Latest / Ridiculous History / The Kingdom of Callaway: That Time One Missouri County (Sort Of, Maybe) Became An Independent Nation

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The Kingdom of Callaway: That Time One Missouri County (Sort Of, Maybe) Became An Independent Nation · Ridiculous History

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  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome back to the show, a fellow Ridiculous Historians, thank you,
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  Speaker 2: as always so much for tuning in. Let's hear it
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  Speaker 2: for our super producer, Max, the super civil Williams.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that was a really good clap, guys.
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  Speaker 4: He was super tight.
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  Speaker 2: Before we went, so we like to clap together. It's
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  Speaker 2: an artifact from our old school recording days. We love
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  Speaker 2: a ritual. I definitely love a ritual. And right before
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  Speaker 2: we rolled, I was supposed to do the intro and
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  Speaker 2: I said, ooh, you guys, that was a really good clap.
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  Speaker 2: We're recording remotely and we just nailed it well.
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  Speaker 5: And we're having some big Friday energy on Thursday because
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  Speaker 5: tomorrow's holiday, right observed observed holiday.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, right, right as we're gearing up for the celebration
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  Speaker 2: of the United States. A real up and comer, that's
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  Speaker 2: mister Noel Brown. They called me ben Bull and esquire
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  Speaker 2: here for tax purposes and a couple of legal loopholes.
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  Speaker 2: But no, you remember the Civil War, right dude?
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  Speaker 4: Oh man?
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  Speaker 5: How could I forget brother fighting brother, you know, in
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  Speaker 5: the in the blood in the streets of these American states.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a weird name, right for a very calling
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  Speaker 2: the Civil War the Civil Wars is strange, it's yeah,
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  Speaker 2: it's very uncivil, but it is a thing. It is
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  Speaker 2: a thing that had to happen because, as we know
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  Speaker 2: quick and dirty on it, the US was increasingly divided
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  Speaker 2: leading up to eighteen sixties.
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  Speaker 5: And yeah, millionaire, history doesn't relays repeat, but it sure
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  Speaker 5: does rhyme, I think is how it goes.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, just so, my guy, and the US at this stage,
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  Speaker 2: leading into the late or mid toally eighteen hundreds, had
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  Speaker 2: been increasingly divided by economic woes, cultural disparities, and most
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  Speaker 2: importantly the practice of chattel slavery.
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  Speaker 5: Part of our history some folks seem to have forgotten.
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  Speaker 5: A coalition of states in the South declared they would
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  Speaker 5: secede from their very own country, and this of course
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  Speaker 5: led to one of the bloodiest conflicts in all of
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  Speaker 5: the history of the United States. And the course of
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  Speaker 5: that war, which just lasted around four years from eighteen
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  Speaker 5: sixty one to sixty five, we lost somewhere between six
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  Speaker 5: hundred and twenty thousand to eight hundred and fifty thousand souls.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and today, if you grow up in the United
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  Speaker 2: States so far, depending upon how education goes in the
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  Speaker 2: near future. You already know the story. The Union forces
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  Speaker 2: of the Northern States ultimately win the war. The Confederate forces,
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  Speaker 2: like you said, no, the secessionist forces of the Southern States.
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  Speaker 2: They give up their goal of becoming a different country.
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  Speaker 2: It leads to a country that, as of eighteen sixty
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  Speaker 2: five is officially on paper, reunited, but the horrors of
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  Speaker 2: slavery continue to reverberate through generations into the modern day.
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  Speaker 2: It takes decades upon decades for the actual United States
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  Speaker 2: to truly reunite in practice and policy instead of just
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  Speaker 2: on paper. We've all seen stuff like Gettysburg. We all
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  Speaker 2: probably have a history boten in our family or friendship
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  Speaker 2: circles that's obsessed with some aspect of the Civil War.
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  Speaker 2: But it's so weird due because there are hundreds of
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  Speaker 2: stories that remain somewhat obscure during all that chaos. In
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  Speaker 2: today's episode is about one of them.
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  Speaker 4: It's right. This is the tale to are you afraid
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  Speaker 4: of the Dark at a little Bit?
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  Speaker 5: I present to you, submitted for the approval of ridiculous
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  Speaker 5: historian society.
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  Speaker 4: This is the tale of the so called Kingdom of Callaway.
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  Speaker 2: I was inspired to research this episode because of, you know,
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  Speaker 2: like so many things, we start learning about one aspect
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  Speaker 2: of something and it leads us to a thousand other things.
