Jeremiah M Lair, Charles Washington’s Brother

When CW joined up in 1864, his older brother Jeremiah M had already been in for a couple of years.  Jeremiah, 24, was a single farmer and was a tall guy at 5’10” with dark hair, dark eyes and dark complexion.  Like so many of the other Macoupin County Lairs and Lair cousins, he joined up in August 1862 at Carlinville and was assigned to the 122nd Illinois Infantry.  He was mustered into Company E in September 1862, the same company in which served his cousins James Pleasant, George W and Samuel Lair, meaning they most likely had the opportunity to spend time together.  They were also actively involved in defending Nashville from Hood’s army when CW was put out of order.

Somewhat confusing is that hometown boy Jeremiah M Laird of Macoupin County also joined up on the same day.  He too was 24 years old, a single farmer, 5’10” with dark hair, dark eyes and dark complexion.  He too went into the 122nd, Company E.  At first I thought they just had the name misspelled and he was the same guy, but after digging found that he wasn’t.  Laird mustered in on September 7th whereas Jeremiah Lair mustered in September 4th.  Between the names and physical appearance, the two must have been confusing to the army.

Jeremiah was in for the duration of the war and a bit more, being mustered out in Vicksburg, Mississippi on November 24th of 1865, just in time for Thanksgiving.  Except they didn’t have Thanksgiving back then.  For some odd reason, shortly before that in July of ’65, he was transferred from the 122nd to the 33rd IL Inf.  Maybe after nearly three years, the army got tired of confusing him and his Laird look alike.

A bad thing was that all were untested in battle, as was CW.  The result was that half of the men in these regiments knew little of nothing about shooting, fighting and killing and their inexperience basically watered down the effectiveness of the remaining experienced men.

Here’s Some of The Cousins

25-year-old carpenter and one big hoss of a cousin at 5’11”, James Pleasant Lair joined up in September of 1862.  He supposedly played a flute and was immediately appointed musician and assigned rank of Private, or PMUS, in Company HQ.  (Headquarters?)  I doubt there’s much need for a flautist in the heat of battle, so I assume he wasn’t put in the thick of it when a fight broke out.  I wouldn’t be surprised if he already had that in mind, no doubt being more interested in self-preservation than providing inspiration to the troops.  Perhaps he lied about his flute tooting ability or maybe he just wasn’t very good at it and failed to adequately inspire his fellow troops.  I say that because seven months later he was reduced in rank (to ordinary private I guess) and transferred to Company E where Jeremiah and Samuel Lair were.  The Company E guys were the ones that were going to get shot at if any shooting was going to happen.  According to people who knew him after the war, “Plez” (as he was called) was a good-natured old boy that was a musician in the war.  All accounts I’ve read mention he being a musician, but none mention that it was for a mere seven months.  I bet he was glad the State of Illinois Civil War Veterans website wasn’t up and running at that time because the truth would have come out, the entire truth being something I bet he failed to provide when recounting his no doubt reputed glorious past.  But then again, I could be wrong.  Maybe he was an accomplished fife but had a less than pleasant streak when younger and was itching for a fight.  He may have actually wanted to get into Co. E, figuring he could fend off an enemy charge more effectively by pointing a gun at them rather than by playing a tune in their general direction.  Maybe it’s just me, but I just don’t see any serious intimidation by someone wielding a flute.  If I had to charge a line of enemy soldiers holding guns and one of them was holding only a flute, I know I’d head for the guy playing a tune rather than tuning up his gun.

Some of the other 13 Lairs were in several of the 14 high causality battles and I am really surprised that only one confirmed Lair of ours died, that being George Washington Lair.  This guy’s story was rather difficult to narrow down.  First off, there were two George Washington Lairs, both from Illinois.  I guess that’s not that unusual, especially considering they were named after a president.  But then consider that both were in the Civil War.  Ok, that makes things a bit difficult.  And they both died.  Ok, that makes things much more difficult.  And they both died in 1863.  Ok, now things are getting tough.  And one was 29 years old when he died and the other was 30.  Now this is getting ridiculous.  It took a while, but here’s what I finally came up with.

Our GW was born in 1835 in Macoupin County, IL while GW2 was born in Pennsylvania.  Since our Lairs originated in Pennsylvania, I guess it’s possible he was distantly related to our, but I can’t say one way or the other at this time.  At 17 years of age, our GW married 16 year old Mary Tavis and they popped out a kid in ’53, ’54, ’55, ’58 and ’62.  He was 27 years old when he joined up, being inducted into the 122nd, Company E with the company of at least five of his cousins.

I wonder what his wife’s opinion was of him voluntarily enlisting considering she had five kids less than 9 years of age?  I suspect she wasn’t real enthused about him just walking off.  Maybe he had become bored of marriage and fatherhood or maybe like so many others, his sense of patriotism won out over his family.  Most of the other Lairs were farmers, meaning if GW was also one, then she had to run the place by herself.  As for her life after that, she remarried in 1871 in Missouri, near Rolla.  She died at 84 years old near St. Louis on the Illinois side.

