Quantrill Raider James F. Berry

Remembering Our Civil War Heritage and Heroes:

1861-1865

James Berry: Quantrill Raider and Train Robber

Who Left Deep Tentacles in Montana—Part I

By Ken Robison

For The River Press

November 28, 2012

This continues a monthly series commemorating the 150^th Anniversary of the Civil War and the veterans that settled in Central Montana. This month features Confederate soldier James Berry who came to Montana Territory during the Civil war; returned to Missouri for a life of crime as part of the Sam Bass gang; and after his violent death, his widow and family came to the Shonkin area to join her father.

The border war between Missouri and Kansas, known as “Bleeding Kansas,” was a series of violent confrontations from 1854 and 1861 involving anti-slavery “Free-Staters” or “Jayhawkers” based in Kansas Territory versus pro-slavery “Border Ruffian” elements or “Bushwhackers” from Missouri. Bleeding Kansas was a proxy war between Northerners and Southerners over the issue of slavery. It set the stage with the outbreak of the Civil War for special animosity and violence in both Kansas and Missouri. Jayhawkers raided Missouri farms thought to be pro-secessionist, freeing slaves and wrecking havoc. Bushwhackers raided Kansas towns and farms burning and pillaging.

Throughout the South, Confederate veterans fought and died for their cause, the War of Southern Independence, But in the states of Missouri and Kansas, more than soldiers died, as the conflict became one of “total warfare,” sweeping though the civilian population of farms and towns with a ferocity greater than perhaps any other region.

Despite the fact that Missouri’s Governor favored secession and pro-secessionist officers led the state’s militia, the Missouri State Guard, the state remained in the Union at the outbreak of the Civil War because of decisive action by Union troops stationed in St. Louis. Along the Missouri River corridor a large slave-owning area known as “Little Dixie” remained in insurrection throughout the early years of the war. For the Confederacy, the Missouri State Guard under General Sterling “Old Pap” Price conducted much of the fighting. Supporting the partisan rangers of the State Guard were quasi-military units such as William Clarke Quantrill’s Raiders and Bloody Bill Anderson’s gang. These units wrote their own rules of warfare and often dressing in civilian clothes or Union uniforms. They left a bloody trail as they employed hit and run tactics, often taking no prisoners.

Three Berry brothers, Isaac “Ike”, Richard “Dick”, and James “Jim” Berry grew up in Callaway County, Missouri in the heart of “Little Dixie.” James F. Berry was born in 1838 near Shamrock, Callaway County, fifth of ten children of farmer Caleb and Virginia Fulkerson Berry. By 1860 James was off the farm, owning and operating a grocery store in nearby Williamsburg. He was described as being very talkative, having sandy red hair, often with a chin beard, 5’ 9” tall, with a round full face that got very red when he was drinking.

As with many unconventional forces of the Confederacy, few records were kept and even fewer survive, and this is the case with Quantrill and Anderson’s men. Post-Civil War reconstructions, such as the William Pennington List offer well-researched insight into those who likely served in the war with both William Quantrill and Bill Anderson. Among Quantrill’s men were later famed outlaws, Jesse and Frank James and the Younger Brothers.

Pennington’s List includes the three Berry brothers, Ike, Dick, and Jim Berry together with Samuel Morgan Hays, husband of their sister, Rebecca Berry, reporting briefly on each member:

            Berry, Ike (Isaac). Was at Lawrence [Kansas] with Quantrill, Centralia [Missouri] with "Bloody Bill" Anderson 9/27/1864. Purportedly convinced Anderson to burn Danville [Missouri] 10/14/1864. Survived War becoming a liquor merchant/ Restaurateur. Died 1928, Mo.

            Berry, Richard. With “Bloody Bill” Anderson Unit. Survived War - Was with Quantrill at Lawrence [Kansas]. Brother of Ike.

            Berry, James. With “Bloody Bill” Anderson Unit. Rode with the Sam Bass gang after the war, robbing banks and trains throughout the mid-west. Killed, Oct 21, 1877 by Sheriff Glasscock in Adrian County, MO. 

