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OFFICIAL ARMY RECORDS 1862-1

HEADQUARTERS,

Jefferson City, Mo., January 1, 1862.

J. C. KELTON, Assistant Adjutant-General:

SIR: I have the honor to report that in accordance with directions heretofore received from

department headquarters there have been sent from this post across the Missouri River the

following-named troops, viz: Five companies of the Eleventh Regiment Iowa Volunteers, and

four companies of the Third Iowa Cavalry now at Fulton, in Callaway County; also a detachment

of Merrill's Horse, numbering about 300, which will probably be in Columbia, Boone County,

to-morrow. I would recommend that troops be kept at these places during the entire winter or

until the bands of rebels infesting that neighborhood are effectually dispersed.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

THOS. J. McKEAN,

Brigadier-General, Commanding Post.

EXECUTIVE OFFICE, IOWA,

January. 8, 1862.

Lieut. Col. H. C. NUTT,

Aide-de-Camp, &c., Council Bluffs, Iowa:

SIR: I have just received a communication from citizens of Fremont County, of which the

inclosed is a copy.

You will immediately proceed to Sidney, in said county, and fully investigate the matters

therein set forth. Consult Judge Sears and Colonel Hedges, and if you shall be satisfied the

preservation of the public peace so requires, call into the service such of the volunteer companies

of the county as may be necessary to that end and keep them in service as long as their services

may be required. If, in your judgment, it shall be necessary to call out any military force, make

them call first upon the company at Sidney.

Call for no more troops than in your best judgment will be necessary and keep them in

service only so long as may be necessary. In this matter I must trust to your discretion, and I will

hold you responsible for its sound exercise. Procure proper quarters for such troops as you may

call out and make the best arrangements you can for their subsistence. You must make all your

arrangements as economically as possible. No extravagant charges for quarters or subsistence

will be allowed.

You will preserve the public peace and protect the prisoners at all hazards.

I desire full information on the following points:

I. Have rebels or rebel sympathizers from Missouri come into Fremont County, bringing with

them their property, or have such persons sent their property from Missouri into the county? If

so, give the names of such persons, a description of the property brought or sent, and the names

of the persons, if any, of our own citizens who have such property in possession.

II. Does the bringing or sending of the property of such persons into the county tend to

endanger the public peace?

III. I desire a full detail of all the facts connected with the attack on Mr. Fugitt and of the

capture of those under arrest with the causes of all the acts done, so far as you can ascertain

them.

IV. It has been stated to me that one or two persons, supposed to be of the party that attacked

Mr. Fugitt, were shot by some of our citizens near Hamburg upon refusal to surrender. You will

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investigate the facts of this transaction and report to me fully thereon. I am determined to

preserve the peace of our State and to protect the property of our citizens, but I am also

determined that our State shall not be made an asylum for rebels who have been compelled to

flee from their own State in consequence of their outrages on Union men there, if affording such

asylum is to peril the peace of our own people. I am also determined that those of our own

citizens who sympathize with and protect these fleeing rebels shall not make the consequences of

their own acts the pretext for a breach of the public peace.

The peace must be preserved, and those persons afforded full protection and a fair and

impartial trial.

You will report to me in writing as soon as possible, and keep me advised at intervals of the

situation of affairs.

Very respectfully,

SAMUEL J. KIRKWOOD.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA, January 17, 1862.

Hon. SAMUEL J. KIRKWOOD,

Governor of Iowa, Des Moines:

SIR: I received your letter, dated January 8, 1862, inclosing a communication from citizens

of Fremont County, and in accordance with your instructions I proceeded on to Sidney on the

morning of the 13th instant, for the purpose of carrying out said instructions, and have to report

my action as follows:

I found the statements contained in the communication above referred to to be true in all

material points. I will answer the four interrogations propounded in your letter in order:

1st. Yes. Rebels to the number of thirty families, at least, with a large amount of horses,

mules, cattle, hogs, &c., have left Missouri, came into Fremont County, and many of the same

class have sent their property who have not come into this State themselves. These persons have

come themselves or sent their property to save the same from seizure by the Government that

they have outraged for the past year. I was able to find the whereabouts and names of but a

portion of these persons, but such as I have found I append below, and will give you further

information upon this point, at an early day. The parties named below are all either rank

secessionists or rebel sympathizers, and I will make no distinction between them. It is enough to

know that they are "not with us"— are not Union men.