A little over a year after joining up, he deserted.  He bailed less than a month after his outfit was engaged at the battle of Parker’s Cross Roads.  There, the 122nd suffered 79 dead and wounded, which may have been a wake up call as to the possibility of him orphaning his children.  He deserted January 1st, 1863 but came back October 10th, 1863.  I’m assuming it was voluntary because 35 days later he was dead at the Regimental hospital in East Port, Mississippi.  I haven’t been able to confirm whether he was killed in action or from disease, but I suspect the latter.  The only serious fighting the 122nd experienced around that time occurred a number of months earlier while he was still on the lam, making me think he probably died of disease, especially considering he was in a hospital when he died.  The army never had a chance to try him for desertion because he died before they had the chance, thus beating them to the punch.  If he deserted because he feared he would orphan his children, it looks like his fear came true regardless.  Oh, as for the other George Washington Lair, he died at Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, 5 months before our GW did.  I’d bet he died from disease as well.

Unlike Jeremiah Lair and Jeremiah Laird, it was much easier differentiating Samuel Laird and Samuel Lair.  Laird was 21 and Lair was 28 years old.  Although both lived in Macoupin County and mustered in the 122nd, Company E on September 4, 1862, Laird was born in Pennsylvania, not Illinois.  Laird must have become disillusioned with military life because two years later, he deserted.  He came back not quite two months later but never went to trial for desertion because he died 3 days later in a St. Louis hospital.  I guess he showed them, didn’t he?  How interesting that both deserters died soon after returning to their outfits.  Random chance I guess.

Samuel Lair’s patriotic endeavors were quickly nipped in the bud because he was unfortunate enough to be taken prisoner a mere four months after joining up.  Before being captured, in mid-November, 1862, the 122th was stationed at Trenton, Tennessee, located north of Jackson, TN.  Their job was to protect the Memphis, Charleston & Mississippi Central Railroad that ran from Columbus, Kentucky to Jackson, Tennessee and then on to Holly Springs, Mississippi.  The Union Army had commandeered the tracks and was using them to transport supplies to their troops heading for the planned capture of Vicksburg, Mississippi.  I doubt Samuel knew it at the time, but his cousin James M Lair was one of the guys in the 32nd Illinois Infantry headed for Vicksburg and was among those using those supplies.  Samuel’s outfit was given the job of protecting the railroad tracks from damage and destruction by Confederate General Bedford Forrest, the same Forrest of Forrest Gump fame as well as the same accepting and caring guy responsible for inventing the Ku Klux Klan after the war.  Forrest and a separate group of Confederates under General Van Dorn were intent on interrupting the flow of supplies flowing south to the Vicksburg bound Union Army.  Without those supplies, the advancing army would grind to a halt.  General Forrest commanded horse mounted infantry and Van Dorn horse mounted cavalry, which gave both of them the ability to speedily swoop in, tear things up and then disappear just as quickly.  Van Dorn was heading for Jackson and at the same time, General Forrest was headed for the tracks at Huntingdon, TN, approximately 30 miles northeast.  Having gotten wind of Forrest’s movements, the 122th headed out to stop him before he got to the tracks.  Samuel happened to be sick in the hospital at Trenton, thus missing the welcoming party for Forrest.  Under forced march, a portion of the 122th made Huntingdon in one day, arriving on the night of December 29th, 1862.  On December 31, the battle of Parker's Cross Roads took place, with the 122th losing 23 killed and 56 wounded but taking 500 Confederate prisoners.  Even though he lost men and 7 cannon, Forrest got away cleanly.  Incidentally, George Washington Lair was still alive at this time and it was his outfit that captured the men and artillery.  I can’t say whether or not he was part of that encounter.  Had Samuel known the outcome of the fight and the resulting 79 casualties, he would have no doubt considered himself fortunate for being sick in bed.  What he didn’t know was that Forrest was now heading east, straight toward Trenton.  Once there, Forrest and his boys paid a visit to the hospital and captured 3 officers, the regiment quartermaster and 60 sick guys, with Samuel being one of them.  Guys sick in bed don’t put up much fight and are pretty easily captured.  I guess a prisoner is a prisoner, but there wasn’t much glory for the captor considering they vanquished a bunch of bedridden guys no doubt pooping themselves silly from cholera.

As for vanquished Samuel’s internment, his military record shows that he was CAPTURED & PAROLED DEC 31, 1862 EXCHANGED OCT 31, 1863.  The captured part is pretty much self-explanatory but the “paroled” and “exchanged” part probably doesn’t make much sense to someone unfamiliar with the Civil War.  As bloody and gory as the war was, there was actually some gentlemanly behavior displayed in the parole and exchange system.  When captured, instead of being sent to a prisoner of war camp on the captor’s side, they were issued a “parole” document they signed, stating they promised to not take up arms or do anything military oriented until they were exchanged (swapped) for a soldier from the other side.  Normally one was exchanged for someone of equal rank, Captain for a Captain, Private for a Private and so on.  Sometimes deals were worked out where one high-ranking officer would be exchanged for 15 privates.

