By Hampton B. Watts*
Howard County, Missouri
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In Noted Guerrillas, by Major John N. Edwards, a description of this
battle is painted in the liveliest colors, but unfortunately there is only here and there a grain of truth as given and described. The data for the Edwards' writing was furnished him by one Pat
DeHart, who claimed to
Edwards that he had been one of Bill Anderson's Company, when in truth he
(DeHart) was at .no time a guerrilla, nor
had he at any time seen a day's military service. [Neither] the Court House nor
Female Academy were fortified. No attack was made on either building. No guerrilla [was] killed nearer the Courthouse
than 3/8s of a mile; hence what was published in History of Howard and Cooper
Counties in describing the assault on the town, names and number of men killed and wounded, is FICTION, PURE FICTION. Yet, it is published as HISTORY. This writer was born and raised in Fayette,
knew every foot of the ground fought over that day, was personally acquainted with
every officer and private in the Federal garrison; therefore, "knows whereof he appear
speaks." The FACTS in regard to the movement of the band of guerrillas on September 20th, including the battle, are as follows:
A rendezvous of Bill Anderson's company was had the evening of September 19th, three-fourths of a mile west of Cherry Grove school house, six miles south of Fayette, on the farm now owned by Mrs. Sue Miller [parts of this farm are presently owned by David Mechlin and Mr. and Mrs. Edward Dickey in Sections 10 and 15, T49,
R16]. The company bivouacked for the night near the east bank of Bonne Femme creek. At daylight on the morning of the 20th, the company was ordered to mount for marching. Moving east through the farm by twos, a halt was made at the gate
opening on the Franklin road. A large force of mounted guerrillas were in line one-fourth of
a mile south.-Midway between these men in line and the gate where Anderson's company had halted,
Bill Anderson, Quantrell [sic], Captains George Todd, Tom Todd and Dave Poole were seated on their
horses, engaged in animated and heated argument.
The presence of these noted guerrillas with their men was a great surprise to
the rank and file of Anderson's company. Whence they had come or whither they
were going, could not be revealed by inquiry. Anderson alone seemed to know
the purpose of their coming. A revelation was soon had. Bill Anderson, it was
shown, had not divined his object or purpose to these leaders in this sudden
junction of their bands. After what seemed to be a very spirited controversy and
wrangle between these leaders, Bill Anderson rode back to his waiting company and gave the command, "Forward, Men!"
Anderson's company leading, moved south along the New
Franklin road one and one-half miles, turning east through the farm of Col. William
Hocker, coming into the Fayette and Maxwell Mill road seven and one-half miles south of Fayette, where the column of guerrillas was turned in the direction of the town. Up to this time no one of the rank and file had intimation of the destination of the marching column, nor the purpose of its leaders. Quickly word was passed down the line, "Boys we're going into Fayette."
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Howard County
Courthouse as it would have appeared at the time of the Fayette
Fight (Howard County Atlas, 1876). |
Advancing slowly, the town was reached at 10:30 am. and quietly entered by way of Main street from the Rocheport road. The head of the column approached to within one hundred yards of the Court House square without. being detected as
guerrillas, (the citizens thinking it to be a returning Federal scout), when some reckless guerrilla began firing at a negro dressed in a blue uniform, standing on the side walk. Immediately
pandemonium broke loose. The whole column of horsemen broke into a run and dashed through town toward the Federal garrison at the north edge of Central College campus; one-half mile north of [the] court house. Coming to the court house square, the column turned west to Church street. About fifty men turned up Church street, the main body continuing west on Morrison Street to Water [Linn) street, turning up Water street at the corner where now stands Mernmell's shop. The divided column united at the ravine just north of the present Gymnasium. A Federal picket stationed at the south corner of Swinney's Factory (where now stands Centenary Chapel [Methodist Church]), fired at the guerrillas as the rush was made up Church street, instantly killing Thad Jackman. Only one shot by the enemy had been fired previous to Jackman's killing. While passing the court house on Morrison street, one of the guerrillas had his horse killed from a shot fired from the building by John Patton, a private of Company "A."
The row of "Block" houses, as they are called, were located on the slight ridge two hundred and fifty yards
past of Science Hall [T. Berry Smith Hall]. The houses had been erected by the Federal soldiers for winter quarters-not as a garrison. But in the battle about to be described they served as a sure and safe defense. Now began the wild, wanton, stupid assault on the log house, defended by
fifty of the enemy. Not more than seventy-five guerrillas, out of a force of two hundred and fifty, engaged in any
one of the three charges made on the stronghold. The first assault made was from the ravine across the open field. Not one of the enemy could be seen, but the muzzles of muskets protruded from every port-hole, belching fire and lead at the charging guerrillas. Horses went down as grain before the reaper-only one guerrilla, Garrett M. Groomer, of George Todd's company, was killed; Bill Akin,
of Tom Todd's company, mortally wounded, Tom Maupin and Silas King, of Anderson's company, slightly wounded.
