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WILLIAM
HENRY
TAYLOR |
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From the 1887 History of Vernon County,
Missouri. Brown & Co., p.
873:
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WILLIAM H.
TAYLOR |
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(Postmaster,
Montevallo) |
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One of the
bravest soldiers who enlisted for service during the late war on the
side of the Confederacy was the subject of this sketch, and while his
experiences in that struggle may not have been the most important in his
life, they are certainly of sufficient interest in this day to briefly
mention them at least. Entering the Southern army at the first call for
troops to suppress invasion, he was subsequently commissioned captain,
and in 1862 was taken prisoner near Montevallo, on the old Bangs’ farm.
He was removed to Fort Scott and then sent to Fort Leavenworth, from whence he was
released on parole September 6, 1862, remaining on parole until in
1863. In 1865, he surrendered at Nevada. Away back in 1849 he had
settled in this county, and in 1858 was appointed to fill out the
unexpired term of James Fergus, the county sheriff, a position to which
he was elected in 1860, and one that he held until his enlistment. Mr.
Taylor came originally from Boyle county, Ky., where he was born October
20, 1831. Jesse Taylor, his father and Elizabeth (Anson) Taylor, his
mother, were also Kentuckians by birth, and the parents of six children,
of whom William H. was the third, though the eldest son. When quite
young he accompanied his parents to Missouri, stopping first at St.
Louis, from there going to Warren county, where he grew upon a farm, and
then coming here as stated. After the close of the war he went to
Illinois for a short time, visiting Nebraska the following fall, but in
1868 he returned again to Nevada. In 1872 he was a second time elected
sheriff of the county, a compliment which plainly indicated his worth
and fitness for political preferment. His term expired in 1875, and in
1876 he went to Dade county, and after awhile to Arkansas, where he
remained two and a half years. During this time he was engaged in a
survey of the town of Eureka Springs. In November, 1883, Vernon county
again became his home, and in September, 1885, he received the
appointment of postmaster by President Cleveland, the duties of which
position he is now acceptably discharging. In 1853, Mr. Taylor was
married to Miss Emaline Gresham, who died in 1854, leaving one son,
Willie S. In 1861, Miss Sarah E. Pottorff, of Barry county, Ill.,
became his wife, and one son has blessed this union, Willis H. Mr. T.
is a Knight Templar in the Masonic Order.
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Deepwood Cemetery
Nevada, Vernon County
Missouri
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An Old Citizen Dead.
William H. Taylor
died at his home in Montevallo at an early hour this morning, of
pneumonia. He was about sixty years of age. Mr. Taylor came
to Vernon County before the war. He was twice sheriff of this
county and at the time of his death was postmaster of Montevallo.
He served in the Confederate service and was promoted to the rank of
captain. He was a brave resolute soldier and won considerable
notoriety by his bold achievements.
His second wife was a sister
of Mrs. I. F. S. Nelson and Ed Pottorf of this city. She and one
of her children survive him. He has a son by a former marriage
living in Moniteau county.
The remains will be buried
at Deepwood tomorrow.
Of the deceased, Brown's
history of Vernon county says: [see narrative above, Brown's
History].
The Nevada Daily Mail, Nevada, MO.
February 21, 1888
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A DARING PARTISAN
Incidents in the Life of Capt. W. H. Taylor.
Under the head of "Of Some Noted Confederate Partisans," Brown's History
of Vernon County has the following sketch relative to Capt. Wm. H.
Taylor, who died at Montevallo Tuesday morning:
This officer, who united the commission and authority of a Confederate
soldier with the tactics and warfare of a guerrilla or bushwhacker, is
yet a citizen of Vernon, and in 1861 was sheriff of the county, when he
went out with the Vernon county regiment as quartermaster.
In the fall and winter of 1861 Henry Taylor--by this name he is better
known than by his initials--raised a company for the Confederate service
from the neighborhood of Montevallo. This company, numbering
seventy men, was sworn into service by Col. Coffee, for whose regiment
it was intended. Before the organization was fairly perfected,
Taylor took thirty men and made a raid toward Ft. Scott. On the
Kansas line he surprised and captured a picket post of fourteen men
belonging to the 6th Kansas. From these he took their horses and
arms and then released them on parole. On the return Capt. Taylor
was badly wounded in the foot by an accidental shot from one of his men.
This accident happened east of Big Drywood near Judge Requa's field.