The paroled soldier could return home (most common in the south) or be sent to a designated camp on their own side's territory (most common in the north.)  They would then wait until they were "exchanged", after which they could go back to slaughtering the enemy.  The guy that went home was then expected to return to duty, a responsibility I’m sure he didn’t always welcome.  As odd as it seems, the system actually worked out rather well.  This arrangement ensured that captured soldiers could retain a large amount of freedom while the burden of their upkeep (food, clothing, medical care) fell on their own side.  Like any other prisoner on either side, Samuel was captured, disarmed if he had any weapons and if not, disarmed of his bed pan, issued a parole and then released back to the Union Army and all in the same day.  All in all, a rather subdued, mundane POW experience not worthy of any tense, edge of the seat stories told back home.  Depending upon the seriousness of his health issue that had him in the hospital to start with, from there he would have been sent to a parole camp, a hospital or a parole camp with very basic medical facilities.  The Confederate prisoner had it pretty good actually; he went home to family, no one was shooting at him, there were fewer opportunities to contract some power pooping illness and so on.  The Federal prisoner didn’t have it so good.  Most of the parole camps were crowded, dirty, food was so-so and if you weren’t sick to begin with, your odds of contracting an illness suddenly went up.  In many cases the parolees could come and go at their leisure, which could affect nearby towns both good and bad.  Good as in the prisoners spent money buying booze and bad as in the prisoners spent money on booze that contributed to saloon smashing brawls.  Good as in flourishing business opportunities for prostitutes but bad as in ever increasing numbers of new cases of venereal disease.  Near Annapolis, Maryland there is a present day town with the very unique and imaginative name of Parole, it originally being a parole camp.

By late 1863, the parole system was breaking down.  The Confederacy was very short of able-bodied soldiers and parolees started showing up in battle without being exchanged, contrary to the parole document they had signed.  The parole system agreement fell to pieces when the black Union troops were sent south and engaged the enemy.  The Confederacy stated that any captured black soldier would be executed or put into slavery and their white commanding officer would be executed for sedition.  Samuel was exchanged on October 31st, 1863, shortly before both sides abolished the parole agreement.  Had Samuel flubbed up and been again captured a few weeks later, he would have been sent to a POW camp, which would not have bode well for him.

And I will note that during the war, the 122nd had 98 men killed and mortally wounded and 170 that died from disease for a total of 268 men lost.  That’s pretty close to the expected 1:2 ratio I spoke of earlier.

And now lets talk about the older cousin, 5’6” James M Lair.  This guy was either a true patriot, a glutton for punishment or had a really fussy wife he wanted to get away from.  I say that because he was 39 years old and married when he joined up.  The first time, that is.  He joined up very early on August 27, 1861, beating a bunch of the other cousins by over a year.  And if that wasn’t enough, when his 3-year stint was over, he re-enlisted at 41 years of age.  Talk about a man subject to coincidence and whether he knew it or not, this guy was at the same places at the same time as several of his cousins.  There’s a good chance he didn’t know about the others being there since those guys were with the 122nd Illinois while he was with the 32th Illinois.  They may have fought in the same battles, but it’s highly unlikely they would have fought side by side since like a baseball game, the different regiments had different positions on the battlefield.  And talk about a guy who REALLY beat the odds on not coming home, this was the man!  Compared to most soldiers, not only was he an old man but in addition he was involved in some of the worst battles of the war.

He was part of the Union gunboat-Confederate infantry engagement at Eastport, Mississippi where GW Lair later died.  He was in the Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee, which was a particularly bloody one and where John F Hart supposedly was killed.  Shortly after that, the siege of Corinth, Mississippi.  In early 1863 he was guarding the same railroad line of Memphis & Charleston R. R. that later led to Samuel Lair being taken prisoner.  Then he was ordered to Vicksburg, Mississippi where he was part of the Siege of Vicksburg, where they eventually starved the southern soldiers and townspeople into surrendering on July 4th.  (As a bit of trivia, Vicksburg had a long memory and didn’t celebrate the 4th of July until 1945.  Now that’s what I call holding a grudge!)  Then 6 days later he was in the Siege of Jackson, the capital of Mississippi and then the actual assault on Jackson 2 days after that.  Then for another feather in his cap, he was part of General Sherman’s infamous burning of Atlanta, Georgia, although I don’t know if he actually set any fires.  This was the same action that caused C.S.A. General Hood to clear out of Atlanta, in hopes of drawing Sherman after him and culminating in the battle at Franklin and Nashville where CW was wounded.  Then a couple of months later he was in the equally infamous March to the Sea where they destroyed everything civilian in their path.  Houses and barns were burned, crops were burned or destroyed, everything that could be of use to the Confederate Army was destroyed.  The side effect was that the civilian population didn’t have anything left to eat either.  Like it or not, starvation is a very effective weapon.  It may have been necessary to win the war, but Sherman was one ruthless, insensitive yet determined guy who was also a man on a mission, a bad combination for anyone who wasn’t him.   Sherman then continued his march to the sea and when he got there, he was apparently still in a bad mood because he laid siege to Savannah, a social engagement that included James.  However, a good time was not had by all, particularly the Southerners.  After the surrender of Confederate General Johnston, his outfit marched all the way north to Washington D.C. to take part in the grand review (basically a victors’ parade patting themselves on the back.)  And as if the poor guy hadn’t had enough, he was sent to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas for duty on the plains!

