Honor Roll
The Honor Roll of the 2nd Kansas State Militia consists of three groups: those killed on the field of battle, those wounded on the field of battle and those taken prisoner. There is little known of the men who were killed that day at the Mockbee Farm - no detailed records were kept such as in the regular Army - but I have done what research I can to identify and pay tribute to these unsung heroes and try to keep the memory of their sacrifice alive.
Online Cemetery
Killed on the Field of Battle
1. James B. Alverson, Co. B gravesite
2. Samuel Allen, Co. G gravesite
3. Nicholas Brown, Topeka Battery gravesite - Nicholas Brown, of the Independence Battery, was shot down while working the 24-pound howitzer captured by Shelby from General Grant, Kansas State Militia, October 22d. He was a young man but 33 years of
age, Prussian by birth, and very generally esteemed by his associates. *
4. Moses Banks, Co. D gravesite - Moses Banks served in Company D from Indianola Kansas, just north of Topeka. He is listed as "colored" in various sources and died at the Battle of Mockbee Farm. Moses may have been a former slave but at this point his origins are not known. Moses Banks gravesite is unknown at this time; there was an pension application made in July of 1867 for a minor dependant in Moses name so perhaps somewhere there is a descendant.
5. Charles H. Budd, Topeka Battery gravesite - Charles H.Budd was a native of Maine, who came to Kansas in 1860. A brick-mason by occupation, he was esteemed as a faithful and industrious work-man. He fell with the Battery to which he belonged, on the 22d of October.*
6. Robert J. Boles, Co I gravesite - Robert was born in Indiana in 1831 and married May(Polly) McCown around 1850 in Morgan County Indiana. Robert and his wife had two sons in Indiana before migrating to Madison Co. Iowa in 1855 where another child was born before finally settling in Monmouth, Shawnee County Kansas in the late 1850's. Robert was a farmer in Monmouth and his family grew to six children all told, including a daughter, his last child born.
7. Hiram C. Coville, Co. B gravesite Mr Coville was a farmer living three miles from the city of Topeka, he leaves a wife and one child. His age was about forty. He came to Kansas among the earlist settlers, locating in Shawnee County, and was always an active participant in the Free State troubles. A man much esteemed by his neighbors, he was twice elected county commisioner and his loss is regretted as that of a good man and valuable citizen.*
8. Robert Campbell, Co. F - gravesite
9. Albert Chapman, Co. C - gravesite Albert Chapman died at the Battle of the Blue near Westport Missouri while serving with the 2nd Kansas Militia, Company C. It is possible that Albert joined the Company without permission to be with his brother Charles, as his name was not on the muster role. He was but sixteen years old.
10. James Eagle, Co. F gravesite - James was born in Indiana and came to Kansas in 1856, locating in Douglas County where he kept a hotel for several years on the California Trail at Big Springs. He married Sarah Ann Matilda Fry in Indiana and they had four children, all born at Big Springs, Kansas.
11. David P. Fultz, Co. I gravesite - Born in 1836 in Lawrence County, Kentucky and married Elizabeth Patton 19 April, 1857 in Carter Co., Kentucky. Shortly after their wedding, David and his bride moved to Douglas Co. Kansas along with other members of the Fultz family. David was a farmer and the father of three children. By 1863, the Fultz family had moved to Shawnee Co. and it was there that David volunteered for the 2nd Militia. He was taken prisoner at the Battle of Big Blue by the Confederates and escaped the same night, but was mistaken for a rebel by Union troops and killed on his way back to his Company.
12. Georg Ginnold, Topeka Battery gravesite - George Ginnold was a member of Topeka Battery, an industrious German carpenter, whose death is felt severely by his wife and children. He came to Kansas, settling in Topeka, in 1860. Like the large majority of Germans, he was an ardent Republican, and a sincere and loyal citizen.*
13. Daniel Handley, Topeka Battery gravesite - Daniel Handley of the Topeka Battery fell at the engagement, October 22nd on the Blue, while most bravely attempting to defend the gun used by our militia, against a charge from Jackman's Brigade. He was an Irishman, a butcher by trade, and came to the state in 1858.*
14. Ben Hughes, Topeka Battery gravesite - Ben Hughes was an African American Teamster who was believed to have been murdered at the Mockbee Farm battlefield while attempting to surrender. Ben's origins and personal life are unknown but the circumstances of his death were widely used to exemplify the cruelty of the Confederates under Colonel Sidney Jackman. It would be nice to believe that such a martyr were given a proper soldiers burial - his gravesite remains unknown.
