The FReeper Foxhole Profiles General Joseph Orville Shelby

Battle of Cape Girardeau, Missouri

In April, 1863, Confederate Maj. General John S. Marmaduke initiated one of the most memorable movements of the war which led to the Battle of Cape Girardeau. He invaded Missouri with 5,000 men and ten pieces of artillery from Arkansas. His forces were organized into four brigades striking in two columns. One column, commanded by General Jo Shelby entered the state to the west while the second, commanded by General Carter entered to the east. The two columns met at Patterson on April 20 and took the town but Federal forces, alerted by artillery fire, escaped north in the direction of Pilot Knob.

General Joseph Shelby

Carter's column, accompanied Gen. Marmaduke, was to attach and defeat Col. John McNeil and a considerable Union force then holding Bloomfield. Shelby's column captured and occupied Fredericktown on April 22, hoping to defeat McNeil if he tried to escape toward Pilot Knob. While in Fredericktown, Shelby sent a detachment to burn the railroad bridge over Big River, which was accomplished after a severe skirmish. Carter reached Bloomfield on April 21st, and McNeil retreated toward Pilot Knob, as anticipated, with Carter in close pursuit. Upon learning that Shelby occupied Fredericktown, McNeil turned his force and retreated toward Cape Girardeau. Carter followed him to within four miles of the city and sent word to Shelby in Fredericktown for reinforcements. The messengers were captured, however, and it was April 25th before Shelby learned Carter was at Cape Girardeau.

Maj. General John S. Marmaduke

On April 26, Shelby led his troops to Cape Girardeau by way of the Jackson Road and created a demonstration as a diversion while Marmaduke drew off Carter's men by the Bloomfield Road. The demonstration escalated into an artillery duel with Union troops and Marmaduke brought Carter's men around to the Jackson Road to support Shelby. The brunt of the fighting fell on Fort B, the present site of Southeast Missouri State University, which was armed with four twenty-four pound guns. There were four twelve pound guns on a hill to the southwest of Fort B and a line of rifle pits. These were charged by the Confederates. The battle lasted from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. when Marmaduke, finding the town well defended, retreated to Jackson. Accounts of the number killed vary. A marker, located near Broadway and Caruthers Street in Cape Girardeau, reminds visitors of the site of the battle.

Price's Raid in Missouri
September to October of 1864

In July of 1864, when transfer of A. J. Smith's corps and XIX Corps had weakened federal strength in Louisiana, Kirby Smith directed Taylor to cross with his two divisions to the east side of the Mississippi. After several unsuccessful attempts Kirby Smith accepted the fact that he would have to confine his operations to the area west of the river. He decided to attempt the recovery of Missouri by sending Sterling Price into that state with all available cavalry.

General Sterling Price

Price left Princeton, Arkansas in August with the cavalry divisions of J. F. Fagan and John S. Marmaduke. Crossing the Arkansas River unmolested between the Federal garrisons at Little Rock and Fort Smith, he marched through Batesville to Pocahontas, in the northeast part of the state. Here he was joined by the cavalry division of J. O. Shelby. With a force that now totaled 12,000 men and 14 guns, he entered Missouri on September 19 and advanced on a broad front. At Fredericktown he concentrated his forces on the 25th. At Pilot Knob (Fort Davidson), on September 27, he was repulsed in a bloody six-hour fight by 1,100 Federals under Thomas Ewing. The losses were approximately 1,500 Confederates and 200 Federals. Ewing secretly evacuated the post during the night, and blew it up.

