Rock Champion

Knight of the South

by Robert L. Durham

Robert L. Durham works as a computer specialist for the Defense Logistics Agency , mainly working Security Assistance for foreign countries. He has recently returned to college studying for a history degree. He has had articles published in “The Alamo Journal,” and in “The Journal of the Alamo Society.”  The two articles in “The Alamo Journal” will be included in a “best of” compilation due out in March 2002. He’s also had book reviews published in “True West,” “Muzzleloader,” and “The Alamo Journal” and is on the book review staff of “The Civil War News.”

Robert L. Durham has an article currently available in the February issue of “Wild West” titled “Flashing Sabers at Solomon’s Fork.”

J. Rock Champion was destined to become a hero — with such a name, how could he be other? In his short life, he won the hearts of his superiors in the Confederate Army, and became almost a legend among the men he served with. When his body was carried off the field of his final battle, the gray-clad soldiers who had served under him or beside him, took note of his passing almost as if he had been a famous commander, of much higher rank than a mere captain of cavalry.

Practically nothing is known about Rock Champion’s early life. There is not even a certainty about his first name, being recorded as both John and James. Rock may not even have been his middle name, but a nickname for Rockne. The only thing that can be said with any degree of certainty is that he was an Irish immigrant. [Note: I recently found him listed in the 1857 St. Louis Directory. Champion was a steamboat mate listed as living at the King’s Hotel. –D. H. Rule]

Missouri, a border state, was fairly evenly split between settlers from the northern states and those from the southern states. In the months preceding the Civil War, St. Louis, Missouri was a hotbed of conflicting passions, sharply divided on ethnic lines. Many settlers from Europe settled in St. Louis, most of them from Germany and Ireland. The German immigrants, by and large, sided with the Union while their Irish counterparts sided with the newly forming Confederacy.

The majority of the German immigrants were Lutherans, refugees from the 1848 Peasant Revolution, many of them anti-Catholic. The Peasant Revolution was an attempt to establish a centralized government in Germany, based upon Marxist principles. They naturally sided with the strong Federal Government advocated by the Republican Party of the middle 1800s. The Irish immigrants, on the other hand, opposed a strong centralized government because they had fled a strong British government in Ireland. Almost exclusively Democratic, the St. Louis Irish supported the rights of the states to leave the Union. [1]

The Missouri governor, Democrat Claiborne Fox Jackson, and most of the other Democratic legislators threw their complete support to the seceded states. In a State Convention, they declared that any effort to try to coerce these states back into the Union would cause Missouri to rally to the side of those states, in resistance to the Northern invaders. However, an effort to force a vote for Missouri’s secession met with failure because it failed to win support from conservatives, among them the future Confederate general, Sterling Price.

Francis P. Blair, Jr., leader of Missouri’s Republicans, formed the St. Louis Unionists into militia units, called Home Guards or Wide Awakes. The majority of the members of these units were Germans, and a great many had European military training. In response, the secessionists formed their own militia units, calling themselves Minute Men. Two of the southern leaders were Kentuckian Basil W. Duke and South Carolinian Colton Greene. Another leader of the Minute Men was J. Rock Champion. Described as “a big-hearted, big-bodied Irishman”, the six feet two inch giant was a natural leader of men. [2] On 13 February, he was elected Lieutenant of Company F, the Jackson Grays.

The opposing units started drilling soon after the election of Abraham Lincoln. The Minute Men were casting covetous eyes on the huge stash of weapons stored in the U. S. arsenal in St. Louis. Not trusting the loyalties of the arsenal commander, Frank Blair succeeded in getting Captain Nathaniel Lyon’s Company B of the 2nd U. S. Infantry transferred to St. Louis from Fort Riley, Kansas. The Minute Men felt they had to do something in retaliation. Since a Confederate banner had not yet been adopted, they had improvised two secessionist flags, on which they had “blazoned . . . every conceivable thing that was suggestive of a Southern meaning.” They mounted the flags over their headquarters building. In the pre-dawn darkness of the morning of 4 March 1861, Rock Champion, Basil Duke, Colton Greene, Arthur McCoy, and James Quinlan went quietly through the city to the Federal courthouse. “Champion and Quinlan undertook to place one of these flags on the very summit of the courthouse dome, and did so at great risk to neck and limb.”