            Hays, Samuel Morgan. With Quantrill. Indicted 18 Nov 1863 for the murder of George Burt at Lawrence [Kansas], 21 Aug 1863. Sam was married to Rebecca Berry.

Historian Rick Miller writes of Jim Berry in his book Sam Bass & Gang: [Jim Berry] “was reportedly a member of Bloody Bill Anderson’s guerilla troop, associated with the infamous Quantrill’s raiders in Missouri during the Civil war.” Years later, in 1877, the Sedalia Mo. Weekly Bazoo wrote, “Jim Berry’s bearing was that of a man who would fight to the last. Indeed, he had given previous examples of his desperate and daring nature. He was one of Bill Anderson’s most daring followers, and his unshrinking courage was tested in many a terrible fray which that bold partisan led all into who followed his banner.” The [Missouri] State Journal added, “Jim Berry was known to have been one of the most desperate members of that terrible company of rough-riders who followed the fortunes of Bill Anderson during the war, and they also knew that he had two or three brothers living in Callaway who were fully as dangerous as he.”

Miller writes also of Ike Berry: “According to the St. Louis Daily Missouri Democrat, 12 November 1864 . . . [Bloody Bill] Anderson’s ‘orderly’ was a man named Ike Berry, whom he called ‘Weasel,’ Both Anderson and Berry were intoxicated and together severely pistol-whipped and tortured Lewis, and Anderson even rode a horse over him until the family was able to produce five thousand dollars. Lewis died, largely as a result of his injuries, on February 2, 1866.”

Sketchy as the sources are, it is convincingly clear that the three Berry boys served under Quantrill and Anderson during the Civil War, and only the toughest of the rough rode with them. Examining Jim Berry’s activities during the Civil War in detail it is clear that he served only briefly in the war before heading to the western territories, while Ike and Dick Berry continued to fight for the Confederacy through most of the war.

By late 1861, William Quantrill had formed a raider force that likely included the three Berrys and their brother in law Sam Hays. During the winter his force grew in strength to around two hundred men, and were better mounted and armed. Throughout 1862 Quantrill and his men raided around Kansas City, Independence, and Olathe. After a raid on Independence, on March 19, 1862, the Union issued a general order that all guerrillas were to be treated as common criminals rather than soldiers and prisoners of war, and they were to be shot on sight. This "No Quarter" policy apparently was a turning point for Quantrill and his men. Until this time they often paroled prisoners, a common practice by both sides early in the war. After the authorities issued the "No Quarter" order, Quantrill and his men exercised the same policy of no quarter towards their captives, usually killing them on the spot.

Hoping to cause the Union Army to soften their policy towards guerillas, the Confederate government passed the Partisan Ranger Act. The act legitimized guerrilla bands as rangers acting under the authority of the Confederate Army. The Union Army command ignored the Partisan Ranger Act, but from this time on the men who rode with Quantrill and similar bands considered themselves soldiers in the Confederate Army, and the CSA bore the responsibility for their actions.

In July 1862 the Union issued Order No. 19, requiring all able-bodied men in pro-slavery Jackson County to enlist in Missouri Union militias and help exterminate the guerillas. This was at a time when marauding Kansas Jayhawkers operating as Federal militia, were preying on slave holding families in Jackson County. The order led many young men in Jackson and surrounding counties to flood into the camps of Quantrill and General Price’s other units.

On August 11, 1862, Quantrill led twenty-five veterans and four hundred new recruits into Independence, Mo. The Union commander surrendered his force to a Confederate officer present. Four days later, Quantrill received a commission as captain, and his men were mustered in as partisan rangers in the Confederate army, organized as Shelby’s 2^nd Missouri Cavalry Regiment. This unit was also designated the 12^th Regiment, Missouri Cavalry, CSA. This regiment, including Jim Berry was informally known as the “Jackson’s County Cavalry” since a majority of its men came from the Jackson county area of western Missouri. Although Col. Upton Hays and later Colonels Beal G. Jeans and David Shanks commanded this cavalry unit, it remained closely associated with Quantrill and his Raiders. .

