Significant Missouri Home Guard Battle

I've been away for about a week, and I haven't spent any time online while traveling. I clicked in this morning and was delighted to see all of the useful information and discussion that has happened while I was away. @M2HA and @Booner, I want to thank both of you guys for not only keeping the thread alive, but contributing so much good stuff to it. Thanks, also, to all the members who have participated.
@M2HA, Your topo maps with presumed troop movements have brought this battle to life for me. I agree that the boat shaped (or elongated home plate shaped) earthwork was most likely the initial fort, and that the rectangular section was probably built after the 2nd Boonville fight. If we are correct, we must remember that Poindexter captured buildings that were only later enclosed in a fort addition. You have indicated this by graying that later outline on your battle map--excellent! Considering Poindexter's late arrival, I imagine any Home Guard troops caught in those buildings during the initial rifle fire had time to run back into the fort.
 
I think @Booner might be talking about E. F. Ware's memoir. https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Lyon_Campaign_in_Missouri.html?id=bI1Eq9KRNL0C

The account of Boonville and working on the fortifications begins about page 127.

Here's a link to the diary I was referring to- that of William W. Branson, also of the 1st Iowa Inf. company C. The diary begins on June 24,1861. Not an awful amount of detail, but fits in nicely with Ware's memoir.

--->https://digital.shsmo.org/digital/collection/amcw/id/21535/rec/16
 
In the diary link provided by @Booner, the soldier refers to a "Camp Cameron," and that is probably the Boonville fort. I had never heard of nor read of this fort having a name until this week. It seems odd to me that it wasn't commonly known when I was growing up. Perhaps people in this very divided area preferred to let memories of the "unpleasantness" fade away.
 
In the diary link provided by @Booner, the soldier refers to a "Camp Cameron," and that is probably the Boonville fort. I had never heard of nor read of this fort having a name until this week. It seems odd to me that it wasn't commonly known when I was growing up. Perhaps people in this very divided area preferred to let memories of the "unpleasantness" fade away.

I know it was known variously as Camp Vest and Camp Bacon (I think...sorry, been moving all week and start school next week. Haven't had much net access).

It makes since that upon occupation of the premises that Lyon would have given the location a new name - in this case, probably after the Secretary of War, Simon Cameron.

I've read it a couple of places before, but sourcing escapes me at this time.
 
I know it was known variously as Camp Vest and Camp Bacon (I think...sorry, been moving all week and start school next week. Haven't had much net access).

It makes since that upon occupation of the premises that Lyon would have given the location a new name - in this case, probably after the Secretary of War, Simon Cameron.

I've read it a couple of places before, but sourcing escapes me at this time.
It gets confusing. I had heard of Camp Bacon east of Boonville, and some locals thought it was in the approximate location of the former Bell Fruit Farm. There was an old house on that farm, formerly owned by the Bacon family, so I accepted that explanation. I do agree that Lyon would probably have renamed the fort, regardless of its original name. I haven't read the archaeology field notes on the first battle of Boonville in years. I should check again, but no time this morning. Maybe that study located Camp Vest / Bacon.
 
I readily admit that this might not be the right place for this. However, I recently stumbled upon this 2012 article posted in a relatively obscure journal dedicated to current policy discussions. I believe it correlates somewhat with the Federal Government's treatment of Missouri, it's citizens and political leaders during the 1860s. At least, I found a few parallels. Curiously, one of the authors is a University of Kansas Professor of History and the other is affiliated with the Army's Command and Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth. The authors argue that the U.S. Army should prepare itself for contingencies such as “extremist militia motivated by the goals of the ‘tea party’ movement” seizing a small town. They contend, moreover, that Army’s “Operating Concept, 2016-2028” obliges “the military to execute without pause and as professionally as if it were acting overseas.” The article cites Lincoln's use of the military against civilian populations as a practical example of this type of policy. Anyway, I thought some would be interested or maybe alarmed, as I was.

https://smallwarsjournal.com/content/about
 
I've been doing a great deal of research on the Second Battle of Boonville this summer. Today I visited the gravesite and property of two of the officers who led the Missouri State Guard forces in an attack on Major Eppstein's Home Guard forces.

