Prison For A Confederate

 In his excellent short book “And Life Went On” Joe Jeffrey outlines the effect the Civil War had on the small town of Montevallo, Missouri.

Mildred Cooper told how her great-grandfather fared.

"He was captured as he was coming home on furlough after the Battle of Lexington. They took him over to Fort Scott prison where he served three months. In some of his letters written from prison he said they gave him the job of whitewashing hospital rooms. According to his letters he had time for prayer and to read his Bible--he was a Southern Baptist. He also had time to visit with the other prisoners. They weren't really mean to him. They didn't mistreat him while he was in the Fort Scott prison.

"While in prison Confederate men around him were plotting to escape. They talked to him about it and he wouldn't go along with it. He told them they would be caught and killed. So they turned against him. He was so concerned for their lives he went to one of the guards and told him to keep an eye on them. One of the prisoners, a former Vernon County sheriff, told my great-grandfather the minute he got out to look out for him.

"Then he was released in July of '62 on oath--he had to take an oath that he wouldn't fight on either side. And then in September of that year, he was shot out in his yard by three Union men who were neighbors. So he didn't get to stay home very long. He was home three months when they shot him just because he was a Confederate. They accused him of siding with the enemy. They knew he would be defenseless in the dark of the night. They came riding up the lane to their house. My great-grandparents had a light inside and were getting ready to go to bed on a warm September night. The men called him out by name. He went out and if he hadn't, they would have gone in and got him. Then they shot him in the back and rode off. His widow determined who they were and they were neighbors. Before the war started he had sold them some land which they never paid for. Nothing was done then, for the war was still on. One was a captain in the Union Army and his son and son-in-law. After my great-grandmother remarried, after the war ended and Montevallo rebuilt, she went to court and proved it on these three. They had to leave the state of Missouri. They couldn't put them in jail because of the war, but they had to give back the land they hadn't paid for. I think that's why she filed the suit, to get back her land."