The next morning, when the Unionist elements of the town discovered the secessionist symbols, there was no question of the identity of the guilty parties. The Wide Awakes assembled and marched to the headquarters of the Minute Men, where they demanded the removal of the improvised flag. The St. Louis police department, fearing that they would not be able to prevent a conflict between the Wide Awakes and the Minute Men, called on the state militia for assistance. The mayor of St. Louis, O. D. Filley, appealed to the leaders of the Minute Men to take down the flag to prevent needless bloodshed. Rock Champion helpfully “suggested that the mayor should call on his fire department and turn out the engines to throw water on the crowd, which he . . . thought would certainly cause it to disperse.” The mayor, naturally, refused to except his proposal. There was much yelling, some pushing and shoving, and some fist fights between individuals. Finally, the Wide Awake mob abandoned the fight, and left the Minute Men to fly their flag unhindered. [3]

In the aftermath of Fort Sumter, President Lincoln called for troops to help suppress the rebellion. Governor Jackson, an ardent southern sympathizer, refused. Jackson then sent a letter to Confederate President Jefferson Davis, requesting cannon to use in an assault on the Federal arsenal. He sent Basil Duke and Colton Greene to Montgomery, Alabama to receive delivery of the arms and transport them to St. Louis. [4]

President Lincoln appointed Nathaniel Lyon a brigadier general, and assigned him the task of circumventing the plans of the southern sympathizers. Under orders from the War Department, Lyon formed five companies of U. S. Volunteers and five companies of U. S. Reserves. Lyon emptied the arsenal by using the weapons it contained to arm these troops, transporting the few remaining firearms to Alton, Illinois for safe keeping. Since the Governor’s plans for capturing the arsenal were effectively stymied by Lyon, Jackson ordered state militia general Daniel M. Frost to establish a training camp, which he named Camp Jackson. On 10 May 1861, Lyon led 7,000 troops to capture the camp, which contained less than 700 men. General Lyon succeeded in taking the camp, but a short, bloody struggle with secessionist protestors resulted in the deaths of 28 citizens, two women and a baby among them. [5]

riot following Camp Jackson, illustration from Harper’s Magazine

Outmaneuvered at every turn, on 1 June, Governor Jackson called for 50,000 volunteers for the Missouri State Guard, and sent a request to President Davis to send an army to Missouri to support the secessionists. Two weeks later, on 14 June, General Lyon moved against Jefferson City, the state capital. The state government fled without a fight. [6]

The Confederates, under the command of newly commissioned General Sterling Price, regrouped in southwestern Missouri. Price busily organized his men into regiments and brigades. Champion was elected Captain of Company B, Joseph Kelly’s “Fighting Irish” Infantry Regiment, 6th Division, Missouri State Guard. Brigadier General Mosby Monroe Parsons was appointed to command the 6th Division. On 5 July, the Missourians attacked and defeated a Federal volunteer force at Carthage, Missouri. General Parsons reported, “it is due that I should call to your excellency’s especial notice the ability and daring of Colonel Kelly, of my regiment of infantry, and all the officers under his command.” [7]

Troops from Arkansas under Brigadier General N. Bart Pearce, and other soldiers from Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana commanded by Brigadier General Ben McCulloch, soon joined the Missourians. In early August, the Confederates were ready to strike back at the Federals, and moved toward Springfield, Missouri. On the morning of 10 August 1861, the combined Federal forces of Lyon and Franz Sigel attacked the Confederates, resulting in a bloody clash of arms at Oak Hill, or Wilson’s Creek. Colonel Kelly temporarily commanded Parson’s Division during the battle and Lieutenant Colonel Stephen O. Coleman led his regiment. When Coleman was mortally wounded, Captain Champion assumed command of the regiment for the remainder of the battle. [8]