He was part of the Union gunboat-Confederate infantry engagement at Eastport, Mississippi where GW Lair later died.  He was in the Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee, which was a particularly bloody one and where John F Hart supposedly was killed.  Shortly after that, the siege of Corinth, Mississippi.  In early 1863 he was guarding the same railroad line of Memphis & Charleston R. R. that later led to Samuel Lair being taken prisoner.  Then he was ordered to Vicksburg, Mississippi where he was part of the Siege of Vicksburg, where they eventually starved the southern soldiers and townspeople into surrendering on July 4th.  (As a bit of trivia, Vicksburg had a long memory and didn’t celebrate the 4th of July until 1945.  Now that’s what I call holding a grudge!)  Then 6 days later he was in the Siege of Jackson, the capital of Mississippi and then the actual assault on Jackson 2 days after that.  Then for another feather in his cap, he was part of General Sherman’s infamous burning of Atlanta, Georgia, although I don’t know if he actually set any fires.  This was the same action that caused C.S.A. General Hood to clear out of Atlanta, in hopes of drawing Sherman after him and culminating in the battle at Franklin and Nashville where CW was wounded.  Then a couple of months later he was in the equally infamous March to the Sea where they destroyed everything civilian in their path.  Houses and barns were burned, crops were burned or destroyed, everything that could be of use to the Confederate Army was destroyed.  The side effect was that the civilian population didn’t have anything left to eat either.  Like it or not, starvation is a very effective weapon.  It may have been necessary to win the war, but Sherman was one ruthless, insensitive yet determined guy who was also a man on a mission, a bad combination for anyone who wasn’t him.   Sherman then continued his march to the sea and when he got there, he was apparently still in a bad mood because he laid siege to Savannah, a social engagement that included James.  However, a good time was not had by all, particularly the Southerners.  After the surrender of Confederate General Johnston, his outfit marched all the way north to Washington D.C. to take part in the grand review (basically a victors’ parade patting themselves on the back.)  And as if the poor guy hadn’t had enough, he was sent to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas for duty on the plains!

There he had the pleasure of a 14-day march north to Fort Kearny, Nebraska located on the Platte River.  He was there 6 weeks when apparently someone wondered what in the hell they were doing there and decided to hike back to Fort Leavenworth, where he was FINALLY mustered out on September 16, 1865.  During his outfit’s four years and four months of service, the regiment marched 4,490 miles, traveled by rail 2,330 miles and by river, 4,490 miles, making a grand total of 11,670 miles of arduous, grinding and exhausting sightseeing that would have worn even the toughest man down to a nub, let alone an “old” soldier like him.  (I wonder how many pairs of shoes he went through?)  And that’s not even including all the bullets he dodged and deadly diarrhea he wiped away.  Undoubtedly he was a real man by anyone’s measure.

Then there was Austin S., Austin L. and Austin L. Lair.  No, that isn’t a typo, there was 5’9”, 36 year old Austin L in the 48th Infantry and then there was 5’5”, 18 year old Austin L. in the 133rd Infantry.  As for Austin S, in an old account of Macoupin County veterans, they listed a Lewis S. Lair.  In military records I haven’t been able to find any Lair, Laird or Laire named Lewis, so I wonder if Austin S went by Lewis so people could tell the Austins apart.  It certainly gets complicated, but somehow they were all cousins to each other I believe.  They were in the same battle at Corinth as was James. M.  They were also in the siege of Vicksburg as was 5’6”, 26 year old James L, yet another cousin.  At the same time that Samuel’s outfit was protecting the Memphis & Charleston R. R. in Tennessee (and Samuel was getting himself taken prisoner), both Austin S and young Austin L were protecting the southern section of the same tracks located farther southeast in Alabama.  They were also burning and reeking havoc on Atlanta at the same time as James M. was and it was their outfit that Confederate General Johnston’s actually surrendered to.  They too were on the same March to the Sea and laying siege to Savannah.  They were in Raleigh, North Carolina when they were ordered to march to Washington D.C. for their Grand Review.  I wonder how many of them would have perfectly content to stay in North Carolina rather than marching 250 miles for a brief march past the President?  Most I bet.  The 48th had 123 men killed and lost 257 to disease for a total of 380.  Again, the 1:2 ratio was the average.  I wonder if any of the cousins ever knew they had other cousins in the same battle?  Being in different companies, they may not have known until a big family reunion after they all got home.

