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The Scholl Brothers Of Jackson County, Missouri

We at quantrillsguerrillas.com are honored to present a short history of two courageous brothers who fought together against Federal oppression in Missouri during the Civil War. This is a double honor since these two brothers, Daniel Boone and George Thomas Scholl are relatives of one the founding members of quantrillsguerrillas.com, Claiborne Scholl Nappier.

Daniel Boone Scholl was born on May 30, 1843. He was described as a man six feet three inches tall. His brother George Thomas Scholl was born on March 5, 1846. The story of their wartime careers reads like a battlefield report. They took part in every engagement associated with William Clarke Quantrill and his partisan rangers.  

The Scholl brothers were from Jackson County and were the great grandson's of the famed pioneer Daniel Boone. Both served under Quantrill enlisting early in the war. Many of their relatives also rode as guerrillas under Quantrill and all had experienced personal atrocities by the Kansas Jayhawkers. On one occasion Kansas Jayhawkers swept through their neighborhood killing and plundering everything in their path including stealing religious articles from the Pleasant Grove Baptist church where many of the Scholl's relatives including the Muirs were members. As a large group of Yankee soldiers were forcing Mrs. Muir to feed them one of them asked, “Why don’t you tell the bushwhackers to come out and fight us like men?” Mrs. Muir knowing Quantrill to be close by replied, “You tell them; you will see them before I do.” Before the meal was finished the bugle called the men to their saddles. The soldiers hurried away making for Westport chased by the Scholl brothers, Boone Muir and the rest of the guerrilla company led by Quantrill, “bareheaded, whooping and yelling, shooting as they came.” As a consequence Federals arrested the entire Muir family on July 21, 1862 and sent them to prison at Fort Leavenworth. The Muir home as well as their relatives the Scholls were burned to the ground suffering the same fate as many of their  neighbors simply for being Southern sympathizers.  

On Sunday, November 3, 1862 Quantrill took a muster. Found were seventy-eight guerrillas in Quantrill's company and a number of civilians wishing to be escorted south.  They were mostly part-time guerrillas and farmers with their families wanting to get behind Confederate lines and into Texas.  As they started out Quantrill put his best men in the lead, among them were Boone Scholl led by George Todd and the remainder of his men.  Riding past Harrisonville on the old road leading toward Warrensburg they had been in the saddle only a short time when George Scholl in the advance came upon a Federal wagon train close to the small town of Dayton. Dayton has been a prosperous little Southern town of forty-seven houses before Jennison and his 7th Kansas Jayhawkers burned it to the ground the year before along with the neighboring town of Columbus on January 3, 1862.  As the guerrilla band rode past, they could only grit their teeth in anger at what was becoming a desolated countryside due to Jayhawker attacks.  

Thirty cavalrymen were escorting fourteen wagons loaded with provisions. Quantrill ordered a charge. The Federals immediately tried to circle the wagons after firing a few rounds but the guerrillas charged them so quickly that they tried to escape in different directions across the prairie. Some with better horses managed to stay ahead of the pursuing guerrillas for up to four miles before they were overtaken and shot from their saddles. Only a handful escaped. In this engagement Daniel Boone Scholl killed five Federals.  

Once Quantrill got his company behind Confederate lines in Arkansas he was attached to General Joseph O. Shelby's cavalry as independent scouts. Quantrill then left his men to travel to Richmond seeking an independent commission of partisan rangers. Daniel Boone and George Thomas Scholl fought with Shelby at the Battle of Cane Hill and Prairie Grove, Arkansas before returning to Jackson County with George Todd sometime in late November with a handful of Quantrill's best men. Both brothers had already gained experience fighting in all the major battles with Quantrill early in the war. Much had changed during the time the guerrillas had been out of the state. The country had experienced a great deal of devastation since the guerrilla's return. Deadly skirmishes were now a daily occurrence.  

On June 17, 1863 Quantrill received intelligence information that three companies of the 9th Kansas Jayhawker Regiment were heading to Kansas City. Captain Henry Flesher would be leading Company A and a portion of Company K along the Westport to Kansas City road. Quantrill ordered Captain George Todd to take seventy men and attack Flesher and his companies at Westport south of Kansas City. It was late afternoon and the soldiers had been in the saddle since morning. The guerrillas were waiting behind a stone wall covered in thick underbrush that lined the road. At Todd’s signal the men stood to horse, mounted and awaited his final order. When the Federal column came abreast of the ambush site Todd hollered out a familiar order for all to hear, “Charge! Kill em’ boys! Kill em!” They knew instinctively what to do next. With pistols in each hand Daniel and George Scholl charged the startled Federal column.  

