Marcellus Harris a the Sac ford and then Weidemeyer just outside of town. Weidemeyer strikes me as being a resonable and reliable witness.
Missouri History Encyclopedia 1901:
John Mohler Weidemeyer, merchant, was born at Charlottesville, Virginia, January 10, 1834, son of John F. and Lucinda (Draffen) Weidemeyer. His father, who was one of the most prominent pioneers of St. Clair County, Missouri, was a native of Fredericksburg, Virginia, and a son of John M. Weidemeyer, who was born in France and immigrated to America about 1800, settling in New York City. He lived in that city for several years, but finally moved to Virginia. His son, our subject’s father, removed to Missouri in 1840, locating at first Cooper County, where he conducted a farm and gave instruction in music. Two years later he settled at Osceola, St. Clair County, and engaged in the mercantile business. During the second year of the war, United States Senator James H. Lane came down from Kansas and made his historic raid into Missouri. At Osceola he burned every building excepting two. Weidemeyer & Son’s store having been destroyed, and the prospects for peace in Missouri being not very bright, John E. Weidemeyer soon after removed to Sherman, Texas, where, and at Palestine, he resided till his death in 1882. During his residence in Osceola he served for ten years as treasurer of St. Clair County, and after his removal to Texas occupied a similar office in Anderson County in that State for eight years. The education of our subject was received in private schools at Osceola, the Highland Academy in Jackson County; Yantis’ School at Sweet Springs, and the famous Kemper School at Boonville. After completing his studies he engaged in business with his father, and during the two years immediately preceding the Civil War was in partnership with him under the firm name of J.F. Weidemeyer & Son. At the beginning of the “Border War” between Missouri and Kansas, Mr. Weidemeyer raised seventy-five men, organized them into a company and uniformed them at his own expense. He was negotiating for arms for them when all independent companies were ordered by the State authority to disband. Hence his company did not go to the Kansas border as was intended. At the outbreak of the Civil War he organized a company of 100 men for duty in the Missouri State Guard, serving six months. When the news of Lane’s advance upon Osceola reached town he and his men rode out to meet them in the endeavor to stay their advance, but they were overwhelmed by superior numbers, losing one man killed and one severely wounded, and the Kansans looted and burned the town without further opposition. At the close of his six months’ service in the State Guard, in the fall of 1862 he took a squad of sixty men and was mustered into the regular Confederate army, enlisting for three years or during the war. As the command over which he held the captaincy was not numerically large enough to form a regular company, it was consolidated with the squad commanded by Captain Fleming, and Mr. Weidemeyer became its first lieutenant. After the battle of Elk Horn his regiment was ordered to join Beauregard’s army at Corinth, Mississippi, which it did. There the companies were reorganized in the spring of 1863, and Mr. Weidemeyer was elected to a captaincy. The service of this command was a very active one, as it participated in all the important engagements falling to the army of which it formed a part, including Elk Horn, Farmington, Iuka, Corinth, Hatchie Bridge, Port Gibson, Baker’s Creek, Big Black River, Vicksburg, and the famous campaigns through Georgia and Tennessee under Johnston and Hood. After the fall of Vicksburg our subject obtained a leave of absence and visited his family in Texas. He next reported to Price and was assigned to duty as brigade inspector, remaining in that capacity in Arkansas until the spring of 1864, when he was ordered to join his old command east of the Mississippi. Almost immediately General Cockrell – now United States Senator – appointed him ordnance officer of his brigade, and he served in that office until the surrender at Blakely, Alabama, two or three days before the fall of Richmond. During the numerous engagements in which he participated he was three times wounded, at Corinth, Vicksburg and Big Black River.
John R.