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jP THE LAST CONVULSION OF THE
J COPPERHEADS.
BY JUDGE THEODOSIUS BOTKIN.
There is often a poetic ns well as a
dramatic justice in the culmination of
events , and it is to this fact that history
owes much of the interest that is taken
in its recitals. Three short years had
barely passed since the last harsh sound
of the civil war had died away on the
border-land between the settlements of
western Missouri and eastern Kansas ,
when an audience of more than two
thousand people witnessed the spectacle
of nearly twenty , smiling , ex-Confed
erate soldiers sitting calmly by and
quietly enjoying the scene , while half a
dozen malignant and unrepentant guer
illas sat in the shadow of the nation
al flag at the funeral of the
old mother of two of their number , and ,
surrounded by a crowd of old civil war
copperheads from southern Illinois ,
listened to words of consolation from
the old and well worn text , "Whom the
Lord loveth , Ho chasteneth. " The
preacher was the son-in-law of the de
ceased , and it was to his folly and the
blatant copperheadism of the Illinois
immigrants , that his two brothers-in-
law , and their associates in crime , owed
their present humiliation , and the other
spectators , two hours of solid interest.
That Sabbath day in August , 1868 , in
McHeury's grove on Walnut creek dis
pelled from the mind of bush-whacker
and Knight of the Golden Circle , alike ,
any lingering illusion as to the meaning
of Appomattox , and brought peace and
good order to reign in the place of dis
cord and doubt. It was the last con
vulsion of the copperheads , and is
worthy of a page in the annals of the
Louisiana Purchase.
A Historical Location.
If we were to draw a straight line
from Butler , in Bates county , Missouri ,
to Mound City , in Linn county , Kan
sas , we would find it crossing the Marais
des Cygnes river at , or very near to ,
"Rickey's ford. Then , were we to make
the latter point the center of a circle ,
the radius of which is 85 miles , we
would have inscribed a territory over
which have swept many of the fiercest
storms of human passion and frenzy ,
that ever blighted the peace and happi
ness of mankind. Within that circle
have been made some of the most thril
ling as well as the most brutal chapters
of American history. To enumerate
them all would require a volume , and
my space is limited. Suffice it to say
that within that circle old John Brown
his little "fort"
from log-cabin , or
. laughed at the impotent rage of Presi
dent James Buohannan , and replied to
the offer of two- hundred and fifty dollars
lars as on executive reward for his ap
prehension and arrest , by a counter-re
ward of two dollars and fifty cents for
; he apprehension of the president.
Within that circle Brown's followers
battled with Harnoy's dragoons at Fox's
ford on Big Sugar ; and afterwards
from his hiding-place in Augustus Wat
tles' cabin-loft , Brown listened to the
boastful talk of Lieutenant' ( afterwards
General ) Carr , not a rod away , who
little imagined that the peaceful and
industrious stone-masons at work upon
the nearby wall were such characters as
Kagi , Pickles , etc. , and that the inno
cent tool-chests , close at hand , contained
; he arms and accoutrements of as de
termined a band of hunted outlaws as
ever fought for the principles of human
iberty. Within that circle Captain
James Montgomery , returning with
Liberated slaves from Missouri , seized
and smashed and stamped into the
earth the ballot box and ballots at Sugar
Mound as a defy to the territorial gov
ernment of Kansas , and as a new dec
laration of war against the attempts of
congress to force slavery upon the new
land. Within that circle , Captain
Oharles Hamilton and his "Bloody
Beds , " fresh from the conference of
slave-drivers at Pappinsville , corralled
the 11 free state men at the old Choteau
trading-post , and marching them into a
nearby ravine , shot them down in cold
blood , and furnished John G. Whittier
the theme for his immortal , poetic
prophecy "La Marais dn Cygne. "
Within that circle , and in retaliation for
the Hamilton massacre , Montgomery's
men literally fulfilled the Whittier
prophecy , that
"On the lintels of Kansas their blood shall not
dry :
Henceforth , the bad angel shall harmless go
by. "
Within that circle , began the military
fame of such men as Harney , Lyons ,
Jennison , CarrShelbyPrice aud.Raines ;
and there , where the beautiful city of
Pleasanton now stands , the rough rid
ers of Pleasanton , Moonlight , Benteen
and Phillips , made that grand rush on
October 25,1864 , which crippled forever
the force and military energy of Old
" " Price's and Marma-
"Pap" army , swept -
duke and Cobell and their brave and de
voted soldiers off to a northern prison.
And down yonder from the bluff south
of Pappinsville , Murry Botkin made
the greatest long distance shot of the
civil war , when , from his cover behind
Charley Perrin's house , he picked from
the saddle , a mile away , the commander
of Price's rear guard , and that , too , at
a single shot without the use of a globe
sight. The battle of Mine creek sub
stantially ended the war on the border ;
and from that time the residents within
our proposed circle , thougli constantly
on their guard , saw little of the fright
ful phases of the conflict. The storm
that broke upon that fair region almosi
ten years before , began quickly to sub
side , and/with the news from Appomat
; ox , people began to realize the bless-
ugs of peace.
By the time the spring of 1867
opened , immigrants began flocking
nto the section of country adjacent to
Dickey's ford , but they came princi
pally from southern Illinois. They
were an industrious , thrifty class of
fanners , and by the summer of 1868 had
obliterated the material evidences of
the recent conflict , and wore rapidly
converting the dreary prairie waste into
well ordered and productive farms.
That is now one of the most beautiful
and best cultivated agricultural regions
on earth. Very many of their number
were sorely afflicted with a sort of po
litical dyspepsia , resulting -from their
failure to digest most of the war-meas
ures of the general government during
the rebellion. Some of this class had
been active in discouraging enlistments ,
in encouraging desertions , and in fo
menting trouble through the Knights of
the Golden Circle. Their disposition to
sell their old homes east of the Missis
sippi and start anew in a new country
was very greatly strengthened by the re
turn of the veterans at the conclusion
of peace. The old Union soldiers had
found time during their campaigning to
keep tab on the "summer soldiers" and
"sunshine patriots" at home , and were
disposed to make things somewhat un
comfortable for the men who had been
referring to them while at the front in
uncomplimentary language. They had
often sung the old refrain
"When that is done we'll home return ,
The homo to us so dear , sir ,
And soundly kick and cuff the curs .
Now barking in our rear , sir. "
Guerilla Ill-feeling.
All that part of Bates county , east of
the Kansas line and lying between the
Marais des Oygnes and Walnut creek ,
as well as for some distance south of the
latter stream , is embraced in the mu
nicipal division known as Walnut town
ship. Within its borders in 1868 were
17 ex-Union soldiers , and Captain Gent
ry West and the 20 surviving members
of his company of Confederate cavalry.
Among those old soldiers , from both
sides , there was a warm feeling of res
pect that bordered upon the fraternal.
They had all fought the fight , and with
them the war was over , ancl its issues
settled. But , beside about 30 of the po
litically dyspeptic fellows , there were
in that community six or eight old
guerrillas who had served with Quant-
rell , Anderson , and Clem. These latter
were unrepentant and unreconciled to
the results of the great war. They
were vindictive and ugly tempered.
Chief among them was an old Mr.
Vaughn , whose heart and disposition
were eternally soured against everything
pertaining to the flag or the Union
cause. To him the malicious copper
headism of the community looked for
leadership. To add to the natural
