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Bushwacks Smooshwackers

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  • Bushwacks Smooshwackers

    With the lines hot about bushwackers and Prices use of various bands across Missouri, it seems many of you have forgotten that Price actually had a 10,000 man army. He could have had more men but he decided to take only the cavalry so that he could move quickly and take St. Louis.

    Most of his army were not bushwackers, and unlike their counterparts Price's Soldiers were in the Confederate Army. Throughout the campaign and war his men were subjected to a lacking commissary, poor horses, no issued clothing to speak of and once again the lack of weapons raises its ugly head.

    By the time Price reached Pilot Knob there had been hoards of his men who simply walked into the houses and took whatever they could find. Orchards picked clean, food cellars cleared out, bed sheets and clothing looted. They didn't do this because they were bad men but because they were that hungry and ill equipped.

    One U.S. soldier at Pilot Knob described some of Prices men just outside of Ironton as men who were all dressed in Federal Uniform. He was riding up to them when he noticed that they had too much tin ware hanging from their saddle horns. He turned his horse just as they fired on him the balls whistled about his head.

    Another description from the civilians came from a woman who heard commotion as the CS forces rode past her house as she went downstairs men were coming out of her cellar her winter stores notably a ham. She also noted that one of the men cut a 3' x3' square out of her carpet (probably as a saddle blanket).

    Price should have left Ft. Davidson alone and kept his sights on St. Louis since that was his objective but the Federal garrison of 1500 men detained him long enough to allow more Soldiers to get to St. Louis from other Places. However with it being an election year in Missouri, Price wanted to influence the Gubernatorial race in Missouri since part of the plan was to allow Pro-Southern Candidate and Lt. Governor-in-exile Reynolds to have have a chance in that election.

    Therefore, after Pilot Knob and the garrison's escape from Ft. Davidson (In Pilot Knob), Price set his sights for Jefferson City, Then after his failure there headed to Kansas City and then down the western border of Missouri.
    I was surprised to learn that my Wife's great grand father was in the 15th Missouri, Co. A. in fact just prior to that the entire company were Reve's Scouts (The Bushwackers at Marmaduke's Raid). I was most surprised to learn that he was captured at Pilot Knob over a month after Price had moved through. He was within 50 miles from home. Why didn't he follow Price? Why didn't he go home? I think he was done. Most likely lost his horse in the shelling from the horse. His unit went over Shepards Mountain and there is a "Smith" who was interviewed by Cyrus Peterson (Who wrote the book on Pilot Knob). He said the CS cannons had just arrived on top of the mountain and the officers were toasting themselves on a job well done. No sooner did they fire the first shot at the fort than all hell broke loose and the cannons and everyone around them were dead. Smith went on to say he didn't "give a damn and they could drink their whiskey in hell." for not offering him any because he had no water and his throat was dry. In short he was done and morale had to be low.

    Accounts after the battle around Pilot Knob place lots of Confederate soldiers in the locality days after the battle. As Price went it appears that his army continured to splinter as it crossed the state. Certainly Price arrived down in Texas with an army but it was a skeleton of what it had been. Losing just about all his artillery. It was hard to replace arms and horses as they went.

    Some of the men did take Federal Uniforms because they were cold and had nothing else to supply themselves with. However this seemed to come with dire consequences. Since bushwackers had been wearing Federal Uniforms regular soldiers were usually mistaken as bushwackers and simply shot down. This apparently happened to several of Prices soldiers when they tried to surrender during the battle of Mine Creek, KS.

    Certainly bushwacking was rampant but don't forget that even the regular Confederate soldiers got caught in the mix too.
    Frank Aufmuth
    Frank Aufmuth
    When you hear my whistle, Hell will be upon you.

  • #2
    Re: Bushwacks Smooshwackers

    Excellent points Frank and something that needs to be remembered as impressions are developed.

    Also, remember that it didn't really matter who anyone was. If they were a stranger they may very well be the enemy. So both sides behaved in taht manner. It was hard to tell whose side anyone was on and civilians were caught in the middle. A lot of mistrust and suspicions ran rampant in Missouri.
    Michael Comer
    one of the moderator guys

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    • #3
      Re: Bushwacks Smooshwackers

      Not all of Price's men were mounted and even if they were, Old Pap decided to keep his fat ass in a carriage and moved his column at a snail's pace. His army moved at a footman's pace, plundering, bloating their already huge wagon train, and getting distracted by smaller Federal outposts rather than moving fast and furious toward a key goal. The meandered out of north Arkansas, first generally crawling toward St. Louis and then finished up on the KS/MO border getting soundly crushed.

