She had to be terrified, but she was alone. Her husband was off to war, her parents lived several miles away and she had no choice but to leave. She planned to send her 18-month-old baby, 5-year-old stepson and her 10-year-old brother to her mother's house, but before she could gather everything up, the soldiers returned the next morning, May 15, and placed her under arrest.
"The pretext for arresting me was that my husband had been seen in the neighborhood and I must tell where he was or go to prison. Just a few days before, he seized the gray uniform Captain McCoy and others had come in as recruiting officers, and to see their families. When they came to our house seeking him, Captain McCoy and his recruits were already across the river on their way south," recalled Lou in her 1912 articles for Confederate Veteran Magazine.
"I aided the Confederates all I could," she added. "I always helped a Confederate boy to secure an outfit for the army. For this I was closely watched by the Federals, who had detectives and spies out all the time. But I gave aid to everyone that came to me. I fed them and had uniforms made for them when they were preparing for the service. My efforts on behalf of the southern boys made the Federals suspect me as working for their deliverance."
She was probably right.
Lou recalled the alleged escape of Confederate prisoners from the jail in Liberty, Mo., due to a jail door being found wide open and the prisoners gone. This happened shortly before she was arrested and it is believed, though never proven, that the prisoner or one of the prisoner's who escaped was Frank James.
"The men had been arrested and jailed as spies, to be tried by court-martial and executed or sent to some dungeon. Having no clew (sic) to the mystery, they conjectured that it must be Mrs. McCoy, and accordingly laid it to my charge, alleging that I had taken an impression of the keyhole in wax and had the key made for opening the door for the captives."
Lou added that one of her "real [not alleged] offenses was the cause of the guerrillas coming to Missouri City to avenge her honor. the offense was that she had a gray suit made for a Confederate soldier who was preparing to leave for the army. Captain Darius Sessions, mayor of Missouri City and an officer in the militia, found the suit and took possession of it – then had her arrested.
On the morning of May 15, 1863, Lou was nearly ready to leave her home with the children and might have escaped the soldiers had she been a few hours earlier in her departure. However, that was not to be. She found a force of armed men at her door.
"Consider yourself under arrest!" shouted the officer in charge. Lou said the soldiers would not even allow her to change her dress before forcing her to leave with them. Her 10-year-old brother, Matt, took Lou's infant and stepson to his mother's home a few miles to the east.
Lou asked what the charges were and the Lieutenant replied, "You are charged with having furnished food, shelter and clothing to Rebel soldiers. If true, you will be held a prisoner until you take an oath of allegiance."
As the men left the property with Lou in tow, they passed through Missouri City. A friend, one Mrs. Adams, ran out of a house and said, "I hope you are not a prisoner." Lou replied, "Yes, I am." Mrs. Adams then said, "Never mind. There will be a hereafter to this."
It was to be an eerie prediction as blood would be shed for the arrest of Lou McCoy and further repercussions would take place at the James Farm, ultimately leading Jesse into joining the guerrillas and the James family suffering long-lasting consequences.
After Mrs. Adam's statement, one of the soldiers threatened her, "You had better keep your lip or we will get you and some more like you."
One can just imagine this terse exchange of verbal assaults as the wagon, horses, soldiers and Lou traveled down a dusty road out of town. Mrs. Adams was brave enough to shout after the men and probably felt her stomach drop when the soldier threatened her too.
It is believed that the mouthy soldier was one Lt. Louis Grafenstein, who had just been sent from the Liberty Arsenal to hunt for guerrillas in the area.
Despite the separation from her children and her own arrest, and the unknown of what would happen to her, Lou appears to have remained fearless.
There are historical reports of women being arrested in Lexington, Mo., during the war for aiding and abetting the Confederates and Rebels, and they were sent to prisons in St. Louis that were deplorable in their conditions. Not much of a distinction was made for the fact that these were women prisoners – those of the fairer sex, as women were normally treated in this day and age. Lou's mind must have been filled with all sorts of horrifying images and fear of what lay ahead for her as the wagon plodded on toward Liberty.
How would she get word to her husband? What about her young children? Her farm? What would become of her? Would she be tortured, raped, executed?
Lou never tells how she handled things or how she felt. Nevertheless, she survived and was 69 when she wrote the two articles for Confederate Veteran Magazine. By all appearances, she had a perfect memory of the events of May 1863.
Once the soldiers and Lou arrived at the Liberty Arsenal, which overlooked the Missouri River – she learned that a steamboat awaited to take her upriver to St. Joseph.
 |
| Top: The Liberty Arsenal as it was during the Civil War. Below, is an historic marker denoting the approximate location of the arsenal – now nothing remains of the arsenal, which sat over looking the Missouri River. |
"When we arrived there, I was taken before Colonel Hardy, who read the charges and asked if true. I said, 'True.' Then he produced the iron-clad oath (of allegiance to the Union), which forbade me ever to exchange letters with husband, brother, etc., or to give food, shelter or clothing to any Confederate soldier. I said, 'If you mark out two of the items, I will take it,'" recalled Lou in 1912.
Hardy replied, "'Not one,' and I replied, 'I will not take it.'"
So, Hardy ordered Lou to be escorted to Captain Dunn and that he was to take care of her until he received further orders.
This entire incident was apparently big news as an article in the Liberty Tribune described Lou as a snake.
"A she adder, a Rebel damsel, arrested and brought before Colonel Hardy! ... She stoutly refused to take the oath of allegiance unless part of it was marked out. She is now held as a prisoner of war."
Despite her own fears, Lou relied on her young charms to work their magic on Captain Dunn. She asked Dunn's little girl to walk with her to the cemetery. The girl asked permission of her mother, who told Lou that she could not leave the yard.
It seems Lou was not held in a prison that was as horrific in conditions as others around the state. She had been taken to stay with a Union officer's family.
Lou decided to toss her charms back to Colonel Hardy and said "shame on you" for treating me thus. I'm sure she batted her eyes and may have even asked what harm could she cause ...
Lou's sweet talk worked, for Colonel Hardy said, "I will let you have the limits of the city on parole of honor."
Lou kept her word and found her way to the other Confederate women being held in the vicinity and kept their company for the next four days, until Hardy sent for her again in an attempt to get her to sign the oath of allegiance.
Lou refused again for the following three days, when on the third day, she finally found the oath changed to the verbiage she wanted and signed it. "On the afternoon of the third day, a message came for me to report to the colonel's office. When I went, he offered me a mild, light oath and I took it."
Lou was then sent to a Major Bassett's office for her release papers, though once there, she learned she was being exchanged for one of the Union's provost marshals who had been captured and was being held by Quantrill.
I do not know what Lou McCoy looked like. She was young and already a mother. She was living through some of America's most bloody and terrible times. She was tenacious and fearless – at least she didn't let her fear show. She had all the attributes one thinks of in a pioneer woman – strong, brave, outspoken, hard-working and fearless. She was a survivor.
The men who had dared to have Lou arrested, Darius Sessions and Louis Grafenstein – they would not be so lucky.
No comments:
Post a Comment