, we found that he was not here, but had gone on further south, and that his men had scattered. This move, we were making in the night time, and with great caution, having with us a guide who was well acquainted with every trail, much of the way being through dense woods; passing on down the river, we obtained information that a part of the raiders were at the house of a Cherokee Indian, about three miles below where the town of Chetopa now is, and just over the line into the Indian Territory; we reached the place just about daybreak, and surrounded the house. Having discovered us, two of the occupants broke out into the bush and escaped; one, we took prisoner; Captain Mathews himself, with a double-barreled shot gun in his hands, ran out of the house and was shot down."
"The people of Humboldt now took extra precautions to prevent another raid. They kept one company of Infantry in town, and they were building a fortification around O'Brien's mill; and one company of cavalry was kept out, for most of the time, as scouts, in the direction of the Indian Territory.
On the 14th of October, (1861) this company of cavalry returned from a scout of several days to the south line of the state, reporting that no sign of rebels had been seen. This report quieted all fears, at the time, and the people were wholly off their guard when, later in the evening, a force of three or four hundred rebels, under Col. Talbot from Arkansas, of the Confederate Army, came dashing into the town and easily captured the place, taking most of the Militia force prisoners. One man, in attempting to get away on a mule, was shot and killed. Captain Livingston, who was with the former raid, was also in this party. After setting fire to nearly every house in town, and robbing them of such things as they could carry away, they liberated the prisoners and returned south with all possible dispatch, small detachments calling, as they went, on most of the settlers on their routes.
We learned of this raid upon Humboldt just about sundown, and we expected a visit from them on their return, probably some time during the night; and, from the fact that since the former raid, General Lane's forces had captured and burned Osceola, Missouri, and on the south line of the State, in Cherokee County, a reputed Southern sympathizer running a small store, had been robbed and murdered by some irresponsible persons claiming to be Union men; and, from the further fact of my own part in the pursuit of the former raiders and the killing of Mathews; I did not feel like trusting myself in their hands."
Another character of Humboldt was the first sheriff, Josiah Clark Redfield. One of his descendants has searched endlessly for his civil war record to no avail and writes "And a mystery remains: the aunt mentioned above (alert at 81) insists that Josiah served during the Civil War. Yet he was sheriff in Allen County throughout the war, and searches at the National Archives have been negative. On the other hand, his two brothers, Richard R. Redfield and Orrin S. Redfield (who also followed him to Kansas after the war) both served in the Civil War, and their records have been obtained from the Archives. Did Aunt Dana have the family mixed up? Perhaps. Or perhaps Josiah was simply a Jayhawker, without formal enlistment. These are the things that make searching for your roots never ending!"
Josiah was found to be involved in several dubious land deals while he was sheriff with the land office register, Jonathan Coleman Burnett, whose sister, Kate Burnett, saved the land records during the burning. The land office had been moved to Humboldt from Ft. Scott due to the dubious relationship with Lane of these men. This led to the discovery in a probate file of a man named Pleasant Turney who had come to Allen County in 1860 from Arkansas and purchased a farm on the Allen/Woodson county line about 5 miles west of Humboldt. After the burning he left to go back to Arkansas, joined the Union forces and died within six months. He had left a written agreement for the care of his farm to a neighbor, Jesse Webb, to continue building fences and maintaining his store of goods in his absence. None of his family lived here, but after the war one of his single daughters, Sarah, showed up in 1866 to discover that the farm was no more and there was no estate to settle. She discovered that Redfield and Burnett had confiscated the property with their cronies in Topeka accusing him of being a Confederate and under the confiscation act stole his property and sold it on the courthouse steps in which they both purchased it for a song. By 1872 after she sued them she got her father's farm back from them. While digging through his probate file I discovered about 40 pages of testimony of the man he left the property in care of and the neighbors and discovered that Jennison and his men were here raiding the farm in the early months of 1862 stealing everything they could get their hands on. They had been sent here to "cool off" their jayhawking antics because they were causing a major embarrassment to the Union army. At the same time, John Brown, Jr. was here and writing letters to his wife witnessing the execution of a deserter who had stolen Daniel Anthony's horse trying to escape from the camp as a prisoner in the southern part of Humboldt after he had stabbed another soldier in a ruckus.
In the diary of Confederate John W. Fisher, (MEMORIAL ID 9123635) Company C, 10th Missouri Cavalry State Guard, 8th Division, 2nd Lieutenant, who was at the burning, tells his side of the story. His father-in-law was the well- known Confederate Colonel Thomas H. Rosser, who was given a sword by General Sterling Price for his dedicated service in Missouri. Colonel Rosser was in command of infantry and artillery in the battles of Carthage, Springfield, Lexington and Drywood in Missouri. In his letters to his wife, Bettie, who was residing in Westport, Missouri at the time, writes: "Preston, Mo Oct 13, 1861 My dear wife I promised you to write a diary for your perusal at when we meet so I will commence this morning. I wrote to you day before yesterday from our camp at Carthage, where we arrived that day, about 150 of our Regiments [10th Cavalry, Missouri State Guard] started from there last night for Humboldt, Kansas for what purpose I do not exactly know, we arrived at this place, some 7 or 8 miles from our camp about 10 ½ Oclock and after feeding our horses we spread our blankets on the ground and our saddles under our head we were soon enjoying ourselves with a good nap,
this morning, Sunday, is a beautiful day, and we are all saddled up waiting for another detachment of men from Col [Sanford J.] Talbots Reg. [11th Cavalry, Missouri State Guard] consisting of 160 men who start with us for Kansas this morning, we may have a hard time of it as it is reported that there is a force of 500 men with 4 pieces of Cannon at Humboldt and several detachments at LeRoy, Emporia and Cofachique, if they are there they will give us "fits", but our cause is just and the God of battles has been with us in every fight yet and with Him on our side we are sure of success may he be with us and prosper us. I heard the Governor Jackson [Claiborne Fox Jackson] make a speech night before last in which he said he intended to burn Kansas from one end to the other.
Osage Catholic Mission, Osage Nation Oct 14 1861 After leaving Preston we started for this place it is about 55 miles, we traveled all day until 9 oclock at night when we stopped and slept until 2 oclock when we started and arrived home about 7 oclock this morning, while marching yesterday we saw two men who were very much surprised at our appearance and as soon as we come in sight of them they ran off as fast as there horses would carry them I suppose they were Yankees we have seen no houses where owners were in them since we left Missouri every body has left where we stopped to eat our dinner yesterday at a Man's house (Hoover) we found the greatest quanity of very large water melons, more than our 300 men could destroy but we all ate as many as we could hold, the priests at this mission gave us all our breakfast of Coffee and Bread and biscuits and a fine meal it was to tired soldiers who had been marching nearly all night, they gave myself, Col. [William H.] Erwin and one or two others a large slice of apple pie, after eating breakfast, I went into their Chapel which is arranged very nicely inside with good pictures, the inside was fitted up by Indian workmen and it would do credit to any kind of workmen, I saw one picture in needlework done by an Indian girl which is one of the finest pictures I ever saw, it was "The Crown of thorns" it was as beautifully executed as could be done by any lady, we start in few minutes for Humboldt out in the prairie on Neosho River 20 miles from any where.
Oct 15.1861 We started for Humboldt about 10 o'clock and traveled along slowly, I stopped to see an Indian village which is a very curious sight to one who never saw one, it is laid out like a city with streets running parallel to each other, the houses one built of small poles, both ends stuck into the ground similar to an arbor, these were about 20 feet long 12 feet wide and 8 feet high. I suppose there were upwards of 100 but there were no Indians in them as they, the Osage, have all gone on a buffalo hunt we arrived to within 4 miles of Humboldt about 4 oclock when we took a dutchman prisoner who reported that there was a force of about 300 men there, we then formed and started to go in on the south side of town, we arrived just in the edges of the town a little before sundown while the people were eating their suppers, our Regiment [10th Cavalry, Missouri State Guard] took the East side and Col [Sanford J.] Talbots the west we all started on a charge yelling like Indians and rode right into the town without their soldiers firing a shot at us, we took them so completely by surprise and they were so frightened that they left as soon as they could get out, we took some 45 or 50 prisoners and I believe some 3 or four of them were Killed who would not stop our men did not fire a gun, we then broke into all the houses searching for men and for what ever our men wanted, we did not hurt any lady or take anything from them, but we took every thing that we needed out of the stores that we could Carry and then set fire to the town and laid it in ashes leaving two or three houses for the women and children, I got me a shirt and two Comforts and a shawl two over coats (which I gave to our boys) a fine piece of satin for a vest a Can teen; tin cup 4 knives & forks and two tents and could have gotten any amount of other things if we could have found their wagons, we burnt up two mills and a large lot of flour perhaps 300 sacks about 5000 lbs Bacon and and amount of other provision that we could not carry away Humboldt was a very pretty town nearly as large as Paola and prettier, there were some fine houses in it, a large hotel nearly as large as Morris' Mill I hated to see the town destroyed but that is the only way we can get rid of them and it was what the governor [Claiborne Fox Jackson] sent us there to do, the women said they thought it was hard but it was just, as their men had been doing the same in Missouri. I think it is hard too and I do not approve of it, they were all very badly frightened supposing us at first to be Cherokees, but after they found us out they were not so badly frightened, they did not have your spunk however and did not abuse us any our men assisted them in getting their things out into the square before we set fire to the town and treated them very kindly, after we got ready to start we released all the prisoners without injuring one of them, we left there about 9 o'clock that night and started back to camp we traveled all day yesterday until 11 oclock last night and camped on Cherry Creek about 20 miles from here."
There is little doubt there were many men who resided in Humboldt who were involved in the jayhawking of Missouri towns with Lane and Jennison. As time passes tidbits seem to fall at my feet with another piece of the puzzle when I least expect it. That's the beauty of taking a look at the real history of our country from the true actors who created it and not the ones who try to cover up the truth of it all. And after the war it didn't stop there, they continued with their lust for power and money and left our town bankrupt, and without a city government for over 20 years by their scandalous deals in building the railroads here and stealing the funds. Nothing has really changed and it doesn't seem as though we have learned anything. Lest we forget.
Humboldt is a unique town in small-town America that still thrives graced with historic buildings on the town square, two museums, a working blacksmith shop started in 1876 on the National Register of Historic places, a vintage woodworking shop, and a 12 site tour of Civil War sites. New sidewalks surrounding the town square graced with vintage lamp posts are almost complete. Old buildings are currently being restored for space for new businesses. The South Wind Bike Trail starts at the north edge of town and can be ridden to the northern cities in Kansas. Camping facilities are also available. Further lodging plans and development are in the process.
