Carthage
On the night of July 4, 1860, Franz Sigel’s men found themselves in camp north of the city of Carthage, Jasper County, Missouri. Unbeknownst to them, Gov. Claiborne Jackson’s men, under his own command, lay in wait, just over a ridge further north. Though the Confederate forces had Sigel’s men grossly outnumbered, almost six to one, nearly a third of Jackson’s forces were not armed. Still, the Confederate soldiers who had weapons and were ready for battle had a great advantage on the Union Army. On the dawn of July 5, Jackson drew his men into formation along the ridge. Sigel had been chasing him across the state. Jackson wondered if Sigel would take this opportunity and attack. It did not take long for the governor to receive an answer.
Will’s regiment had been part of the encampment that settled down in Carthage the night of July 4. There were plenty of rumors going around that Confederate soldiers were in the area. Of course, they had heard this several times in the last few days. As they began to eat their breakfast early on the morning of July 5, the troops were alarmed to hear their officers telling them to fall out. They quickly gathered up their supplies and fell into ranks.
Skeet Cooper looked a little nervous as he was standing in line next to Will. “Do you think this is it?” he asked. “Do you think we’re going to see the elephant?”
Will wasn’t sure what to say, but it turned out he didn’t have to. Frank had an answer for him. “Course not,” he said, still chewing the remains of his breakfast. “This here is just a drill, to let us know what it would be like if we were suddenly surprised in the morning.”
But Will wasn’t so sure. He could hear some officers shouting commands in the distance. And then, he thought he heard the pop, pop sound of rifle fire. Soon, Sgt. Bolder was giving them a command to march forward. Then, they were told to hold their line. It suddenly became quite clear to all of them that they were about to engage in battle.
* * *
Jaris was trying to hold his line together. It wasn’t exactly an easy task considering the Union had a canon trained right in the middle of his men. Still, he had been engaged here for nearly forty minutes and had received no orders to fall back or to press on. He wasn’t exactly sure what Gov. Jackson had in mind. In front of him, he could see some Union soldiers gathering together, as if they were about to make a charge up the ridge, directly at his men. He looked back at his soldiers, some of which seemed terrified. “Hold your ground! Hold your ground!” he yelled as he made his way down the line.
Some of the officers had mentioned to him that Jackson was counting on a diversion. He planned to send some two thousand unarmed men into the trees on the left of the Union line. The plan was to use these men to make Sigel think he was vastly outnumbered, which hopefully would cause him to call a retreat. Then, the Confederates would swarm down over the fleeing Union soldiers, routing them, and with any luck destroying the army.
That was not happening right now, however, and Jaris could see that the Union forces directly across from him were making their way over that deadly ground between them. They charged up the ridge, and he gave the command “Fire at will!” At first the Union line seemed to waver, but soon the men began to make it up the ridge. Some of Jaris’s green recruits looked as if they might turn and run. He made his way down the line, reminding them that they must hold their ground. Soon, the Union line, though much weaker now than it had been when it first began its charge, was at their position, and they were engaged in hand-to-hand combat. Some of the men had the presence of mind to use their bayonets. Others were using whatever they could get their hands on to force the Union back.
Jaris drew his pistol and his sword and jumped into the fight. He shot one man in the gut, and then turned to face another one, stabbing him through. Another soldier lunged at him with a fixed bayonet. He was able to step out of the way before shooting him with his handgun. His men were rallying; they were fighting back. Soon, he heard the Union yelling for a retreat. At first, his men began to cheer, but he reminded them they must regain their composure. It was quite possible the Union soldiers might be coming again.
* * *
Though Will had not been one of the men to charge Jaris’s company, he did attack the ridge outside of Carthage that day. He had successfully wounded and shot down several Confederate soldiers. On their portion of the battlefield, they had nearly taken the ridge. He was actually leading the charge up the side of the incline when he heard the order to fall back. He wasn’t sure why, but he had no choice but to join the rest of his regiment in doing so. They retreated past their encampment, all the way back to Carthage, ten miles from where they had started.
Later that evening, Sgt. Bolder, who had been cut on the head by a piece of enemy shrapnel, came through the encampment to notify the troops of exactly what had happened and to give their orders for the next day. Apparently, Col. Sigel had seen another movement of troops in the woods to their left. Rather than surrender the town, he decided to fall back and try to hold it. They could all plainly see that they had been extremely outnumbered. Still, it was hard for Will to sleep that night, knowing they were giving up ground to the Confederacy.
As he slowly started to fall asleep, he heard Skeet in the tent next door exclaiming, “We saw the elephant Frank! And we done come out alive!” Will sighed. There would be many more elephants to come.
In the morning, Sigel’s men retreated even farther into southern Missouri, finally encamping near Sarcoxie. Jackson’s men seemed to have turned the tables, and the hunter became the hunted.
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