The Battle of Randolph
“At the time Fort Sumter was fired upon, Kansas City, Missouri had a population variously estimated at from 4,000 to 8,000. There was at the time a small settlement of a dozen houses immediately across the Missouri River on the low ground called Harlem, and another village of a half dozen log huts about three miles farther down on the same side called Randolph. This little town was the scene of a serio-comical battle at the beginning of the rebellion. The account given by H. E. Robinson in the Maryville Republican is very interesting.
One day in July 1861, while Kansas City’s enrolled militia were on drill on the hill near where the Coates House Hotel now stands, a scout named Bill Booker rode up to the commanding officer and reported that the ‘secesh’, as the Confederates were then called, had taken possession of Randolph, and had fortified themselves in the log cabins in that town. Booker also reported that several desperate bushwhackers were among the enemy. The commander of the militia ordered the boys to prepare for an assault upon the Johnnies’ stronghold at Randolph, which stood upon the bluff on the Clay County side of the Missouri, three miles down the river.
When preparations for the assault were nearly completed, it was suggested by a member of a German company, which was under the command of Captain Van Daun and Lieutenant Edward Massuch, that it would be a good thing to have a piece of artillery with which to dislodge the rebels from their houses in Randolph. The other officers and members of the company expressed themselves similarly and it was decided to go into action in the manner laid down by the best authorities upon modern warfare. The enemy’s stronghold was to be bombarded with artillery, and the infantry in the meantime were to press to the front and at the decisive moment charge, and carry the fortifications which had been thrown up around the cabins.
In pursuance of the plan of battle agreed upon, an old brass “six pounder” Napoleon canon was hauled out of a shed, placed in a wagon, and hauled two miles. The nozzle of the formidable looking weapon was dismounted and pointed to the rear. It was turned over to a German named Gunner Schmidt.
There being no ammunition for the cannon in the ordinance department of Kansas City at that time, Gunner Schmidt had the old brass field piece hauled down to Henry Kaufman’s blacksmith shop, which stood on the present sight of Arnold’s drugstore, 5th & Main Streets. I was there loaded nearly to the muzzle with bolts, scraps, horseshoe nails, pieces of scrap iron, etc. The cannon being finally charged for action, gallant Gunner Schmidt was certain that the first shot from it would dislodge the Confederates.
Everything being in readiness, the brave column started down Main Street with colors flying and the cannon drawn by two mules. When the column reached the foot of Main Street, a halt was made to procure a large pine box upon which to elevate the cannon, as the wagon was not high enough to enable Gunner Schmidt to get a good bearing on the enemy. The box was procured, and the militia was then, still accompanied by the mules and the brass Napoleon, marched upon the ferry boat.
After arriving at Harlem, the solitary piece of artillery was placed in a position to command a good range of the enemy’s works on Randloph Heights. A line of battle was formed, and the order given to the militia to “forward march”. Schmidt’s battery was again moved nearer the front and halted about one-half mile from Randolph, in plain view of the rebel stronghold. The mules stood hitched to the wagon with their heads toward Harlem and the rear end of the wagon on which was the great gun mounted upon a box, was toward Randolph. While Gunner Schmidt was taking aim he drew himself up to his full heights, stroked his head and exclaimed: ‘Now I make mit dot gun a clean sweep. Come now, my noble warriors, and put a vedge under de end off der gun, and den I will haf der elevation.’
When the wedge was adjusted to suit Gunner Schmidt, he continued: ‘Now boys, ven dis gun goes off, I pet you ein keg off beer dere iss more as twenty deat rebels n dat haus. Now, ve are all retty to fire. Iss der militia retty to scharge vern der gun goes off?’ Upon being informed that the militia was anxiously awaiting the signal for battle, Gunner Schmidt lighted a piece of blasting fuse and, mounting a wheel of the wagon, touched off the gun. Boom! It went and away went the mules and the front wheels of the wagon toward Harlem. The militia got excited and went with the mules. The cannon had kicked, and the portion of the wagon which the mules had left was in a sadly demoralized condition.