Five days later, on August 16 at the Battle of Lone Jack, Quantrill’s Raiders join the Confederate army in defeating Union forces in nearby Lone Jack, Missouri. On September 12, Quantrill raided Olathe, Kansas killing fourteen, while sacking and looting the town. The Fourth Kansas Cavalry chased the Raiders for ten days through four counties in Missouri. Throughout the early fall of 1862, Quantrill’s men were chased relentlessly by the Fourth Kansas and Sixth Missouri Cavalry.

During the summer of 1862 Bill Anderson formed his own gang, robbing to support themselves, and killing Union soldiers, quickly gaining the sobriquet, of “Bloody Bill.” Early in 1863 Anderson traveled to Jackson Co., Mo. to join Quantrill. Initially, Quantrill gave Anderson a chilly reception perceiving him to be brash and overconfident.

In May 1863 Anderson’s gang joined Quantrill’s Raiders on a raid near Council Grove, Kansas, in which they robbed a store west of town. After the robbery a US Marshal with a large posse intercepted the raiders about 150 miles from the Kansas-Missouri border. In the resulting skirmish, several raiders were captured or killed as they spit into two groups to return to Missouri.

During early summer 1863 Bloody Bill Anderson was made a Lieutenant, serving under Quantrill in a unit led by George M. Todd. It is possible that the Berry boys began serving under Anderson by this time, although this is not clear. During June and July Anderson took part in several raids that killed Union soldiers in Westport, Kansas City, and Lafayette County, Mo.

On August 21st Quantrill led his force of about 400 men into Lawrence, Kansas, the strongest abolitionist city in the state. The attack had been carefully planned with independent columns approaching in a coordinated pre-dawn attack. Over four hours, the raiders pillaged and set fire to the town, killing about 185 civilian men and boys, most of the male population, while burning about a quarter of the city to the ground. Their principal target, Jayhawker Senator James H. Lane, escaped death by racing through a cornfield in his nightclothes.

By 9 a.m., the raiders were on their way out of town. The Lawrence Massacre was one of the bloodiest events in the history of “Bleeding Kansas.” The city seal of Lawrence commemorates Quantrill’s attack with a depiction of a Phoenix rising from the ashes of the burnt city. Quantrill led his force along the Texas Road en route to winter quarters in Texas. Along the way on October 6^th they fought a minor battle at Fort Blair in Cherokee County, Kansas.

It seems clear that Ike and Dick Berry were among the raiders that day of infamy at Lawrence, Kansas although it is possible that Jim Berry had already left the war behind and headed westward to Nevada.

Some time during mid 1863, Jim Berry arrived in mining fields around Reese River, Lander County in central Nevada. There on November 26, 1863 James F. Berry married Mary Elizabeth Price. Mollie, as she was known, with her father Cyrus and brothers Kyle and Charles had moved by wagon train from Callaway County, Mo. to nearby Austin, Nevada in 1861 at the beginning of the Civil war. The Price family likely knew the Berrys back in Missouri, and Cyrus Price seemed determined to leave Little Dixie after the suicide death of his wife and before the family became swept up in the war.

Jennie Lee Berry, the first of six children, was born at Reece River Valley, Nevada on August 30, 1864. Shortly after, Jim Berry joined the gold rush to the new Montana Territory. A combination of the gold strikes on Grasshopper Creek and Alder Gulch, Montana Territory during the Civil War and the decisive defeat of Gen. Price’s army in 1864 brought many Missourians to the new territory during and after the Civil War—so many in fact that a legend was born that Montana was settled by “the left wing of Price's army.” There is an element of truth to this legend as evidenced by the arrival of Missourian Jim Berry and his family and many others in the new territory after serving with Gen. Price’s army.

