An outrage against women – The Civil War and women in Missouri, Part V

One of the most important learning experiences in studying and researching history is to understand that the cast of characters were all real people. They had lives just like you and me. They had moms and dads, brothers and sisters; perhaps they were married and had children of their own. They had businesses, were farmers or worked for someone else. They lived and breathed, just like we do. They had dreams and aspirations – and they didn't want to die young.

No matter how gruesome the Civil War became, no matter how heinous the acts, whether perpetuated by the Union, Confederates or guerrillas, every single participant was a human being with feelings, thoughts, cares, and a heart that beat within their breast.

I discovered all of this when conducting my research on Jesse James. My original historic articles were very well received while I worked at the newspaper in Excelsior Springs. I had people from all over the country who read the articles with interest. The articles also captured the attention of the folks at the James Farm, not only because they permitted me to research within their most cherished archival walls, but because they said they liked how I interpreted the James family.

With all of this in mind, I seem to have managed to get inside the head of Jesse James ... I still have much more research to do on Frank and the rest of the family. Nevertheless, Jesse – gregarious, charming, handsome, fun with a mischievous sense of humor, loyal, a dedicated family man, a person who loved the Bible and scripture, and one who seemed to have no fear – charmed me 130 years after his death.

There was more to the man and what made him who he became than the legends that survive to this day. Some of the critics of my articles were those who simply believe the legends. Who only saw that he was an outlaw and had killed people. They didn't take into consideration his past, his childhood, the effects the Civil War had on him and his family, and the fact that due to the time into which he was born, he had no chance for a different life.

Yet, here he remains – now 131 years after his death and still talked about. Did he leave buried treasure? (the answer is no) Did he really die on April 3, 1882 in the little house in St. Joseph, Mo., or was one of the many impostors really Jesse? (yes he did die that day in 1882, DNA testing proved it and he never would have left his children and wife behind to struggle for all those years)

Frank James, called "Buck" by Jesse, was a quiet, introspective man, even from childhood. A childhood pal once said he was intense and would manage to get others to fight his battles for him while he stood back and watched. He loved Shakespeare and was known for quoting the bard while robbing trains after the war.

It is believed that Frank was the more deadly of the two brothers. Indeed, he saw the bloody Battle of Lexington (known as the Battle of the Hemp Bales) in Sept. of 1861; he participated in the even more heinous attack on Lawrence, KS, which took place in August 1863, not long after the events in Missouri City, which means Frank was still a very new member of Quantrill's men. He was living in Maryland when his brother was shot by Robert Ford in 1882 and instead of rushing home to his brother's funeral, he strategized very carefully in order to surrender to authorities, stood trial several times and was acquitted on all charges.

Frank lived a long life, but never made much money – which goes to show that the men never buried their loot anywhere. They never took in very large hauls and always had to split the money between themselves and fellow gang members.

He lived with, and loved his adoring, gentle wife, Annie Ralston James. He doted on his son Bob and he revered his strong-willed mother Zerelda.

Frank was a fairly young man in 1863 at the time of the Missouri City ambush. He was 20 years old and had seen the brutalities of battle as well as its affects on the Missouri pioneers. It is widely held by Missouri City historians that Frank was the one who stepped forward and finished off Darius Sessions in cold blood, though it has never been proven by either the Federals or Frank himself. And as we remember, even Lou McCoy didn't point the shooting finger at Frank, who was still alive at the time of her 1912 articles.

My opinion on the shooting is ambivalent. Frank had just joined Quantrill's group, this was allegedly his first act as a guerrilla so he may have been eager to show his merit and stepped forward and shot Sessions dead – or one of the other men. Otherwise, he may have been told to stand back and cover the other, more experienced bushwhackers. We will never know.

So, who were the Union men who died that day?

Darius Sessions was only 39 when he died. He was mayor of Missouri City and had come to Missouri from New York. At one time he had been in the mercantile business with Brian Nowlin (the owner of the store the guerrillas 'pretended' to rob and who served as an elder at Pisgah Baptist Church in 1850 with the James brother's father). They were in business together in 1854 when Missouri City was then called Richfield.

In 1856, Nowlin and Sessions ended their partnership and Sessions became a member of the Know Nothing party that hated foreigners and Catholics. He espoused abolitionism, for which he was mobbed and nearly lynched in 1856.

Even though Sessions described himself as an abolitionist, he owned two slaves – two females, one 36 and one 15. He also had a wife and two children, ages two and five, at the time he was killed. It is not known to this writer what became of his wife and children, they were just three of many left without their father and husband from that bitter war.

Darius Sessions was buried in Missouri City on May 21, 1863 with military honors.

