Civil War's Battle of Carthage

I grew up in Sarcoxie, MO which is 20 miles SE from Carthage, Mo which was the nearest "large" town. I heard that there was a Civil War Battle in Carthage but never paid much attention to it growing up and even later. But all that changed  when I confirmed my paternal great-grandfather's name and then ran it through a web page of Civil War information just as a curiosity. Much to my surprise, his name was there along with his enlistment information, regiments he served in, info on his death and enough information on pensions for his wife and son that I can get his records from the National Archives. Now all of a sudden the Civil War is important to me! I remember my granny telling me when I was growing up that she had 2 brothers - one fought for the north and one for the south at the Battle of Pea Ridge in Arkansas. She never mentioned her father-in-law so I knew nothing about him until I found him recently.

My great-grandfather, Jefferson Luther Arnold, enlisted in the Arkansas Company D, 1st Infantry Battalion on July 1, 1862 and on August 29, 1864 he enlisted in the Missouri Company L, 11th Regiment Missouri Calvary. He died Dec 29, 1864 of small pox at a hospital in Brownsville, Arkansas.

Now to the Battle of Carthage.....  They have a really nice, small Civil War Museum in Carthage and outside of town is the Battle of Carthage Historic Site where the battle was fought.

The docent at the Museum was very interesting and knowledgeable.  I would like to talk to him again and ask more questions...  Besides the usual exhibits in a museum, they had a really interesting exhibit listing the various reasons for the Civil War in Missouri and it not being all about slavery. Even though many residents of Missouri and Arkansas were supporters of slavery because they were from the Confederate states, it was more than just slavery.  Another reason was to control the Trails to the Frontier and Trade. The wagon trails to the west left from Independence, MO that contained both cargo and emigrants moving west. The docent put it like this. "It wasn't just about slavery - especially in Missouri and Arkansas.  The South didn't like the North telling them what crops they could grow and that they couldn't have slaves. The North wanted the United States to remain one country and not let the South break away. Same things we hear people talking about today." He also talked about many, many of the solders dying of diseases without ever being wounded in battle.

The Battle of Carthage occurred on July 5, 1861 and was the earliest full-scale battle of the Civil War, preceding Bull Run in the east by 11 days. It involved more than 7,000 men, including infantry, artillery and cavalry and lasted an entire day. At issue was whether Missouri would stay in the Union or join the Confederacy. The Governor of Missouri wanted the 6,000 man Missouri State Guard to join the South. Sent to stop him were 1,100 German-American Union volunteers from St. Louis.

A mannequin of a Private, Third Missouri Volunteer Infantry, 1861. At this point in the war, the Union blue and Confederate gray had not been established.  Most of the Union troops were wearing gray and the Confederates were still in civilian clothes.

The battle started that morning 9 miles north of town and in late afternoon the Union troops started to retreat through the southwest corner of the Carthage Square containing the Courthouse.

The Jasper County Courthouse (right), as it appears today, is on the Carthage Square  was used as a field hospital. The Union kept firing but dropping back. Under cover of darkness they retreated to Sarcoxie, Mo and then on to Springfield. This was the first I ever knew that Sarcoxie played a part in the Civil War and I lived there the first 22 years of my life.

I started my journey at the museum with hopes of finding out if my great-grandfather fought in the Battle of Carthage.  However, I knew that wasn't the case as soon as I found out that the battle was fought in 1861 and his first enlistment was in 1862. I went downtown to the Kansas City branch of the National Archives this morning.  They gave me the forms and information on how to request his records. Hopefully the information will include where he was in the war. We shall see......