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When
the first gun was fired upon Fort Sumpter (April 12, 1861),
little did the citizens of the remote county of Monroe dream
that the
war which was then inaugurated would eventually, like the
simultaneous disemboguement of a hundred volcanoes, shake
this great nation from its center to its circumference.
Little did they then dream that the smoke of the bursting
shells, which hurtled and hissed as they sped with lurid
glare from rebel batteries upon that fatal morning,
foreboded ravaged plains -"
And burning towns and ruined homes, And mangled limbs and
dying groans, And widows' tears and orphans' moans, And all
that misery's hand bestows To fill the catalogue of human
woes."
Little
did they dream that the war cloud which had risen above the
waters of Charleston harbor would increase in size and gloom
until
its black banners had been unfurled throughout the length
and breadth of the land.
Little
did they imagine that war, with all its horrors, would
invade
their quiet homes, and with ruthless hand tear away from
their fireside altars their dearest and most cherished
idols/ Could the North and the South have foreseen the
results of that internecine strife, there would be to-day
hundreds of thousands of happier homes in the land, hundreds
of thousands less hillocks in our cemeteries, hundreds of
thousands less widows, hundreds of thousands less orphans,
no unpleasant memories, and no legacies of hatred and
bitterness left to rankle in the breasts of the living, who
espoused the fortunes of the opposing forces.
All
that transpired during that memorable struggle would fill a
large
volume. Monroe county, as did the State of Missouri
generally, suffered much. Her territory was nearly all the
time occupied by either one or the other antagonistic
elements, and her citizens were called upon to contribute to
the support of first one side and then the other.
However much we might desire to enter into the details of
the war,
we could not do so, as the material for such a history is
not at hand.
Indeed, were it even possible to present the facts as they
occurred,
we doubt the propriety of doing so, as we would thereby
reopen the
wounds which have partially been healed by the flight of
time and the
hope of the future. It were better, perhaps, to let the
passions and the deep asperities which were then engendered,
and all that serves to remind us of that unhappy period, be
forgotten. We have tried in vain to obtain the number and
names of the men who entered the Confederate army from
Monroe county. No record of them has ever been preserved,
either by the officers who commanded the men or by the
Confederate government. It is supposed about 600 men went
into the Southern army. Hon. Theodore Brace raised the first
company at Paris for State guards, numbering about 70 men.
These men went into camp on Elk fork of Salt river, six
miles south of Paris. After being in the service six months
they were discharged, when some of them entered the Southern
army at the battle of Lexington. |