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Simplified plat map
of Fayette (Howard County Atlas, 1876) showing the route (yellow) of guerrilla attack upon the winter quarters of
Union troops (Block Houses near Central College Campus). |
In the second assault, Younger Grubbs, of Bill Anderson's company, was killed, Oliver Johnson, of Todd's company, mortally wounded, Plunk Murray, Lee McMurtry and Newman
Wade, all of Anderson's company seriously wounded. Seeing the utter futility of further attempts to dislodge the enemy, a mere
feint was made for the third assault. Quantrill, and nearly all of his men seeing at first view of the stronghold and the
hopelessness of a victory, had refused to take any part in the assaults. Wisdom
was shown in his decision. Oliver Johnson and Bill Akin, both mortally wounded, were
rescued from the field of battle by comrades, amid a shower of the enemy's musket balls. One of the
rescuing party, in a letter to the writer, said,
"We secured an army blanket, going to the top of the hill and there found Johnson just
over the rise in plain view of the block-houses. Will say to you that when I saw the situation and knew just what was coming, my heart
almost ceased to beat. Could the ground have opened up and engulfed me, believe it would have been a relief .... When we
succeeded in getting him on the blanket and started over the hill, it appeared to me that every square inch of space around us was
filled with musket-balls. Strange to say, not one of us was touched. This was the most scary, as well as the most dangerous, place I have any recollection of ever being in during those dreadful
times."
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Detail from modern
Howard County road map showing approximate route (yellow) of
guerrillas on the morning of September 20, 1864. |
The guerrillas retired [north] along the Glasgow road [Highway 5]. After the fight Will Hayes, of Anderson's company, while standing in the road in front of the old Sallstonstall [sic] home (where now stands the residence of Ira C. Darby, Jr.,) was shot and mortally wounded by a soldier, from the east tower of the Academy, dying a few hours later. But one Federal was killed, a man by the name of Renton, and he was shot, in an open field just west of I.H. Pearson's residence. Six guerrillas killed, eight or ten wounded, was the result of Bill Anderson's reckless foolhardiness. Leading men, armed only with revolvers, charging an invisible enemy in block-houses, to simply imbed bullets in logs, with no possible chance to either kill or inflict injury on the foe, was both stupid and reckless. The defeat of the guerrillas therefore was signal and humiliating. Had the Federals been more deliberate and better marksmen, at least two-thirds of the guerrilla band engaged in the battle, would have been killed.
It is well to correct a false statement made in Picturesque Fayette, concerning this fight. A picture of an old cottonwood tree appears, under which this statement is made:
"At the time of the famous Anderson raid in Fayette, during the war two of Anderson's men were killed near this tree by Lieut. Jos. M. Street, who with a company of fifteen men, was ambushed in the timber nearby." This statement is wholly visionary, fancied and untrue. No ambuscade was had. Not one of the guerrillas was killed near this tree; therefore, in its entirety the "Cottonwood Tree Story" is false.
After the retirement of the guerrillas from the field of battle. the line was reformed and the march resumed on the road leading to Huntsville. Randolph county,
bivouacking near Washington church, nine miles from Fayette .... [After an unsuccessful attempt to capture the Federal outpost at Huntsville the march continued into Monroe County.]
After several days spent in Monroe county, the march was resumed, the guerrillas moving southeast into the east part of Boone county, camping the night of the 26th near Centralia.
*[Editor's Note: The following description of the
guerrilla raid on Fayette, Missouri, in Howard County in September 1864 is an excerpt from Hampton Watts' rare 1913 book,
The Babe of the Company: An Unfolded Leaf from the Forest of Never-To-Be-Forgotten
Years, reprinted by the Democrat-Leader Press of Fayette, Mo.