The independent minded Ben McCulloch refused to cooperate further with General Price, and Price’s Missourians went on alone to reoccupy Springfield. Sterling Price now led his command north, gathering new volunteers for his army along the way. On 2 September, a Kansas Brigade under Brigadier General J. H. Lane attempted to halt Price’s column at Dry Wood Creek, Missouri. General Parson deployed his artillery and ordered his infantry to charge the Kansans. Colonel Kelly had been wounded in the hand at Wilson’s Creek, [9] so Champion still commanded the regiment. Encouraging his men, “forward my brave boys of Carthage and Springfield,” he led them against the Jayhawkers. A history of Vernon County, Missouri tells of him, standing six feet, two inches in his long cavalry boots, “raging like a mad bull up and down the line of file closers, yelling ‘aim low!’” The Northern soldiers retreated, abandoning the road to the Missourians. [10]

General Lane, afraid that Price’s soldiers were embarked on an invasion of Kansas, posted his Kansas Brigade at Fort Scott and Barnesville, in hopes of blocking the Missourians. However, Price moved, instead, toward Lexington, Missouri. Lane received intelligence, on 5 September, that this was happening, but he was still convinced that the move on Lexington could be no more than a feint, and that Price would soon be “moving to the rear for the purpose of crossing over to the north side in detail.” [11]

Price reached the outskirts of Lexington, in northwest Missouri, on 12 September. A force of approximately 2800 men, with seven six-pounder cannons and two mortars, garrisoned Lexington. Ironically, one of the Federal regiments was the 23rd Illinois Volunteers, known as the “Irish Brigade,” so the siege of Lexington would be partly fought out between opposing Irishmen. [12] The Union forces contested the Confederate advance with skirmishers positioned in cornfields and hedges along the roads into town. [13]

Division Commander, Brigadier General Parsons, formed a line of battle. He placed his artillery under Captain Guibor in the center, Colonel Dills’ Infantry Regiment on the left, and Kelly’s Regiment, with Champion in command, on the right. Brigadier General John B. Clark’s Third Division of the Missouri State Guard, under command of Colonel Congreve Jackson, supported Parsons’ line. Parsons stated, in his Official Report, that Champion “led the Kelly infantry . . . immediately forward after the formation of the line of battle and engaged the enemy in the corn-field, and after a short conflict the enemy were dislodged and retired in the direction of the city.” [14]

Parsons and Clark followed the retreating enemy closely, until they retired within the fortified grounds of the Masonic College. Parsons ordered his artillery to open fire on the Union trenches and the college buildings, keeping up a brisk cannonade until twilight, when he was ordered to withdraw to the Fair Grounds for the night. [15]

The next morning, Wednesday, 18 September, Parsons was ordered to lead his men back into action, and the Confederates began the siege of Lexington in earnest, with Parsons’ division covering the southern approaches. Throughout the 18th and 19th, Guibor’s Artillery Battery pounded the Union defensive works, and Champion’s men skirmished with the Federals, keeping them pinned down. Champion’s men, according to Parsons, “advanced within 150 yards of the enemy’s works and succeeded in firmly establishing themselves on College street, from which they kept up a murderous fire upon the enemy as they would show themselves upon the entrenchment.” [16]

On the morning of 20 September, the Confederate Missourians came up with a novel method of attacking the Union trenches. They constructed a breastwork of hemp bails, which they soaked with water so the enemy could not set them afire with hot shot. Sheltered behind this barricade, covered by sniper fire from the skirmishers of Rock Champion and others, the Rebels began rolling the bales forward toward the enemy line. With ammunition low, and no way of stopping the inexorable Confederate advance, the Union defenders raised a white flag and surrendered unconditionally. In his Official Report of the battle, General Parsons commended “Captain Champion and the officers and soldiers of the Kelly infantry, who rendered most efficient and precious services as skirmishers.” [17]

General John C. Fremont was assigned to take over command of the Union troops in Missouri on 25 July. Fremont commanded almost 40,000 men, and Price abandoned Springfield, retreating back to the southern limits of the state before Fremont’s overwhelming advantage in numbers. Price put his army into winter quarters along the banks of the Sac River near Osceola, Missouri. McCulloch settled in with his troops across the border in Arkansas. Fremont was preparing an advance against the forces of Price and McCulloch when, on 2 November, General David Hunter replaced him. Just before Christmas, Hunter evacuated Springfield and Price reoccupied the town. [18]