Humboldt's rich civil war history is re-enacted every three years sponsored by the Humboldt Civil War Days committee. An official string band performs civil war music featured with a "caller" for vintage civil war dancing at the Friday night dance and the re-enactments occur on Saturday, with a 12 site tour of the civil war sites on Sunday.
Plan to attend Humboldt Civil War Days, Oct 7th & 8th, 2022, for the dance and re-enactment of burning. Documentary filming is also going to take place of the events.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/74323834/jesse-sill-webb
Mr. Webb came to Kansas in 1860, before it became a state and settled in Humboldt where he resided until three years ago when he came to Iola to make his home with his daughter. In 1861, he with one hundred other men enlisted in the home guards, later being mustered into the U. S. service, Company G., 9th Kansas Cavalry. Mr. Lou Bartels of this city is the only member of this company left.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/133652558/william-lewis-bartels
spring of 1860 he came to Kansas and located at Humboldt. In September, 1861, he enlisted in Company G. Ninth Kansas Cavalry, serving until January 16, 1865.
"It was the summer of 1861" said Judge Bartels this morning, that the 9th of Kansas was recruited. Eight companies of 100 men each were enrolled in Allen County, six of them in Iola and two in Humbolte. I joined one of Humbolt Company, Company G and John Walters was in Co. E, I think. Three companies of the regiment were recruited at Lawrence, and one at Council Grove, making up the 12 companies that then went to make a regiment. We spent the summmer scouting around to the south and southwest but were never regularly mustered into the service of the United States until the 16th of January, 1862.
Judge Bartels in a reminiscent vein, "Who saw the burning of Humbolte in 1861. There were about forty of us soldiers on the town site but there were four hundred of the Rebels so we took to the tall timbers. About half the boys and we and they thought their last hours had come, but after burning and looting the town, the Rebels left and turned the boys loose. John Tibbets who later became my father-in-law, The Rebels who burned the town were mostly from Carthage being under the command of Colonel Tom Livingston. The Tibbets family had lived at Carthage, but had been driven away because of their Union Settlements, soon after the Missourian struck the town. The girl who later became my wife and was visiting with friends, who lived above the store on the north side of the square came down on the street. At the same moment Colonel Livingston rode up. He recognized her at once, for they had lived next door neighbors at Carthage, and called her by name dismounted and shook hands with her, asking how she came to live there? "You wouldn't let us live at Carthage so we came to live here." was her reply. Why she stood there twenty or more of the boys she had known at Carthage came up shook hands with her and proceeded methodically to burn and loot the town. War, especially civil war remarked the judge as he proceeded on his way to his office, "Is a queer thing."
Mr. Bartels was associated with, and knew well, many of the prominent men of the times. Numbered among his friends were Jim Lane, Senator Pomeroy, John A. Martin, Governor Glick, Senator Ingalls, and many others. when Humboldt was sacked, he enlisted in a company under Jim Lane.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7th_Kansas_Cavalry_Regiment
Commanders
Colonel Charles R. Jennison
Colonel Albert Lindley Lee
Colonel Thomas P. Herrick
Lieutenant Colonel Daniel R. Anthony – arrested and relieved of command for issuing an order that prevented Tennessee slave catchers from entering the regiment's camp looking for escaped slaves
Captain John Brown Jr., Company K – Son of abolitionist John Brown
The 7th Kansas Cavalry was organized at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas on October 28, 1861. It mustered in for three years under the command of Colonel Charles R. Jennison. MEMORIAL ID 174698638
Moved to Humboldt, Kansas, January 31, 1862 and duty there until March 25. Moved to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, March 25; then to Columbus, Kentucky, May 18-June 2, and to Corinth, Mississippi, June 7, escorting working parties on Mobile & Ohio Railroad and arriving at Corinth July 10; then moved to Jacinto and Rienzi, Mississippi, July 18–28.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacking_of_Osceola
The Sacking of Osceola was a Kansas Jayhawker initiative on September 23, 1861, to push out pro-slavery Southerners at Osceola, Missouri. It was not authorized by Union military authorities but was the work of an informal group of anti-slavery Kansas "Jayhawkers".[2] The town of 2,077 people [3] was plundered and burned to the ground, 200 slaves were freed and nine local citizens were court-martialed and executed.
Following Sterling Price's secessionist Missouri State Guard victory over General Nathaniel Lyon's Union army at the Battle of Wilson's Creek, Price continued his goal of keeping control of Missouri from the Unionists.
Guerilla leader James H. Lane—often called the leader of the Jayhawkers—organized 1,200 troops to resist Price's invasion into Kansas. Price defeated Lane at the Battle of Dry Wood Creek near Fort Scott, Kansas. Lane retreated and Price continued his offensive further into Missouri to the Siege of Lexington.
While Price moved North, Lane launched an attack behind him. After crossing the Missouri border at Trading Post, Kansas on September 10, Lane began an offensive moving East on Butler, Harrisonville, Osceola and Clinton, Missouri.
https://civilwaronthewesternborder.org/timeline/battle-dry-wood-creek
Battle of Dry Wood Creek
Monday, September 2, 1861
Colonel James Henry Lane. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Colonel James Henry Lane. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Fresh off a victory at Wilson's Creek, the Missouri State Guard under command of Major General Sterling "Pap" Price advances toward Fort Scott, in southeastern Kansas. Colonel James H. Lane, in command of a jayhawker brigade of volunteers, confronts Price in the Battle of Dry Wood Creek, 12 miles east of the town. Heavily outnumbered in the two-hour battle, Lane is forced to abandon his mules and withdraw to Fort Scott and then to Kansas City. The Missouri State Guard switches course to attack Union forces at Lexington, Missouri. The skirmish is sometimes called "Battle of the Mules" to commemorate Lane's loss.
https://civilwaronthewesternborder.org/encyclopedia/sacking-osceola
Sacking of Osceola
Date: September 22-23, 1861
Location: St. Clair County, Osceola, Missouri
Adversaries: Brigadier General and U.S. Senator James Henry Lane with the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Kansas Volunteers vs. Missouri State Guard Captain John M. Weidemeyer and local militia and civilians of Osceola, Missouri
Casualties and damages: At least 10 casualties (including nine executions after the raid ended) and approximately $1 million in building and property damage
Result: The city of Osceola was left in ruins; Missouri bushwhackers sought retribution in the form of Quantrill's Raid on August 21, 1863
The sacking of Osceola was a significant military engagement that took place during the early stages of the Civil War in Missouri. After losing the Battle of Dry Wood Creek near Fort Scott, Kansas, the Free-State leader, U.S. Senator and Brigadier General James Henry Lane guided his 3rd, 4th, and 5th Kansas Volunteers in the looting and sacking of Osceola, Missouri. A proud "jayhawker" and fierce antislavery supporter, Lane used his military status to impede the Confederate war effort in the border state.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/10284/james-henry-lane
James Henry Lane
He was heavily involved in raising of Union troops of Kansas "Jayhawkers", and commanded a brigade of Kansas Volunteers known as "Lane's Brigade". The troops he raised would fight at the September 1861 Battle of Dry Woods Creek in Missouri, and the September 23, 1861 sacking of Osceola, Missouri, of which he was heavily criticized. In late 1862 he recruited the all-African American 1st Kansas Volunteer Infantry (Colored) regiment, who when skirmishing with Confederates in October 1862 became the first African-American Union soldiers to see combat. He was the main target of what became known as "Quantrill's Raid" and "The Lawrence Massacre"
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ks/county/allen/story/sketchespt3.html
Transcribed by J. Richardson, 21-July-2000
Originally published in the Humboldt Union, Humboldt, Allen County, Kansas 21-Mar-1918
Sketches of Early History - Part 3
In the Settlement of Humboldt and Allen County
By Watson Stewart
Military Period.
I name the period from the spring of 1861 to the spring of 1865 the military period, for both Allen county and Humboldt. But few men lived in the county at that time, but what took some interest in military matters. Early in the summer a company was organized in Humboldt for the volunteer service. N.B. Blanton was captain, S.J. Stewart, 1st lieutenant. J.H. Signor became 2nd lieutenant afterward. This company was mustered into the service at Fort Leavenworth August 7, 1861.
They were mustered in as a part of the 4th Kansas, under Colonel Weir; afterward they were mustered into the 10th upon the consolidation of the 3rd and 4th regiments.
The names of those enlisted at Humboldt were: B.H. Witlow, Benj. H. Witten, David H. Nichols, Philip Beck, Wm. Burgeous, N.D. Bingham, Geo. Cole, Thos. R. Morris, John E. Stewart, Calvin Webb, D.R. Webb, Davis W. Webb, James C. Woodward and Hiram K. Loomis.
This company participated in a number of battles, among which were those at Osceola, Mo., Locust Grove, Cherokee Nation, and Prairier Grove, Arkansas.
The only persons enlisting at that time in the company, now residing near Humboldt, are S.J. Stewart, Philip Beck and J.E. Stewart. Lieutenant Stewart became captain before coming out of the service.
Humboldt was considered greatly exposed to rebel invaions from Missouri or the Indian country.
The militia were pretty thoroughly organized. Captain Isaac Tibbetts had a company of infantry; Captain I.N. Phillips, one of cavalry. They with other companies in this and Woodson counties were organized into a regiment, Orlin Thurston, colonel; James Kennar, lieutenant colonel, and N.S. Goss, major.
General James H. Lane was during the latter part of the summer busy organizing the militia forces of Kansas, and this regiment was tendered to him as the 7th Kansas regiment for the defense of Kansas.
About the first of September, a fight occurred on the Drywood, below Fort Scott, between Lane's forces and General Rains. Fort Scott was in danger, and Colonel Thurston's command was ordered over there. Before reaching Fort Scott, the order was countermanded, and they were ordered to Barnsville, where the command occupied a position as picket guards, while the main force fortified a point about si miles back, which was called Fort Lincoln. This point Lane designated as the "Key to Kansas".
Here most of the men of Humboldt were holding this key, while a band of rebels came in by another door and sacked the town.