According to the 1883, History of Howard and Cooper Counties, Hampton B. Watts was born in Howard County, January 14, 1848. His father, Benjamin Watts, came to Howard County in
1835 from Clark County, Kentucky, and was killed in 1856 by an elk in a freak accident near Fayette. Hampton lived in Howard County all his life, except for four years he spent in Texas after the Civil War. He apparently joined the Missouri guerrillas in 1864 shortly after he turned 16. In September of 1868, after he returned to Missouri from Texas, he married Mary J. Morton and they had at least six children. The 200 acre Watts farm was located about a mile south of Fayette. In this account
Watts is particularly interested in correcting what he considers to be major errors in the secondhand account by John Newman Edwards in
Noted Guerrillas (1877). Another first hand account of the Fayette raid appears in
John McCorkle's Three Years With Quantrill (1914). This attack on Fayette was led by William Anderson, over the objections of William Clarke
Quantrill who by this point in the war had lost much of his control and leadership of
the guerrillas. Soon after the disastrous attack on Fayette, Anderson and his men made the brutal attack on Centralia,
Missouri.]
Official Records of the Union
and Confederate Armies
SERIES I, VOLUME 41
GLASGOW, MO., September 27, 1864.
GENERAL: I have the honor to report that on Monday, the 19th instant, I
left Saint Joseph with Companies B and M, Ninth cavalry Missouri State
Militia; Companies C and D, Seventeenth Illinois Cavalry, and a section of
mountain howitzers, Company C, Second Missouri Artillery. I moved to Macon
by railroad, and on the morning of the 21st marched from Macon, my force
having been augmented by Companies C and E, Ninth Cavalry Missouri State
Militia. I camped near Huntsville on the night of the 21st and moved
thence to Roanoke, where I divided the command, sending a portion direct
to Fayette under Lieutenant-Colonel Draper, Ninth Cavalry, Missouri State
Militia, and marched with the balance of the command to this post. I had
in the meantime ordered Lieutenant-Colonel Matthews, Third Cavalry
Missouri State Militia, to move his entire command from Sturgeon to
Rocheport, and there establish his headquarters and directed
Lieutenant-Colonel Stauber, Forty-second Missouri Volunteer Infantry, to
move from Macon to Sturgeon with three companies. I also ordered General
Douglas to move from Mexico toward Rocheport with 200 of the First Iowa
Cavalry Volunteers. The best information I could obtain indicated that the
guerrillas, under Perkins, Quantrill, Thrailkill, Todd, Anderson,
Holtzclaw, Davis, and others, were concentrating in the Perche Hills on or
about the line separating Howard and Boone Counties. I made dispositions
accordingly and as secretly as possible, and moved upon the haunts of the
villains from Fayette, Glasgow, Sturgeon and Mexico. The guerrillas were
routed from their camps and found to be about 400 strong, under Quantrill
and Perkins. On Friday evening the 23rd instant, a portion of the train of
the Third Cavalry Missouri State Militia was surprised by the guerrillas
ten miles northeasterly from Rocheport, and twelve men were brutally
murdered after they had surrendered. Some of our dead were thrown upon the
burning wagons which the fiends destroyed and their bodies were partially
consumed. Our troops made but a slight resistance and fled panic-stricken
from the field. They were outnumbered by the bushwhackers four to one.
Perkins, the guerrilla chief, is reported severely wounded at this
engagement. His pocket-book and papers were found scattered on the ground
of the massacre. Had Lieutenant-Colonel Matthews moved his command
together we should have been spared this disaster; although General
Douglass reports to me that the colonel ought not to be censured for his
action in the premises. The guerrillas immediately scattered in every
direction. Major Leonard, Ninth Cavalry Missouri State Militia, who was
moving from Fayette to Rocheport, came upon a gang of these guerrillas and
killed 6 of them, capturing 32 horses and 30 revolvers. Our only casualty
was 1 wounded. Among the dead bushwhackers was a Captain Bissett, recently
a terror in Platte and Clay Counties.
On Saturday morning the guerrillas from different points concentrated
upon Fayette and charged into the town at 10.30 a.m., yelling like demons,
their advance being clad in Federal uniform. They were properly welcomed
by the small force in garrison and most handsomely whipped after three
unsuccessful attempts to dislodge our troops. Thirteen of the villains
were killed outright and - so severely wounded that they died on Saturday
night. One rebel captain, name not known, was among the dead. Their
wounded numbered 30, judging from the carriages stolen to remove them. We
are daily learning of the death of some one of the wounded. Our loss was 1
killed and 2 wounded. I had on the same day ordered Major King, Thirteenth
Cavalry Missouri Volunteers from this post to Fayette, with 200
well-appointed men. He arrived at Fayette two hours after the discomfited
rascals had left in the direction of Roanoke, and pushed on after them
without delay. On Sunday, the 25th, instant, the brigands sat down in the
front of Huntsville, and in the name of Colonel Perkins and the Southern
Confederacy, demanded a surrender. The militia stationed at Huntsville,
under Lieutenant-Colonel Denny, showed fight, and, Major King being close
after the villains, they moved toward Renick, tearing down the telegraph
wires by the mile. Major King pursued them as rapidly as possible with his
jaded horses, and at last advices, 1.30 p.m. Monday the 26th, was very
near them at Middle Grove, in Monroe County. Several stragglers from the
guerrillas have been captured and summarily mustered out.
