The Missouri in the Civil War Message Board

Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
In Response To: Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry ()

I don't have much on the 2nd Colorado but found the below which mentions the 2nd Colorado or members of the regiment...

    DAILY TIMES [LEAVENWORTH, KS], October 15, 1863, p. 2, c. 2
    Important From Fort Scott.
    Particulars of Blunt's Defeat by
    the Bushwhackers.
    Gross Neglect in not Supplying
    Our Brave Troops With
    Ammunition.
    Gallantry of the Colored Troops.
    One Hundred Killed.
    Where is the Responsibility?
    (Special correspondence of the Times.)

    Fort Scott, Oct. 11.
    Editor Times.—I have delayed writing to you for some days, so that I could send you an authentic account of the disaster which happened [to] General Blunt. All sorts of rumors are afloat concerning the affair and you at Leavenworth will not get a true account of the matter, either through the Fort Scott Monitor or any of the partisan friends of General Blunt. The facts I send you are derived from reliable sources, part official and part from men who were on the ground and saw the transaction.
    On Sunday last, October 4th, General blunt left Fort Scott with an escort of two companies of cavalry—company A, Fourteenth regiment, his body guard, and company I, Third Wisconsin Cavalry—and a train of about fifteen wagons, containing army subsistence and ammunition. His band was with him, and also his staff, or at least part of it, consisting of Major Curtis, A. A. G., Lieutenant Farr, Judge Advocate, of the Third Wisconsin; Major Henning, District Provost Marshal, also of the Third Wisconsin, and Lieutenant Tappan, Second Colorado Volunteers, Aid-de-Damp to General Blunt.
    On Monday, about noon, or just before noon, the guerrillas, under Quantrill and Coffee, made an attack upon the camp at Baxter's Springs. One company of the Second Colored Kansas Volunteers and one company of the Third Wisconsin, company C, Lieutenant Pond in command, were stationed at that post. The black soldiers were out of the camp unarmed at the time. The guerrillas made a rush into the camp and formed in line. Lieutenant Cook, of the colored company, ran out of his tent and surrendered himself a prisoner of war; he was then shot down. The blacks seeing what was going on, made a rush, broke through the line of guerrillas, unarmed as they were, seized their arms, made fight, and the guerrillas fled. A few of the negroes were killed and wounded Lieutenant Pond, I understand, fought bravely.
    The guerrillas soon after met General Blunt, about two miles from the camp, with his force and train of wagons. They sent out their skirmishers, who fired two volleys at our men. A line was ordered to be formed, and company A, Fourteenth regiment, formed their line, but broke and ran without firing a shot. This company was in command of Lieutenant Pierce, a boy. No ammunition had been distributed to the men of this company; their cartridge boxes were empty. Company I, Third Wisconsin, fired two volleys, and then broke and ran. The guerrillas charged among our men without let or hindrance. Major Curtis' horse was shot and fell, and the Major taken prisoner. Lieutenant Farr was also taken prisoner, as were all the musicians of "Blunt's Band," together with J. R. O'Neil, General B.'s artist, and the whole train. General Blunt's ambulance, and all the traps, goods and chattles [sic] belonging to the outfit, fell into the hands of the enemy. Major Curtis, Lieutenant Farr, Mr. O'Neil, and the musicians were all killed after they were taken.
    Quantrill sent in a flag of truce to the camp at the Springs, with a request to exchange prisoners, but Blunt had none. The guerrillas then murdered, in cold blood, all the prisoners they had captured from us. All the members of the band were killed but two, one of whom was, and is, sick in the hospital at Fort Scott, and the other had gone home to Wisconsin on a furlough, and only returned on Friday last.
    The names of the musicians who were killed are: Henry Pelloge, leader of the band; Henry Bulow, F. Rasmarth, F. Balloun, J. P. Madison, Thomas Davis, N. A. Nott, F. M. Laroux, J. Trits, T. Lusher, F. Simon, and George Geminda.
    The above were all murdered! The two who are here are James M. Cotton and August Sheel.
    Seventy-eight of our men were killed and their bodies found. Some of my informants say there were full eighty guerrillas, some say sixty, and the highest estimate I have yet heard place them at one hundred and fifty. Blunt had no scouts out. He was taken by surprise and remained surprised till his men were scattered in every direction.
    General Blunt, Major Henning and Captain Tufts, Captain of the Scouts, escaped and got into camp at Baxter's Springs. But many a brave and loyal man has been killed; and who is to blame? Not the slain men, but the wicked neglect of those in command. Here is a company of soldiers, a Major General's body guard, marching in an enemy's country, among bushwhackers, were they rise up out of the ground, as it were, and without a round of ammunition in their cartridge boxes, but plenty in the wagons in boxes, with the lids screwed on! Here is a force of men, with a train of wagons, moving in one of the most dangerous and treacherous parts of the country without scouts or flankers out, and the result is the loss of a train of fifteen wagons, mules, &c., and almost a hundred brave men killed, by a force of only about one hundred guerrillas. This same number of guerrillas was shipped by thirty-five negroes under Captain Martin, and almost in the same place, (Captain Martin, of the First Colored Volunteers, with thirty-five armed negroes, fought about eight guerrillas, for a distance of eight miles, while conducting a train of five wagons from Fort Scott to Baxter Springs, and brought the train into camp all safe. This took place last summer.)
    It is undoubtedly one of the wickedest military neglects that has happened in our country since the war. "The Conservative don't want brains in this District," but the country wants its leaders to exercise good horse sense, at least while in the enemy's country.
    General Schofield telegraphed to Kansas City that a force of guerrillas were intending to attack Fort Scott, and ordered a force to reinforce this place. The messenger from Kansas City arrived here about the same time the messenger from General Blunt arrived from Baxter springs with the news of his disaster. The day after, Colonel Wier arrived with about six hundred men, picked up all along the route from Kansas City to Fort Scott.
    It is strange that Major General Schofield should know what was going on in our neighborhood, while General Blunt, only sixty miles distant, should know nothing about it! But such is the fact. The truth of the matter is, there is too much _______ going on—if common-fame reports are true—in this District.
    But I have not time to particularlize. I may see you soon.