Mr. John Pugh has 5 horses, owned in Missouri; owner's name unknown. Mr. Freeman has 2

horses; owner unknown. Mr. Baldwin has 2 horses; owner unknown. H.G. Bowen has 15 horses

and mules, owned by Nichols and Schouler. Nichols lives at Saint Stevens, Nebr., and has

furnished the rebels in North Missouri with arms, and is a prominent rebel. Milton McCartners

has 8 or 10 horses and mules; owner unknown. Mr. Welty has 8 or 10 horses and mules, owned

by Mr. Holland, who lives near Rockport. The Heatt brothers have 6 horses, 60 hogs, and 25 or

30 cattle; owners' names unknown. They had consulted Mr. Cornish as to whether they could

lawfully keep stock which belonged to secessionists in Missouri, for if they could they could

make a large amount of money by so doing, as the secesh were willing to pay high prices. These

men (Heatt) have 6 horses, owned by one Hall, who left Missouri in the night to save his

property. Mr. Hollaway brought 25 horses and mules into this State, and has them scattered

around at several places. Mr. Davis has 8 horses, belonging to a man in Rockport, name

unknown; can be found and identified, as he is well known in Iowa. Mr. English (senator), some

three weeks ago, went to Missouri and brought the personal property of one Poindexter, either

the officer in Price's army or a brother; at all events a rabid rebel, and it is reported and believed

in Siduey that Poindexter himself is about McKinsock's Grove. Mr. English has a horse

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belonging to Poindexter now in his possession, but has sent him away from his own farm to a

brother-in-law's for fear of jayhawking.

The above property has all of it been sent from Missouri to avoid seizure and confiscation by

the Government. There have also been horses sent from Missouri lately by rebels who dared not

leave their goods in Fremont County, and one lot of 40 went on, the man saying he was too near

home in Fremont. I think that there are at the present time 100 to 125 horses in Fremont County,

brought there by rebels to save them. Many place the number much higher, but from all my

information I place the number as above.

In reply to your second question, I will say that by these acts I think the public peace is

endangered, and I find all the Union men in Fremont are very certain it does, and say that unless

it is stopped bloodshed will be the result. My reasons for thinking that it does endanger the

public peace are that there is great danger of this property being pursued by jayhawkers and

others, which would be almost certain to bring on a collision and bloodshed. Second, the

accession of these rebels to the number of the same kind and their sympathizers in Fremont

County increases the bitter feelings between the two parties, and which now requires but a word

to bring on a civil strife in that county. As a sample, one John Cooper, of McKinsock's Grove,

has, he says, 25 Missouri friends with him, and he will keep them there as long as they will stay;

that they are well armed, and will shoot the first man who tries to arrest any of their number or

seize a horse.

Questions 3 and 4 I will answer together. On the night of December 30 a body of armed men

from Missouri and Nebraska, under Capt. Warren Price, who is said to be the leader of a band of

jayhawkers, came to the house of T. F. Fugitt, between 10 or 12 p.m., for the purpose, as they

avowed on their way, of seizing some horses which had been taken from Missouri and owned by

rebels in Missouri. Several of the party entered the house and others went to the barn for the

horses. Fugitt got up and ran into another room and seized a double-barreled shot-gun and

instantly fired at the crowd. Then, instead of firing the other barrel, he clubbed his gun and

knocked down another. At this Price drew his revolver and fired four shots at Fugitt, all of which

took effect, one in the neck, which is a serious but not dangerous wound. Fugitt is rapidly

recovering. The party then left Fugitt's and went to several other places in the Grove and took in

all 11 horses. These Captain Price sent in charge of two men to Missouri, but the men lost their

way and at daylight were in sight of Sidney. They at once retraced their steps and tried to reach

Missouri via Hamburg.

In the mean time a party of some 40 men were in pursuit of the robbers, and when these two

men with 11 horses came to Hamburg they were hailed by C. McKinsock and Giles Corrlis. The

men paid no attention to the hail, when McKinsock and Corrlis both fired their rifles. Corrlis

killed his man dead, and McKinsock wounded the other, who was taken prisoner, and is now in

Fremont jail. He says that himself and the dead man were at Fugitt's, and that they reside in

Nebraska. The horses taken from the prisoner were left at Hamburg and proved up and taken

away by avowed rebels. No Union man has been molested, as I could learn.