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  Speaker 2: Like Tolkien said, way leads onto way. Callaway County, folks,
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  Speaker 2: you've probably never heard of it. Pull up a map
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  Speaker 2: of the great state of Missouri, and if you look about, well,
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  Speaker 2: if you look a little northeast of Missouri's capital, Jefferson City,
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  Speaker 2: you'll see Calloway County. It's about thirty minutes or thirty
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  Speaker 2: three minutes drive away from Jefferson City. And if we're
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  Speaker 2: being technical, this story does take place before the automobile,
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  Speaker 2: So it's more like a ten.
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  Speaker 4: Hour hike, right, not just a tiny, little, you know, jaunt.
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  Speaker 5: So, like so much of the United States, people had
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  Speaker 5: been living in that area way before the modern country
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  Speaker 5: became established, became a thing. The area was historically occupied
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  Speaker 5: by native people, including the Osage, as well as other tribes.
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  Speaker 5: Other cultures began to emerge following thousands of years of
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  Speaker 5: settlement by these indigenous folks. The official Callaway County was
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  Speaker 5: created on November twenty fifth of eighteen twenty and named
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  Speaker 5: for a captain James Callaway, a grandson of Daniel Boone. Yeah, yeah,
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  Speaker 5: who killed himself a bar when he was only thing
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  Speaker 5: that was Davey Crockett.
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  Speaker 4: But Didn'tdavey Crockett Daniel Boone have an intersection.
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  Speaker 5: In some way?
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  Speaker 2: I believe se Yeah, I believe Sue. And they had
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  Speaker 2: the great ambition to one day each be a subject
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  Speaker 2: of our podcast, Ridiculous History. So we're going to make
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  Speaker 2: that true for the guys at some point. The issue
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  Speaker 2: with Callawai County, which is pretty neat, is that this
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  Speaker 2: is still sort of the early days of the American experiment,
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  Speaker 2: which is still pretty young. So forming Callaway County, the
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  Speaker 2: formation thereof actually occurred before Missouri itself became a state.
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  Speaker 2: Missouri didn't become admitted to the Union until eighteen twenty one.
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  Speaker 2: Let's go to Max Williams.
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  Speaker 3: So for my quick research I'm doing over here, Daniel
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  Speaker 3: Boone was fifty two years older than Davy Crockett, and
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  Speaker 3: they never interact.
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  Speaker 4: What I swear, it's one of those pieces of lore.
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  Speaker 5: I think you know what it is is they were
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  Speaker 5: just sort of regarded similarly as like these sort of
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  Speaker 5: frontier kings, and they get mentioned in the same breath
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  Speaker 5: a lot, and I think I'm just shipping them maybe,
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  Speaker 5: like a lot of folks fans of history might.
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  Speaker 2: But thank you for that. Max with the facts, Max
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  Speaker 2: with the facts. Let's see the instrumental version.
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  Speaker 6: I love that one.
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  Speaker 2: There we go, so we know that most of the
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  Speaker 2: people who are going to Callaway County who are not indigenous,
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  Speaker 2: they are early European American settlers, and they're from what
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  Speaker 2: we would call the Upper South Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee. There
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  Speaker 2: was also a pretty significant uptick in German immigrants who
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  Speaker 2: specifically start arriving in the eighteen thirties. These folks from
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  Speaker 2: the Upper South. Again it's a loose street term. They
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  Speaker 2: are bringing their own culture with them when they're colonizing
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  Speaker 2: the land. So they're saying, hey, we already know how
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  Speaker 2: to farm hemp, we'll do it out here. We already
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  Speaker 2: know how to grow tobacco, we'll do it out here.
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  Speaker 2: But they also say, we love slavery, so we're going.
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  Speaker 4: To do it out here too, exactly. Yeah now gross, oops.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was gross. By eighteen sixty, we're fast forward.