Little is known about Benjamin Rapp, the man who survived the many shots from the guerrillas that day. He was a private at the time of the ambush and was later promoted to sergeant. It is believed that he was Jewish and that his family emigrated from Germany during the 1840s.

Louis Grafenstein immigrated to America, landing in New Albany, NY on July 22, 1856, with his family. He was the only boy out of six children. He was 18 and born in Prussia, sailing to the U.S. on the Amaranth, departing from the port of Bremen, Germany. Before the war his occupation was that of a barber.

Interestingly, Grafenstein had fought for the Union at the Battle of Lexington (possibly at some point facing Frank James in battle). He was with the 13th Missouri Infantry, Company B during that battle and was captured by the Confederates (who won the battle) – surrendered, but not paroled – and went into the 25th Missouri Infantry.

Grafenstein was moved around after the 1861 battle. He was sent to southeast Missouri and then back to St. Joseph, north of Kansas City, where he was then sent to Missouri City to serve under Darius Sessions, where he would die in a hail of bullets.

Being of German descent, Grafenstein would have also been a target of the guerrillas who knew that the many German settlers in Missouri at the time of the war were all northern sympathizers. Even though the Germans settled all over the state, there were many in the Little Dixie area along the river and thus another example of neighbors turning against neighbors in this most intense of civil wars.

It is still speculated that Frank James may have been the man who shot Lt. Louis Gravenstein.

Grafenstein's body was returned to St. Joseph where his family lived and is probably buried there.

Sam Nowlin, the co-owner of the general store where the guerrillas faked the robbery after the ambush. Again, Nowlin had served in the state guard with Frank James in 1861 and fought in the Battle of Lexington alongside his friend, however, he and his father, Brian Nowlin, had signed the loyalty oath by the time of the May 1863 raid.

Later in the war, Sam was forced to join the U.S. Paw Paw Militia, the 82nd Missouri, to defend against guerrilla attacks. He and his father continued in their mercantile business until the Jayhawker raid of 1864 robbed them of $2,000 in goods.

The Nowlin store became a bank after the Civil War and still says "bank" on the outside. It is now a museum owned by Jay Jackson and is on the list of National Historic Landmarks.

A modern photo of the general store owned by Brian and Sam Nowlin, which was raided by Frank James and his fellow guerrillas after the ambush in Missouri City, May 19, 1863. Pictured is the wife of owner, Jay Jackson posing as Lou McCoy; Monty Griffey (descendant of Fannie Quantrill Samuel); historian Tony Meyers portraying Frank James; Betty Barr, great-granddaughter of Jesse James; Jay Jackson, historian and owner of the Frank James Bank and Museum; and Scott Cole, a direct descendant of Zerelda Cole James Simms Samuel's brother, Jesse Cole. The photo was taken during the Friends of the James Farm 2012 reunion by Liz Johnson.

Moses McCoy, the man whose wife, Lou, was the cause of the 1863 ambush, lived on a small farm of approximately 80 acres, about two miles north of Missouri City, across what is now Highway 210. It is believed that the location of his farm was probably quite beautiful, existing on a small hillside overlooking the Missouri River.

I know little about the fate of Moses McCoy, but I do believe he died fairly young as Lou McCoy would remarry at a later time.

East of the McCoy's would have been the farm of Lou's parents, David P. and Lydia A. (Wall) Alder.

The fate of Lou McCoy will be covered in the final part to this series.

Louis Vandiver, a member of Quantrill's group and the brother of Mrs. Adams – the woman who witnessed Lou McCoy being carted away by the Union soldiers – screwed himself by bragging on the streets of Liberty that he was the one who killed Darius Sessions. He was captured and hung for the crime.

As you can see, all of these people had their own lives, businesses, occupations, beliefs and families. They were from different ethnic backgrounds, yet their lives all crossed on that fateful day, May 19, 1863 just outside of Missouri City, Missouri.

I think that were anyone to study all the small, seemingly insignificant skirmishes or ambushes throughout the Civil War, they would find each one had far reaching affects on the lives of all involved.
In this case, Lou McCoy's life would forever be changed as there is more to her story.

The year 1863 would bring several more skirmishes that would be bloody and life-altering for Frank James and Quantrill's group, some of which involved Colorado men, local families and of course, the infamous raid on Lawrence, Kan., not to forget the banishment of the James family to Nebraska and Jesse joining the raiders in early 1864.

Tomorrow I will conclude this series by focusing on the heroine of this story, Lou McCoy. Her incarceration in St. Joseph did not squash her enthusiasm, patriotism or dedication to the cause.