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THE WAR IN THE WEST. 38
and Northern Texas have seen in the goods unblushingly offered them for
sale, the clothes of the poor man infant were as attrative spoil as the
merchant's silk and calico or the curtain taken from the rich man's parlor;
ribbons and trumpery gewgaws were stolen from milliners, and jeweled
rings forced from the fingers of delicate maidens whose brothers were
fighting in Georgia in Cockrell's Confederate Missouri brigade.
It was not until day's after the incidents above given and many like
them had notoriously occurred, after the outrages had got almost beyond
control, and his own staff loudly murmured their disgust and alarm at the
condition of affairs, that General Price, in the fifth week of the campaign,
ordered the organization of provost guards. To the control of these, a po-
sition requiring the most energetic activity and relentless sternness, he
assigned a youthful officer of amiable disposition, who had been recently
wounded, and being thus disabled from riding his horse, was compelled to
make the rest of the campaign in a buggy.
The natural result ensued, and the disorders still continued. They
may be judged by the facts that at Boonville the hotel occupied as
General Price's own headquarters was the scene of public drunken revelry
by night; that guerrillas rode unchecked, in open day, before it, with human
scalps hanging to their bridles, and tauntingly shaking bundles of
plundered greenbacks at our needy soldiers; and that in an official letter
to him there, which he left unanswered and undenied, I asserted that
while "the wholesale pillage in the vicinity of the army had made it
impossible to obtain an anything by purchase, stragglers and camp followers
were enriching themselves by plundering the defenseless families of our
own soldiers in Confederate service." On still darker deeds I shudder-
ingly keep silent.
Under his unmilitary management, numerous wagons, which the
soldiers believed to contain untold wealth of plunder by staff officers and
dead-heads, had dangerously augmented his train, so that it numbered
over five hundred vehicles, and, shockingly controlled and conducted, often
stretched out eight or ten miles in length. Marched in the center of the
army, flanked, preceded or followed by a rabble of dead-heads, stragglers
and stolen negroes on stolen horses, leading broken-down chargers, it gave
to the army the appearance of a Calmuck horde. The real fighting soldiers.
badly fed, badly marched, and getting little rest in a noisy, disorderly
camp where their horses, blankets, pistols, and even the spurs on their
boots, were often stolen from them in their sleep, scarcely disguised their
apprehension that the odious train would occasion disaster to the army,
and they were plainly reluctant to shed their blood to save the plunder
it conveyed.
All these causes, and many others it would be tedious to mention.
had visibly affected the tone, spirits and efficiency of the troops. Military
men had forebodings of disaster to an army that General Price's misman-
agement had converted into an escort for a caravan; God-fearing men
trembled lest, in heaven's anger at the excesses which had marked the
campaign, some thunderbolt of calamity should fall upon our arms.
It did fall, and like a thunderbolt.
