The Proper Authority
In brief: Events at the Manes home and the McClurg mercantile. A description of the duties, and accounts of events, of the Chitwood brothers in the 8th MSM and the 47th EMM. A confrontation between Callaway Manes and Joshua Chitwood. This section ends with the formation, and disbanding, of the PEMM units.
Time period 1861 to 1863.
Time period 1861 to 1863.
Soldiers from both sides of the conflict demanded that Missouri women provide sustenance for them. "During the Civil War, a posse of nine armed men rode up to Callaway's place and ordered the women to get their dinners for them. When the dinner was being placed on the table, Callaway returned home from some trip and entered the house by the kitchen door. Sitting in the corner of the room he saw a gun which he recognized as the property of Harrison Elliott, who was his warm friend. He suspected that the gang had killed Elliott. He picked up the rifle and said to the men, 'This looks like Elliott's gun.' One of them answered that Elliott would not need a gun anymore. Callaway then said, 'No man who will rob Elliott, or steal from him, or kill him, can eat at my table. Now, shake the dust of my ground off your feet before I forget the commandment and turn this gun on you.' And he forced them to leave, and when they had passed through the gate, he threw the gun after them."(1)
Conflicts were also affecting the mercantiles that were frequent targets of raiders. Joseph McClurg, having lost his original partners, was a partner in the store of Torbert and Company at Linn Creek. While commanding the Osage Regiment of Home Guards, he wrote a letter to accompany prisoners he sent to St. Louis in November 1861. "He has been a notorious robber and plunderer and a rebel captain. He was prominent in having goods taken from Torbert and Co. at this place and hauled off."(2)
A second case involved Hugh Allison, arrested in January 1862, and charged with participating in a robbery at McClurg's store at Linn Creek. Three of Hugh's nephews had been taken prisoner after the skirmishes at Monday's Hollow and Linn Creek. Another nephew was a member of the Union's Osage Regiment Home Guards. Hugh claimed innocence and said he was a victim of spite by a member of the Home Guard. He took the Oath of Allegiance and returned to his farm near the Benton/Camden County line.(3) According to oral family history, "Hugh Allison, his wife, and some of his children were murdered at their farm in August 1863. The murderers tortured the wife and children to get Hugh to tell them where his money was hidden, but he had no money."
In August 1863, Lt. Colonel T. A. Switzler, leader of the Union forces at the Battle of Monday's Hollow, had just taken command of the Union garrison at Warsaw in Benton County. He wrote a report to Brigadier General Brown that: "Our soldiery had committed six murders within the last ten or twelve days...There is a feeling of insecurity universally prevailing with the peaceable citizens...all in this place that can get conveyance express an intention of leaving. There is no discipline whatever exercised over the soldiers here, which, added to the indiscriminate sale of liquor, renders the soldiers fiends rather than soldiers. The best citizens here have been menaced with death by the soldiers."(9)
A second case involved Hugh Allison, arrested in January 1862, and charged with participating in a robbery at McClurg's store at Linn Creek. Three of Hugh's nephews had been taken prisoner after the skirmishes at Monday's Hollow and Linn Creek. Another nephew was a member of the Union's Osage Regiment Home Guards. Hugh claimed innocence and said he was a victim of spite by a member of the Home Guard. He took the Oath of Allegiance and returned to his farm near the Benton/Camden County line.(3) According to oral family history, "Hugh Allison, his wife, and some of his children were murdered at their farm in August 1863. The murderers tortured the wife and children to get Hugh to tell them where his money was hidden, but he had no money."