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  Speaker 2: In a few decades, people enslavement made up at least
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  Speaker 2: twenty five percent of County Callaway's population, and that was
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  Speaker 2: significantly higher than most areas of the state. It was
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  Speaker 2: the I think it was at the time, it was
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  Speaker 2: the fifth highest population of enslaved people in all of
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  Speaker 2: what became Missouri. And this was a huge crucial fact
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  Speaker 2: for our story because Missouri, as we remember, was never
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  Speaker 2: an official part of the Confederacy, but we had a
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  Speaker 2: lot of people in the region who tended to agree
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  Speaker 2: with Confederate ideology, especially slave owners. They believed their economic
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  Speaker 2: future rested entirely upon this practice. And to be clear,
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  Speaker 2: in Callaway at least a lot of these folks were
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  Speaker 2: not the sort of Antebellum mint Julip sip in White Linen,
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  Speaker 2: Colonel Sanders looking folks who owned hundreds and hundreds of
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  Speaker 2: people or enslaved them illegally. Instead, they were small landowners, right.
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  Speaker 2: They often worked alongside the people that they had done
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  Speaker 2: justly enslaved, and they were like, they weren't the big deal,
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  Speaker 2: you know, gone with the wind types that you think
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  Speaker 2: of when you hear agricultural slave owners.
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  Speaker 5: Indeed, and while Missouri would primarily stay under the control
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  Speaker 5: of the Union, both Missouri or Missouri if you're nasty
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  Speaker 5: and neighboring. Kentucky had competing Union and Confederate governments, which
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  Speaker 5: was a recipe for disaster.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you got two different governments saying we're provisional, but
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  Speaker 2: we're in charge. And this is confusing to a lot
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  Speaker 2: of people in Missouri because they are so far west
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  Speaker 2: from the heated debates of Washington, DC. It's like, you know,
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  Speaker 2: it's like reading news about something bad that happens in California.
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  Speaker 2: You're gonna read the papers at this time, right, You're
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  Speaker 2: gonna doom scroll through your local news rag and then
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  Speaker 2: you'll encounter people in person. Like some folks based in
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  Speaker 2: Missouri are going to travel back east for trade or
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  Speaker 2: for work. There's gonna be a fairly continual flow of
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  Speaker 2: pioneers who are heading west to seek their fortune. They'll
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  Speaker 2: bring news with them. But for a long time, this
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  Speaker 2: growing descent between the states that are more to the east,
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  Speaker 2: the north, and the south. They're kind of academic because
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  Speaker 2: you're reading about this and you're like, WHOA, stuff's going crazy?
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  Speaker 2: WHOA what are they doing over there? But I still
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  Speaker 2: have to pay my taxes. I got to live my
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  Speaker 2: day to day life, you know what, I mean like
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  Speaker 2: I can't. I can't. I can't call in worried about
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  Speaker 2: America to work, you know what I mean. I still
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  Speaker 2: have to do my job.
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  Speaker 5: So what you're saying Ben in your research is that
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  Speaker 5: whatever they saw as the best thing became.
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  Speaker 4: The way that they had to remember that.
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  Speaker 5: Despite not being stereotypically Southern, this place still was not great,
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  Speaker 5: not good. Even they still had hate crimes, lynchings, and
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  Speaker 5: all the other nasty accoutremont associated with channel slavery. Some
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  Speaker 5: very powerful folks, especially agricultural moguls, wanted things to stay
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  Speaker 5: just the same.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, And they're thinking, if we can avoid a war, great.
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  Speaker 2: If war does break out a lot of us in
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  Speaker 2: this part of Missouri, we hope it's going to resolve
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  Speaker 2: itself before it reaches us, before it reaches the county line.
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  Speaker 2: So even before the very first southern state announced that
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  Speaker 2: it was seceding, Missouri's common residents began meeting up right,
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  Speaker 2: the more forward thinkers. They're having these town halls, and
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  Speaker 2: they're saying, Okay, this Abraham Lincoln, guy, I can't believe
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  Speaker 2: a wrestler got elected, But what does this mean for
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  Speaker 2: the country?
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  Speaker 4: Right, And won't be the first time. Maybe not a wrestler,
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  Speaker 4: but you.
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  Speaker 2: Know, celebrity, right. And so the first meeting of the
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  Speaker 2: Concerned Residents of Callaway County or the Callowegans as we
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  Speaker 2: call themselves.
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  Speaker 4: You're right, Glass regions, you know.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, they get together. It's November nineteenth, eighteen sixty, and
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  Speaker 2: they're at the county seat of Callaway County, Fulton. The
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  Speaker 2: editor of the Fulton, Missouri Telegraph says, Okay, I'm calling
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  Speaker 2: a meeting of all Union loving citizens of this country,
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  Speaker 2: irrespective of party. And then they they pass, they pass
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  Speaker 2: this funny series of resolutions that that just sounds so
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  Speaker 2: wingy and complaining.
