William Weer | |
---|---|
Allegiance | United States of America Union |
Service | United States Army Union Army |
Years of service | 1861–1864 |
Rank | Brigadier General, Kansas Militia Colonel, U.S.V. |
Commands | 4th Kansas Volunteer Infantry 10th Kansas Infantry |
Battles / wars | American Civil War |
Other work | Kansas Attorney General |
William Weer (a.k.a.William A. Weer [2] and William Weir [3] ) was a lawyer, attorney general for Kansas and an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He is notable for his service in the Trans-Mississippi Theater early in the war and later for being dismissed from the army following a court-martial.
During the time Weer worked as a lawyer, he served as legal counsel for the Wyandott Reservation in Kansas. [4] In 1857 Weer became the second person to hold to position of attorney general in the territory of Kansas. He held that post from 1857 to 1858. He was also active in the Kansas State Militia and became a brigadier general of militia in 1861. [3]
On June 29, 1861, Weer was appointed colonel of the 4th Kansas Volunteer Infantry intended to serve in Jim Lane's "Kansas Brigade". [upper-alpha 1] Before the regiment was fully up to strength, General James G. Blunt chose Weer, then the senior colonel at Baxter Springs, Kansas, to command the so-called "Indian Expedition" into the Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). [5] A sizable force of 5,000 men was assembled and departed from Baxter Springs, Kansas. The expedition started well for the Union soldiers. Weer drove off pro-Confederate Cherokee forces, and defeated a force of Missourians under Colonel J. J. Clarkson at the battle of Locust Grove, capturing the Rebel's supply train. The expedition moved from Locust Grove to Flat Rock, 14 miles (23 km) from Fort Gibson. [6] Low supplies, oppressive summer heat, and indecision on Weer's part led to extreme low morale among the Union troops. Weer's habitual drunkenness led to a mutiny among the other officers of the expedition, spearheaded by Colonel Frederick Salomon. Salomon placed Weer under arrest and assumed command of the expedition and withdrew to meet up with the supply trains. [7]
While serving in Lane's Kansas Brigade, Weer was present during the Sacking of Osceola, and was one of the few Jayhawker officers present to favor sparing the town over burning it. His desire was overruled by Lane. [1]
By 1862 the 4th Kansas Infantry had never been completed and the existing soldiers were merged with those of the 3rd Kansas Infantry and 5th Kansas Infantry to form the 10th Kansas Infantry. The 10th Kansas was mustered into service on April 3, 1862, with William F. Cloud (from the 2nd Kansas Cavalry) as colonel; Weer was ordered to take command of the regiment on June 1, 1862. His regiment was attached to the Department of Kansas and as ranking officer he assumed command of that department's 2nd Brigade. He led his brigade at the First Battle of Newtonia under the overall command of (now brigadier general) Frederick Salomon. In October 1862 Weer assumed command of the 2nd Brigade in Blunt's 1st Division of the Army of the Frontier. He commanded this brigade at the battles of Old Fort Wayne, Cane Hill and Prairie Grove. In Blunt's official report on the action at Prairie Grove he praised Weer for behaving with 'gallantry, leading men into the thickest of the fight'. [8] Shortly after the battle, Blunt left Weer in command of the 1st Division, which he commanded for a short while into 1863.
Weer's main accomplishment was to recruit pro-Union Indians into military service, once this was approved by President Lincoln. He formed the Indian Home Guard into two regiments. The 1st Regiment, commanded by Colonel Robert Furnas, contained Creek and Seminole warriors, most of whom had fought under Chief Opothleyahola on the fight to Kansas in 1861. The 2nd Regiment, led by Colonel John Ritchie, contained an assortment of tribesmen, including Cherokees, Caddos, Delawares, Kaws, Kickapoos, Osages, Quapaws and Shawnees. [9]
Weer's drinking again caused his removal from his field command and in 1863 he was assigned to a desk job as assistant adjutant general in St. Louis, Missouri. He served that post for a short time before he and his regiment were assigned to prison duty at Alton, Illinois. Weer and the 10th Kansas Volunteer Infantry took charge of Alton Prison and remained there for the rest of the Civil War. [10] On April 8, 1864, Weer was arrested for misappropriation of prisoner funds, drunkenness and neglect of duty. He was convicted following a court martial and cashiered from the army on August 20, 1864. [11] He briefly returned to military duty during Price's Missouri Raid as colonel of a Kansas militia regiment in 1864.
The Battle of Prairie Grove was a battle of the American Civil War fought on December 7, 1862. While tactically indecisive, the battle secured the Union control of northwestern Arkansas.
Jayhawker and red leg are terms that came to prominence in Kansas Territory during the Bleeding Kansas period of the 1850s; they were adopted by militant bands affiliated with the free-state cause during the American Civil War. These gangs were guerrillas who often clashed with pro-slavery groups from Missouri, known at the time in Kansas Territory as "Border Ruffians" or "Bushwhackers". After the Civil War, the word "Jayhawker" became synonymous with the people of Kansas, or anybody born in Kansas. Today a modified version of the term, Jayhawk, is used as a nickname for a native-born Kansan.
