Platte River Bridge Railroad Tragedy

[Lubliner]

I was collecting some information on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. It was the main east-west link across the State of Missouri and completed in 1857, and used for Express Mail also. It was the farthest western link accessible by rail during the Civil War. On September 3, 1861 a guerilla outfit burnt the timbers on the bridge and caused an accident carrying troops as well as civilians. At least 17 people died and 40 injured. There were major repercussions from this incident. By September 12 the bridge was still not repaired. Platte River Bridge, page 173, Volume 3, Fremont to Davis, says; "Green and Bevier are aiming to cross the Missouri at Glasgow….I shall march upon Glasgow when Platte River Bridge is repaired." [destroyed Sept. 3, 1861].
My question is why General Sterling Price did not concentrate more effort on this railroad link in trying to gain control over Missouri?
Thanks,
Lubliner.

 

[Ole Miss]

Could it possibly be due in part to the newness of the concepts of railroads of being a vital part of the logisitics of military forces? There were so many new military ideas, arms and improvements that many senior officers were either unable or unwilling to adapt and make changes. An example would be slowly changing from Napoleonic tactics of massed attacks across wide open areas with rifled muskets being used by the enemy.

Or pehaps he did not have the resources to concemtrate on this vital link?
Regards
David

 

[Lubliner]

@Ole Miss after reading much of the Official Records for the two months, September and October, it almost appears to me the object of occupation and invasion was to claim money kept in the banks, and court records. I ran across three or four instances of northern mention about the money, and one from the confederates. Of course the confederates also were highly motivated in protecting and enlisting their southern citizenry. Their movements in 1861 seem to be for these purposes, and off-setting the Yankee 'thievery' of needed assets belonging to Missouri. I will post more with references to highlight this theory later. Thanks,
Lubliner.

 

[SWMODave]

Lubliner - can probably save you a lot of time as Mark W Geiger has spent years researching the Missouri banking system during the war. He has written a book on the subject but he also has published some research papers on it. One is titled "Missouri's Hidden Civil War: financial conspiracy and the decline of the planter elite, 1861-1865".

You can find a copy here. It's published on numerous online academic sources so if for some reason this one does not work, a quick Google search should find a pdf copy.

 

[Lusty Murfax]

I was collecting some information on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. It was the main east-west link across the State of Missouri and completed in 1857, and used for Express Mail also. It was the farthest western link accessible by rail during the Civil War. On September 3, 1861 a guerilla outfit burnt the timbers on the bridge and caused an accident carrying troops as well as civilians. At least 17 people died and 40 injured. There were major repercussions from this incident. By September 12 the bridge was still not repaired. Platte River Bridge, page 173, Volume 3, Fremont to Davis, says; "Green and Bevier are aiming to cross the Missouri at Glasgow….I shall march upon Glasgow when Platte River Bridge is repaired." [destroyed Sept. 3, 1861].
My question is why General Sterling Price did not concentrate more effort on this railroad link in trying to gain control over Missouri?
Thanks,
Lubliner.

The Union maintained control of the Missouri River early on. They concentrated troops in northern Missouri to both guard the railroad and to stem the flow of volunteers to Price and his Missourians. Northern Missouri volunteers could only cross the river in small groups and they could not use river boats or barges with the capacity to transport significant numbers. Even after the first three major engagements in 1861 and the capture of weapons and gear Price was still unable to arm all the volunteers that flocked to the MSG. After the Battle of Lexington in Sept., 61 Price knew that Federals were closing in from the west and northeast. He also felt the need to establish winter headquarters farther south where he could train, supply and arm his Army relatively unmolested.

 

[Lubliner]

Lubliner - can probably save you a lot of time as Mark W Geiger has spent years researching the Missouri banking system during the war. He has written a book on the subject but he also has published some research papers on it. One is titled "Missouri's Hidden Civil War: financial conspiracy and the decline of the planter elite, 1861-1865".