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  Speaker 6: How would you describe them there?
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  Speaker 5: Bit? Yeah, I mean they did you know, Oh gosh, Ben,
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  Speaker 5: have you seen this new Larry David special. Yes, yes,
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  Speaker 5: the part where the dude where Larry David is like
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  Speaker 5: the guy that wrote the first draft of the Declaration
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  Speaker 5: of Independence, and it's just like all his grievances and
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  Speaker 5: they're just the most stereotypical Larry David grievances, like people
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  Speaker 5: should not be allowed to stroke their beards, or about
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  Speaker 5: how you look at people sharing umbrellas is a no no.
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  Speaker 5: All these ones and of course they just laugh him
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  Speaker 5: out of the parliament. But this is it has that vibe,
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  Speaker 5: it's giving that vibe. These eight pretty wingy whatever you
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  Speaker 5: call them grievances, right.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, So the people who show up to this
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  Speaker 2: meeting inspired by the Fulton, Missouri Telegraph, they say, okay,
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  Speaker 2: we're going to adopt eight resolutions. Our eight resolutions are
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  Speaker 2: all about how we don't like this ape linking guy.
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  Speaker 2: And we think he's we think he yeah, we think
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  Speaker 2: he's kind of a bell end. We don't like how
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  Speaker 2: he shares umbrellas. It's kind of you know.
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  Speaker 4: Hat's far too tall in his reach, far too long.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's it's kakabamy. And they said, but also seriously, folks,
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  Speaker 2: we're not going to secede from the Union unless the
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  Speaker 2: Linked administration violates the rights of we Missourians, which is
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  Speaker 2: our constitutional rights and for them, our rights to own slaves. Yikes.
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  Speaker 5: You know it's funny though, Ben, I mean, even now,
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  Speaker 5: Missouri is one of those interesting kind of transitional states
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  Speaker 5: that gives a little north and gives a little south. Yeah, yeah,
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  Speaker 5: got your Mark Twain, who strikes me as usually quite
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  Speaker 5: a southern gentleman. But then You've also got elements of
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  Speaker 5: that state that feel a little more of a north
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  Speaker 5: northeastern sensibility very much so.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, because so many people came from the Upper South.
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  Speaker 2: It was it was this area of Missouri in particular
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  Speaker 2: was often called little Dick.
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  Speaker 4: Come Boy and the jumping real quick.
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  Speaker 3: As I was in Saint Louis earlier this year, and
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  Speaker 3: actually I'm going back later this year. Architectural in Saint Louis,
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  Speaker 3: which you know is in it's it's not in the
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  Speaker 3: center of the state.
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  Speaker 5: Around with that, but it is the biggest kind of
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  Speaker 5: metro area, right, Like it's more of the urban hobe
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  Speaker 5: I guess right.
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  Speaker 4: It reminds me a lot of like Detroit.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, very Midwest.
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  Speaker 4: Exactly, very much so.
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  Speaker 2: And I will say a surprising barbecue scene and some
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  Speaker 2: great jazz.
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  Speaker 5: Uh And it's a barbecue and a style of jazz
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  Speaker 5: that's a little distinct. It's it's it's kind of its
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  Speaker 5: own thing. It's sort of a secret third thing, neither
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  Speaker 5: northern nor southern. It's sort of this little middle ground.
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  Speaker 2: And you guys know, I love museums. There's a phenomenal
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  Speaker 2: art museum there. Check it out if you get a chance. Uh,
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  Speaker 2: in this big meeting. So we've got our eight Larry
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  Speaker 2: David esque resolutions. They're like, nah, I don't like the guy,
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  Speaker 2: but mer me So they have had a ninth resolution
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  Speaker 2: that was meant to denounce all secessionist movements in all
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  Speaker 2: other states and also confirmed that the state of Missouri
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  Speaker 2: would not help any revolutionaries or dissidents. But a lot
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  Speaker 2: of people in that meeting said, it's too far, that's
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  Speaker 2: too far. Just tell them we don't like the president.
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  Speaker 2: We're not going to make trouble. We're just you know,
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  Speaker 2: we're we're gonna be friends, and we hope there's not
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  Speaker 2: a war. But a war did break out. A ward
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  Speaker 2: did break out. It's the awkwardly named Civil.