Then we have three other known cousins whose mothers were Lairs, Alexander Hart and brothers Samuel Bridges and George W Bridges.  What do you think the odds are of the W standing for Washington since there were several other Washington Lairs?  High no doubt.  And there was a second cousin as well, William A Ditson, whose mother was a niece to CW’s father.  Hart’s military career was very distinguished; he enlisted February 25, 1865, was appointed fife May 1, 1865 and was mustered out September 9, 1865.  After losing James Pleasant Lair as flute tooter three years earlier, I suspect the Union Army’s lack of an inspirational fife had no doubt been the major cause of it losing several decisive battles.  Hence they saw the wisdom in reacquiring another Lair blooded musician to ensure victory over the south.  And apparently it worked because a few months later the south surrendered.

The Bridges boy’s careers were equally short but with endings that were unceremoniously final.  (Their mother was sister to Charles Jr.)  Samuel, a single 41-year-old blacksmith that was probably swept up in patriotic enthusiasm like the others, enlisted on the same day in September of 1862 as did a bunch of other Lairs.  Being a blacksmith, I’m sure his job was to do the same thing in the army, shoe horses.  Nine months after joining up he was in Corinth, Mississippi dead of disease.  Samuel had been attached to the 122nd IL, Company E and his outfit (and cousin George W Lair) was in the same ruckus with Forrest where his cousin Samuel Lair was taken prisoner.  Apparently he was getting away while Samuel Lair was left behind getting captured.  20-year-old George Bridges enlisted early, in May of 1861, but was dead 10 months later in St. Louis of enteric fever (typhoid fever.)  Just for the record, bacteria ingested in water contaminated with human fecal matter causes typhoid fever.  The symptoms include poor appetite, abdominal pain, headaches, body aches, fever up to 104F and internal bleeding or perforations of the intestines.  Once the last part occurs, you’re a goner, but only after plenty of suffering beforehand.  Oh, one other symptom is diarrhea or constipation.  You’d think it would be one or the other wouldn’t you?

William Ditson’s military career was rather brief, he being mustered into the 122nd Illinois on May 31, 1864 and being discharged a short 116 days later in September.  He was 24 and married when he joined up and I’m sure his wife was glad his military service was short and undistinguished.

One Brother for the North and One for the South Makes
For Very Uncomfortable Family Reunions…

Charles Washington’s father (Charles Jr.) and two uncles (Peter and William) moved to Jasper township (no longer exists), Taney County, MO (Branson area) in the late 1830s.  Charles Jr. and William stayed there less than 10 years, but Peter supposedly stayed the rest of his life except for a few years during the Civil War, when he temporarily returned to Macoupin County, IL.  After the war was over, he moved back to Missouri and died an old man in Joplin.  Peter’s wife Elizabeth shelled five kids before the war, three boys and two girls.  Of the three boys, the two older ones, James and David, both fought in the war.  Reubin was 10 years old and way too young when the war started.

The oldest son James Lair fought for the South.  (Don’t confuse him with Union Army James Lair from Shelby Co, MO.)  The Missouri Calvary, 3rd Regiment C.S.A. (Confederacy) was organized in the summer of 1862 with men from Springfield, Missouri and surrounding counties.  Many of those had previously served in the Missouri State Guard, as had James.  He was 23 at the time and went in as a First Lieutenant and came out the same, having achieved that rank previously in the State Guard.  Something we can not be proud of is the 3rd Regiment’s action at Poison Spring and Marks’ Mill in Arkansas.

In April of 1864, the Union army in southwest Arkansas was just about out of supplies for both men and horses.  Somehow they got wind of a Confederate stockpile of corn 20 miles away and sent out a foraging party.  They loaded up 198 wagons with corn and had barely started back when about 5 miles down the road, Confederate troops attacked.

Union Colonel James Williams positioned the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry, a regiment made up of mostly ex-slaves, between the wagon train and Confederate lines.  The black troops performed admirably by repelling the first two offenses, but then ran low on ammunition and were beaten back on the third charge.  The wounded black soldiers were unable to escape with the rest of the retreating Union army.  Most sickening, the Confederates refused to take them as prisoners and instead brutally killed, scalped, and stripped their corpses naked.  When the fight was said and done, the colored regiment lost nearly half of its numbers.  Overall, the Union not only lost the corn, but also lost either 170 or all 198 of their  wagons, depending upon the source of the facts.  What’s even more repugnent is that a few months after the battle, a Confederate newspaper editorial approved of the Confederates' massacre of black U.S. soldiers in the battle, stating that "They did right."  What’s most disappointing is that as a First Lientenant, James Lair could easily have been one of the officers that ordered, or at least condoned the slaughter.  At the very least, he surely had to have been aware of the actions of his troops.  Hopefully he wasn’t one of the bigoted idiots that did the butchering and the best we can hope for is that he was a knowing but non-parcipitant of the atrocity.

