Earlier this year, I wrote about our family’s experiences in World War II and the American Revolution. We also have extensive narratives from Union Army veterans Anthony Gilmartin, David Cassatt, and Benjamin McWilliams. These men survived the Civil War, but like many soldiers who left their farms and endured crowded, unsanitary conditions, they suffered serious illnesses. Ben, in particular, endured the harsh realities of multiple Confederate prisons. All three, however, served honorably and were discharged at the war’s end.
Those who served the Union cause later migrated to Barton County, Missouri, where they established farms on what was then open prairie. But for families who had already settled in that region of Missouri before the war, their Civil War experiences were starkly different. On my paternal side, the Maddox and Curry families had Southern roots and were, at the very least, sympathetic to the Confederate cause. As a result, they endured great hardship—some of it, perhaps, brought upon themselves.
The patriarch of the Maddox family, Jesse T. Maddox (my 3rd-great-grandfather), came from Virginia. He moved westward—first to Tennessee, where he married Lucinda Ann Simmons, and later to Missouri, settling first in Monroe County and then in Vernon County in the late 1850s. Unfortunately, the move came during one of Missouri’s most volatile periods. Tensions between slave-state Missouri and free-state Kansas were high, and Vernon County—just eight miles from Fort Scott, Kansas—became a flashpoint in the guerrilla warfare between Confederate bushwhackers and the Union Army, as well as Union-aligned Jayhawkers.
The Maddox family was soon caught up in these events. In December 1858, John Brown led a raid in western Vernon County, killing one man but freeing twelve enslaved people for passage along the Underground Railroad. Jesse Maddox served on the grand jury that indicted Brown, though free-state authorities refused to extradite him.
When the Civil War began, those prewar skirmishes exploded into full-scale devastation for Vernon County—and the Maddox family was in the midst of it. Jesse died on August 10, 1861, soon after the war began. The following year brought even more violence. In April 1862, members of the 1st Iowa Cavalry checked into a hotel in Montevallo, where they were attacked by local men on April 13. Among the attackers were Jesse’s sons Wilson C. and William T. Maddox. In retaliation, federal troops burned the town of Montevallo to the ground—including the hotel Wilson kept.
Violence continued throughout the war. One final tragedy struck on February 20, 1865, when two Maddox brothers, Jesse and John, were reportedly ambushed and killed by Jayhawkers. John Stuart Maddox is said to have served in the Confederate Army, though no record of his service survives.
Two of Jesse’s daughters were also deeply affected by the war. Elizabeth Ann and Sarah D. Maddox married two brothers—Robert M. and John D. Curry, both born in Kentucky. By 1860, the Maddox and Curry families had neighboring farms, but both men died during the 1860s. The details of their deaths are uncertain. One Robert Marion Curry who served in a Kansas cavalry regiment was executed by firing squad and buried at Fort Scott, but it’s unclear whether he was the same Robert who lived in Vernon County.
The widows, Elizabeth and Sarah, continued to farm and raise their families, likely with help from relatives. Census records show their farms were modest—certainly less prosperous than those of their Union veteran counterparts in Barton County—but they managed to endure.
Union victory in Missouri came at a steep price. Holding the border states required harsh measures, and guerrilla activity brought brutal reprisals, often falling hardest on civilians caught in the middle. The Maddox and Curry families did not appear in the 1860 slave schedules, so they were among the many Southern-leaning families who supported but did not benefit from the Confederate cause.
With so many loved ones lost, Elizabeth and Sarah likely felt bitterness toward the “new nation” that had experienced “a new birth of freedom,” as Lincoln said, and toward the northern settlers who arrived after the war. Yet, over time, reconciliation took root.
Their daughter Mary Curry married Henry Yount, also from a southern family. And one generation later, Robert and Elizabeth’s granddaughter married Virgil Cassatt, the son of a Union veteran. By the time of that 1905 wedding, Elizabeth Ann (Maddox) Curry was still living on the original family homestead—now farmed by her son.
But her post-war story is one for another post.
Note: The artist of the blog post painting does not appear to be a relative of Robert Curry, but I haven't been able to trace Robert's line back. Yet.
Books:
History of Vernon County, Missouri: Written and Compiled from the Most Authentic Official and Private Sources, Brown & Co., St. Louis, MO, 1887
Photo:
Tragic Prelude By John Steuart Curry - United Missouri Bank of Kansas City, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48498757
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