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ks/county/allen/story/sketchespt4.html
September, 1864
After the militia were disbanded, the major sent a force of men down to Captain Newman's home and brought him to Humboldt under arrest. They kept him over night and let him go. After remaining here in camp some three weeks we were ordered to Fort Scott with two companies. Captain Newman's company was left here with a few colored men under Captain E. Gilbert. We left Humboldt about sundown and reached the Marmaton creek about midnight; there we received orders to go to Fort Lincoln. That night the rebels burned Marmaton, a few miles down the creek.
In the morning we moved in the direction of Fort Lincoln, but on reaching Raysville we were ordered to Fort Scott; arived there about 11 o'clock at night. Colonel Thurston was on General Scott's staff. He met us and led us out northeast to a position occupied by Colonel Twiss. Soon it began to rain and we were in a sorry plight to meet the enemy, which were expected at any moment.
An incident occurred that night showing how abject fear will control a good man. One of our men contended from the start that it would be of no use to take him along, as he knew he could not fight, etc., but we took him along; he had no horse, and was taken with others in a wagon. As we were moving out to take our position a signal gun was fired at the fort, when he jumped from the wagon into the brush and was seen no more that night. The next evening he returned to Humboldt, having walked all the way.
The next day Price's army, hard pressed, passed south along the Missouri line east of Fort Scott. We did not see them but could hear the guns as the battle waged.
The only feat our men performed worthy of note during that day was what we called then a grand flank movement of 5 or 6 miles up the Marmaton. The men were not to blame, and I do not know if officers were to blame. It was reported that the forces in Fort Scott had concluded to abandon the place and fall back to Marmaton, some 9 miles. A body of men were seen moving south in the direction of Fort Scott and were supposed to be Price's men. We were ordered to retreat in the direction of Marmaton, which we did on the double quick, major general leading.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/149118036/minerva-davis
Minerva Winstead Davis
History of Neosho County, Kansas, Vol 1 of 2, Page 305-308, by W. W. Graves, Journal Press, St. Paul, Kansas, May 1, 1949
We removed to Neosho county in the Spring of 1857 and located on a claim one mile west of where the Harmony school house now stands and about three miles northeast of Chanute. In 1860 Kansas experience the greatest drouth of which the white people have any record. The Neosho River ceased to run for several months and had water only in the very deep places. There was no grain of any kind raised that year, and about half of the people around here left Kansas and went back east. Those of us who stayed here received aid from the eastern states. There was no way to get clothing and provisions into this state only to haul it in wagsons from Ft. Leavenworth, Westport or other places, and it seemed to us that the ones who did the hauling treated themselves to a very liberal helping from the provisions, as the supplies would often be pretty well exhausted by the time they arrived. My brother, Wiley Winstead, drove all the cattle we had to Leavenworth, excepting a few cows, and sold them and with the proceeds bought clothing and provisions, and by skimping very close, we had enough to tide us over until we raised something.
There was but one doctor for many miles, Dr. Phillips who lived near Humboldt. On one occasion during the Civil War my sister, Mrs. Robert Jordan, was expecting the stork one evening, and her husband started for Dr. Phillips but was captured by the rebels and held until morning. They kept his horse, and the best he could do was to get the doctor the next day at noon. When the doctor came he was so well stewed that mother had to pour hot coffee into him to sober him enough to see if he could be of any service. We had him on other occasions, and his big idea for all diseases was to take a quantity of blood from his patients.
When the rebels burned Humboldt it caused quite a temporary hardship, as they burned the grist mill. Twelve or fifteen of them came on down to our house and ordered mother to cook for them. They ate very heartily and stayed until morning. As they had all the guns they could carry, they took my father's gun and broke it over a stump. In the evening they had our family line up and counted us and informed us if any one was missing they would burn the house. They took my brother, Wiley Winstead, with them for seven or eight miles, then let him walk back.
Another incident I remember was when a rumor came through the country reporting that a large band of rebels and Indians was coming and killing everyone in their path. Upon hearing a report of this kind we always went to the timber to hide, and as the horses were out on the prairie grazing we decided to load the wagon with bedding and a few other important articles, run it down hill by hand and hide it. We started it but were not able to control it and let it run into a tree and broke the tongue out. We stayed in the timber all night. Two of my sisters held the dogs so as to keep them from barking. When morning came we found we had stayed in an old Indian trail and that the report was a false one. Yet to give this false report 300 people on horses riding over the rise about where the Union school house now stands. They were Indians getting away from the rebels, as we found out the net day. They went into camp near where Village creek empties into the river.
These Osage Indians were the most numerous in this locality. They did quite a lot of stealing. One day they came and shot some of our hogs, put them on their ponies and carried them away to camp. I do not recall that the Indians killed any white people around here, but fity or seventy-five miles northwest of here they did quite a lot of killing. However, West Garroute, who lived about two and a half miles north of Chanute on what is now known as the Dr. Barker farm, shot and killed an Indian. In order to keep the Indians from going on the war path, it was necessary for Mr. Garroute to pay for him. If I remember correctly, he gave them a pony.
The people of today can hardly realize the sacrifices, loneliness, sickness and fears from many sources that we had to go through. We did not get any mail for several days apart. Frontier life was harder on account of the strife and warfare of that time. There were no churches or schools for several years after we came, yet as we had a large two-room house, they often had church services at our house, and many times the whole congregation would stay for dinner. Yet, in spite of the drouth, grasshoppers and other troubles, we had a great many good times also. We had camp meetings, dances and other gatherings. Some people would go fifteen or twenty miles to a dance. A few of the young men at that time had the distinction of dancing with Kate Bender, the daughter of the notorious Bender family.
There was a lot of game and fish here at that time. We had coyotes, bobcats, turkey, deer and prairie chicken by the acres, and it was very interesting to hear them booming in the springtime. To offset this, however, we had the frequent cry of the bobcat and screech owl to keep our already nervous brain unstrung.
My folks kept sheep and raised cotton and made some of our own clothes. We planted all our corn by hand and tended it with one-horse plows. All our stock ran at large, but we fenced in our fields with rails. I have seen more than one fire that was said to start in Oklahoma come over the rise where Chanute now stands.
http://kancoll.org/books/cutler/allen/allen-co-p2.html
As soon as the news of the breaking out of the Rebellion reached Allen County nearly all the able-bodied men hurried to enlist in defense of the Union. In 1861 the Iola Battalion was formed, and from the county were three companies, commanded by Captains Coleman, Flesher, and Killen, which served in the Ninth Kansas. In the Tenth Kansas Regiment were two companies, one commanded by Capt. W. C. Jones, and the other by Capt. N. B. Blanton.
The county being on the southern border of the State, it was considered in danger of invasion from the Missouri guerrillas and the hostile Indians of the Territory. The scene of most the military operations in the county were in and about Humboldt. In the summer of 1861 a company was organized there with N. B. Blanton, Captain; S. J. Stewart, First Lieutenant. J. H. Signor was afterward Second Lieutenant. Capt. Isaac Tibbetts organized a company of infantry, and Capt. I. N. Phillips a company of cavalry. During the same summer a regiment was organized in Allen and Woodson counties. Orlin Thurston was Colonel; James Kennar, Lieutenant Colonel; and N. S. Goss, Major. This was the Seventh Kansas Regiment, for the defense of Kansas, and was under command of Gen. J.H. Lane. While this regiment was with Lane in Missouri there were but very few men left at home to protect the settlements, and the most of the farming and other work for the maintenance of the families of the soldiers was done by the women and children.
CONFEDERATE FORCES BURN HUMBOLDT, KANSAS ON OCTOBER 14, 1861
The following article courtesy of The Civil War Courier
The burning of Lawrence, Kansas in 1863 by Quantrill's raiders has always been the highlight of Kansas history during the Civil War. However, Lawrence was not the first town burned during the war and little attention has been gleaned in the history of the war in Southeast Kansas, especially in Humboldt, Allen County, Kansas. Humboldt is located about 95 miles southwest of Kansas City.
Perched on the cliffs of the Neosho River, Humboldt was settled in 1857 by German immigrants through the financial support of the abolitionists of the Massachusetts Immigrant Aid Society of Boston. In 1854 Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska act which opened settlement to Kansas and left the decision to the voters to determine if it would be a slave or free state. At the time the Kansas Territory was under the control of Southern sympathizers and on its eastern border the State of Missouri, a slave state and on the south by Indian Territory of the Cherokees and Creeks, who were also slave owners. The border wars were triggered by the settlement of Kansas and a hotbed of turmoil. The abolitionists literally came in and overthrew the territorial Federal government, which would be considered an act of treason and established a new government. To make matters worse these same men were forming railroad companies and establishing their sights on running railroads from Lawrence, Leavenworth and other northern locations to the Gulf of Galveston Bay, Texas. They made little secret of their intentions and ran ads in northern Kansas newspapers of their intentions in 1854 of using southern commodities to purchase at a cheap rate for their venture to be shipped to many destinations through these connections to the western building of the transcontinental railroad that was already in the process of being built through to Kansas in its northern counties. Humboldt was strategically chosen for its central location to Indian Territory and treaties were already being made with the Cherokee Indians to run through their lands long before the war. The ads were very specific about obtaining cheap lumber from Arkansas which was also had southern leanings. There is little doubt this further infuriated the South after being exploited by these same northern men and when Kansas became a state on January 29, 1861 it was the straw that broke the camel's back and we all know what happened next. It is my conjecture that Kansas entering the Union as a free state was the final catalyst that triggered the war in April. These plans made it imperative they didn't lose the war, it meant millions of acres of land were up for grabs and tons of money to be made.
Kansas Senator, James Henry Lane, is a well known dubious character in Kansas history and was among those who participated, including well -known Jayhawker, Charles R. Jennison, in all of these actions for personal gain. Also involved was John Brown, Jr., son of old John Brown of Harper's Ferry fame and Daniel Anthony, brother of Susan B. Anthony. Lane was friends with some of the early settlers of Humboldt and is well known for his "Jayhawking" into Missouri which eventually led to Lawrence being burned in 1863, but it wasn't the first town to be burned, Humboldt was raided and burned in 1861 by Confederate forces. Two of the main characters he was friends with in Humboldt were Orlin Thurston and Watson Stewart, both early settlers in Humboldt. What I thought was so interesting is why this small hamlet in no man's land was chosen as a target by the Confederate forces. What reason could there be for these attacks to a seemingly innocent population here. In the last few years I have uncovered previously unknown details about some of the citizens of Humboldt which eventually led to its demise on the evening of October 14, 1861.