Sterling Price on Bloody Hill., Wilson's Creek

When Price started his raid, A. J. Smith's corps with a cavalry brigade was aboard transports on the Mississippi for movement to Nashville. (They had been operating against Forrest in Mississippi.) This command was diverted to assist in the defense of Missouri. Price advanced toward St. Louis, but the arrival there of A. J. Smith's troops precluded his attacking the city. Ewing, meanwhile, had been conducting a delaying action, while Pleasonton with 7,000 cavalry and eight guns advanced to his support. Price wheeled to the west, along the south bank of the Missouri River. Destroying sections of the Pacific R.R. as they went, the confederates occupied Hermann on October 5; by-passed Jefferson City, October 7, and took Boonville, October 9. Shelby captured Glasgow, October 15, having forced the surrender of over 400 Federals under Colonel Chester Harding, Jr. The same day Shelby captured Sedalia after stampeding about 700 men under the command of Colonel J. D. Crawford.

Although thousands of state militia had been mobilized, Price continued westward, skirmishing daily, but unopposed by any organized resistance. Pleasonton followed to his rear, while A. J. Smith's troops and Colonel J. E. Phelps's Missouri militia moved on his south flank. Meanwhile, in the pre-election confusion of Kansas an order had been issued mobilizing 10,000 militia. Some of these regiments refused to cross into Missouri, but J. G. Blunt moved eastward with the 2nd Colorado and 16th Kansas. Twenty miles east of Lexington, at Waverly, Missouri (Shelby's hometown), Blunt made contact with Price's leading brigade. (This was "Shelby's Brigade," under M. Jeff Thompson, who had succeeded David Shanks when the latter was mortally wounded on October 6.)

Charge at Mine Creek

Federal resistance was now stiffening. There were actions at Lexington, October 19; Little Blue River, October 21; and Independence, Big Blue (Bryam's Ford) and State Line October 22. Federal General Samuel Curtis, commanding the Department of Kansas had now come forward and had been driven from his initial position along the Big Blue on October 22, when Shelby found an exposed flank. During the night of October 22-23, Curtis organized a new line along Brush Creek, just south of Kansas City and Westport. Price now had Federals to his front and rear. Although he had an open route of retreat to the south, he elected to attempt to use his central position first to defeat the forces of Curtis to his front and then turn and destroy the forces of Pleasonton and A. J. Smith. The next day the Confederates were defeated in the battle of Westport, Missouri, which has been called by some, the biggest Civil War Engagement west of the Missouri.

After retreating for 61 miles, Price halted to fight a costly rear-guard action at Marais des Cygnes, Kansas on October 25. Confederate Generals Marmaduke and W. L. Cabell were captured along with four colonels, 1,000 men, and 10 guns. Other delaying actions were fought the same day at Little Osage or Mine Creek, Kansas, and at the Marmiton, or the battle of Charlot, Missouri. Price again turned at bay near Newtonia, Missouri on October 28, delaying the pursuit three hours and almost capturing Blunt.

Shelby and his men at Westport, on the Missouri - Kansas Line.

Price made an arduous detour through Indian Territory to avoid Fort Smith. On December 2, he re-entered the Confederate lines at Laynesport, Arkansas, with 6,000 survivors of the ordeal. In summing up his operation Price said, "I marched 1,434 miles; fought forty-three battles and skirmishes; captured and paroled over 3,000 Federal officers and men; and captured 18 pieces of artillery. Although he admitted the loss of only 10 guns, about 1,000 small arms, and fewer than 1,000 prisoners, he had lost closer to 5000 stand of arms, all his cannon, and the greater part of his army. Governor Reynolds of Missouri, who had accompanied Price, released to the press a scathing criticism, accusing Price of "glaring mismanagement and distressing mental and physical military incapacity." Organized Confederate military operations in the Trans-Mississippi region had ended, although guerrilla operations continued unabated.

Additional Sources:

www.generalsandbrevets.com
www.knightsedge.com
www.mocivilwar.org
www.tsha.utexas.edu
www.oldgloryprints.com
www.civilwaralbum.com
www.kshs.org

SHELBY EXPEDITION.

