John S . Marmaduke John Sappington Marmaduke ( March 14 , 1833December 28 , 1887 ) was a regular army officer from the divided border - state of Missouri , who became a Confederate Major general during the American Civil War . Serving in Arkansas , he aroused controversy by killing his own commander in a duel , and was then accused of murdering African - American soldiers in the Red River Campaign . During Sterling Price ’ s raid into Missouri , Marmaduke was captured at the Battle of Mine Creek ( October 1864 ) and remained in captivity until the war ’ s end . He became Governor of Missouri in 1884 , successfully campaigning for railroad reform , before dying in office . Early life and career . The second son among ten children , Marmaduke was born on his father ' s plantation near Arrow Rock in Saline County , Missouri . His father , Meredith Miles Marmaduke ( 1791 – 1864 ) , was the eighth Governor of Missouri . His great - grandfather , John Breathitt , had served as the Governor of Kentucky from 1832 – 1834 , dying in office . Marmaduke attended Chapel Hill Academy in Lafayette County , Missouri and the Masonic College in Lexington , Missouri , before attending Yale University for two years and then Harvard University for another year . Congressman John S . Phelps appointed Marmaduke to the United States Military Academy , where he graduated in 1857 , placed 30th out of 38 students . He briefly served as a second lieutenant in the First United States Mounted Rifleman , before being transferred to the Second United States Cavalry under Col . Albert Sidney Johnston . Marmaduke served in the Utah War and was posted to Camp Floyd in 1858 – 1860 . Civil War . Marmaduke was on duty in the New Mexico Territory in the spring of 1861 when he received news that Missouri had seceded from the Union . He hastened home and met with his father ( an avid Unionist ) . Even though the news was false , Marmaduke finally decided to resign from the United States Army , effective April 1861 . Pro - secession Missouri Governor Claiborne F . Jackson , Marmaduke ' s uncle , soon appointed him as the colonel of the First Regiment of Rifles , a unit from Saline County , in the Missouri State Guard . Governor Jackson departed Jefferson City in June , along with State Guard commander Major General Sterling Price , to recruit more troops . Marmaduke and his regiment met them at Boonville . Within a short time , Price and Jackson left , leaving Marmaduke in charge of a small force of militia men . Marmaduke realized his troops were in no way prepared for combat , but Governor Jackson ordered him to make a stand . Union General Nathaniel Lyon ' s 1 , 700 well - trained and equipped soldiers easily routed Marmaduke ' s untrained and poorly armed force at the Battle of Boonville on June 17 , a skirmish mockingly dubbed by Unionists " the Boonville Races , " since Marmaduke ' s recruits broke and ran after just 20 minutes of battle . Disgusted by the situation , Marmaduke resigned his commission in the Missouri State Guard and traveled to Richmond , Virginia , where he was commissioned a first lieutenant in the regular Confederate States Army . The Confederate War Department ordered him to report for duty in Arkansas , where he soon was elected the lieutenant colonel of the 1st Arkansas Battalion . He served on the staff of Lt . Gen . William J . Hardee , a former West Point instructor of infantry tactics . Marmaduke ' s former Mormon War commander , Albert Sidney Johnston , asked him to join his staff in early 1862 . Marmaduke was wounded in action at the Battle of Shiloh as Colonel of the 3rd Confederate Infantry , incapacitating him for several months . In November 1862 , the War Department confirmed Marmaduke ' s promotion to brigadier general . His first battle as a brigade commander was at the Battle of Prairie Grove . In April 1863 , Marmaduke departed Arkansas with 5 , 000 men and ten artillery pieces and entered now Union held Missouri . However , he was repulsed at the Battle of Cape Girardeau and forced to return to Helena , Arkansas . Controversy soon followed Marmaduke . In September 1863 , he accused his immediate superior officer , Maj . Gen . Lucius M . " Marsh " Walker , of cowardice in action for not being present with his men on the battlefield . Walker , slighted by the insult , challenged Marmaduke to a duel , which resulted in Walker ' s death on September 6 . Marmaduke later commanded a cavalry division in the Trans - Mississippi Department , serving in the Red River Campaign . During this period , Marmaduke once again was involved in controversy . Commanding a mixed force of Confederate troops , including Native - American soldiers of the 1st and 2nd Choctaw Regiments , Marmaduke defeated a Federal foraging detachment at the Battle of Poison Spring s , Arkansas on April 18 , 1864 . Marmaduke ' s men were accused of murdering African - American soldiers of the First Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry ( later designated the 79th U . S . Colored Infantry ) . Marmaduke and other white officers claimed that the accusations of illegal killings were overblown , and blamed any murders that may have happened on the Choctaw troops who , in the words of one Confederate , did " kill and scalp some " of the black troops . Marmaduke was hailed in the Confederate press for what was publicized as a significant southern victory . Marmaduke commanded a division in Major General Sterling Price ' s Raid September – October 1864 into Missouri , where Marmaduke was captured at the Battle of Mine Creek ( by Private James Dunlavy of the 3rd Iowa Cavalry ) . While still a prisoner of war at Johnson ' s Island in Ohio , Marmaduke was promoted to major general in March 1865 . He was released after the war ended . Postbellum career . Marmaduke returned home to Missouri and settled in St . Louis . He worked briefly for an insurance company , whose ethics he found contrary to his own . He then edited an agricultural journal , and publicly accused the railroads of discriminatory pricing against local farmers . The governor soon appointed Marmaduke to the state ' s first Rail Commission . Marmaduke decided to enter politics , but lost the 1880 Democratic nomination for governor to former Union general Thomas T . Crittenden , who had strong support and financial backing from the railroads . Undeterred , Marmaduke campaigned four years later for Governor of Missouri at a time when public opinion had changed , and railroad reform and regulation became more in vogue . Marmaduke conducted a campaign which apologetically emphasized his Confederate service , emphasized alleged abuses of Missourians by Union troops during the Civil War , celebrated the activities of pro - Confederate " partisan guerrillas " such as William Clark Quantrill , claimed that the Republican Party in Missouri a tool of " Carpetbaggers " to oppress " native " Missourians , and made overt appeals to white racism . Ironically , considering Marmaduke ' s " Confederate - focused " campaigning , he was elected on a platform ( officially ) focused on cooperation between former Unionists and Confederates , promising an agenda which would produce a " New Missouri " . He settled potentially crippling railroad strikes in 1885 and 1886 . The following year , Marmaduke pushed laws through the state legislature that finally began regulating the state ' s railway industry . Marmaduke also dramatically boosted the state ' s funding of public schools , with nearly a full third of the annual budget allocated to education . He never married , and his two nieces served as hostesses at the Governor ' s Mansion . Like his great - grandfather , Marmaduke died while serving as governor . He contracted pneumonia late in 1887 and died in Jefferson City . He was buried in the City Cemetery . Marmaduke , Arkansas , in Greene County is named for John S . Marmaduke . His younger brother , Henry Hungerford Marmaduke , served in the Confederate Navy , was captured and was imprisoned on Johnson ' s Island . He later served the federal government in negotiations with South American nations . He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery . Two other Marmaduke brothers died in the Civil War .