John Hanson MCNEILL

                   1870 U. S. Census,  Gallatin P.O., Grand Rivers Twp, Daviess County, Missouri:   William McNeill, age 32, farmer, real estate $2,000, personal estate $1,000; Mary J., age 32, keeping house, born OH; Sally P., age 9, born MO; George W., age 7, born MO; Aszolia B., age 4, born MO; John J. I., age 1, born MO.

1880 U. S. Census,  Grand Rivers Twp, Daviess County, Missouri:William McNeill, age 50[?], farmer, born VA (parents born VA); Mary, age 48 [?], keeping house, born OH (father born VA, mother born OH); Sally P., age 19, born MO; George W., age 15, born MO; Bell, age 12, born MO; John, age 8, born MO; William age 6, born MO.
                  

                   Killed ("shot while on picket duty; died the same day") at Battle of Lexington, Missouri, Civil War.  Early West Virginia Settlers, Capon Valley Pioneers and Descendants, vol. I, part I, chap. V.

The Battle of Lexington, Missouri 1861
Copyright by John A. Gueguen, Jr.
The Battle of Lexington
In the spring of 1861, the town of Lexington, Missouri, located on the picturesque bluffs overlooking the broad Missouri River, was enjoying prosperity and had many reasons for looking forward to a promising future. The census of 1860 made Lexington, with a population of 4,122, the state's fifth largest community; by summer, 1861, the population figure had steadily increased, each arrival of a river steamer contributing its share of settlers to the city.

Lexington, besides being the area's political, financial and educational seat, home of three colleges, was also the center of wholesale and retail trade for a large section of western and southern Missouri. The riverfront, with its factories and warehouses, and the frequent arrival and departure of river steamers, presented an interesting and colorful spectacle.

With the bombardment of Fort Sumter in April 1861, war seemed remote and of not much concern to the citizens of Lexington, but as summer approached and the conflict grew into a full-scale war, the dark clouds came nearer. People began to realize that, after all, there was a chance their peaceful community could become a bloody battlefield.

Lexington's people remained steadfast to the Union through the unsettled period preceding the war, but at the beginning of actual hostilities, a majority of Lexingtonians, many of them slave owners, took the sides of the South. A large percent of the townspeople were not in favor of war, and, regardless of party ties, they preferred to remain neutral. The protection of lives and property, which might be endangered in an attack by either army, was the only thing considered important in Lexington.

Major General Sterling Price
The first military post was established in Lexington late in May when Missouri's Governor Jackson, definitely pro-Southern in his beliefs, commissioned Major General Sterling Price to take charge at Lexington. General Lyon, commander of the newly organized Federal army of Missouri, did not allow Price to remain at Lexington long, however, for during the last part of June, he moved his army toward Lexington in a determined attempt to clear the state of secessionist forces. General Price, unprepared for conflict and having only a small band of inexperienced men who lacked organization and discipline, retreated to southwestern Missouri. On reaching Lexington Lyon left a small force and continued on in pursuit of Price, hoping to catch and defeat him.

Continued strengthening by the Federal headquarters made Lexington prominent in the chain of towns along the Missouri River between Saint Louis-and Saint Joseph which the Federals were using to keep Confederate sympathizers north of the river from joining Price's army in southern Missouri.

On August 10, Lyon finally caught up with Price at Wilson's Creek near Springfield, in southwestern Missouri, and Price won a decisive victory in the ensuing battle, during which Lyon was slain. Price's forces, then numbering about seven thousand, set up camp at Springfield to rest and to plan their strategy. Wishing to join forces with the small but numerous Rebel bands north of the river, Price was determined that his next move must be to break the Union blockade of the river. Price believed that of the four most likely targets for this attack, Lexington, if captured, would put the Federals in the most uncomfortable position. Meanwhile in the river port communities, the month of August was one of great excitement.

