The Civil War;
and some of the lives it touched
in Lone Jack, Missouri
Page created by
Judy (Hommertzheim) Mohr, Moore;
"Ramblin Rose"
The Battle of Lone Jack
The Civil War Battle of Lone Jack, Missouri was fought in the streets of this small Jackson county town, in the sweltering heat of an August day; the 16th day of August, 1862.
"Story of the civil war battle of lone jack", compiled by Irene Spainhour,
"There was no skirmishing at long range at Lone Jack. The bloody work went on full five hours across a street only sixty feet in width - when it was not a hand - to - hand encounter." "The battle was raging from one end of the little town to the other. Captain Winfrey, whose home was here, led his company in a charge against the Federals in his own house and drove them from it and from his drug store adjoining his dwelling. From the upper windows of the hotel, Foster's fine riflemen poured out a deadly, ceaseless fire on the Confederates crouching behind fences outbuildings and whatever would afford shelter or concealment. Colonel Hays rode up the line on a black horse, the horse from which he was shot an Newtonia, and ordered the hotel to be set on fire. Two or three soldiers went forward - crept forward, gathering combustibles as they went. In a few minutes the building was in flames. It was a holocaust. The charred bodies of one or two men and a horse were discovered in the embers after the battle."
One of the casualities of this battle was 30 year old, Lucinda (Rowland) Cave, wife of Bartlett Bird Cave and mother of William Henry "Buddy" Cave, Malinda B. Cave (who died in 1858 at 2 1/2 years of age), Jessie Millard Cave and Phenellar H. Cave, who died the following year, 1863, just 4 years of age, who is buried with her mother and shares the same headstone.
"Mrs. Bart Cave, hostess of the hotel, fled through the Confederate lines with her two small children and lay down for safety in the nearby standing corn. Before the battle was over, her babe muttered and cried. She rose on her elbow to give it attention, and a cannon ball penetrated her breast. She died three weeks later."
"Around the battery the Federals were massing in some confusion, leading horses forth and keeping up a random firing as Hays' men moved closer. Colonel Hays, cool, calm, observant, noted that the Federals were beginning to shield themselves behind their horses and were firing from the saddle - bows. Then he gave a piteous command, the first and perhaps the last of the day, for this was the privates' battle. He ordered his men to 'Shoot the horses..' For many minutes more horses fell than did men. The poor helpless animals, wounded and dying, groaned piteously."
Noah Hunt, of Lone Jack,who was 31 years old at this time, said that 110 Federal horses lay dead in the streets after the battle.
"AT the close of the battle the cannon were in the possession of the Federals, who abandoned the guns because all their artillery horses had been killed;--"
The one event that touched the life of every
person living in Jackson county and the little town of Lone Jack,
Missouri was
ORDER NO. 11
Some of the lives touched:
John Hunter
David Hunter
William Hunter
Andrew T. Owsley
William Calvin Tate
Elizabeth "Eliza" Cave
William Cave
Will continue adding to this
as time permits
To be continued---
