Joseph Chrisman Porter: Missouri Confederate

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Joseph Chrisman Porter (September 12, 1819 - February 18, 1863) was a Confederate Officer in the American War Of Northern Aggression of 1861 and a key leader in the guerilla campaigns in northern Missouri. Colonel Porter formed and commanded The First Northeast Missouri Cavalry, C.S.A., better known to many as Porter's Regiment

One of the main sources for Colonel Porter's history is the monumental book "With Porter In North Missouri" penned by Joseph A. Mudd (see below). Porter's chief adversary, yankee Col. John McNeil, regarded him simply as a guerilla, though clearly Porter's service under General John S. Marmaduke in the Springfield campaign and following, clearly shows he was a fully Commissioned Officer in the Confederate States Army.


EARLY LIFE AND CAREER

Joseph C. Porter was born in Jessamine County, Kentucky, to James and Rebecca Chrisman Porter. The family moved to Marion County, Missouri, in 1828 or 1829, where Porter attended Marion College in Philadelphia, Missouri, and was a member of the Presbyterian Church. About 1844, Porter married Mary Ann E. Marshall (d. DeWitt, AR about two years after the war closed, according to Porter’s sister). They subsequently moved to Knox County, remaining there until 1857, when they moved to Lewis County, and settled five miles east of Newark. Family members assert that only one picture of Porter was known to exist, and it was destroyed when his home was burned, allegedly by yankee soldiers.

Porter had strong southern sympathies, and was for this reason subject to harassment by neighbors, in an area where loyalties were sharply divided. His brother, James William Porter (b. 1827, m. Carolina Marshall, sister to Joseph’s wife Mary Ann, 1853), was also a Confederate officer and Joseph's trusted subordinate, attaining the rank of Major. The brothers went to California in the Gold Rush of 1849, then prospered in livestock and farming together before the war.

WAR OF NORTHERN AGGRESSION - 1861

The brothers went south with CSA Colonel Martin E. Green’s regiment to join the attack on Lexington, September of 1861. Although he had no military experience, Porter was a natural born leader, quickly elected Lieutenant Colonel (official commission would come later) in the Missouri State Guard. He fought at Athens, Shelbina, Lexington (September 18 - 20, 1861) and Pea Ridge (or Elkhorn Tavern) in March 1862.

In the spring of 1862 he returned home, on the orders of General Sterling Price, to raise recruits throughout northeast Missouri. His duties included the establishment of supply drops, weapons caches and the construction of a network of Southern-sympathizing informants. The recruited were under threat of being hanged if captured by the yankees. Throughout Porter’s brief military career, his status as a regular army officer, with the attached authority and immunities, was not fully recognized by his adversaries, particularly Col. John McNeil, and the right of rebel soldiers to be treated as combatants and prisoners of war rather than criminals and traitors was inconsistently observed even though Colonel Porter was a Comissioned Officer in the Confederate States Army. Some of Porter's were in conjunction with Confederate Irregulars and Partisan Rangers; yet many pitched battles were fought.

On June 17, 1862, he was near Warren or New Market, in Warren Township, Marion County, with 43 mounted men, and made prisoners of four men of the yankee regiment he found there. The yankees had their arms and horses taken from them, were sworn not to take up arms against the Southern Confederacy until duly exchanged, and then released.



http://www.rulen.com/porter/bio.htm

http://shelby.mogenweb.org/shelby1884chapter8.pdf

http://www.civilwarmo.org/educators/resources/info-sheets/palmyra-massacre

http://law.missouri.edu/bowman/Second_Diary/JournalPage2.html

http://www.archive.org/stream/cu31924030972628/cu31924030972628_djvu.txt

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...and the Battle of Kirksville (Adair County), August 6, 1862. I'll leave the rest to you in case you planned on posting more on that anniversary!
 
...and the Battle of Kirksville (Adair County), August 6, 1862. I'll leave the rest to you in case you planned on posting more on that anniversary!

If you'd like post something about Kirksville, don't wait on me, I'm liable to forget or my schedule will get crazy again or something else. Right now I'm reading and searching AAR and OR's on Moores Mill and looking for stuff on Oden Guitar.
 
