The magnitude of the role Missouri played in the Civil War is often overlooked.
But the fact is the Show Me State saw far more action than most others during the War Between the States, as 1,200 documented skirmishes took place within its border – a number exceeded in only Virginia and Tennessee.
The landscape of society in the Show Me State was unique during Civil War times, as the loyalty of the resident population was greatly divided between the Union and the Confederacy. Both sides laid claim to the state and two opposing state governments grappled for control.
By the time it ended in April of 1865, Missouri had supplied nearly 150,000 troops to the Civil War (about 110,000 to the Union Army and about 40,000 to the Confederate Army), and battles and skirmishes had sprung up in all areas of the state. Texas County was not without its gunfights and cannon fire during the war, and played host to several documented scuffles from 1861 to 1865 – including one at Licking in 1862 (May 4), and two at Houston in 1863 (Sept. 12 and Nov. 22). Battles were also fought at several nearby locations, including Eminence, Salem, West Plains, Hartsville, Rolla and Lebanon.
The memory of the efforts and sacrifices made by both sides during the Civil War is kept alive in virtually literal fashion by a group of Americans who regularly reenact battles at actual battlegrounds and other locations all over the country. Organizations that coordinate and oversee reenactors’ activities exist in numerous states, including Missouri.
This fall, members of the Missouri Civil War Reenactors’ Association (MCWRA) will stage a large mock battle in Houston for the second time in an event set for Oct. 26-28 at the Houston Area Chamber of Commerce Fairgrounds. Hosting and helping organize the fight are soldiers of the MCWRA’s Missouri 2nd Infantry CSA (Confederate States of America), including Success resident Tommy Gale.
Gale, who works as a deputy with the Laclede County Sheriff’s Department when he’s not packing a musket and donning Confederate gray, said the Houston battle should attract between 300 and 400 reenactors, a number similar to the 300-plus that took to the Texas County battlefield in the fall of 2010. The event will take place the week after a national reenactment event in Vicksburg, Miss.
“A lot of guys are making plans to head to Mississippi,” Gale said, “but we’re kind of catching the overflow because of the price of gas and things like that. We already have a good commitment for Houston.”
The MCRWA schedules about a half-dozen battles each year. In addition to the hundreds of infantry, reenactments are usually complete with cannons that provide realistic sound and concussion to the scene. To attract the big guns and their crews, bounties are typically made available to help cover expenses, including transport and the cost of simply firing them (which runs in the neighborhood of $15 to $20 a shot).
Gale said at least six cannons are expected to be at Houston this fall, and the 52nd Regimental String Band will return to provide period-correct music.
Another attraction at reenactments is the “sutler row.” Sutler is a period-correct term for vendors who followed armies around and sold goods to soldiers at highly inflated prices.
“If a guy had been away from home for months enduring all the hardships of being in the army and wanted an apple pie, he might have been willing to pay a sky-high price for it,” Gale said. “Sutlers took advantage of the army, but they did provide something to them they couldn’t get anywhere else.”
Of course, sutlers who set up big canvas tents at reenactments in 2012 might offer a pair of gloves or a hat similar to those found in the 1860s, but like the war itself, the price-gouging is history. Gale said he expects Houston’s sutler row to be much larger this year than in 2010, and many non-period vendors will again be on hand selling modern foods and other items.
While spectators viewing upwards of 300 soldiers engaging in a pretend battle can certainly get a feel for the real thing, national-scale events put on by the American Civil War Blue-Gray Alliance regularly feature far greater numbers. In August of last year, about 5,000 soldiers faced off and dozens of cannons blasted away at Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield near Springfield, in honor of the 150th anniversary of the biggest battle staged in Missouri. Gale said one of the big guns on the Confederate side literally shook the entire area.
“Even the Yanks would stop and ooh and ahh and wave their hats every time it fired,” Gale said. “It belched smoke and flame and really put on a show. It was unreal.”
This year marks the 150th anniversary of many other Civil War battles, and several reenactments have already been attended in eye-opening numbers. In March, about 9,000 reenactors gathered at Shiloh, Tenn., and thousands more are expected to show up at Vicksburg.
“At Shiloh, we had 67 artillery pieces just on the Confederate side,” Gale said. “That was really impressive.”
The 150th anniversary of another big Missouri battle – the Battle of Fort Davidson in Iron County (a.k.a. the Battle of Pilot Knob) – will occur in September of 2014, and Gale and other MCWRA members are already looking forward to what should be a huge (possibly national) event. The location has already been host to large-scale reenactments in the past.
“At one of our other battles at Pilot Knob, we had something like 20,000 spectators on Saturday,” Gale said. “I’ve never seen the likes. You couldn’t even walk through the sutler row.”
Gale said that Civil War reenactment is a hobby that’s about much more than firing replicas of old guns for crowds.
“It’s kind of hard to describe unless you’re a part of it, but we all share the common interest of the history of the Civil War,” he said. “And it gives you a chance to truly get away from the modern world for a time. We try to live exactly like the soldiers and people of that time lived, and there’s really a camaraderie with the other guys in your unit.”
Gale and other 2nd Missouri soldiers join up at reenactments with counterparts from the 9th Missouri Sharp Shooters and several other units to form the 1st Missouri Battalion CSA.
“You’ve got lots of people in this who you spend the entire weekend going through the hardships with,” Gale said. “You don’t have bullets actually whizzing at you and people dying, but you live in the heat and the cold and you eat what they ate back then. It’s a way to actually relive it instead of just reading it out of a book.
“Presenting it to people as a living history helps them get a better understanding of it all.”
Presenting it to people as a living history helps them get a better understanding of it all.”