A week later, both forces met again at Marks’ Mill.  Here the rebs captured between 211 and 240 wagons loaded with Union supplies coming from the federal depot at Pine Bluff, supplies that the Union army desperately needed.  In addition to the wagons, the Confederates also captured 1,300 Union troops and of the total, only 150 managed to escape capture.  After the five hour fight, the Confederates had a mere 300 casualities.  After this battle, again the southern troops killed wounded black soldiers rather than take them as prisoners.

The Confederates would pay for their atrocities 5 days later when the opposing forces clashed yet again at Jenkins’ Ferry.  Here the Union was entrenched and had 700 casualties while the attacking Southerners lost 1,000.  Before leaving the field, some black soldiers of the 2nd Kansas Colored Infantry shot and killed Confederate wounded in retaliation for the killings at Poison Spring and Marks’ Mill.  Certainly not morally right, but understandable.

If you remember, earlier I said something about descendents sometimes lying about the facts to cover up a horrible sin of their ancestors.  During my research of over a half dozen sources, I found that all accounts of the above battles made note of the casualties on both sides, the colored troops and the heavy losses they suffered.  However, only two described how the heavy losses of black troops actually occurred.  Sometimes the real truth of a situation isn’t in what’s told, but rather what’s not told.  James wasn’t one of my direct ancestors, but he did have Lair blood in his veins and I won’t lie about past sins whether or not they’re my direct ancestors.

It would seem that the rebel James Lair fighting for the south had just as much pride in what he was doing as did the Lair boys from the North.  James’ regiment voluntarily disbanded in the spring of 1865, thereby not having to suffer the indignity of being forced to surrender.  It seems fairly common for Missouri Rebel units to have disbanded or barring that, for only a sprinkling of the men to formally surrender with the majority simply walking away, presumably headed home.  It seems that most refused to accept defeat, or at least to admit or exhibit defeat on an individual basis.  The Confederacy may have surrendered, but even in Missouri there existed that stereotypical southerner’s pride that demanded the individual person not exhibit the weakness of surrendering.

Peter’s other son David Lair was 20 when he joined the Union Army, signing up in Springfield, Missouri.  I doubt this difference of political opinion was an isolated incident, especially since that corner of Missouri had men joining both sides.  David joined the 8th Missouri Volunteer Regiment in 1864, fortunately having missed out on what later became known as the “Huntsville Massacre” in Arkansas.  In January 1863, for reasons unknown to this day, nine southern men who had been “detained” for some time were executed under orders of Union Lt. Col. Baldwin.  The execution wasn’t executed (no pun intended) thoroughly, it killing eight of the men and the ninth being left as dead.  It’s unknown if he was seriously wounded or just playing possum, but he survived and squealed on Baldwin.  At the time of the execution, most of the regiment had moved on toward the Mississippi River and only a small detachment was left behind in Huntsville.  Baldwin may have know what he was doing was wrong and figured the fewer witnesses the better.  Later he would be arrested for the murders and sent back to Springfield, MO for trial.  Conviently for Baldwin, local Huntsville witnesses were unable to make it to Springfield (how convient) and the members of the small detachment left behind were on active duty elsewhere.  Without witnesses, the charges were dropped and Baldwin was released.  He was dismissed from the army, but that was the only punishment ever carried out in response to the murders.  This ruthless killing of innocent men and the details associated with it had an uncanny resemblence to an incident that occurred three months earlier in Palmyra, Missouri that you will read about shortly.

David’s service was rather mundane, they spending the remainder of the war more or less riding herd on Arkansas.  During that time they engaged in several minor skirmishes with Confederate forces and Guerrilla bands, but nothing notable. They mustered out of service on July 20, 1865.

The old cliché about brothers being on opposing sides of the war was certainly true in Peter’s family.

Not Our Lairs

There was an 18-year-old John T. Lair from Springfield, Missouri that joined the 3rd Battalion, Missouri Calvary C.S.A. formed in early 1862.  As far as I can tell, he was no relation to our Lairs, he having a blacksmith shop in Springfield and owning 24 slaves, the second largest slaveholder in Greene County.  From what I could find of his background, I believe he may be an offshoot of the slave owning German Leher-Lairs of Kentucky, he having moved from there to Missouri and then to Arkansas after the war.  As for other Missouri Lairs that served in the Civil War, I found a virtual boatload of them from the Shelby County, MO area, a couple from extreme NW Missouri and one from Chariton County west of my farm in Missori, all unrelated to our Lairs as far as I can tell.  The only Civil War Lairs I can find from the Springfield area (about 35 miles north of Taney Co.) were Peter’s sons James and David and the non-family John T.