      Though he had some good men and some good generals with him, the army was only as good as its head. Price may have had some decent moments but this campaign was not one of those. Van Dorn had been dead for a while by this point. Perhaps Price was channeling old Earl.

      Nonetheless, it's good for folks to know that there will be other enemies to contend with.

      This will be a fine event with many interesting aspects. With membership as large as this website boasts, the organizers should be turning folks away.
      Fred Baker

      "You may call a Texian anything but a gentleman or a coward." Zachary Taylor

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      • #4
        Re: Bushwacks Smooshwackers

        Price has kissed Kirby Smith's arse so nicely and often that Smith was obliged to allow him to "liberate" Missouri. There had been numerous cav raids into Missouri by Marmaduke and Shelby. Fast hits and out. Price planned such a raid but it moved as slow as infantry. Apparently Price couldn't do much quickly except show up to eat. As he dwaddled north the Federals had plently of time to form a greeting party for him. And as Fred wrote, he did have un-mounted men with him. This slow moving carvan was doomed from the beginning. Dear Frank, we are not neglecting the fine, upstand folks in Prices' Army, of which I had a great great grandfather who ended up at Rock Island Prison because of dear old Pap and his slow creep into Missoura. However, I do believe the time represented by the event is just prior to Price's arrival as the freedom fighting partisans gathered. Also, Fred is correct, Holler should have no problem filling the ranks of his blue belly horde. He shouldn't, but who knows.
        Tom Yearby
        Texas Ground Hornets

        "I'd rather shoot a man than a snake." Robert Stumbling Bear

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        • #5
          Re: Bushwacks Smooshwackers

          Tom
          I guess you're right I was just trying to provoke thought. Certainly the bushwackers lent the most to what Missouri was during the Civil War.
          Frank
          Frank Aufmuth
          When you hear my whistle, Hell will be upon you.

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          • #6
            Re: Bushwacks Smooshwackers

            The relationship between Price, Smith and Taylor is an interesting story and the ramifications of that relationship helped shape, and evenutally doom the Confederate effort in the Trans-Mississippi. While Taylor argued and made demands to Smith, Price more often than not agreed with him and buttered him up with praise. Following the battles of Mansfield and Pleasant Hill Taylor has an opportunity to extinquish Banks' army and capture the Mississippi River squadron trapped on the Red River. Price convinced Smith that a greater danger lie from Steele's force moving out of Little Rock and toward Price's domain in southern Arkandas. Thus Smith stripped Taylor of most of his infantry and led it north to relieve Price. Price responded by allowing the Federal's to evacuate Camden without opposition and then Smith showed his lack of skills as a tactical commander by sending his army piece by piece to a disaster at Jenkin's Ferry. The results was Steele escaped to Little Rock and Banks and the fleet made it safetly south. Taylor resigned and Price upped his pleas to Smith to allow him to stage a grand raid to free Missouri. Perhaps this was a good idea. Perhaps not. But Price convinced Smith that it would be a fast moving strike toward St. Louis. He left all the infantry in the Trans-Mississippi behind saying that it would slow his line of march to have infantry with his strike force. However, his strike force dwaddled and made infantry march time moving north. He would have been better served to have taken the infantry if he was going to move as slow as he did. There were no Federals threats calling for a need to keep the infantry in Arkansas and Louisiana. The results was his defeat.
            Last edited by Old Reb; 07-14-2009, 09:40 PM.
            Tom Yearby
            Texas Ground Hornets

            "I'd rather shoot a man than a snake." Robert Stumbling Bear

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            • #7
              Re: Bushwacks Smooshwackers

              Now I am really angry. My gg-uncle Bill was mortally wounded at Jenkins Ferry. I quit the army and will forever be a bushwhacker.... and Boonesville will not come soon enough. Hope I can stay out of jail that long.

              p.s. Walkers Greyhounds would have annihilated the remnants of Bank's Army if General Taylor had Kirby Smith's job.
              Fergus Bell

              "Give a man fire & he will be warm for a day, but set a man on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life."
              Terry Pratchett

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              • #8
                Re: Bushwacks Smooshwackers

                More background on Pap Price's raid-

                "Price's marching orders, issued immediately after the August 4 conference [held in Shreveport, attended by Price, Kirby Smith, and Gov Reynolds of Missouri], were brief, elastic, and to the point. His expeditionary force was to be composed only of cavalry; nothing was said concerning infantry support. As far as Kirby Smith was concerned, the primary purpose of the raid was to enlist recruits, collect arms, and gather supplies. Price was told to organize his cavalry into a large number of small brigades and skeleton regiments, whose ranks could be filled by volunteers gathered en route... Price was instructed to 'make St. Louis the objective point' of his movement, 'which, if rapidly made, will put you in possession of that place, its supplies and military stores, and will do more toward rallying Missouri to your standard than the possession of any other point.'"

