Below is a section I have recently transcribed from the memoir of W.H. Schrader of the 9th Missouri State Militia Cavalry. This transcription relates to the Fayette Fight, and provides the most detailed account from the Federal side of this altercation. Frank James once referred to his involvement at Fayette as the worst scared he ever was during the war (or some such language to that effect). As is common in memoirs written years after the fact, Schrader confuses timing of events that occurred during a general time frame. Schrader describes running across "Captain Parker" the day before the Fayette Fight (which would have been Sept. 23, 1864), and that "Parker" had just had his command massacred.
That Federal officer was in fact Captain Joseph Parke, Company E, 4th Missouri State Militia Cavalry. His defeat, referred to locally as the Rawlings Lane Ambush, occurred on August 28, 1864 on the Rocheport-Fayette Road. The massacre survivors that Schrader and his comrades in the 9th MSM ran across the day before the Fayette Fight almost certainly were from the Skirmish at Goslin's Lane (which Frank James wistfully recalled in the same account he gave in which he referred to the Fayette Fight).
So we have Rawlins Lane/Goslins Lane, both occurring on a road out of Rocheport, with the Goslin's Lane Skirmish transpiring on the Rocheport-Sturgeon Road on Sept. 23, 1864.
The Goslin's Lane fight, also referred to as The Massacre of the Third, involved Company E, Company F, and Company G of the 3rd Missouri State Militia Cavalry on one side, and George Todd, Tom Todd, and their followers on the Confederate side. The Two Todds joined forces with Bill Anderson that night, with the Fayette Fight taking place the next day.
The Schrader Memoir account regarding the surprise of the guerrillas and the killing of them prior to the 9 MSM running across the survivors of the massacre is interesting in that it adds considerable context as to why Bill Anderson was so dead-set on attacking Fayette despite the considerable resistance within his command regarding it.
In order to get a fuller picture of the Sept. 24, 1864, Fayette Fight additional reading can be found in "The Babe of the Company" by Hamp B. Watts (Confederate version); "Noted Guerrillas" by John Edwards (Confederate version); and the accounts from the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion (Federal versions).
Anyway, here is Schrader's version of the lead up to the Fayette Fight, and the Fayette Fight itself--
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Our company, with three others, was stationed at Fayette during the summer of 1864 and between scouting and picketing had a busy time of it.
The guerrillas became so bold along in August and September that no soldier was safe outside our picket line, and in gathering forage it became necessary to send an unusually large escort with the wagons. It was about a mile from camp to the creek where we watered our horses and we were obliged to send a large guard with the horses beside the usual leaders, one man to every four horses.
The guards were fired on several times fortunately no one was killed. Gen. Fisk, in command of the district got an idea that a “heart to heart” talk with the citizens in that locality would secure their assistance in making prompt report of guerrillas coming into that territory and for that purpose a meeting was called at which a large number of citizens were present, but we had little faith in the good it would accomplish, and most of us believed there were guerrillas at the meeting getting information, and this seemed to be true for the escort that accompanied the generals out of town was fired on and Capt. Blaze, of our company, who was in command was seriously wounded. The General had intended making these talks at several other places, but this convinced him the guerrilla warfare could not be suppressed by “talk fests.”
On September 21st Major Leonard in command of the post. Decided to make an extra effort to clean up his territory and for that purpose took with him all but about 60 men of the camp, twelve or fifteen sick in the hospital being included in the 60, so that there were not more than 45 or 60 able-bodied men left to hold the camp.
We were still living in cabins, built the winter before, and those were a good barricade against an attacking force, so the few men left in camp could successively hold or resist a much larger force, and which they did as later events proved. The hospital was in a brick house facing the main road and entrance to our camp. The cabins were in a large pasture lot adjoining the town on the west, and on a slight elevation, the decline being to the west and down to a creek on the north ad corn fields on the west.
The main street from the center of the town ran south of our camp, as stated.
On the east to the court house we had a short cut path, not open to horses or vehicles, and by which we went to the court where we always had a guard and relief, sixteen men and a corporal. There were no obstructions on either side of our cabins, so that we had a full sweep for more than gun shot range.
