Remembering Our Civil War Heritage and
Heroes:
1861-1865
Private John C. Lilly:
His Montana Years—Part IV
By
Ken Robison
For The River Press
October 3, 2012
This
continues a monthly series commemorating the 150th Anniversary of
the Civil War and the veterans that settled in Central Montana. In Part I,
German immigrant John C. Lilly, of Shelby County, Ky., joined the Confederate
Army, and was assigned to Company A in Colonel N. B. Forrest’s Old Regiment.
Part II continued Private Lilly’s wartime experiences as the action in the
[then] western border states, Kentucky and Tennessee, went from mild to wild.
Forrest’s Old Regiment fought gallantly in the battle leading to the
Confederate surrender of Fort Donelson. Col. Forrest refused to surrender and
led about 500 men from his regiment and other units in a daring escape. Part
III continued Private John Lilly’s account as Forrest’s Cavalry regrouped,
re-equipped, and then charged headlong into the vital battle at Shiloh. Part IV
completes the saga of John C. Lilly as he headed west to leave his mark on Montana
Territory.
John Carl
Lilly [ne “Lillie”] was born in January 1844 in Hannover, Niedersachsen, Prussia (now Germany). He immigrated
to America in 1858 and settled into farm life in Shelby County, in north
central Kentucky. Throughout the Civil War he fought in Company A of Colonel N.
B. Forrest’s Old Regiment of Cavalry and in Company #, 2nd Kentucky
Cavalry. The end of the war and the defeat of the Confederacy brought many men
westward, Private Lilly among them.
John Lilly
came up the Missouri River to Fort Benton after the Civil War in the late
1860s. By 1870, he was working on a farm in the Sun River Valley. That same year Fort Benton had a dozen saloons and one
brewery. A decline in steamboating hit the Fort Benton economy hard and by the
mid-1870s there were only four saloons: John Lilly operated one of them, a
popular dance hall; J. C. Bourassa and Phil Deschamps dispensed cards and
whiskey at the Exchange; L. T. Marshall operated the Elite, where in 1872 with
four well directed bullets he killed Dennis Hinchey, “a notorious character of
the border” who “wouldn’t be missed,” as a coroner’s jury ruled by acclamation.
The fourth place was the Extradition Saloon of John Evans and Jeff Devereux,
famed for its celebration of the release of whiskey traders from Canadian
custody.
In 1877 Lilly lived in Fort Benton and operated Brinkman
& Lilly’s Billiard Saloon, featuring “the finest of wines, liquors, and segars.”
While Fort Benton was beginning to evolve into a tamer town than it had been
during the wild and wooly 1860s and early 1870s, it was still one rough place.
During the summer of 1877
the Nez Perce War involved both military and civilians in Fort Benton. That summer had seen a tremendous
upswing in steamboat traffic at the head of navigation on the Missouri, and the
resurgent activity brought a building boom to Fort Benton. Residents had
followed closely the saga of the Nez Perce, and took keen personal interest
when elements of the 7th Infantry including mounted infantry under First
Lieutenant James H. Bradley departed Fort Benton and Fort Shaw to engage the
Nez Perce in western Montana. All residents of Fort Benton knew and liked young
Lieut. Bradley who had been stationed at Fort Benton Military Post. News of
Lieut. Bradley’s tragic death on August 9th at the bloody Big Hole battle
brought the war home to the town.
As the Nez Perce moved northward rapidly from the Judith
Basin toward the Missouri River on their way to the Canadian border, they
encountered elements from Companies B and F of the 7th Infantry
Regiment, a mounted civilian volunteer company led by the Fort Benton Military
Post commander, Major Guido Ilges, and freighters on the Cow Island Trail.
Overall, these men constituted a small, dispersed force, and historians have
largely ignored their actions. Yet, the encounters at Cow Island and Cow Creek
Canyon, coupled with the related decision by the Nez Perce to slow their pace
of advance, enabled the pursuing U. S. Army cavalry and mounted infantry to
catch and capture most of the Nez Perce at the Bear’s Paw Mountains.
Early on
the morning on Friday, September 21, interpreter Cyprien Matt rode into Fort
Benton with news from James Wells of Fort Clagett that the Nez Perce were
traveling up the Judith Basin headed for Canada. Wells asked for help to
protect the fort, a trading post at the mouth of the Judith 65 miles above Cow
Island. Major Guido Ilges, commander of the Fort Benton Military Post with a
depleted Company F, 7th Infantry garrison, directed Lieutenant Edward E. Hardin
with thirteen men, plus two volunteer boatmen, to load a 12-pound mountain
howitzer onto a mackinaw boat and set off down river to Fort Clagett.