On 7 January, Champion was transferred to the cavalry, being appointed captain of Company K, Colonel Robert “Black Bob” McCulloch’s 2nd Regiment, Missouri Cavalry. [19] On January 29th, 1862, Major-General Earl Van Dorn was assigned to command of the District of the Trans-Mississippi. According to Price’s Chief of Staff, Colonel L. Snead, “We Missourians were delighted; for he was known to be a fighting man, and we felt sure he would help us to regain our State.” [20] Van Dorn’s plans and preparations to retake all of Missouri for the Confederacy were interrupted when the newly formed Union Army of the Southwest, under General Samuel Ryan Curtis advanced against Price’s forces at Springfield. Price abandoned Missouri, moving his troops into Arkansas, arriving near Van Buren on 21 February. Van Dorn linked Price’s Missouri State Guard with McCulloch’s Division, and Brigadier-General Albert Pike’s Indian and Texan brigade. [21]

On 7 March, Van Dorn attacked the Union forces of General Curtis that were gathered around Pea Ridge, Arkansas. Generals McCulloch and Pike led their Confederate units against the Union left flank, troops under Brigadier General Franz Sigel, Colonel Peter J. Osterhaus, and Colonel Jefferson C. Davis, positioned around Leetown. Price’s Missouri State Guard advanced on the Yankee right, against the Union division of Colonel Eugene A. Carr assembled around a picturesque inn called Elkhorn Tavern. Pea Ridge isolated Elkhorn Tavern from Leetown, so the battle developed as two separate conflicts, with no Confederate coordination between their two forces. [22]

Carr’s Federals concentrated their defense around the tavern and outbuildings, placing twenty cannons there to solidify their position. Guibor unlimbered two of his guns in the road in front of the tavern and began an uneven artillery duel with the Yankees. A member of Guibor’s Battery, Hunt P. Wilson, described what happened next:

Now came the crisis. A regiment of United States infantry moved out of the timber on the left front of the guns, about one hundred yards distant, with a small field intervening, the fences around it leveled to the ground. On Guibor’s right was the tavern, on his left a blacksmith’s shop, and in the lot some corncribs. Behind these buildings “Rock” Champion had placed his company of cavalry to protect their horses from thickly flying bullets. Rock’s quick eye saw the bright bayonets as they were pushing through the brush, and, riding up, he yelled in his rough-and-ready style, “Guibor, they’re flankin’ you!” “I know it, but I can’t spare a gun to turn on them,” was the reply. There was no supporting infantry on his left. Said Rock, “I’ll charge them!” This meant to attack a full regiment of infantry advancing in line, 700 or 800 strong, with 22 men. . . Galloping back a few paces to his little band, his clear, ringing voice could be heard by friend and enemy. “Battalion, forward, trot, march, gallop, march, charge!” and with a wild yell in they went, their gallant chief in the lead. . . Within thirty seconds they were right in the midst of the surprised Federal infantry, shouting, slashing, shooting. . . The result was precisely what Champion had foreseen, and proved his reckless courage was directed by good judgement. The attack was a clear surprise, the result a stampede; the infantry fired an aimless, scattering volley, then, expecting a legion of horsemen to fall on them, fled in confusion. Champion did not follow. Knowing when to stop as well as to commence, he secured their flag and quickly returned to the battery which he had saved, with a loss of only three of his gallant rough-riders. [23]

The Confederate troops on the left successfully captured Elkhorn Tavern, their first objective, but the troops on the right were defeated, with the loss of General Ben McCulloch. The battle faded as night came on but continued the next day, with the Rebels ultimately being forced to retreat. Missouri had been saved for the Union. The Confederates would continue to fight for Missouri throughout the remainder of the war, but would never again pose a serious threat to the Federal forces there.