A guard always did duty at the south entrance, on the main road, to our camp. I am giving this particular description of our camp because the log cabins proved the salvation of the few men left in camp when they were attacked by overwhelming odds on September 24. Our scouting party got on the trail of the guerrillas late on the afternoon of the 22d but did not succeed in overtaking them.
The trail was taken up early next morning, when it soon divided, the rebels separating to get food at different farm houses. Of course when this occurred we would have to take one of the most promising trails and follow it.
We could not break up our command as they did, for they always had arrangements to come together at some certain point, and if we came up to them in squads would have been killed in detail. We, therefore as was our custom, followed the most likely trail, when we came to a field in which several negroes were working.
As soon as they saw us they began motioning toward the house, but making no other demonstration.
The house was hid from view by a cornfield and an orchard, and a lane led up to it. The command to wheel about was quietly given as also the order to charge.
We reached the house before the rebels knew of our coming, and being cut off from their horses--there were seven of them--they made a break in two directions, five for a heavy strip of timber south of the house and two west over newly plowed ground for a thicket along a branch.
The five were killed before they reached the timber. It was thought at first that all had started together for the timber, but the Captain of the company to which I belonged, looking to his right saw a man running toward the plowed ground and calling for assistance, I being nearest, turned my horse very quickly and followed, shooting first with my gun, on which the rebel dropped his belt containing two revolvers, and succeeded in getting into the brush, where his companion had preceded him.
This companion handed one of his revolvers, when he immediately turned and began shooting at me, emptying five chambers of his revolver at a distance of not more than thirty feet. The second or third shot passed through the body of my horse, and from the effects of which he died in a few minutes. I had fired two or three shots from my revolver, but the horse was staggering, and that of course spoiled my aim.
By this time other comrades had come up and both rebels were killed, but not before the first one in the brush had killed another horse. The fellow I followed had two or three wounds in his body and I must have given him the first; which must have caused him to drop his revolvers.
This gang had robbed a bank a few days before and several hundred dollars was found on their bodies by comrades who kept the money and remained quiet about it.
Each of the seven was armed with from two to three of the best Colt revolvers and a good supply of ammunition. A comrade named Jack Jacks, who was following me, picked up the revolvers dropped by the fellow I was chasing.
When I remonstrated with him afterward for stopping to get the revolvers instead of helping me to get the fellow, he said he had no idea that there was another man in the brush and he felt satisfied I would settle the fellow as he had lost his arms.
I saw Jacks at a reunion of our regiment at Moberly, Mo., some years ago, and he said he still had the revolvers.
Only one of our men was hurt, in the fight and he was taken to Fayette under escort where two days later, he did good service in loading guns for those of his companions in the hospital who were able to shoot from windows as the rebels charged our line.
Leaving the seven dead rebels for the farmer and his neighbors to bury we proceeded on our hunt for the balance of the gang.
We had not been gone long before some of the rebel companions came to the farm and seeing their fate, declared they would have revenge in a day or two.
They got their revenge, but not on our regiment. Late that afternoon some of the men declared they heard the sound of guns in an opposite direction from which we were going, and Major Leonard’s attention being called to the matter, about wheeled the column and started in the supposed direction of the firing.
We had gone probably nearly a mile when a man on foot and who seemed to be in uniform was seen coming toward our advance guard.
As soon as he saw us he stopped and made as if to escape, being uncertain whether we were Union troops or guerrillas, but the guard closed in on him and were surprised to find that he wore an officer’s uniform.
Being convinced that he had fallen among friends he inquired our commander’s name and being told, his joy seemed to know no limit. By this time our main column had come up and Major Leonard recognized him as Capt. Parker of another regiment. Expressing his astonishment at seeing him there in such a condition, the Captain’s clothes being torn and covered with dust, Major Leonard said, “Captain, where is your command?”
Capt. Parker replied, “God knows; I am the only man left of it so far as I know,” and in as few words as possible Major Lenard had him tell of the fight, the sound of which we had heard further back.
The explanation was that his command had been surprised and the men shot down before they could offer any resistance. The ambuscade was in a thick woods at the end of a lane with cornfields on both sides. The Captain was provided with a horse and acted as guide to the place where the fight occurred.
