October 26th, 1864; Fleeing Towards the Ozark Hills

   Early on the morning of Wednesday, October 26th the weary and demoralized Confederate Army broke camp and headed toward the southeast and the Ozark Hills of Missouri.  It was here that General Price hoped to elude the pursuing Union Cavalry and continue his escape on to Arkansas and regroup his shattered force, which had shrunk to just a few thousand men.  Most of the dismounted Rebels were given permission to scatter and save themselves as General Price now devoted his full attention to retreat - he destroyed nearly all of his wagons and artillery ammunition and abandoned or killed his unserviceable animals. Unencumbered by the weight of the wagon train, Price's Army was now making very quick time in the pre-dawn hours as it headed for the town of Carthage, Missouri.
  Unfortunately for the prisoners from the 2nd Kansas Militia this "double-quick" march was straining many of them to the breaking point.  The Rebel Provost Guard that had protected them from the depredations of Border Guerrillas during their imprisonment was now running them to death.  Not only was it the prisoners who suffered but many of their captors were in extremely poor condition themselves. (The difference being that the Rebels were on horseback.)  During the march General Shelby rode back beside the prisoners at intervals and attempted to encourage them: "Gentlemen, you will be paroled just as soon as I can possibly attend to it." On other occasions he was heard to say, "Gentlemen, I am doing the best I can, you are getting just as good fare as my men are."  For the many prisoners who were near the end of their endurance though, such demonstrations were just another false hope, a mirage in the desert of their nightmare.
   As the morning became noon, the rapid pace of the retreat continued and the only relief for the prisoners were the infrequent rest stops where the men would lay and hug the earth as if trying to escape into it.  At one of these stops a small incident occurred near a dry creek bed that illustrates man's natural tendency toward humanity, even in the most dire of circumstances.  The men were dying from the lack of water and food but Levi Williams of Topeka Battery found the shinbone of a cow to which there was a small amount of sinew still attached.  Levi was in a wretched state but he realized that he was in far better condition than most of his fellow unfortunates.  Knowing that they will be soon forced to march again, he quickly stripped as much of the sinew as he could from the bone and placed it in his mouth, where he used what little saliva he had to soften the tissue and render it eatable.  Looking to his neighbor next to him on the stream bank, he removed the bit of gristle from his mouth and placed it into the dying mans', who mechanically swallowed it.  Rather than eliciting a barbaric reaction when confronting death, the prisoners were softened in the face of it, in spite of their suffering.  They had accepted their impending deaths and now only hoped to comfort their brothers until the end came.  They had lived in Shawnee County with their neighbors during better times and now were prepared to die with them.  But first they would have to endure another night sleeping out in the open wasteland of the Ozark Prairie.

Sacrifice and Redemption

“And let’s not be dainty of leavetaking,

But shift away.  There’s warrant in that theft

Which steals itself, when there’s no mercy left.”

(Macbeth.   Act 2.  Scene 3.)

