Stoddard County & the Election of 1860
John Bell
(Newbury Library)
During the 1860 election, Stoddard County overwhelmingly voted Democrat, but votes were divided among the three Democratic candidates. John Bell's middle of the road, "the Union and the Constitution as they are," rhetoric attracted the most Stoddard Countians with 385 votes. Steven A. Douglas, the popular sovereignty champion and Lincoln's political rival, garnered 230 votes. John Breckenridge of Kentucky received 198 votes. Abraham Lincoln did not tally a single vote in Stoddard County. While opinions varied as to the extent that Stoddard Countians pledged loyalty to the South during the crisis of 1860/61, it was obvious they were not a fan of Northern ideas (US Census & McGhee and Mayo's Stoddard Grays).
Slavery in Stoddard County
Home of Henry Miller in Bloomfield. The Miller family owned several slaves that lived on the property behind the house.
Stoddard County is an interesting case study of a border state county that was made up primarily of yeoman farmers who originally had traveled to the county in the 1840s from North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Less than ten percent of households in the county (143) were from states outside of the South. The institution of slavery, while present, had little influence over the political or economical forces within the county. According to the 1860 census, only 215 slaves out of a total county population of 7,874 were located in Missouri (less than three percent). The largest slave owner, Samuel Holmes, owned sixteen slaves on his farm between present day Essex and Dexter. The overall average among slave owners was 3.5 slaves, most living in or connected to the family home. Only twenty-four of the county's fifty-four slave owners served in the Confederate forces. One out of every thirty-one soldiers from Stoddard County was a slave owner (US Census, Stoddard Grays).
At the time of the Civil War ninety-two percent of cotton raised in Missouri was raised in four southern counties: Stoddard, Shannon, Dunklin, and Dallas, which possessed a white population of 20,562 and a slave population of 513 (Missouri Historical Review, Vol. 23, Issue 3, April 1929).
At the time of the Civil War ninety-two percent of cotton raised in Missouri was raised in four southern counties: Stoddard, Shannon, Dunklin, and Dallas, which possessed a white population of 20,562 and a slave population of 513 (Missouri Historical Review, Vol. 23, Issue 3, April 1929).
Stoddard Countians Go To War
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623 Stoddard Countians joined the Confederacy during the Civil War, while just over 200 joined the Union cause by joining regular volunteer regiments or enlisting in the pro-Union State Militia or Enrolled Missouri Militia. For the majority who fought for the South, they would see action in nearly every Confederate State, many would leave Missouri and not return until the end of the war. Of the 800 who left their homes, 116 would never return. They were buried in mass graves on battlefields across the South, others died in remote hospitals, while others grew weak and sick in Union prisons and were buried in Northern soil.
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William Franklin Fields was a typical Stoddard Countian, he owned forty acres that he farmed southwest of present day Dexter. He joined a local unit being raised in Bloomfield. He was captured and exchanged and then joined the 6th Missouri, Company D outside of Vicksburg, Mississippi.
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Units That Contained Significant Numbers of Stoddard Countians
1st Division, Missouri State Guard
2nd Cavalry Rgt, Company C - Missouri State Guard "Stoddard Rangers"
2nd Infantry Regiment, Companies A - H, Missouri State Guard
Company C, Artillery Regiment, Missouri State Guard
Confederate Service
2nd Missouri Cavalry Rgt., Companies B, C, & F
4th Missouri Cavalry Rgt., Companies A, B, & C
4th Missouri Field Battery (Captain Samuel S. Harris)
5th Missouri Infantry, Company K
6th Missouri Infantry, Companies D & I
7th Missouri Cavalry, Companies B, D, H, & I
8th Missouri Cavalry, Company I
Haislip's Missouri Cavalry Company
McDonald's Missouri Artillery Battery
Phelan's Missouri 6th Cavalry Regiment (Did not finish organization)
Preston's Missouri Cavalry Battalion
C.S.S. Arkansas, Gunners
2nd Cavalry Rgt, Company C - Missouri State Guard "Stoddard Rangers"
2nd Infantry Regiment, Companies A - H, Missouri State Guard
Company C, Artillery Regiment, Missouri State Guard
Confederate Service
2nd Missouri Cavalry Rgt., Companies B, C, & F
4th Missouri Cavalry Rgt., Companies A, B, & C
4th Missouri Field Battery (Captain Samuel S. Harris)
5th Missouri Infantry, Company K
6th Missouri Infantry, Companies D & I
7th Missouri Cavalry, Companies B, D, H, & I
8th Missouri Cavalry, Company I
Haislip's Missouri Cavalry Company
McDonald's Missouri Artillery Battery
Phelan's Missouri 6th Cavalry Regiment (Did not finish organization)
Preston's Missouri Cavalry Battalion
C.S.S. Arkansas, Gunners
Stoddard County Confederates
There were 293 Stoddard Countians that joined the Missouri State Guard beginning in July 1861.
Bloomfield, Mo Missouri State Guard Recruiting ad.
Sam Hildebrand
Below is an article from the February 23, 1917 issue of The Bloomfield Vindicator, Bloomfield, Missouri. It relates the death and story of the marshall who captured and killed Sam Hildebrand.
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