Our skirmishers struck the lane at full gallop, spreading through the cornfields on either side when they came to the lane. No sooner had we reached the woods than firing began, the guerrillas making a counter charge, shooting and yelling at the top of their voices, thinking thus to create a panic in our ranks as they had in the Captain’s but they ran up against the wrong “kids this time, and the way they hustled out of that brush, when they discovered who their new antagonists were would have done credit to race horses.
We gathered up about fifteen dead of the Captain’s command and these were sent to Boonville their camp for burial. In the short scrap we had with them we did not have a man killed or wounded, but we put several of their men beyond power to cause Union soldiers or citizens further trouble.
The Captain came over the river with 45 men and it was stated only twelve or fifteen were afterward accounted for outside of the dead, the others being killed, no doubt, by the guerrillas while attempting to make their escape.
Reports reaching Major Leonard that the guerrillas had united and were riding toward Fayette, our main camp, we started for that place the same day guerrillas attacked our camp there, but for some reason we did not go in that afternoon, stopping overnight some miles out, and we knew nothing of the attack until the next morning and when within several miles of the town,
The rebel force numbered about 250 and was under command of the notorious Bill Anderson, a member of Quantrell’s gang, and one of the most desperate men in that outlaw band. The first our men in camp knew of their coming was when they had reached the edge of town where they began shooting indiscriminately at ever body and at every moving thing. The main streets through the town ran north and south and east and west to the court house which stood in the center of a small square.
The guerrillas came in on the main east road. Our guard at the court house fired at the oncoming guerillas, killing one man, and for a moment checking the advance. This gave the guard time to rush through the court house and to the near cut to the camp, which they reached in time to warn those in camp, and every man was immediately posted in the log cabins, knocking out a line of “chinking” in each, through which they could shoot without exposing themselves.
The rebels charged shooting and yelling as usual, but our men waited until they were within easy gun-shot distance, when they fired and with such effect as to kill and wound several of the rebels and driving them back. As the rebels fell back our boys rushed out of the cabins and continued to fire.
The rebels charged again and our men retreated to the cabins. This was repeated three times when the rebels concluded that it was impossible to dislodge our men and withdrew their force to camp about a mile away, carrying their wounded and some of their dead with them. They left seven dead in front of our cabins, beside ten or fifteen buried on a nearby farm.
While the fighting was going on in front of the cabins a part of the rebel force assaulted the hospital, the doors of which had been closed and hastily barricaded with such material as was at hand, but our men in the building kept up such a hot fire from the windows, that the assault there proved a failure also. The sick loaded the guns for the well men, and by this means they were enabled to keep up a continuous fire. The night was an anxious one in camp for it was expected the rebels would make a night attack, but they seemed to have had enough from the day fight. We had but one man killed and he was the guard at the main entrance. When he saw the rebels coming instead of running to camp or to the hospital building, which was near, he ran to a cornfield across the road and was found there by the rebels, who shot him and then scalped him, savages as they were.
There were two large wooden gate posts at the entrance to our camp, and they nailed his scalp to one of these posts. Benton was the name of the man killed, and my recollection is that he belonged to our company, or to Co. I, but I am not certain.
The rebels left early in the morning going northeast. Major Leonard’s command reaching Fayete some hours later should have followed without delay, but our horses were tired form the continued travel of the past four days, and the men also needed a little rest.
Had we followed at once instead of waiting until the following morning, we would have, no doubt, overtaken the rebels and prevented the horrible massacre at Centralia, where they attacked two companies of militia, armed with old-fashioned muskets only, and who, after the first fire, were at the complete mercy of the rebels. Each of Anderson’s men carried form two or three Colt’s revolvers and they rode the militia down, shooting them right and left.
Of the 124 militiamen engaged, but eighteen escaped. Anderson also stopped a train the same day and on which were fifteen or twenty Union soldiers on their way home on sick leave, and standing them inline shot them down as he had the militia.
And the survivors of this fiendish gang have what they call a “Quantrell reunion” out in Missouri every year.
I have great respect for and admire the men who fought us in the open, but for men of the Quantrell stripe, the contempt and scorn of all honest men should have for outlaws, which they were, and no later day opinion can change.