 The afternoon of Tuesday, October 25th was dwindling down toward evening as the Rebel Army of General Price continued it's running battle with the Union Cavalry, fleeing southeast and back into Missouri.  The ground was strewn with castoff supplies and equipment that the Rebels considered expendable as they tried to lighten the loads of their wagon train: books, hardware, whiskey barrels and in one case a dozen or so new axes.  The misery of the prisoners from the 2nd Kansas Militia continued to grow as they were forced onward and in some cases the prisoners that were too weak to stumble any further were allowed to ride one of the spare horses to speed things along.  In spite of the welcome rest this provided, as soon as they noticed one of their group in poor condition they would give up their spot and to the unfortunate fellow and on it went.  Elias Williams was especially fatigued; he had been thrown from his horse during the Battle and being over fifty years of age also worked against him. Elias and the others gamely held on though to the hope that redemption would somehow deliver them.  
   As Price's wagon train slowed to cross the Marmiton River late that afternoon, 2 Divisions of Union Cavalry appeared on a ridge in the distance.  The horses and riders on both sides were jaded to their core but the Federal Cavalry charged anyway, forcing General Shelby to once again form a battle line to protect what was left of the expedition. (this line included many men without weapons).   The weakened Federal charge met just enough resistance to convince their Commander, General John McNeil, to discontinue his pursuit after about two hours of skirmishing.  His troops were too exhausted to ride further and most of them slept next to their horses on the open prairie that night, before returning to Fort Scott, Kansas the next morning.
   The demoralized Confederate Army made camp that night in the timbered area near the Marmiton River.*  The prisoners from the 2nd were still under the guard of Lt. Sentille and Shelby's Provost Guard but as night fell, the weary guards became disconcerted and were desperate for sleep.  As the Provost Guard  moved through the confusion of men and horses seeking the proper place to bed their prisoners for the night, Sam Reader noticed how very dark it had become under the cover of the trees.  A faint hope stirred within him that the time to escape might be nearing.  He had been given the rope attached to one of the horses the prisoners had taken turns riding when a Confederate rode up to him and asked, "Where are Colonel Ellis's men?"  Sam replied that he didn't know and then the man noticed the mass of prisoners laying on the ground.  "What have you got there?"  the Rebel asked.  "Yankee prisoners." was Sam's reply. Sam continued his conversation with this man for as long as he could and eventually asked the question, "How did the battle go today?"  The man lowered his head and responded, "It went against us." The soldier went on to say that a good many men and guns had been lost and began to reign up to go on, at which point Sam kicked up the horse and left the guard line, with the excuse that he wanted a drink from the Rebel soldier's canteen.  There was no move from the Rebel guard directly behind him and Sam wondered if the man was deceived or willfully blind.  Sam continued to speak with the man and mentioned that he would go to the creek and get some water, at the same time slipping from the back of the horse and retrieving his boots.  "I see you've lost your saddle" remarked the soldier as Sam's heart lept up to his throat. "Yes I have, then I used a wagon cover and lost that too."  "Yes sir."  were the last words of this conversation as both men melted into the night.  Re-invigorated with hope, Sam was able to escape that night, keeping his wits about him as he would eventually come into contact with many more men from Price's Army before finally finding the dark creek bed and following it towards Fort Scott and freedom.
   With the Rebel Provost Guard ineffective due to exhaustion, another small group prepared to make their intended escape.  Guilford Gage, J.A.Polley and Nelson young had been hatching a plot to escape as a group for some time and tried to convince Captain A.J.Huntoon to accompany them, if possible.  Captain Huntoon knew in his heart that if he did so, he would never stop thinking of the suffering men who served under him and who relied on him as the one positive hope that they might eventually live through this ordeal.
"No boys, I can't go with you - but I'll gladly help you do it."  As Captain Huntoon was allowed more freedom to move about than the other prisoners, he was in a good position to let this group know when the right time to make their break would be.  At about  2:00 a.m. on Wednesday the 26th. the Captain noticed a great confusion as the Army prepared to move and that in this confusion the guards were still alternately laying down and trying to rest again.  Huntoon knew that this was "the moment" as the Army would be marching again soon and so he gave a signal to Gage, Polley and Young, having already told them where to find the creek bed which led to Kansas. As Captain Huntoon engaged the guard duty in conversation, he saw three shapes disappear into the darkness, and that would be the last he saw of his friends until he reached Topeka. After a few minutes had passed, the Provost Guard signaled that it was time to move again and the remaining prisoners wandered dazedly to the south.
 * This was the Drywood River, about six miles south of the battlefield at Marmiton River.