Well, actually this is from Wikipedia:

Confederate Col. Joseph C. Porter had been recruiting in the Macon area, to the south of Kirksville. He had assembled a brigade of between 1,500 and 2,500 ill-trained and poorly equipped troops, but his irregulars had harried and recruited as far north as Memphis. Confederate sympathies in the Kirksville area were high (though Union sentiment was stronger than in surrounding counties), due to the Southern heritage of most of the residents. Porter had been urged to come to Kirksville by Confederate Captain Tice Cain, an Adair County farmer who claimed to be holding Kirksville with 500 fresh recruits. (In one of the battle's mysteries, Cain disappeared and was never heard from again, according to a descendant.)
Union Colonel John McNiel of the 2nd Missouri Cavalry and his troops, totalling about 1,000, had been pursuing Porter for more than a week. Before noon on August 6, McNeil attacked Porter in the town of Kirksville, where the Confederates had concealed themselves in homes and stores and among the crops in the nearby fields, especially in the county courthouse and the commercial buildings on the square. Their presence was discovered by a Union detachment that volunteered to ride around the square in order to draw fire and cause the Confederates to reveal themselves — an act of courage which cost two Union soldiers their lives. McNeil deployed his artillery before moving in a broad line towards the town square. The subsequent cannon fire demoralized the defenders, some of whom retreated behind a rail fence, west of the square.
The Union troops then advanced in two wings, with Lt. Col. William F. Shaffer (Merrill's Horse) in command of the Union right wing and Major Henry Clay Caldwell of the 3rd Iowa in charge of the left. As the two wings met, they succeeded in driving the Confederates from the courthouse. Porter's remaining forces yielded ground and joined the others behind the rail fence. From this position, the Confederates poured heavy fire into McNeil’s men, but were ultimately overwhelmed. The battle began at 11 a.m. and was over by 2 p.m.
The Federals then secured the town, capturing numerous prisoners, and driving away the remaining Confederates. Three days later, another Union force arrived and finished the work begun at Kirksville, virtually destroying Porter's command.
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Union commander Col. John McNeil


Aftermath

According to a letter by resident J. Martin, written a week after the battle, Confederate dead numbered about 200, Union 30; McNeill’s official tally was 150 Confederates killed (300-400 wounded) against 6 Union deaths (32 wounded). Two civilian casualties were noted: James Dye, a sixty-year-old farmer with two sons in the Union army, was held overnight by Porter during his approach to the town, then told to be on his way, but shot as he left. The other was Mrs. Elizabeth Cutts (also given as "Kutz" and "Coots"). Most Kirksville residents had heeded Porter’s warning to depart, but Cutts was shot when two Confederate soldiers attempted to enter the cellar where she was hiding, and she was hit by a Union bullet meant for them as she ran out.
John L. Porter, a prominent local citizen (no relation to the Confederate leader), asked for and was granted permission to treat the Confederate wounded. McNeil supplied a surgeon and instruments, the departed Porter having previously commandeered all medical equipment. The Confederate dead were deposited in several mass graves in Forest Llewellen Cemetery; a monument now marks the spot. Some were later recovered by their families. Fifteen Confederates were quickly court-martialed on McNeil's orders and executed for having violated previous parole agreements not to take up arms again until exchanged. Although the execution was permissible within military norms, it was seldom done and McNeil has been criticized for both the justice and necessity of the proceedings, by John L. Porter (see Kirksville Daily Express, 1912, below) and Joseph Mudd, among others.
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Confederate Lt. Colonel Frisby McCullough, executed following the Battle of Kirksville


A number of other questionable shootings followed, including those of Dr. John Davis (said by some to have been told to run and then shot when he did) and Lt. Col. Frisby McCollough a subordinate of Porter who had no part in the battle, but was tried and sentenced to death as a bushwhacker, even though he was captured wearing a regular Confederate uniform and carrying letters authorizing him to recruit troops. He was granted permission to give the order to fire, and his final words were, “May God forgive you for this cold-blooded murder. Aim at the heart. Fire!” A second volley was necessary.
McNeil’s reputation would be darkened further by the “Palmyra Massacre” on October 18, but he would go on to serve two terms as Sheriff of St. Louis County, dying June 7, 1891. Porter died February 18, 1863, of wounds received in an engagement at Hartville.
The victory at Kirksville helped consolidate Union dominance in northeastern Missouri.
Memorial Park (the approximate location of the Union artillery) commemorates the battle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kirksville


Richard S. Brownlee, in Grey Ghosts of the Confederacy: Guerrilla Warfare in the West 1861-1865, puts the number of troops at "nearly 1,000 recruits" with Porter and 500 men and 6 cannon under McNeil. He adds that in addition to the 15 prisoners executed after the battle for violating parole, an additional 10 were executed on September 25, although no reason is cited.




