Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County, Texas. Page: 563 of 1,110
vii, 9-1011 p. incl. ill., ports. : ports. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this book.
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HISTOR Y OF DALLAS COUNTY.
able name and enviable reputation he afterward
enjoyed. :ie located at Greenfield,
Missouri, September 10, 1855, and was not
long in forming acquaintances and in establishing
himself in the paying practice of his
profession. In politics Colonel Stemmons
was devoted to the principles and teachings
of the old-time Whig party, and as a inember
of the same he supported Bell and
Everett in the great campaign of 1860. With
the defeat that followed that canvass, and the
victory that perched upon the banners of the
Republican party, he saw the signs of war,
and began to prepare for the struggle that
followed.
He was in sympathy with the South and
when Colonel Clarkson's Fifth Regiment of
Missouri State Guards was organized, the
name of John M. Stemmons appeared in the
list of its privates. This command was one
of the first to gather round .the standard
that was raised by that fearless chieftain,
General Sterling Price, when he drew from
its scabbard his trusty sword and rushed to
the South. Thirteen days after his enlistment
Colonel Stemmons was promoted to the
rank of Captain, and assigned to duty as a
staff officer, in which capacity he witnessed
the overthrow of General Lyon, at Wilson's
creek, where Generals Price and McCulloch
gained one of the most signal victories of the
late war. Colonel M. W. Buster, then Adjutant
of Clarkson's regiment, having been
disabled by a bayonet wound in this engagenent,
Colonel Stemmons was ordered to take
his place, and as such he bore himself gallantly
in the engagement at Dry Woods,
which soon followed. It was Clarkson's regment
that brought on this battle, and for
over thirty minutes, in the open prairie, it
withstood the onslaught of the entire Federal
force with its line unbroken. Colonel Stemmons
had his horse wounded under him in
this engagement. In all the marches and
counter-marches made by General Price in
1861, and in all the battles and skirmishes
he fought with the enemy, Colonel Stemmons
bore his part, and when the enlistment of the
regiment expired, he declined to lay down
his arms, and again enlisted as a private in a
battalion of State troops. While serving as
a picket, with no notice or knowledge of the
compliment he was receiving, he was elected
Lieutenant Colonel of the command, and as
its leader he rode at its head at the battle of
Elk HIorn, in Arkansas, where he was slightly
wounded.
The term of enlistment of this regiment
expiring in a short time, Colonel Stemmnons
volunteered for the third time as a private
soldier, but this time he went into the Confederate
army, determined that whatever destiny
might fall upon the South the same
should be his fate. He did not long remain
a private, for just as the battle of Lone Jack
was coming on, he was elected to the Captaincy
of a splendid company, which he led
in this engagement. The Colonel was
severely, and by his surgeon pronounced
fatally, wounded in this battle, and before his
recovery the country fell into the hands of
the enemy, and he became a prisoner of war
while endeavoring to pass their lines. He
was sent to the military prison on Gratiot
street, St. Louis, which place he reached during
the Christmas week of 1862. There
were ninety-one Confederate prisoners sent
into St. Louis, none of them more than halfclothed,
and all forced to march through deep
snow, to wade all the streams that appeared
along their route, without even being permitted
to take of their shoes, and at night
they were forbidden to secure a sufficiency of
wood to-keep them warm against a terribleI
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Lewis Publishing Company. Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County, Texas., book, 1892; Chicago, Illinois. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth20932/m1/563/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Dallas Public Library.