Before any troops were mustered officially in Kansas, Lane took it upon himself to appoint Orlin Thurston as a Colonel for the 7th Kansas State Militia made up of men from Allen and Woodson counties in 1861. The reason it makes it so difficult to track the men involved is because there are no official records for these militia regiments in the Federal or Kansas records, therefore hiding their involvement in the Jayhawking with Lane and Jennison.
My first discovery was a discharge of another early settler in the German settlement, Charles Fussman. He was a tinner by trade and had positioned himself with a business on the corner of the town square at 8th and Bridge Streets. His business and home were burned to the ground. This discharge reads as follows:
7th Regiment Kansas State Militia
enlisted 31 Aug 1861
Certificate
This certifies that the within named Charles Fussman a private of Captain Dornberg Company (who was a doctor here) of the 7th Regiment of Kansas State Militia who volunteered at Humboldt in Allen county State of Kansas August 31, 1861, to repel an invasion of Kansas by General Rains and is now honorably discharged by reason of the retreat of the secession army. The said Charles Fussman has pay due from that time to the present date. There is due him from the U.S. the sum of six and 50/100 dollars.
Given in duplicate at Barnesville this 14th day of September 1861
Orlin Thurston, Col. Commanding
James H Lane, Commanding Kansas Brigade
Barnesville, Kansas is in Bourbon County close to Ft. Scott, and east of Humboldt about 40 miles, was the site of military camps for stretches of time during the war. The first mention of a camp there came from a report written on September 4, 1861, by Sen. James Lane. This was during the time Lane had evacuated Fort Scott and moved his forces to areas north of that post. A post was established at Barnesville. Lane wrote to Capt. W. E. Prince, then commanding Fort Leavenworth, "I am holding Barnesville . . . with an irregular force of about 250 men, stationed in log buildings, and am now strengthening their position with earth entrenchments."
The book "Jayhawkers: The Civil War Brigade of James Henry Lane" by Bryce Benedict – 2012, reveals the Battle of Drywood, Missouri. "pg 74 Jayhawkers
Lane dispatched a rider to Jennison with orders to bring forward his men from Barnesville, Kansas. Jennison arrived Monday morning, all the available cavalry from the regiments of Montgomery, Weer, and Johnson were already out in pursuit of the raiders, together with Moonlight's howitzer and Harris Greeno's company of home guards. The rebels were overtaken inside Missouri at Drywood Creek.
pg 76
Although Lane lacked the authority to do so, he called for the Kansas militia to take the field. Colonel Orlin Thurston's Seventh Regiment Kansas State Militia, from Allen and Woodson counties, responded."
The Battle of Dry Wood Creek (also known as the Battle of Big Dry Wood Creek or the Battle of the Mules) was fought on September 2, 1861 in Vernon County, Missouri. Federal losses were 14 men. Missouri State Guard losses were 4 killed and 16 wounded, all in Brigadier General James S. Rains' Eighth Division, Missouri State Guard. The battle site is just south of Deerfield, Missouri, on Highway 54 between Nevada, Missouri and Fort Scott, Kansas.
In the memoirs of Major Watson Stewart of the Kansas State Militia he reports in his many articles published in The Humboldt Union newspaper in 1876 revealing the same story, but he didn't tell what they had been doing previously nor what was going on later with plundering, killing, and burning of towns in Missouri. He puts it off to the fact Humboldt was burned due to the burning of Osceola, Missouri, but it was going on long before that happened. Of course the victors never tell the whole story nor do they admit to any wrongdoing.
"For our better protection, we organized ourselves into companies of Militia, and armed ourselves as well as we could. General Lane, was, during the latter part of the summer, busy organizing the Militia of the state, for its protection; the Militia of our county were under the command of Colonel Orlin Thurston, of Humboldt.
About the first of September (1861), Ft. Scott was threatened with a raid, and Colonel Thurston was ordered there, with a portion of his command. Those in the south part of the county were left, as a protection to their homes. Before reaching Ft. Scott, the order was received to go to Barnesville, a point on the State Line, to act as picket guards, while the main force fortified a point about six miles back, which was called Ft. Lincoln, this point General Lane designated as the "Key to Kansas." There, most of the men of Humboldt were holding the "Key" while a band of Rebels came in by "another door" and sacked their town. This was on the afternoon of September 8, 1861. There was one company of Missourians, under Captain Livingston, and one of Cherokee and Osage Halfbreed Indians, under Captain Mathews. They passed about a mile east of us, on their way to Humboldt, and we did not know of their presence until after their departure. But few men were in Humboldt, and the town fell an easy prey to their hands; they did not kill anyone, but robbed the stores and private houses of such things as they could carry away. They hastened off, making a few calls on the way, as they returned south. On the following day as many of the settlers as were at home pushed after them with as much dispatch as was possible. On reaching Lightning Creek, we were joined by a force of regular volunteer soldiers from Ft. Scott, under command of Col. Jas. G. Blunt, afterwards a Major General. We placed our force under his command, and we were led along down the Neosho river, hoping to find some of the Rebels at or about the residence of Captain Mathews. He was living on a fine ranch, just where the town of Oswego has since been built; he had a half-breed Osage Indian wife, and had a lot of fine horses and other stock. However, we found that he was not here, but had gone on further south, and that his men had scattered. This move, we were making in the night time, and with great caution, having with us a guide who was well acquainted with every trail, much of the way being through dense woods; passing on down the river, we obtained information that a part of the raiders were at the house of a Cherokee Indian, about three miles below where the town of Chetopa now is, and just over the line into the Indian Territory; we reached the place just about daybreak, and surrounded the house. Having discovered us, two of the occupants broke out into the bush and escaped; one, we took prisoner; Captain Mathews himself, with a double-barreled shot gun in his hands, ran out of the house and was shot down."
"The people of Humboldt now took extra precautions to prevent another raid. They kept one company of Infantry in town, and they were building a fortification around O'Brien's mill; and one company of cavalry was kept out, for most of the time, as scouts, in the direction of the Indian Territory.
On the 14th of October, (1861) this company of cavalry returned from a scout of several days to the south line of the state, reporting that no sign of rebels had been seen. This report quieted all fears, at the time, and the people were wholly off their guard when, later in the evening, a force of three or four hundred rebels, under Col. Talbot from Arkansas, of the Confederate Army, came dashing into the town and easily captured the place, taking most of the Militia force prisoners. One man, in attempting to get away on a mule, was shot and killed. Captain Livingston, who was with the former raid, was also in this party. After setting fire to nearly every house in town, and robbing them of such things as they could carry away, they liberated the prisoners and returned south with all possible dispatch, small detachments calling, as they went, on most of the settlers on their routes.
We learned of this raid upon Humboldt just about sundown, and we expected a visit from them on their return, probably some time during the night; and, from the fact that since the former raid, General Lane's forces had captured and burned Osceola, Missouri, and on the south line of the State, in Cherokee County, a reputed Southern sympathizer running a small store, had been robbed and murdered by some irresponsible persons claiming to be Union men; and, from the further fact of my own part in the pursuit of the former raiders and the killing of Mathews; I did not feel like trusting myself in their hands."
Another character of Humboldt was the first sheriff, Josiah Clark Redfield. One of his descendants has searched endlessly for his civil war record to no avail and writes "And a mystery remains: the aunt mentioned above (alert at 81) insists that Josiah served during the Civil War. Yet he was sheriff in Allen County throughout the war, and searches at the National Archives have been negative. On the other hand, his two brothers, Richard R. Redfield and Orrin S. Redfield (who also followed him to Kansas after the war) both served in the Civil War, and their records have been obtained from the Archives. Did Aunt Dana have the family mixed up? Perhaps. Or perhaps Josiah was simply a Jayhawker, without formal enlistment. These are the things that make searching for your roots never ending!"
Josiah was found to be involved in several dubious land deals while he was sheriff with the land office register, Jonathan Coleman Burnett, whose sister, Kate Burnett, saved the land records during the burning. The land office had been moved to Humboldt from Ft. Scott due to the dubious relationship with Lane of these men. This led to the discovery in a probate file of a man named Pleasant Turney who had come to Allen County in 1860 from Arkansas and purchased a farm on the Allen/Woodson county line about 5 miles west of Humboldt. After the burning he left to go back to Arkansas, joined the Union forces and died within six months. He had left a written agreement for the care of his farm to a neighbor, Jesse Webb, to continue building fences and maintaining his store of goods in his absence. None of his family lived here, but after the war one of his single daughters, Sarah, showed up in 1866 to discover that the farm was no more and there was no estate to settle. She discovered that Redfield and Burnett had confiscated the property with their cronies in Topeka accusing him of being a Confederate and under the confiscation act stole his property and sold it on the courthouse steps in which they both purchased it for a song. By 1872 after she sued them she got her father's farm back from them. While digging through his probate file I discovered about 40 pages of testimony of the man he left the property in care of and the neighbors and discovered that Jennison and his men were here raiding the farm in the early months of 1862 stealing everything they could get their hands on. They had been sent here to "cool off" their jayhawking antics because they were causing a major embarrassment to the Union army. At the same time, John Brown, Jr. was here and writing letters to his wife witnessing the execution of a deserter who had stolen Daniel Anthony's horse trying to escape from the camp as a prisoner in the southern part of Humboldt after he had stabbed another soldier in a ruckus.
In the diary of Confederate John W. Fisher, (MEMORIAL ID 9123635) Company C, 10th Missouri Cavalry State Guard, 8th Division, 2nd Lieutenant, who was at the burning, tells his side of the story. His father-in-law was the well- known Confederate Colonel Thomas H. Rosser, who was given a sword by General Sterling Price for his dedicated service in Missouri. Colonel Rosser was in command of infantry and artillery in the battles of Carthage, Springfield, Lexington and Drywood in Missouri. In his letters to his wife, Bettie, who was residing in Westport, Missouri at the time, writes: "Preston, Mo Oct 13, 1861 My dear wife I promised you to write a diary for your perusal at when we meet so I will commence this morning. I wrote to you day before yesterday from our camp at Carthage, where we arrived that day, about 150 of our Regiments [10th Cavalry, Missouri State Guard] started from there last night for Humboldt, Kansas for what purpose I do not exactly know, we arrived at this place, some 7 or 8 miles from our camp about 10 ½ Oclock and after feeding our horses we spread our blankets on the ground and our saddles under our head we were soon enjoying ourselves with a good nap,
this morning, Sunday, is a beautiful day, and we are all saddled up waiting for another detachment of men from Col [Sanford J.] Talbots Reg. [11th Cavalry, Missouri State Guard] consisting of 160 men who start with us for Kansas this morning, we may have a hard time of it as it is reported that there is a force of 500 men with 4 pieces of Cannon at Humboldt and several detachments at LeRoy, Emporia and Cofachique, if they are there they will give us "fits", but our cause is just and the God of battles has been with us in every fight yet and with Him on our side we are sure of success may he be with us and prosper us. I heard the Governor Jackson [Claiborne Fox Jackson] make a speech night before last in which he said he intended to burn Kansas from one end to the other.