    Yours, &c.

    G.
    DAILY TIMES [LEAVENWORTH, KS], November 12, 1864, p. 2, c. 3

    Headquarters, 4th Sub-District, District

    Central Missouri. Office of the Provost

    Marshal, Kansas City, Mo., Nov. 4, 1864.
    Special Order, No. 76.

    I. Having been informed that Daniel Vaughan (Bushwhacker) has in his possession Sergeant John Bay and private B. M. Fox, of Co. "A," 2d Colorado Cavalry, it is hereby ordered that his sisters, Nancy J. and Susan Vaughan, now in custody at this place, will be held as hostages subject to the release of the two prisoners now in his custody.
    II. Should the two prisoners now in his possession be killed by him, his men, or through his influence, Nancy J. and Susan Vaughan will be retained in close custody until his capture or death.
    III. Should he release the two prisoners above referred to, and they safely report at these Headquarters, his sisters now in my custody, will likewise be released, and permitted to go to their homes in Jackson county, Mo.

    J. C. W. Hall, Provost Marshal.
    To Daniel Vaughan, per special messenger.

    DAILY TIMES [LEAVENWORTH, KS], November 26, 1864, p. 2, c. 2
    Army of the Border.
    Homeward Bound, &c.

    First Brigade, Army of the Border,}

    Fayetteville, Ark., Nov. 16, '64 }
    To the Editor of The Times:
    Accept from this Border State Post the first letter of "Occasional" relative to the eventful campaign now closed, except the toilsome march homeward over the stony declivities of the Ozark range. Homeward! How the heart bounds at the word, as we think of the dear ones awaiting us, and the welcome we shall receive. These will more than repay us for the long night marches and the rainy days, and the discomforts of the chill winds blowing free over the Boston Mountains; and the "Potomac roads," thick with mud and almost impassable, are forgotten, and we cease to speculate on the possible contingencies of another day.
    I had hoped to be able ere this to have given a resume of the campaign, the most important in its execution and results that has ever been undertaken and accomplished in the Western country. Having had abundant opportunity of observation, and only lacked leisure to transcribe the scenes of war which have passed before the Army of the Border rapidly and evanescent as the painted canvass of a panorama from the time when Barker's diminutive howitzers woke the echoes of the Lexington woods, to that dreary November day when the army stood in snow and rain, and McLain's long rifles startled the water fowl on the sandy shore and sent shot and shell whizzing and crashing among the trees, with their crimson and yellow and falling leaves, south of the Arkansas river. We look back upon those days as we do to a fitful dream, with a semi-oppression of the mind, and a wonder if it was all real. If it is true that our little army, less than 3000 strong, pursued the 20,000 led by Price through the thick woods and over the small prairie openings of Missouri and Arkansas, more than two hundred miles south of the Arkansas line, and that only once in all that march did the rebel chieftain dare to present a battle front to the audacious Unionists. We look back a little more than two weeks and see the slopes of Newtonia, where, with the impetuosity of a tiger and the unflinching firmness of a Cour de Lion, Blunt charged the rebel lines with barely six hundred men—portions of the 15th and 16th Kansas, 2d Colorado, McLain's Battery, and two howitzers in charge of Sergeant Patterson, 14th Kansas. There has been more desperate fighting during the war, but never an instance in which audacity has shown more pre-eminent or with more glorious results. On the left, Colonel Ford and Major Ketner, Colorado and Kansas, twin States of the ready West, stubbornly resisted the overwhelming forces of the enemy for hours, until the thundering tramp of cavalry in the rear, and the rumble of artillery wheels, heralded the advance of the gallant Sanborn with his brigade, and the tide of the battle was turned. In the center and on the right of our lines was the unconquerably [sic] Sixteenth, with its fighting leaders, a portion of the 16th and at one time a section of the Colorado Battery, which was limbered and unlimbered into any position favorable for execution. Behind the rebel skirmish lines and reaching to the woods, rank after rank, mottled and ragged, unfolded itself, until it seemed a huge snake which might envelope and crush us in its coils. One steady and determined