Across The Fence: To Honor a Flag

My column this week is about two different flags and several men who pledged allegiance to the flag that represented their personal beliefs and convictions.

The story of these men and the different flags that they honored is entwined within the context of the American Civil War and the banners that hundreds of thousands of men fought under and died for. For the Union, the flag was The Stars and Stripes and for the Confederacy it was The Stars and Bars.

Right or wrong, each flag stirred the passions of men who believed in the principles for which they stood. This story is about the convictions of those men and their allegiance to their personal flags, the principals and convictions for which they were willing to fight and die. It is a story that changed the course of Nebraska's history.

On April 12, 1861, Confederate troops attacked the Union held Fort Sumter in South Carolina. The attack brought an abrupt end to any hope of peaceful negotiations between the northern states and the eight southern states that had petitioned for secession. The act of war brought four more southern states into the Confederacy and marked the beginning of four, long and bloody years of conflict.

In early 1860, before the first official shots of Civil War were fired, the border of Kansas and Missouri were already a battleground. Kansas Territory, Nebraska Territory and Colorado Territory were ripe for statehood and the southern states were determined that these territories would be brought to statehood as slave states, not free. Border skirmishes were frequent and deadly with each side of the river determined to hold firm to their convictions.

In 1860, Saint Joseph, Mo., was rapidly becoming the new gateway of the west and on the verge of surpassing Saint Louis for that distinction. At that time, Kansas City did not exist and Omaha was little more than a tiny frontier village. Saint Joseph dominated all trade and commerce from the east into the expanding western frontier.

On April 3, 1860, just one year before the outbreak of war, the first Pony Express rider left the stables of Russell, Majors and Waddell, amid the shouts and cheers of townsfolk who stood witness to the first significant link between the east and the far west of California. Saint Joseph Mayor, Meriwether Jeff Thompson, gave a short but rousing speech praising the efforts of the founders and the brave boys who would accomplish the unprecedented feat and predicted the inevitable future prosperity of Saint Joseph, a prediction that was not to be.

Jeff Thompson came to northwestern Missouri in 1847. The son of a strong military family, Thompson had been trained in military tactics in Charleston, S.C. At 22, he served as the city engineer for Saint Joseph and supervised the building of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad. By 1857, Thompson had become the mayor of St. Joseph, a position he held until 1860. He was a strong supporter of the efforts of the southern states to secede from the Union.

After the declaration of war, in April of 1861, the city of St. Joseph, Missouri was a hotbed of explosive differences. The county was almost equally split between pro-Northern and pro-Southern allegiance and in the city of St. Joseph both factions proudly displayed the flag of their following. In order to minimize the potential for violence, between the two opposing loyalties, the city adopted an ordinance banning the public display of both the Union and Confederate flags.

On May 22, 1861, John L. Bittinger was appointed St. Joseph's postmaster and the following day, in defiance of the city ordinance, Bittinger hoisted the U.S. flag above the post office building.

As the flag was being raised, Thompson – leading a mob of Southern sympathizers – tore down the flag and threw the flagpole into the Missouri River. Thompson later bragged, "I drew my knife and pistol, ascended the very ladder that they had used to the roof of the building, and amid cheers, groans, shouts and threats, I severed the halyard with my bowie..."

Thompson threw the flag from the top of the building to the mob on the street below and they promptly tore the flag to shreds. Postmaster Bittinger defiantly stood over the remnants and with cocked pistol in hand prevented the mob from burning the flag.

There was another U.S. flag being flown above Turner Hall on Charles Street and the mob turned their attention to that building. In the several blocks covered between the post office and Turner Hall the mob had grown in both size and rowdiness. When they reached the building Robert C. Bradshaw, a Union supporter, had locked the doors and stood guard before the mob. Among the mob of southern sympathizers was Alonzo William Slayback.