March 26, 1862, Capt. Taylor, with his company, accompanied Col. Frazier
and Capt. McMinn on a raid against Humansville, in the northern part of
Polk county, where were stationed three newly formed companies of the
8th Missouri state militia, under Capts. Stockton and Gravely. The
attack was repulsed. Col. Frazier, Capt. McMinn, and four of their
men were killed, a number wounded, a few captures, and Taylor covered
the retreat and saved the command from destruction.
A few days afterward, April 11, Taylor was taken prisoner while eating
breakfast at a house four miles southwest of Montevallo. His
captors were of a scouting party of the 2d Ohio cavalry from Fort Scott.
He was taken off first to Ft. Scott, and ultimately to Ft. Leavenworth,
where, after having been a prisoner for six months, he was released on
parole not to take up arms until regularly exchanged, and he returned to
Vernon county. In the meantime, his company had gone South after
having elected Lieut. James Blanton captain.
Soon after his return home Taylor went to Ft. Lincoln and procured the
release on parole of about 30 Confederates. Considering that the
end would justify the means, he took these men to Arkansas and joined
the Confederate army at Huntsville. Subsequently he had a
disagreement with Gen. Hindman and early in December came by himself
back to Vernon, removed his family to Nevada City, and reported
regularly to the Federal military authorities at Ft. Scott, by the
conditions of his former parole! This he continued to do until
September, 1863. His house was destroyed at the burning of Nevada,
and, as detailed elsewhere, he himself was saved by the compass and
square.
In September, 1863, Taylor went to Ft. Scott and was declared exchanged
by the terms of a cartel agreed upon the previous 6th of May.
Returning home he went at once upon the war path. Reporting to
Capt. Marchbanks, at the Cephas ford, in the Marmaton timber, he was
given Pony Hill and five other bushwhackers, and made another foray
towards Ft. Scott. At the Widow Beale's, a mile across the Kansas
line, he surprised and captured Tom Whitesides, a noted Federal scout,
and six Kansas men. The latter were paroled, but Whitesides was
wanted very badly. He was a noted jayhawker, and not long
previously he had boasted to Taylor that he had killed 52 "rebels" since
the war opened. Taylor meant to take Whitesides to camp and
hold him as a hostage, but when the party reached a point northeast of
the Col. Douglas farm Pony Hill shot him, and he was left dead on the
ground.
A few days afterward Capt. Taylor went down into Jasper and joined Tom
Livingston, on Spring river, five miles below Carthage. He
accompanied Livingston on the raid to Stockton, where Livingston
himself, Capt. Vaughan, and "Bud" Elder, of Bates county, were killed,
and the raiders driven back to Spring river, where they were forced to
disband.
The winter of 1863-64 was passed by Capt. Taylor at the house of Judge
Andrews, four miles from Kentuckytown and twelve miles from Sherman,
Texas. In the vicinity the guerrilla bands of Quantrill and
Anderson wintered. In May he returned to Missouri, and on the 20th
occurred the affair at Ury's house and the skirmishes in this county
which are described on preceding pages.
During his stay in Vernon in the summer of 1864, Taylor made a raid
against Stockton, which was unsuccessful. The militia went into a
stockade and Taylor retired. On the return trip he came upon an
old Union man and his son, who lived on Alder creek, near the Cedar
Springs. These two showed fight and were instantly killed.
He also, with but 12 men, raided Lamar one night and burned the town.
The previous day, while at the house of Mrs. Mayfield, with two of his
men, a Federal scout from Lamar came upon him and he had a narrow
escape. The scouting party burned Mrs. Mayfield's house and were
scouring the country for Taylor while he was at Lamar busy with his
torches.
On one occasion, with but 13 men, he encountered at least four times his
number of Ft. Scott troops and Greenfield militia, whom he deceived into
a belief that they were confronted by a superior force and actually
chased them into Obediah Keithley's barn, on the present site of
Montevallo. By displaying all his men from different points and
keeping up a continual shouting in the brush, and occasionally calling
out "Surrender! Surrender!" he kept the Federals cooped up till
well into the night, when both parties slipped away in the darkness.
One raid was made by Taylor to White's ferry on Grand river, in Henry
county, where he attacked a squad of militia, but lost one of his best
men, Will Clendenin, killed, and accomplished nothing important.
Except some thrilling personal adventures, the remainder of his
experience in the county this year was uneventful until the country had
grown too hot for comfort and he was getting ready to go south with
Capt. Bill Marchbanks.