You can find a copy here. It's published on numerous online academic sources so if for some reason this one does not work, a quick Google search should find a pdf copy.

I can come up with the brief abstract but can't seem to locate the dissertation in full. I will search further.
Meanwhile, the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad was built using funding by land allotment. The Government set aside 600,000 acres through which the rail line was to be built. Some of the railroad magnates of wealth had small towns along that line named for them. There seemed to be plenty of wealth therefore, within the State of Missouri.
The overall aspect of strategic campaigning in this State differed somewhat from the main theaters of conflict. Sometimes the war in Missouri has been called a 'sideshow' to the main event. But in looking deeper, Missouri was an important State for the Union to keep hold of, and it was hostile to the Government.
So yes, @SWMODave the dissertation would be of great interest, but my own focus points more toward the 'seizure' of Banks within the State, part of the underlying motivations for controlling this hostile region. Naturally the confederates deemed it a southern State of allegiance, not only by sympathies but also by elected Governance. They would eventually fall back to the border of Arkansas and recruit and gather forces for future raids. As I mentioned above, when I find the time to review the Official Records again on this tack, I will post the references I am alluding to.
Thanks,
Lubliner.

 

[Lusty Murfax]

"Meanwhile, the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad was built using funding by land allotment. The Government set aside 600,000 acres through which the rail line was to be built. Some of the railroad magnates of wealth had small towns along that line named for them. There seemed to be plenty of wealth therefore, within the State of Missouri."

I believe the land allotment funding scheme used here in northern Missouri granted the RR builders every other section in a checkerboard pattern, 20 miles either side of the RR right-of-way. All of my farm land is situated within the Hannibal - St. Joe RR corridor. I've seen a map of the ROW with the RR sections marked. I live about 15 miles from St. Joe and we own land in several sections, but none of my sections were deeded to the H-SJRR.

It is my understanding that as Union regiments deployed throughout Missouri they robbed the banks in every town they passed through. It was noted in several histories that after the Battle of Lexington Gen. Price recovered almost all of the roughly $900,000 in deposits the 23rd Illinois VIR had stolen from the local Bank of Lexington. Reportedly, the soldiers were able to hide about $30,000 from the MSG troops. Regarding Mr. Geiger, here is a link to one of his dissertations regarding funding the Missouri State Guard

Financial Fraud and Guerrilla Violence in Missouri's Civil War, 1861-1865

 

[Lubliner]

This is the dissertation that was mentioned above in Post #4, by @SWMODave. It interests me that you and your family own land along the corridor. You may then be very familiar with the activities taking place in 1861-1865 (not to mention pre- and post-war). I have taken account of Official Correspondence, including General Grant involving the bank 'seizures'. The retaking of Lexington you mention @Lusty Murfax, includes the county records also. I will add the references soon.
Lubliner.

 

[Lusty Murfax]

This is the dissertation that was mentioned above in Post #4, by @SWMODave. It interests me that you and your family own land along the corridor. You may then be very familiar with the activities taking place in 1861-1865 (not to mention pre- and post-war). I have taken account of Official Correspondence, including General Grant involving the bank 'seizures'. The retaking of Lexington you mention @Lusty Murfax, includes the county records also. I will add the references soon.
Lubliner.

The Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky branches of my family arrived in Missouri several decades before the war. They established themselves on farms in several Counties, including several of Missouri's Little Dixie Counties. Most eventually established farms in Clay, Platte, Buchanan and Andrew Counties. Many descendants remain in these Counties today and a few of us still occupy farms inherited or passed down through the generations.

 

[Lubliner]

The Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky branches of my family arrived in Missouri several decades before the war. They established themselves on farms in several Counties, including several of Missouri's Little Dixie Counties. Most eventually established farms in Clay, Platte, Buchanan and Andrew Counties. Many descendants remain in these Counties today and a few of us still occupy farms inherited or passed down through the generations.

