Dedication to highlight plans for memorial to Civil War casualties w/ video

By Scott Meeker

smeeker@joplinglobe.com

There’s not much to see on the property at the northeast corner of Fountain and Peace Church roads.

There’s a dilapidated house, and what once may have been vibrant red paint is now peeling away from the wood. A nearby barn and other small structures are in similar disrepair. The surrounding acreage is filled with trees and overgrowth that make walking through the area difficult.

It’s neither clean nor pretty — but neither were the events that unfolded at the site more than 145 years ago.

People like their history to be clean and pretty, said Steve Cottrell, a Carthage resident who has written several books about local history, including “The Civil War in the Ozarks.” Perhaps that’s why what happened at the site has been largely forgotten, he said.

During two turbulent days in May 1863, it was the epicenter of a chain of events that left many dead and set a large swath of western Jasper County ablaze.

“You think of the war on terror and what’s going on in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Cottrell. “But this isn’t the first time we’ve been through this sort of thing. Guerrilla warfare actually took place in our own backyard at one time.”

At a dedication program set for 10 a.m. today on the property, the site’s historical significance will be discussed in addition to plans to turn it into a permanent Civil War memorial.

Regiment ambushed

“I know not, Mr. Commander, in all human history, to any given thousand men in arms, has there been committed a work at once so proud, so precious, so full of hope and glory as the work committed to you.”