Early in September, General Fremont's Federal headquarters at St. Louis ordered the Lexington post to secure a forced loan from the Farmers' Bank of Lexington. This seizing of the bank's entire funds of nearly a million dollars further strained the relations between the Union soldiers and the pro-Southern people of Lexington.

The Long March

Colonel James A. Mulligan
Toward the end of August, General Price's steadily growing army began the long march to Lexington, and when Colonel James A. Mulligan, commander of the Union forces there, heard of the approach of a large Confederate army, he sent word to General Fremont urgently requesting reinforcements. Mulligan's forces, consisting of the First Illinois Cavalry, the Thirteenth Missouri Infantry, the Twenty-Third Illinois Infantry, and a few companies of the Missouri Home Guards, numbered just short of three thousand, scarcely one-fourth the size of Price's army.

On September 10, the advancing Confederates reached Warrensburg, 34 miles south of Lexington, and the Federal party on its way to Saint Louis with the funds of the Lexington bank, hastily returned to the safety of the entrenchments being constructed around the old Masonic College building on a hill overlooking the river in the north part of Lexington.

Price's advance guard met light opposition as the army approached Lexington, and the Federal defenders were forced back to the prepared entrenchments around the college. The Confederate troops entered the south and east parts of the town on the twelfth, and the conflict on this first day of the siege was limited to minor skirmishes and an exchange of artillery fire. Even after Price's entrance into Lexington, Mulligan's men continued throwing up entrenchments and breastworks at a feverish pace, day and night, to protect their position from being overrun.

"We've Got Em"

Civil War reinactment
After the first day of the siege, Price and his army retired to the fairgrounds in the southeast part of town, where the officers decided on a course of watchful waiting with the least amount of bloodshed- "We've got em, dead sure .. All we have to do is watch em," Price told his men.

In the Union camp, most of Mulligan's officers, with a much less confident outlook, were in favor of retreating across the river in several steamboats at their disposal, but Mulligan replied, saying, "Gentlemen, I have heard what you have to say, but, begad, we'll fight em That's what we enlisted for, and that's what we'll do."

The Federals' first real encounter with the Confederates occurred the next day. In his report, Colonel Mulligan gave a vivid account of the reaction of his men: "Our men had returned the volley, and a scene of the wildest confusion commenced. Each man evidently believed that he who made the most noise was doing the most shooting. Those who were not shooting at the moon were shooting above it, into the earth, or elsewhere at random, in the wildest and most reckless manner." This type of firing could not have continued long, however, for the Union troops had only 40 rounds of ammunition apiece.

Period of Waiting

The fighting during the next three days followed a similar pattern with no major attacks being launched by either side. Mulligan and his men kept an anxious watch for the expected reinforcements as they worked to strengthen the fortifications. They passed the hours in anxious waiting, not knowing when the Confederates might begin the expected assault

Mulligan gives an interesting sidelight on the end of the stalemate that preceded the Confederate attack:

"Sunday, the seventeenth, arrived, and the Catholic chaplain celebrated Mass on the hillside." After the services were over, the men went back to their work of casting shot in the foundry set up in the basement of the college building, of making their defense more secure, and of "stealing provisions from the inhabitants round about. Our pickets were all the time skirmishing with the enemy, and the whole camp was preparing for the enemy's attack."

Early on the morning of Monday, September 18, the three-day battle, which has earned recognition as one of the largest battles in the Western campaign of the War Between the States, began. Wave upon wave of Confederate soldiers moved toward the Federal encampment from the fairgrounds, and the Colonel expecting the worst but hoping for the best, paints this picture of the approach of the Rebel army: "At nine o'clock am. the enemy was seen through the glass approaching with a force of 28,000 men and 13 pieces of cannon. They came as one dark, moving mass, their polished guns gleaming in the sunlight, their banners waving, and their drums beating. Everywhere, as far as we could see, were men, men, men -- approaching grandly." Mulligan continues: "Our men stood firm behind the breastworks, none trembling or pale, and the whole place was solemn and silent. The chaplains were valiantly doing their duty, blessing the men OR their rounds. The enemy came .. upon my poor devoted little band and opened a terrific fire ... which we answered with determination and spirit."

