Clarence, Mo

13 June 1902 

Torchlight:

In 1861, my father, Braxton Pollard, joined the confederate army. In the early part of ’62 he was elected captain of the company and General Sterling Price commissioned him recruiting officer of North Missouri.

In the latter part of April ’62 Captain Pollard with sixteen men was camped on Salt river between Paris and Florida, Monroe county, near the Otha Adams farm. Captain Painter with ten men came into camp on the last days of April. One of Captain Painter’s men acted very strange and aroused the suspicion of Captain Pollard that he was not right. On the evening of the last day of April this man was missing, having left camp without permission. This confirmed the suspicion that this man was a traitor, and Captain Pollard knowing that Col. Caldwell, a Federal officer, was at Mexico, Mo., and could be informed of his whereabouts, ordered camp moved one-fourth of a mile. Sure enough the next morning the old camp was surrounded by Col. Caldwell and four hundred soldiers. Captain Pollard being on the alert, was not entirely surprised. His men being armed with double barrel shotguns and revolvers, each man was placed behind some object of protection and ordered to await a signal from their captain’s gun. It was not very long till Caldwell discovered that his prey was not far off. He advanced cautiously and soon learned that he was near a hidden enemy, for at the signal a deadly volley was poured into his ranks. He fell back, closed ranks and advanced to meet the same fate. This he did the third time, each time receiving the same reception. Col. Caldwell came to the conclusion that he had been lead into a trap, so he ordered a retreat and made his way back to Mexico as soon as possible, a wiser officer, and less men to answer to roll call. Captain Pollard received a severe wound being the only Confederate touched, he exposing himself to view. (A full account of this battle be given in the life of Captain Pollard, which will appear in print soon.)

Last spring Mr. Woodson Reaves plowed up a revolver, an account of which was published in the Paris Appeal. I wrote to Mr. Reaves, stating that from the location I believed it was lost in the battle above mentioned. He wrote me that he was a member of my father’s company and was in the fight, and that he found the revolver where the line of battle was drawn up, and he believed it was lost by one of the soldiers. I received the revolver from Mr. Reaves last Monday. It is a five-shot, cap and ball, six-inch Remington. Each chamber is loaded and some of the caps are yet on the tubes. The wood has decayed; the mountings are bright as a new dollar; the handle, cylinder and barrel are in fair condition. This revolver lay in the ground thirty-nine years. I prize this very highly as a relic of the lost cause, and of the battle in which my father risked his life and shed his blood in defense of principles he believed to be essential to the maintenance and perpetuation of a republican form of government, in fact as well as in form.

J. H. Pollard