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Carthage
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2021-02-24 11:48:51On the night of July 4, 1860, Franz Sigel’s men found themselves in camp north of the city of Carthage, Jasper County, Missouri. Unbeknownst to them, Gov. Claiborne Jackson’s men, under his own command, lay in wait, just over a ridge further north. Though the Confederate forces had Sigel’s men grossly outnumbered, almost six to one, nearly a third of Jackson’s forces were not armed. Still, the Confederate soldiers who had weapons and were ready for battle had a great advantage on the Union Army. On the dawn of July 5, Jackson drew his men into formation along the ridge. Sigel had been chasing him across the state. Jackson wondered if Sigel would take this opportunity and attack. It did not take long for the governor to receive an answer.
Will’s regiment had been part of the encampment that settled down in Carthage the night of July 4. There were plenty of rumors going around that Confederate soldiers were in the area. Of course, they had heard th
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Cordia, like most other citizens of Barton County, spent much of July 5 standing around outside of the courthouse, waiting to see if a casualty list would be posted. Of course, everyone was fairly sure that it was too soon for anyone to send a telegraph with news of the engagement from Carthage that day. All they knew was that Jackson’s men had attacked Sigel’s somewhere north of Carthage. They also knew there had been another skirmish, a little farther south, near the town of Neosho.While Cordia was taking all this news in stride, Susannah had spent the better part of the day crying herself sick. Her young boys had stared at her at first, wondering if something had happened to their pa. Eventually, their grandmother came to take them to her house, and Susannah and Cordia spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on the courthouse lawn. Julia was camped there as well, along with her aunt and many of the other women. Some of them Cordia did not recognize, and she as
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On July 7, Jackson decided not to follow Sigel’s men on their retreat toward Springfield. There were Confederate soldiers, under Gen. Ben McCulloch and Gen. Sterling Price, already stationed there. However, with the growing call to arms from the Confederate Army, a number of men decided to detach from the Missouri State Guard, and enlisted with the Confederate troops, officially becoming part of the Confederate Army. Jaris Adams was part of that regiment. He made the long, slow trip toward Springfield, along with a few hundred other men, many of which were also from Barton County. He had hoped to find time along the trip to send word to Cordia and his mother that he had survived his first engagement, but free time was hard to come by. Eventually, they found the Confederate Army and were enlisted. Jaris retained his rank of lieutenant and was soon drilling with a whole other set of men.Throughout the rest of July, both armies were relatively quiet as far as fighting was
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It had been a surprise attack. Around four o’clock that morning, Jaris was awakened to the sound of panic. “They’re coming!” men were yelling. Soldiers were scrambling for their guns, trying to form a line, trying to stop the Yankees as they poured over the high ground in front of them.Though Lyon’s men had used the element of surprise, it had not taken long for the Confederate forces to regroup. The fighting was extremely intense. Jaris’s men spent a great deal of time combating in a cornfield. He had done tremendously well, killing a number of Union soldiers, while still managing to keep his men from fleeing the field. Suddenly, about an hour into the attack, a large number of fresh Union soldiers swept over the hilltop, charging toward Jaris’s company. They seemed to be outnumbered. He looked around to see if any other troops were available to help, but then he realized the rest of the Confederate soldiers were giving up the groun
Last Updated : 2021-02-24Cordia's Will: A Civil War Story of Love and Loss Sweltering
The heat of the August sun was blazing. It was only a short walk from the large two-story house on Broadway Street up to the town square, but even with a sunbonnet on, Cordia could feel the sweat running down the back of her neck. Maybe it was just because there had been rumor of another fight, a big one near Springfield, but she felt like she was being burned alive.Her heart was pounding as she neared the courthouse. She could see a crowd forming there. News had just made it to her father at the bank, who had sent word by one of the young boys who worked at the newspaper to go tell Cordia. Yet, already, there must have been close to fifty people standing around, staring at the courthouse door. Nothing was posted yet, and most likely nothing would be that day—nothing that really supplied any pertinent information. Nevertheless, Cordia did not have the best of feelings this time. Her stomach was tight, her palms sweaty, her heart raced, ready to burst out of her chest.