In August 1863, Lt. Colonel T. A. Switzler, leader of the Union forces at the Battle of Monday's Hollow, had just taken command of the Union garrison at Warsaw in Benton County. He wrote a report to Brigadier General Brown that: "Our soldiery had committed six murders within the last ten or twelve days...There is a feeling of insecurity universally prevailing with the peaceable citizens...all in this place that can get conveyance express an intention of leaving. There is no discipline whatever exercised over the soldiers here, which, added to the indiscriminate sale of liquor, renders the soldiers fiends rather than soldiers. The best citizens here have been menaced with death by the soldiers."(9)
Joseph McClurg was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He resigned from the military and left for Washington, D.C. in 1863. Back in Camden County, the mercantile continued to be a target. G. B. Shubert, QuarterMaster of the 8th MSM Cavalry sent this statement: "I certify that on the night of the 28th February, 1863, the buildings of Torbert and Co. at Linn Creek, Missouri, were fired by an unknown hand, and burned to the ground, that there was stored in said buildings at the time of the fire and burned with them the following quartermaster's stores - one stitching horse, one set saddlers tools."(4)
"By March of 1863, the mercantile's losses totaled more than $150,000. McClurg's business partner, E. B. Torbert fled to St. Louis with the remaining resources from the mercantile. It would take McClurg years to retire his debts and interest payments; and settle with Torbert's demands for financial compensation over merchandise that McClurg had given in support of the Union."(5)
Captain Richard Chitwood and First Lieutenant William T. Chitwood's Company G 8th MSM was stationed in Camden and nearby Laclede County. They were tasked with scouting and gathering information, and protecting the telegraph lines, stagecoaches, and the wagon trains of supplies.(6) The supplies came by rail to Rolla, the end of the railroad line, for troops in southwest Missouri, northwest Arkansas, and the Kansas Territory. "The Ozarks had been devastated, the product of a scorched earth policy pursued by both sides. Homesteads, crops, and mills, and anything which might be useful to the enemy were routinely laid waste. The devastation was so complete that there was not enough forage available to feed all the animals used by the military, and it had to be shipped via Rolla."(8)
"Wheeler's Confederate Cavalry Capture a Supply Train"
Illustration by J. T. E. Hillen.
New York Public Library Print Collection .
National Park Service Civil War Series: The Battles for Chattanooga.
"By March of 1863, the mercantile's losses totaled more than $150,000. McClurg's business partner, E. B. Torbert fled to St. Louis with the remaining resources from the mercantile. It would take McClurg years to retire his debts and interest payments; and settle with Torbert's demands for financial compensation over merchandise that McClurg had given in support of the Union."(5)
Captain Richard Chitwood and First Lieutenant William T. Chitwood's Company G 8th MSM was stationed in Camden and nearby Laclede County. They were tasked with scouting and gathering information, and protecting the telegraph lines, stagecoaches, and the wagon trains of supplies.(6) The supplies came by rail to Rolla, the end of the railroad line, for troops in southwest Missouri, northwest Arkansas, and the Kansas Territory. "The Ozarks had been devastated, the product of a scorched earth policy pursued by both sides. Homesteads, crops, and mills, and anything which might be useful to the enemy were routinely laid waste. The devastation was so complete that there was not enough forage available to feed all the animals used by the military, and it had to be shipped via Rolla."(8)
Illustration by J. T. E. Hillen.
New York Public Library Print Collection .
National Park Service Civil War Series: The Battles for Chattanooga.
Captain Richard Chitwood and Lieutenant William Chitwood also led detachments to capture robbers and gather intelligence about the enemy. Three excerpts from Union reports follow:
"Lt. Chitwood, commanding detachment in pursuit of mail robbers, reports that he came upon the camp of the guerrillas near the headwaters of the Piney, and killed 4 of the party and wounded 1, and secured several of the articles taken from the stage passengers."
"Lieutenant Chitwood learned, by passing himself as a secessionist, that Captain Evans, a bushwhacker, had 5 or 6 men following him and watching his movements. He left a sergeant and 5 men on side of the road, and about 11 o'clock, 27th, 3 men passed along on his trail; they were fired upon, and 1 man killed, which proved to be Lieutenant Roberts, of Captain Evans Company; the other 2 made their escape. The lieutenant says that he learned, from what he considers reliable information, that Colonel Freeman's command, numbering 500 or 600 men, was near Pocahontas at the time; says that he could not obtain any forage of consequence in Oregon County; that his horses were broken down, several of them having to be abandoned; that he believed that after the fight on the 26th that all gangs of rebels in Oregon County made for Freeman's command, and that they would not return without a sufficient force to overpower him, and that he therefore returned; his command reached Gasconade last night."
