The National tribune., 1910-04-28
A MISSOURI SLAVE HERO.
BY Quick Action He Thwarted the Plans
of Gen. Price ut BOOncyiIle.

| Editor National Tribune: In the Sum-
mer of 1861 Gen. Lyon drove the rebel
! forces of Gen. Sterling Price out of
Bonneville Mo-, and followed them to
Springfield, where Lyon lost his life in
the battle of Wilson's Creek. Before
leaving Bonneville Lyon had a small
fort erected on a low HILL just below
the town, on the river bank, which
commanded the river and the city. To
garrison this fort he organized two
companies of Home Guards, mostly
Germans The Home Guards after Lyon
left kept a guard or a light detail in
the fort, and the rest of the members
of the two companies slept with their
families in the town, a half mile away.
After Lyons death Price. whose resi-
dence was at Bonneville, planned to re-
turn there, and make it his base of op-
erations. This would give him a COM
manding position, as Lyons fortification
Of the place and the organization of the
Home Guards indicated Holding this
position in the very center of the State
only a days march from the Capital, in
| the very midst of very strongly seces-
sion element, in a section with resources
for feeding an army, commanding the
Missouri River, and within striking dis
tance of the only two railroads crossing
the State from east to west it would
have given Price a prestige and advan-
tage that would have enabled him to
idIStlS increase MS army ana WOuld
have enabled Gov. Claib Jackson and
his Legislature to vote Missouri out of
the Union with some show of success.
Part of Prices plan was to take
Bonneville by surprise. He had learned
of the fort and the Home Guards, and
knew his old Union neighbors had the
grit to fight for the old flag, so he
planned to take the place by coup"
and not risk capture of the fort by
assault. He therefore sent Col. Brown.
a gentleman of repute and influence in
that part of the State, to secretly raise
a, force in Saline County. just west of
Bonneville, to make a swift march at
night and capture the fort by surprise
before his army Was far enough north
to indicate that Bonneville was his des-
| tination.
| Saline County was regular hive
! from which recruits regularly swarmed
to the rebel army and Col Brown had
no trouble in raising the requisite force
for this work. But there was "a Niger
in the wood pile a slave of Col. Brown,
who got onto the ColOnel's plans. TAX
i'ing another slave into his confidence,
he waited until the rebel force started
after night for Bonneville; then by hard
riding they got into Bonneville by an
other road ahead of the rebel force and
told of the expedition. The Home
Guards were soon rallied in the fort,
and every preparation made to defend
| it. The perpendicular sod wall of the
| fort was about three feet high, just high
enough to make good cover for its
! defenders and to serve as q rest for
their rifles. The two companies manned
/ the work, spreading out their cartridges
! on barrel heads and boards to enable
them to fire with rapidity, and quietly
waited. The enemy approached the fort
| about daylight, expecting to surprise
| them and have an easy victory
t4-ar mo- lKr1 al
liant foe, and after an hours fighting, in
which their Colonel was killed and 60
4 of their force killed and wounded, they
withdrew. defeated and discounted. in
/ q rout. The garrison had but one man
| killed, an enthusiastic young Home
! Guard, who in the thiclsest of the fight
stood on little mound and waved the
dear old flag above his head in defiance
/ of its enemies.
! The 5th Iowa was then, lying at JEFF
/ ferson City. 25 miles down the river
and we We're sent the next day by
steamboat to reinforce the Home
Guards, but there was no need Of rein
| forcements; the rout of the rebels was
utter
This defeat changed Prices plans, and
! he moved north, on line further west
and captured Col. Mulligan's Brigade at
! Lexington after 4 hard fight.
! We were soon reinforced at Boone
! vile by several Indiana and Illinois
regiments.
The two colored men who had rem
| dered such signal service to our cause
remained with our regiment till we left
/ the State for work down the MISSISSIPPI
| pi, and altho Gen. Halleck issued an
| order to deliver over all slaves who
came into our camps to their masters,
! these two men Were sent to Iowa, when
we got to st. Louis, and one of them,
the hero of Bonneville, enlisted in a
colored regiment.-J. O. A. Campbell
Lieutenant, 5th Iowa, Bellefontaine, O.