In the Missouri Artillery

Benjamin Von Phul was born on May 21st 1840, in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Henry Von Phul, a successful St Louis business man and steam boat owner, whose ships included the Henry Von Phul, mentioned by Mark Twain. He was also nephew of the painter Anna Maria Von Phul.

In May 1861 Missouri was deeply divided between Union and Confederate supporters, and this was especially so in the city of St Louis. St Louis also had another complication, over half of the population was composed of recent immigrants, mainly Germans who had fled the unsuccessful revolts of 1848, and who were therefore both often politically inclined and non-English speaking. Relations between the German immigrants and the Missourians were not always good, and this was to have an effect on what happened next.  It must presumably have had an effect on the Von Phuls, despite Henry being born in the US in 1784, in Philadelphia, the son of an immigrant from Westhofen.

Henry Von Phul

The state government had voted to stay in the Union, or rather to be neutral in any civil war, but the Governor, Claiborne Jackson, favoured the Confederacy, and he assembled the State Militia, including Benjamin Von Phul, in a camp near St Louis, Camp Jackson with the aim of seizing the arsenal in St Louis, which had the largest collection of arms and ammunition in the state. Unfortunately for them, the local Union commander, Nathanial Lyon, had heard about this and surprised them in their camp with a joint force of Union troops and pro-Union militia, containing a majority of German soldiers. The would-be Confederates were captured and marched into St Louis where a crowd assembled and started haranguing the Union militia, and somehow this led to shooting, with 28 of the crowd being cut down. This in turn led to several days of rioting, and rumours that the Germans planned to massacre the Missourian population of St Louis, rumours that were taken so seriously that many wealthy St Louis fled to Illinois, or the interior of St Louis, depending whether they were pro- or anti-Union. The rioting only died down when Union troops arrived from out of state.

The Camp Jackson Massacre

Ben Von Phul had been captured at Camp Jackson with the rest, but was exchanged and joined Guibor’s Missouri Battery of the State Guard. Guibor's Battery officially entered Confederate, as opposed to Missouri, service in early 1862 and was combined with Montgomery Brown's Louisiana Battery on June 30, 1862. Benjamin rose to the rank of First Lieutenant.

Flag of the Guibor Battery, presented in January 1863

Artillery at the time was in a state of transition, with quite a few types and sizes, with size generally being defined by the weight of the ammunition, such as 10 pdr, 20 pdr etc. One of the commonest types was the Parrott rifled cannon, invented by an American, Captain Robert Parker Parrott. Despite only being patented in 1861 it was used extensively by both sides in the Civil War. Although Parrotts were still loaded down the muzzle like previous cannons, they were rifled inside and made of a mixture of cast and wrought iron, making them much more accurate, if more fragile.

 Parrott gun at Vicksburg

In February 1863 the now Captain Von Phul was placed in charge of a battery assembled using men from Brigadier General David Frost’s Brigade, at Little Rock, Arkansas, as part of the defence scheme for Little Rock. The battery was attached to Frost’s Brigade and initially consisted with one bronze 24 pdr, and two 6pdr Parrotts, but by the end of that month the battery had six guns and 70 men at Fort Pleasant, guarding the river approach to Little Rock.

In June, a section of the battery together with two other batteries accompanied a small mixed force under Col. Clark, a fellow Missourian and veteran of the siege of Carthage and battle of Pea Ridge. Their mission was to attack Union shipping on the Mississippi. On June 22^nd Von Phul’s battery and the two others attacked a convoy of the Union Gunboat Little Rebel (!) and three transports. The forward battery of the Little Rebel was knocked out and one of the transports, the Prima Donna (who named these ships?) was severely damaged. Clark's command then moved south and attacked another convoy, damaging several transports. They then returned to Fort Pleasant, and then joined the defences of Little Rock on Aug 17^th. But by mid September the Confederates had to abandon Little Rock following defeats at Helena and Bayou Fouche, and fall back to Washington, Arkansas.

In November Von Phuls Battery was at Camp Bragg, Arkansas, before being formerly disbanded in December. By this stage it included two 12 pdr Howitzers and two 10pdr Parrotts. Raids on shipping on the Mississippi were still going on, and Benjamin’s father’s ship, the Henry Von Phul, was severely damaged by Texan troops in December.

The Henry Von Phul

In April 1864 Von Phul was wounded south of Little Rock in the pyrrhic Confederate counterattack through the mud at Jenkins ferry. 

And in April 1865 Confederate forces surrendered. Life went on. Still only 27, Benjamin married Martha Lape from Mississippi, who was 22, on 3^rd September 1867 in Jefferson Missouri.  In 1880, Benjamin and Martha Von Phul and their three children, Genevieve, Henry and Ben Jr. were in St Louis, where Benjamin was working as a real estate agent.

Benjamin died on December 18^th 1909, in St Louis, Missouri.