Major
Ilges, with Private Thomas Bundy of Company F, and 24 citizen volunteers, known
as Donnelly’s Company of Mounted Civilian Volunteers for their fiery Irish
Fenian leader and Civil War veteran John J. Donnelly, departed Fort Benton at 7
p. m. Friday evening on horseback. The Ilges force traveled 24 miles to the
springs beyond the Marias River, where they encamped at 1 o’clock Saturday
morning. The Benton Record newspaper reported the movements and warned, “It is
hardly possible that a handful of men sent to protect Fort Clagett and Cow
Island can give them [the Nez Perce] a very serious check.”
Former Confederate cavalry private John C. Lilly with
other ex-soldiers joined Donnelly’s Company looking for a fight. Major Ilges and Donnelly’s Company
broke camp at daylight Saturday September 22, rode all day, and arrived at
Clagett at 5:30 p. m. after covering 56 miles. On Sunday September 23, the
Ilges, Donnelly, and Hardin forces remained at Clagett, awaiting the return of
their scouts. Toward evening the command was strengthened by the arrival of six
more volunteers from Fort Benton.
At 2
a.m. Monday morning [24 Sep] the scouts finally returned to report to Major Ilges
that the Nez Perce were heading toward Cow Island. Ilges’ command left at
daylight, traveled all day down river, reaching the banks of the Missouri
opposite Cow Island by evening. Soon after going into camp Lieut. Hardin’s
force arrived by mackinaw, bringing the mountain howitzer.
Tuesday
daylight [25 Sep], the Ilges and Donnelly force crossed the Missouri by
mackinaw to the north side. At the
landing they found that Cow Island depot had been burned with supplies strewn
over the surrounding hills. The nearby rifles pits showed signs of a fierce
struggle. Major Ilges dispatched a courier to Col. Nelson Miles and started on
the trail leading up Cow Creek. His objective was not to intercept the
overwhelming Nez Perce main force, but to locate and protect the slow moving
ox-trains and a light wagon with steamboat passengers.
While
Ilges’ command had been enroute Cow Island, the Nez Perce broke camp and moved
up Cow Creek by noon Monday overtaking the Farmer & Cooper wagon train,
slowed by a muddy trail, numerous crossings, and a herd of cattle. The Nez
Perce went into camp near the train ten miles up Cow Creek.
Early Tuesday morning [25 Sep], Major Ilges
moved with Donnelly’s Company up Cow Creek, leaving Lieut. Hardin, 25 men, and
the howitzer at Cow Island. Scout Murray Nicholson spotted the Nez Perce camp,
and apparently as the Ilges command approached, the Nez Perce took action against
this perceived threat to their camp. Warriors shot and killed teamster Fred
Barker, and the seven other teamsters fled into willows. The warriors ransacked
the train and set fire to the wagons. Major Ilges halted his command as he
observed the Nez Perce camp readying to depart. By noon the Cow Creek Canyon
fight was underway. As the Nez Perce main camp moved away, warriors began
firing on the Ilges command from the bluffs above. Ilges deployed his force
into defensive positions. For over two hours, firing continued. Edmund Bradley,
a black American volunteer, was killed by a Nez Perce sharpshooter. John
Tattan, another volunteer, was almost killed when he was knocked down by a
bullet strike to his abdomen, stopped by his belt plate.
As soon
as Major Ilges decided to stand and fight, he sent Pvt. Bundy back with orders
for Lieut. Hardin to bring up his men and the howitzer. Bundy safely covered
the dangerous ten miles in less than two hours. After firing ceased about 2
p.m. in the canyon and the Nez Perce warriors moved north, while Major Ilges
withdrew down Cow Creek, meeting Lieut. Hardin’s detachment. The small combined
force continued back to the Cow Island rifle pits to defend if further Nez
Perce attacks came, and to guard newly arriving steamboat freight, while awaiting
arrival of Col. Miles.
Wednesday,
September 26, most of the volunteers returned to the Cow Creek Canyon
battlefield to bury Ed. Bradley and Fred Barker. The remainder worked to
strengthen and enlarge the rifle pits at Cow Island. In the evening the steamer
Benton arrived and commenced
unloading about 60 tons of freight.
At noon
on Thursday Major Ilges with Donnelly’s Company departed Cow Island to return
to Fort Benton. They passed the burned wagon train, and found the wagons and
their contents entirely destroyed. The Ilges command made a night march
reaching Bear Paw Springs about 11 p. m. After the volunteers left the canyon,
the Nez Perce rear guard attacked H. A. Nottingham’s train enroute Cow Island
from Fort Benton. He managed to escape and turned the train back to Benton.
