One Hundred Sixty Years Ago, Aftermath of the Battle of West Plains

Following the Battle of West Plains, the afternoon of February 19, 1862, a thorough search of the town was conducted by Union troops. Any man of military age was arrested unless he could prove his loyalty to the Union cause. West Plains had been in rebel hands since the war began, and Union loyalists were driven out through the fall and winter of 1861. 

Prisoners from the battle, including those injured and those civilians, rounded up in town were transported the following day to the Shannon County Courthouse in Eminence (then located where Round Spring is today). Along the way, the Union troops conducted cavalry patrols, and one hundred prisoners were marched northward.

A search of West Plains for anything of military value and eighty horses and mules were taken, along with eighty rifles and shotguns and two kegs of gunpowder. The Union reports stated many "commissary stores" were confiscated and other "contraband articles," including wagons, an ambulance, and a buggy. The man in charge of those commissary stores, a Confederate Captain by the distinctive name of Socrates H. Kelly, who had been injured in the battle, was among the prisoners. 

Kelly was taken to Rolla and, with the others, briefly held in the stockade at Fort Wyman before being transported to Myrtle Street or Gratiot Street prison in St. Louis. In an undated letter likely written in May 1862, Captain Kelly wrote the commandant of the Myrtle Street Prison begging for release, which was refused. His letter read: "I am by commission a captain & by office a commissary in the army under the command of General Price. I have now been in prison in the city since the 28th of February part of the time & have been in the hospital under treatment for wounds received previous to my capture. I am now here suffering severely from an attack of rheumatism which has so paralyzed me as to render myself helpless so far that I can neither turn over in bed nor put my food to my mouth. I write this note stating these facts in order, if possible, to obtain a release on parole until I shall sufficiently recover to be able to return, which I will promise faithfully to do. I wish simply to be removed to the next building adjoining the prison, where one of my relations lives, who would take care of me. I would greatly prefer not to be returned to the hospital. I will state moreover that I am willing to take the oath if that will secure my release."

He referred to an oath of allegiance to the United States. Kelly was from Louisville, Kentucky, and I was puzzled upon reading the prisoner list how he came to be in West Plains on that fateful day. The remainder of his letter explained, "I wish to call your particular attention to the fact that I am one of General Price's men. He has always been so chivalrous & magnanimous in his treatment of those whom the fortunes of war have placed in his hands that I feel I have a right to claim what your courtesy will undoubtedly suggest as equitable & generous. 

In regard to my residence, I will state that I am a journeyman mechanic. This has led me to change my home frequently. When I enlisted, I was residing in Rolla. My parents live in White Co. Illinois. I have two brothers in the Federal Army." 

Kelly's enlistment would have required him to go south toward the Arkansas border, where he found Coleman and obtained a rather prestigious job and officer's rank. As a Captain, he was given better prison quarters and food as he made his way through the Union prison system, next to Camp Douglas, (Chicago) Illinois, and Johnson's Island, Lake Erie, Ohio, where he was discharged in June 1862, probably because of his medical condition.

Kelly was luckier than the enlisted men like Eli Honey of Dent County, Missouri. Following his capture at the courthouse in West Plains, he ended up at the notorious Union prison at Alton, Illinois, where he died of diarrhea on April 10, 1862. 

Immediately upon their return to Rolla, officers stationed there began receiving complaints from citizens of Howell County about the amount and dubious military value of things taken by Colonel Wood and his men. Specifically, a gold watch allegedly taken from a home became an issue. Shortly after that, Wood, now quartered in Houston, Missouri, issued an order covering himself that read, 

"General Order 2, HQ Houston -  Plundering and pilfering by troops in camp or field is a disgrace to our army and command. The commander has a box of goods taken in the late West Plains Expedition & is seeking to return it to its owners. Stealing shall be prohibited in the field & full measure of punishment will be summarily inflicted. Nothing (is) to be taken in any circumstance without permission of a commissioned officer. There will be a police guard in camp enforcing this order & orders from St. Louis & Rolla will be enforced to the letter. All hay, fodder, corn, or other property used by troops without orders will be paid for in cash. I have the money to pay the expenses of this expedition, and the Quarter Master will furnish the best this country affords. Orders (are) to be read to the troops and obeyed."

