Sherwood, Missouri was situated at the present-day
intersection of JJ Highway and Fir Road in Jasper County between Joplin and
Carl Junction. Only the cemetery remains
at the end of a narrow lane off Fir Road.
Jasper County had a rich farming tradition,
agriculturally and in livestock. The
area had an abundance of vegetation and game. This prosperity and abundance led
to the destruction of the area as both northern and southern troops pillaged
the area for food for themselves and their animals and the valuable lead and
mineral resources during the Civil War.
At the time of the Civil War, Sherwood was the third
largest village in Jasper County. On May 18, 1863, Jasper County guerrilla
leader Thomas Livingston surprised and overran a foraging party of Union
soldiers near Sherwood. Eighteen soldiers were killed by the guerilla band on
May 18, 1863.
Fifteen of the dead were colored troops stationed at
Baxter Springs, Kansas. The following
day Union troops from Fort Blair came into Missouri and burned the town of Sherwood;
most of Livingston's men lived in and around the area. The citizens fled to
Texas; Sherwood was never rebuilt.
**********
Two sure things about a war – the victors of the
battle get to name it and both sides tend to succeed in marring the name of
their opponents.
Major Thomas R. Livingston is often referred to without
rank and full name making him appear as “lawless bushwhacker” to his Union
opponents, but to his friends and neighbors he was a “respected bushwhacker.”
Born in 1820 in Montgomery County, MO (about 100
miles NW of St Louis), he settled just west of Carthage MO in 1851. While
digging a cellar, he discovered lead ore and with his half-brother, William
Parkinson, he erected a smelter and entered the lead mining boom in southwest
Missouri. Both Livingston and Parkinson
would be killed during the war.
During the “bloody Kansas” era, in the 1850s,
Livingston was captain of a Border Guard unit raised to defend western Missouri
against the marauding Kansas Jayhawkers. When war came in 1861, Livingston,
then 41 years old, was a wealthy businessman and community leader. Although he
owned only one slave, he believed in fully defending the states’ rights of the
south.
The majority of the Confederacy's lead used in
armaments came from Missouri mines. As a benefit of his mining involvement, he
was elected captain in the 11th Cavalry Regiment of the Missouri State Guard.
On September 8, 1861, Livingston joined John Mathews
in a 150-man cavalry raid into Kansas in retaliation for the burning of
Missouri towns. They sacked and burned
the small town of Humboldt. Humboldt had become a refuge for abolitionists who
had tried to settle illegally on Indian land; many Indians joined the cavalry
unit.
After the Confederate defeat at Pea Ridge, March 6-8,
1862 in Benton County, AR, what remained of the Missouri State Guard was merged
into other units. Livingston, along with
many others, mustered out and came back to their homes. They found Union troops, disciplined and
undisciplined, had created nearly unlivable conditions, the men more interested
in plunder and “getting even” than restoring order; martial law was the order
of the day.
Seeing the lawlessness and disorder, Livingston
began gathering up his former troops and recruited more until he had an
organized cavalry unit. Already a captain in the Confederate Army, his unit
became known as “Livingston’s Rangers.” Confederate leaders knew they had no
hope of regaining control of Missouri without the use of guerrilla forces.
He effectively controlled most of Jasper County MO
during the war. Although most of his activities
took place centering on Jasper County and crossing over into Arkansas and
Indian Territory, patrolling along the KS-MO border often brought him into Vernon
County MO (on the western border just across from Fort Scott, KS).
Livingston and his band of Confederates and southern
sympathizers were known for committing acts of arson, murder, robbery, in the
effort to disrupt Union supply lines.
These tactics outraged Union officials and civilians and his notoriety
made him a prime target for Union troops.
Then he ventured out of his territory. On July 11th,
1863, he led his Rangers northeast to Stockton MO, in hopes of capturing
supplies from a Union garrison headquartered in the courthouse.
When they arrived, the citizens of Stockton were gathered,
listening to speeches by area political candidates. Livingston and his band,
250 men, surprised the town with their arrival. About 20 militiamen were in the
courthouse. Livingston rode at front of his men waving his carbine over his
head, urging them forward. The
guerrillas surrounded the courthouse and began firing. As the Union men tried
to shut the doors and barricade themselves inside, Livingston charged the
courthouse, 'as if to ride right through the door,' as one militiaman wrote
after the fight. Once aware of his
identity, the militiamen fired, knocking Livingston out of the saddle. Three
others fell nearby. Shocked that their leader was killed, the rangers began to
retreat. As the militiamen exited the courthouse, Livingston grabbed for his
carbine and tried to get up. Additional
shots to his body stopped him. It
appeared Livingston survived the first shot since he had been wearing a steel
breastplate.
Livingston and three other Rangers were buried in a
mass grave in the Stockton Cemetery. His death was also the death of Livingston's
Ranger Battalion. The men split up joining other units.
Before the War, Livingston had been a successful and
prominent business man. Along with his lead mine, he owned a general store,
hotel, saloon, real estate in three counties, and traded in livestock. After
the war, his assets were sought as restitution for his actions. His property
was confiscated and used in paying off the lawsuits against him for his wartime
deeds.
Three months after the Stockton incident,
Confederate Gen JO Shelby and his men burned the Stockton courthouse.
*********
Livingston's Hideout was probably the only
Confederate camp inside Kansas during the Civil War. In the corner of southeast
Cherokee County, KS, it was about 2 miles north of the border with Indian
Territory and less than 100 feet west of the border with Missouri. It was 5
miles from Baxter Springs, the site of Union military posts. The campsite was
in a heavily wooded area and could not be seen from the nearby roadway.
The location of Livingston's hideout frustrated the
area's Union troops. Many times the troops chased the guerrillas, only to have them
scatter and “vanish.” Union troops did
not know of its existence until after the war.
In the 1980s during construction of a new home, the
site was again discovered and explored by the Baxter Springs Historical
Society.
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