History of Atchison County, Kansas. Sheffield Ingalls

on June 26 of that year was mustered out of service.

      Among the privates of this regiment from Atchison, who were killed, were: James L. Parnell, of Mount Pleasant, and John Collins and Lorenzo Richardson, of Atchison.

      Thomas Roe, a fine, stout young man, son of a widowed mother, of Brownsville, Pa., was the only member of Company D, of the Second Kansas cavalry, that lost his life in battle during its nearly four years of service in the Civil war. This company participated in the battles of Cane Hill and Prairie Grove, in Arkansas, and other engagements. Roe came to Kansas with the late Thomas Butcher, for whom he worked until going into the war of the rebellion.

      In May, 1861, a company of home guards was organized by Free State men, of Lancaster and Shannon townships, Atchison county, with a few from Brown and Doniphan counties, which gathered every Saturday afternoon for drill, alternating at the homes of Johnson Wymore and Robert White. Robert White, who had received military training during the Mexican war, having served there in 1846–48, did most of the drilling. A. J. Evans was captain; Robert White, first lieutenant; John Bertwell, of Brown county, was second lieutenant.

      The pro-slavery people were also organized and drilling at the same time, consisting of South Carolinians, Virginians and Missourians, who were for the Confederacy and slavery.

      At a Sunday school meeting on the prairie, held in a vacant settler’s shanty near Eden postoffice, where both sides in the neighborhood worshiped on Sundays, Robert White found out on a Sunday in August, 1861, that a southern organization was to disarm all Free State men the following Tuesday. His nearest neighbor and a good friend, also a southerner, thought White had found this out and came and visited him a good part of Sunday afternoon and staying in the evening until after 10 o’clock before going home, White showing no excitement. Willis went home, seemingly much at ease, but he was watched by his friend White until safely resting at his home, when White went and called another Free State man from his bed who notified half the Free State company and White the other half, causing them to meet early the following Monday, when by the middle of the afternoon of that day every pro-slavery man in that part of the country had his fire arms taken from him, and before Tuesday evening all of them had departed for Missouri.

      Most of the members of the Free State company enlisted in the following October as volunteers for three years’ service in the Union army and became known as Company D of Second Kansas cavalry. Robert White, who was commissioned as first lieutenant in Company D, was discharged and sent home to die with a serious case of inflammatory rheumatism, but he recovered so far that in 1863 he raised and drilled a company that became a part of the State militia. He was commissioned captain of this company and led it in the Price raid at the battle of Westport in 1864 as a part of the regiment commanded by Col. L. S. Treat in helping keep Capt. White’s old brigade, commanded by Gen. Sterling Price, of the Mexican war, from getting into Kansas. The late M. J. Cloyes and T. B. Platt, of Atchison, were members of Captain White’s company in the Price raid. Platt was clerk of the company; John English was first lieutenant; W. F. Streeter, second lieutenant, and Francis Schletzbaum was first sergeant.

      The Seventeenth regiment, Kansas infantry, was a negro regiment, but with white officers. James M. Williams was colonel, and George J. Martin, of Atchison, was captain of Company B, and William G. White and Luther Dickinson, of Atchison, were first and second lieutenants. This regiment played an honorable part during all the Civil war, and its service was largely confined to operations in Arkansas and Texas. It was mustered out of service at Pine Bluff, Ark., October 1, 1865.

      The Second regiment, Kansas colored infantry, was organized in June, 1863, at Ft. Smith, Ark., and among its line officers was First Lieut. John M. Cain, of Atchison. It conducted itself with conspicuous bravery with the army of the frontier, and during the brief occupation of Camden, Ark., by General Steele’s forces, this regiment was employed on picket and forage duty. It showed conspicuous bravery around Poison Springs and Mark’s Mills, and under the able command of Col. Samuel J. Crawford, who subsequently became governor of Kansas, it won for itself an enviable name among the regiments from Kansas, who participated in the Civil war. This regiment was finally discharged from the services at Leavenworth November 27, 1865, after having proved to the Nation the fidelity of the colored soldier.

      It was in September, 1864, that General Sterling Price created great consternation by an attempted invasion of Kansas, which ended in his defeat on the border by the Union forces, aided by the Kansas State militia. At the time Price started north in his march through Arkansas and Missouri. Maj. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis commanded the Department of Kansas, which included Nebraska, Colorado and Indian Territory, in addition to Kansas. General Curtis had about 4,500 men, all of whom had been employed in protecting the frontiers of Kansas and Colorado, and the overland mail route. At this time General Curtis was near Ft. Kearney, operating against the Indians. On receipt of word announcing the movements of General Price, General Curtis was recalled and reached Kansas in September. A few days later he received word that 3,000 rebels were marching on Ft. Scott, and advised Governor Carney to call the militia into service. At this time George W. Deitzler was major-general of the State militia; John T. Norton was assistant adjutant-general; R. A. Randlett, assistant quartermaster; Samuel S. Atwood, assistant quartermaster; Charles Chadwick, George T. Robinson, Lewis T. Welmorth, John J. Ingalls, Thomas White, Elijah G. Moore, H. Stein, and John A. Leffkler were all majors. Constant reports of a conflicting nature were spread from day to day, regarding the movements of General Price, but the first point to be attacked was Pilot Knob, the engagement commencing September 27 and lasting all day. General Ewing put up a vigorous defense, with a force of about 1,000 men, while the militia commanders in Kansas made preparations for further resistance to the invasion of Price. Meanwhile General Price continued to make headway, and on the fourth of October an order was issued forbidding the transit of boats below Kansas City. When it was discovered that the rebels under Price had not been seriously checked in their movement westward, further efforts were made by General Curtis to prevail upon Governor Kearney to call out the militia, which the Governor seemed disinclined to do. Finally, on October 9, 1864, Major General Deitzler issued an order for the State militia from Doniphan, Brown, Nemaha and Marshall counties to rendezvous at Atchison, and the militia from other counties were ordered to other points in the State. A few days later Leavenworth was fortified, because of a telegram which was received from General Rosecrans, stating that it was Price’s intention to strike that point first. The militia responded promptly, and the following regiments reported for service at Atchison: The Twelfth regiment, composed of 460 men, under the command of Col. L. S. Treat, and the Eighteenth regiment, composed of 400 men, under the command of Colonel Mathew Quigg. The total number of militia enrolled under the call of the governor was 12,622, of which about 10,000 were south of the Kansas river at the point most exposed to danger. From the eleventh until the sixteenth of the month there was great excitement, as the forces rapidly gathered, to be organized and equipped. On the staff of General Deitzler there were two men from Atchison: A. S. Hughes, an aide, and John J. Ingalls, judge-advocate, with the rank of major.

      As a result of this determined move on the part of Gen. Sterling Price to invade Kansas, there followed in quick succession the battle of Lexington, the battle of Big Blue, and finally the battle of Westport, at which, on October 23, 1864, the forces of Price were finally routed and his campaign and invasion were stopped, but not until it had caused the citizens of Kansas, in addition to the labor and loss of life, not less than half a million dollars.

CHAPTER IX.

       NAVIGATION.

       Table of Contents

      PIONEER TRANSPORTATION—EARLY FERRIES AND RATES—FAMOUS RIVER BOATS—STEAMBOAT LINES TO ATCHISON—STEAMBOAT REGISTERS.

      Slight reference has been made in the early narrative of this history to pioneer transportation facilities, but the subject is one of so much importance and of such immense interest, that a chapter devoted to it is the only way in which it can be adequately treated.

      At the time Atchison county was settled, railroad transportation by steam was not a new thing, although it was in its primitive stages. Navigation of the inland waterways