charge might have done it, and for that charge we waited with the utmost anxiety, each man with his sabre drawn and revolver ready, for our carbine ammunition was exhausted and the supply train had not come up. Night was drawing on apace, and in the shadow of the woods we could see the rebel officers preparing their lines for a charge, as if determined to wrest victory from defeat and turn the pursuers into the pursued. Blunt was everywhere along the lines, inspiring the men with his own hope, his own reckless courage, his determination to hold the position until the other Brigades arrived. The critical moment was drawing near, when suddenly from the left the rifled guns of Sanborn's brigade opened with telling effect, and the sharp, quick crashes from a corn field told us that small arms were doing fearful work. Then, along our lines a shout of thankfulness went up to the placid Heavens, and the rebel thousands broke and fled.
    Newtonia! Another name to be borne upon the scarred battle flags of Kansas; but one to which the relief is equally entitled. Honor to the gallant hearts of Iowa, of Indiana and of Missouri in Sanborn's brigade. The sun was down, and twilight deepened into night; but still our battle front was to the foe until a reconnoisance [sic] revealed the fact that the enemy was again, and for about the ninth time, in full retreat Southward. The third battle of Newtonia had been fought and nobly won, and the wearied battalions marched slowly back to the town and encamped. Where all displayed so much fortitude, such unflinching bravery, it would be unjust perhaps to pass enconiums upon particular individuals. Without exception the officers engaged bore themselves with the coolness of veterans, and moved, amid the storm of battle as if at an ordinary review or parade. Hereafter, I may enlarge upon this text, but now will only say that the valor of Kansas troops is today the same as when they stood, three years ago, on another Missouri hillside, on the 10th of August, 1864 [sic].
    Of the concluding portion of the campaign, the march to the Arkansas river, and the return, I have not time to write at present, nor of the events preceding the battle of Newtonia. A campaign so significant and important in its inception and results should not be hastily written up; and in the hurry of a march little opportunity is afforded for a concise and candid review. I know, however, that in this fast age other events will displace these in which we have played our several parts with more success than ordinarily falls to the lot of armies so disproportionate, in point of numbers, to their opponents.
    The Army of the Border is virtually dissolved. Gen. Blunt and the 11th Kansas having gone to Fort Smith, Gen. Curtis and the 2d Colorado to Fort Gibson, Col. Bentoon [sic?], I think, to Springfield, while Col. Jennison, with a Brigade, consisting of the 15th and 16th and the Colorado Battery, reached this post last night en route to Fort Scott.
    The most sad duty of all comes yet, and I hardly know how to proceed with it; for well I know with what a crushing weight it will fall upon those at home. After having passed through all the battles and skirmishes of the campaign, never leaving the regiment from Lexington to the Arkansas river, Capt. Norton, Co. L, and Lieut. Goss, Co. M, 15th Kansas, have undoubtedly fallen into the hands of bushwhackers. If such be the fact, what their fate has been may well be imagined. They left camp about four days since, and when last heard from were closely pursued by a largely superior force of guerrillas. They were forced to leave their horses and seek concealment in the timber; and as the most diligent search has been made without avail, we are forced almost to abandon the hope of their return, though there is no direct evidence that they have been taken. On the same day Lieut. Smith, Co. E, who was out with another party, was severely, though not necessarily fatally wounded. He was shot twice, but the Surgeons entertain sanguine hopes of his recovery, though he must necessarily remain in the hospital here for some time. A number of the men of our command are missing, and from the prevalence of bushwhackers it may easily be conjectured that they have been killed.
    Stragglers of the rebel army may be found in almost every alternate house along the road, worn down, sick, wounded and disheartened. These have mostly been parolled, as it was impossible to provide transportation for them with the army.
    Truly,