15. McClure Martin, Topeka Battery gravesite - McClure Martin, of the Battery, was not only an active member of that organization, in which he fell, but a respected and esteemed citizen of Topeka. He was but a young man. Came to Kansas from Pennsylvania. His brother and family reside at Topeka. He was an active Free State man throughout the perilous hours of '54, '5 and '6, and at last gave his life in defence of the principles he had so long sustained, meeting death at the hands of Slavery's minions with the same courage that he had combatted it in life.*
16. Robert McNown, Co. D gravesite - Robert McNown was born on the Isle of Man in 1814 and moved with his family to Rawdon,Quebec, Canada when he was still a child. Robert left home about age 18 and found work on a British whaler; due to the severity of discipline aboard that vessel he left for a French whaler where he learned his trade well and soon became first mate. Deciding to settle down, Robert came to Racine, Wisconsin where he met Sarah Drought and married her on 9 March, 1845. Weary of the harsh winters in Wisconsin, Robert travelled to Kansas in 1854 and selected his claim, which grew to be 320 acres just east of the Indianola townsite. By 1858 the entire McNown family had arrived in Kansas and soon realized they lived amongst many who believed Kansas should be admitted to the Union as a slave state. Robert had very strong anti-slavery sentiments and was jailed briefly in 1860 for his stance on this subject. With Kansas' admission to the Union as a free state in 1861, it seemed that Robert and his family could now get down to the business of working and growing their farm. By October 1864 however, the Civil War was still raging and the Confederate Army, lead by General Sterling Price, had invaded Missouri and was heading directly towards Kansas. Robert joined Company D of the 2nd. Kansas Militia and left with about 300 of his Shawnee County neighbors for Jackson County Missouri, where they were placed to defend the border. As with his brother John at Shiloh two years earlier, Robert was killed on the field of battle at the Battle of the Big Blue River 22 October, 1864. He and the other men from the 2nd. killed in that battle are buried in a special section at the Topeka Cemetery, reserved for those who paid the price of freedom that long ago day. He left behind his wife and nine children, a tenth child born after his passing
17. Dennis Ray, Co. D gravesite - Dennis Ray was the blacksmith for Company D. and one of the few African-Americans in the 2nd KSM. There doesn't appear to be any census records for him but I did come across a Dennis Ray in the "U.S. Civil War Draft Registrations" Records. He was listed as living in Timber Hill, Bourbon County Kansas and his occupation was listed as a blacksmith. The final resting place of Dennis Ray is unknown.
18. David Rake, Co. F gravesite - David was born 18 August, 1821 in Monroe Co. Ohio and married Sarah Eveligh there in 1844. He was a farmer who moved with his family to Cedar Co. Iowa in the mid 1850's and then to Douglas Co. Kansas by 1860. When David volunteered for the 2nd.K.S.M. in 1864, he and his wife had only recently moved to Topeka with their nine children.
19. Merrick D. Race, Topeka Battery gravesite - Merrick D.Race was born in North Ridgeville, Loraine County, Ohio, January 24th, 1842. At the time of his death he was then 22 years old. He received an excellent education. In August, 1861, he joined the llth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, and soon after came to Kansas with his command. He'served through Kansas, on the Border and in the Indian Territory, until being taken sick, he was, after a long illness, mustered out for disability at Columbus, Ohio, in the Spring of '63.
He then entered the Commercial College at Oberlin, where he rapidly perfected in the studies, having the intention of becoming a teacher himself. Removing to Topeka, Kansas, August, 1864, he engaged in the starting of a Commercial College. This institution, known as Mills and Race's College, was in a flourishing condition when Price's invasion summoned all to arms. Young Race immediately joined the battery and proceeded with it to the Border. In this he was very useful, having considerable practical knowledge of artillery drill and practice. At the fight near Russell's Ford, on the 22d, the gallant young soldier, after having actively aided the resistance by the small detachment with the gun before the arrival of Colonel Veale, passed amid the storm of bullets along the entire front of the rebel line for the purpose of reconnoitering, and returned to Colonel Veale with the information that they were several thousand in number. He was taken prisoner in the final charge, after being promised treatment as a prisoner of war, and immediately, on delivery of his arms, was shot twice, one ball passing through his leg and the other passing through his lungs. Being left for dead he was, after the rebels moved off, succored by a member of the Auburn Company, who had also escaped. This young man brought water, and succeeded in removing him to a house near by. Here he remained until re-captured by our forces on Sunday. In the evening he was moved two miles for the purpose of better attendance. He remained, enduring his agony with cheerfulness, at times believing he would recover, until Monday morning, when at 2 A. M. his spirit left for the better land. He was buried on the field, but his body was afterwards removed, by an uncle, to Loraine County, Ohio. He died regretted by all. Active, talented, generous, earnest, his cowardly murder, after surrender, is but another evidence of the hellish spirit engendered by slavery.*
20. Elias Roberts, Co. C gravesite - Elias Roberts of Co. I originally hailed from New Jersey before moving out west to Ohio and later Iowa, where he farmed and started a family. By 1860 Elias, his wife Martha and their three children had relocated to Lone Jack in Jackson County Missouri. This was an extremely dangerous area to raise a family - Lone Jack was in the heart of the Border War region and by 1863 Elias and his family moved over into Shawnee County Kansas and farmed in the Tecumseh Township. Shortly thereafter Elias was killed at Mockbee Farm but his gravesite remains unknown at this time.