                "Price's marching orders were issued on August 4. Yet it was not until August 17 that he and Governor Reynolds left Shreveport, and not until August 28 that Fagan's and Marmaduke's divisions decamped from the neighborhood of Camden. It was already September 6 when the cavalry corps crossed the Arkansas River, and not until September19 did the point element of Price's column carry the first red rebel flag in Missouri. Price's value as a political symbol did not alter the fact that he was a slow, lethargic unaggressive infantry general, who exhibited no flair for cavalry leadership. The leisurely pace of Price's plodding campaign was to subvert its very essence as a cavalry raid, for, by failing to make use of his cavalry's mobility, Price was to throw away the chief tactical advantage he enjoyed."

                "Price himself made no attempt to hurry his troopers; forsaking his own horse for the comfort of 'a four-mule carriage driven by a black boy,' he frequently stopped along the way to tell gatherings of local citizens that he was going to Missouri."

                "Aside from the mounted infantry, Price's corps boasted no more than 4,000-5,000 regular Confederate States soldiers. The remainder of the men were at best partisans, and at worst marauding bandits. The exact number of these irregular auxilaries cannot be determined with any accuracy; probably neither Price nor his brigadiers ever knew, on any given day, how many troopers they had."

                "Whatever the total number of men under Price's command, the effective strength of the expeditionary force progressively diminished. At least 2,000, and perhaps over 4,000 of the raiders who rendezvoused at Pocahontas [Arkansas] came in without arms, and a smaller proportion, chiefly neighborhood bushwhackers, reported for duty on foot. Of the 1,696 men Sidney Jackman managed to muster, 1,155 had no guns and 133 were dismounted. Even the regular units were incompletely outfitted: on September 17, 278 of the Iron Brigade's [Shelby's Brigade] 1,455 troopers were without weapons, and 48 were dismounted."

                These passages were drawn from Kerby's book "Kirby Smith's Confederacy," pages 335-340.

                Tom summed him up pretty well a couple posts up. Price was the wrong man for the job. He tallied almost two months in getting his "raid" going. A minority of his force that could be trusted as regular soldiers. Many were unarmed and some were dismounted and traveling on foot. He moved at a slow crawl. Though Smith had at least directed him to take St. Louis, Price only half-way began that. He was more interested in shaking hands, making speeches and gaining glory. While he rode the wagon and let his men maraud the state they were "liberating," the Federals gaines strength and formulated a plan to crush him.
                Fred Baker

                "You may call a Texian anything but a gentleman or a coward." Zachary Taylor

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                • #9
                  Re: Bushwacks Smooshwackers

                  I know there are Pap Price supporters lurking about. In his defense, he had handled the Missouri State Guard with some ability. His actions as Oakhill, Elkhorn Tavern, Corinth, and Helena while not worthy of an A, were probably a B. He was loyal to Missouri. He wanted to take it from Federal control. While his intentions were noble, his abilities were lacking. A quick strike toward St. Louis led by Marmaduke, Fagan, or Shelby would have been more defendable from a military stradegy than is slow crawl north. But, what happen, happen. Lost Tribes Chasing Price will depict a small slice of the futile campaign and it should be a good one. I urge the blue hordes that lurk behind their keyboards to sign up with Holler and the 21st Missouri.
                  Tom Yearby
                  Texas Ground Hornets

                  "I'd rather shoot a man than a snake." Robert Stumbling Bear

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Bushwacks Smooshwackers

                    From Leslie Anders Twenty First Missouri: From Home Guard to Union Regiment

                    " With three mounted coluimns cantering north, Price's "Army of Missouri" crossed into the state from Arkansas on September 19. St.Louis was suddenly gripped by a hysteria it had not know since 1861. This was inded Price's "last hurrah," and he meant to make the most of it". Anders pg. 190



                    "Rosecrans was plotting Price's destruction, in which the Twenty-first Missouri had a starring role. If thinkgs worked out, the Johnnies were going to find themselves fenced in along the Missouri River in the western part of the state." pg. 192

                    "Thomas C. Reynolds, Confederate "governor" of Missouri since Jackson's death two years earlier, dreamed of a triumphal entry into Jefferson City and a gala inaugural at the statehouse. Unfortunately, the federals were waiting to "welcome" him behind heavy entrenchments. Price looked things over from the hills to the south, and on October 7 mortally offended Reynolds by deciding to "pass by on the other side" toward Boonville, up the river some forty miles to the northwest." Anders pg. 192
                    Nathan Hellwig
                    AKA Harrison "Holler" Holloway
                    "It was the Union armies west of the Appalachians that struck the death knell of the Confederacy." Leslie Anders ,Preface, The Twenty-First Missouri

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                    • #11
                      Re: Bushwacks Smooshwackers

                      I found the stair carpet incident Frank was referring to in his first post. Eliza Hammond wrote this letter in 1864. She lived in Jefferson County, which is the next county east of Franklin Co. This is such an interesting description of the unpredictable nature of the interactions between civilians and soldiers in Missouri. Some citizens suffered greatly, others escaped unharmed.