With the war in the trans-Mississippi Confederacy at a stalemate, Van Dorn was ordered to cross the Mississippi River with most of his troops, and join the Confederate soldiers of General Albert Sydney Johnston in Corinth, Mississippi, where they might have a greater effect on the war. They moved as quickly as possible, but did not reach Johnston’s army in time to participate in the Battle of Shiloh. [24]

In the early summer of 1862, the 2nd Missouri Cavalry was attached to General Martin E. Green’s Infantry Brigade, as the thinking in the early stages of the war was that the most effective force was one of combined arms, infantry, cavalry, and artillery. Later, in June, they “were organized into a brigade of cavalry and placed under that brave and efficient general, Frank C. Armstrong . . . The brigade consisted . . . of the 2^nd Missouri Cavalry, about one thousand strong . . . of brave young Missourians, without a conscript in the ranks . . .; the 2^nd Arkansas Cavalry, some eight hundred numbers, commanded by Colonel Slemmons; the 1^st Mississippi Cavalry, about one thousand in numbers, commanded by Colonel Pinson; also the 7^th Tennessee Cavalry, a full regiment, commanded by Col. William H. Jackson . . .; and Wirt Adam’s Battalion, and a small battalion commanded by Colonel Saunders. In all, a magnificent body of fighting cavalry, ready and eager to measure arms with the Federal cavalry.” [25] On 20 June, Champion was transferred to command of Company C of the same regiment. [26]

On the 1st of July, Champion’s regiment was involved in a sharp little skirmish with Federal troops at Booneville, Mississippi. On 18 July, the brigade left Tupelo, Mississippi for a raid into Alabama, surprising the Federal garrison at Courtland, Alabama on the 25th. Again, Captain Champion distinguished himself.

Armstrong’s after-action reports states, “Having arrived near Courtland, avoiding all roads as much as possible, I sent two companies under Captain Roddey and a detachment of 60 men, with long-range guns, selected from the several battalions, under Captain Champion, to advance upon the flank. I succeeded, through corn fields and by-paths, in getting within 500 yards of the enemy’s camp, when I charged them with the main body of cavalry, the two commands of Captains Roddey and Champion moving promptly to the positions previously assigned them. The enemy’s infantry fell back under cover of the railroad and fired a volley, but I soon crossed the railroad and charged down it on the north side, which drove them from the trestle work and forced them to take shelter under the bank of a creek, where it was impossible to get at them on horseback. I immediately pushed around some dismounted men to charge them on foot. Seeing this they ceased firing, threw down their arms, and surrendered.” Armstrong’s men succeeded in capturing 133 prisoners, and destroyed the railroad depot and a bridge. [27]

A vital duty of the Confederate Cavalry under General Armstrong was the constant patrolling of the no-man’s land north of Corinth. Troopers from both sides often visited a plantation between the lines, and the Federal Cavalry had taken everything worth taking. On one occasion, the Colonel of a Union Cavalry Regiment “insulted the young lady in a manner so gross that she caused it to be circulated among our cavalry that she would give her hand and fortune to any officer or private who would bring to her satisfactory proof that he had killed this colonel.” [28]

Rock Champion, a knight errant at heart, could hardly resist the plea of this fair Southern maiden. Soon, Colonel McCullough’s 2nd Missouri and the offending colonel’s “regiments faced each other in a hot and furious engagement, during which Cpt Champion, in a hand to hand conflict, killed the Federal Colonel, whose command immediately retreated. The young lady was properly informed of the fate of her enemy and the name of her avenger; she promptly returned a note expressive of her obligation, and declared her readiness to fulfill the pledge she had given. After a brief correspondence, the Captain waited upon the youthful beauty, and was as much struck by her charms, grace and fascination, as he had been by the romantic incidents of her history.” As in every good romance, they were soon betrothed. [29] Edwin C. Bearss believes this story is apocryphal, since there is no record of any senior Federal officers being killed during this time period. [30] This is a good story nonetheless, illustrating how his compatriots were weaving Rock Champion’s daring adventures into a legendary tapestry.