Osage Catholic Mission, Osage Nation Oct 14 1861 After leaving Preston we started for this place it is about 55 miles, we traveled all day until 9 oclock at night when we stopped and slept until 2 oclock when we started and arrived home about 7 oclock this morning, while marching yesterday we saw two men who were very much surprised at our appearance and as soon as we come in sight of them they ran off as fast as there horses would carry them I suppose they were Yankees we have seen no houses where owners were in them since we left Missouri every body has left where we stopped to eat our dinner yesterday at a Man's house (Hoover) we found the greatest quanity of very large water melons, more than our 300 men could destroy but we all ate as many as we could hold, the priests at this mission gave us all our breakfast of Coffee and Bread and biscuits and a fine meal it was to tired soldiers who had been marching nearly all night, they gave myself, Col. [William H.] Erwin and one or two others a large slice of apple pie, after eating breakfast, I went into their Chapel which is arranged very nicely inside with good pictures, the inside was fitted up by Indian workmen and it would do credit to any kind of workmen, I saw one picture in needlework done by an Indian girl which is one of the finest pictures I ever saw, it was "The Crown of thorns" it was as beautifully executed as could be done by any lady, we start in few minutes for Humboldt out in the prairie on Neosho River 20 miles from any where.
Oct 15.1861 We started for Humboldt about 10 o'clock and traveled along slowly, I stopped to see an Indian village which is a very curious sight to one who never saw one, it is laid out like a city with streets running parallel to each other, the houses one built of small poles, both ends stuck into the ground similar to an arbor, these were about 20 feet long 12 feet wide and 8 feet high. I suppose there were upwards of 100 but there were no Indians in them as they, the Osage, have all gone on a buffalo hunt we arrived to within 4 miles of Humboldt about 4 oclock when we took a dutchman prisoner who reported that there was a force of about 300 men there, we then formed and started to go in on the south side of town, we arrived just in the edges of the town a little before sundown while the people were eating their suppers, our Regiment [10th Cavalry, Missouri State Guard] took the East side and Col [Sanford J.] Talbots the west we all started on a charge yelling like Indians and rode right into the town without their soldiers firing a shot at us, we took them so completely by surprise and they were so frightened that they left as soon as they could get out, we took some 45 or 50 prisoners and I believe some 3 or four of them were Killed who would not stop our men did not fire a gun, we then broke into all the houses searching for men and for what ever our men wanted, we did not hurt any lady or take anything from them, but we took every thing that we needed out of the stores that we could Carry and then set fire to the town and laid it in ashes leaving two or three houses for the women and children, I got me a shirt and two Comforts and a shawl two over coats (which I gave to our boys) a fine piece of satin for a vest a Can teen; tin cup 4 knives & forks and two tents and could have gotten any amount of other things if we could have found their wagons, we burnt up two mills and a large lot of flour perhaps 300 sacks about 5000 lbs Bacon and and amount of other provision that we could not carry away Humboldt was a very pretty town nearly as large as Paola and prettier, there were some fine houses in it, a large hotel nearly as large as Morris' Mill I hated to see the town destroyed but that is the only way we can get rid of them and it was what the governor [Claiborne Fox Jackson] sent us there to do, the women said they thought it was hard but it was just, as their men had been doing the same in Missouri. I think it is hard too and I do not approve of it, they were all very badly frightened supposing us at first to be Cherokees, but after they found us out they were not so badly frightened, they did not have your spunk however and did not abuse us any our men assisted them in getting their things out into the square before we set fire to the town and treated them very kindly, after we got ready to start we released all the prisoners without injuring one of them, we left there about 9 o'clock that night and started back to camp we traveled all day yesterday until 11 oclock last night and camped on Cherry Creek about 20 miles from here."
There is little doubt there were many men who resided in Humboldt who were involved in the jayhawking of Missouri towns with Lane and Jennison. As time passes tidbits seem to fall at my feet with another piece of the puzzle when I least expect it. That's the beauty of taking a look at the real history of our country from the true actors who created it and not the ones who try to cover up the truth of it all. And after the war it didn't stop there, they continued with their lust for power and money and left our town bankrupt, and without a city government for over 20 years by their scandalous deals in building the railroads here and stealing the funds. Nothing has really changed and it doesn't seem as though we have learned anything. Lest we forget.
Humboldt is a unique town in small-town America that still thrives graced with historic buildings on the town square, two museums, a working blacksmith shop started in 1876 on the National Register of Historic places, a vintage woodworking shop, and a 12 site tour of Civil War sites. New sidewalks surrounding the town square graced with vintage lamp posts are almost complete. Old buildings are currently being restored for space for new businesses. The South Wind Bike Trail starts at the north edge of town and can be ridden to the northern cities in Kansas. Camping facilities are also available. Further lodging plans and development are in the process.
Humboldt's rich civil war history is re-enacted every three years sponsored by the Humboldt Civil War Days committee. An official string band performs civil war music featured with a "caller" for vintage civil war dancing at the Friday night dance and the re-enactments occur on Saturday, with a 12 site tour of the civil war sites on Sunday.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/74323834/jesse-sill-webb
Mr. Webb came to Kansas in 1860, before it became a state and settled in Humboldt where he resided until three years ago when he came to Iola to make his home with his daughter. In 1861, he with one hundred other men enlisted in the home guards, later being mustered into the U. S. service, Company G., 9th Kansas Cavalry. Mr. Lou Bartels of this city is the only member of this company left.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/133652558/william-lewis-bartels
spring of 1860 he came to Kansas and located at Humboldt. In September, 1861, he enlisted in Company G. Ninth Kansas Cavalry, serving until January 16, 1865.
"It was the summer of 1861" said Judge Bartels this morning, that the 9th of Kansas was recruited. Eight companies of 100 men each were enrolled in Allen County, six of them in Iola and two in Humbolte. I joined one of Humbolt Company, Company G and John Walters was in Co. E, I think. Three companies of the regiment were recruited at Lawrence, and one at Council Grove, making up the 12 companies that then went to make a regiment. We spent the summmer scouting around to the south and southwest but were never regularly mustered into the service of the United States until the 16th of January, 1862.
Judge Bartels in a reminiscent vein, "Who saw the burning of Humbolte in 1861. There were about forty of us soldiers on the town site but there were four hundred of the Rebels so we took to the tall timbers. About half the boys and we and they thought their last hours had come, but after burning and looting the town, the Rebels left and turned the boys loose. John Tibbets who later became my father-in-law, The Rebels who burned the town were mostly from Carthage being under the command of Colonel Tom Livingston. The Tibbets family had lived at Carthage, but had been driven away because of their Union Settlements, soon after the Missourian struck the town. The girl who later became my wife and was visiting with friends, who lived above the store on the north side of the square came down on the street. At the same moment Colonel Livingston rode up. He recognized her at once, for they had lived next door neighbors at Carthage, and called her by name dismounted and shook hands with her, asking how she came to live there? "You wouldn't let us live at Carthage so we came to live here." was her reply. Why she stood there twenty or more of the boys she had known at Carthage came up shook hands with her and proceeded methodically to burn and loot the town. War, especially civil war remarked the judge as he proceeded on his way to his office, "Is a queer thing."
Mr. Bartels was associated with, and knew well, many of the prominent men of the times. Numbered among his friends were Jim Lane, Senator Pomeroy, John A. Martin, Governor Glick, Senator Ingalls, and many others. when Humboldt was sacked, he enlisted in a company under Jim Lane.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7th_Kansas_Cavalry_Regiment
Commanders
Colonel Charles R. Jennison
Colonel Albert Lindley Lee
Colonel Thomas P. Herrick
Lieutenant Colonel Daniel R. Anthony – arrested and relieved of command for issuing an order that prevented Tennessee slave catchers from entering the regiment's camp looking for escaped slaves
Captain John Brown Jr., Company K – Son of abolitionist John Brown
The 7th Kansas Cavalry was organized at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas on October 28, 1861. It mustered in for three years under the command of Colonel Charles R. Jennison. MEMORIAL ID 174698638
Moved to Humboldt, Kansas, January 31, 1862 and duty there until March 25. Moved to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, March 25; then to Columbus, Kentucky, May 18-June 2, and to Corinth, Mississippi, June 7, escorting working parties on Mobile & Ohio Railroad and arriving at Corinth July 10; then moved to Jacinto and Rienzi, Mississippi, July 18–28.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacking_of_Osceola
The Sacking of Osceola was a Kansas Jayhawker initiative on September 23, 1861, to push out pro-slavery Southerners at Osceola, Missouri. It was not authorized by Union military authorities but was the work of an informal group of anti-slavery Kansas "Jayhawkers".[2] The town of 2,077 people [3] was plundered and burned to the ground, 200 slaves were freed and nine local citizens were court-martialed and executed.
Following Sterling Price's secessionist Missouri State Guard victory over General Nathaniel Lyon's Union army at the Battle of Wilson's Creek, Price continued his goal of keeping control of Missouri from the Unionists.
Guerilla leader James H. Lane—often called the leader of the Jayhawkers—organized 1,200 troops to resist Price's invasion into Kansas. Price defeated Lane at the Battle of Dry Wood Creek near Fort Scott, Kansas. Lane retreated and Price continued his offensive further into Missouri to the Siege of Lexington.