Jim Berry’s activities in frontier Montana from 1864-67 remain unknown, but in May 1867 twin daughters, Anna/Anne Natalle and Adelaide “Addie” Price Berry were born in Virginia City. Apparently during the summer of 1867, Jim Berry headed overland back to Missouri. His wife Mary and their three children went overland from Virginia City to Fort Benton to board a steamboat to go down the Missouri River to their home near Mexico, Audrain County, Missouri. The steamer Gallatin departed Fort Benton September 2nd with the Berry family on board. Family legend tells that Mrs. Elizabeth Meagher, wife of recently deceased Thomas Francis Meagher was also on the steamboat that carried a total of eleven ladies and six children on this trip.

The steamboat Gallatin departed Fort Benton for Omaha with 150 passengers and upwards of a quarter of a million dollars in gold dust onboard. After trouble from late season low water, the boat reached a point thirteen miles below Camp Cooke on the morning of the September 5th. Here the Gallatin ran hard on the rocks at Holmes Rapids, and for six days the crew and passengers worked with block, tackle, and spars, struggling to get her afloat. On Sunday, Sept. 8th, the steamer Only Chance came along and about 25 of the Gallatin’s passengers, gave up and took passage down on that boat, an action they would later regret.

By Wednesday September 11th, the Gallatin’s crew and passengers had strained and racked the boat so badly that it was considered unsafe to remain onboard any longer. All the passengers and freight were put ashore, and the boat dismantled, even to the deck planking. Her splendid machinery was left in place, in hopes she might eventually get through, and the steamer was tied to the bank. Later passenger accounts spoke highly of the conduct of Capt. Howe, who worked day and night, in the cold weather and water to save his boat and secure comfort for the passengers.

The eleven lady passengers, including Elizabeth Meagher and Mary Berry, with the six children, provisions, baggage, and a few male passengers were put on two mackinaw boats. The balance of the passengers started overland on foot to reach the steamer Huntsville at Cow Island, fifty miles below. Eight miles down river, the mackinaws met Captain Jacobs of the Huntsville, coming up with a yawl to their relief. He agreed to carry passengers on the Huntsville to Omaha for $75 currency, while Capt. Howe of the Gallatin generously gave all the provisions he had and all the money left from his trip.

Having no cooking utensils, the mackinaw party, including Elizabeth Meagher and Mary Berry, laid down to sleep about eleven o’clock that night, rather hungrier than was pleasant. To add to their discomfort the rain coldly and continuously poured down on them through the night, with wolves howling in the distance. Berry family legend tells that Mrs. Meagher had plenty of Buffalo robes and shared them with Mrs. Berry who wrapped her six-month old twins in the robes, saving their lives.

 An early start and the mackinaws reached the Huntsville by 10 a. m., while the foot passengers, hungry and weary, wet, foot-sore and demoralized, came struggling in by squads until night, thankful for their deliverance from a shipwreck on the Upper Missouri.

The money and provisions from Captain Howe left $21.50 due from each cabin passenger and $6 from deck passengers, which was paid. The Huntsville then waited for the arrival of the ship’s Clerk and additional travelers from Fort Benton.

Boating conditions in that late season were horrible. The steamboat Imperial was hard aground twelve miles below Cow Island on September 14th, with poor prospects of getting off. Another boat, the Zephyr, was above Cow Island, and it was believed would have to remain all winter in the mountains. The Only Chance had a terribly rough trip down to Cow Island, pounding over rocks all the way. She left Cow Island September 12th and made her way down to Omaha, the passengers, including the twenty-five from the Gallatin, suffering all the way from poor quality food leading to much sickness and two deaths from dysentery. One passenger recorded that “a gladder set of boys never walked a steamboat plank” upon their arrival at Omaha October 4th. Onboard were over 200 passengers and about $3 million in treasure.

The steamboat Huntsville with Elizabeth Meagher and the Berry family aboard departed Cow Island September 19th. The boat passed Fort Peck on the 28th and worked her way down the Missouri slowed by the late season low water, the almost constant need to spar across sand bars, and frequent high winds. At long last, the trip from hell ended at Omaha on the 17th of October. The Berry family likely continued on to Missouri by train after their life-threatening trip down the Missouri River.