"Captain Chitwood returned from a scout after robbers of merchandise trains on the Rolla road yesterday. He killed 2 of the robbers and recaptured 86 pounds of coffee and quite a large amount of dry goods and 2 horses."(6)
Union forces conducted a review of the leaders of the companies of the 8th Missouri State Militia. Captain Chitwood of Company G was labeled "headstrong and careless." Lieutenant Chitwood of Company G was labeled "very indifferent." Lieutenant Murphy of Company G was labeled "good." (Source: Missouri State Archives)
A third brother, Joshua Chitwood, was serving as First Lieutenant of Company G, 47th EMM. When asked about the duties of the 47th EMM by the House Committee investigating management of the militias, two members of the militia stated, "They arrested notoriously disloyal persons of this county, and required them to take the oath of allegiance to the United States Government, and acted as a guard for the welfare of the loyal citizens, and gathered up arms and ammunition when found in disloyal hands."(7)
These duties led to a confrontation between Joshua Chitwood and Callaway Manes. "One Josh Chitwood assumed the authority to get up six or eight men and go about the country administering the Oath of Allegiance to such as he wished to impose upon and, in this self-assumed business, he rode up on Callaway Manes plowing, or laying off corn ground in a field with one horse. Calling Callaway to the fence, Chitwood announced his business and asked him to be sworn. Callaway informed him that he was an American born, had not supported the secession movement and would not take the oath unless someone came with the proper authority to administer such an oath."
"Chitwood then said, 'You come go with me,' and crossed the fence and started to arrest Callaway. Callaway, stepping back to his plow, dropped the traces, took the single tree off the plow, and started after Chitwood who beat a hearty retreat and got out of the field barely in time to save his bacon."(1)
These duties led to a confrontation between Joshua Chitwood and Callaway Manes. "One Josh Chitwood assumed the authority to get up six or eight men and go about the country administering the Oath of Allegiance to such as he wished to impose upon and, in this self-assumed business, he rode up on Callaway Manes plowing, or laying off corn ground in a field with one horse. Calling Callaway to the fence, Chitwood announced his business and asked him to be sworn. Callaway informed him that he was an American born, had not supported the secession movement and would not take the oath unless someone came with the proper authority to administer such an oath."
"Chitwood then said, 'You come go with me,' and crossed the fence and started to arrest Callaway. Callaway, stepping back to his plow, dropped the traces, took the single tree off the plow, and started after Chitwood who beat a hearty retreat and got out of the field barely in time to save his bacon."(1)
As explained by James Manes, Callaway's great-grandson. "A single-tree is a wooden crossbar that balances between the horse and the plow. The wooden bar has metal hooks through which the traces, the straps which take the pull, are placed."
"Chitwood and his friends made haste to a place of safety. That went like wild-fire. The occurrence occasioned much excitement in the community and greatly embarrassed the Chitwoods and their adherents."(1)
The difficulties in managing units of soldiers with conflicting loyalties prompted the Missouri government to disband the EMM's, creating in their place a smaller force, the full-time Provisional Enrolled Missouri Militia. The goal was to select reliable Unionists from the old EMM regiments to form the PEMM units. At least in Lieutenant Hammer's views this failed.
Sources:
(1) Manuscript of family history and letters written by Samuel Jasper Manes and Jesse Gustin. These pages are contained in the collection edited by E.V. Brezeale. The collection is available on microfilm at the Springfield, Missouri Public Library or the microfilm may be requested at any LDS Family History Center.
(3) Allison, Hugh. Online database of names from Provost Marshal records. Copies of records available by mail from the Missouri State Archives in Jefferson City, Missouri. http://s1.sos.mo.gov/records/archives/archivesdb/provost/default.aspx
(4) Records of the 8th MSM Company G at the Missouri State Archives. Copies may be requested by mail, but it's difficult to determine which records have the desired information without going to Jefferson City and searching the folders.
(5) Joseph McClurg. Dictionary of Missouri Biography edited by Lawrence O. Christensen, William E. Foley, Gary Kremer. Published by University of Missouri Press 1999. This book is available at several libraries or can be purchased online as an ebook.
(6) The War Of the Rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies. United States. War Dept., John Sheldon Moody, Calvin Duvall Cowles, Frederick Caryton Ainsworth, Robert N. Scott, Henry Martyn Lazelle, George Breckenridge Davis, Leslie J. Perry, Joseph William Kirkle. Published by the Government Printing Office in Washington, 1894. These records are available online at http://ebooks.library.cornell.edu/m/moa/,
(7) "Report of the Committee: Majority and Minority Reports with the Evidence." Missouri General Assembly House Committee to investigate the conduct and management of the Militia. W.A. Curry, 1864.