 
Brownlee footnotes the source as "Colonel McNeil's Official Report to Assistant Adjutant General George M. Houston, September 17, 1862." The executions took place in Macon. I assume by firing squad like Lt Col. McCollough. Not that it matters to the dead, but perhaps not hung like criminals. Perhaps Mudd mentions this.
 
From what I'm finding this maybe an incident that occurred in Bloomington, then the County Seat of Macon County conducted by Major Thomas Moody MSM under orders from General Lewis Merrill, along with the razing of Bloomington to include the burning of the court house and eventual naming of Macon as the County Seat.

Because there were many Confederate sympathizers in the Bloomington area, General Merrill was upset. He had a deep hatred for anyone siding with the south and decided to make an example of ten confederate prisoners by executing them. He ordered Moody to assemble a firing squad.
Previously Moody had been able to use his influence on occasion to save southern sympathizers from harsh treatment, but not that time. He did not feel right shooting another Missourian who might be friend or family of someone he knew. But his request for a troop from another state to perform the executions was denied and he had to perform the dire deed.
Later, General Merrill instructed Major Moody to take his men to Bloomington and "burn the town to the ground, leave not one building standing. Wipe Bloomington off the face of the earth."
Moody could not bring himself to follow yet another harsh order such as this one. Instead, he came up with a viable plan and presented it to General Merrill the next morning.
"General," he said, "I want to speak to you about that Bloomington matter."
"Very good, have you razed the old town yet?" asked Merrill.
"No sir, I haven't, "No sir, I haven't, but I got a plan that will work a good deal better than to burn those people out!"
"Let's have it … What's your plan?"



http://www.perfectsites.com/150/courthouseevent.html
 
A railroad center, Macon was a Union troop concentration point in the Civil War, and it replaced pro-Southern Bloomington as seat of Macon County, 1863. Organized, 1837, the county is named for Nathaniel Macon, Revolutionary War soldier and N.C. statesman. Here 11 military parole violators were executed by order of Union General Lewis Merrill, Sept. 26, 1862.
http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM3AF2_Macon

O.R.-- SERIES I--VOLUME XIII [S# 19]
CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, AND RETURNS RELATING SPECIALLY TO OPERATIONS IN MISSOURI, ARKANSAS, KANSAS, THE INDIAN TERRITORY, AND THE DEPARTMENT OF THE NORTHWEST FROM APRIL 10 TO NOVEMBER 20, 1862.
UNION CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. -- #13
HEADQUARTERS NORTHEAST MISSOURI DIVISION,
Macon City, Mo. September 23, 1862.
Maj. A. T. DENNY, Huntsville, Mo.:
MAJOR: Captain Burkhardt has been directed to take back to Huntsville the following prisoners: Charles King, Charles Tillotson, and D. S. Washburn.
With regard to these men you will observe the order herewith inclosed, which will be your warrant for the execution, and I hope that this example will have such a satisfactory effect that no further execution in your vicinity may be necessary.
I wish the execution of these men to be done with due form and ceremony, and thinking you may not be aware of the proper form give the following description of how it is to be done:
At the hour fixed for the execution your whole command will be paraded and marched to the execution ground, together with the condemned and the firing party; the firing party will be selected by lot from your men, six men for each prisoner. The march to the execution ground is in the following order: First. A company of your command. Second. The prisoners, each with the firing party in the rear of him. Third. The rest of your command.
Having reached the ground, the command will be formed on three sides of a square, facing inwards. On the open side the prisoners and firing party will be disposed as in the diagram.
Before going to the ground the muskets of the firing party will be loaded--not in the presence of the men who are to use them--and of each six one of them will be loaded with a blank cartridge, the others with ball. This is done in order that no individual of the firing party may know to a certainty that his piece contained a ball. The prisoners are then blindfolded and made to kneel before the firing parties, and the commanding officer gives the order, "Ready! Aim! fire!"
Six men must be detailed as a reserve, whose duty it will be to finish the execution of any one of the prisoners who may not be killed by the first discharge.
Instruct your firing party that they are simply discharging their duty, and however disagreeable it may be it is a duty, and they will show mercy to the prisoners by aiming true at the heart, that the first fire may kill them.
I hope, major, that this solemn execution of a sentence and vindication of violated law may be properly conducted, and that both yourself and your men will do their duty faithfully, however unpleasant it may be.
After the execution the whole command is marched by the dead bodies, and they are then taken up and decently interred.
I am, major, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
LEWIS MERRILL,
Brigadier-General, Commanding.
[Inclosure.]
SPECIAL ORDERS No. 35.
HDQRS. NORTHEAST MISSOURI DIVISION
Macon City, Mo., September 23, 1862.
* * * * * * * * * *
II. Charles King, Charles Tillotson, and D. S. Washburn, having once been in arms in rebellion against their lawful Government, and having been pardoned for that offense and taken a solemn oath not again to take up arms against the United States, were afterward found in arms as members of a guerrilla band and taken prisoners, and, in accordance with the laws of war, will be shot at or near Huntsville, Mo., on Friday, the 26th instant, between the hours of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., having incurred the just penalty of a violated parole and willful and intentional perjury. This sentence will be duly carried into execution by the commanding officer of the troops at Huntsville, for which this shall be his warrant.