The escapades of Confederate veteran James F. Berry and his family will continue next month in Part 2.

 [Sources: US Census 1850-1880; 2012 http://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-jamesberry.html; http://penningtons.tripod.com/roster.html ; Sam Bass & Gang. By Rick Miller. Austin, TX, State House Press, 1999; The Tenderfoot Bandits Sam Bass and Joel Collins, their lives and hard times. By Paula Reed and Grover Ted Tate. Tucson, AZ: Westernlore Press, 1988; “John Harris and Addie Berry Harris Family” Collection of Harris-Berry Family Material Collected by William H. Patterson Held at OHRC; “Historical Sketch of James F. Berry (1838-1877)” by John F. Harris (Great Grandson); Sedelia Weekly Bazoo 23 Oct 1877; The (Jefferson City Mo.) State Journal 19 Oct 1877; http://www.missouridivision-scv-org/mounits/12mocav.htm ; http://www.whitsett-wall.com/Documents/James%20Simeon%20Whitsett,%20 Civil%20 War%20Guerrilla.pdf ; “Mrs. Thomas Francis Meagher’s Sad Departure from Fort Benton In 1867: What a Way to Treat a Lady!” Fort Benton Historian Blog August 3, 2005]

Photos:

1.     Sketch of James F. Berry from Missouri Ledger. [Courtesy of OHRC]

2.     General Sterling “Old Pap” Price, Commander of Missouri State Guard [Courtesy of OHRC]

3.     William Clarke Quantrill, Confederate Raider [Courtesy of OHRC]

Stephen S. Spitzley, Civil War Soldier and Proprietor of Fort Benton’s Crown Jewel—the Grand Union

Remembering Our Civil War Heritage and Heroes:

1861-1865

Stephen S. Spitzley, Civil War Soldier and Proprietor of Fort Benton’s

Crown Jewel—the Grand Union

By Ken Robison

For The River Press

October 31, 2012

This continues a monthly series commemorating the 150^th Anniversary of the Civil War and the veterans that settled in Central Montana.

This week as we celebrate the 130^th anniversary of Fort Benton’s Crown Jewel, the Grand Union, we can commemorate also the life of brave Civil War veteran Stephen S. Spitzley, the first proprietor of the Grand Union Hotel.

Born in Mayen in the Prussian Rhine district in Germany, Steve Spitzley came to America with his parents at the age of nine on the passenger ship Luconia, arriving in New York harbor in October 1848. The family moved west and settled on a farm in Houghton County, Upper Michigan.

In the second year of the Civil War, Stephen Spitzley enlisted on August 18, 1862 in Houghton County as Corporal and was assigned to an unknown unit. His unit was incorporated into the 27^th Michigan Infantry Regiment when that regiment was mustered into service April 10, 1863. The 27^th Michigan, under command of Colonel Dorus M. Fox, started from Ypsilanti for Kentucky, April 12, 1863, with an enrollment of 865 officers and men. It occupied several towns in Kentucky after its arrival before fighting in its first engagement June 2^nd at Jamestown. Later in June the 27^th Michigan was assigned to the Third Brigade, First Division, Ninth Corps, and sent to Vicksburg, Miss., to support Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's army during the siege of Vicksburg, June 22 to July 4, 1863.

The 27th joined in a blocking movement near Jackson, Miss., in the rear of Vicksburg, when General Joseph E. Johnston attempted to come to the relief of Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton, then closely besieged by General Grant. After the fall of Vicksburg on July 4^th, the 27th was sent with the Ninth Corps across the mountains to take part in the East Tennessee campaign. After a long, arduous march over almost impassable roads, it reached Lenoir Station, Tenn., and was attacked by Lt. Gen. James Longstreet's forces, then advancing on Knoxville. The Union lines were gradually withdrawn towards Knoxville, but it became necessary to halt at Campbell Station, to insure the safety of the trains. Here, the Confederates fiercely attacked the Union forces, and the 27^th Michigan sustained heavy casualties in this engagement.