The Battle of Westport, was fought on October 23, 1864, in modern Kansas City, Missouri, during the American Civil War. Union forces under Major General Samuel R. Curtis decisively defeated an outnumbered Confederate force under Major General Sterling Price. This engagement was the turning point of Price's Missouri Expedition, forcing his army to retreat. The battle ended the last major Confederate offensive west of the Mississippi River, and for the remainder of the war the United States Army maintained solid control over most of Missouri. This battle was one of the largest to be fought west of the Mississippi River, with over 30,000 men engaged.
The First Battle of Newtonia was fought on September 30, 1862, between Confederate soldiers commanded by Colonel Douglas H. Cooper and a Union column commanded by Brigadier General Frederick Salomon near Newtonia, Missouri, during the American Civil War. Cooper's force had moved into southwestern Missouri, and encamped near the town of Newtonia. The Confederate column was composed mostly of cavalry led by Colonel Joseph O. Shelby and a brigade of Native Americans. A Union force commanded by Brigadier General James G. Blunt moved to intercept Cooper's force. Blunt's advance force, led by Salomon, reached the vicinity of Newtonia on September 29, and attacked Cooper's position on September 30. A Union probing force commanded by Colonel Edward Lynde was driven out of Newtonia by Cooper's forces on the morning of the 30th.
James G.Blunt was an American physician and abolitionist who rose to the rank of major general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He was defeated by Quantrill's Raiders at the Battle of Baxter Springs in Kansas in 1863, but is considered to have served well the next year as a division commander during Price's Raid in Missouri.
The Battle of Old Fort Wayne, also known as Maysville, Beattie's Prairie, or Beaty's Prairie, was an American Civil War battle on October 22, 1862, in Delaware County in what is now eastern Oklahoma.
The 9th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment was a volunteer infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Frederick (Friedrich) Charles Salomon was a German immigrant to the United States who served as a Union Army officer and general during the American Civil War. He was an elder brother of the Civil War-era Wisconsin Governor Edward Salomon.
James Montgomery was a Jayhawker during the Bleeding Kansas era and a controversial Union colonel during the American Civil War. Montgomery was a staunch supporter of abolitionist principles and individual liberty. He liberated slaves during his raids. He also burned and looted pro-slavery populations.
Charles Rainsford Jennison also known as "Doc" Jennison was a member of the anti-slavery faction during Bleeding Kansas, a famous Jayhawker, and a member of the Kansas State Senate in the 1870s. He later served as a Union colonel and as a leader of Jayhawker militias during the American Civil War, until being dishonorably discharged for murder and robbery.
During the American Civil War, most of what is now the U.S. state of Oklahoma was designated as the Indian Territory. It served as an unorganized region that had been set aside specifically for Native American tribes and was occupied mostly by tribes which had been removed from their ancestral lands in the Southeastern United States following the Indian Removal Act of 1830. As part of the Trans-Mississippi Theater, the Indian Territory was the scene of numerous skirmishes and seven officially recognized battles involving both Native American units allied with the Confederate States of America and Native Americans loyal to the United States government, as well as other Union and Confederate troops.
The 10th Kansas Infantry Regiment served in the Union Army between April 3, 1862, and September 20, 1865, during the American Civil War.
The 13th Kansas Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
The 6th Kansas Cavalry Regiment was a cavalry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
The 9th Kansas Cavalry Regiment was a cavalry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
1st Independent Battery Kansas Light Artillery was an artillery battery that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Charles White Blair was a lawyer, and Union Army officer who served in three different regiments during the American Civil War. He fought primarily in the Trans-Mississippi Theater and was notable during Price's Missouri Raid.
The ambush of the steamboat J.R. Williams was a military engagement during the American Civil War. It took place on June 15, 1864, on the Arkansas River in the Choctaw Nation which became encompassed by the State of Oklahoma. It is popularly termed the "only naval battle" in that landlocked state. It was a successful Confederate attack on the Union Army's lines of supply. The Confederate forces were Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Creek Indians led by General Stand Watie, who was a Cherokee.
The 9th Missouri Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that served in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. The unit was formed on November 16, 1862, and was originally commanded by Colonel John Bullock Clark Jr. At the Battle of Prairie Grove on December 7, 1862, the regiment was officially in Brigadier General John S. Roane's brigade, although it served with Brigadier General Mosby M. Parsons' brigade for most of the battle. After spending the summer of 1863 harassing Union Navy shipping on the Mississippi River, the regiment was reorganized, with elements of an Arkansas unit being replaced with the 8th Missouri Infantry Battalion. After the reorganization, the regiment fought in the Battle of Pleasant Hill and the Battle of Jenkins' Ferry in April 1864. On June 7, 1865, the men of the regiment were paroled; they would eventually be sent back to Missouri via steamboat.
The 8th Missouri Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. From May 1861, the war began affecting events in the state of Missouri. In 1862, Confederate recruiting activities took place in Missouri, and a cavalry regiment was formed in Oregon County, the nucleus being former members of the Missouri State Guard. On September 2, the unit entered Confederate service, but it was reclassified as infantry ten days later. After many of the men transferred to other units, the regiment was reclassified as a battalion on October 19 and named the 7th Missouri Infantry Battalion, also known as Mitchell's Missouri Infantry. It participated in a Confederate offensive at the Battle of Prairie Grove on December 7. During the battle, the unit made several charges against the Union lines but was repeatedly repulsed by artillery fire. The regiment spent most of early 1863 encamped near Little Rock and Pine Bluff in Arkansas.