Early one morning while he and his 32 men were preparing breakfast in
their camp on the Faulkner place, in Virgil township, the Federals came
upon them. The latter had encamped the previous night at the
Lancaster place, only a mile or two westward. Some of Taylor's men
had gone out early and shot a hog for breakfast. The report of the
pistol excited the suspicions of Jo Ury, the Federal scout, and taking
two men with him he set out at once to investigate. The three
Federals came unperceived right into Taylor's camp and opened fire.
Believing that these three had 50 comrades with them, Taylor retreated
as soon as he could mount his men, and thus the 30 fled before the
three. But in a few minutes the entire Federal company came up and
there was a running fight, without serious results, down Clear Creek to
a point west of Eldorado Springs, when the Federals drew off and went to
Balltown, and Taylor returned to his camp of the morning.
The next day Marchbanks came up and the two went south. In camp on
Turkey creek, near Joplin, they were fired on. Moving on to Short
creek, they were overtaken and quite a fight occurred. Dr. Davis
and Isaac Myers, of Vernon, and two others were killed. They were
cut off from their command with Joe and John Murray and paid the
penalty. Taylor himself narrowly escaped capture or death in this
affair.
Capt. Taylor himself joined Shelby's division at Batesville, Ark., in
time to take part in a raid on the Little Rock railroad, about the last
of July. In the fall he joined Elliott's battalion of Shelby's
division, accompanied the expedition to Missouri, and was in all the
engagement of his command on the Price raid.
Taylor passed the winter of 1865 near Sherman, Texas, and in the early
spring came north with some of the most notorious Confederate guerrilla
leaders and bushwhackers of Missouri, Arch Clements, Dave Pool, Bill
Jackson and about 40 others. The route lay through Vernon.
South of Nevada some of the bushwhackers robbed a Mr. Grace of a fine
revolver and some other property. Taylor and others took the part
of the citizen, and there was a bitter quarrel. The pistol was
restored, but Taylor thought best to sever his connection with the
party, and withdrew while at Clinton's, near where Walker now stands.
He then organized a small squad and kept in the brush for some weeks, or
until about the 1st of May, when pursuant to negotiations conducted by
Judge Requa, Taylor came into Nevada City and surrendered to Col. D. C.
Vittum, of the 3d Wisconsin. He accompanied Vittum away, and soon
went to Illinois, whither he had long before sent his family.
After a stay in Nebraska of some extent, he returned to this county, of
which he has since been a citizen, and at present is a merchant and
postmaster at Montevallo.
The Nevada Daily Mail, Nevada, MO.
Wednesday, February 22, 1888.
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Elusive Capt. Taylor Run to Earth at Last!
Then and Now by Patrick Brophy
Nevada Daily Mail, Nevada, MO. June 8,
2006
Though they captured him once, Federal forces often found Capt. William
Henry Taylor an elusive character. After all, that tended to be
the nature of Bushwhackers.
The Federals weren't the only ones to have trouble locating this Scarlet
Pimpernel of the local Civil War. Like many other guerrilla
leader, Taylor more or less drops from the record in the years after the
war. It was long assumed he'd left the neighborhood, and died and
was buried elsewhere, as was true of many others. Taylor's peer
Capt. William Marchbanks, for one, settled in Paris, Texas, where he
became a prosperous and respected city father.
It was known, however, that Taylor was postmaster of Montevallo after
the war, and that he was re-elected to his prewar office of sheriff,
once ex-Rebels regained the right to vote. It was even mooted he
might have been buried on a Taylor property just east of Montevallo.
In March the "lost" Capt. Taylor was triumphantly found. While
perusing old newspaper microfilm, genealogist Nancy Thompson
serendipitously stumbled on an obituary dated Feb. 21, 1888, titled "An
Old Citizen Dead."
"William H. Taylor died at his home in Montevallo at an early hour this
morning," began the article, "of pneumonia. He was about sixty
years of age."
There were many "abouts" it seems, in Taylor's life story. Most of
the facts revealed in the obituary, and in the followup the next day,
were lifted straight out of "The History of Vernon County," published
only the year before. And they came not so much from Taylor's
biography as from the section titled "Some Noted Confederate Partisans."
Taylor was born in Kentucky in 1831, and as a child moved to Warren
County, Mo., with his parents. He came on alone to Vernon County
at age 18.
