Editing Neosho, Missouri (section)

===Civil War: 1861−1865===

During the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], the county was occupied alternately by the opposing forces. Several engagements were fought in and around Neosho, Newtonia, and Granby, at some places more than once. In addition, frequent [[Skirmisher|skirmishes]] took place between small units and [[Raid (military)|raids]] by area bandits. The schools were closed during the war, and most of the schoolhouses destroyed. The new courthouse was occupied by troops of both armies during the war and finally destroyed {{Circa|1863}}. After the war, the county records were found intact in a cell in the jail. R.W. Ellis, the county clerk, had concealed them there  before he left to join the Confederate Army in 1861.

On July 3, 1861 the Union force of Col. [[Franz Sigel]] moved from Neosho to find and trap Gov Jackson's Missouri State Guard force, reported to be somewhere near [[Lamar, Missouri]]. Sigel believed that another Union force should be chasing them from their Union victory at [[Boonville, Missouri|Boonville]] on June 17. Col. Sigel knew that [[Sterling Price]] and another Confederate Army were south of his position, so he garrisoned Neosho. Captain Conrad and his Rifle Company B of the 3rd Missouri Infantry, numbering about 80 men, were selected.

When Brigadier General [[Benjamin McCulloch]] agreed to General Price's request for assistance with the Missouri State Guard, he moved north. Hearing of the Union force at Neosho, they sent four companies of the [[1st Arkansas Mounted Rifles]] and Cpt. Carroll's Company of Arkansas State troops to capture them. On July 5, the garrison sent forces north to Carthage to ascertain the situation, as the Battle of Carthage was ongoing. Col. McIntosh ordered a two-pronged advance to Neosho, but the western force found its route longer than expected. McIntosh ordered the surrender of the company of Union troops as his Mounted Infantry companies came  within two hundred yards of the court house, where the Union force was stationed. With no pickets to the south and a force to the west of town, the Confederates accepted unconditional surrender just as the second force arrived on scene. Captain Conrad's men were paroled on July 8 and were escorted the first four miles to protect them from numerous threats against their lives made by Neosho locals. The Union troops marched unarmed to Springfield, making 85 miles in 50 hours.

On October 21, [[List of Governors of Missouri|Missouri Governor]] [[Claiborne Fox Jackson|Claiborne Jackson]] and the pro-Southern members of the Missouri General Assembly, who had been forced to flee from Jefferson City when the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] Army approached, held their next to last legislative session at Neosho. On October 28, 1861, they established a provisional capital in Neosho.

Governor Jackson and the [[Missouri General Assembly]] met in the Masonic Hall, numbering thirty-nine members of the House and ten of the Senate. They passed an ordinance of secession and the event was celebrated with cannon firing by General [[Sterling Price]]'s State Guardsmen who were camped in the adjacent hills. The [[Confederate States]] government accepted the results of the vote, and Missouri was admitted as the [[Confederate government of Missouri|12th state of the Confederacy]]. However, the pro-Union members of the General Assembly had already convened, and supported by the occupying Union troops, had declared Jackson removed from office, as well as all who favored the South. The pro-Union members then set up a their own provisional government and appointed [[Hamilton Rowan Gamble|Hamilton R. Gamble]] to be governor. Missouri would have three governors during the course of the Civil War, one elected by the people (Jackson) and two appointed by the pro-Union government (Gamble and [[William Preble Hall]]).

General Price made an effort to organize a Confederate defense of Missouri and initially succeeded, but any chance for concerted pro-Southern action ended when he was defeated in March 1862 at [[Battle of Pea Ridge|Pea Ridge]].

During 1862, various engagements between the hostile forces occurred in the vicinity of Neosho. In 1863, Neosho was garrisoned by Union troops, part of the time with American Indian soldiers occupying the courthouse. On October 4, 1863, a portion of the town was burned by Confederate General [[Joseph Shelby]], who appeared with 1,100 men and, after shelling the courthouse, received the surrender of Union Captain McAfee and his 200 men. Confederate casualties in the fight were seven dead and 22 wounded.<ref name="google.com">{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=omwUAAAAYAAJ|title=Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri|work=google.com|last1=Conard|first1=Howard Louis|year=1901}}</ref>

No court was held from May 22, 1861 until after the war, when on June 19, 1865, when Tipton O. Wood, Frederick Gallimore, and James R. Pearson sat as a county court with W.I.I. Morrow as clerk and Harvey Conly as sheriff; all were temporarily commissioned by the Governor. In 1866, [[election]]s were finally held and order was established. In 1866 a board of education was organized, consisting of Lyman Beebe, J.H. Price Sr., R.V. Keller, E.H. Benham, Hubbard F. Jones and Edwin Ebert. A school site was purchased and the existing building repaired.<ref name="google.com"/> In 1867, a small two-story building was erected for courthouse purposes and the county officers were provided for there and in private buildings until 1878, when a substantial stone and brick building was completed at a cost of $16,250. In 1887, a [[Jail#United States|jail]] was built. The first [[Circuit court#State courts|circuit court]] session was held at the house of Judge John Reed on July 22, 1839, Judge Foster P. Wright presiding.

[[Missouri secession#Neosho Legislature and Secession Ordinance|Debate]] flourishes to this day regarding the legitimacy of these actions, or for that matter those of the Union men who deposed him from office. Claiborne Jackson continued to serve as governor in the Confederate-held portions of the state. But by the end of 1861, Union forces would occupy almost all of Missouri. Jackson took refuge in Arkansas, dying in Little Rock the following year of cancer. A Union victory at the Battle of Pea Ridge in northwest [[Arkansas]] in early 1862 sealed Missouri's fate as a Union border state.