II. The following-named prisoners, now in confinement at Macon City, having once been pardoned for the crime of taking up arms against their Government, and having taken a solemn oath not again to take up arms against the United States, have been taken in arms, in violation of said oath and their solemn parole, and are therefore ordered to be shot to death on Friday, the 26th of September, between the hours of 10 o'clock a.m. and 3 o'clock p.m.

The commander of the post at Macon City is charged with the execution of this order, and for their execution this shall be his warrant.

Names of prisoners to be executed: Frank E. Drake, Dr. A. C. Rowe, Elbert Hamilton, William H. Earhart, William Searcy, J. A. Wysong, G. H. Fox, Edward Riggs, David Bell, John H. Oldham, James H. Hall.
By order of Brigadier-General Merrill:
GEO. M. HOUSTON,
Major and Assistant Adjutant-General.
 
More on Kirksville:


The Battle of Kirksville fought near the town of Kirksville, Missouri, on August 6, 1862. The Union victory helped consolidate Federal control over northeastern Missouri. Confederate Col. Joseph C. Porter had been recruiting in the Macon area, to the south of Kirksville. He had assembled a brigade of between 1,500 and 2,500 ill-trained and poorly equipped troops, but his irregulars had harried and recruited as far north as Memphis. Confederate sympathies in the Kirksville area were high (though Union sentiment was stronger than in surrounding counties), due to the Southern heritage of most of the residents. Porter had been urged to come to Kirksville by Confederate Captain Tice Cain, an Adair County farmer who claimed to be holding Kirksville with 500 fresh recruits. (In one of the battle's mysteries, Cain disappeared and was never heard from again, according to a descendant.)
Union Colonel John McNeil of the 2nd Missouri Cavalry and his troops, totalling about 1,000, had been pursuing Porter for more than a week. Before noon on August 6, McNeil attacked Porter in the town of Kirksville, where the Confederates had concealed themselves in homes and stores and among the crops in the nearby fields, especially in the county courthouse and the commercial buildings on the square. Their presence was discovered by a Union detachment that volunteered to ride around the square in order to draw fire and cause the Confederates to reveal themselves — an act of courage which cost two Union soldiers their lives. McNeil deployed his artillery before moving in a broad line towards the town square. The subsequent cannon fire demoralized the defenders, some of whom retreated behind a rail fence, west of the square.
The Union troops then advanced in two wings, with Lt. Col. William F. Shaffer (Merrill's Horse) in command of the Union right wing and Major Henry Clay Caldwell of the 3rd Iowa in charge of the left. As the two wings met, they succeeded in driving the Confederates from the courthouse. Porter's remaining forces yielded ground and joined the others behind the rail fence. From this position, the Confederates poured heavy fire into McNeil’s men, but were ultimately overwhelmed. The battle began at 11 a.m. and was over by 2 p.m.
The Federals then secured the town, capturing numerous prisoners, and driving away the remaining Confederates. Three days later, another Union force arrived and finished the work begun at Kirksville, virtually destroying Porter's command.
According to a letter by resident J. Martin, written a week after the battle, Confederate dead numbered about 200, Union 30; McNeill’s official tally was 150 Confederates killed (300-400 wounded) against 6 Union deaths (32 wounded). Two civilian casualties were noted: James Dye, a sixty-year-old farmer with two sons in the Union army, was held overnight by Porter during his approach to the town, then told to be on his way, but shot as he left. The other was Mrs. Elizabeth Cutts (also given as "Kutz" and "Coots"). Most Kirksville residents had heeded Porter’s warning to depart, but Cutts was shot when two Confederate soldiers attempted to enter the cellar where she was hiding, and she was hit by a Union bullet meant for them as she ran out.
John L. Porter, a prominent local citizen (no relation to the Confederate leader), asked for and was granted permission to treat the Confederate wounded. McNeil supplied a surgeon and instruments, the departed Porter having previously commandeered all medical equipment. The Confederate dead were deposited in several mass graves in Forest Llewellen Cemetery; a monument now marks the spot. Some were later recovered by their families. Fifteen Confederates were quickly court-martialed on McNeil's orders and executed for having violated previous parole agreements not to take up arms again until exchanged. Although the execution was permissible within military norms, it was seldom done and McNeil has been criticized for both the justice and necessity of the proceedings, by John L. Porter (see Kirksville Daily Express, 1912, below) and Joseph Mudd (see references to Palmyra Massacre), among others.
A number of other questionable shootings followed, including those of Dr. John Davis (said by some to have been told to run and then shot when he did) and Lt. Col. Frisby McCullough — a subordinate of Porter who had no part in the battle, but was tried and sentenced to death as a bushwhacker, even though he was captured wearing a regular Confederate uniform and carrying letters authorizing him to recruit troops. He was granted permission to give the order to fire, and his final words were, “May God forgive you for this cold-blooded murder. Aim at the heart. Fire!” A second volley was necessary.
McNeil’s reputation would be darkened further by the “Palmyra Massacre” on October 18, but he would go on to serve two terms as Sheriff of St. Louis County, dying June 7, 1891. Porter died February 18, 1863, of wounds received in an engagement at Hartville.
The victory at Kirksville helped consolidate Union dominance in northeastern Missouri. It is regarded as the northernmost engagement west of the Mississippi River.
 