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  Speaker 5: War, and local opinions on the federal government started to
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  Speaker 5: continue to curdle further once federal forces began to seize
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  Speaker 5: people's property and resources, especially the Missouri Militia's Camp Jackson
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  Speaker 5: over there in Saint Louis. This led to a pretty
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  Speaker 5: significant uptick in secessionist support and a heated series of
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  Speaker 5: legal backs and forths.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, the back and forth ree was strange, and
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  Speaker 2: it's a story all its own. We have to acknowledge
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  Speaker 2: that at the onset of the Civil War, a lot
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  Speaker 2: of folks from Missouri volunteered on both sides of the conflict.
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  Speaker 2: It's similar to Tennessee, which is how Tennessee got its
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  Speaker 2: nickname the volunteer State. Because of the divided loyalties of
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  Speaker 2: many citizens in the state, the Civil War was super
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: complicated in Missouri, and this was super true for Calloway
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  Speaker 2: County because Callaway is the easternmost county in that little
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: Dixie area we're describing. It is right next door to
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  Speaker 2: another county called Montgomery County, which is home to a
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: legendary abolitionist town called Herman with two rs and two ends.
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  Speaker 2: In eighteen sixty one, because of their unique position, Callaway
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  Speaker 2: finds themselves on the front line of a political and
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  Speaker 2: physical battle over slavery because the Union is marching everywhere
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  Speaker 2: right and they are certain that they are seditionists, what
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  Speaker 2: we would call terrorists today, rebel forces in Missouri, and
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: they say, we're gonna nip this in the bud. We're
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: marching tf N because we're a family show.
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  Speaker 5: Oh yeah, and Callowegans, Callowegians, I love it. It's giving
• 19:42
  Speaker 5: European heard that the Pike County Home Guards under the
• 19:46
  Speaker 5: supervision under the military supervision and the command of one
• 19:52
  Speaker 5: Colonel Thomas JC last name FA double g Yes that
• 19:57
  Speaker 5: is his real in fact name. Gonna leave that one
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  Speaker 5: to the spelling for now, plans to invade Callaway County
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  Speaker 5: from the north in Montgomery County where they were based
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  Speaker 5: and subdue the recalcitrent rebels. Love that word, Ben, that
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  Speaker 5: was your choice there in the outline, Uh, in Callaway?
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  Speaker 5: What does racalcitrent mean?
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  Speaker 1: That?
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  Speaker 5: Does that mean they're they're like less than they're They're
• 20:21
  Speaker 5: they've been supplicated in some ways?
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  Speaker 2: Uh ricalcitrant in this sense beans, Uh, stubborn refusing to apologize.
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  Speaker 4: There you go, There you go. That makes perfect sense.
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  Speaker 2: So like refusing to give anything up.
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  Speaker 5: Exactly, not giving an inch, but perhaps taking a mile.
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  Speaker 5: Tom was not alone here though, has he been?
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  Speaker 2: No, he wasn't. His boss was marching along too. This
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  Speaker 2: is the less awkwardly named John B. Henderson, a general
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  Speaker 2: who is in command of the Union State Militia forces
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  Speaker 2: in northeastern Missouri. He is marching his force so along
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  Speaker 2: with Colonel Thomas uh around six hundred very well trained
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  Speaker 2: Union soldiers from Pike County southwest and they're headed straight
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  Speaker 2: toward Callaway County's border. The General calls this an effort
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  Speaker 2: to quote invade the county and bring its citizens under
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  Speaker 2: subjugation to the Union. This is where we flip, like
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: in the Ridiculous History Cinematic universe. Now we have a
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: quick cut to the other side of the conflict. A
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: guy named Colonel Jefferson F. Jones. Now, this guy is
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: beat me here, Max, a bit of an asshole. He is, yes, right,
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  Speaker 2: he's a lawyer, thank you. He's a lawyer. He's a
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: secessionist political leader from eastern Callawai County. Now, he wasn't
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: always a secessionist. He used to just be one of
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: those guys who was like, we can keep America together
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  Speaker 2: as long as my state can own slaves. And then
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: when they said, you know, that's a bad thing to do,
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: he was like, all right, well we're gonna leave and
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna make speeches about it. So he hears the
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: Union is coming, and he gets everybody he can and
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: he calls them troops when he gets them, but they're
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: not really troops. He gets them all together and he says, guys,
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: I know that Missouri has again voted against secession in
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: our state legislature. But I, like a lot of you
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: don't want these big feds, these union forces running I
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: almost said Milwaukee, but running running awry?