21. William.P. Roberts, Co. G gravesite - Willaim P. Roberts was born in Newcastle County Delaware on 4 September, 1826. He was married to Louisa Marsh on 4 september, 1847 in Philadelphia Pennsylvania and by 1860 had moved to Auburn Township, Shawnee County Kansas with Louisa and their four children. From census records, his occupation is listed as a capenter and a trader.
22. Lear Selkin, Topeka Battery gravesite - Lear Selkin, a German citizen of Topoka, was killed in the engagement upon the Big Blue, October 22d, while working the gun to which he was attached.*
23. William Waln, Co. I gravesite - The spirit of the obscure American wanderer was embodied by William Waln, who was also from Co. I. After William was killed at the Battle of the Blue, he was identified as "William Wann" in every source that listed the dead of the 2nd KSM. After I failed to track down that name, I came across a Widow's Pension File that revealed his true name. More research revealed that he was born in Highland Co. Ohio in 1818 and migrated to Marion Co. Iowa by the late 1840's. According to census records, William and his wife Leah had at least two children in Iowa before moving to Indiana and having two more. By 1864, William was serving in the 2nd Kansas Militia and became a (misspelled) footnote to history. The whereabouts of his gravesite remain unknown.
24. Harvey G. Young, Co. B gravesite - Harvey Young was a citizen of Topeka, doing business there; a young man but a little over thirty years of age, and settled in 1854, passing through all the troublous Free-State agitation in which warfare he bore an active part.*
25. Lt. William H. DeLong gravesite of Co G was severely wounded while a prisoner of the Confederates and died in a U.S. Army hospital in Kansas City on November 19th, 1864.
*From the book "Rebel Invasion Of Missouri And Kansas: And The Campaign Of The Army Of The Border Against General Sterling Price, In October And November, 1864"
by Richard Josiah Hinton
Wounded on the Field of Battle
Lt.Col. Henry M.Greene, Captain Ross Burns, Captain Hiram E.Bush, Captain Sterling B. Miles, Lieut. William H. DeLong, Isaac Bickel, Allen Blandon, John S. Branner, Brock Crawford, Martin Drick, Peter Fleck, John P. Greer, H.M.Howard, John Keiser, Dr. Alexander F. Neely, James Norris, Thomas F. Prather, John Thompson, William P. Thompson and John A. Ward.
Taken Prisoner during the Battle
James Anderson, John Armstrong, John Baxter, Isaac Baxter, John Ward Brown, Isaac Bickell, Samuel Blandon, James Mattew Clark, Lindsey T. Cook, Henry Cunningham, Frank Dawson, Henry M. Deming, John J. Driver, George Duncan, Redmond Fitzgerald, George Fix, Henry Fix, William Flanders, Perry Fleshman, F.M. Fletcher, J.B. Follansbee, John S. Freeland, Lt. Patrick H. Geelan, Guilford G. Gage, J.T. Gage, Robert Gualt, Jonathan H. Glenn, James R. Greer, James M. Hastings, William S. Hibbard, 2nd. Lt. Sylvester Higbee, Robert W. Hoback, J.H. Holman, C.G. Howard, James Huggins, Captain A.J. Huntoon, Baxter Ingrund, Ephraim Johnson, Sebastian Kizer, John Kemp, Robert Kemp, Jacob Kline, Samuel Kosier, John A. Link, Horace Linn, Fred K. Mackey, John P. Majors, John S. Markham, William Marx, Oscar McConnell, George B. McKee, Buck Miller, William Moeser, Osburn Naylor, Willard S. Nichols, James O'Neal, Luther Palmer, Edward Pape, J.A. Polley, Alfred Quiett, Samuel J. Reader, John Reed, Frank Rickerhauser, John Robinson, James Russell, Simon Shaffer, Eli Snyder, Jerome Stahl, J.S. Stanfield, Daniel Stephens, James B. Taylor, Wallis True, David Vaughn, Lt. Hiram Ward, James Warren, Elias B. Williams, Levi Williams, Granger Wood, G.H. Wood, and Nelson Young.