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After Mr. Ward read the telegraph from his cousin, Cordia’s father tried to get her to go home, but she insisted on staying. She watched as Mr. Ward locked up the courthouse at 8:15. She watched as the crowd dispersed. She even watched as Julia rode away around 9:00. Finally, her father talked enough reason into her to get her to walk back home. She knew she wouldn’t sleep that night and that she would probably be one of the first people at the courthouse the next morning. If it had been up to her, she would have spent the night sleeping underneath that oak tree.As soon as there was enough light to see the brick sidewalk, Cordia was out the door, flying to the town square. As she approached the courthouse, she saw just a few other people standing outside. There was nothing new posted on the door. Her shoulders slumped as she went back to the same spot where she had spent the better portion of the day before, underneath the oak tree. She hadn’t figured on th
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A few minutes after Cordia’s dad left the town square, Mr. Ward came out of the courthouse, though they could all see he had no papers in his hands. “All right,” he announced, “this is what I have done. I have telegraphed my cousin and asked him to go down to these hospitals he was speaking of yesterday and see if he can compile a list of the Barton County boys who are dead and wounded.” There were now close to one-hundred people standing around, and most of them were very happy to hear this news. “Now, I can’t promise he’ll get the message or be able to do it today, but I reckon that’s about all I can do at this time.”“There’s no other news?” someone shouted from the back of the crowd.“No, I’m afraid there ain’t been no news, nothing I didn’t already tell you about.” Mr. Ward confirmed. Then, he promptly turned around and went back into the courthouse.
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The sky was like a painting, portraying the end of the world. Dark red at the horizon, lightening to pink and orange, before it finally spread into a thick yellow that covered the rest of the sky. Smoke billowed through the air, sometimes pervasive enough that simply breathing would make a person gag and choke. It seemed that not a single blade of grass could still be standing. The ground was thick with mud, small rivers flowing through it, the same color as that horizon. The stench of death and dying hung in curtains, wafting around on the breeze, churning stomachs, causing nostrils to flare. Standing here, one no longer needed to imagine what hell must be like.Cordia was picking her way through an endless sea of dead men’s bodies, piled to her knees and higher. She looked into the eyes of every single one of them. Sometimes, she had to turn them over to get a good look at their faces. Occasionally, parts of their corpses would stain her hands with blood, body tissue,
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Cordia’s parents and Frieda were dumbfounded hearing her declare she was intending to drive into a war zone.“Cordia,” her mother was saying, “you can’t possibly be serious.” To look at her, however, they could tell that Cordia was definitely steadfast. She had already gotten two traveling gowns out of the closet and a bag for her essentials.“Cordia, calm down,” her father said, lightly grabbing her arm, in her mind causing a loss of precious time. “You can’t just go galloping off to Springfield in the middle of the night. It wouldn’t be safe.”“I don’t care,” she insisted, shaking her arm free. “I’ll be fine. I know how to shoot a gun. I’ll take one with me. I am not going to sit here for one more minute waiting for someone to tell me that the man I love—or his cousin—is dead!” She turned around and flung open a drawer and began t
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Carey’s horse ran straight past him, seeing the other riders off in the distance, and Carey knew he was trapped. Will was certainly behind him now. He dropped the derringer to the ground, hoping compliance would be beneficial. His only option was to find a way to get close enough to Cordia to take that gun away and use her body as a shield. “Cordia,” he said as sweetly as he could muster, “you’re not going to shoot me,” he smiled at her, nonchalantly. “Go ahead and step out of the way, darlin’ so I can join my men.”“You and your men shot my daddy,” she replied, her voice filled with hate.Carey swallowed hard. It had never been his intention to physically harm her father. “I’m sorry to hear that,” he said quietly. “Your father and I have always been such good friends. I’m sure he would understand why you would let me go.”It was a stretch, and they both knew it
Cordia's Will: A Civil War Story of Love and Loss Fire
Carey’s plan was working. The cavalry was not prepared for an assault on the munitions, and when they blew, it shook the entire square. Glass shards flew through the air, people went flying, horses darted off, some with riders still holding on. The explosion had caught the wooden steeple and roof of the courthouse on fire, and the structure was going up in flames. Within a few moments, the entire top of the building was burning.The Union troops realized that their focal point was rapidly disappearing. While this was certainly devastating to their purpose, it did suddenly create a sense of mobility to the commanders. No longer tied to a structure to protect, they began to pour out in formation, engaging the enemy where they were, rather than waiting for Quantrill and his men to come to them.Quantrill recognized this problem almost instantly. He had hoped to acquire some of the weapons and munitions that had been stored there, but at least they would no longer be
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The group of men Carey was leading were pyromaniacs, apparently. His understanding was that Quantrill wanted them to converge on the square, take the outpost, and then light the town on fire as they made their escape. These men spent a great deal of time throwing torches through broken windows, and it seemed that they would never make it to the heart of the battle unfolding on the square a few blocks away.At last, Carey gave the order to ride on, and then did so, not caring who followed. He could see that a large contingency of the men had accompanied him, while only a few stayed behind to torch the houses along Tenth Street. He covered the few blocks to the square quickly, hoping to get in on the fight. It had been almost two years since he had tasted battle, and he was eager to feel the rush of assault again. However, once he got to the square, he realized Quantrill and Lewis had not organized their attack as well as he had hoped. The 8thCavalry appeared to be ready