Unarmed Volunteers

Although Colonel Mulligan speaks of 28,000 men in Price's army, the figure was probably closer to 15,000 to 18,000. The mass of soldiers appeared much larger because of many hundreds of unarmed volunteers from the surrounding country, who had come to add their small contributions to the defeat of the "Yanks.

Shortly after the battle started, several companies of Confederates were dispatched to complete the encirclement of the Federals by capturing positions below the bluffs north of the college. To cut their enemy's escape route, the troops also captured several steamboats and ferries tied up to the river bank.

At this point, the most controversial incident of tbe battle occurred. Price says that, as his troops were taking charge of the boats, a heavy fire opened from a large house situated on the bluffs a few hundred yards west of the Federal works. The building was being used as a field hospital by the Union army and had been regarded neutral by both forces. Confederates noted that the gunfire was coming from this building, an act which would have been contrary to the rules of warfare, they immediately assaulted and captured it. Later Mulligan insisted that the building had not been fortified and that the seizure of it by the Rebels was "a dreadful and dishonest aggression against the helpless, wounded and dying."

A court inquiry held after the war ruled the the Confederate capture of the building was not unjustified since it was proven that, although troops did not actually fortify it, they did fire from close by and even under its cover.

After the Confederates had taken the hospital, they began firing into the Federal entrenchments nearby. After several unsuccessful Federal attempts at recapture of the hospital, Mulligan sent his Irish Brigade, famous for its courage and valor, to storm the structure. "They ran up to the hospital, a wild line of irresistible human will, first opened the door, without shot or shout, until they encountered the enemy within, whom they hurled out and far down the hill beyond.

"A Terrible Thing"

In their apparently hasty exit from the Anderson House, as the hospital, once the gracious home of the Colonel Oliver Anderson, Anderson House has come to be called, the Confederates captured the Union surgeon. "It was a terrible thing," said Mulligan, "to see those brave fellows, mangled and wounded, without skillful hands to bind their ghastly wounds. Captain Moriarty, who had been in civil life a physician, was ordered to lay aside his sword and go into the hospital. He went, and through all the siege, worked among the wounded with no other instrument than a razor. The suffering in the hospital was horrible," continued the Federal commander, "the wounded and mangled men dying for thirst, frenziedly wrestling for water in which the bleeding stumps of mangled limbs had been washed, and drinking it with a horrid avidity."

Despite the Federals' brave capture, the possession of the house changed hands again late in the afternoon, the Southern forces held it for the remainder of the engagement.

All through the nineteenth, a very hot and dry day, the firing continued incessantly. The Federal soldiers still expected help to arrive, but they "looked and listened in vain, for all day long they fought without relief and without water, their parched lips cracking, their tongues swollen, and the blood running down their chins when they bit their cartridges."In his hurry to fortify the college grounds, Mulligan had not made certain the availability of a large supply of water for his men and horses, thinking that the college wells would be sufficient. But at midday on the nineteenth,the water supply was exhausted.

The Final Day

The morning of the twentieth, the final day of the battle, dawned another hot and sultry day. Price, early the morning, decided to finish the engagement with a general assault on Mulligan's western flank, but the Northern commander, hearing of this plan from his spies. shifted the greater portion of his defenses to this sector. When the Confederate attack was launched, the Federal lines held and fought off attack after attack. Since his attack was being pushed back by the Union mops, Price issued an order that was to be a major factor in the Federal surrender. During this period Lexington was a large producer of hemp, and large supplies of bales were stored near the Battleground in warehouses along the riverfront. Price had these bales brought to the front lines, and the Confederates used them as moveable breastworks. In this way Price's men could advance uphill on the Union position under cover of the rolling hemp bales.

Mulligan, anxiously searching for some means of halting the advance of his enemy, commanded that the bales be heated and fired at the bales in an attempt to set them afire. But Price had taken a precaution against this, for the bales were soaked in the river before being brought up for use.

