Civil War in the Ozarks

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 – The Winds of War: 1861     11
Chapter 2 – Full-Scale War: 1862     39
Chapter 3 – The Ozarks Burn: 1863     65
Chapter 4 – The Lost Cause: 1864-65     87
Chapter 5 – Lost Treasures of the Civil War     105
Chapter 6 – Jesse James and the Civil War     109

 Bibliography     125

 Index     129 

The Winds of War 1861

            It is hard to imagine today that the beautiful rolling hills of the southern Missouri and north Arkansas Ozarks were once one of the bloodiest regions in our nation’s great Civil War. 

            Geologists tell us that these sprawling highlands of mid-America known as the Ozarks are our nation’s oldest mountain range.  Once the homeland of the warring Osage and other Indian tribes, early French explorers took note of the beautiful and unusually strong wood the Indians were using to make their weapons, which flourished in abundance throughout the region.  The French then began referring to the lands as “ la region aux arcs,” meaning “the area of the bows.”  Simple phonetics over the years therefore created the word Ozark from this corruption of “aux arcs.”  Today, this tree (pronounced locally “bow dark” or  “bow doc”), which still flourishes throughout the region, is often referred to as a hedgeapple tree as a result of its tendency to grow along fence rows and form a hedge.  This tree produces large yellow apples in the fall, which are useless and poisonous.  One of the many Ozark legends created by early settlers in the region tells that this tree once produced an abundance of the most delicious fruit ever known to mankind.  When Adam was enticed by Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, God turned the fruit to poison and caused thorns to grow from this once beautiful tree.

The Ozarks Burn 1863

            Retreating to their fortifications, the Yanks took cover as Shelby opened fire with his artillery.  Chalk Bluff on May 1 when Marmaduke’s troops crossed the St. Francis River on their way back to Arkansas.  Marmaduke’s Cape Girardeau raid failed to accomplish much of anything other than misery among his own men who were forced to struggle through the region’s mosquito-infested swamps during the fruitless ordeal.  Upon his arrival at Confederate headquarters in Jacksonport, Marmaduke reported his losses as 30 killed, 60 wounded, and 120 missing. 

            Meanwhile, guerrilla warfare intensified.  On May 18 a detachment of 40 Federals, most of whom were African-American troops of the 1^st Kansas Colored Infantry Regiment, were foraging for corn at a farm near Sherwood, Missouri.  Without warning, they were suddenly surprised by Maj. Thomas Livingston and nearly 70 of his Jasper County partisans who burst from the nearby woods with guns blazing.  The Yanks were routed with 18 of their number killed.  The guerrillas had only two men wounded in the action and captured 5 wagons, 30 mules, and a good supply of guns and ammunition.  The next day, vengeful troops from the Union regiment’s camp arrived in the area with 300 infantrymen and at least 100 cavalrymen.  Livingston’s band eluded the force, but the village of Sherwood, a frequent base for the guerrilla forces, was put to the torch.  The community was completely destroyed and was never to be rebuilt.  Thus Sherwood was added to the growing list of Ozark communities that lay in ruins.  By now most of the Ozark region was essentially in a state of anarchy.  Destroyed homes and murdered citizens had become commonplace in the region. 

Lost Treasures of the Civil War

            A payroll officer and two guards were approaching Prairie Grove, Arkansas, with a payroll consisting of gold coins.  As they were some one-mile away they heard sounds of the raging battle there.  Fearing that the payroll might be lost or taken in battle, the party turned and rode to a mountain, which is known today as Pinnacle Mountain, along the Hogeye road south of Prairie Grove.  There the men buried the payroll and joined their regiment on the battlefield.  All three men were mortally wounded in the battle.  As the last man lay dying, he told an officer about burying the funds and where the payroll could be found.  A few days after the important Prairie Grove conflict, the officer searched the mountain for the money but it was never found.  Over the years hundreds have combed Pinnacle Mountain but the elusive gold still remains lost.