Civil War in Saline County a bloody affair

ARROW ROCK — Civil War-era Saline County could have given the Middle East a run for its money when it comes to war violence, a historian said Saturday.

“The cruelty during the war matches anything coming out of the Middle East today,” said Mike Dickey, administrator of Arrow Rock State Historic site. “The guerillas used to dress up as Federals (Union soldiers) and would ask people for food and water. Then, they’d accuse them of being anti-Confederate, kill them and use their bodies for shooting practice.”

Dickey said many Saline County citizens were arrested, tried and executed for aiding and abetting the enemy.

“Terrorism isn’t a new thing,” said Kathy Borgman, executive director for Friends of Arrow Rock. “It’s grounded in history. That’s why it’s so important to keep history alive, so we can learn from it.”

Friends of Arrow Rock and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources are trying to keep history alive by hosting a lecture series on the first Saturday of the month.

About 50 people went to the historic site Saturday for the program.

“We received a humanities grant from the national endowment for humanities for funding,” said Borgman. “On the first Saturday of February, March, April and May, we’re having historical presentations.”

Borgman said she asked Dickey and Jim Denny, a historian with the division of state parks, to speak at the lecture because she knew they were familiar with the material.

“Mike wrote a book on Arrow Rock history and Jim put up the Civil War historic markers throughout the state,” she said. “We always seem to forget how many experts we have right here in our own community.”

Denny spoke about the Battle of Marshall and Confederate Col. Joseph O. Shelby’s narrow defeat against the Union Army. He also read sections from letters that soldiers sent to their families during the war about their views on the battles.

Dickey gave a presentation on how the citizens and the economy of Saline County were affected during the war.

“Saline was an excessively rich river county at the time of the Civil War,” said Dickey. “Two major crops grown here were tobacco and hemp, which was turned into rope to tie cotton bales, and it became a plantation culture. Unfortunately, the economic prosperity was tied to the South, and it’s never regained the economic status or political power it had in the 1850s.”

“I came today because I like the Civil War-era,” said Mary Beamer, of Arrow Rock. “I thought the presentations were very good and informative. I learned things that I had never read, especially about the battle of Marshall.”

After the presentations, visitors were able to eat traditional Civil War-era food such as hardtack, gingerbread, johnny cake and home brewed beer.

“Who we are today is directly influenced by what’s happened before us,” Dickey said. “Having perspective is beneficial and a value of knowing our history.”