While Price moved North, Lane launched an attack behind him. After crossing the Missouri border at Trading Post, Kansas on September 10, Lane began an offensive moving East on Butler, Harrisonville, Osceola and Clinton, Missouri.
https://civilwaronthewesternborder.org/timeline/battle-dry-wood-creek
Battle of Dry Wood Creek
Monday, September 2, 1861
Colonel James Henry Lane. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Colonel James Henry Lane. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Fresh off a victory at Wilson's Creek, the Missouri State Guard under command of Major General Sterling "Pap" Price advances toward Fort Scott, in southeastern Kansas. Colonel James H. Lane, in command of a jayhawker brigade of volunteers, confronts Price in the Battle of Dry Wood Creek, 12 miles east of the town. Heavily outnumbered in the two-hour battle, Lane is forced to abandon his mules and withdraw to Fort Scott and then to Kansas City. The Missouri State Guard switches course to attack Union forces at Lexington, Missouri. The skirmish is sometimes called "Battle of the Mules" to commemorate Lane's loss.
https://civilwaronthewesternborder.org/encyclopedia/sacking-osceola
Sacking of Osceola
Date: September 22-23, 1861
Location: St. Clair County, Osceola, Missouri
Adversaries: Brigadier General and U.S. Senator James Henry Lane with the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Kansas Volunteers vs. Missouri State Guard Captain John M. Weidemeyer and local militia and civilians of Osceola, Missouri
Casualties and damages: At least 10 casualties (including nine executions after the raid ended) and approximately $1 million in building and property damage
Result: The city of Osceola was left in ruins; Missouri bushwhackers sought retribution in the form of Quantrill's Raid on August 21, 1863
The sacking of Osceola was a significant military engagement that took place during the early stages of the Civil War in Missouri. After losing the Battle of Dry Wood Creek near Fort Scott, Kansas, the Free-State leader, U.S. Senator and Brigadier General James Henry Lane guided his 3rd, 4th, and 5th Kansas Volunteers in the looting and sacking of Osceola, Missouri. A proud "jayhawker" and fierce antislavery supporter, Lane used his military status to impede the Confederate war effort in the border state.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/10284/james-henry-lane
James Henry Lane
He was heavily involved in raising of Union troops of Kansas "Jayhawkers", and commanded a brigade of Kansas Volunteers known as "Lane's Brigade". The troops he raised would fight at the September 1861 Battle of Dry Woods Creek in Missouri, and the September 23, 1861 sacking of Osceola, Missouri, of which he was heavily criticized. In late 1862 he recruited the all-African American 1st Kansas Volunteer Infantry (Colored) regiment, who when skirmishing with Confederates in October 1862 became the first African-American Union soldiers to see combat. He was the main target of what became known as "Quantrill's Raid" and "The Lawrence Massacre"
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ks/county/allen/story/sketchespt3.html
Transcribed by J. Richardson, 21-July-2000
Originally published in the Humboldt Union, Humboldt, Allen County, Kansas 21-Mar-1918
Sketches of Early History - Part 3
In the Settlement of Humboldt and Allen County
By Watson Stewart
Military Period.
I name the period from the spring of 1861 to the spring of 1865 the military period, for both Allen county and Humboldt. But few men lived in the county at that time, but what took some interest in military matters. Early in the summer a company was organized in Humboldt for the volunteer service. N.B. Blanton was captain, S.J. Stewart, 1st lieutenant. J.H. Signor became 2nd lieutenant afterward. This company was mustered into the service at Fort Leavenworth August 7, 1861.
They were mustered in as a part of the 4th Kansas, under Colonel Weir; afterward they were mustered into the 10th upon the consolidation of the 3rd and 4th regiments.
The names of those enlisted at Humboldt were: B.H. Witlow, Benj. H. Witten, David H. Nichols, Philip Beck, Wm. Burgeous, N.D. Bingham, Geo. Cole, Thos. R. Morris, John E. Stewart, Calvin Webb, D.R. Webb, Davis W. Webb, James C. Woodward and Hiram K. Loomis.
This company participated in a number of battles, among which were those at Osceola, Mo., Locust Grove, Cherokee Nation, and Prairier Grove, Arkansas.
The only persons enlisting at that time in the company, now residing near Humboldt, are S.J. Stewart, Philip Beck and J.E. Stewart. Lieutenant Stewart became captain before coming out of the service.
Humboldt was considered greatly exposed to rebel invaions from Missouri or the Indian country.
The militia were pretty thoroughly organized. Captain Isaac Tibbetts had a company of infantry; Captain I.N. Phillips, one of cavalry. They with other companies in this and Woodson counties were organized into a regiment, Orlin Thurston, colonel; James Kennar, lieutenant colonel, and N.S. Goss, major.
General James H. Lane was during the latter part of the summer busy organizing the militia forces of Kansas, and this regiment was tendered to him as the 7th Kansas regiment for the defense of Kansas.
About the first of September, a fight occurred on the Drywood, below Fort Scott, between Lane's forces and General Rains. Fort Scott was in danger, and Colonel Thurston's command was ordered over there. Before reaching Fort Scott, the order was countermanded, and they were ordered to Barnsville, where the command occupied a position as picket guards, while the main force fortified a point about si miles back, which was called Fort Lincoln. This point Lane designated as the "Key to Kansas".
Here most of the men of Humboldt were holding this key, while a band of rebels came in by another door and sacked the town.
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ks/county/allen/story/sketchespt4.html
September, 1864
After the militia were disbanded, the major sent a force of men down to Captain Newman's home and brought him to Humboldt under arrest. They kept him over night and let him go. After remaining here in camp some three weeks we were ordered to Fort Scott with two companies. Captain Newman's company was left here with a few colored men under Captain E. Gilbert. We left Humboldt about sundown and reached the Marmaton creek about midnight; there we received orders to go to Fort Lincoln. That night the rebels burned Marmaton, a few miles down the creek.
In the morning we moved in the direction of Fort Lincoln, but on reaching Raysville we were ordered to Fort Scott; arived there about 11 o'clock at night. Colonel Thurston was on General Scott's staff. He met us and led us out northeast to a position occupied by Colonel Twiss. Soon it began to rain and we were in a sorry plight to meet the enemy, which were expected at any moment.
An incident occurred that night showing how abject fear will control a good man. One of our men contended from the start that it would be of no use to take him along, as he knew he could not fight, etc., but we took him along; he had no horse, and was taken with others in a wagon. As we were moving out to take our position a signal gun was fired at the fort, when he jumped from the wagon into the brush and was seen no more that night. The next evening he returned to Humboldt, having walked all the way.
The next day Price's army, hard pressed, passed south along the Missouri line east of Fort Scott. We did not see them but could hear the guns as the battle waged.
The only feat our men performed worthy of note during that day was what we called then a grand flank movement of 5 or 6 miles up the Marmaton. The men were not to blame, and I do not know if officers were to blame. It was reported that the forces in Fort Scott had concluded to abandon the place and fall back to Marmaton, some 9 miles. A body of men were seen moving south in the direction of Fort Scott and were supposed to be Price's men. We were ordered to retreat in the direction of Marmaton, which we did on the double quick, major general leading.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/149118036/minerva-davis
Minerva Winstead Davis
History of Neosho County, Kansas, Vol 1 of 2, Page 305-308, by W. W. Graves, Journal Press, St. Paul, Kansas, May 1, 1949
We removed to Neosho county in the Spring of 1857 and located on a claim one mile west of where the Harmony school house now stands and about three miles northeast of Chanute. In 1860 Kansas experience the greatest drouth of which the white people have any record. The Neosho River ceased to run for several months and had water only in the very deep places. There was no grain of any kind raised that year, and about half of the people around here left Kansas and went back east. Those of us who stayed here received aid from the eastern states. There was no way to get clothing and provisions into this state only to haul it in wagsons from Ft. Leavenworth, Westport or other places, and it seemed to us that the ones who did the hauling treated themselves to a very liberal helping from the provisions, as the supplies would often be pretty well exhausted by the time they arrived. My brother, Wiley Winstead, drove all the cattle we had to Leavenworth, excepting a few cows, and sold them and with the proceeds bought clothing and provisions, and by skimping very close, we had enough to tide us over until we raised something.
There was but one doctor for many miles, Dr. Phillips who lived near Humboldt. On one occasion during the Civil War my sister, Mrs. Robert Jordan, was expecting the stork one evening, and her husband started for Dr. Phillips but was captured by the rebels and held until morning. They kept his horse, and the best he could do was to get the doctor the next day at noon. When the doctor came he was so well stewed that mother had to pour hot coffee into him to sober him enough to see if he could be of any service. We had him on other occasions, and his big idea for all diseases was to take a quantity of blood from his patients.
When the rebels burned Humboldt it caused quite a temporary hardship, as they burned the grist mill. Twelve or fifteen of them came on down to our house and ordered mother to cook for them. They ate very heartily and stayed until morning. As they had all the guns they could carry, they took my father's gun and broke it over a stump. In the evening they had our family line up and counted us and informed us if any one was missing they would burn the house. They took my brother, Wiley Winstead, with them for seven or eight miles, then let him walk back.
Another incident I remember was when a rumor came through the country reporting that a large band of rebels and Indians was coming and killing everyone in their path. Upon hearing a report of this kind we always went to the timber to hide, and as the horses were out on the prairie grazing we decided to load the wagon with bedding and a few other important articles, run it down hill by hand and hide it. We started it but were not able to control it and let it run into a tree and broke the tongue out. We stayed in the timber all night. Two of my sisters held the dogs so as to keep them from barking. When morning came we found we had stayed in an old Indian trail and that the report was a false one. Yet to give this false report 300 people on horses riding over the rise about where the Union school house now stands. They were Indians getting away from the rebels, as we found out the net day. They went into camp near where Village creek empties into the river.
These Osage Indians were the most numerous in this locality. They did quite a lot of stealing. One day they came and shot some of our hogs, put them on their ponies and carried them away to camp. I do not recall that the Indians killed any white people around here, but fity or seventy-five miles northwest of here they did quite a lot of killing. However, West Garroute, who lived about two and a half miles north of Chanute on what is now known as the Dr. Barker farm, shot and killed an Indian. In order to keep the Indians from going on the war path, it was necessary for Mr. Garroute to pay for him. If I remember correctly, he gave them a pony.
The people of today can hardly realize the sacrifices, loneliness, sickness and fears from many sources that we had to go through. We did not get any mail for several days apart. Frontier life was harder on account of the strife and warfare of that time. There were no churches or schools for several years after we came, yet as we had a large two-room house, they often had church services at our house, and many times the whole congregation would stay for dinner. Yet, in spite of the drouth, grasshoppers and other troubles, we had a great many good times also. We had camp meetings, dances and other gatherings. Some people would go fifteen or twenty miles to a dance. A few of the young men at that time had the distinction of dancing with Kate Bender, the daughter of the notorious Bender family.
There was a lot of game and fish here at that time. We had coyotes, bobcats, turkey, deer and prairie chicken by the acres, and it was very interesting to hear them booming in the springtime. To offset this, however, we had the frequent cry of the bobcat and screech owl to keep our already nervous brain unstrung.
