Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1885-09-19
sHELBY's BRIGADE.


COUNTY TURNS OUT
EN- MASSE.
A Delightful Intermingllng of Federal
and Confederate Soldiers Scenes
and Incidents.
The Event a Triumph - Weather
Perfect-CroWd Enormous
Entertainment Superb.
The Occasion One TO be Re.
memsered for a .Gener.
Especial Correspondence st. Joseph Gazette.
. DOVER, Lafayette county, Mo-, Sept.
8; 18S5.-This is not the time, neither is
it the occasion, to give history of Shell
by's Brigade. What has to be dealt
with now is the re- union. and it should
have been called rather re. union of
Shelby's Division, for, in those last
desolate and merciless days OF the war,
Shelby was commissioned major-gen-
eral, and given division for the raid
of 1864-a division which he drilled,
differed, and disciplined after his own
fashion, and with which-at WestpOrt,
at Mine Greek, and at Newtonia-he
barred the advance of the pursuing
enemy, saved all that was saved of
Prices expeditionary force; held on;
fought and fell back; turned about
AND FOUGHT AGAIN;
gave up his best and bravest over every
mile of the road from the Missouri to
the Arkansas river; saved his cannon; !;
saved his ammunition wagons; was
never broken, no matter who else went
down OR went to pieces on either flank
of him; slept as he rode held the rear
with grip that nothing could hammer
loose; rescued the wrecks of other
commands that were overridden; and
finally-after enduring uncomplaining-
ly literal starvation for week in the
desert like and depopulated 81
..-.. J,.l INDIAN TERRITORY,
and fighting, step by step, the ravages
of an epidemic of malignant smallpox
he safely landed his worn and bat
tered division, or, rather, what was
left of it, within The shelter of the con-
federate lines, still the rear guard
Of the, expedition Of 1864. still
splendid in Its devotion to its
CHIEF, and still indomitable in its energy
and courage as fighting organization
Z Therefore, when one planned to per-
feet re- union, one should have said
Shelby's Division instead of Shelby's
Brigade.
The Brigade began with a company.
At Lexlngton,at Carthage, at Wilson 6
Greek, at Elk Horn, at Pennington, al
Cerinth, through Tennessee, Mississip
pi and Alabama,
SHELBY WAS BUT CAPTAIN.
Van Dorm, that peerless Launcelot
who, for a kiss and trysting under
the rose, fell by the hand of an aveng.
ing husband, saw the lion of the COM
bat yet unaroused in the swart, hand
some face of Shelby, and bade him GO
from Tupelo, Mississippi, to the Mis-
souri, river, and recruit there regi.
ment, brigade, a division. all army
corps, if SO be that he could find the
men and get them out.
The march was a thousand miles
long, and Shelby started out on foo,
with his own company to make it.
At Helena, and under the point blank
range of two formidable gunboats, he
crossed the Mississippi river. Thence
on to Little Rock by forced marches
Thence at the double quick to For
Smith, to Van Buren, picking up here
a horse and there horse, and then Oh
up to and over the Boston Mountains
into Missouri, and thence at gallor
into the very heart of the state, an6
finally into Jackson, Lafayette, anG
Saline counties, inundating them witt
| his prOclamations and filling them will
his recruiting officers. Western Mis-.
souri, labored in the fierce throes of thu
battles of Independence and Lone Jack
and out of the stern grapplings anG
savage encounters of these,
sHELBY's BRIGADE WAS BORN.
Jackson county furnished one regi.
ment, that of Col. Upton Hays; Lafay
ette and Saline counties another regi
ment and q battalion, the regimen
commanded by Col. 10. o. Shelby ant
the battalion by Col. Benz. Elliott
Southwest Missouri furnished anothe
regiment, that commanded by Col. J
T. Hooper, while Collins celebrated
battery-as much part of the brigad
as its commander, Shelby himself, wa
recruited from every portion of tn
state. This battery had caste. Splen
did young volunteers went to it espec
tally determined to fight it into motor
iety.a Hence all that long list of terri
Bile combats which decimated it fou
times during its war service. and be
came ct last to appear to those who di
duty with the guns as if they were dc
ing duty in kind OF forlorn hope. S
much valor and devotion of necessit,
made it the brigade's pet, and OIL NOR
than twenty occasions-when the stres
of battle had been great, and the bal
terry loss of men and material pitiful-
, soldiers in droves sprang from the val
, ious regiments, served the guns th
best they could while.
.... THE FIGHT WAS ON,
and then, if it were retreat or advanc,
) harnessed themselves to them as g
t many horses and dragged them unit
= relieved by fresh supplies of draft an
q mails. In the whole four years of hi
extraordinarily active and aggressiy
military life Shelby never had piec
e of artillery taken from him by th
9 enemy. He has had guns disabled G
! rendered utterly worthless by the o,
posing cannon, but though often charge
by both infantry and cavalry, no a.
sault in all his stormy career eve
q reached to the crest OF Collins magn
ficent battery.
'Twere long to tell how this brigad,
o thus formed, recruited, and equipped
was beaten by the colossal triphamme
of incessant war into a substance ths
D was all iron in endurance, and all ada
l mant III the shock and torment of bat
tie. There is history of it extant-
about as full, as accurate, and as com
2 plete as will probably ever be write
t and that must suffice for the present
4 1t is with the gathering together of il
survivors twenty wears after
ITS ARMS HAD BEEN GIVEN UP
? that this narrative has to do. Thurs
day, August 25, 1885, is q day Higgins
!. vile will remember for at least the Lii
time OF generation. Higginsville
, prairie town of 5000 people. Th
prairies about it undulate like til
g ocean. Great waves Of green CROWN
things flowed to its very feet. Th
brown of the harvested wheat field.
g and the emerald of the serried ranks {
D the corn were glad together. Littl
q spots of forest trees, like islands in
sea, rose up out of the verdure. House
were there, and stalwart farmers-me
t who plowed, and sOwed, and reaped-
who got close to nature in order to %
close to natures God, and who, n
matter what else may happen in til
> land, will always be brave. hospitab