The Union forces rallied behind their defenses at Knoxville and in Fort Saunders, where they were repeatedly charged by the enemy, who were repulsed with heavy losses in every attempt to get possession of the Union earthworks. Despite their own heavy losses in the defense of Knoxville the 27^th Michigan followed Confederate Gen. Longstreet as he passed into Northeast Tennessee. The 27^th followed
him as far as Rutledge, and then fell back to Blain's Cross Roads, in January 1864.

The 27^th Michigan suffered severe hardships during this campaign since they were poorly supplied with rations, tents, blankets and clothing, and their shoes were worn out by constant marching, either in deep mud or over frozen ground.

Gen. Grant withdrew the Ninth Corps, including the 27^th, to send them East to join the Army of the Potomac. The 27^th returned to Knoxville, and then marched some 200 miles across the Cumberland Mountains to Nicholasville, Ky. Ninth Corps was then placed upon rail cars and sent to Annapolis, Md.

At this point two companies of sharpshooters joined the regiment and were designated the First and Second Companies of Sharpshooters, The advent of these "sharpshooters," with their Spencer magazine rifles, the newest and most
destructive infantry arm then known, was hailed with delight by the 27^th for they were the only Spencer rifles in the Ninth Corps.

The 27^th quickly petitioned to arm the whole regiment with Spencers to make them all "Sharpshooters." To their surprise and delight, their requisition was rapidly filled, and the coveted Spencers graced the shoulders of "ye Twenty-seventh." These seven-shot, manually operated lever-action, repeating rifles had a sustainable rate-of-fire in excess of 20 rounds per minute compared to standard muzzle-loaders with a rate of 2-3 rounds per minute. For the rest of the war the challenge was to develop effective tactics for the much higher rate of fire.

The Spencer also proved a double-edged sword. With these rifles, the 27^th Michigan simply dominated advanced picket or firing lines against Confederate muzzle-loaders. Yet because they were so well armed, the 27^th found themselves in advanced positions on the firing lines for weeks at a time without relief. This brought the men to complaints like: "Damn old Spencer and all his inventive staff;
wish they were out here weeks at a time without relief;" "Well, it serves us jolly well right! If we hadn't been such fools as to want 'em 'cause they were new, we'd be used like the rest, but we got 'em--the damned sputter guns--and by G---,
we'll serve 'em!"

The 27^th Michigan, now composed of twelve companies, 864 strong, in command of Major Moody, joined the Army of the Potomac, April 29, 1864, at Warrenton, Va., and was assigned to the First Brigade, Third Division, Ninth Corps. The regiment crossed the Rapidan with the Ninth Corps, the 6th of May, and was immediately engaged in the terrific struggle of the bloody Battle of the Wilderness, losing eighty-nine in killed and wounded in the different engagements.

The 27^th scarcely emerged from the Wilderness before it was engaged in another bloody encounter at Spottsylvania, where its losses were 27 killed, 148 wounded, and 12 missing. During the month of May the 27^th was constantly marching and fighting, sustaining frightful losses, and on June 3 fought the Battle of Bethesda Church, where sixteen of the regiment were killed, sixty wounded, among them a large number of officers.

From Cold Harbor the 27^th crossed the James River, and during the 17th and 18th of June charged the enemy's works before Petersburg, meeting with severe loss from the fire of both musketry and artillery. During the months of June and July the regiment was constantly under fire, and on July 30 took part in the disastrous charge at the "Crater," when a mine was exploded immediately in its front. The 27^th was in the advance of its brigade in this charge, and suffered severely from Confederate crossfire, meeting with heavy loss. Some time during the action at Petersburg, Sergeant Stephen Spitzley suffered a severe wound in his right leg.