This report is available free online at google ebooks.
(8) Pioneer Times. July 1983. Mid-Missouri Genealogical Society, Inc. These publications are available at several libraries.
(9) Official Report August 11, 1863. Quoted in Inside War: The Guerilla Conflict in Missouri During the American Civil War by Michael Fellman. Copyright 1989.
The difficulties in managing units of soldiers with conflicting loyalties prompted the Missouri government to disband the EMM's, creating in their place a smaller force, the full-time Provisional Enrolled Missouri Militia. The goal was to select reliable Unionists from the old EMM regiments to form the PEMM units. At least in Lieutenant Hammer's views this failed.
Lt. Hammer stated "Out of 21 commissioned officers only six were permitted to offer their services as commanders of those Provisional Regiments, one of them refusing to serve in such an organization, whereupon the authorities appointed a returned rebel from Price's army in his place, as Lt and Acting Quartermaster. The officers included three Conservatives, two Radicals, four Rebels, and three Copperheads." Conservatives supported a return to the pre-war order as much as possible. Radicals demanded emancipation of slaves and punishment of secessionists - Joseph McClurg and the Chitwood brothers were Radical Republicans. Rebels supported the Confederacy. Copperheads were committed to restoring the Union with slavery.
The new full-time Provisional Enrolled Missouri Militia (PEMM) regiments were paid by the state, but were outfitted and supplied by the Federal government. Joshua Chitwood enrolled as First Lieutenant of Company G of the 9th PEMM at Linn Creek in July 1863. The life of these PEMM regiments was short.
"There were two companies detailed from the 47th Regiment for the 9th Provisional Regiment. As for duty they did little of any kind save foraging and subsisting. " While the PEMM regiments were loyal, they were also composed largely of Radical Unionists opposed to Missouri Governor Gamble's Conservative Unionist administration. To prevent the Radical PEMM militia from influencing the November 1863 elections, the governor disbanded most of the PEMM regiments a few months after they were organized.
_________________________________________________________________"There were two companies detailed from the 47th Regiment for the 9th Provisional Regiment. As for duty they did little of any kind save foraging and subsisting. " While the PEMM regiments were loyal, they were also composed largely of Radical Unionists opposed to Missouri Governor Gamble's Conservative Unionist administration. To prevent the Radical PEMM militia from influencing the November 1863 elections, the governor disbanded most of the PEMM regiments a few months after they were organized.
Sources:
(1) Manuscript of family history and letters written by Samuel Jasper Manes and Jesse Gustin. These pages are contained in the collection edited by E.V. Brezeale. The collection is available on microfilm at the Springfield, Missouri Public Library or the microfilm may be requested at any LDS Family History Center.
(2) Letter on November 12, 1861, from Joseph McClurg to Commander at Arsenal in St. Louis. Copy can be requested by mail from the Missouri State Archives (on microfilm).
(3) Allison, Hugh. Online database of names from Provost Marshal records. Copies of records available by mail from the Missouri State Archives in Jefferson City, Missouri. http://s1.sos.mo.gov/records/archives/archivesdb/provost/default.aspx
(5) Joseph McClurg. Dictionary of Missouri Biography edited by Lawrence O. Christensen, William E. Foley, Gary Kremer. Published by University of Missouri Press 1999. This book is available at several libraries or can be purchased online as an ebook.
(6) The War Of the Rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies. United States. War Dept., John Sheldon Moody, Calvin Duvall Cowles, Frederick Caryton Ainsworth, Robert N. Scott, Henry Martyn Lazelle, George Breckenridge Davis, Leslie J. Perry, Joseph William Kirkle. Published by the Government Printing Office in Washington, 1894. These records are available online at http://ebooks.library.cornell.edu/m/moa/,
(7) "Report of the Committee: Majority and Minority Reports with the Evidence." Missouri General Assembly House Committee to investigate the conduct and management of the Militia. W.A. Curry, 1864.
This report is available free online at google ebooks.
(8) Pioneer Times. July 1983. Mid-Missouri Genealogical Society, Inc. These publications are available at several libraries.
(9) Official Report August 11, 1863. Quoted in Inside War: The Guerilla Conflict in Missouri During the American Civil War by Michael Fellman. Copyright 1989.
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