The Civil War Missouri Compendium by Joseph W. McCoskrie Jr

Author:Joseph W. McCoskrie Jr.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2017-12-20T05:00:00+00:00

ACTION: Union forces’ pursuit of Colonel Joseph Porter, August 1862

ACTION: Skirmishes near Cravensville, at Painter Creek, at Walnut Creek, and at Sears’ Ford on the Chariton River, Adair and Macon Counties, August 5–9, 1862—OR, Colonel James McFerran, 1st Missouri Cavalry (Militia), Headquarters Breckenridge, August 16, 1862

Union lieutenant colonel Alexander Woolfolk’s force of 400 men fight a six-hour engagement against Porter’s Rebel band estimated at 1,500 soldiers on Panther Creek, near the Hannibal and Saint Joseph Railroad crossing site over the Chariton River.

Union Casualties: 12

Confederate Casualties: 70

Colonel James McFerran and 160 men of the Missouri 5th Cavalry and the 1st Regiment of Missouri State Cavalry join Colonel Woolfolk’s forces and attack Porter’s Rebel soldiers who were completing preparations to ambush Federal forces along Walnut Creek. After a short engagement, Porter retreats, but his rear guard is soon engaged at Sears’ Ford. Union forces, exhausted and unable to move their artillery and ammunition supply wagons, withdraw to Laclede, Missouri. The pursuit of Porter is abandoned, and Colonel McFerran joins forces with General Benjamin Loan to track down Confederate colonel John Poindexter, who is recruiting in north-central Missouri.

Union Casualties: 15

Confederate Casualties and Losses: unknown, estimated as high as several hundred

WHY IT MATTERS: Unrelenting Union pursuit degraded the loyalty and support of Colonel Porter’s recruits as Rebel desertions increased and as Union forces enjoyed increasing success in northeast Missouri.

TOURISM NOTES: In the southwest portion of Macon on Coates Street is the Woodlawn Cemetery, where a large rock marks the massacre of eleven captured Confederate soldiers on September 26, 1862. Union general Lewis Merrill ordered the execution by the 23rd Missouri Infantry after it was discovered that the captured Rebels had taken an oath of loyalty and were paroled but had again taken up arms for the Rebel cause. All citizens sympathetic to the Southern cause were made to watch the executions. After General Merrill departed, one injured man was spared after a woman threw her body over him before he could be finished off. This interesting tale can be found at the Macon County Historical Society website (http://www.maconcountyhistoricalsociety.com/civil-war.html).

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