A substantial number of former Confederates went to Mexico after the Civil War. These exiles either hoped to continue the struggle or were fearful of their future in the United States. Among them were such men as governors Pendleton Murrahqv of Texas, Henry Allen and Thomas Moore of Louisiana, and Thomas Reynolds of Missouri; former governor Edward Clarkqv of Texas; and officers John B. Clark of Missouri, Danville Leadbetter of Alabama, Cadmus M. Wilcox of Tennessee, Thomas C. Hindman of Arkansas, William P. Hardemanqv of Texas, and John B. Magruder.

Those led by Gen. Joseph Orville (Jo) Shelby, former commander of the "Iron Cavalry Brigade" of Missouri, came to be called the Shelby expedition. Shelby was a wealthy planter from Lafayette County, Missouri. He was born on December 12, 1830, in Lexington, Missouri, attended Transylvania University, and in 1858 married a distant cousin, Elizabeth Nancy Shelby. A staunch Confederate sympathizer, he once indignantly refused the offer of a commission in the Union Army by his cousin Francis Preston Blair. With no military training he organized and commanded a cavalry company at Newtonia, Missouri, at his own expense, and in June 1862 joined the Confederate forces of Gen. James E. Rains at Van Buren, Arkansas. The Iron Cavalry Brigade operated chiefly in Arkansas and Missouri, participating in all the major engagements in the region. In October 1864 the brigade crossed the Arkansas River into Texas and at the surrender of Gen. Robert E. Leeqv was at Marshall. Shelby was one of the few Confederate commanders who refused to surrender to the Union forces pursuing him.

On June 1, 1865, with his army disintegrating around him, he determined to take as many of his men as would go to Mexico to continue the war. With a few hundred well-disciplined and orderly men, with all their cannons, arms, and ammunition, he marched from Corsicana through Waco, Austin, and San Antonio to Eagle Pass. Prominent persons joined them on the way. While crossing the Rio Grande at Piedras Negras, they sank their Confederate guidon in the river, in what came to be known as the "Grave of the Confederacy Incident."

In Mexico they encountered the rebel forces of Benito Juárez. After selling all their arms to the rebels except their revolvers and carbines, they were permitted to pass to the south. They arrived in Mexico City in mid-August 1865. There they offered their services to Maximilian. Although grateful, the French-installed emperor received them only as immigrant settlers subject to the liberal terms of the Decree of September 5, 1865. Many of Shelby's men accepted and joined in the establishment of the Carlota colony in Córdoba and a colony at Tuxpan. Others joined the army or went to the Pacific coast and sailed to South America or California. Shelby himself occupied the hacienda of Santa Anna and began business as a freight contractor. He moved to Tuxpan in the fall of 1866, left Mexico the next year, and returned to Missouri, where he died in 1897 at the age of 67. Because of the Mexican civil war, robbers, and attacks by dispossessed Indians, the colonies lasted only about a year. Most of the Americans returned to the United States by the end of 1867.

Born and raised in Kentucky, a Missourian by choice, JO Shelby possessed the dashing charm of J.E.B. Stuart and the fighting instincts of N.B. Forrest. With the exception only of Ulysses Grant, Shelby is the greatest natural military genius Missouri has produced - and Missouri is the State which produced John Pershing and Omar Bradley.

Shelby's exploits during the War are legendary. Conservatively, he traveled - in the saddle at the head of cavalry - more than 5,000 miles in Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky and Kansas. Measured in miles, Shelby is without doubt the most well traveled cavalry commander in U.S. History. Still, his wartime operations almost pale in comparison to his Long Ride in 1865.

Shelby died in 1897, and was buried in Forest Hill Cemetery, on the hillside where he made his last stand during the Battle of Westport. Jo Shelby's funeral procession is the largest, to the present day, Kansas City has ever seen.

Veterans for Constitution Restoration is a non-profit, non-partisan educational and grassroots activist organization. The primary area of concern to all VetsCoR members is that our national and local educational systems fall short in teaching students and all American citizens the history and underlying principles on which our Constitutional republic-based system of self-government was founded. VetsCoR members are also very concerned that the Federal government long ago over-stepped its limited authority as clearly specified in the United States Constitution, as well as the Founding Fathers' supporting letters, essays, and other public documents.