In August, Armstrong led the Missourians and the rest of his brigade on another expedition. Their mission was to “threaten Bolivar [Tennessee], and, if possible, take Jackson and destroy the Mobile and Ohio Railroad.” [31] The brigade left Baldwyn, Mississippi on 22 August with 1600 men, and were reinforced by 1100 more troopers under Colonel William H. “Red” Jackson when they reached Holly Springs. [32] Armstrong pushed on across the Tennessee line on 27 August, moving through Grand Junction and Van Buren, Tennessee toward Bolivar.

Colonel Marcellus M. Crocker commanded the Union garrison at Bolivar. The road south of Bolivar split, the west branch passing through Middleburg to Grand Junction, and the east branch toward Van Buren, Tennessee. On the morning of 30 August, receiving word of the Confederate approach, Crocker ordered Colonel Mortimer Leggett to advance his brigade, consisting of two infantry regiments, one cavalry regiment, and an artillery section, to meet the Confederates on the Van Buren Road. They ran into the 7^th Tennessee under “Red” Jackson.

Ordering Jackson to fight a delaying action on the Van Buren Road, Armstrong sent the 2^nd Missouri and 2^nd Arkansas on a flanking maneuver in an attempt to outflank the Federals on the Grand Junction Road through Middleburg. Leggett shifted part of his force to meet the threat to his flank. The Confederate Cavalry charged three times, but were stopped each time.

Coincidentally with the developing action south of town, a regiment of Federal cavalry, the 2^nd Illinois under Colonel Harvey Hogg, arrived in Bolivar by train just in time to lend a hand. Crocker ordered Hogg to reinforce Leggett, and he arrived just as the Rebels of the 2^nd Missouri were preparing for their fourth attempt. [33] Colonel Leggett “discovered that a full regiment of cavalry was forming in the rear of those firing upon us, evidently with the determination of charging upon our cavalry and that portion of the infantry on the left of the road. I said to Colonel Hogg if he had any doubt about holding his position he had better fall back and not receive their charge. He promptly replied, ‘Colonel Leggett, for God’s sake don’t order me back.’ I replied, ‘Meet them with a charge, colonel, and may Heaven bless you.’ He immediately ordered his men to draw their sabers, and after giving the order to ‘Forward’ he exclaimed, ‘Give them cold steel, boys.’” [34]

Armstrong, at nearly the same time, ordered his bugler to sound the charge. The 2^nd Missouri Confederate Cavalry, with Colonel McCulloch and Captain Rock Champion riding side by side at the head of the column, rode to meet the Federal cavalry, with their sabers drawn. C. Y. Ford, of Company G of the 2^nd Missouri, remembered that “our sabers glittering in the bright sunshine made an imposing line of battle. The Yanks were game, and plainly we could hear their bugle sounding the charge.” [35] The two forces met in a confusing tangle of revolver and carbine shots, and clashing sabers. [36] Among the first to fall was Captain Rock Champion, killed instantly with a shot through the forehead. [37]

The Confederates were driven back in this charge but rallied and finally emerged victorious, forcing the Union soldiers back into the defenses of Bolivar. The Official Report of General Sterling Price, commanding the Army of the West, said that Van Dorn’s troopers “drove them back with heavy loss, killing and wounding a large number and capturing 73 prisoners.” Armstrong bypassed Bolivar, going on to cross the Hatchie River, take “possession of the railroad for more than thirty hours, during which time he destroyed all the bridges and a mile of trestle work. Returning, he encountered the enemy in force near Denmark, attacked and routed them, killing and wounding about 75 of them, capturing 213 prisoners, and taking two pieces of artillery, after which he returned to Baldwyn.”

Captain Rock Champion was not among those who returned to Baldwyn. Price’s report concludes, “The entire loss upon the expedition was, in killed, wounded, and missing, 115, among whom I regret to mention Captain J. Rock Champion, whose reckless daring and intrepid boldness have illustrated the battle-fields of Missouri, Arkansas, and Alabama, as well as that of Bolivar, in which he fell far in advance of his command.” [38] C. Y. Ford, who served with him in the 2^nd Missouri, described him as “a most distinguished looking soldier, so much so as any soldier I saw in my four years service.” [39] Rock Champion died as a true son of Missouri, and a knight of the South.

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Bibliography

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[39] Ford, p. 290.