• 22:43
  Speaker 6: What's the worse?
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: Amuck's a great one. Yes, thank you, running amok through
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: our towns taking all our stuff. They took over our
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: you know, like you were saying, they took over our
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: militia property. What's next? He says? All right, everybody meet
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: me in Brown Springs. You don't have to be in
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: my family seat. Yeah, you don't have to be it is.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: You don't have to be a soldier. You don't have
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: to be a fighting age. If you're too young or
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: too old to fight with these big dogs, I will.
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: Take you, Jones, open arms with we will.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: Take the broken toys. And we don't know how many
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: were there.
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: We don't it? Did it fluctuates?
• 23:26
  Speaker 5: Historians differ as to the number at Brown Springs between
• 23:31
  Speaker 5: around three hundred around seven hundred men. Some went home
• 23:35
  Speaker 5: and then came back, while others just kind of wafted
• 23:38
  Speaker 5: in over time. Some historical accounts say that at least
• 23:42
  Speaker 5: one thousand men answered.
• 23:44
  Speaker 4: The call to arms, the open armed call to arms.
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, at some point right and Jones's forces, as you
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: can tell, and the resources very limited because so many
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: men who were already of pro fighting age had already
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: left to join the Union or the Confederacy. Is where
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: we go to a phenomenal source. Ovid Bell, a longtime
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: newspaper editor in Callaway County, a local historian. Bell tells
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: us that most of the men in Jones's force were
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: indeed too young or too old to be in an
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: actual Fax army shout out to Lauren Vogelbaum, so they
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: didn't have They also didn't have the same firepower or
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: equipment like they were. Imagine you're hanging out at your
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: house and you might have like a shotgun for protection,
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: or a handgun or a rifle for hunting, or you
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: just have a pitchfork or an old baseball bat.
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: Are you up to date on the House of the Dragon?
• 24:51
  Speaker 4: You watching the new season?
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: I am yes.
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: I think it rules by the way, I really enjoy it.
• 24:56
  Speaker 5: It reminds me of in the second episode this is
• 24:57
  Speaker 5: no spoiler, there's a confrontation where some one is threatening
• 25:01
  Speaker 5: an older fellow and then demanding that he you know,
• 25:05
  Speaker 5: meet his threats with arms, and the dudes like, bro,
• 25:08
  Speaker 5: I'm old man, I haven't wielded a sword and lo
• 25:11
  Speaker 5: these many years. Perhaps I can supplicate you in some
• 25:15
  Speaker 5: other way and leave it at that. But yeah, this
• 25:19
  Speaker 5: is there's definitely some folks that are no longer seasoned warriors.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: Right yeah, and so they're outnumbered. And Jones, who is
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: definitely again I think I think he's a jerk, but
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: he is a smart dude. He creates her Concox this
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: out of the box plan. He says, all right, boys,
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: olds and youngs together, grab what you can. We're going
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: to march eastward. We're going to meet these approaching union
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: jerks and we're.
• 25:53
  Speaker 4: Not union jack's. I love that, right, Union jacks.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: And we're going to make a We're gonna.
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: Make a big show.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: We've talked about the illusion of military might in previous episodes.
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: They they did something they called like quaker guns or
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: Quaker logs. They took tree logs, wow, and they well
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: they painted them to look like cannons.
• 26:22
  Speaker 5: No, never mind, Okay, I was picturing them like he's
• 26:24
  Speaker 5: in some sort of These were like dummy guns, like
• 26:29
  Speaker 5: what's the word decoy guns?
• 26:31
  Speaker 6: Right? Yeah?
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, just so they made dummy guns and they said,
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: all right, we're gonna put these up in our area.
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: And if you are just looking at night, because we
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: don't have night vision, uh, it's gonna look like artillery
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: if you see it from far away. Got to have
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: a very good looking glass to figure that out. So
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: now now our Colonel Thomas F and our General Henderson
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: on the Union side are getting a little squigged out.
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: So on October twenty six, Jones sends two men over
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: to Colonel F's camp and they're carrying a letter from
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: Jones and it says, hey, let's do a non aggression agreement.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: And Jones says, you know, why are you guys here
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: at the place, like, why are you trying to get
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: so close to our company and nol. This made me
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: think of conversations I've had with our own Max Williams
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: about the game Civilization.
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: Y'all a couple of SIV heads.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: All right, well, well here's the thing.
