CAPE GIRARDEAU BATTLE MORE GORE THAN GLORY

The calm of an April Sunday morning was shattered 129 years ago, on April 26, 1863, when a Civil War battle began in Cape Girardeau at 10 a.m. Although accounts of the battle have been given many times, no bicentennial record would be complete without its inclusion.

The Union commanding general was Brig. Gen. John McNeil, who was in charge of Camp Fremont, as Cape Girardeau was known. Here, four forts were built in 1861 to guard the city, protect the Mississippi from Confederate boats going north, and lend support to the Union where the need arose in Southeast Missouri.

The Confederate general, John S. Marmaduke, and his army of 5,000 included cavalry brigades commanded by Gen. Joseph O. Shelby, Col. John Q. Burbridge and Col. George W. Carter, and a small cavalry of Missouri soldiers under Col. Green.

The Civil War was in its third year and the Confederate Army was running low on food supplies and ammunition.

Marmaduke decided to capture Fort Fremont with its four forts: A B, C and D. He came to Missouri from Arkansas, and word of his coming and plans were carried to McNeil by a spy.

When the war began, President Lincoln put Gen. Ulysses Simpson Grant, an 1843 West Point graduate, in charge of the District of Southeast Missouri. Grant was in the Ironton-Potosi area at the time, and received the change of command under a large tree in front of the county courthouse in Ironton. He left immediately for Cape Girardeau and the Mississippi River, a strategic point of defense for the Federal Army.

Grant's appointment was made in August 1861. His office was on a river boat at the foot of Themis Street. He also had offices in what is now Port Cape Girardeau restaurant, and his sleeping quarters were in the old St. Charles Hotel on the southwest corner of Main and Themis.

When Grant left Cape Girardeau for Cairo, he ordered the four forts built. They were constructed immediately in September 1861 at the four corners of the city.

Fort D remains today as a city landmark. In 1861 it had a clear view of the river and could keep confederate boats from going north. Fort B on the Michael Dittlinger property, now the campus of Southeast State University, was involved in the Battle of Cape Girardeau. Fort B incorporated the Dittlinger home into the fort. Dittlinger was in the Confederate Army, and his family had moved to safety.

News of Marmaduke's coming reached Jackson, and many residents there stayed up all night to see the famous general.

McNeil stationed soldiers in the woods between Jackson and Cape Girardeau, and they removed planking over Hubble, Goose, Randol, Williams and LaCroix creeks. Rains had turned the road into mud, and the creeks were running high. Travel for Marmaduke over the road from Jackson to Cape Girardeau was made difficult and slowed his progress.

Marmaduke sent word ahead to McNeil that he would accept surrender, and all bloodshed would be avoided. But McNeil sent a curt message back of two words, "No Surrender!" McNeil had 3,000 soldiers and Marmaduke had 5,000, but his soldiers were weak from lack of food. That morning their breakfast had been warm water flavored with chicory. McNeil's men had a regular army breakfast.

The fighting began on the Jackson road where many of Marmaduke's soldiers were wounded and some killed by snipers in the woods. Actual fighting took place from what is now west Broadway down to Capaha Park, where it became intense from 11 a.m. until almost 3 p.m.

When Marmaduke saw he could not capture Fort Fremont, he gradually pulled his army out Bloomfield Road, and they continued back to Arkansas. The battle was listed in the battle archives as a "draw." Had it been otherwise, another battle would have followed and it might have been a major battle like Vicksburg.

Women and children were evicted from the city for safety and taken on Capt. N.S. Green's boat, Mary Forsyth, to Devils Island, where they remained until April 29. M. Gilbert, a reporter from St. Louis, wrote about the battle for a St. Louis newspaper, and an artist from Paris stationed in St. Louis, William James Hinchey, sketched the battle for the London Illustrated News and Harpers Weekly. They returned to St. Louis on Green's boat.

Marmaduke could not take all his wounded with his army and they were left on the battlefield. McNeil's soldiers took them to hospitals that had been set up in Cape Girardeau to treat the injured. The dead were buried.

McNeil gave his loss as 60 dead and 33 wounded. His cannons were 24- and 12-pounders. Marmaduke's cannons were mostly 6-pounders. The list of Confederate wounded and dead was not given, but it was greater than that of the Federal Army. The battle was "more gore than glory" for both sides.