During the siege of Petersburg the 27^th held advanced positions, and took part in the numerous attempts to break the enemy's line at Weldon railroad, Peebles' Farm, Poplar Grove Church, South Side railroad, and helped to repel the Confederates when they charged Union lines. The regiment participated in the desperate charge to capture Fort Mahone, a strong work called the "Key," in the rebel line, and succeeded in placing its colors on the eastern wing, capturing three pieces of artillery and more than 150 prisoners.

When the Confederates finally evacuated Petersburg and Richmond, the 27^th followed the retreating army until April 18, nine days after the formal surrender of General Lee at Appomattox, when it was ordered to Washington, D. C. to perform light guard duty for prisoners at Navy Yard.

On May 23, 1865 the battle-hardened 27^th Michigan Infantry Regiment proudly marched in the Grand Review of the Army of the Potomac. That morning at 9:00 a.m. on a bright sunny day, a signal gun fired a single shot and Maj. Gen. George Meade, the victor of Gettysburg, led an estimated 80,000 men of the Army of the Potomac down the streets of Washington from Capitol Hill down Pennsylvania Avenue past crowds that numbered in the thousands. The infantry marched with twelve men abreast across the street, followed by divisional and corps artillery, then an array of cavalry regiments that stretched for another seven miles. The mood was one of gaiety and celebration, and the crowds and soldiers frequently engaged in singing patriotic songs as the procession of victorious soldiers snaked its way towards the reviewing stand in front of the White House, where President Andrew Johnson, General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant, senior military leaders, the Cabinet, and leading government officials awaited. At the head of his troops, Meade dismounted when he arrived at the reviewing stand and joined the dignitaries to salute his men, who passed for over six hours.

For three long years, Corporal and later Sergeant Stephen Sptizley fought bravely for the Union. He suffered a severe wound in his right leg, and on May 1, 1865 he was promoted to Full Sergeant. Sergeant Spitzley was mustered out of service at Delaney House, Washington, D. C. on July 26.

The 27^th Michigan was one of the "Three Hundred Fighting Regiments" of the Union Army, receiving special mention by the War Department and Congress in 1866, for regiments showing casualty lists of over thirty per cent of total enrollment.
The impact on the 27^th was staggering:
Total enrollment............................................................................1897
Killed in action--Officers, 6; enlisted men, 128...................134
Died of wounds--Officers, 3; enlisted men, 74.......................77
Died in confederate prisons--Enlisted men, 40.....................40
Died of disease--Enlisted men, 102..........................................102
Discharged for disability (wounds and disease).................181
Wounded in action--Officers, 27; enlisted men, 511........ 538
Missing in action--Officers, 4; enlisted men, 126................130

With the end of the Civil War and his discharge from the 27^th Infantry Regiment, Stephen Spitzley returned to Michigan. Two years later Stephen, his sister Elizabeth, and her husband Conrad Schultz embarked a steamboat at St. Louis bound for Montana Territory. The small 140-ft. steamer Zephyr arrived at the Marias River on September 7, 1867 unable to proceed to the Fort Benton levee, and discharged Stephen, the Schultz, and nine other passengers.

Spitzley worked for the North West Fur Company from 1867 to 1869, until the dissolution of the company. He then moved on to Helena where his sister Elizabeth was living with her husband. Stephen Spitzley drove a stagecoach for Wells Fargo & Co., before taking charge in March 1869 of Wells Fargo’s home station at Bird Tail on Montana’s Benton Road. In the fall of 1869 Wells Fargo sold their stage line to Salisbury and Gilmer. The 1870 census recorded Stephen Spitzley “keeping a hotel” in the Sun River Valley, likely the Bird Tail station.

In July 1876, Sergeant Sptizley received an Invalid Pension for wounds suffered while serving with Company B, 27^th Michigan Infantry Regiment. While Spitzley lived for many more years, he never married and news reports on several occasions mentioned his ailing health. For the next several decades, Spitzley seemed consumed by wanderlust and poor health as he moved around central Montana.

