Missouri Border Madness during the Civil War, led one well to do farming family to flee the state and their panic became known locally as the Great Bois D’ Arc Skedaddle. About 15 miles northwest of Springfield, a thriving farming community of a church, general store, stable, granary, Masonic Lodge, a Post Office and even a cemetery, comprised the burg of Bois D’ Arc. Many in the area had immigrated from Eastern Tennessee around 1850 and began the life of a hard scrabble farmer, garnering what ever crops they could manage from the Missouri wilderness. Greene County, Missouri wasn’t as barren and desolate as some locations, but as all agrarian ventures, it sure wasn’t easy. These natives of East Tennessee knew what hard work was, but what they didn’t count on was the civil strife, Union discontent and Pro-Slavery proclivities of their neighbors.
Several families of the same Tennessee clan, bought adjoining lands.They shared in the chores, combining their holdings and over the years came to enjoy a fruitful existence. The patriarch, whose first name was so long, he just went by B.G.W. was the elder statesman of the community and lectured all that would listen, on the abomination of slavery and the sanctity of the Union. Several of his friends and fellow farmers, got real tired of his constant diatribes, refused to listen anymore, plotting behind his back and even attempted to have him ostracized from Masonic ceremonies. These Missouri radicals felt that their Kansas neighbors were creating a slave-free haven and the animosity had already led to violence on both sides of the border. The Tennessee clan of B.G.W. was trapped smack dab in the middle of these warring factions and just living in Missouri made it appear that you were pro-slavery, suffering the consequences of Kansas raiders, plunderers and terrorists. In addition, B.G.W.’s neighbors felt his kin was in league with the anti-slavery Kansans and the whole clan had the local element to deal with.
A nightmare had begun that seemed unending, with no healthy results in sight. The men folk would hide in the woods, when the riders approached, the women and children cowering, as the intruders ransacked the houses and looted the barns. None of the families were shot or hung, however time was not on B.G.W. clan’s side.
Union forces were gathering for a confrontation, with a brave and competent commanding officer, General Nathaniel Lyon. B.G.W. assured the clan that Lyon was their savior and that he would rid the state of the insurrectionists. What the patriarch didn’t know, was that Lyon’s second in command was an incompetent, self-centered, egotistical, Prussian Cavalry-God, named Franz Sigel. He was a Lincoln appointee, that would assure the enlistment of German immigrants out of St. Louis. Sigel was no god and doomed Lyon’s battle strategy from the beginning. Nathaniel Lyon, who was the 1st General killed in the Civil War, was truly its first hero, even though his army suffered a demoralizing defeat, retreating to Springfield.
The writing was on the wall for B.G.W. and clan, farms or no farms, barns, houses, live stock, furnishings, pillar of the community or not, load as much as you could into wagons, hitch up the mules and horses, sell everything else or not, get the heck out of this god forsaken land called Missouri. Get out, while you and your family still can. Head back to Tennessee, where the residents are peaceful, god and Union fearing, no night riders, pillagers, plunderers or terrorists, this war won’t last long, we’ll all come back in a month or two or maybe a year or two. B.G.W. and his clan fled the Missouri Border Madness, returning to Tennessee and all descendants remembering the trek as the Great Bois D’ Arc Skedaddle.
Bummer