I was watching the top video you posted above, until the 32 minute mark and it blitzed out. He mentions the close-knit family ties that had migrated from Virginia into Kentucky and on into Missouri, and the co-signing of bank loans that had defaulted causing many whole family connections to topple. He gives a good presentation. I will try the second video tomorrow.
Lubliner.

 

[Lubliner]

The following references are from Series 1, Volume 3 of the Official Records. The page number is with the quote.
It seems the Union was targeting the banks in their sweeps to disperse the rebels. This may have motivated the confederate guerillas to begin molesting the train system, first firing into one, and finally the tragedy that unfolds at Platte River on Sept. 3, 1861.

Fremont, reporting on the action at Springfield when Brig. Gen. Lyons was killed, states Brig. Gen. Sigel on the 11th​ of August while continuing his retreat through Rolla brought off $250,000 dollars of specie from the Springfield Bank. [page 54]

On the 16th​ of August, a force of Eighth Regiment Missouri Volunteers under Major John MacDonald, acting upon orders from Cape Girardeau, captured the town Saint Genevieve, Missouri. McDonald in his report [page 132] states; "I then caused the branch of the Merchant's Bank of Saint Louis to be opened, and I took from it a box said to contain $28,633.30 in coin and $29,680 in currency, total $58,313.30, and brought the same on board the steamer [Hannibal City] which I have the honor to turn over to you in person. Stockholders and directors expressed great gratification at my taking the money…."

On the 16th​ of August a band of guerillas fired into the train near Palmyra, Missouri, killing one man. General Hurlbut on the 19th​ issued a proclamation that unless these guerillas were turned within 6 days, that he would levy $10,000 dollars from Marion County and $5,000 from the City of Palmyra. [page 135].

On September 3rd, it was reported by confederate General Jeff. Thompson [page 155]; "The Federal Troops took $700,000 from the bank at Cape Girardeau yesterday."

Colonel Nelson Williams of the Third Iowa Infantry reports he arrived in Paris, Missouri early on the morning of the 2nd​, and immediately proceeded to the bank. "We called the directors together. They informed us that the cashier had taken the money to a safe place, and that they did not know where he or the money was." [page 158].

How possible was it that the rebels were hoping to make use of the rails for themselves. The Union was using the railroad branches for resupply and movement of troops; relocation and retreat, too. Was there any chance Governor Jackson's men could have commandeered the system?
Lubliner.

 

[Lusty Murfax]

Robbing banks, stealing livestock, food and feedstuffs, appropriating private property of all types, destroying local newspapers, driving citizens from their homes and in some cases from the State, replacing duly elected officials and the courts with appointees deemed loyal to the Republican party. The Union occupation did it's best to destroy Missouri in order to save it from the Confederacy. For a State alleged not officially in rebellion Missouri certainly got treated like an enemy by the U.S. government. Its not surprising that the people, at least early in the War supported the Confederate guerrillas.

 

[Lubliner]

Robbing banks, stealing livestock, food and feedstuffs, appropriating private property of all types, destroying local newspapers, driving citizens from their homes and in some cases from the State, replacing duly elected officials and the courts with appointees deemed loyal to the Republican party. The Union occupation did it's best to destroy Missouri in order to save it from the Confederacy. For a State alleged not officially in rebellion Missouri certainly got treated like an enemy by the U.S. government. Its not surprising that the people, at least early in the War supported the Confederate guerrillas.

You make a relevant point concerning the Missouri Civil War. I blame it from the beginning on Captain Nathaniel Lyon, later Brig. General. He overstepped his rank and wrote a nasty report into Washington about the leadership in St. Louis, that it was embarrassing all his plans. The more I read about his overt personality the more I disliked him. He was very insecure at Springfield (Wilson's Creek) before he got shot down, though most blame rests on the shoulders of Franz Sigel. Then again, General Fremont who that September (1861) also overstepped his bounds by publishing a proclamation to Missourians the President had to rescind. When General Grant was instated at that same time in the Department, one of his ranking officers placed himself in arrest and refused to obey orders, (Prentiss). All in all, nobody seemed to know how to deal with the situation at large, and the hostilities created are very apparent.
Lubliner.

