CIVIL WAR RE-ENACTORS AT JACKSON TO HONOR CONFEDERATE COLONEL

In 1908, Missouri's governor was among more than 8,000 people who paid their respects in person when the Daughters of the Confederacy presented the city with a monument honoring Col. William T. Jeffers.

Jeffers was a Mexican-American War veteran who founded the 8th Missouri Cavalry and fought on the Confederate side when the Civil War broke out.

Later in his life, as sheriff of Dunklin County, he clashed with the Ku Klux Klan, and still later opened a hotel in Dexter called the Jeffersonian.

Jeffers' grave will be rededicated in a ceremony Saturday to begin at 11 a.m. at the Old City Cemetery off South High Street.

The commemoration is part of the Civil War re-enactment taking place in Jackson Saturday and Sunday.

Jeffers is being honored because he was a gallant officer who fought in many battles throughout the West, according to Gary Gilbert, who is organizing the event.

"Both sides in this conflict were Americans," he said.

Jeffers will be due one shot from the Southern re-enactors present and one cannon round from Clark's Battery, a re-enactment group from Fredericktown.

Two of Jeffers' great-great-grandchildren will be on hand for the ceremony, one coming from St. Louis, another from Dexter.

Also playing roles in the rededication will be Mayor Paul Sander, the Rev. O. Otto Steinhaus and Charles Hutson of Jackson, a past-American Legion post commander whose great-grandfather fought with Jeffers.

About 10 riders dressed in the uniform of the 8th Cavalry will make an appearance.

Saturday's re-enactment will start at 9:30 a.m. at the Cape Girardeau Courthouse at Jackson. Confederate troops will be there recruiting and Union soldiers will attempt to drive them off.

"This happened probably in a lot of communities," said Gilbert, the retired director of the Cape Girardeau Vocational-Technical School and a re-enactor himself.

The almost 100 re-enactors are coming from Cairo and Alton in Illinois and from St. Louis.

The Confederate and Union soldiers will wear authentic uniforms, down to their caps, spectacles and boots.

The encampment will include the "suttlers" who sold wares to the soldiers during the war and the women and children who sometimes followed when a battle wasn't imminent.

The war in Missouri, then considered the West, largely consisted of a series of atrocities and retaliations, Gilbert said.

"A lot of good citizens were caught in the middle," he said.

Gilbert encourages those attending to walk through the camps and ask questions.

"Re-enactors know a lot about their equipment," he said, and people can "ask them why they're doing it.

"...A lot of re-enactors want to experience the lives of those people," he said. "They were very gallant and believed strongly in their cause."

Gilbert is a Union man, a corporal in the Missouri's Holmes Brigade, but at times has portrayed a Confederate soldier. He has friends and ancestors on both sides.

In some ways, the war that divided the country still is being fought at these re-enactments.

He believes in the Union cause and said, "A lot of Confederates still believe in the cause they were fighting for. They want to be the underdog."

The St. Louis Iron Mountain & Southern Railway will take spectators to the campsite, departing from Jackson Saturday at 11 a.m., 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. and Sunday at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

Each train will be occupied by one side or another and they are bound to get bushwhacked.

Phone 243-1688 or 1-800-455-RAIL for reservations.

Spectators also can drive to the campsites, which are along Lee Avenue in the southwest part of the city.

From Highway 61, turn south just west of the intersection of Highways 61, 72 and 25.

From Highway 25, turn west onto Jackson Trail just south of the city of Jackson.

Admission to the campsite is $1.