Battle of Hartville. Porter would die of wounds recieved here.

In late December 1862, Brigadier General James G. Blunt applied considerable pressure to Northwest Arkansas by pressing southward with 8,000 troops and 30 pieces of artillery. Major General Thomas C. Hindman, Confederate commander of the army in Northwest Arkansas, ordered Brigadier General John Sappington Marmaduke to move rapidly and “strike the enemy in the rear or flank, in order to withdraw the heavy masses (infantry, cavalry, and artillery), under Blunt, then moving toward the Arkansas River, back into Missouri.”1
While leading a portion of his cavalry division north into Missouri in early January, 1863, Marmaduke learned the supply depot at Springfield, Missouri was weakly garrisoned. Believing he could capture the town, Marmaduke turned away from his original destination of Hartville, Missouri. Marmaduke attacked Springfield on January 8, 1863, but was defeated. After the unsuccessful engagement at Springfield, Marmaduke withdrew the following morning along the telegraph road toward Lebanon. He eventually turned southeastward and advanced on Hartville, Missouri, his original objective.
Marmaduke’s Missouri expedition up to this point consisted of two independent columns. The first, under his immediate command, left Lewisburg, Arkansas, on December 31, 1862, and was defeated at the Battle of Springfield. The second, under Colonel Joseph C. Porter, marched independently into Missouri from Pocahontas, Arkansas on January 2, 1863. The two columns planed to rendezvous at Hartville. Porter had reached Hartville on January 9, and successfully captured 40 militiamen and 200 stands of arms without firing a shot.2 Porter’s Confederates then destroyed the fortifications in Hartville and continued toward Lebanon via Hazelwood. Porter dispatched Lieutenant Colonel John M. Wimer into Hazelwood, where he burned the blockhouse and fortifications in town.3 Marmaduke finally reestablished communication with Porter’s column on January 10, 1863. He ordered Porter to return to Hartville during the night.
Brigadier General Fitz Henry Warren, Union commander at Houston, Missouri, learned of Marmaduke’s advance on Springfield. Warren ordered Colonel Samuel Merrill with a force of 700 infantry and artillery and 180 cavalry to reinforce the Springfield garrison.4 The command reached Hartville early on January 10th, and learned that Porter’s 800 man Confederate force had already captured the Hartville garrison and disappeared. Merrill continued en route toward Springfield, and early on January 11th discovered Confederate forces marching on his camp. Merrill’s command skirmished with Wimer, who was the vanguard of Marmaduke’s Division, north of Hartville. The Union cavalry pressed Wimer, but was stalled when they encountered a larger body of Rebel troops.
Marmaduke believed that Federal forces pursued him from the direction of Springfield, and feared facing two Union forces. He ordered his skirmishers to remain in place while the main column bypassed the Union forces on a side road. Marmaduke hoped to open a southward escape route should the Federal forces prove to be present in overwhelming numbers.
Realizing that Marmaduke was attempting to circle around his defensive position, Colonel Merrill ordered his Union troops to race back to Hartville. Discovering that the Confederates had already reached Hartville, Merrill deployed his men on the high ground west of the courthouse. Union artillery supported the position. The Union forces had almost no time to prepare their position before Colonel Joseph Shelby and Colonel Porter’s commands engaged them in battle. The Confederate’s launched their initial attacks before conducting any reconnaissance work, and the result had devastating effects.