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: Here's the here's the thing.
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: And Noel, you'll appreciate this. Something that happens often in
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: Civilization is that if your civilization in the game by
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: Sid Myers, if you get too close to the borders
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: of another civilization, no matter how how friendly they are.
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: At some point they're going to say, hey, I noticed
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: you're moving troops or settlers around GTFO.
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: Hey what you doing here? Or even worse, when they're
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: like they're like, who are like, you know, let's say
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: they're a lot stronger than you and they're on your border.
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: You know, Hey, what's going on here?
• 28:18
  Speaker 6: Like?
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: Ah, nothing, nothing, nothing war?
• 28:20
  Speaker 6: Yeah? Yet?
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: Can we just peacefully pass through? Right? Can we make
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: open borders? Never say yes to that, and this.
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: Massive army that'll conquer you in a few turns walk
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: through and you know there's nothing on the other side.
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: We're just curious to see it.
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, right, This is an explorational idea.
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: So here's the deal.
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: In typical like good old boy fashion, which I hope
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: doesn't offend anybody, Colonel Jones says or implies, Hey, I
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: know you guys are union troops. I know you're fighting
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: for something. You all stay out of Calloway County, Okay.
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: And if you can promise to do that, if you
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: cannot quote invade, molest or occupy Callaway County, the me
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: and my nasty crew of real hard cases who are like, yeah,
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: who are like thirteen and sixty eight. If you can
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: guarantee you'll go away, then I'll disperse them. And by
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: the way, guys, we're callow we're what's the word, Calowegians, Colohegians. Yeah,
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: we're Callowegians. We're not part of the Confederate Army. We're
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: just guys who don't want invasions into our county. And
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: so they send this letter. And this is where it
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: gets really weird. We don't know how much is modern
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: myth making and embellishment, but it may have led to
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: a sovereign nation.
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it may well have done that very thing.
• 30:03
  Speaker 5: It's tough to tell, but as the Louisiana Journal puts it,
• 30:06
  Speaker 5: as well as the Saint Louis Daily Missouri Democrat, letters
• 30:11
  Speaker 5: were published detailing the content of Henderson's reply, and those
• 30:15
  Speaker 5: letters are consistent with this. By these accounts, Henderson refused
• 30:19
  Speaker 5: to recognize Jones's authority as a commander and dictated terms.
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and the historians still argue about this today. We're
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: pulling a lot of this, by the way, from the
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: work of the phenomenal Andrew M. Sager, who wrote an
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: entire thesis about this for Northwest Missouri State University back
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: in twenty thirteen. What Sager tells us is that, like
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: you were saying, Noel, the letters appear to be consistent.
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: Henderson says, okay, okay, Jones, pump your brakes. Well, buddy,
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: these guys are thirteen sixty eight years old. They're clearly
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: not well trained. I do not recognize you as a
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: military commander. Here's what you have to do. You can
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: disperse your troops and you can go home, or we
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: can tangle buddy. We can take it there if you want.
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: And apparently Jones, again, according to some historians, said okay, yeah, no,
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: you got us. You yet us, You got us. You're
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: there the you're the big dog here. But if you
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: go back to other historians, including the statements of Colonel
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: Jones himself, you'll see arguments that Henderson agreed lightly with
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: Jones's demands and said, you know, Jones sent a letter
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: and said, you know, don't go to Calloway County and
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: then we'll we you know, we'll leave it there. It's
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: fascinating because who wrote what to whom is super significant.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: We know that both his oracle debates do note that
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: Henderson did accept Jones's claim that he was not a
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: Confederate operative that he and his boys were just concerned citizens.
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: They're not rebels, they're not terrorists. So we also do
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: know that Henderson backed off.
• 32:25
  Speaker 6: He did.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: He said, I'm not gonna invade, I'm not going to occupy.
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: I'm not gonna and I hate that they keep using
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: this word in the historical record, but it's the word
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: they use. I'm not going to molest Callaway County, which
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: leads to a legal debate. This could indicate that Henderson
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: recognized the political independence and sovereignity not of Missouri, but
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: specifically of Callaway County. So what if like Fulton County said, hey, guys,
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: we're not you know, like the new Civil War happens,
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: and Fulton County says, ah, we're not really in it.
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: Just don't they'll come. They'll come to our house, you know,
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: and we're cool.