Apparently, Slayback understood the emotion and passion associated with loyalty to a cause and managed to negotiate a peaceful solution to the mobs demands. Bradshaw agreed to take down the flag but not before he was able to properly salute it and lower it from its mast. The agreement was reached and Bradshaw made his way to the roof. As he crossed the banister to the flagpole someone in the crowd below shouted, "Shoot him!" and the sudden sound of pistols and rifles being cocked snapped in unison through the crowd.

Bradshaw stepped to the edge of the roof, staring down at the gaping muzzles of rifles and pistols and boldly remarked, "I will take down the American flag, knowing full well that ere long it will float in triumph over every seceding state."

His deeply felt declaration of loyalty brought renewed demands of "Shoot him!" and several of those in the mob were willing to oblige. Alonzo Slayback then stepped boldly to the front of the mob, his fellow southern sympathizers, and with drawn pistol shouted, "I will kill the first man who fires a shot at Bradshaw."

Robert C. Bradshaw then proceeded to the flagpole and later told, "...I gave three cheers for the national flag, and raising my revolver, I fired six shots over the flag in token of salute. Then lowering it, I took the flag and returned it to the second story where it was deposited in safety."

In the early months of the Civil War, Union troops were deployed to southeastern Missouri leaving only a small remnant of troops in St. Joseph. Subsequently, Confederate troops occupied and held the city of St. Joseph, Missouri under southern control for a short period of time. It was during this time that the U.S. Congress made their decision on the proposed route for the first transcontinental railroad. Massachusetts Senator, Charles Sumner, had previously been influential in convincing the government to make the eastern terminus of the railroad begin at St. Joseph. However the events of May 23, 1861, and the subsequent occupation of St. Joseph by Confederate troops caused him to withdraw his support and advocate for the eastern terminus to be further north at Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Omaha, Neb.. And so it was Nebraska, not Kansas, who garnered the economic benefit and corresponding conflict as the transcontinental railroad snaked it way across the Nebraska plains.

My research for this story revealed very little information about Robert C. Bradshaw although I did find an obituary for a Mrs. Robert C. Bradshaw in the Topeka Daily Capital of Nov. 1, 1927.

The obituary reads in part, "Her death followed closely that of her husband, General Bradshaw, age 88, a noted Civil War Veteran, who died May 27 last, and to whom she was married at St. Joseph, Mo." Perhaps this was the Robert Bradshaw who so valiantly defended his flag that 23rd day of May 1861.

Col. M. Jeff Thompson commanded the First Military District of Missouri under the flag of the Stars and Bars. His battalion became known as the "Swamp Rats" and he came to be famously known as the "Swamp Fox of the Confederacy." He was captured in 1863 and was imprisoned at the St. Louis Gratiot Street Prison.

In 1864, he was exchanged for the release of a Union general and took command of General 'Jo' Shelby's "Iron Brigade." Thompson surrendered his command at Chalk Bluff, Arkansas on May 11, 1865. He returned to St. Joseph, Missouri in 1876 and died Sept.5 of that same year.

Col. Alonzo William Slayback was a poet, a teacher, lawyer and Confederate soldier. He served under General's Sterling Price and John Marmaduke where he commanded the Slayback Lancers. At the end of the Civil War Slayback joined General Joseph Shelby with the remnants of his undefeated "Iron Brigade" and escaped across the Rio Grande into Mexico.

Before crossing the river General Shelby rolled the battalion's battle flag into a canvas case, removed his trademark, black ostrich plume from his hat and placed it with the flag. Weighting the case with rocks, Shelby buried the flag at the deepest point of their river crossing. Alonzo later recorded the solemn event in his poem "The Burial of Shelby's Flag" which ends with these lines:

"And that group of Missouri's valiant throng, who had fought for the weak against the strong- Who had charged and bled where Shelby led- Were the last who held above the wave. The glorious flag of the vanquished brave, No more to rise from its watery grave!"

M. Timothy Nolting is an award-winning Nebraska columnist and freelance writer. Contact him via email at [email protected]