Discretion is The Better Part of Valor

It’s a known fact that Peter moved back to Illinois for a few years during the Civil War, but when it was over he returned “home” to Missouri.  So far I haven’t found any record of him owning slaves and I can’t say for sure, but I suspect he was every bit as loyal to the Union as were the Illinois Lairs. Since that section of southwest Missouri was generally pro South, his presumed Union leanings no doubt made for uncomfortable relations with the neighbors.  In the Springfield area there were several documented instances of civilian southerner on civilian northerner violence.

And don’t automatically assume it was always southerner on northerner violence.  Take the case of Missouri Confederate volunteer Marion Lair.  I don’t believe he was any relation to our Lairs and may have been related to the Union leaning Shelby County Lairs.  His military service card states; “A resident of Ralls Co. (Hannibal) formerly had lived in Marion Co (Palmyra, adjoining Shelby to the east) imprisoned because they were southern sympathizers, were executed on Saturday, Oct 18, 1862 at the fair grounds.”  “They” included 9 other POWs that along with Marian had been captured and imprisoned earlier.

Here’s what led up to Marian’s neck stretching.  Colonel Joseph Porter was a Confederate leader who had acquired a respectable following of local men that were loyal to the southern cause.  Although fairly far north, it’s not surprising he was able to recruit a number of followers since that part of east north central Missouri was known as “Little Dixie.”  Most of the original settlers were from Kentucky and Tennessee and brought their slaves, customs and southern thinking with them.  What may surprise many people is that the 20 or so counties north of the Missouri River and east of Hannibal had the highest percentage of slaves as well as total number of slaves in the entire state.  For instance, in Randolph County where I live, the 1850 and 1860 census shows that just a hair under 30% of the residents were slaves.  That’s more than double that of the so-called Springfield, Missouri “hotbed” of southern support.  But now back to the story.  Porter raided Palmyra, Missouri and a 66-year-old local named Andrew Alsman was taken prisoner.  The reason he was singled out may be because he was a very outspoken ex-army Union supporter who had been more than happy to inform Federal troops of the actions of local Confederate supporters.  The local newspapers described him as a great guy of integrity that was Union loyal to the core.  When you read between the lines and put 2 and 2 together, you realize he was a gruff, outspoken old cuss who eagerly questioned the loyalty of local individuals and was even more eager to turn them in to the Union military as suspected southern sympathizers.  Apparently he did correctly identify several local southern sympathizers, but oftentimes things like that get out of hand and it becomes a witch-hunt of innocent people.  Whether it ever did or not I can’t say, but I know some people relish ratting out others due to the power they feel when they determine the fate of others.  And there’s also a big difference between supporting the southern cause in opinion and supporting it in action.

It wasn’t long after Alsman was taken prisoner that Colonel Porter began to have second thoughts because he realized it was going to be real pain to keep the old guy under guard, fed, listen to his mouth run, etc while they were running around engaging in skirmishes and doing other southern cause stuff.  Porter decided to free Alsman, but Alsman feared that if freed he would be in danger because some of Porter’s men knew his reputation as a Union informant and snake in the grass.  Apparently Porter wasn’t all bad and assigned him a guard to accompany him safely to the closest Union line.  The two men set off for Palmyra but Alsman never made it home.  It was never known if the guard did a poor job of guarding him or if he was the one that actually killed Alsman.

Union Colonel John McNeil, who would later be affectionately known as the "Butcher of Palmyra", sent Porter a letter telling him if Alsman wasn’t returned within 10 days, he would execute 10 of Porter’s troops that had been captured earlier and were currently jailed, one of those being Marian Lair.  Porter’s wife lived nearby and a copy of the letter was given to her to make sure Porter got the message.  Between her and the numerous local sympathizers, Porter undoubtedly knew of the threat but there wasn’t a thing he could do at that point since he didn’t have Alsman.  When the 10 days were up, McNeil randomly gathered up 10 men from two jails in the area, loaded the men and their rough sawn coffins onto wagons and drove them to the local fairgrounds.  There the prisoners were forced to carry their own coffins, placing them in a row.  They were seated on their own personal coffin and 12-13 paces away, 30 Missouri State Militia lined up with additional armed men in reserve.  Ok, you have 10 men with hands tied and 30 guys with muskets ready to shoot them.  Why should need reserves?  You’ll see why.

A hundred solemn spectators had gathered for the morbid show.  The officer in command gave the command, "Ready, aim, fire."  First off, the slapdash firing squad apparently got confused by the words, “Ready, aim, fire” and failed to fire simultaneously, their report no doubt sounding like a pack of Black Cat firecrackers going off randomly.  As a result, some prisoners had to wait for their personal minnie ball while their brethern had already gotten theirs.  Two of the prisoners died instantly and fell backward upon their coffins. Confederate Captain Sidner of Monroe County, Missouri fell forward face first except that his head was thrown back against his soldiers, his dead eyes open and staring at the firing squad.  I bet that was spooky and unnerving, as well it should have been.  I say that because the idiot executioners managed to kill three prisoners instantly while merely wounding six other guys and get this, they missed one man completely.  Yep, didn’t have a scratch on him anywhere.  This is where the reserves came in; since it took a while to reload a musket, those unlucky guys had the miserable chore of walking up to the wounded men writhing on the ground as well as the one unscathed man and cold bloodedly kill them point blank with their revolvers.  Talk about a botched execution, or should I say slaughter?