 

[Lubliner]

So early on in the war for Missouri, those that were sympathetic to the southern cause and aggravated by the Union treatment, set out to burn bridges and disrupt communications. In Series 1, Volume 1, toward the end there are numerous courts-martial cases that were adjourned, and verdicts of guilty, hanged. Then in early September, a case in the Washington Evening Star tells of a powder keg filled with nails was buried between the tracks and exploded when the engine car passed over it. This occurred close to Rolla. Then on September 3rd, some guerillas went to the Platte Bridge on the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad and partially burned the timbers, weakening the structure. When the next train passed over it fell into the gorge, killing seventeen and wounding about 100 people. I searched the Evening Star for an account but found nothing, which surprises me. All I have found has been wikipedia sources, except one. One source claims one of John Brown's group was killed in the derailment. The Union troopers were ordered to seek out the guerillas and execute them. Platte City was burned because the residents would not give up the leader. Here is the one first-hand account by Abe hager;
St. Joseph, MO Train Plunges Through Platte River Bridge, Sept 1861 | GenDisasters ... Genealogy in Tragedy, Disasters, Fires, Floods

Thanks,
Lubliner.

 

[Lusty Murfax]

One minor clarification. The Platte River meandered through a relatively wide alluvial bottom or plain located just east of St. Joe. The 102 River joined/dumped into the Platte two or three miles above the site of the RR bridge. The surrounding topography is comprised of low rolling hills and shallow valleys typical of glacial till prairies. There was no gorge or elevated topography on either side of the river. I doubt the bridge deck and RR track was more than a few feet, certainly less than six feet above the grade of the riverbank. I see that the news story stated an elevated grade of 35 feet above the river bank, but that's improbable. So, the plunge would likely have been less than ten to 15 feet to the surface of the river.

 

[Lusty Murfax]

This link pasted below offers an aerial view of the Platte River bottom at the location of the Hannibal - St. Joe RR. My cousin and her husband own one of the farms on the river bottom adjacent to the RR right-of-way and bridge site. You can easily trace the pathway of the RR back east through Easton, Hemple, Stewartsville, Osborn, etc.

https://www.acrevalue.com/map/MO/Buchanan/?lat=39.725908&lng=-94.704939&zoom=16

 

[USS ALASKA]

EDITOR'S PICK
Two railroad men: One killed; one survives to tell the story
MARY LOU MONTGOMERY
The Courier-Post
Jan 13, 2024