• 33:08
  Speaker 5: And since Henderson was an officer for the Army with
• 33:12
  Speaker 5: authority of that station, his engagement with Jones was a
• 33:16
  Speaker 5: lot like making a treaty with a whole other sovereign power.
• 33:21
  Speaker 5: So this truce with the US and Union forces essentially
• 33:25
  Speaker 5: allowed Confederate supporters to keep on keeping on operating under
• 33:31
  Speaker 5: surveillance not far from the Missouri government offices that were
• 33:35
  Speaker 5: located in Jefferson City.
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, this truce is pretty crazy. And thankfully for
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: the good people, well the good and the bad people
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: of Callowe County, the treaty actually held just like an
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: international treaty. There was a battle the following year on
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: Callowegian soil, the Battle of Moore's Mill, and that was
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: a lot of Missourians fighting against misso terrans. It came
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: from unionist forces that were trying to stop those Confederate
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: operatives you mentioned from recruiting more people into their cause.
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: But for a time, yes, folks, yes, way Ted and
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: fellow ridiculous historians, you can make a case that little
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: old Callaway County became a kingdom probably because it was
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: the most hassle free option for everyone involved at the time,
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: you know what I mean. You also like, yeah, like,
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: if you're the if you're General Henderson, do you really
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: want to kill a bunch of teenagers and elderly folks?
• 34:41
  Speaker 5: I don't think so, you know what I mean. Don't
• 34:43
  Speaker 5: slaughter the younglings. Don't do it. They'll come back to
• 34:46
  Speaker 5: haunt you.
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: Do your best not to kill anybody.
• 34:50
  Speaker 4: If you can, man for sure, but least of all
• 34:52
  Speaker 4: the young lings.
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: I feel like you're in love with the word of
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: young lings.
• 34:57
  Speaker 5: Well, it's you know, I was just talking about that
• 34:59
  Speaker 5: was the mo meant that young Anakin Skywalker turned to
• 35:03
  Speaker 5: the dark side?
• 35:04
  Speaker 4: Boys slaughtered. Yes, it's not a good look.
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: Don't do it, folks, it's not a good look. It
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: is crazily true. It's also you know, it's a little legalistic.
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: It's a matter of debate, and it's absolutely ridiculous. But this,
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: this treaty kind of saved lives in Callaway County is
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: very proud of it. You can check out their Historical
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: Society for some wonderful stories. They have a museum if
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: you're ever in the area right now. It's a county
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: like any other, so you don't need a visa, right
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: you can just stroll it in. Tell them ridiculous history
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: sent to you. We'd love to hear your experiences. Check
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: them out, and yeah.
• 35:49
  Speaker 4: I would love to check it out. This is news
• 35:51
  Speaker 4: to me.
• 35:51
  Speaker 5: Ben, thank you so much for bringing us this topic
• 35:54
  Speaker 5: and this little little known ridiculous nugget from history.
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you as well to our super producer mister
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: Max Williams. No, have you ever been to Missouri?
• 36:06
  Speaker 4: I have not. We have once many years ago with
• 36:09
  Speaker 4: Saint Louis.
• 36:10
  Speaker 5: But I have a dear friend and friend of the
• 36:11
  Speaker 5: show named Christy who lives in Saint Louis, and I
• 36:15
  Speaker 5: owe her a visit. She's coming here to Atlanta multiple
• 36:17
  Speaker 5: times and I need to check out her city.
• 36:20
  Speaker 4: So looking forward to doing that and in.
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: Near future, shout out to you, Christy, Max look forward
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: to meeting you one day. Big big thanks, of course,
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: to Jonathan Strickland aka the Quist, aj Bahamas, Jacobs, Doctor,
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: Rachel Big Spinach, Lance, who else?
• 36:36
  Speaker 6: Who else?
• 36:38
  Speaker 5: Oh my gosh cool, Christoph frostiotis the need to Jeff
• 36:41
  Speaker 5: goes here in spirit of course.
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, as well as Alex Williams, who composed this slap
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: and bop and you know it's it's funny with episodes
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: like this, Guys, I keep I keep making new pitches
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: for road trips and like let's go to Japan, Let's
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: go to a hot air balloon. You know they do
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: always work out, But I think Missouri's doable.
• 37:04
  Speaker 4: I think so too. Once I got that arch. We'll
• 37:07
  Speaker 4: see you next time, folks.
• 37:15
  Speaker 5: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,
• 37:19
  Speaker 5: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.