This first series of pictures is tied to Captain George Mason Brown, a man of 36 years in 1861, and a Kentuckian by birth. He had a wife named Sarah and eight children. His mother, Ann Cabel - a distant cousin of Thomas Jefferson, lived with then northwest of the town of Arrow Rock in Saline County, Missouri.

Captain Brown was a veteran of the Mexican War, rendering distinguished service and receiving a slight wound at the Battle of Buena Vista. Of odd note, he served in the company of Captain Cassius Marcellus Clay. It was Captain Clay who viciously maimed G.M. Brown's father in a brawl in 1843. Clay was a strong supporter of abolition. The Brown family was made up of slave owners. Indeed - the older brother, Colonel William Breckinridge Brown, cited Clay's incident with his father as the reason he hated abolitionists.

I have often pondered what circumstances must have brought the older brother, George Mason, to serve in the company of the man who maimed his father. I have also wondered why it was Colonel William Brown who received rapid promotion in 1861 as opposed to his older Brother, George Mason, who was a combat veteran with distinguished military service.

Today I looked upon the ground which George Mason Brown lived with his family. The remnants of the home are likely long gone. The roads accessing the property are no longer serviced and are on private property - but their remnants are visible. I drove by the Masonic Lodge in Arrow Rock where he likely attended meetings and I visited his final resting place on Highway TT just to the West of Arrow Rock.

It was quite a connection and helped make the events I have been studying much more real.

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The second leg of my journey today was finding the property and final resting place of Colonel William Breckinridge Brown. He was the superior officer yet younger brother of Captain George Mason Brown, the man from my previous post.

Colonel Brown was an interesting, if unknown, figure in central Missouri history. He was born in Kentucky in 1828. While he had several older siblings, only he and his older brother - George Mason - lived through the year of his birth.

Several siblings would be born afterwards, but only one - Samuel Mansfield Brown - would survive their first year of birth. Consequently, William was well acquainted with death at an early age. In 1843 an event occurred that would mark him for the remainder of his days.

In 1843 he accompanied his father, Samuel Mansfield Brown, to a political gathering and debate at a place called Russell Cave in Kentucky. His father, it turned out, was asked to silence the outspoken abolitionist- Cassius Marcellus Clay. This distant cousin of famed US Senator, Henry Clay, was an ardent opponent of slavery and an accomplished fighter. The elder Brown fired at Clay, and though he hit him in the chest, did not kill him. Clay responded by pummeling Brown and slashing him with a knife - horribly mutilating his face. William Brown, then 15 years of age, saw the whole thing. It set him against abolitionists from that point forward.

In 1844 his father, a postmaster as well as political muscle man, was killed in the explosion of the Lucy Walker steamboat on the Ohio River.

William Brown went to California, riding with John C. Fremont in California. He served as security for the return of official correspondence from the west and was apparently a witness at the court martial of Fremont.

He returned to California in 1849 as part of the gold rush, bringing with him his younger brother Samuel. They were enumerated in the 1850 census in Yolo, California. Some time in 1852, Samuel is said to have died in an avalanche. Shortly afterward, William returned east - going to Saline County, Missouri- where his brother George Mason had relocated their family shortly after 1850.

He was married in that decade and may possibly have become involved in the Missouri-Kansas Border War. In July 1861 he spoke at Cowskin Prairie of his fight against the abolitionists. He might well have been talking about being involved in tr he pre-war raids into Kansas. Other Saline County men, including future governor, Claiborne Fox Jackson, participated in these raids.