The neighborhood of Fourth and Adams, in South Hannibal, was still sparsely populated in 1859, when Stephen Corydon Cutler and his young family lived there during pre-Civil War years. Cutler moved from his home state of Maine in the late 1850s in order to go to work for the fledgling Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad - the first direct east-west rail connection across Missouri, completed in 1859. Early on he earned a reputation as an "ever genial and polite conductor." On Nov. 13, 1860, A.K. Miller, editor of Hannibal's "Daily Messenger," penned: "We had frequently heard Mr. C. highly extolled for his many good qualities, and as a universal favorite with the traveling public." On Dec. 29, 1860, the Hannibal Daily Messenger reprinted a complimentary news item on Cutler's behalf, previously published in the Chillicothe Chronicle. "We found Mr. Cutler, the Conductor of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, the same obliging gentleman as ever. He treats everybody with becoming respect. He has many hard cases to deal with - such as those who represent themselves as poor and in distress, and unable to pay their passage. He never treats any such rudely. " On Tuesday night, Sept. 3, 1861, just nine months after the Chillicothe editor's published praise, S.C. Cutler succumbed to injuries received in one of the most horrific rail catastrophes in Missouri's history. It would later be termed the Platt River Disaster. Rebels were blamed for the insurrection. There were at least two Hannibal railroaders aboard the west-bound train: S.C. Cutler, who died of his injuries, and Abram Mirick Hagar, baggage-master on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, who survived and was able to summon help from citizens and physicians in nearby St. Joseph. Quoting Hagar, the Daily Missouri Republican of St. Louis reported in its Sept. 6, 1861 edition: "The train consisted of the locomotive and tender, one freight car loaded with the California mail, a baggage car containing a large quantity of express matter baggage, and way-mail and two passenger coaches. There were from 85 to 100 persons on board - many of them being ladies and children." Unbeknownst to the passengers and crew, "the torch of the incendiary had been applied underneath the bridge, burning the timbers below the track. After the fire had progressed a certain degree, or sufficiently to weaken the bridge, so that it could sustain little more than its own weight, the flames had been extinguished, thus making the work a mere shell and a trap of death." The bridge had a 100-foot span, and was positioned about 35 feet above the river. The engine fell, turning completely over and landing on its side, half burying itself in the quicksand. "The freight car followed, thundering upon the up-turned wheels of the engine. Then came the baggage car, which dropped with crushing weight upon the freight car and flattening the latter completely out, and tearing it to splinters. "Rapidly the two passenger coaches rushed into the chasm, descending at an inclination of about forty-five degrees, amidst the shattering of the cars and the piteous shrieks of the terrified passengers." Ironically, S.C. Cutler had recently accepted a position with a railroad back east, and this was to have been his last run for the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. The Hannibal Messenger published a dramatic account of the events surrounding the Platt Bridge Disaster. "Further developments of the Platte Bridge Disaster. The crime still more heinous. We are informed an old citizen of this city (Hannibal), a mechanic, who was in St. Joseph at the time of the Platte Bridge disaster, and who was on the ground the next day, that he was informed by those on the train that there were some sixty or seventy men standing on the opposite bank of the Platte River and witnessed the train go down, and when the wail arose from the wounded they broke and run, but afterwards returned and robbed the dead of their revolvers, watches and other valuables. Hannibal Messenger, 12th." The Alton Telegraph noted in its Sept. 27, 1861 edition, that ten or twelve rebel prisoners were brought to Quincy, Ill., from St. Joseph, and that two or three of them were known to have been concerned in the burning of the Platt River Bridge.

Note: Archie Hayden of Hannibal collaborated with the author on this story. He believes that the engine which was wrecked in the 1861 Platt River Disaster was named the "Shelby." He has information that the engine was removed from the sand at the bottom of the Platt River on Sept. 30, 1861.

Full long article with pics and lists here - https://www.hannibal.net/news/two-r...cle_72aa6b80-b18c-11ee-bd3c-3f759733fbe4.html

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[ErnieMac]

Newspaper account of the Platte Bridge disaster as reported in the 6 September 1861 edition of the Missouri Republican.

 

[archieclement]

As pointed out primarily because logistics. Price left St Louis to Jefferson City, then Boonville, going west along the Missouri River in central Missouri, then forced south fighting skirmishes at then at Carthage and Wilson's Creek.

However when the MSG was formed, the state was organized by districts/divisions, so even as Price was forced west then south, there were troops still being raised and in the field north of the Missouri river. It it was why Fremont didn't reinforce Lyon, and advised him to fall back to Rolla, because Union troops were being diverted to counter the MSG north of the Missouri River, precisely because of the importance of securing the railroad.

Green he mentions going to pursue was from my part of the state, the NE. Bevier was from north central.

 

[archieclement]

Missouri State Guard geographic divisions. Green was 2nd Div, Bevier 3rd div. The burnt bridge was in 5th division.

What's really fun is MSG Regt

There would been for example 1st Inf Regt first division.....1st Inf Regt second division......then 1st third, first fourth, ect