My folks kept sheep and raised cotton and made some of our own clothes. We planted all our corn by hand and tended it with one-horse plows. All our stock ran at large, but we fenced in our fields with rails. I have seen more than one fire that was said to start in Oklahoma come over the rise where Chanute now stands.
http://kancoll.org/books/cutler/allen/allen-co-p2.html
As soon as the news of the breaking out of the Rebellion reached Allen County nearly all the able-bodied men hurried to enlist in defense of the Union. In 1861 the Iola Battalion was formed, and from the county were three companies, commanded by Captains Coleman, Flesher, and Killen, which served in the Ninth Kansas. In the Tenth Kansas Regiment were two companies, one commanded by Capt. W. C. Jones, and the other by Capt. N. B. Blanton.
The county being on the southern border of the State, it was considered in danger of invasion from the Missouri guerrillas and the hostile Indians of the Territory. The scene of most the military operations in the county were in and about Humboldt. In the summer of 1861 a company was organized there with N. B. Blanton, Captain; S. J. Stewart, First Lieutenant. J. H. Signor was afterward Second Lieutenant. Capt. Isaac Tibbetts organized a company of infantry, and Capt. I. N. Phillips a company of cavalry. During the same summer a regiment was organized in Allen and Woodson counties. Orlin Thurston was Colonel; James Kennar, Lieutenant Colonel; and N. S. Goss, Major. This was the Seventh Kansas Regiment, for the defense of Kansas, and was under command of Gen. J.H. Lane. While this regiment was with Lane in Missouri there were but very few men left at home to protect the settlements, and the most of the farming and other work for the maintenance of the families of the soldiers was done by the women and children.
CONFEDERATE FORCES BURN HUMBOLDT, KANSAS ON OCTOBER 14, 1861
The following article courtesy of The Civil War Courier
The burning of Lawrence, Kansas in 1863 by Quantrill's raiders has always been the highlight of Kansas history during the Civil War. However, Lawrence was not the first town burned during the war and little attention has been gleaned in the history of the war in Southeast Kansas, especially in Humboldt, Allen County, Kansas. Humboldt is located about 95 miles southwest of Kansas City.
Perched on the cliffs of the Neosho River, Humboldt was settled in 1857 by German immigrants through the financial support of the abolitionists of the Massachusetts Immigrant Aid Society of Boston. In 1854 Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska act which opened settlement to Kansas and left the decision to the voters to determine if it would be a slave or free state. At the time the Kansas Territory was under the control of Southern sympathizers and on its eastern border the State of Missouri, a slave state and on the south by Indian Territory of the Cherokees and Creeks, who were also slave owners. The border wars were triggered by the settlement of Kansas and a hotbed of turmoil. The abolitionists literally came in and overthrew the territorial Federal government, which would be considered an act of treason and established a new government. To make matters worse these same men were forming railroad companies and establishing their sights on running railroads from Lawrence, Leavenworth and other northern locations to the Gulf of Galveston Bay, Texas. They made little secret of their intentions and ran ads in northern Kansas newspapers of their intentions in 1854 of using southern commodities to purchase at a cheap rate for their venture to be shipped to many destinations through these connections to the western building of the transcontinental railroad that was already in the process of being built through to Kansas in its northern counties. Humboldt was strategically chosen for its central location to Indian Territory and treaties were already being made with the Cherokee Indians to run through their lands long before the war. The ads were very specific about obtaining cheap lumber from Arkansas which was also had southern leanings. There is little doubt this further infuriated the South after being exploited by these same northern men and when Kansas became a state on January 29, 1861 it was the straw that broke the camel's back and we all know what happened next. It is my conjecture that Kansas entering the Union as a free state was the final catalyst that triggered the war in April. These plans made it imperative they didn't lose the war, it meant millions of acres of land were up for grabs and tons of money to be made.
Kansas Senator, James Henry Lane, is a well known dubious character in Kansas history and was among those who participated, including well -known Jayhawker, Charles R. Jennison, in all of these actions for personal gain. Also involved was John Brown, Jr., son of old John Brown of Harper's Ferry fame and Daniel Anthony, brother of Susan B. Anthony. Lane was friends with some of the early settlers of Humboldt and is well known for his "Jayhawking" into Missouri which eventually led to Lawrence being burned in 1863, but it wasn't the first town to be burned, Humboldt was raided and burned in 1861 by Confederate forces. Two of the main characters he was friends with in Humboldt were Orlin Thurston and Watson Stewart, both early settlers in Humboldt. What I thought was so interesting is why this small hamlet in no man's land was chosen as a target by the Confederate forces. What reason could there be for these attacks to a seemingly innocent population here. In the last few years I have uncovered previously unknown details about some of the citizens of Humboldt which eventually led to its demise on the evening of October 14, 1861.
Before any troops were mustered officially in Kansas, Lane took it upon himself to appoint Orlin Thurston as a Colonel for the 7th Kansas State Militia made up of men from Allen and Woodson counties in 1861. The reason it makes it so difficult to track the men involved is because there are no official records for these militia regiments in the Federal or Kansas records, therefore hiding their involvement in the Jayhawking with Lane and Jennison.
My first discovery was a discharge of another early settler in the German settlement, Charles Fussman. He was a tinner by trade and had positioned himself with a business on the corner of the town square at 8th and Bridge Streets. His business and home were burned to the ground. This discharge reads as follows:
7th Regiment Kansas State Militia
enlisted 31 Aug 1861
Certificate
This certifies that the within named Charles Fussman a private of Captain Dornberg Company (who was a doctor here) of the 7th Regiment of Kansas State Militia who volunteered at Humboldt in Allen county State of Kansas August 31, 1861, to repel an invasion of Kansas by General Rains and is now honorably discharged by reason of the retreat of the secession army. The said Charles Fussman has pay due from that time to the present date. There is due him from the U.S. the sum of six and 50/100 dollars.
Given in duplicate at Barnesville this 14th day of September 1861
Orlin Thurston, Col. Commanding
James H Lane, Commanding Kansas Brigade
Barnesville, Kansas is in Bourbon County close to Ft. Scott, and east of Humboldt about 40 miles, was the site of military camps for stretches of time during the war. The first mention of a camp there came from a report written on September 4, 1861, by Sen. James Lane. This was during the time Lane had evacuated Fort Scott and moved his forces to areas north of that post. A post was established at Barnesville. Lane wrote to Capt. W. E. Prince, then commanding Fort Leavenworth, "I am holding Barnesville . . . with an irregular force of about 250 men, stationed in log buildings, and am now strengthening their position with earth entrenchments."
The book "Jayhawkers: The Civil War Brigade of James Henry Lane" by Bryce Benedict – 2012, reveals the Battle of Drywood, Missouri. "pg 74 Jayhawkers
Lane dispatched a rider to Jennison with orders to bring forward his men from Barnesville, Kansas. Jennison arrived Monday morning, all the available cavalry from the regiments of Montgomery, Weer, and Johnson were already out in pursuit of the raiders, together with Moonlight's howitzer and Harris Greeno's company of home guards. The rebels were overtaken inside Missouri at Drywood Creek.
pg 76
Although Lane lacked the authority to do so, he called for the Kansas militia to take the field. Colonel Orlin Thurston's Seventh Regiment Kansas State Militia, from Allen and Woodson counties, responded."
The Battle of Dry Wood Creek (also known as the Battle of Big Dry Wood Creek or the Battle of the Mules) was fought on September 2, 1861 in Vernon County, Missouri. Federal losses were 14 men. Missouri State Guard losses were 4 killed and 16 wounded, all in Brigadier General James S. Rains' Eighth Division, Missouri State Guard. The battle site is just south of Deerfield, Missouri, on Highway 54 between Nevada, Missouri and Fort Scott, Kansas.
In the memoirs of Major Watson Stewart of the Kansas State Militia he reports in his many articles published in The Humboldt Union newspaper in 1876 revealing the same story, but he didn't tell what they had been doing previously nor what was going on later with plundering, killing, and burning of towns in Missouri. He puts it off to the fact Humboldt was burned due to the burning of Osceola, Missouri, but it was going on long before that happened. Of course the victors never tell the whole story nor do they admit to any wrongdoing.
"For our better protection, we organized ourselves into companies of Militia, and armed ourselves as well as we could. General Lane, was, during the latter part of the summer, busy organizing the Militia of the state, for its protection; the Militia of our county were under the command of Colonel Orlin Thurston, of Humboldt.
About the first of September (1861), Ft. Scott was threatened with a raid, and Colonel Thurston was ordered there, with a portion of his command. Those in the south part of the county were left, as a protection to their homes. Before reaching Ft. Scott, the order was received to go to Barnesville, a point on the State Line, to act as picket guards, while the main force fortified a point about six miles back, which was called Ft. Lincoln, this point General Lane designated as the "Key to Kansas." There, most of the men of Humboldt were holding the "Key" while a band of Rebels came in by "another door" and sacked their town. This was on the afternoon of September 8, 1861. There was one company of Missourians, under Captain Livingston, and one of Cherokee and Osage Halfbreed Indians, under Captain Mathews. They passed about a mile east of us, on their way to Humboldt, and we did not know of their presence until after their departure. But few men were in Humboldt, and the town fell an easy prey to their hands; they did not kill anyone, but robbed the stores and private houses of such things as they could carry away. They hastened off, making a few calls on the way, as they returned south. On the following day as many of the settlers as were at home pushed after them with as much dispatch as was possible. On reaching Lightning Creek, we were joined by a force of regular volunteer soldiers from Ft. Scott, under command of Col. Jas. G. Blunt, afterwards a Major General. We placed our force under his command, and we were led along down the Neosho river, hoping to find some of the Rebels at or about the residence of Captain Mathews. He was living on a fine ranch, just where the town of Oswego has since been built; he had a half-breed Osage Indian wife, and had a lot of fine horses and other stock. However, we found that he was not here, but had gone on further south, and that his men had scattered. This move, we were making in the night time, and with great caution, having with us a guide who was well acquainted with every trail, much of the way being through dense woods; passing on down the river, we obtained information that a part of the raiders were at the house of a Cherokee Indian, about three miles below where the town of Chetopa now is, and just over the line into the Indian Territory; we reached the place just about daybreak, and surrounded the house. Having discovered us, two of the occupants broke out into the bush and escaped; one, we took prisoner; Captain Mathews himself, with a double-barreled shot gun in his hands, ran out of the house and was shot down."