Confederate forces attacked repeatedly but were repelled. As the Confederates discovered the precise location of the Union battleline, the Confederates began concentrating their fire from the buildings in town. A portion of the Union line began to break and elements retreated, including the Union’s artillery. Confederate commanders noted the Union withdrawal, and presumed victory. The Union position west of the courthouse, however, was covered by ample brush and trees for coverage. While some Union forces indeed retreated from the battlefield, the 21st Iowa Infantry did not receive the order to retreat, so they held their ground in the bush. As Colonel Porter and his column reached the courthouse they realized their mistake as the enemy, only 50 yards away from his men, opened fire. Porter was wounded in the leg and hand, and Wimer was killed.
Lieutenant Colonel Cornelius Dunlap, of the 21st Iowa Infantry, extended his line of defense and increased his regiment’s rate of fire to mask his weakness from the Rebel forces. The Confederates made three additional advances before sundown, all of which were repelled. Dunlap later reported, “My men all acted finely, and were cool and active when they learned that they were left alone in front of a rebel horde of 5,000 men.”5 After darkness, Dunlap retreated with the other Union forces toward Lebanon.
Confederate forces were plagued by poor coordination and inadequate reconnaissance during their victory at the Battle of Hartville. Union casualties included seven dead and 64 wounded. Confederate casualties were estimated at 22 killed and 125 wounded. Their inability to capture supplies at Springfield, followed by poorly conceived attacks and high casualties at Hartville, left the Confederate command demoralized and ready to retreat to Arkansas. However, upon reflection Marmaduke reported that the impact of his actions in Missouri should be considered at least a partial success. He noted,
I think I may safely state that the object of the expedition was fully accomplished, and more. Blunt’s Army of the Frontier countermarched rapidly to save Springfield; a long chain of forts, strong in themselves, built at great expense and labor, which overawed and kept in subjection the country, were razed to the ground, and the heart of the people revived again at the presence of Confederate troops.


From here a very good site: http://www.ozarkscivilwar.org/
 
Vassar Hill:


Yankee Colonel (later General) John McNeil pursued Porter, who planned an ambush with perhaps 150 men (though Yakee estimates of his strength ran as much as four times higher). The Battle is called Vassar Hill in the History of Scotland County; Porter himself called it Oak Ridge, and Federal forces called it Pierce’s Mill, after a location 1.5 mi NW of the battlefield. A detachment of Merrill’s Horse, under Major John Y. Clopper, was dispatched by McNeil from Newark against Porter, and attacked him 2 p.m. on Friday, July 18, on the south fork of the Middle Fabius, ten miles south-west of Memphis. Clopper was in the Federal front, and out of 21 men of his advance guard all but one were killed and wounded. The yankees charged repeatedly, to little effect. Only the arrival of reinforcements drove Porter into retreat. yankee casualties were about 30 killed and mortally wounded, and perhaps 75 wounded. Porter's loss was six killed, three mortally wounded, and 10 wounded left on the field. The 23 yankee dead were originally buried on the Jacob Maggard farm, which served as a temporary hospital, 1.5 mi NW of the battlefield.
After the fight, Porter moved westward a few miles, then south through Paulville, in the eastern part of Adair County; thence south-east into Knox County, passing through Novelty, four miles east of Locust Hill, at noon on Saturday, July 19, having fought a battle and made a march of sixty-five miles in less than twenty-four hours.

Time line for Joe Porter:

http://www.rulen.com/porter/bio.htm

The Vassar Hill Project:

http://www.iowaz.info/missouri/vassarhill.htm
 
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