Schmidt picked himself up from where he had landed, and seeing the militia in inglorious retreat, yelled: ‘Rally, poys, rally! Yeasus Krist! Don’t lief der artillery!’ But as no attention was paid to his appeal, he cast one fond glance at the old gun and the rear end of the wagon and then speedily followed in the rear of the retreating militia. The charge fired from the cannon never reached halfway to the cabins, but it cut a wide swath through the sycamore brush. The militia reached the ferry in double quick time, and crossed over to the Kansas City side where they told of the wonderful battle of Randolph.
The old gun used in the fight was surreptitiously taken to Quindaro, Kansas, in the fall of 1860, just previous to the November election. It belonged to the pro-slavery contingent in and about the vicinity of Quindaro. It was brought to Wyandotte by a party of abolitionist under command of Phillip Hescher then a corpulent German saloonkeeper in Wyandotte. It was there used in firing a national salute upon the reception of the news of the election of Abraham Lincoln. In June 1861, shortly after the breaking out of the rebellion, it was transferred from Wyandotte to Kansas City by Captain Miller, who was at present a resident of the city and who subsequent to the battle of Randolph, commanded a company in a Kansas City regiment.
About the time the gun was brought to Kansas City three companies of home guards were organized there – an American Company under Captain Bingham, an Irish Company under Captain Miller and Lieutenant Jerry Dowd and a German company under Captain VanDaun and Lt. Massuch. It was these three companies that participated in the siege of Randolph. Fortunately, no one was hurt except one militia man, who in his haste to get away from the field, ran against a tree and received a black eye and a slight contusion of the forehead from which a few drops of blood flowed.
A squad of cavalry went over to the scene of the bloodless affray the next day and brought away the gun and set fire to the cabins which the rebels had abandoned. Owing to the absence of the enemy, they went and returned unmolested. The gun was subsequently mounted by Chris Schaeffer, a wagonmaker at the corner of Twelfth and Main. An artillery squad was then formed of fifteen hand-picked men from the militia. The squaud was under the command of Lt. Cahill. When two companies of Kansas City home guards, commanded by colonel R. T. Van Horn, went to the front they were accompanied by the artillery squad and took part in the battle of Lexington, which was fought by Genera Mulligan’s command. The old brass field piece did some good execution during the fight. It was among the ordinance surrendered by Milligan when he capitulated at Lexington. While in possession of the enemy it formed a part of Bledsoe’s artillery battery. It was used by the Confederates against the Federals at the battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, and other engagements of lesser importance, among which was the action at Brush Creek, near Westport, in October, 1864. It was finally recaptured during General Price’s retreat, together with Bledsoe’s whole battery at the battle of Mine Creek, near Pleasanton, Kansas by the Fifth Iowa cavalry and the Second Colorado cavalry after a desperate struggle.”
Source: Kansas City Journal, November 14, 1904.
Additional Information:
E. Robinson (1845-1907)
Harlem was settled by Germans from the Netherlands during the 1820s. It was a ferryboat landing, an important commercial transport center for Kansas City until the Hannibal Bridge was completed in 1869. Then the opening of the ASB Bridge further cut off traffic to Harlem. It was essential to the growth of Kansas City.
Lieutenant Edward Massuch likely a German born, Kansas City gunsmith, 1824-1873.
Henry Kaufman’s blacksmith shop at 5th and Main Streets is today, 2023, the site of an apartment building in the River Market area. Henry Kaufman was a German born, blacksmith in the Union Army.
Phillip Hescher was born in Germany in 1832 and died in Kansas City Kansas in 1884. He was a saloonkeeper in Wyandotte, an abolitionist and a Union officer.
Colonel R.T. Van Horn was an owner/editor of the Kansas City Daily Western Journal beginning in 1858 and was later known as the Kansas City Daily Journal or The Kansas City Journal. He served as mayor of Kansas City in 1861 and again in 1864. He was wounded at the battle of Lexington as well as a horse shot from under him at Shiloh, Tennessee. He served as a State Senator from 1862 to 1864 and in the US Congress from 1865 to 1871. He retired from the Journal in 1897. Van Horn High School is located on the site of his home “Honeywood.”
Bledsoe’s Missouri Company Light Artillery saw action in numerous battles in Missouri, Mississippi, and Tennessee with Captain Hiram M. Bledsoe in command.