In May 1861, as citizens responded to the Military Bill passed by Governor CF Jackson, William Brown was elected Captain of a Saline County Cavalry Company. He was at Boonville on 17 June 1861 for the first battle in Missouri during the US Civil War. The night before, Governor Jackson resolved to withdraw from the position under advice from his nephew, John Sappington Marmaduke. Mant disgruntled Captains met and Captain William Brown stated he would remain to fight if he had to do it by himself. He apparently was allowed to plead the case of the junior officers and Governor Jackson relented and opted to stay and fight. The result on 17 June 1861 was a disaster for the Secessionist cause in Missouri.

Despite this, William Brown fought well at Carthage and Wilson's Creek. He was promoted to Colonel that summer and returned home on furlough some time in Mid-August where he and his brother recruited more men for Sterling Price and the Missouri State Guard.

In September, Brown had at least two companies of men under his command and combined them with another green force under the command of Major John Poindexter. The reasons for Colonel Brown to make a move on Boonville have been numerous - but ultimately he decided to attack the garrison of Home Guards there.

On 13 September 1861 numerous things went wrong. Poorly disciplined troops made a poorly coordinated attack on a fortified position. Colonel Brown was mortally wounded in a charge against the earthworks. He died, along with his brother, at Adelphi College in Boonville. His body was returned to his home north and east of present-day Slater. He was buried at Rehoboth Cemetery north of Slater. His wife lived on their property until her death in 1896.

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This map shows the area where the Missouri State Guard forces crossed the Lamine River. The modern crossing is Rt. M. The older crossing is Imhoff Rd. Though Google Maps says the crossing is still there, it is no longer accessible and has been closed for quite some time. The original crossing was likely located between the two close to where the Blackwater River flows into the Lamine.

Not far from this was the home of Sanders Townsend. This is where the companies of Colonel Brown, Major Poindexter, and Captain Ephraim Jemison met - and where the company of Captain Charles Alexander failed to show.

From here they made their journey to Boonville despite the heavy rains, with William Brown sounding his hunting horn. Not all who heard that horn were friendly to the cause. Some sources indicate that the sounding of that horn caused some individuals to ride ahead through the night to Boonville and warn the Union Home Guard.

Major Eppstein had been aware of the possibility for over a week. The news of the impending arrival may have played a role in the success of the Home Guard repelling the attacks of the state forces.

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Good work Eric! Thanks for adding this information to the thread. I think it's very useful to know how these organizations moved their troops around. One of your last photos shows a grown over lane with what appears to be a steel barricade closing it. I can make out a structure close by in the background--maybe an iron bridge box girder? If so, it probably has an unsafe, rotted out wooden floor. I also see a surname on the county atlas map which intrigues me. It's a descendant of my German immigrant ancestor (my mother's side of the family. My direct line would have come down through one of this man's brothers.)
 
One of your last photos shows a grown over lane with what appears to be a steel barricade closing it. I can make out a structure close by in the background--maybe an iron bridge box girder? If so, it probably has an unsafe, rotted out wooden floor.

That was my thought as well. Google maps still showed a through road, though the bridge itself looked to be past salvaging. I thought I would drive down and check. It has obviously been closed to traffic for a great deal of time.

At some point I will take Highway 41 and head across the river and work my way back into this spot. Sanders Townsend lived back there and it is from his land that final plans were made and the overnight March in the rain commenced.
 
Would that be the fortifications around Otterville?
Eric, we are probably referencing the same fortifications. Just west of Syracuse, Missouri, a remnant of old Highway 50 branches off the new highway before rejoining it near Otterville. About midway between the two towns, a roadside park and marker show the site of a Jesse James gang railroad robbery in the 1870s. Just west of that, the old highway crosses the Lamine River and again there is a turn off. At that location, a wayside marker illustrates the extensive fortifications called the "Lamine Cantonment." I have never asked the current land owner for permission to hike the remains of the fortifications, but parts of them are clearly visible from the country road that fronts the farm. It is not unusual for a current train to come roaring over the present Lamine bridge while exploring this area. It's still an important rail route.
 
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