Hand-to-Hand

Finally the rush came, and with a wild Rebel yell, the Confederates swept over the Federals' outer breastworks to begin a hand-to-hand struggle. But the Federal line held firm, even though Mulligan had totally conceded that the struggle must soon end, for the men were nearly exhausted and would soon die of "tat".

Suddenly the firing stopped, and Price, expecting the Union surrender, sent a message to Mulligan inquiring about the cause of the sudden cease-fire. The gallant Federal commander returned the note replying, General, I hardly know why, unless you have surrendered." Immediately the fighting resumed, but as the Federal soldiers, after suffering through 52 continuous hours of bombardment, and without water, ammunitions, or rations, gave up the hope of being reinforced. It was two o'clock in the afternoon, Wednesday, September 20, 1861, when the fighting Rally ceased, the Federal soldiers laid down their arms, and the Battle of Lexington ended in a confedarate victory.

Casualties Were Low

A surprising thing is that battle casualties were so low for such a battle. The Confederates reported 33 killed and 150 wounded, and the Federals 40 killed and 120 wounded. These figures do not include the volunteer troops. Most historians attribute these low totals to Mulligan's effective entrenchments and Price's rolling breastworks.

"The capture of Lexington had crowned General Price's command with a brilliant victory, and so far, the Missouri campaign had proceeded step by step, from one success to another," states the Southern historian, Pollard. And, adds Wood, the loss of "Lexington was one of the two major disasters to befall the Union cause in Missouri...," but it was also "the breaking of the last Confederate waves, for, as a state, Missouri was lost to the South already."

If Price could have kept Lexington, the effect of this battle would have been still more important, but the loss of the post by the Union was severely felt, and Fremont, resolving to recapture it, at once sent 20,000 men to drive Price and his followers out of Lexington and out of Missouri. As soon as the Federal patrol of the Missouri River was broken at Lexington, many Southern sympathizers in the northern part of the state flocked across to join Price. Unfortunately for the Southern cause, however, Price was not able to maint
                  

                   section 1, row 12


1870 U. S. Census,  Gallatin P.O., Grand Rivers Twp, Daviess County, Missouri:   Jesse McNeill, age 29, born VA, farmer, real estate $400, personal estate $300; Sarah E., age 25, born VA, keeping house; Robert S., age 4, born MO; Elizabeth, age 1, born MO.; in household adjacent to household of William McNeill.

1880 U. S. Census, Illinois, Piatt County, Blue Ridge Township (household adjacent to Jacob VanMeter and Ann McNeill Harness):  Jesse McNeill, age 39, born KY; Sarah E., age 30, born VA; Robert S., age 14, born VA; Jesse, age 7, born MO; Catherine, age 6, born MO; Richard D., age 3, born IL.

Children as listed in Joanne Eustice, Two Brothers from New Jersey, p. 22.

McNEILL AND HIS RANGERS  (Evans, General Clement A. Ed. ; Confederate Military History Vol III p 116, Confederate Publishing Co, Atlanta, 1899)(See Notes for father, John Hanson McNeill, for earlier history of McNeill's Rangers):

His son, Lieut. Jesse C. McNeill, succeeded to the command, but on account of his youth General Early hesitated to give him full control. Chafing under this lack of confidence, young McNeill was anxious for some opportunity to display his daring, and finally it was presented. The adventure which he proposed in February, 1865, was no less than to enter the town of Cumberland, on the Potomac, and Baltimore & Ohio railroad, pass unchallenged through the garrison of 6,000 or 8,000 soldiers, and make prisoners Gens. George Crook and B. F. Kelley.