After quickly attempting to fire a volley at the charging horsemen the Federal soldiers looked to their officers to see whether to make a stand or make a run for it. But fear took control and the thought of safety in the garrison in Kansas City seemed more alluring than continuing the struggle. As horses reared and screamed and the cries from wounded men filled the air each guerrilla continued to take calm and careful aim at the enemy. In the ensuing skirmish thirty-three Federals poured out their blood on the dusty road.  

It was a close hand-to-hand encounter. Fletcher Taylor and his best friend Daniel Boone Scholl made the charge together. Taylor watched Boone’s horse, a new one he had only recently acquired, become unmanageable in the fight and charge through the enemy line. Scholl had killed four of the enemy when he was shot out of the saddle. He was the first man to fall. A Union soldier shot him in the back as he rode past, the bullet passed through his body, breaking the buckle of his belt.  Fellow guerrilla Frank James saw Boone’s predicament but was too late to help. James did manage to shoot the Federal that had killed his friend. Also killed in the skirmish was Alson Wyatt and Ferdinand Scott. Both Scholl and Scott had died quickly. They were taken to the Smith Cemetery in Brooking Township and hastily buried in their saddle blankets. Wyatt was placed on his horse and carried to a friend’s house where he passed away the next morning.  The next image is of Boone Scholl ©Cantey-Myers Collection.                                                                            

                            

Quantrill was saddened when his men returned and relayed the news. He had lost three of his best fighters and was heard to comment, “It was a bad fight. One of my men is worth fifty of the enemy.” All three casualties were said to be “as three as good men as belonged to Quantrill’s command.” At their funeral Quantrill spoke some comforting words to the family of the deceased honoring them for the sacrifice they had made for the Cause.  

Commenting about Boone Scholl Fletcher Taylor said that “Boone was one of the most gallant soldiers we had and the day he was killed we rode together four of us in the front. The last word I heard him say as he fell out of ranks [was] ‘I am done for’.” His cousin Boone Muir and Dick Berry carried him from the field. Author John Newman Edwards said that Boone was “destined to give up a dauntless young life early for the cause he loved best, won the respect of all by a generosity unstained of selfishness and the exercise of a courage that in either extreme of victory or disaster remained perfect in attribute and exhibition. None were more gentle than he; none more courteous, calm and kindly. When he fell, liberty never required upon its altar as a sacrifice a purer victim.” In honor of Boone’s sacrifice Quantrill took one of his pistols, engraved it with his name and presented it to the grieving Scholl family.  

After his brother's death George Thomas Scholl continued to serve his guerrilla company gallantly. Barely a month later George was riding on the Lawrence raid. Following the success at Lawrence Scholl took part in the brilliant victory over General Blunt's forces at the Battle of Baxter Springs. When the guerrillas returned to Jackson County in the spring of 1864 Federal patrols were saturating the countryside.  In June George Scholl, Captain Todd and sixty-four guerrillas met Captain Seymour Wagner and sixty-five soldiers of the 2nd Colorado Cavalry 8 miles south of Independence in the Valley of the Little Blue. Each side was evenly numbered and mounted. The Coloradoans were said to be the best fighters along the border. There was no hesitation. Both Todd and Wagner hollered out the order to charge. A Federal report stated: “The foe came rushing on until the combatants were mingled together, fighting a hand-to-hand encounter midst the fallen dead and dying until gallant Wagner fell, mortally wounded”  After seeing their captain killed the remaining soldiers lost heart and broke away in a mad dash for the safety of Independence .  Some of the frightened soldiers tried to escape by running into the timber. The guerrillas killed twenty-seven of Wagner’s men while capturing twenty-four horses, thirty revolvers, and thirty-two Spencer rifles. Todd only had two men wounded. After this Quantrill and his lieutenants decided to head eastward and take up a new area of operation around the middle of the state in the area known as little Dixie.   