"The people of Humboldt now took extra precautions to prevent another raid. They kept one company of Infantry in town, and they were building a fortification around O'Brien's mill; and one company of cavalry was kept out, for most of the time, as scouts, in the direction of the Indian Territory.
On the 14th of October, (1861) this company of cavalry returned from a scout of several days to the south line of the state, reporting that no sign of rebels had been seen. This report quieted all fears, at the time, and the people were wholly off their guard when, later in the evening, a force of three or four hundred rebels, under Col. Talbot from Arkansas, of the Confederate Army, came dashing into the town and easily captured the place, taking most of the Militia force prisoners. One man, in attempting to get away on a mule, was shot and killed. Captain Livingston, who was with the former raid, was also in this party. After setting fire to nearly every house in town, and robbing them of such things as they could carry away, they liberated the prisoners and returned south with all possible dispatch, small detachments calling, as they went, on most of the settlers on their routes.
We learned of this raid upon Humboldt just about sundown, and we expected a visit from them on their return, probably some time during the night; and, from the fact that since the former raid, General Lane's forces had captured and burned Osceola, Missouri, and on the south line of the State, in Cherokee County, a reputed Southern sympathizer running a small store, had been robbed and murdered by some irresponsible persons claiming to be Union men; and, from the further fact of my own part in the pursuit of the former raiders and the killing of Mathews; I did not feel like trusting myself in their hands."
Another character of Humboldt was the first sheriff, Josiah Clark Redfield. One of his descendants has searched endlessly for his civil war record to no avail and writes "And a mystery remains: the aunt mentioned above (alert at 81) insists that Josiah served during the Civil War. Yet he was sheriff in Allen County throughout the war, and searches at the National Archives have been negative. On the other hand, his two brothers, Richard R. Redfield and Orrin S. Redfield (who also followed him to Kansas after the war) both served in the Civil War, and their records have been obtained from the Archives. Did Aunt Dana have the family mixed up? Perhaps. Or perhaps Josiah was simply a Jayhawker, without formal enlistment. These are the things that make searching for your roots never ending!"
Josiah was found to be involved in several dubious land deals while he was sheriff with the land office register, Jonathan Coleman Burnett, whose sister, Kate Burnett, saved the land records during the burning. The land office had been moved to Humboldt from Ft. Scott due to the dubious relationship with Lane of these men. This led to the discovery in a probate file of a man named Pleasant Turney who had come to Allen County in 1860 from Arkansas and purchased a farm on the Allen/Woodson county line about 5 miles west of Humboldt. After the burning he left to go back to Arkansas, joined the Union forces and died within six months. He had left a written agreement for the care of his farm to a neighbor, Jesse Webb, to continue building fences and maintaining his store of goods in his absence. None of his family lived here, but after the war one of his single daughters, Sarah, showed up in 1866 to discover that the farm was no more and there was no estate to settle. She discovered that Redfield and Burnett had confiscated the property with their cronies in Topeka accusing him of being a Confederate and under the confiscation act stole his property and sold it on the courthouse steps in which they both purchased it for a song. By 1872 after she sued them she got her father's farm back from them. While digging through his probate file I discovered about 40 pages of testimony of the man he left the property in care of and the neighbors and discovered that Jennison and his men were here raiding the farm in the early months of 1862 stealing everything they could get their hands on. They had been sent here to "cool off" their jayhawking antics because they were causing a major embarrassment to the Union army. At the same time, John Brown, Jr. was here and writing letters to his wife witnessing the execution of a deserter who had stolen Daniel Anthony's horse trying to escape from the camp as a prisoner in the southern part of Humboldt after he had stabbed another soldier in a ruckus.
In the diary of Confederate John W. Fisher, (MEMORIAL ID 9123635) Company C, 10th Missouri Cavalry State Guard, 8th Division, 2nd Lieutenant, who was at the burning, tells his side of the story. His father-in-law was the well- known Confederate Colonel Thomas H. Rosser, who was given a sword by General Sterling Price for his dedicated service in Missouri. Colonel Rosser was in command of infantry and artillery in the battles of Carthage, Springfield, Lexington and Drywood in Missouri. In his letters to his wife, Bettie, who was residing in Westport, Missouri at the time, writes: "Preston, Mo Oct 13, 1861 My dear wife I promised you to write a diary for your perusal at when we meet so I will commence this morning. I wrote to you day before yesterday from our camp at Carthage, where we arrived that day, about 150 of our Regiments [10th Cavalry, Missouri State Guard] started from there last night for Humboldt, Kansas for what purpose I do not exactly know, we arrived at this place, some 7 or 8 miles from our camp about 10 ½ Oclock and after feeding our horses we spread our blankets on the ground and our saddles under our head we were soon enjoying ourselves with a good nap,
this morning, Sunday, is a beautiful day, and we are all saddled up waiting for another detachment of men from Col [Sanford J.] Talbots Reg. [11th Cavalry, Missouri State Guard] consisting of 160 men who start with us for Kansas this morning, we may have a hard time of it as it is reported that there is a force of 500 men with 4 pieces of Cannon at Humboldt and several detachments at LeRoy, Emporia and Cofachique, if they are there they will give us "fits", but our cause is just and the God of battles has been with us in every fight yet and with Him on our side we are sure of success may he be with us and prosper us. I heard the Governor Jackson [Claiborne Fox Jackson] make a speech night before last in which he said he intended to burn Kansas from one end to the other.
Osage Catholic Mission, Osage Nation Oct 14 1861 After leaving Preston we started for this place it is about 55 miles, we traveled all day until 9 oclock at night when we stopped and slept until 2 oclock when we started and arrived home about 7 oclock this morning, while marching yesterday we saw two men who were very much surprised at our appearance and as soon as we come in sight of them they ran off as fast as there horses would carry them I suppose they were Yankees we have seen no houses where owners were in them since we left Missouri every body has left where we stopped to eat our dinner yesterday at a Man's house (Hoover) we found the greatest quanity of very large water melons, more than our 300 men could destroy but we all ate as many as we could hold, the priests at this mission gave us all our breakfast of Coffee and Bread and biscuits and a fine meal it was to tired soldiers who had been marching nearly all night, they gave myself, Col. [William H.] Erwin and one or two others a large slice of apple pie, after eating breakfast, I went into their Chapel which is arranged very nicely inside with good pictures, the inside was fitted up by Indian workmen and it would do credit to any kind of workmen, I saw one picture in needlework done by an Indian girl which is one of the finest pictures I ever saw, it was "The Crown of thorns" it was as beautifully executed as could be done by any lady, we start in few minutes for Humboldt out in the prairie on Neosho River 20 miles from any where.
Oct 15.1861 We started for Humboldt about 10 o'clock and traveled along slowly, I stopped to see an Indian village which is a very curious sight to one who never saw one, it is laid out like a city with streets running parallel to each other, the houses one built of small poles, both ends stuck into the ground similar to an arbor, these were about 20 feet long 12 feet wide and 8 feet high. I suppose there were upwards of 100 but there were no Indians in them as they, the Osage, have all gone on a buffalo hunt we arrived to within 4 miles of Humboldt about 4 oclock when we took a dutchman prisoner who reported that there was a force of about 300 men there, we then formed and started to go in on the south side of town, we arrived just in the edges of the town a little before sundown while the people were eating their suppers, our Regiment [10th Cavalry, Missouri State Guard] took the East side and Col [Sanford J.] Talbots the west we all started on a charge yelling like Indians and rode right into the town without their soldiers firing a shot at us, we took them so completely by surprise and they were so frightened that they left as soon as they could get out, we took some 45 or 50 prisoners and I believe some 3 or four of them were Killed who would not stop our men did not fire a gun, we then broke into all the houses searching for men and for what ever our men wanted, we did not hurt any lady or take anything from them, but we took every thing that we needed out of the stores that we could Carry and then set fire to the town and laid it in ashes leaving two or three houses for the women and children, I got me a shirt and two Comforts and a shawl two over coats (which I gave to our boys) a fine piece of satin for a vest a Can teen; tin cup 4 knives & forks and two tents and could have gotten any amount of other things if we could have found their wagons, we burnt up two mills and a large lot of flour perhaps 300 sacks about 5000 lbs Bacon and and amount of other provision that we could not carry away Humboldt was a very pretty town nearly as large as Paola and prettier, there were some fine houses in it, a large hotel nearly as large as Morris' Mill I hated to see the town destroyed but that is the only way we can get rid of them and it was what the governor [Claiborne Fox Jackson] sent us there to do, the women said they thought it was hard but it was just, as their men had been doing the same in Missouri. I think it is hard too and I do not approve of it, they were all very badly frightened supposing us at first to be Cherokees, but after they found us out they were not so badly frightened, they did not have your spunk however and did not abuse us any our men assisted them in getting their things out into the square before we set fire to the town and treated them very kindly, after we got ready to start we released all the prisoners without injuring one of them, we left there about 9 o'clock that night and started back to camp we traveled all day yesterday until 11 oclock last night and camped on Cherry Creek about 20 miles from here."
There is little doubt there were many men who resided in Humboldt who were involved in the jayhawking of Missouri towns with Lane and Jennison. As time passes tidbits seem to fall at my feet with another piece of the puzzle when I least expect it. That's the beauty of taking a look at the real history of our country from the true actors who created it and not the ones who try to cover up the truth of it all. And after the war it didn't stop there, they continued with their lust for power and money and left our town bankrupt, and without a city government for over 20 years by their scandalous deals in building the railroads here and stealing the funds. Nothing has really changed and it doesn't seem as though we have learned anything. Lest we forget.
Humboldt is a unique town in small-town America that still thrives graced with historic buildings on the town square, two museums, a working blacksmith shop started in 1876 on the National Register of Historic places, a vintage woodworking shop, and a 12 site tour of Civil War sites. New sidewalks surrounding the town square graced with vintage lamp posts are almost complete. Old buildings are currently being restored for space for new businesses. The South Wind Bike Trail starts at the north edge of town and can be ridden to the northern cities in Kansas. Camping facilities are also available. Further lodging plans and development are in the process.
Humboldt's rich civil war history is re-enacted every three years sponsored by the Humboldt Civil War Days committee. An official string band performs civil war music featured with a "caller" for vintage civil war dancing at the Friday night dance and the re-enactments occur on Saturday, with a 12 site tour of the civil war sites on Sunday.
Family Members
Advertisement
Advertisement