Lieutenant-Colonel Draper, with a detachment of the Ninth Cavalry Missouri
State Militia, moved from Fayette toward Renick on the 26th instant,
General Douglass, with the Iowa troops, toward Sturgeon, scouting through
the Perche Hills, and will unite or co-operate with Major King. In several
small skirmishes with the bushwhackers on Saturday and Sunday our troops
were successful in killing the bushwhackers. No better region that this
could be selected for guerrilla warfare. The topography of the country and
the hearts and consciences of the people are adapted to the hellish work.
There is scarcely a family but what has its representative in either
Price's invading force or in the corps be bush. Men and women of wealth
and position give their entire influence and aid to the knights of the
bush. The hand of the Government must be laid heavily upon them. I shall
remain in this section and on the North Missouri Railroad until affairs
are in a better condition.
I expect a full report of the Keytesville disaster to-day. Cowardice
and treason combined caused the loss of Keytesville and the brutal murder
of Mr. Carman, one of the best of citizens and of William Young, an aged
loyalist,serving faithfully as a Federal scout himself and had three sons
in the Union army. The fiends murder none but radical Union men, while
conservatives of undoubted loyalty are spared in property and person. The
radicals are hunted from their homes, and their substance appropriated and
destroyed. Our troops being chiefly from the radical portion of the
community, it is with great difficulty they are restrained from
depredations upon the class favored by the bushwhackers. I will promptly
and vigorously urge the people to a response to your admirable General
Orders, Numbers 176. You have struck the keynote. Let the masses rise up
in their strength and give an exhibition of their devotion to loyalty and
the Union, and Price will never again invade Missouri with his thieving
horde. I am placing ever county court-house in as safe condition as
possible, but there are so many towns to protect, so many railway,
bridges, stations, and trains constantly exposed to attack, capture, and
destruction by the fiends, that we must expect serious trouble in that
direction. I will keep you posted daily of movements in the district.
I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
CLINTON B. FISK,
Brigadier-General.
GLASGOW, September 27, 1864.
The train on the North Missouri Railroad, bound
north from Saint Louis to-day, was captured at Centralia Station by Bill
Anderson and his friends. Twenty-one soldiers were taken therefrom and
shot. The passengers were robbed and the train set on fire, and put in
motion had been there, ready, an hour when the train came up. They had the
citizens of the town under guard, thereby preventing intelligence of their
presence being communicated to the approaching train. Perkins and
Thrailkill were reported as co-operating with Anderson, being near by and
in sight of the depot. General Douglas, Lieutenant-Colonel Draper, Major
Leonard, and Major King are each in that neighborhood with an aggregate of
600 troops, and some of them ought to fall upon the villains. More than
half of this murdering party are young men from Boone County, fed,
protected and encouraged by many of the citizens of this region. We have
troops at all the telegraph stations, but it is impossible to guard all
stations with the forces at our command. A few of these barbarians can
capture, rob, and burn a train at any of the way-stations.
CLINTON B. FISK,
Brigadier-General.
FAYETTE, September 25, 1864.
GENERAL: We heard yesterday about noon that this place had been
captured by 600 bushwhackers under Quantrill, but our horses had just come
in from running these same scoundrels. From the direction they took I had
no idea that they contemplated an attack upon this place, so I went back
to Rocheport after following the trail until it ran out from the
scattering of the rebels. The fight here was a most gallant one on the
part of the Ninth. I understood your instructions to me were to take what
men of Major Leonard's could be spared and move on to Rocheport. I acted
accordingly. I do not know whether or not you have had a detailed report
of the fight here. The advance guard of the rebels were all dressed in
Federal uniform and were consequently not suspected until they began
firing. The provost guard immediately took post in the court-house and
fought the whole command of villains until they left for camp. This gave
the men time to rally on camp, which was near the college building. They
then went into that and fought them until they got sick of it and left in
a hurry, leaving 5 dead on the ground. They probably carried off some dead
and many wounded as they pressed wagons, buggies, and carriages on the
road as far as we could hear from them.
I congratulate myself on having command of such men as are in my
regiment, and hope that I may soon have them all together. General
Douglass is giving you such information as he has, so it is not necessary
for me to repeat. I differ with him as to the number of them. He thinks
the principal force is below yet; I do not. I think they were all here.
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
DAN. M. DRAPER,
Lieutenant-Colonel