Actively seeking volunteers to provide this valuable service to Veterans and their families.

Iraq Homecoming Tips

~ Thanks to our Veterans still serving, at home and abroad. ~ Freepmail to Ragtime Cowgirl | 2/09/04 | FRiend in the USAF

PDN members and fans. We hope you will consider this simple act of patriotism worth passing on or taking up as a project in your own back yard. In summary:

Who They Are: Operation: Stitches Of Love was started by the Mothers of two United States Marines stationed in Iraq.

What They Are Doing: We are gathering 12.5"x12.5" quilt squares from across the country and assembling the largest quilt ever produced. When completed we will take the quilt from state to state and gather even more squares.

Why They Are Doing This: We are building this quilt to rally support for the Coalition Forces in Iraq and to show the service members that they are not forgotten. We want the world to know Nothing will ever break the stitches that bind us together as a country.

Ideas to start a local project:

Obtain enough Red, White and Blue material (cloth) for a 12.5 x 12.5 quilt square.
If you have someone in your family that sews, make it a weekend project and invite neighbors to join you.

Consider this tribute as a project for your civic group, scouts, church or townhall group.

Locate an elementary school with an after school program in your neighborhood or locate an after school program in your neighborhood not attached to a school and ask if you could volunteer one or two afternoons and create some squares with the kids.

Invite some VFW posts to share your project in honor of their post.

Send us webmaster@patriotwatch.com for digital photos of in progress and finished project for various websites, OIFII.com and the media.

PDN is making this appeal in support of Operation: Stitches Of Love
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UPDATED THROUGH APRIL 2004

The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul

Click on Hagar for
"The FReeper Foxhole Compiled List of Daily Threads"

On This Day In History

Birthdates which occurred on June 28:
1367 Sigismund, German Emperor/king of Hungary/Bohemia
1476 Paul IV, [Giampietro Caraffa], inquisition/Pope (1555-59)
1490 Albert Margrave of Brandenburg, cardinal (attacked by Luther)
1491 Henry VIII of England (1509-47), Don't lose your head over him
1577 Peter Paul Rubens, Siegen, Flemish Baroque painter (Elevation of the Cross, Coronation of Marie de Medicis, Circumcision)
1712 Jean Jacques Rousseau France, philosopher (Confessions)
1787 Sir Henry G W Smith leader of British-Indian forces
1824 William Tatus Wofford, Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1884
1824 Paul Broca France, brain surgeon/anthro (located speech center)
1873 Alexis Carrel France, surgeon/sociologist/biologist (Nobel 1912)
1902 Richard Rodgers Hammels Station NY, composer (Rodgers & Hammerstein)
1906 Maria Goeppert Mayer US atomic physicist (Nobel 1963)
1926 Mel Brooks comedian/actor/director (Blazing Saddles, Spaceballs)
1945 David Knights bassist (Pocol Harum)
1946 Bruce Davison actor (Willard, High Risk)
1946 Gilda Radner Detroit, comedienne (SNL-Baba Wawa)
1946 John "Mike" Lounge Denver Colo, astr (STS 51-I, STS 26, STS 35)
1948 Kathy Bates, Memphis TN, academy award winning actress (Misery)
1955 Nikolai Simyatov USSR, nordic skier (Olympic-3 golds-1976)
1960 John Elway NFL QB (Denver Broncos)
1966 John Cusack actor (Stand By Me, Sure Thing, Better Off Dead)