Comrade J. B. Fay, of Maryland, had proposed such a scheme to the elder McNeill, and he took part in the planning of the expedition. Fay was a native of Cumberland, and several times during the war had entered it, even remaining at one time in safety an entire week. On account of his well known courage and discretion, it was agreed that he should reconnoiter, ascertain the location of pickets, the sleeping apartments of the generals, and gain all other information necessary to success. A lad from Missouri, C. R. Hallar, a member of the Rangers, whose coolness and courage had been often tested, accompanied Fay, and without loss of time the north side of the Potomac was reached, friends were found and interviewed, the situation around Cumberland ascertained, and when the night of this adventure ended the two bold Confederates were safely away near Romney, enjoying breakfast with their friend, Vanse Herriot.
Lieutenant McNeill had been engaged during this time in selecting and preparing 25 men, well mounted and armed, whom he moved slowly toward the Potomac in the direction of Cumberland. The rendezvous was reached, where McNeill's men were joined by about 12 others from Company F. Seventh Virginia, and Company D, Eleventh Virginia, Rosser's brigade.

When Fay and Hallar had reported, a night ride was at once made over mountain and valley, on icy roads and through snow drifts of such uncertain depth on the mountain top, that the men were compelled to dismount and lead their horses. The Potomac was crossed before daylight; but notwithstanding their fatiguing haste, it was too late to reach Cumberland over the unpicketed national road, as had been planned. Dauntless, however, the men refused to abandon the enterprise, and resolved to advance on a shorter route, guarded by two lines of pickets. McNeill, Fay, Vandiver and Kuykendall riding in advance, encountered a Federal cavalry picket within two miles of Cumberland, whose challenge was first answered by "Friends from New Creek," and next by a quick charge, a pistol shot and the capture of the party. From these captured pickets the countersign "Bull's Gap" was extorted, and the prisoners themselves, mounted on their own horses, were forced to accompany the Rangers until the adventure was ended.

The second picket post, a mile nearer the city, was taken by a ruse. It consisted of five men of the First West Virginia infantry cozily enjoying the early hours before day in a shed behind a log fire. At the approach of McNeill's party one of the pickets picked up his musket and advancing a few steps made the usual formal challenge, which Kuykendall answered according to army regulations. But the Rangers continued to crowd up and with a dash closed in around the fire, capturing the pickets without firing a gun.

This success secured for McNeill the entry into the slumbering city without alarm being given. With the promptitude which the nearness of daylight demanded McNeill detailed two squads of ten men each to make the captures. Sergt. Joseph W. Kuykendall, Company F. Seventh Virginia cavalry, a special scout for Genera] Early, who knew Kelley personally, as he had once been a prisoner in his hands, was charged with the pleasure of reversing the old conditions by the capture of this general. Sergt. Joseph L. Vandiver, who had the style of a field marshal, and could easily pass for a full general, was appointed to take General Crook. Fay, Hallar and others were detailed to cut all telegraph lines, while specific instructions to guard various points were given to the remainder of the troop.

These dispositions being made, the command moved on the pike into Green Street, around the Court House hill, crossing Chain bridge, and marched up Baltimore Street, the main thoroughfare, in the dim light of approaching morning. Some people were astir, but the intrepid Rangers rode on carelessly, whistling well known Federal army tunes and now and then guying a sentinel. The first halt was made in front of the Barnum house, since then named the Windsor, where Kuykendall's squad proceeded to their work, while the others rode on to the Revere house, where General Crook was sleeping. Kuykendall's band dismounted without exciting the suspicion of the sentry, who was easily disarmed by Sprigg Lynn, the first man in advance.

Entering the hotel and going to the second floor, Major Melvin, Kelley's adjutant-general, was caught in his bed, and the information gained that the General was in the adjacent room. He was at once awakened and told that he was a prisoner. "Prisoner " said the nervous officer; "to whom am I surrendering?" Kuykendall satisfied his anxiety on that point by saying: "To Captain McNeill, by order of General Rosser."

That was so sufficient under the circumstances that the general and his adjutant were soon dressed and mounted on the horses of two troopers, who, yielding their saddle seats to their captives, rode behind out of the city.