The other half of the attack on the West Plains Courthouse was conducted by Major William C. Drake and the one hundred fifty men of the Third Iowa Cavalry. The onus of the West Plains' missing property does not seem to be laid upon them. In his after-action report to his Union superiors, Major Drake complained bitterly that Colonel Wood was taking all the credit for the success of the battle he felt belonged to his men. A correspondent for the Missouri Democrat in St Louis, likely one of Drake's men, set the record straight or at least gave his opinion by writing on March 1, 1862, 

"Your paper of the 27th (April) contains a dispatch from General Halleck to General McClellan, giving the world and 'the rest of mankind' to understand that 'Wood's Calvary had cleared Dent, Texas and Howell counties of the rebels, taking numerous prisoners,' &c (etc. in today's vernacular). This struck our boys as being either an unintentional slip in the telegraph wires or the result of the person being tongue-tied who gave the information to the commanding General of this District."

"Our boys have been resting after their long and wearisome scout-not thinking they had done any very 'great-shakes.' They are able, ready and anxious at all hours of the day or night, as the doctors say, to undertake a contract for delivering to headquarters at Rolla, any number of secession beasts, either 'neat' or on the foot. That's what they left Iowa for. That's what's the matter."

"To make the record right, a few words about the scout south seem appropriate. This is done with no wish to pluck a leaf from the laurels of Wood's Cavalry or 'any other man.' ..On the afternoon of the third day (of the patrol), after much tribulation and privation, from having too much weather and too little material for the digestive apparatus to amuse itself with, they arrived at a secession hole and recruiting station, called West Plains, in Howell County, having cleared their way from here to that place of all rebels and other 'varmints,' taking care that nobody went ahead of them with the news."

"According to programme, Major Drake, with his command, made a detour around the town, while Lieutenant Colonel Wood stationed himself half a mile this side (north) to trap such individuals as might try to give leg bail in that direction. Major Drake and his men charged into town on the opposite side and did up their business so rapidly and in such good style that Wood's men had nothing seriously awful to do. Major Drake's men 'went in" like veterans, and for a while had Fort Donelson on a small scale. They entirely killed seven rebels, wounded ten to give them a chance to repent, and took fifty prisoners in out of the damp. They had taken a contract for increasing Price's band of marauders but couldn't fill it. Shotguns, pistols, rifles &c., a large number of horses and mules, and three other rebel commissioned officers were seized as contraband. Several mule and ox teams were also levied on. After the town had been thoroughly cleansed of all nuisances, Lieutenant Colonel Wood brought up his mountain howitzer and punched a hole through the Courthouse, and on the next day, our forces marched to Judge Alsop's (Ben Alsup, living at the south end of today's Willow Springs) where they found a great rarity in that section - a good Union family and a hearty welcome. The judge was of great service to our men."

"On Saturday, they arrived at Houston (Wood and his men took a different path), and Lieutenant Cherrie, leading the advance, surrounded the town, took the inhabitants prisoners, and captured many arms...A detail of all the adventures encountered by our forces during this trip would be too great a draft upon your columns in these war times. Suffice it to say, our men were out eight days, much of the time in exceeding bad weather, underwent great hardship and fatigue, and traveled one of the roughest countries this side of the great Mountains of the Moon, described as all hills and no valleys. But officers and men stood the trip bravely and cheerfully and are ready for another at any moment."

West Plains endured additional visits from troops under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Samuel N. Wood and Major William C. Drake. In the second week of March 1862, less than a month after the Battle of West Plains, their troops fought a rebel force near Spring River Mills, today's Mammoth Spring, Arkansas. There the Union forces lost three men killed and twenty-one wounded while the Confederate loss was estimated and one hundred. Wood and Drake seem to have resolved their contretemps as Wood commended the gallant conduct of Major Drake in the battle. Major Drake was ordered further south with his men soon after this battle. In November 1863, while still fighting in the field near Little Rock, Arkansas, Drake died of disease.

Lieutenant Colonel Wood remained a controversial figure for his remaining time in Missouri. He always had difficulty with his superiors and often neglected to obey orders. He was brought up on over thirty charges. While awaiting court-martial, he resigned his commission and returned to Kansas, eventually serving as a General in the Kansas Militia.

February 1862 served as the beginning of the end for West Plains, with the rest of the county following. As mentioned in my last article, a series of Union Army occupations evacuated the town. Its buildings were occupied and abandoned by both sides, and by the summer of 1863, no one lived there. In October 1863, a Confederate sympathetic guerrilla band burned every building to deny any further Union occupation.