Deaths which occurred on June 28:
0548 Theodora, dancer/empress of Byzantine dies
0573 - Alboin, king of Longobardia (Lombards), probably poisoned by his wife
0767 Paul I, [Paolo Orsini?], Italian Pope (757-67), dies
1836 James Madison 4th US pres, dies in Montpelier, Va
1889 Maria Mitchell 1st US woman astronomer, dies at 71
1914 Archduke Ferdinand & wife Sofia of Austria assassinated (starts WW I)
1954 Red deer dies in Milwaukee Zoo at 26; oldest known deer
1963 Frank "Home Run" Baker (hit 2 HRs in 1911 world series) dies at 77
1971 Joseph Colombo mobster, shot dead at 48
1974 Frank Sutton actor (Sgt Carter-Gomer Pyle USMC), dies at 55
1975 Rod Serling writer/host (Twilight Zone, Night Gallery), dies at 60

Reported: MISSING in ACTION
1966 CAVALLI ANTHONY FRANK---NEW YORK NY.
[NO PARA BEEP]
1966 DUDLEY CHARLES GLENDON---BOZEMAN MT.
1966 WOLFE THOMAS HUBERT---MONETT MO.
[EXPLODE NO PARA BEEP]
1967 BAILEY JAMES W.---KOSCIUSKO MS.
[ 02/18/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE IN 98]
1967 LAWRENCE WILLIAM P.---NASHVILLE TN.
[03/04/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE IN 98]
1968 JOHNS PAUL FREDERCK---LACONIA IN.

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

On this day...
0767 St Paul I ends his reign as Catholic Pope
1119 Battle of Sarmada - Emir Ilghazi defeat French Crusaders
1245 1st Council of Lyons (13th ecumenical council) opens
1635 French colony of Guadeloupe established in the Caribbean
1762 1st reported counterfeiting attempt (Boston)
1770 Quakers open a school for blacks in Philadelphia
1776 Charleston, SC repulses British sea attack
1778 Battle of Monmouth, NJ
1778 Mary Ludwig Hayes "Molly Pitcher" aids American patriots
1820 Tomato is proven nonpoisonous
1832 Gerrit Moll measures noise of guns (note: its loud..very very loud)
1838 Britain's Queen Victoria crowned in Westminster Abbey
1859 1st dog show held (Newcastle-on-Tyne, England)
1861 Leipzig Observatory discovers short-period (6.2 yrs) Comet d'Arrest
1862 Day 4 of the 7 Days-Battle of Savage's Station
1886 C H F Peters discovers asteroid #259 Aletheia
1887 Phillies most lopsided shut-out beating Indianapolis 24-0
1894 Labor Day established as a federal employees holiday
1902 US buys concession to build Panama canal from French for $40 million
1902 Congress authorizes Louisiana Purchase Expo $1 gold coin
1905 Russian sailors mutiny aboard the battleship "Potemkin"
1909 1st French air show, Concours d'Avation opens
1914 Assassination of the heir to the throne of Austria, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophia, in Sarajevo by a Serbian Nationalist,Gavrilo Princip. This incident precipitated a war with Serbia, eventually starting WW1
1918 1st flight between Hawaiian Islands
1919 Carl Mazes pitches a complete double-header against Yanks
1919 Harry S Truman married Elizabeth Virginia Wallace in Independence
1919 Treaty of Versailles ending WW I signed
1924 Tornado strikes Sandusky Ohio & Lorain Ohio, killing 93
1928 Alfred E Smith (NY-Gov) nominated for president at Dem Convention (first Catholic to run for President)
1928 Friedrich Schmiedl attempted rocket mail in Austria (unsucessful)
1939 Pan Am opens southern route transatlantic air service (Dixie Clipper)
1940 "Quiz Kids?" premiers on radio
1940 Romania cedes Bessarabia to Soviet Union
1945 Polish Provisional Govt of National Unity set up by Soviets (or else!)
1946 Enrico de Nicola becomes 1st pres of Italy
1950 North Korean forces capture Seoul, South Korea
1951 "Amos 'n' Andy" premiers on CBS TV
1956 1st atomic reactor built for private research operates Chicago Ill
1956 Riots break out in Poznan Poland, 38 die
1957 Reds' fans stuff ballot box, electing 8 Reds as All Star starters
1957 Frick overrules and names Stan Musial, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron to team
1960 26.42 cm (10.40") of rainfall, Dunmor, Kentucky (state 24-hour record)
1964 Organization for Afo-American Unity forms in NY by Malcolm X
1965 1st US ground combat forces in Vietnam authorized by Pres Johnson
1968 Daniel Ellsberg indicted for leaking Pentagon Papers
1971 Fillmore East closes
1971 Supreme Court overturns draft evasion conviction of Muhammad Ali
1971 T Smirnova discovers asteroid #3093
1973 Lawsuit in Detroit challenges Little League's "no girls" rule
1975 Golfer Lee Trevino is struck by lightning at Western Open (Ill)
1976 1st woman was admitted to Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs Colo
1977 Supreme Court allows Federal control of Nixon tapes papers
1978 Supreme Court orderes the University of California at Davis Medical School to admit Allan Bakke, a white man who'd argued he was a victim of reverse racial discrimination.
1983 NASA launches Galaxy-A
1985 Discovery ferried back to Kennedy Space Center via Bergstrom AFB, Tx
1987 Don Baylor sets career hit-by-pitch mark at 244 (Pitcher Rick Rhoden)
1987 E F Helin discovers asteroid #3680 Sasha
2000 - Seven months after he was cast adrift in the Florida Straits, Elian Gonzalez was returned to his native Cuba.
(thank you Janet Reno soooo much)
2000 The Supreme Court ruled the Boy Scouts can bar homosexuals from serving as troop leaders.
2000 The Supreme Court struck down Nebraska's partial-birth abortion law.
2001 A unanimous federal appeals court reversed the court-ordered breakup of Microsoft, but ruled that the software giant had violated antitrust laws, and appointed another judge to determine a new punishment.
2001 Former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic was handed over by Serbia to the U.N. war crimes tribunal.
2004 Iraqis take back their country