As the arny lef t the Osage or Marais des Cygnes, Marmaduke's divis-
ion and Fagan's were in the rear of the train, Tyler's brigade guarded
it, Shelby's division was in the advance. A force of Federal cavalry, esti-
mated by most who fought with it at twenty-five hundred, and without
artillery, closely followed us. To gain time for the enormous train to pass
Object Description
| Title | Shelby and his men, or, the war in the west |
| Author | Edwards, John N. (John Newman), 1839-1889 |
| Subject.LCSH |
Shelby, Joseph Orville, 1830-1897 Missouri -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 Arkansas -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 |
| Coverage | United State -- Missouri |
| Source |
Digital reproduction based on reprint edition republished by his wife Jennie Edwards, Kansas City, Mo. : Hudson-Kimberly Pub. Co., 1897 Originally published: Cincinnati, Ohio : Miami printing and publishing, 1867. |
| Language | English |
| Date.Original | 1897 |
| Date.Digital | 2003? |
| Type |
Books and pamphlets |
| Format | JPEG |
| Collection Name | Civil War in Missouri - Monographs |
| Editorial Note | All blank pages have been eliminated |
| Publisher.Digital | University of Missouri Digital Library Production Services |
| Rights | These pages may be freely searched and displayed. Permission must be received for subsequent distribution in print or electronically. Please contact contributing institution for information. |
| Contributing Institution |
University of Missouri--Columbia. Libraries |
| Copy Request | Contact Ellis Library Special Collection, University of Missouri - Columbia at (573) 882-0076 or email: SpecialCollections@missouri.edu |
Description
| Title | civk000028p0389 |
| Description | THE WAR IN THE WEST. 38 and Northern Texas have seen in the goods unblushingly offered them for sale, the clothes of the poor man infant were as attrative spoil as the merchant's silk and calico or the curtain taken from the rich man's parlor; ribbons and trumpery gewgaws were stolen from milliners, and jeweled rings forced from the fingers of delicate maidens whose brothers were fighting in Georgia in Cockrell's Confederate Missouri brigade. It was not until day's after the incidents above given and many like them had notoriously occurred, after the outrages had got almost beyond control, and his own staff loudly murmured their disgust and alarm at the condition of affairs, that General Price, in the fifth week of the campaign, ordered the organization of provost guards. To the control of these, a po- sition requiring the most energetic activity and relentless sternness, he assigned a youthful officer of amiable disposition, who had been recently wounded, and being thus disabled from riding his horse, was compelled to make the rest of the campaign in a buggy. The natural result ensued, and the disorders still continued. They may be judged by the facts that at Boonville the hotel occupied as General Price's own headquarters was the scene of public drunken revelry by night; that guerrillas rode unchecked, in open day, before it, with human scalps hanging to their bridles, and tauntingly shaking bundles of plundered greenbacks at our needy soldiers; and that in an official letter to him there, which he left unanswered and undenied, I asserted that while "the wholesale pillage in the vicinity of the army had made it impossible to obtain an anything by purchase, stragglers and camp followers were enriching themselves by plundering the defenseless families of our own soldiers in Confederate service." On still darker deeds I shudder- ingly keep silent. Under his unmilitary management, numerous wagons, which the soldiers believed to contain untold wealth of plunder by staff officers and dead-heads, had dangerously augmented his train, so that it numbered over five hundred vehicles, and, shockingly controlled and conducted, often stretched out eight or ten miles in length. Marched in the center of the army, flanked, preceded or followed by a rabble of dead-heads, stragglers and stolen negroes on stolen horses, leading broken-down chargers, it gave to the army the appearance of a Calmuck horde. The real fighting soldiers. badly fed, badly marched, and getting little rest in a noisy, disorderly camp where their horses, blankets, pistols, and even the spurs on their boots, were often stolen from them in their sleep, scarcely disguised their apprehension that the odious train would occasion disaster to the army, and they were plainly reluctant to shed their blood to save the plunder it conveyed. All these causes, and many others it would be tedious to mention. had visibly affected the tone, spirits and efficiency of the troops. Military men had forebodings of disaster to an army that General Price's misman- agement had converted into an escort for a caravan; God-fearing men trembled lest, in heaven's anger at the excesses which had marked the campaign, some thunderbolt of calamity should fall upon our arms. It did fall, and like a thunderbolt. As the arny lef t the Osage or Marais des Cygnes, Marmaduke's divis- ion and Fagan's were in the rear of the train, Tyler's brigade guarded it, Shelby's division was in the advance. A force of Federal cavalry, esti- mated by most who fought with it at twenty-five hundred, and without artillery, closely followed us. To gain time for the enormous train to pass |
| Source | Shelby and His Men |
| Type | Books and monographs |
| Format | JPEG |
| Identifier | civk000028p0389.jpg |
| Collection Name | Civil War in Missouri - Monographs |
| Editorial Note | All blank pages have been eliminated |
| Publisher.Digital | University of Missouri Digital Library Production Services |
| Rights | These pages may be freely searched and displayed. Permission must be received for subsequent distribution in print or electronically. Please contact koppk@umsystem.edu for more information. |
| Copy Request | Contact Ellis Library special collection at: SpecialCollections@missouri.edu |