The Revere house party penetrated that hotel without further trouble than disarming the careless sentry and having the door opened by an agitated little negro, who exclaimed: "What kind of men is you, anyhow?"

General Crook's room was entered after a courteous knock at the door, and the curt reply, " Come in, " from the general. Vandiver, Gassman, Daily, Tucker and others promptly accepted the invitation. With the air of a general in authority Vandiver addressed the surprised Federal officer by saying: "General Crook, you are my prisoner"

"By what authority, sir?" said Crook, who had not yet risen from his bed. "General Rosser, sir; Fitzhugh Lee's division of cavalry, " was Vandiver's emphatic reply. General Crook rose out of his bed in astonishment, saying: "Is General Rosser here?" "Yes, sir," said Vandiver without a moment's hesitation; "I am General Rosser. We have surprised and captured the town." General Crook could not gainsay the bold declaration and submitted at once. He said, in referring to the event at a later day, that Vandiver "looked to him like such a man as Rosser might be," and doubtless he did.

The Rangers now secured headquarter flags, and riding quietly down Baltimore street entered the government stables, and chose several fine horses, among them General Kelley's favorite charger, Philippi. All being now well mounted, the Rangers rode away more rapidly, disarming guards as they went and announcing to sentries that they were General Crook's body-guard going out to fight some rebels. Excited and jubilant, they hastened away over the snow-clad roads, pursued unavailingly by parties of Federal cavalry, and after fighting back their pursuers, or eluding them, reached a point of safety from which their distinguished prisoners were sent to General Early's headquarters.

In the twenty-four hours they had ridden ninety miles, much of the time at night, while the route traversed included mountains, hill and streams, upon which lay the snow and ice of winter.

This famous exploit, which received special mention in a report of Gen. R. E. Lee to Secretary Breckinridge, was the last notable service of the Rangers. Lieutenant McNeill now received his captain's commission, but the war presently ended, and the command was paroled.

Subsequently he married and removed to Illinois. The men returned to civil occupations and became honored citizens, in various professions and callings, not only in the Virginias and Maryland, but in other States of the North and South.

New York Times, p. 1, Wednesday, February 23, 1865:    "   The capture of Gens. Crook and Kelley at Cumberland , by rebel raiders, excites some merriment, in spite of its acrious character.  It is known that the Secretary of War has been very much dissatisfied with the frequent incursions of guerillas into the Valley of the Shenandoah, and had more than once called the attention of the Commander of the department to the necessity of being more vigilant, and of being nearer the front himself.  Only the day before the capture he had repeated his dispatches on thjois subject.  That two Major-Generals, one of them the Department Commander himself, should be quietly seized in their beds, with their staff of officers, at a point so far removed from apparent peril as Cumberland, is not creditable to their watchfulness."

Obituary, Champaign County News, March 5, 1912:   " . . .  "Captain Jesse McNeill died at 4:30 a.m., Monday at his home in Mahomet.  he had been ill for a year.

"Captain McNeill was born in Bourbon, Ky., in September, 1841.  At the age of one year his parents moved to Virginia.  In 1848 they moved to Missouri and remained there until the war when he joined General Price's command, confederate army.  He was captured soon after and placed in prison in St. Louis, but escaped and returned to Virginia, where he enlisted with the army again and was appointed captain and remained until the close of the war.  While captain he won national distinction by the successful capture of Generals Cook and Kelly at Cumberland, Va.  With sixty-five picked men he rode twenty-six miles within federal lines and escaped without the loss of a man.  After the war he came to Illinois, where he resided on a farm near Mahomet several years, afterwards moving to Mahomet.

"He was united in marriage with Miss Sherrard of Virginia in 1865.  To them were born thirteen children, six of whom survive as follows:  R. F. of Mahomet, J. C. Jr., of New Holland, R. D. of Seymour; Mrs. Kate Roberts and Mrs. Margaret Smith of Champaign, and Mrs. Sallie Bell of Garret.

"The funeral will take place at  o'clock today at Mansfield.  Interment will be made at Mansfield."