To war for Missouri

Mathias Buss was born in Pennsylvania in about 1834, destined to be one of the Northern states in the American Civil War. But by 1860, according to the Federal census, he was living in Carthage, Missouri, working as a brick mason. Carthage was a new town, only founded in 1842, but by 1860 it had over 500 residents. Importantly for future events, Carthage is in the deep south of Missouri.

One year after that census Missouri was at war. Missouri’s position in the Civil War was complicated. Unlike say, Georgia, the Missouri State Government actually voted to stay in the Union. But many of the population supported the Confederacy, especially after heavy handed intervention and the massacre of civilians by a Union force under General Nathanial Lyon. The pro-Confederates, including the Governor, withdrew to the south of the state in 1861, where a successful general of the US Mexican war, Sterling Price, was appointed commander of Missourian forces. Meanwhile, the Union started recruiting troops from the north of the state. Thus, Missouri contributed troops to both sides in the Civil War. 

The initial clashes took place between Union troops and Missouri State Guard units, supported increasingly by troops from other states. Mathias is recorded as being at the following;

Cole Camp – June 19^th 1861. 350 Missouri State Guard attacked and routed about 500 Union militia in their camp and routed them. The Missouri State Guard were poorly equipped, at least at the beginning. Many reportedly used a white flannel arm band as uniform, whilst one major effect of the battle at Cole Camp was to equip them with another 350 muskets.

Note that there was in fact a battle at Carthage in July 5th 1861, where the Missouri State Guard beat a (smaller) Union force, but Mathias is not recorded as being there. This was the first proper Missourian victory, and gave a great boost to morale, increasing pro-Confederate recruitment. 

Wilson Creek – August 10^th 1861, near Springfield Missouri. Twelve thousand Missouri State Guard and Confederate troops, mainly from Arkansas under Price beat 5,400 Union troops under Lyon, including some Union Missouri regiments.

 The Battle of Wilson Creek

Lexington – September 12^th to 20^th 1861. 15,000 Missouri State Guard under Price defeated 3,500 Union troops garrisoning Lexington.

 The Battle of Lexington

Elk Horn/ Pea ridge – March 7-8^th 1862. Near Leetown, Arkansas. Despite their successes the previous year the Missouri forces, still technically independent of the Confederate army, were pushed back into Arkansas. In March the 15,000 pro-Confederate forces, consisting of the Missouri State Guard, Confederate forces mainly from Arkansas and Texas, and an Indian Brigade of Cherokees and Choctaws, counter attacked 12,000 Union troops. Despite some early successes including a massed cavalry charge, the Confederate forces were driven off, ending any chance of a return to Missouri. Missourian forces spent the rest of the war fighting outside their state, and Missouri itself degenerated into civil war.

There was then a pause allowing Price to organise the Missouri State Guard into official units of the Confederate army. By April 1862, Mathias was in the 4^th Missouri Regiment of the Confederate army, First Sergeant of F company. The 4th carried the Van Dorn battle flag.

Siege of Corinth  - April to May 1862. This was by far the largest battle Mathias had been involved in. One hundred twenty thousand Union forces attacked the strategically important town of Corinth, Mississippi, on the Mississippi river. The garrison of 65,000 Confederate troops was forced to retreat after a month long siege, but most managed to withdraw safely.

Battle of Iuka - Sept 9th 1862. A mixed force of about 3,000 Missouri, Mississippi, Texas, Arkansas, Alabama and Louisiana troops was defeated by 4,500 Union and withdrew south.

On Nov 7th 1862, the 1st and 4th Missouri were combined, presumably due to heavy casualties, with Mathias now  First Lieutenant in Company B. Later he was to become captain of company B.

Mathias ‘s next, and last, battle took place in May next year. The 1^st/4^th Missourians were now in Mississippi, part of the Confederate forces attempting to hold the Union before the fortress city of Vicksburg. On May 17^th they were part of a force of 5,000 troops ordered to hold the bank of the Big Black (!) River, or rather a bayou in front of the river, behind rough defences of logs and cotton bales. Unfortunately, the Union troops out flanked them, charging into an inexperienced brigade from Tennessee and breaking them. The Confederates broke and fled back to the Big Black River, some got back across the bridge there, but many drowned in the river or were captured.

And that was it for Mathias, the last battle he is recorded as fighting in. He certainly survived, but possibly he was one of the 1,700 taken prisoner. The 1^st/4^th Missourians fought on without him. They fought in the Atlanta Campaign, were part of Hood's operations in Tennessee, and became part of the forces defending Mobile. Only a remnant surrendered in May, 1865. 

But Mathias survived. In the 1870 census he is living with a young wife, Lucy, a Virginia girl 10 years his junior, and with two young children, Elizabeth (2) and James (1). Working again as a brick mason. And life went on. In 1881 he gave away his daughter to be married, to a Charles Jones in Bates, Missouri. And in 1900 he passed away, and was buried in the Confederate cemetery in Higginsville, Missouri, a long way from where he was born, but in the state he had lived most of his life, and had fought for.