In April of 1862, when Dick Hancock was a few months short of his seventeenth birthday, he joined the Missouri State Militia, supporting the Union troops. He was a member of the 6th Missouri Regiment, Company E, cavalry unit. He inflated his age by a bit, in order to enlist. The company Descriptive Book gives details:
Richard W Hancock; Co E, 6th Regt Mo State Militia Cavalry; enlisted 12 April 1862 at Cameron Missouri by Capt Murphy for a term of 3 years; age 18; 5 feet 10 inches; fair complexion; blue eyes; dark hair; born Scott Kentucky; occupation farmer.
Richard White “Dick” Hancock was born in 1845 in Scott county Kentucky, one of the younger of Edward Hancock and Jemima White’s nine children. About 1855 his family removed to Missouri, where the Hancock family lived for a number of years near the community of Victoria in Daviess County. In the early years of America’s Civil War young Dick answered the call to serve with the Union.
Dick Hancock’s military “returns” show him serving in several different capacities through the war years. In February of 1863 he was recorded as a hospital nurse, and in January 1864 he was “absent” doing recruiting service in Northwest Missouri. Several returns listed him as “away for service in the field”. By late 1864, during the months of November and December, he was working as a cook for the troops.
The Missouri State Militia forces were authorized, subsidized, and equipped by the federal government. Their primary activity remained within the state. The war in Missouri was more of a local affair. Union supporters were in the majority. Confederate sympathizers and secessionists made guerilla style attacks on their neighbors. Engaging these guerilla bands became the primary work of the State Militia. After enlistment, Dick Hancock was stationed at Cameron Missouri, but within a short time the troops of the 6th Regiment began to move around the state. In the Fall of 1862, “guerrilla bands of every size and description, sometimes operating in conjunction with small Confederate forces based in Arkansas, swarmed out of the woods and swamps and attacked towns and railroads, carried off horses and weapons, and killed Unionist civilians by the hundreds.”
The leaders of the State Militia began an effort to “starve out” the opposition by identifying the civilian population that provided food, shelter, horses, and new recruits. Relatives and supporters of the guerillas were often fined or imprisoned; their properties and communities were sometimes put to the torch. “This was a war of stealth and raid without a front, without formal organization, and with almost no division between the civilian and the warrior.”
Toward the close of the War the 6th Regiment was called to Westport (today a part of Kansas City). The Battle of Westport occurred on the 23rd of October 1864, and is sometimes referred to as the “Gettysburg of the West”. It is probably the only formal battlefield that Dick Hancock attended. The Union forces of Major General Samuel R Curtis soundly defeated the Confederates. This was one of the largest actions to occur west of the Mississippi River, involving more than thirty thousand troops. It was also the last major action in the area.
Dick Hancock continued with his regiment for several months after the Westport battle. This was the time period when he was noted as a cook for the troops. Discharges began for the 6th Regiment in February of 1865. About this time Dick Hancock’s horse and equipment was valued by the government at sixty-five dollars. After his service, young Dick, still a teenager, returned home to the family farm near Victoria Missouri. He was soon to turn twenty years of age, and in the following year he married Elizabeth Taylor, and settled in neighboring Dekalb county Missouri.
For more details on Richard White Hancock, visit his page at Family Stories, pamgarrett.com.
About the Photo: Encampment of Union cavalry scouts near Hancock Maryland; WW Charles for Harper's Weekly, 1 Feb 1862; from the National Park Service Historical Collection.
Moving back in time: Otis Sylvester Garrett 1894 > Margaret Susan Hancock 1869 > Richard White Hancock 1845.
Richard White Hancock is my husband’s greatgreat-grandfather.
No comments:
Post a Comment