Holidays
Malta : Mnarja Day-recreate customs of Middle Ages
Iowa : Independence Sunday (1776) (Sunday)
Carpenter Ant Awareness Week Begins
Amateur Radio Week Begins
American Women Athletes Week Begins
US : Honor America Days (thru 7-4)
Cancer in the Sun Month

Religious Observances
Ang, RC, Luth : Feast of St. Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, martyr.
Feast of St. Leo II, Pope and confessor.

Religious History
1577 Birth of Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish painter. His most famous canvasses include 'Descent from the Cross' and 'Erection of the Cross.'
1851 Birth of Eliza E. Hewitt, American Presbyterian church worker and devotional author. Four of her hymns still endure: 'Will There Be Any Stars?', 'More About Jesus I Would Know,' 'When We All Get to Heaven' and 'Sunshine in the Soul.'
1914 Birth of Lester Roloff, American evangelist. In his later years he founded the 'City of Refuge,' a work specializing in reforming children who came from broken homes.
1962 The Lutheran Church in America (LCA) was formed with the merger of four Lutheran synods: the United Lutheran Church in America, the Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church, the American Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church.
1971 The U.S. Supreme Court declared that state underwriting of nonreligious instruction in parochial schools was unconstitutional.

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

Thought for the day :
"Freedom is the oxygen of the soul."

Things To Do If You Ever Became An Evil Overlord...
Despite its proven stress-relieving effect, DO NOT indulge in maniacal laughter. When so occupied, it's too easy to miss unexpected developments that a more attentive individual could adjust to accordingly.

The World's Shortest Books...
Ethiopian Tips On World Dominance

Dumb Laws...
New Hampshire:
You may not tap your feet, nod your head, or in any way keep time to the music in a tavern, restaurant, or cafe.

Top ten things you never hear in church...
6. I volunteer to be the permanent teacher for the Junior High Sunday School class.

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