On
Friday September 28, the Ilges command marched until midnight, reaching 24-Mile
Springs. Early Saturday afternoon [Sep 29] about 1 p.m., Major Ilges and
Donnelly’s Mounted Company with John Lilly reached Fort Benton “tired, worn,
but cheerful, and ready to start again if their services are needed.” In the
words of The Benton Record, the “Bold Volunteers . . . fully deserve the
gratitude of this community and the General Government. They have not
annihilated Joseph and his band, but they have accomplished a great deal of
good. They relieved Fort Clagett, they relieved and strengthened the party at
Cow Island. They have by their action saved two steamboats and 100 tons of
government freight. They have fought the Indians on their own ground and
harassed them in their movements. They have developed the enemy’s position and
strength, they have saved the lives of the trainmen by their prompt advance,
they have buried the dead, they have demonstrated to the Indians the fact of
our strength should mischief be intended in this direction, and by their return
they have gladdened the hearts of our people beyond expression.”
For the rest
of the 1870s John Lilly remained in Fort Benton, and in 1880, the less than
politically correct Benton Record
described Lilly’s new business:
“Lilly’s
Billiard Hall was opened to the public last night. The best music of the town
entertained the visitors. An elegant supper was furnished in the rooms in the
rear of the hall. Several new bartenders volunteered their services, many of
whom added tone to the house, while others were entirely lost amidst the multitude
of glasses and bottles. The opening was one of the grandest ever witnessed in
Benton. Yogoites, Mongolians, Greasers, Coons, Whoop Uppers, Assinaboins, Coal
Bankers, book fiends, lawyers, kickers, mule-skinners, bullwhackers, rangers,
cow boys, Indian-traders, and butchers, were all represented.” Three months
later Lilly added a piano to his Billiard Hall.
In 1881
Lilly moved and renovated a bar on Main Street formerly kept by Lee Isabell
into “a neat and attractive resort.” Each evening a string band played “sweet
music” for the patrons of Lilly’s Barker District Saloon, named for the recent rich
silver strikes at Barker in the Little Belt Mountains.
In January
1882, John Lilly started for Barker, the silver mining camp. For the next year
he spent time in both Barker and Fort Benton before settling down for a long
residence in Barker. Lilly opened a brewery to supply the thirsty miners and began
ranching. In 1884 he married Miss Katie Henn, and they raised a family of seven
children. By 1886 Lilly was also postmaster at Barker, a post he retained until
1906 when the post office was closed. At various times Lilly also operated a
hotel at Barker and served as Justice of the Peace and Notary Public. Unlike
most residents of the once lively camp that had lost its luster in the Panic of
1893, Lilly and his family continued to live at Barker and manage his ranch
several miles from the town. Even though the mining camp had closed, the
diggings abandoned, and the railroad taken out, Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Lilly never
lost faith in Barker and were among a handful of remaining residents.
By the
winter of 1906-07, Lilly’s health was failing, and he died at age 63 at the
Columbus Hospital in Great Falls in May 1907. The old Confederate veteran Private
John C. from Company A, Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Cavalry Regiment, who
left an impressive account of the wartime exploits of his hero and himself was
first interred at Cavalry Cemetery in Great Falls and later reinterred at C. E.
Conrad Cemetery, Kalispell. Montana. With the passing of John Lilly, the United
Confederate Veterans lost a fierce fighter in the “War of Northern Aggression”
and Montana lost a colorful pioneer.
Note:
Private Lilly’s commander and hero, Col. Nathan Bedford Forrest settled in
Memphis, Tennessee after the Civil War. Antebellum slave trader Forrest lost
most of his fortune during the war. He found employment with and eventually
became president of the Marion & Memphis Railroad. Less successful in
business than in war, Forrest’s railroad went bankrupt. By early 1867, Forrest was
active in the Ku Klux Klan and may have been the Grand Wizard of this infamous night
riding quasi military white supremacy organization.
If you have Civil War veterans in your family who settled in this
area, we would be pleased to hear from you with copies of stories and
photographs that we can share with our readers. Send your Civil War stories to mtcivilwar@yahoo.com
or to the Overholser Historical Research Center, Box 262, Fort Benton, MT
59442.
Photos:
1.
Scout John C. Lilly
[Courtesy of Overholser historical Research Center.
2.
Private Lilly’s hero
and commander Colonel Nathan Before Forrest’s memorial and grave in Memphis,
Tennessee. [Courtesy of Wikipedia]
Sources: [BRW 2 Apr 1880; FBRPW 27 Apr 1881; BRW
21 Jul 1881; BRW 12 Jan 1882; GFTD 7 May 1890; GFTD 23 May 1907; GFLD 25 May 1907; “Facing Danger Down: Fort Benton Men in
the Nez Perce War—Part 2,” FBRPW 2 Aug 2006; So Be It A History of the Barker Mining District Hughesville &
Barker, Montana by Donna Wahlberg; Nathan Bedford Forrest: A Biography by Jack
Hurst]
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