Sunday, March 11, 2012

Civil War places Platte County woman in Harm's Wayx3





The case of Barbara Greenwood of Platte County during March of 1865 aroused my curiosity as to her final fate. This is her story adapted from Provost Marshall's records. 



Evidently while out scouting for enemy soldiers one day, Sgt. Cyrus M. Reid, M.S.M, stopped at Mrs.Greenwood’s house with Weston City Marshall Monroe. Sgt. Reid stated Mrs. Greenwood believed he was a rebel and told him that if a bushwhacker (a man named Kirkpatrick) had taken her advice he could have avoided the soldiers who killed him.  Reid testified that she sent her grandsons to warn the guerrillas of Federal troops in the area.

A Robert Lampkin testified that in September of 1864 while he was with scouts posing as Confederates, Mrs. Greenwood had her grandson bring a man in from the brush that had been in a fight against the Union and wanted to go with them (the supposed Confederate scouts.) The man was arrested as a bushwhacker as he had "stolen goods."

During the gathering of statements to determine Mrs. Greenwood's actions, Nathaniel A. Monroe stated that Mrs. Greenwood "is disloyal." He said the Federals had killed James Kirkpatrick (a Confederate soldier) near her farm. He stated she had kept Kirkpatrick hidden and helped him avoid Federal soldiers by sending her grandsons to see if soldiers nearby at Lampton’s were Federals.

Her response to the charge that she had harbored guerrillas was that a man came to her house wanting directions to Liberty. She wanted to get rid of him so gave him directions, but he returned the next morning.  She did admit to begging Federal soldiers not to kill Kirkpatrick on her place but stated she never warned or fed guerrillas.

Her official story ended on April 5, 1865, with a letter from the Provost at Weston requesting that the district provost attend to Greenwood's case as she is “very aged and the confinement is killing her.”  Four days later, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse.  I can't help but wonder what happened to Mrs. Greenwood.

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