He was appointed sheriff in 1858 to fill out the unexpired term of James
Fergus, and was elected to the office in 1860. When the Civil War
began, hardly a year later, Taylor resigned and was commissioned
quartermaster captain in the 7th Cavalry (D. C. Hunter's regiment) of
the 8th Division of the Missouri State Guard. In late 1861 he
raised a company of 70 men at Montevallo for service with Col. John T.
Coffee. This stirring beginning to his military career was cut
short when he was surprised at breakfast in a house southwest of
Montevallo and captured by the 1st Iowa Cavalry, which went on to burn
the town before withdrawing.
Taylor was imprisoned first at Fort Scott, then at Fort Leavenworth, but
was released within six months, having given his "parole" (his promise
not to fight until formally "exchanged") He was as good as his
word, moving to Nevada and reporting regularly at Fort Scott. His
house was burned, along with the rest of Nevada, on May 26, 1863.
The Federal militia firebugs were about to haul Taylor off, likely to
kill him, when "he was saved by the compass and square," the commanding
officer happening to notice Masonic insignia on some papers of Taylor's.
In September 1863, Taylor was formally exchanged, and at once "went upon
the warpath." He reported to Capt. Marchbanks at Cephas Ford,
north of Nevada, and was given Pony Hill and five other Bushwhackers,
with whom he had the audacity to invade Kansas!
Taylor passed the rest of the war in stirring Bushwhacker exploits,
sometimes with Capt. Marchbanks, at other times independently, and like
other guerrillas spending the winters in East Texas. As the war
wound down in May 1865, Taylor's little band was the last Rebel force
still under arms in the area. After negotiations through Judge J.
H. Requa, he came into Nevada and surrendered to Lt. Col. D. C. Vitturn
of the 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry.
He spent time in Illinois, where he'd sent his family, and in Nebraska,
before returning to Vernon County in 1868, to be re-elected sheriff in
1872. Following further wanderings, including a job surveying
Eureka Springs, Ark., he returned to stay in 1883, opening a store in
Montevallo, and two years later being named Montevallo's postmaster by
president Grover Cleveland.
Taylor married twice, first to Miss Emaline Gresham, in 1853. She
died only a year later, leaving him a son, Willie S. In 1861 Miss
Sarah E. Pottorff, of Illinois, became his second wife. They too
had a son, rather confusingly named Willis H.
The obituary discovered by Nancy Thompson made it clear that Taylor was
laid to rest in Deepwood Cemetery. But just where in the cemetery?
A modern-style Pottorff stone has long stood just south of Deepwood's
center drive. Less obvious is the name "Taylor" cut in the
limestone coping around the lot, whose purchaser's name is indeed on
record as W. H. Taylor. But nobody ever got around to marking the
graves of either Taylor or Sarah. Odds are times were pinched for
them, as for other ex-Confederates.
The veteran marker ordered by the Col. John T. Coffee Camp No. 1934 of
the Sons of Confederate Veterans arrived in record time, and was erected
last Tuesday evening by SCV members UNA 17. It will be dedicated
and Taylor memorialized at 11 a.m., Saturday, in a public ceremony
complete with costumed Civil War re-enactors, period music, and a rifle
salute.
It will be the third such honoring of a prominent Vernon County
Confederate during this sesquicentennial year. Capt. Alfred
Cummins was saluted during Bushwhacker Days 2005, and Col. DeWitt C.
Hunter on Oct. 1. All three men were respected holders of city or
county offices, as well as courageous and honorable Confederate
officers.
Taylor, notes the county history, "united the commission and authority
of a Confederate soldier with the tactics and warfare of a guerrilla or
bushwhacker." "One of the bravest soldiers who enlisted for
service during the late war on the side of the Confederacy," the
history's account sums him up.
Even the "politically correct" can't overlook the fact that the
government-furnished stone calls Taylor both a "field and staff" officer
of both the Missouri State Guard and the Confederate States Army.
Likely he wouldn't even have minded being called a Bushwhacker! We
can assume he was a modest man, too. Sadly he never set down his
own stirring wartime deeds. He left it to the armchair warriors of
our own epigone days to romanticize or demonize him and his kind,
according to their particular political axe-grindings.
The commemoration ceremony will be preceded at 10 a.m., by a brief,
non-strenuous walking tour of graves of notable local men and women of
earlier days, conducted by the Vernon County Historical Society.
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