October 25th. 1864; The Union Cavalry Strikes a Blow

                                          The Charge at Mine Creek by Andy Thomas

 As the Rebel Provost guard pushed their prisoners from the 2nd. KSM southward in the early morning hours of Tuesday, October 25th., the Union Cavalry under General Pleasonton attacked the Rebel campsite on the Marais de Cygnes River and forced the Confederates to again flee towards the south. Using their artillery to great advantage, Union forces pursued and attacked two Divisions of General Price's Army forcing it to halt and make a stand at Mine Creek, Kansas - a tributary of the Little Osage River.
   While the two exhausted Armies battled each other, the men from the 2nd. Kansas Militia were hurrying southward in a surreal march that didn't seem to have an end.  Although the rainfall from the previous night provided a brief respite of their thirst, their fatigue now played upon them.  Though dispirited, the men did their best to keep hope alive.  John Kemp, a private from Company D, told Sam Reader, "Sam, we'll never see home again."   Sam encouraged John (even though he was hopeless as well) with the old story they told each other about the inevitability of parole.  A little while later J.S. Stansfield of Company B remarked to Sam, "Mr. Reader! This is a little harder than running for office, isn't it?"  while laughing aloud.  Nearby, a young Missourian who had been captured two weeks previous said that he gotten used to the hard marching and had neglected several good chances at escape, preferring to be paroled.  As the prisoners marched, they came across a few eatables that had been cast-off alongside of the road; these turnip pairings and cabbage leaves would suffice as breakfast and a short time later one of the rebel guards distributed pieces of sugar-cane to the men.  The guards had gotten used to conversing with their prisoners and one asked a question that seemed to offer a hope of life after the war: "Say, any of you boys ever been across the plains?" After some discussion he was heard to say, "When this war is over I'm going to make the trip myself."  The end of the war seemed a long way off though as the prisoners climbed a steep bank at the end of a wood where the Rebels had positioned several large guns and were forming a line of battle.  Not long afterward the booms of the cannons and the sounds of battle could be heard as the Union Cavalry again charged the Rebels.  Sometime later, heading south and then east, several parties of Rebels hurried past the Provost Guard towards the sounds of battle - this was the command of General Shelby as it had aborted its attempt to attack Fort Scott, Kansas and was now again trying to save General Price's expedition from destruction. The sounds of the battle seemed to follow the Provost Guard and their prisoners as they fled eastward and at one point the Federal pursuit came quite close to them.  Said John Majors of Company D, " I wish the Federal line would wash right over us; I'd die right here to see it done."
   The excitement of the battle aroused fresh excitement among some of the guards and the verbal abuse was heaped upon the prisoners anew.  Sam Reader happened to be walking near the negro prisoner as the Rebels nearby discussed the various ways to dispose of him: "Don't shoot him, kill him with a white oak club!", shouted one foul mouthed Ruffian as he rode by.  The provost guard however still stood between the men of the 2nd. and these tormentors, fulfilling the orders of their commander, General Shelby.  At one point during the march Captain Huntoon, as the highest ranking prisoner and the nominal leader of the prisoners, asked General Shelby for mercy on the men as they were dying of thirst and fatigue.  The General replied that he truly wished he could parole them but was worried for their safety as he feared they would be massacred by the  Border Ruffians embedded within the regular Confederate Army.  
  As the men of the 2nd. KSM were doggedly pushed on to the southeast, they didn't know that the largest battle of the War fought on Kansas soil was now occurring - a battle that would all but seal the fate of the Confederacy in the Trans-Mississippi theater.  The Battle of Mine Creek would turn out to be an utter disaster for the Rebel Army - in addition to severe casualties they would suffer the loss of 600 men taken prisoner along with one Brigadier General, one Major General and their remaining artillery.  This was of little matter to the prisoners from the 2nd. though as the only thing they knew was that they couldn't keep running much further. The afternoon had grown unseasonably warm and thirst was compounded by exhaustion as the prisoners and their captors became like shells of men, existing only to flee the oncoming force.  The Rebel Army was being stretched to it's breaking point from innumerable battles and miles of travel and through it all General Jo Shelby's Division had always been it's saving grace, as it had been at Mine Creek.  Now as General Price's Army headed toward the day's last river crossing at the Marmiton his force had dwindled to just a few thousand men and were being forced to leave a streak of burning wagons in their wake.  If the Federal Cavalry continued it's pursuit, it would be up to General Shelby to save them again.