On September 20, 1864 George Scholl took part in the attack on the Fayette courthouse where the guerrillas under Bill Anderson and George Todd were repulsed. A week later Scholl found himself in Anderson's command lying outside the small town of Centralia. Anderson, George Scholl and thirty guerrillas made a reconnaissance into Centralia looking for supplies their men desperately needed. The town had a train depot besides a general store, two hotels and various other businesses. The guerrillas burned the station and piled ties on the track in case a train were to arrive. As they were leaving a train whistle was heard in the distance.  

George Scholl described the events as the train pulled into the station. “We rode into town with no intention of taking a trip around town. Sometime later a train came in filled with Federal soldiers. The company lined up outside the coach and began a fusillade. We answered and started to clean them.” Riding with Scholl was fifteen-year-old Frank Dalton. He collaborated Scholl's version of the account by admitting, "On the train were thirty-four Union soldiers who were being sent south to join the Union army. The Yankee troops saw us and lined up to give battle. As the soldiers showed fight when we ordered them to leave the train, we had to dispose of them."  

When the train pulled into the burning station the guerrillas immediately surrounded the cars firing their pistols into the air to discourage the  resistance being made by the soldiers. There were twenty-five Union soldiers on board under the command of Lieutenant Peters of the First Iowa Cavalry including sixteen soldiers from Mexico, Missouri being escorted to St. Joseph for court-martial. The remainder were reporting for duty up the line and the rest were recently returning on furlough from General Sherman’s army.  An Iowa soldier was credited in one Union report of having fired from the train, setting the stage for the retaliation that followed.  

One guerrilla recognized a Federal soldier that had testified against him in court. He was dragged from the train and immediately shot. After surrendering, the rest of the soldiers were taken from the train and lined up alongside the station and questioned by Captain Anderson. Still grieving over the recent news that some of his best loved men had been shot then scalped by Federals in nearby Howard County Anderson told the frightened soldiers. “You Federals have just killed six of my men, scalped them, and left them on the prairie. I will show you that I can kill men with as much skill and rapidity as anybody. From this time on I ask no quarter and give none.” Anderson continued by saying, “You are Federals, and Federals scalped my men, and carry their scalps at their saddle bows. I have never allowed my men to do such things.” One sergeant was singled out and spared for an exchange for one of Anderson’s men recently captured. The sixteen Federal thieves from Mexico, Missouri being sent to St. Joseph for court martial were taken off the train and shot along with the others. Their bodies were shipped back to Mexico for burial one of them buried in the wedding suit of Alex Bomar, which he had earlier stolen. Our next image is of George Scholl wearing a wild guerrilla shirt©Cantey-Myers Collection.                                                                                             
 
After Bill Anderson's death George Scholl fought under Archie Clements. Following the guerrilla's annual sojourn in Sherman, Texas Scholl along with 144 other guerrillas did not leave for Missouri until April 6. Scholl arrived in Kingsville, Johnson County, Missouri on May 7th, 1865 where he was in a small skirmish. Scholl and the guerrillas found from 100 to 500 Federals at every crossroads but the Federals would never follow them into the brush. George Scholl surrendered in Lexington, Missouri on May 21, 1865. He fought at the Battle of Cane Hill, Prairie Grove, Lawrence, Baxter Springs, the Wagner fight, Fayette and Centralia. Scholl was a Mason. After suffering the hardships of a soldier’s life, the comradeship that united this band of brothers made their wartime attachments stronger than kin. George Scholl and Fletcher Taylor were the closest of friends and exchanged many a heart-warming letter during the years following the war at which time he lived in Valley Park, St. Louis County, 16 miles West of St. Louis. George Thomas Scholl died on June 29, 1922 and is buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery in Kirkwood, Missouri. 

More about the exciting lives of Quantrill's guerrillas can be found in the following references:Quantrill of Missouri, Paul R. Petersen;Quantrill in Texas, Paul R. Petersen;Official Records of the Rebellion, series 1, vol. 8, 46 :Three Years with Quantrill: by John McCorkle;Noted Guerrillas, John Newman Edwards; Westport Historical Quarterly, vol 5, #2, September 1969, pg 10; Kansas City Post, August 21, 1909; Kansas City Star October 8, 1949 ;Kansas City Star, March 5, 1956;Confederate Veteran Magazine 1913; Jackson County Pioneers, Pearl Wilcox; The Frank Smith Manuscript.

Paul R. Petersen– 2009 quantrillguerrillas.com "Permission should be requested and agreed to before using this or copyrighted essay and/or image." 

 

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