(From the Southeast Missourian May 30, 1914)
Judge William Paar Writes
REMINISCENCES OF WAR TIMES
Judge William Paar of Jackson has long been known by his friends as the "walking encyclopedia," and as having a wonderful capacity of remembering events of years ago, especially "dates" of certain happenings during his eventful life. Notwithstanding the fact that he was only a boy during the enactment of the great national drama, the civil war, so vividly have certain events impressed themselves on his mind that he can relate them and the date of their occurrence without any apparent effort on his part.
In the following he gives in detail certain events that happened in Cape Girardeau, where the judge spent his childhood and youth during the rebellion, facts and happenings never recorded before in print, and in the whole forgotten by the few remaining citizens who lived in Cape Girardeau during those trying times.
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By William Paar
During the month of June, 1861, the Sixth Regiment of Missouri Infantry, under Colonel Bland, came down from St. Louis on a steamboat and marched out about 5 miles west of Jackson to attack Camp Watkins, but the confederates had gotten wind of the approach of the Federals, and had decamped. The Sixth returned to Cape Girardeau, boarded the boat and returned to St. Louis.
About the middle of June 1861, four companies of Cape Girardeau home guards were organized under the command of Major Cramer. They were furnished arms from St. Louis. One company of Confederates was also organized about that time. On or about July 10, 1861, the Twentieth Regiment of Illinois Infantry, under Colonel Marsh, landed in Cape Girardeau. These were the first soldiers to make camp in Cape Girardeau, and from that time on until the close of the war in 1865 Cape Girardeau was a military post.
In the winter of 1861 a lieutenant by the name of Chartres of the Seventeenth Illinois Infantry was murdered on Spanish street between Independence and Meriwether streets, by one Paul Kingston, also a soldier. This man Kingston was tried by a military court martial and sentenced to be hanged. He was hanged in what was then known as the old fair ground on South Sprigg street November 27, 1862, in the presence of several thousand people. His remains were buried in the commons just south of the old City cemetery, and the only mark of his resting place was a head board with the word "Criminal" on it.
Two union soldiers were shot to death in the lot now occupied by the opera house, corner of Broadway and Lorimier streets. One was on horseback and was endeavoring to elude the guards that were pursuing him. He rode into the lot and the guards fired upon him with deadly effect, he falling from the horse dead. Another was shot on new year's eve, 1861 or 1862, at a dance in the large frame building which stood on the site of the present opera house. Still another soldier was accidentally killed by a fall. There was a deep gully at the intersection of Middle and Themis streets, across which there was a foot bridge for people to cross on. It seems that the soldier was somewhat intoxicated, and, on a wager, attempted to cross this bridge on horseback. The horse broke through the bridge and in the fall both man and horse were killed.
On Main street, in front of the building recently occupied by the Commercial bar, one Green Randol, a confederate sympathizer, was killed by one Mr. Allen, who was known as a union spy. This happened in the summer of 1862.
Fort A, occupying the block between Lorimier and Spanish, Belleview and North streets, was built soon after the Twentieth Illinois came to Cape Girardeau, and was soon followed by forts Band C, the former near the old M. Dittlinger residence near what is now the Normal school site, and the latter near Sprigg street, a block south of Haarig. These were later followed by Fort D near the river where Milltown now is. Soldiers were kept in forts A, B, and C nearly all the time during the war. The big guns and all the ordnance stores were under the care and management of one Sergt. Kelly, a man who had served five or six _ terms in the United States regular army. Soldiers were camped in all parts of the city, towit: in the three main forts, in the Ingram addition, in the block on Broadway (then Harmony street) between Middle and Frederick streets, the public square, the McLean and Painter blocks west of Sprigg street, the old fair grounds, in the field now on both sides of Frederick street north of North street, on the Bierwirth farm on the old Bloomfield road, and other places that the writer does not now remember.
Location of Barracks
A large four-story brick mill, then known as Ingram's mill, on the river bank near the present shoe factory, was also used as barracks for the soldiers.
The soldiers who were constantly maintained at the post of Cape Girardeau numbered from a few hundred to several thousand at times, according to the exigencies of the situation. While the headquarters of the soldiers was at Cape Girardeau, yet detachments were from time to time sent out all over Southeast Missouri, even as far south as the Arkansas line.
The large frame building at the corner of Broadway and Lorimier streets was for a long time used as a smallpox hospital, and later a two-story brick building, known as the Moore house, about a hundred yards west of the City cemetery, was used for this purpose. The building, then known as the Johnson house, now the Riverview hotel, was used as a general hospital. A three-story brick building, known as the "Fongen building", on Main street and Broadway, where the Buckner-Ragsdale store is now, and all of the court house, were used as guard houses or prisons for all violators of military laws, citizens and soldiers alike. Nearly all of the. Ingram addition from Sprigg street to the river (this part of the city contained but few inhabitants then), was used as a corral for wornout horses to recuperate, or if unfit for further service, were condemned and sold.
Many times news would reach the city that some rebel commands were headed towards Cape Girardeau, but these would generally prove unfounded rumors. Only on one occasion it proved to be true, when, in April, 1863, General Marmaduke did make an attack on the city. Prisoners of war were brought in at all times during the war and in most cases they were forwarded to other prisons more distant. In only two instances were rebel soldiers executed in Cape Girardeau. One, a Mr. Bolin was taken from the prison in the night by a mob, taken out on the Bloomfield road, and hanged to a gate bar. In the second instance, in April, 1864, another prisoner was brought in. Attempted lynching was feared, but to frustrate the mob, cannon and a heavy guard were placed in the public square. The prisoner, Henry Winter by name, was afterwards tried by a court martial and sentenced to be shot. He was executed near Fort Con August 10, 1864, in the presence of a large crowd of people.
Price Headed for Cape
In the fall of 1864 General Sterling Price in command of a large confederate army headed for Missouri, and, while it was expected that he would attack Cape Girardeau, yet this was not done, but Price went on to Pilot Knob, which was a small military post. This was soon overpowered and captured. General Mower, who was commanding an army of union soldiers, was started in pursuit of General Price's army. In order to gain time on Price's forces Mower's army came to Cape Girardeau, and as he got there almost every available steamboat . was dispatched to Cape Girardeau in order to carry his soldiers to St. Louis. His army consisted of about 15,000 mem, and it took about fifteen boats to transport them to St. Louis, which city, it was thought, General Price's forces were trying to reach. The boats were all there on a certain day and lined the river front from a point opposite the old cemetery to the convent. This gave the union forces great advantage over the confederates. From St. Louis General Mower's army went in pursuit of Price's army and forced him out of the state again. This and the attack made by General Marmaduke on Cape Girardeau April 26, 1863, were about the greatest events in the history of the civil war so far as Cape Girardeau was concerned.
Soldiers from about one-half of the northern states were stationed in the city at some time during the war, and in all the city of Cape Girardeau was occupied by union soldiers from July 10, 1861, to August 14, 1865, a period of four years, one month and four days. The last soldiers to leave Cape Girardeau were a battalion of the Thirty-second Iowa infantry.