October 24,1864; Crossing over into Kansas

 The men of the 2nd Kansas Militia were awakened at a very early hour on the morning of the 24th. and without a pretense of breakfast, were ordered to continue their march.  They had been divided into three squads by their Rebel captors and as the morning brightened, saw that they were still in the wasteland of the Ozark prairie: portions of four Missouri Counties on the Kansas border that were the focus of General Thomas Ewing Jr's. infamous Order No. 11. made in August of 1863. (the summary depopulation of families suspected to be sympathetic to bushwackers).  Sometime before noon the Confederate wagon train crossed over into Kansas and the prisoners immediately began to notice more houses and improvements.  The fleeing Rebels began to burn anything which could be used for forage by the Union Army and also to slaughter livestock, as they depended almost entirely on the fresh meat and raw corn they came across for their sustenance.*
  Later that afternoon Sam Reader heard one of the guards call attention to a pet bear that was riding in one of the gun carriages.  Although he failed to find the bear, Sam did see something of more interest to him:  several yards off to his left a cannon swept by with the inscription, "Captain W.W.H.Lawrence Topeka Kansas".  It was the brass howitzer of Topeka Battery and that was the last he saw of it.  The pace of the march had slackened a little and the guards now had time to question their captives a little more closely and to barter with them for personal items.  Some of the guards were civil in their discourse with the captives and some were not.  "Say there, aren't you the feller we had prisoner in Arkansas last year?" or "I was a prisoner myself once, a Yankee tied his horse to me and made me walk ten miles - you can stand it well enough if you only think so." or "Do you always have such cold weather in the fall?" or the icebreaker, "You ever been in a fight?" were some of the milder comments when compared to others.  Many of these seemed to be attempts to justify the Confederate cause."You're fighting for nigger equality, don't you know you are?" was a comment often heard from the guards. Or, "You there in the blue jacket, what are you fighting for?" The latter two comments were often liberally sprinkled with curses and abuses on the prisoners.
  Later in the afternoon the men of the 2nd. noticed their guards looking at something in the prairie off to the right.  "What is it?" one of them asked the other.  "Yankees" was the reply and the prisoners noticed something resembling the shape of a cloud on the slope of the hill about two miles distant.  The "cloud" seemed to be moving south.   The men could only hope that the appearance of Union Cavalry meant that their freedom was soon impending.  Meanwhile, the pace picked up again and the command, "Close-up, Double quick!" soon rang out.  The Rebel guards' comments picked up again, "Like hell you'll get home" and "You won't need many clothes where we're taking you".  The afternoon dragged on and the thirst of the prisoners again became their misery.  At sunset they finally came upon a body of timberland near a place called "Trading Post" and could see a portion of the Rebel wagon train apparently halted for the night.  A little further and they were within sight of the Marais des Cygnes River and some of the prisoners were lead down to collect water for the others.  It was here in the gloaming that the first man to escape his Rebel captors did so; Jacob Kline slipped away unlike so many other men from the 2nd. who only contemplated it.  Rations were given to the prisoners and they cooked the beef and ate the corn meal as best they could.  The night was dark as heavy cloud cover formed above and only added to the gloomy prospects of the prisoners. The men from the 2nd had now marched about seventy miles from where they were captured and desperately got what little rest they could as a misty rainfall began to fall around midnight.  Their hopes of being quickly rescued by the Union Cavalry had been replaced by an early awakening and forced march on the morning of October 25th, 1864.
*A large beef herd had accompanied Price's wagon train on his journey through Missouri and was now nearly depleted. 