The news of course spread like wild-fire, and early the next morning the sheriff and county

judge started with a posse of 100 men to arrest the horse thieves, and the sheriff said he would

follow them to Arkansas if he did not get them. On their way an incident occurred worthy of

note. These 100 men left Sidney in three parties, and it is asserted that when on the road persons

in one party were heard to hurrah for Jeff. Davis. The sheriff denies this, but I think it can be

proven, although it was not in the party in which the sheriff was at the immediate head. Arriving

at McKinsock's Grove this party stopped, and another one from the Grove, under the lead of H.

English, went into Missouri and arrested 12 men and brought them to the Grove to lynch them,

but as there was great doubt as to whether these were the men who were at Fugitt's, after keeping

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them at the Grove one day they were given over to the sheriff, who took them to Sidney, where

they were guarded by an armed force for three days, when, upon a legal examination before the

county judge, they were all discharged except one, who had waived examination and given bail

before, and the wounded man from Hamburg, who is now in jail.

The Missourians complain bitterly of not only the arrest, but of the men under whom it was

done and under whom they were placed as prisoners. They say that if they could have seen the

face of one single Union man, either among their captors or guards, they would have attributed it

to a mistake and said nothing, but now it looks as if their rebel enemies had run away to Iowa

and sent rebel sympathizers from Iowa and given them Union men's names, to be arrested,

maltreated, and nearly lynched.

There are many men whom I have seen from Atchison County who say that there is a large

number of Union men sworn to shoot Han English at sight, as they think him to be the leader of

their enemies in Iowa while these prisoners were in the hands of Fremont authorities. The

military at Rockport, hearing of the manner of the arrest, started to rescue them. At the line they

left all but 20 men, who went to Sidney and demanded the release of the prisoners, which was

refused, and there was danger of violence, but upon the assurance of Union men that the

prisoners should have a fair trial and would at once prove themselves innocent of the crime

charged, they were induced to return home, which they did, and on their way arrested in Iowa a

young man who had been in Price's army as a cook. The captain of Missouri troops claimed to

have made this and other arrests which he made in Missouri the same day by order of the

commanding officer at Saint Joe. The truth of this I do not know. What became of the prisoners

taken from Iowa by the Missouri troops I was unable to learn.

In the mean time, on Saturday, January 4, a report having gone to Rockport that the civil

authorities were going to give up the prisoners to the mob to be lynched, some 200 men from

Atchison County and thereabouts started for the rescue. They crossed the line and came to

Hamburg, where they were met by some 50 Iowa troops, who tore up the bridge and refused to

let them pass. Here again was a very near approach to open hostilities between Iowa and

Missouri citizens, but a flag of truce passed, and upon mutual explanation the Missouri men went

home; did not go to Sidney at all.

The Union men of Missouri say that all the party who went into Missouri were secessionists,

and that Iowa allows rebels to flee into her State to avoid punishment, and then allows

secessionists to come to Missouri and arrest Union men without a shadow of law or right. I was

able to disabuse them of this idea, or at least all I had a chance to talk with.

This feeling is particularly bitter between Union men in Missouri and the secesh

sympathizers in McKinsock's Grove, who are nearly all that kind, and being so near the line

increases the danger of collision. An armed guard is kept out now in many neighborhoods to

warn them of approach of enemies. I find, further, that many men who have been avowed rebels

and hooted at all soldiers as Lincoln thieves are now very clamorous for armed protection, and

now there is organized a company which has memorialized you for commissions and arms that

are not safe to arm.

The board of supervisors of Fremont are secesh, and they, at their last meeting, passed a

resolution instructing their chairmen, Mr. Sipple and Mr. Cornish, to transmit to you what they

wanted. They got Mr. Cornish in to have some Union influence. The chairman of supervisors

proposed a paper which did not suit Cornish, and he refused to sign it. Sipple then proposed

another, which he would not show Cornish, and sent the same to you. It is supposed to be a

request to commission, arm, and call in service their men at McKinsock's Grove. They are not

the men to have State arms. I also telegraphed you not to tom mission Fremont militia. I found

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the infantry were all good men, with sound Union officers, but the mounted company was

formed by Judge Rector, and is not sound.

One officer, Mr. Bovine, has since his election said that he was a secessionist, and he did not

care who knew it. We want no such men with either arms or authority. I told Colonel Hedges that

it should be disbanded and an infantry company put in its place, and told him that it was not

legally organized, and it is not, as there has been no special authority granted, as is necessary, to

organize any but infantry. I presume you will get the organization of another infantry company,

which will make Colonel Hedges' regiment to a maximum, when it should be commissioned at

once.