    Occasional
    ---------
    The Ranch at Walnut Creek Crossing
    by Louise Barry
    Kansas Historical Quarterly
    Summer, 1971 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 2), pages 121 to 147

    Charles Rath, John F. Dodds, James A. Robbins, F. Lederick, and A. D. Robbins, in January, 1863, formed the Walnut Creek Bridge Company "for the purpose of building a toll bridge over Walnut Creek, in Peketon County, State of Kansas, where the Great Santa Fe Road crosses said stream." [81] Probably the structure was completed in time for collection of tolls from the spring-season traffic.

    One of the bridge incorporators -- John F. Dodds, of Council Grove -- on his way to Colorado with a survey party in June, 1863, wrote a letter from "70 miles west of Fort Larned" in which he described the situation then existing on the Arkansas in central Kansas:

    Major Colly [Samuel G. Colley], Indian Agent for the Kiowas, has forbid the Traders to trade with the Indians, and the Indians threaten to retaliate. Maj. Colly became alarmed, and passed Messrs. Wright and Clements' [survey] party on his way to Fort Lyon [Colo.] for security.

    Mr. Charles Rath, Trader at Walnut Creek, sells large quantities of goods to the Kiowas, Arappahoes and Commanches, and takes in exchange furs, robes etc.; and we are reliably informed that he has always persistently refused to sell whisky to Indians. . . .

    Large numbers of Kiowas, Arrappahos and Commanches, are now on Walnut Creek and vicinity, variously estimated from 1000 to 1800 and 2000 Lodges. [82]

    The Council Grove Press of July 6 gave a fuller explanation:

    Charles Rath, a good Union man, has for a number of years, been keeping a Ranch and trading at Walnut Creek. Major Coll[e]y is Indian Agent. . . . [He] has a son and . . . gives his son license to trade among the Indians, and refuses Rath a license! He next takes the position that the country around Walnut is Indian country, and gets a military order to close Rath's Store. This cuts off the Indian supply of flour, sugar, coffee, etc. The Indians became excited, and Maj. Coll[e]y and Son ran to Fort Lyon. The Indians being on the point of starvation robbed a government train. . . .

    Lt. G. C. Manville, Second Colorado cavalry, supplied more information on the results of Agent Colley's order when he arrived at Council Grove July 10 on the "Santa Fe Stage" from Fort Larned. He reported that the Indians had "on several occasions fired upon trains, killing or wounding cattle"; had attacked one government train (ransacking the wagons, and taking the wagonmaster's "saddle and fixtures"); and had "fired into" the cattle "belonging to a Ranch on Walnut [Rath's]," killing and wounding several animals. Col. Jesse H. Leavenworth, head of the Second Colorado regiment, had sent for the Kiowa and Comanche chiefs to come to Fort Larned. When they finally chose to appear at the post, they arrived with about 300 warriors "in regular military order and formed in line of battle." After a talk with the six or seven tribal leaders, Colonel Leavenworth ordered "a large issue of hard bread, bacon etc." to the Indians. [83] This appeased them temporarily. On July 9, at a time when "Arapahoe, Kiowa and Comanche Indians in large numbers" surrounded Fort Larned, a sentinel shot and killed an Indian. He was a Cheyenne, and though his tribesmen made threats of violence, the anticipated crisis did not develop. [84]


Messages In This Thread

2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry
Re: 2nd Colorado Cavalry