The Tainted Well

  As the afternoon of October 23rd. wore on, the pace of General Price's retreat south began to quicken and the prisoners from the 2nd. KSM began to suffer.  The country was mostly rolling prairie land with a cultivated field occasionally but the season had been dry and all the small streams had dried up.  The prisoners were forced to run between the mounted guards and therefor had to run "double-quick" in order to keep from being trampled to death.  Some prisoners held on to the tails of the horses in front to help them keep up the pace, while gradually the weaker men began to fall behind. When this happened, the call "Close up! Close up!" was heard and with great effort these men increased their pace to close the gap.  A few of the men noticed their guards chewing bullets to ward off thirst and begged for one; some were lucky to find one dropped in the road and this was quickly in their mouth. Occasionally the order was given to halt for a few minutes rest, but all too soon would come the dreaded: "Forward, march!" and the torture would continue.  Captain Huntoon begged Lt. Sentile to give the men a brief rest which was granted; but when the march resumed and another voice cried out to stop, the Lt. threatened to shoot the first man to drop out of line.  The lack of water was now weighing heavily on the men and at one point that afternoon they came upon an old well that seemed alone in the middle of the prairie. (the nearby dwellings having all been burned.)  Someone drew up the bucket and the smell of the rotten water at once nauseated and excited hope in the prisoners.  Someone said there must be a half-rotten skunk in the well, but the men crowded in line for their turn at the pint cup.  They all drained the cup in spite of the stench and some even begged a second.  
   Late in the afternoon a large number of Rebel soldiers overtook and passed the captives and taunted them as they passed: "Kill them! Shoot every last one of them - They don't take us prisoners - What are we keeping these men for?  I've been at the front all day - I've seen them damn Yanks ride up to our wounded as they lay on the ground and shoot them in cold blood!"  No attempt was made to molest the men other than threats though and the march continued south.  Just after dark the Provost Guard stopped for the night at a stream and water was given in great amounts to the suffering men.  The only food they would receive from their captors was now also given: a few handfuls each of raw flour which they placed in their handkerchiefs and made into a stiff dough by adding water.  The dough-balls were impaled on a stick and placed in the campfire, where they were singed and then relished by the men.  As the men from the 2nd. drifted off to sleep the best they could, they couldn't know that they were being pursued by the Union Cavalry and that the sufferings they had endured thus far would pale in comparison to what they would soon encounter. 

The Battle of Westport and Beyond

                                    General Shelby and his men at the Battle of Westport    
                                                      original painting by Andy Thomas

   Although General Price's Confederates had successfully crossed the Big Blue River on 22 October and smashed the 2nd. Kansas Militia, what had once seemed a promising victory was beginning to unravel.  While General Shelby's Army was busy grappling with the 2nd. KSM, a division of Union Cavalry under Gen. Alfred Pleasonton had savagely attacked the rear guard of the Rebel Army and was pressing forward.
 Now on the morning of October 23rd., Price found the Union Armies of Generals Curtis and Blunt aligned in front of him to the north at Westport, Missouri and Pleasonton still coming strong from the east.  The stage was now set for the largest battle of the war fought west of the Mississippi; nearly 30,000 men on the field in what would become known as the Battle of Westport.

    After a nearly eight hour battle, the Rebel Army found themselves out-flanked and caught between the converging Union Armies.  General Price ordered General Shelby to hold off Pleasonton's Cavalry while the rest of his Army retreated south down the Fort Scott road, where his wagon train had already headed.

    Colonel Veale of the 2nd. KSM stated in his official report that the actions of his unit were instrumental in General Price's defeat at Westport, thus saving Kansas:
"While my loss is very severe, I have to thank God that the bold stand taken by my brave men gave the enemy an afternoon job which detained them from marching into Kansas; and the next morning they were confronted by an army that neither yielded them ground nor spared their ammunition, but put them on a hasty retreat southward; and thus Kansas was saved."
  This report goes on to list all of the killed, wounded and captured of the 2nd. KSM and although Colonel  Veale performed his rightful duty in the submission of his report, whether the 2nd KSM saved Kansas from the advance of General Price's Army is still a matter of conjecture.  It is interesting to wonder though "what if" the 2nd KSM had not stood their ground that afternoon.

