Historians Needed!

Since returning home, I have delved again into background reading about guerrilla warfare in Arkansas and Missouri. I have just finished reading Daniel E. Sutherland’s helpful article “Guerrillas: The Real War in Arkansas”. He concluded his article by suggesting some research topics for scholars. Although written in 1993, I think it is worth quoting the section:

“The complex organization of guerrilla bands must be explored; and a social profile of these partisan fighters, based on census reports, tax and court records, and similar sources of evidence, would make for a fascinating study. A systematic analysis of the impact of guerrilla warfare on the civilian population is in order, a study, incidentally, that could easily branch off into badly needed research on the refugee problem in Arkansas. More work on the river pirates, particularly their impact on the wartime economy of Arkansas, is needed, and on, and on. The history of the Civil War in the Trans-Mississippi remains largely untold. If, as suggested here, the guerrilla war is the key to understanding the Trans-Mississippi war, then the beginning of wisdom begins in the mountains and swamps of Arkansas” (p. 153).

Citation: Sutherland, Daniel E. “Guerrillas: The Real War in Arkansas” in Civil War Arkansas: Beyond Battles and Leaders. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2000, pages 133-153. The article was first published in the Autumn 1993 issue of the Arkansas Historical Quarterly.

Back to Blogging

On Sunday evening, I returned from a twelve-day vacation. In thinking back on it, I realize now that I hardly gave a thought to the Civil War in the trans-Mississippi while I was gone. Part of that is no doubt due to the fact that I vacationed in Boston then went on a cruise from that city to Montreal. Ports of call were Bar Harbor, Maine; Halifax; Sydney, Charlottestown, and Quebec City. It was my first time to visit Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and the province of Quebec so there were fresh and exciting things to see and learn about each day.

My only brush with the Civil War occurred while visiting the Brattle Bookstore in Boston where I enjoyed perusing a nice selection of rarities. I purchased for an extremely reasonable price ($75.00) a copy of Richard Eddy’s History Of The Sixtieth Regiment New York State Volunteers published in 1864. Normally, I do not purchase many items relating to the eastern theater, but James M. Ransom, a captain in the unit, owned this copy. It is fascinating to read through the book since he made a number of markings and some notations through about half of the book. The bookstore also had a copy of my Widows by the Thousand: The Civil War Correspondence of Theophilus and Harriet Perry, 1862-1864; it pleases me to know that my book has made its way to Boston.

It’s great to be back and postings about the war in the trans-Mississippi will follow soon!

More About Guerrilla Warfare

Lately I’ve been doing quite a bit of reading about guerrilla warfare in Missouri and Arkansas. Since the 1980s there has been quite a bit of scholarly interest in the topic although there are certainly a number of avenues deserving more attention. Daniel E. Sutherland’s book, A Savage Conflict: The Decisive Role Of Guerrillas In The American Civil War (2009) is a “big picture” study, helpful for understanding the overall dynamics and the importance of guerrilla warfare.(For more about this important book see my March 25, 2010 posting). Although some of the same material is covered in his book, Sutherland’s essay “Guerrillas: The Real War In Arkansas” in Civil War Arkansas: Beyond Battles and Leaders is a good overview. Sutherland argues in the essay that the guerrilla war in Arkansas was “Not a war within a war, as some historians have suggested, not even a second war, but the war” (p. 133).

Michael Fellman’s, Inside War: The Guerrilla Conflict In Missouri During The American Civil War (1988) is an in-depth study of the official policy of both sides, the plight of civilians, Union soldiers and their response to guerrillas, the impact of guerrilla war on women, and the postwar. Fellman tackled many other topics as well in this thoughtful book; I found it helpful to read it twice.

Take the books and the article above and couple them with Bruce Nichols’ books, and you’ll have a greater understanding of guerrilla warfare in the trans-Mississippi.

"It requires indefatigable care..."

Civil War histories often focus on the more "glamorous" combat related aspects of campaigning and don’t often dwell on the more mundane tasks. Sometimes, though, a glimpse of those less dramatic, but important duties comes through in a soldier’s account, a regimental history, or in a modern history. If a historian was willing to take it on, I suspect an interesting account could be written about the wagon trains that made their way to and from Fort Scott, Kansas, and the Union troops that protected those vital supplies.

While reading through W. S. Burke’s Military History Of Kansas Regiments During The War For The Suppression Of The Great Rebellion (1870), I spotted the following passage from the sketch about the 9^th Kansas Cavalry:

“Col. [Edward] Lynde, with his regiment, in February, 1863, was ordered to Fort Scott as a convoy to an immense supply train, accompanying which were a number of refugee wagons. It is no idle responsibility to safely conduct a train several miles in length through a hostile and dangerous country. It requires indefatigable care, energy and watchfulness. Of the many hundred thousand dollars’ worth of army stores and provisions which have been entrusted to the protection of this regiment, not one dollar’s worth has been captured or wrenched from it by guerrilla band or rebel force” (p. 275). 

Missouri's Guerrilla War

Over the last two years, my research project has taken me into areas that I never thought I’d be studying in detail. I am editing the diary and other papers of Albert C. Ellithorpe, an officer in the First Indian Home Guards. My previous Civil War research related to the trans-Mississippi Confederacy, so it is an interesting mental shift to go to the “other side,” but my mind has also been stretched as I’ve studied American Indians as well as guerrilla warfare. Both have turned out to be fascinating areas, and I’ve discovered a number of sources that are new to me.

A helpful source has been the four-volume set written over the last ten years by Bruce Nichols, a Defense Department analyst. His Guerrilla Warfare in Civil War Missouri details the actions of Southern guerrillas/partisans/bushwhackers in the four geographical (northwest, northeast, southwest, southeast) regions of Missouri. In the process he explores the motivations of these men, tactics, weapons, Union policy changes, and many other topics. Ellithorpe participated in some operations against guerrillas in southwest Missouri, so I’m finding some extremely helpful background information in the Nichols set. The books have piqued my interest so much that I’ve ordered the recently published volumes covering 1864 to the end of the war even though Ellithorpe had left active duty by then.