The Missouri in the Civil War Message Board

Re: "Gen'l Crabtree" redux
In Response To: "Gen'l Crabtree" redux ()

John and Scott,
While working these questions for both of you, I missed reading where I could view the list of 20-25 southerners in addition to those Colonel Mulligan's Irish Brigade marched along to Jefferson City in late July of 1861. Would you please clue me in to where I can see this list of additional southern men?
Scott, the village of Hickory Hill is located in south-central Cole County, and you will find the village of Mount Pleasant located in north-central Miller County.
Some of the better sources for the death in late September 1862 of "General" Crabtree" include: 1. Judge Jenkins' 1971 Miller County history, pages 452-3; 2. magazine article "The Scourge of Central Missouri," from "Missouri Life" Vol. 9, No. 6 (November 1981); 3. article in weekly newspaper "Central City and Brunswicker, 16 October 1862 [I neglected to obtain the article title].
John, I see you already dug out the 1860 census reports for your Proctor ancestors, but I will add the Union military prison ledger entries from Joanne Chiles Eakin's landmark 1995 "Missouri POWs" reference book. There are two Joseph Proctor prison ledger entries alphabetically under "Joseph Proctor of Cole County. These records (from NARA, National Archives and Records Administration) say bushwhacker Joseph Proctor of Cole County was captured there probably by Union troops on 5 September 1862 who transported Proctor first to Gratiot Street Union Prison in downtown St. Louis. From Gratiot Street prison, Union authorities transferred Proctor to the Alton IL Military Prison a few miles up the Mississippi River on 7 October 1862. From Alton, prison authorities sent Joseph Proctor east to Sandusky, Ohio to the Johnson Island Union Military Prison on 14 November 1862. John, you mentioned this last transfer was in error. I tend to agree with that since Union General Halleck ordered in about March 1862 that all prisoners caught in the field acting as guerrillas would be subject to execution if a military tribunal agreed based on evidence written by a knowledgeable Union officer at the time of Proctor's capture/ You see, any southern combatant that could convince a Union military tribunal that he was a "legal combatant" would be subject to an exchange for a Yankee "legal combatant" held as a prisoner by the Confederacy. Since Joseph Proctor's prison ledger entry is marked with a "B. W." the Union authority who shipped Proctor to the prison felt he sent enough evidence to convict the man as a bushwhacker, which would naturally lead to Proctor's execution. The "miscellaneous section" in Proctor's file should account for the man's final fate, but that entry is blank. Somehow, Joseph Proctor slipped the Union system, either because he escaped somewhere along the line, or that a tribunal declared him to be a "legal combatant" and he was exchanged.
John, now to the next step in Proctor's life. You wrote that your ancestor "is released or escaped and family lore has him being killed in Douglas County May of 1863". The major movement of Confederate soldiers back into Missouri each spring during the war traveled back home in groups as cadre to assist in recruiting more Missouri southern men into the Confederate army. These men were intended by their superiors to return to their home neighborhoods where they knew who was sympathetic to the southern cause and who was not. Another big incentive of being sent secretly back to their home neighborhoods was so returning Rebel soldiers could look in on their families and the families of comrades, and assist those families with their subsistence needs, if necessary. During the late winter and spring of 1863, for example, travelling groups of mounted Confederates returning to Missouri to recruit chose southwest Missouri as the best avenue of entry into the state, based on how sparsely southwest Missouri was settled, and how few Union troops were stationed in SW MO to intercept northbound Confederate recruiting groups, and also northbound southern guerrilla bands returning from wintering in the South.
Therefore, it is not surprising that several such mounted groups of returning Rebels passed near Douglas County in and about May 1863, as documented by Union troops:
On 24 April 1863 Union Captain Ernest Off and his patrol of 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry in and near West Plains in Howell County (adjoining Douglas County to the east) captured Confederate Captain A Edgar Asbury of 6th Missouri Cavalry and 20 of his recruiting band and sent them to the Union prisons in St. Louis to process them to be sent away for exchange (Sources: "My Experiences" by Ai Edgar Asbury, published Kansas City by Berkowitz and Company, 1894, pp. 15-16; Eakin, "MO POWs" CPT Ai Edgar Asburry entry; St. Louis daily newspaper "Local News; Prisoners for Exchange," St. Louis Daily Republican, 8 June 1863). Fortunately, Captain Asbury's recruiting group suffered no harm when they were captured, so we can probably rule out this Rebel recruiting group as being witnesses to the death of Joseph Proctor.
Sometime during May 1863 returned Rebel Will Wright Fulbright leading 12 guerrillas or recruiting cadre ran afoul of a local group of Union Enrolled Missouri Militia near the James River of SE Greene County (a few miles NW of Douglas County) and at least Fulbright was killed on the southern side. (Source: The 1883 history of Greene County, MO, page 460-1).
On 9 May 1863 a small patrol of Union 7th Provisional EMM possibly from the large Union base at Springfield along with local Union troops of 72nd EMM from Christian, Stone, or Greene Counties and local Union troops of the 74th EMM from either Wright, Webster, Lawrence, or Greene Counties fought briefly in Stone County (two counties west of Douglas County) with about 50 southern guerrillas heading south with stolen stock. No names were recorded in the patrol report, but southerners lost two men killed and three men severely wounded and captured. (Sources: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies in the War of the Rebellion [hereafter abbreviated as "O.R."], Series 1, volume 22 part 1, page 323; St. Louis daily newspaper "Daily Missouri Republican," 22 May 1863).
Between 15 and 17 May 1863 Union troops of 7th Cavalry Missouri State Militia (MSM) stationed at Marshfield, Webster County, and acting as scouts for General Herron's Army of the Frontier learned of about 100 southern guerrillas moving large numbers of stolen horses and killed one guerrilla in Hutton Valley of north Howell County and east Douglas County (Resources: O.R. Vol. 22, part 2, page 281; Supplement to the 'O.R.' part 2, vol. 35, page 451).
On May 17 1863 near Spring Creek, east-central Ozark County [directly south of Douglas County], a Union Sergeant Woods, leading 10 men probably of the 72nd EMM rode onto and attacked a group of 22 southern guerrillas, killing 3 and wounding others (Source: St. Louis daily newspaper "Daily Missouri Republican," 22 May 1863.
(The preceding reports of combat between Union cavalry patrols and traveling Confederate guerrilla or recruiting groups offer possibilities wherein even Confederate soldier Joseph Proctor could have been killed in or around May 1863 in Douglas County of SW MO, as suggested in family lore.) It's getting late, but I may later add more.
Until later, Bruce Nichols

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"Gen'l Crabtree" redux
Re: "Gen'l Crabtree" redux
Re: "Gen'l Crabtree" redux
Re: "Gen'l Crabtree" redux
Re: "Gen'l Crabtree" redux
Re: "Gen'l Crabtree" redux
Re: "Gen'l Crabtree" redux
Re: "Gen'l Crabtree" redux
Re: "Gen'l Crabtree" redux
Re: "Gen'l Crabtree" redux
Re: "Gen'l Crabtree" redux
Re: "Gen'l Crabtree" redux
Re: "Gen'l Crabtree" redux
Re: "Gen'l Crabtree" redux
Re: "Gen'l Crabtree" redux