 The army of General Price was now in full retreat mode, heading south as fast as possible and catching up with the Rebel Provost guard and their prisoners from the 2nd. KSM. ( Among the prisoners taken on October 22nd were twenty men of the Fourth Regiment, KSM and some belonging to the Nineteenth and Twenty-third. No official list is given of the names. Portions of the trains of the Nineteenth and Twenty-third were captured, and the Brigade Quartermaster, Lieut. Marsh, of Leavenworth, was taken prisoner.)  The march of the Provost Guard had been unhurried the morning of the Westport Conflict  but once the Battle had swayed to the favor of the Union, the pace picked up to a frantic one.  The fleeing Rebels lit the prairie on fire hoping the smokescreen would hinder the Union pursuit and also began to jettison supplies in an attempt to quicken the pace of their wagon train.  These actions seemed to have their desired effect; at first it didn't seem the Union Army would attempt to follow them. The men of the 2nd. were driven hard however and it soon became apparent to them that they wouldn't be stopping soon.  Their hopes that Kansas would be saved were now replaced by a multitude of fears: thirst, fatigue, hunger, prison, death.

Captain A.J.Huntoon meets the Enemy

 "The earth is covered thick with other clay,
 Which her own clay shall cover, heaped and pent,
 Rider and horse, - friend, foe, - in one red burial blent."
                                                                 Lord Byron 

 The yard in front of the Boston Adams Place filled with the men from the 2nd. KSM as October 22nd. 1864 drew to a close.    They were cold and hungry but not yet defeated as they pondered their fate that night and most of the men in the yard were uninjured with the exception of a few of the men of Topeka Battery who were brought there to be tended to by their comrades.  They tried to keep warm around campfires that were fed by the Confederate Provost Guard, who used fence-boards to fuel the flames and kept a constant watch over their prisoners as they had been instructed to by Brigadier General Jo Shelby.   The ranking member of the KSM taken prisoner was Captain A.J.Huntoon of Co. B and he was quickly taken to General Shelby, who directed him brought inside to meet with the Confederate Commander, General Sterling Price. General Price immediately began to question Captain Huntoon about the force that had engaged his men that afternoon but doubted the veracity of Captain Huntoon's statement that that it was a battalion of Kansas Militia.  He seemed to believe that they were veteran soldiers and that Captain Huntoon must have a motive for lying.   The Captain went on to tell General Price that the entire Militia of the State had been ordered out and there were about 30,000 of them.  (The latter being a lie; Captain Huntoon knew only that there were about thirty regiments in the militia organization.)  The questioning continued for about half an hour before General Price ordered the Captain back out into the yard with the other prisoners.
     A steady stream of injured Rebel soldiers were brought into the house for treatment of their wounds and about midnight someone came out into the yard and asked if anyone of the captives was a surgeon in the Federal Army.  Captain Huntoon replied that he was a doctor in his hometown and was told that there was a prisoner inside who wanted to see him.  He found this man to be John Branner from Topeka Battery who had been shot in both arms.  The Confederate doctor had wanted to amputate one of the arms but Captain Huntoon examined the arm and was able to save it, despite the shortage of medical supplies.  At about 2:00 A.M. Captain Huntoon heard a Rebel Officer call for the Commander of the Union gun to be brought in for treatment; someone had remembered Ross Burns of Topeka Battery and perhaps due to the way he comported himself during the previous day’s battle, his fractured skull was treated and his life spared.  Captain Huntoon spent the rest of the night taking care of the wounded from both sides before being released to the Provost Guard at daybreak.  The Captain later reported that at least 20 Rebels died that night and there were 50 more still remaining.   
   The men of the 2nd had watched the movement of the huge Rebel wagon train all night and now at dawn they were assembled at the rear of this behemoth as it prepared to travel south.*  Without any of food or water since their capture and with many of them wearing no shoes and inadequate clothing, they were preparing to make a journey which would test their mortal souls – a journey which would also coincide with the largest battle of the War fought on Kansas soil and a journey few of them would ever want to recall as long as they lived.

 *This is an inaccurate statement.  In fact, the wagon train of General Price never crossed at Byrom's Ford but had turned south towards Hickman's Mills, away from the Federal Army and where the river crossing was easier .  What the prisoners had seen and heard was the Rebel Army organizing for the coming battle.