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Carey was furious. “This is my aunt and uncle’s farm!” he was yelling, bringing his horse between the torch men and the shed they had just lit on fire. “You have direct orders from Quantrill not to touch any of our property or our relations’!”“Sorry! We didn’t know!” an older cross-eyed soldier spat back before riding off. Though it was too late for this particular shed, Carey was hopeful that he could save the rest of the farm from a similar fate. He was leading a small band of marauders into town. Quantrill had split his men into smaller groups so that they could enter the city limits a bit more stealthily. They would meet back up at the courthouse directly. Carey had given very specific directions to everyone as to which houses were to be spared, this being one of them, but apparently these outlaws had not listened as closely as he would have liked, and he began to fear for the safety of his father who was likely sleep
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A few hours into Will’s vigil, he realized that Julia’s breathing had changed. The door to her bedroom was ajar, and he could hear his aunt bustling around, keeping herself busy. “Aunt Margaret,” he said as loudly as he could muster. “I think you should probably come in here.”Margaret had been present at quite a few deaths over the years. Thankfully, most of them had been the passing of elderly members of her family, such as her grandparents, though she had watched her mother breath her last at the age of fifty-two. She had always regretted not being there for her brother and his wife, Will’s parents, but they had lived such reclusive lives. She didn’t even know they were sick until after they had passed. Entering the room, she could tell immediately that Julia’s time had come. Her breathing was very shallow and uneven. Several seconds passed between breaths. Catching Will’s eye, Margaret nodded solemnly.He
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Cordia’s parents were elated to see her, though hearing of the circumstances that brought her diminished their joy significantly. They invited Zachariah in, but he declined, thinking his mother may need him back at the house. He knew that, once Julia had passed, his mother would be extremely emotional, and he wanted to be there to comfort her.Once Frieda had greeted her, she disappeared into the kitchen, pouring drinks and preparing something for Cordia to eat. Though she protested that she was not hungry, Frieda insisted that she would need her strength. Cordia joined her parents in the parlor, feeling awkwardly like a guest in what was, until very recently, her own home for so long. She sat on the duvet across from her parents, who sat in their usual chairs. The fire was blazing in the fireplace, and Cordia suddenly became very aware of how cold she had been, despite her heavy winter coat.“Well, Cordia, dear,” her mother began. “How have you
Cordia's Will: A Civil War Story of Love and Loss Jules
The ride from the Tucker house to the Adams Farm was nearly silent and forced. The horses were spurred on in a full gallop for as long as they could bear it. Arthur did not have to say anything more for Will to know that, if Arthur was riding out to retrieve him, Julia must have grown much worse.When they arrived, Zachariah came out and took their horses. Arthur helped Cordia dismount but by the time she was off of her horse, Will was already inside the farmhouse, flying toward the back room. Cordia caught up with him at the door of Julia’s room, where he paused to compose himself before entering. She put her hand gently on his back, giving him the assurance he needed to enter the room and survey his sister’s waning condition.As they entered the room, they could see Dr. Walters sitting on a chair next to her bed, Margaret at the foot of the bed but within reach of her niece. Julia’s breathing was labored, but she was breathing. Her cheeks were flush
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Carey was encamped with Quantrill and his band of raiders, which numbered nearly two hundred, in a wooded area north of Lamar, for several days before they finally rode out to meet up with a few stragglers who had been out visiting family. Quantrill had been corresponding with Col. Warren Lewis of the Missouri State Guard, and they both had their eye on the outpost located in Lamar at the courthouse. On November 4, Quantrill gathered up his forces and began the ride north. Carey and the few men who had come along with him were instrumental in giving information about roads and the location of troops, etc. Carey also suggested that they try to take out the prominent businessmen in town and their families, hoping to use the famous rebel as a means to get revenge on those he believed had done him wrong. Quantrill agreed. Any permanent scars they could leave on the face of the town would be well worth it. Carey sketched a rough map of the town, placing an “X” on the homes of
Cordia's Will: A Civil War Story of Love and Loss Hurry
The trip into Nevada took about thirty minutes each way. Besides sending the telegraphs, they had also gotten some much-needed supplies. Will was anxious to hear how Julia was doing, and he didn’t want to stay cut-off from his family for too long, but he also wanted to make sure that Cordia’s father had the opportunity to receive the telegraph and calm down the authorities some before they headed back to Lamar. That was assuming that anyone was even looking for them. They weren’t even sure that Carey had reported anything to the sheriff at all. They decided to wait about a week before venturing back to the Adams Farm to ascertain the situation.They had done their best to avoid as many people as possible, particularly other riders. The fewer people who knew the old Tucker homestead was occupied again, the better, especially since the town was alive with whispers and rumors of guerrillas and marauders. Despite the fact that the house she was staying in had be