In the fall of 1880 Spitzley moved to Fort Maginnis, then under construction in central Montana near today’s Lewistown. Two years later in September 1880 as the Great Union Hotel in Fort Benton was nearing completion, Spitzley leased the new hotel and became its first proprietor.

When it opened November 2, 1882, the Grand Union was widely regarded as the finest hotel between the Twin Cities and the Pacific Coast. Completed at the height of the steamboat era on the Upper Missouri, the Grand Union welcomed weary travelers to spend a few nights in its luxury before they set out to less “civilized places” like Virginia City and points west. The architectural character of the Grand Union was unique with bricks carefully fitted into excellent bold decorations. Its extensive corbelling, wrought iron balconies and ornate chimneys were an impressive sight. Furnished with Victorian appointments, the dining room’s silver service, white linen and Bavarian china served the rich and famous. An elegant ladies parlor on the second floor, with a private stairway to the dining room, saved ladies from exposure to the rowdy crowd in the saloon and poker rooms. The ornate lobby desk and broad black walnut staircase highlighted the fine carpentry work throughout. No wonder that the opening ball for the Grand Union was “the grandest affair of its kind ever witnessed in Benton, and most probably in the Territory.”

In February 1883 Michael C. Travers arrived in Fort Benton and joined Spitzley in management of the Grand Union. Seven months later, Spitzley’s health was failing, and he retired from the Grand Union, succeeded by John Hunsburger. The firm of Hunsberger & Travers continued for several years.

From 1884-86 Steve Spitzley operated the Rock Creek station on the Benton Road between Birdtail and Wolf Creek. After a trip back to his home in Michigan in early 1886, Stephen Spitzley settled in the new town of Great Falls, then beginning to show signs of growth as James J. Hill’s Manitoba railroad built westward.  With Henry Ringwald in December 1886, Spitzley opened the Cascade restaurant and hotel on First Avenue South between Third and Fourth Streets, featuring “The Squarest Meal in Great Falls.” In less than a year, the Cascade Restaurant failed financially, and Spitzley moved on to establish a halfway station on the new Montana Central rail line at Craig, between Helena and Great Falls.

In preparation for Memorial Day in Great Falls in 1889, Spitzley met with other veterans, members of Grand Army of the Republic Sheridan Post No. 18. Later that year, wandering Spitzley located a ranch in the Bear Paw Mountains in what the River Press called “the Detroit settlement, as there are so many old Detroit citizens bunched together on the head of Eagle creek.”

The old soldier was back in Great Falls in 1900 recorded in the census in the household of prominent Great Falls businessman, H. O. Chowen; Mrs. Chowen was a niece of Steve Spitzley. For the next two decades he continued to board with the Chowens until 1923, when his healthy failed seriously. He returned to Michigan to make his home with relatives in Detroit where he remained until January 1925 when he went to Chicago to visit a niece. Sergeant Stephen Spitzley, who saw as much combat action in the Civil War as any man, died in Chicago, Illinois on March 9, 1925.

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.     Vicksburg Campaign April-July 4, 1863.

2.     Grand Review of the Army of the Potomac May 23, 1865 in Washington, D.C.

3.     Grand Union Hotel, the Gem in Fort Benton’s Crown.

Sources: [Luconia Passenger List; U.S. Civil War Soldier Records; Record of Service of Michigan Volunteers 1861-65; 1890 Pension Record; Robison Upper Missouri River Steamboat Passenger List; U.S. Census 1870/1900/1910/1920; FBRPW 6 Sep 1882; BRW 12 May 1883; FRRPD 21 Sep 1883; BRW 22 Sep 1883; 1885 History of Montana by Michael Leeson; FBRPW 10 Sep 1886; GRTW 24 Sep 1886; GFTD 14 Sep 1887; GFTD 14 Sep 1887; GFTD 15 Nov 1889; GFLD 30 May 1908; GFTD 30 Apr 1920; GFTD 11 Mar 1925; GFTD 5 Jul 1939;

Private John C. Lilly: His Montana Years—Part IV

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 150^th 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 #, 2^nd 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 7^th 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]