Of the 10 prisoners, one of them was proven to be the man who shot and killed his Union neighbor a year earlier.  So that guy got what he had coming to him, unlike the rest of the men who were known to not have committed any sort of crime, war crime, atrocity or the like.  They were simply doing what they believed in or felt obligated to do, which was the exact same thing the Illinois Lairs were doing.  All of those executed were locals from the surrounding counties and their blood soaked coffins were unloaded in the town square so their families could come get them.  News of the “execution” soon went beyond the local newspaper and made newspapers across the country and Europe, and was brought to the attention of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, presidents of their respective countries.  By that time it had become more aptly named a “massacre” that was commited solely for retribution and nothing else.  I find it interesting how closely the details of the Huntsville, Arkansas massacre David Lair’s outfit committed  resembled that of the Palmyra massacre.

Oh, 15 years later a human skull would be found in a wooded area of Marion County, which was thought to be Alsman’s.  A local pharmacist somehow got hold of it and put it on display, attracting a lot of attention and no doubt resulting in more purchases from the gawkers.  15 years after that, another fellow purchased the skull and put it in a velvet lined walnut box.  Eventually he returned it to one of Alsman’s daughters, who supposedly identified it and had it buried.  I wonder how you “identify” a skull 40 or so years later?  Is it something like, “Oh yeah, that looks just like dear old dad!”?  I know I’d have a hard time seeing the resemblence between a skull and a flesh and blood face.

If Peter Lair was a strong and loyal northerner like the Illinois Lairs, he may have been a bit like Alsman and was too vocal about it.  I’m not sure when he left Missouri, but if he was still in Missouri when the newspapers carried the story about Marian Lair and the “Palmyra Massacre”, I bet he started sweating bullets.  Or maybe minie balls…  He probably figured he had better get out of Dodge (Taney Co) lest his own personal Lair treatment mimic what happened to the Lair up north.  Just my opinion, but I suspect Peter didn’t know when to keep his big mouth shut until it was too late.  And he likely being a loyal Unionist, consider that it’s entirely possible that he may have publicly cheered his Union son and expressed disappointment with his Confederate son’s choice of loyalty.  In that part of the state, I’m sure such talk would have went over really well with his pro south neighbors.  As my father would have put it, I’d bet $5 to a donut the reason he temporarily moved back to Illinois was not to save his pride, but to save his hide.

I don’t know when Peter moved back to Missouri, but I did find him, James and David on the voter roles in Greene County in 1870.  In the 1880 census, James is married to Elizabeth Matildy (Cook) and has four kids, living in Christian County, MO (the county between Greene and Taney.)  According to the census, his oldest daughter Margarett was 16 at the time and was born in Illinois.  That means she would have been born in 1864 while the remaining three kids, the oldest born in 1867, were born in Missouri.  It would seem that Peter had taken Elizabeth to Illinois with him for safekeeping until the war was over.  I’m sure he didn’t approve of his son’s choice of loyalties, but at least he was honorable enough to see that his son’s pregnant wife was kept safe until things settled down.

The Missouri Clevengers

I don’t know if any of the Missouri Clevengers are related to the Lair-Clevengers in Illinois, but there were five Clevenger families all living in Jasper Township where Peter Lair lived.  I haven’t researched anything, but a Brackston Clevenger was shown on the same census page as Peter, making me believe they lived fairly close to each other.  Most of the older Clevengers were born in either Tennessee or Illinois, the young children in Missouri.

There were four Clevengers that joined the Union Army from the area right around Greene and Taney Counties with one more from a ways east of there.  I’ll list them and let you Clevenger folks decide if any of them belong to you.

Joseph Clevenger  Taney, Greene & Christian County Home Guards  
John Clevenger  From Springfield, 1st Regiment Artillery Volunteers
Lewis Clevenger  Age 18, From Springfield, Company B 74th Regiment
Lewis Clevenger  From Marshfield (NE of Springfield) Deserted 2 months after joining  
Joshua Clevenger  From Waynesville (75 miles NE of Springfield) Age 45, 48th Regiment Infantry Volunteers

Well there you have it.  I put a LOT of hours into sorting out and identifying who was who, what they did and where they did it.  Any Civil War buffs will no doubt recognize some of the names and places where our ancestors were and hopefully I’ve put a little personal history into a few dead folks.  If anyone feels that I’ve made mistakes, feel free to contact me and hopefully we can sort things out.

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