Dear Bruce,

Thanks for the "as always" well-written and informative response. I thought this little excerpt from Nancy Bowen's Bio of James J. Clarkson at http://fhp.angelcities.com/wilsonscreek/JamesClarkson.htm was an interesting representation of the conviction and courage of Michael Buster, albeit a sign of somewhat poor judgment regarding his personal safety.

"Fighting for the strategic hill raged for more than five hours, often at close quarters, with the tide turning with each charge and countercharge. Col. Richard H. Weightman, commander of the 1st Infantry Brigade of Rains’s division, assigned the seven hundred men of Col. James Clarkson’s 5th Regiment and Col. Edgar V. Hurst's 3rd Regiment the daunting task of crossing Wilson’s Creek at the ford and then moving quickly to take the hill, now described as "Bloody Hill." Weightman, a distinguished veteran of the Mexican War, was killed as he led his troops across the creek directly into the enemy, leaving Clarkson’s and Hurst’s companies to fend for themselves, exposed to what Weightman’s successor John R. Graves termed "galling fire" for more than an hour."

"The noise and confusion while Weightman's orphaned regiments struggled to take Bloody Hill created, ironically, a nearly comic moment when soldiers of Col. George Deitzler's 1st Kansas Infantry literally ran into men of Clarkson's 5th Missouri. Deitzler, who had been in the land business with Shalor Eldridge in Lawrence, Kansas, in the years before the Civil War, remembered Clarkson clearly from his part in the 1856 "sack of Lawrence." Likewise, many of Deitzler's officers were from Lawrence and knew James Clarkson well, at least by reputation."

"At one point during the siege of the hill, Capt. Powell Clayton of the 1st Kansas did not hear Deitzler's command to retreat and instead marched his men directly into another group, who, by their uniforms, Clayton mistakenly thought to be one of Col. Franz Sigel's regiments. The colonel in charge of the regiment asked Clayton where the enemy was and Clayton pointed to the retreating rebel forces."

"Something about the Missouri officer looked familiar. Clayton suddenly "recognized in him an old acquaintance, being no less than Col. [James] Clarkson of ‘Kansas-Border-Ruffian’ notoriety, ex-postmaster of Leavenworth." 12 The confusion was compounded when Clayton asked the regiment's adjutant, who had approached him, what unit he represented."

"The adjutant, Greenfield dry goods merchant Maj. Michael W. Buster, responded he was from the "5th Missouri Volunteers." "Union or Confederate?" asked Clayton." 13

"Confederate," responded the major.

"Clayton immediately took Buster prisoner and forced him to stand between him and Clarkson’s Missourians. Disregarding his own safety, Buster ordered his men to open fire. Clayton shot the daring adjutant, a sergeant ran him through with a bayonet, then the Kansans turned and fled the opposite direction, reforming their company at the brow of the hill."

12. Edwin C. Bearss, The Battle of Wilson's Creek (Springfield, Mo.: Wilson's Creek National Battlefield Foundation, 1988), 107.
13. There were two 5th regiments at Wilson's Creek that day, the 5th Missouri Infantry in Col. Franz Sigel's Second Brigade, U.S.A., and Clarkson's 5th Missouri in Col. Richard Weightman's First Brigade, M.S.G. (The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Vol. 3, Washington, D.C., 1880, 108, 154, 162-63).

Jim