I did not call out any State troops, and will not, unless there should be an immediate

necessity for their service, until I hear from you again. My reasons are, 1st, the immediate danger

of collision I believe to have passed, and, 2d, that I doubt the policy of keeping an armed force

of State troops in Fremont County unless for immediate use. They should be commissioned and

armed and ready to go at an hour's notice, but I think should be called into camp only as a last

resort.

The best way to preserve the peace and remove the danger of collision I believe to be in

sending a small force of Federal troops, say one or two companies of cavalry, from Saint Joe or

Leavenworth, under some prudent, reliable Union officer, and clothe him with power to arrest

armed secessionists either in Missouri or Iowa and seize their effects, to be sent at once to

headquarters for adjudication. This will avoid increasing the personal hatred among the two

classes of our own citizens, which would be increased by arming and calling out any State troops

either from Iowa or Missouri, and lessen the danger of bloodshed if any arrests are to be made,

and the State troops would have no place to send prisoners even if they have authority to make

arrests. I feel certain that calling out any State troops would bring on a collision, and the aim is to

preserve the peace more than to conquer rebels, as I understand it.

I am sustained in this view by all the Union men in Fremont except Colonel Hedges, who is

very anxious to drill his regiment, but I would prefer sending an armed force in command of

some Federal officer who would have no personal enemies to deal with, and I think the arrest of

a very few men, and the seizure of the property belonging to rebels, who have sent the same to

Iowa for safety, will not only quiet the present troubles, but remove the danger of a recurrence in

future.

If I have been lengthy in this, it is because there was a good deal of ground to go over. I find

that in all facts I have stated the Union men from whom I receive my information are supported

by the statements of the other side, so far as I had an opportunity to inquire, in all material points.

Many of the facts in regard to Fugitt's case and the prisoners arrested were received from one

who was with the sheriff, and is called a secessionist by Union men. I refer to W. C. Sipple. He

claims to be a good Union man now. The Union men from whom I received most information

were Judge Sears, Colonel Hedges, Mr. Cornish, Mr. Linkinfitter, Mr. Warren, formerly sheriff,

and Squire Fanner, who lives at McKinsock's Grove, all of whom agree upon the case as I have

presented it.

Since my return I have received your letter of 14th instant. I will proceed at once to

Rockport, and on my return report such other facts as I may come in possession of. In the mean

time I hope to receive further instructions in regard to an armed force in Fremont County.

I remain, your most obedient servant,

H. C. NUTT.

EXECUTIVE OFFICE, IOWA,

January 27, 1862.

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Hon. WM. H. SEWARD,

Secretary of State, Washington, D.C.:

SIR: I inclose herewith copies of a letter from myself to Colonel Nutt, dated January 14,

1862, and his reply, dated January 24, 1862, concerning the same subject touching which I wrote

you on the 23d instant. I am strengthened in the opinion there expressed, that some of the rebels

escaped from Missouri and some of their alders and abettors in our State should be arrested by

military authority, and that the property brought into our State to escape the officers of the

United States in Missouri should be taken possession of and legally dealt with. I am also satisfied

this should be done by United States officers, supported by United States troops. The secession

feeling is, as I am credibly informed and fully believe, very strong in Fremont County. The

Union men there and in Missouri are greatly exasperated that rebels from Missouri who have

been compelled to fly from that State because of these outrages on Union men should find an

asylum and protection in this State, and I am well satisfied that if these people cannot be dealt

with in some way legally, the jayhawkers will take the matter in their own hands and a small

border war will ensue. I have sent copies of the correspondence between Colonel Nutt and

myself to General Halleck, with the request to lay them before the Governor of Missouri, as I do

not know where to address him. Please consult the Iowa delegation in Congress on this subject,

and permit me to suggest that prompt and decided action will have a decidedly beneficial

influence. If arrests be made, the officer should be supported by United States troops.

Very respectfully,

SAMUEL J. KIRKWOOD.

EXECUTIVE OFFICE, IOWA,

January 14, 1862.

Lieut. Col. H. C. NUTT,

Aide-de-camp, &c., Council Bluffs, Iowa :

SIR: Since writing you a few days since in regard to the difficulty in Fremont County I have

learned that troops from Missouri have been to Sidney and demanded the surrender into their

hands of the persons arrested on suspicion of having assaulted Mr. Fugitt; that the authorities in

charge of the prisoners very properly refused to surrender them; that the Misso