                      Letter from Eliza Hammond to Margaret Frissell


                      St. Louis, December 11th, 1864


                      My dear Margaret:
                      I received your letter and should have answered it immeadiately. I have been very sick with a very bad cough which redeuced me so much that I had to keep to my bed the greater part of the time. I am better under Homeopathic treatment and hope soon to be well. I am staying with Mary this week. Eliza is moving to her ould home and would not let me stay for fear I would get more cold and take a relapse, so I am here until she gets settled and my room is fixed for me. I hope they will be done with moving and that they will be content in their ould home. People never know when they are well off.
                      Well, you wish to know how we, I mean your Mother and family, got along during Price’s raid. Well, we were as happy and a merry as could be. We did not see a man or boy except the Rebels on Fayeta for a week. Did just as we pleased. Everything went on as smoothly as could be. At night each one gathered in their share of wood. Caroline fed the hogs at daylight and sorted them. We had no trouble. She kept the gates all tied. We had plenty to eat. Cooked when we pleased and ate when we pleased. I do not know when I was ever more full of fun. I am sure Cat was so full of spirits she laughed at everything—and strange to say—we did not feel afraid. Lay down and sleep sound all night. We hid everything except enough to be comfortable on. It is a mystery to me why they did not rob us. Your Father did not lose one cent by them. They took about fifteen hundred dollars from George La Beaume. Broke him up entirely. He has nothing left but his house and land. They took all of his clothes except what he had with him. A good many of Zoe’s also. Cut up her stair carpet for saddle blankets. She went as soon as she found they were there and she gave them a piece of her mind. They said that if the ladies had stayed at home that they would not have taken more than they needed. It made them mad to find the houses deserted. They did not take any of her bedding or destroy any of her furniture. I suppose her going home and staying there saved it. Enough of Price’s Raid. I am sick of hearing and talking about it. They did no more than our army would do in their country.
                      Ella Drake is to be married in February to Mr. Cresen a Philidelphia gentleman. She will do well. She will go there to live. Anna was quite sick when I left home. The rest are all well and Austin is at Paduca on Staff duty. Lou Tompkins said she would not move out home with us. Tompkins is up the river on a boat. George and Zoe are with us and will remain all Winter. He was drafted and had to pay a substitute. He is going on the river, for he is flat broke, losing so much and having to pay so much for a substitute. The draft is going on in Jefferson County. I suppose your brothers will be taken. They were disbanded three weeks ago. I got a letter from Cat last week. She has been suffering with her hip, and head. There was a doctor from St. Louis there to examine her and he said he can cure her if she is sent up and gets medicine. They had a Thanksgiving dinner. Mr. and Mrs. McFarland, Simpson and daughter, and I do not know how many more. Your Mother had gone on a visit to Mrs. Lear when Caroline wrote. William Hurst is married to Miss. McCulloe. Caroline is more happy than she was. I think she is coming to her senses. Sophy Tatum is married to Dr. Casey of Potosi. I suppose you knew him. I suppose you have heard of Mason Frissells death. I suppose you do feel lonesome away from your family and ould friends but you must make the best of everything and if your husband is spared to you and escapes the draft you ought not to complain. I have no doubt that you will be very happy if you all have your health. Always contrast your situation to hundreds of others, that are driven from their homes and lose everything. Mrs. Sweet and Mary send their love to you, as do all of the rest of your cousins. Tell Willie Grandma has not forgotten him and his many kindnesses and kind acts he did for me, nor the many cool drinks he brought me. I hope he is a good boy and he learns his books. My best regards to Mr. Muse. I often think of him and the pleasant Summer we spent together. And now, dear Mag, excuse this badly written letter for I am quite weak yet. Write me whenever you can. My love to you and yours,

                      Eliza W. Hammond

                      [From the Frissell Papers, MO Historical Society]
                      [FONT="Book Antiqua"][SIZE="3"]Silvana R. Siddali[/SIZE][/FONT]
                      [URL="http://starofthewestsociety.googlepages.com/home"][FONT="Book Antiqua"][SIZE="3"]Star of the West Society[/SIZE][/FONT][/URL][B]
                      [COLOR="DarkRed"]Cherry Bounce G'hal[/B][/COLOR]:wink_smil

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