James W. Case, Civil War Cavalryman
JAMES W. CASE, CIVIL WAR CAVALRYMAN WAS RECOGNIZED FOR CIVIL WAR SERVICE ON SUNDAY, MAY 25 AT THE MEMORIAL DAY SERVICE AT THE HANNA CEMETERY. (PICURE FROM LYNNE KUDERKO, JUNE 2014)
During the late summer of 1862, a boy and his horse went to war. James W. Case, barely fifteen, became a member of the Enrolled Missouri Militia, a home guard newly formed to support the Union. He was required to bring his own mount and equipment and instructed, during the first year of his service, “to subsist on the disloyal population.”
As he was under the age of eighteen, James’ service required the consent of his father, William. Perhaps William considered safe his son’s serving, when needed, in their home county of Chariton, Missouri. Perhaps the Cases, as most others of both the North and South, were convinced the war would be of short duration. Perhaps James was recompensed for his service.
In 1863 the Enrollment Act required that all members of the Enrolled Missouri Militia join the Missouri State Militia; the term of service was three years. William had second thoughts and attempted to bring the boy home, but the military authorities refused and cited as cause James having been paid $300 to serve as a substitute. James W. Case was assigned to Company H (later to be incorporated into Company I), 9th Cavalry, Missouri State Militia Cavalry, and there he remained until mustered-out on July 13, 1865, three months after Lee’s surrender.
In the Company H Descriptive Book of May 15, 1863, James was 18 years of age (he was actually 16), 5 feet, 6’ ¼ “ inches tall, with light complexion and dark eyes and hair. On his “pay due” slips he was always noted as being “on scout,” which seemed simple but this was Chariton County, Missouri, during the Civil War.
Chariton County was the center of “Little Dixie,” so-called because previous decades had brought an influx of settlers from the Upper South, many from Tennessee and Kentucky; most brought their Southern sympathies and some brought their slaves. The William Case family arrived shortly before the beginning of the war and came from Fairmont, Virginia, in the far northern corner of what would be, after 1863, West Virginia. William was, as he declared in allowing James to join the Enrolled Militia, “a Union man.”
The New York Times declared on September 22, 1863, that northern Missouri was a battleground of Union soldiers versus “free floating bands of armed men-only loosely allied with Confederate forces and under no control. Human life is less safe there than anywhere else.” Civilians of both persuasions were bushwhacked. In 1864 guerilla insurgents burned the Chariton County courthouse in Brunswick to the ground.
In this conflict of neighbor against neighbor, young James W. faced another, more insidious, foe. The 9th Missouri State Militia Cavalry recorded 2 officers and 29 enlisted men killed or wounded in combat. Disease claimed the lives of one officer and 76 enlisted men. Survival often meant a lifetime of persevering with the aftereffects of Civil War service.
The history of James W. Case’s time “on scout” is meager, reduced to compensation for horse and equipment, $95 for each two-month period, and for expenditures: 40 cents for cap pouch, $15.95 for muzzle loading rifle, 67 cents for haversack. His medical history is more abundant. On March 19, 1880, James filed a claim for a pension, based on injuries he had suffered during the Civil War. There followed documents and affidavits, pro and con in his cause, continuing until his death in 1917. The injuries were the result of a spurious vaccination given him for small pox in 1864 that resulted in the “enlargement of his bones and corruption of his blood rendering him unable to labor.”
But labor James Case did, for the remainder of his life. Returning to Chariton County, he married Sarah Jane Allen in 1866. The 1880 census has him working there as a car inspector. John W. and George H. Allen, Sara’s brothers, were both pioneer homesteaders on Pass Creek, to the west of Elk Mountain, Wyoming. A family history related George H. Allen came west to escape “the hard times in Missouri.” The same reason undoubtedly brought James W. and his family to settle among family along the same creek. During the early 1890s there are social notes in the Saratoga newspapers describing events in the lives of the Cases: the grown children marry into local families, James and his partners invest in various livestock enterprises and in the valley’s copper boom.
The census of 1900 listed James, 53, a stockman and wife Sarah, 51, mother of twelve children, five living. Other family members were George H., 32, and James B., 24, both laborers, Hazel, 11, and Alphus, 7, “at school.” On June 25, 1903, a “Notice for Publication” appeared in the Saratoga Sun announcing that James W. Case had made final proof on his 160 acre homestead claim. But wresting a living from a quarter section of Wyoming’s prairie was difficult. Many homesteaders found hard cash came at a premium, and there was a place where it might be procured-the coal mines of nearby Hanna.
As early as November of 1906, the family was living in Hanna and James W. and son George H. employed at No. 1 Mine. On the fateful day of Saturday, March 28, 1908, two explosions rocked the mine and the town. The first annihilated the mine superintendent and seventeen men, the elite of the camp, all attempting to extinguish a fire. What happened next and the parts father James and son George played must be surmised from various, sometimes contradictory, sources. James Case and John Jones were coming out of the mine for supplies when the first explosion occurred. Both men were carried unconscious to the surface by rescuers; both lived. Soon after, George H., perhaps in search of his father, whom he knew to be in the mine but unaware of his rescue, joined the rush of miners determined to save their comrades; he, along with forty others, was killed in the second deadly blast.
During this time of tragedy, James W. entered the 1908 election as a Republican candidate for the Wyoming State Legislature. Public office was reserved for mine bosses and even that a rare event. One of a crowded field, James missed a seat by fewer than one hundred votes. He won overwhelmingly in those precincts where he was best known, Hanna, Medicine Bow, and Green, which was near his homestead.
When James applied for an increase in pension in 1908, Dr. H. J. McArthur, coal company physician, recommended,
As he was under the age of eighteen, James’ service required the consent of his father, William. Perhaps William considered safe his son’s serving, when needed, in their home county of Chariton, Missouri. Perhaps the Cases, as most others of both the North and South, were convinced the war would be of short duration. Perhaps James was recompensed for his service.
In 1863 the Enrollment Act required that all members of the Enrolled Missouri Militia join the Missouri State Militia; the term of service was three years. William had second thoughts and attempted to bring the boy home, but the military authorities refused and cited as cause James having been paid $300 to serve as a substitute. James W. Case was assigned to Company H (later to be incorporated into Company I), 9th Cavalry, Missouri State Militia Cavalry, and there he remained until mustered-out on July 13, 1865, three months after Lee’s surrender.
In the Company H Descriptive Book of May 15, 1863, James was 18 years of age (he was actually 16), 5 feet, 6’ ¼ “ inches tall, with light complexion and dark eyes and hair. On his “pay due” slips he was always noted as being “on scout,” which seemed simple but this was Chariton County, Missouri, during the Civil War.
Chariton County was the center of “Little Dixie,” so-called because previous decades had brought an influx of settlers from the Upper South, many from Tennessee and Kentucky; most brought their Southern sympathies and some brought their slaves. The William Case family arrived shortly before the beginning of the war and came from Fairmont, Virginia, in the far northern corner of what would be, after 1863, West Virginia. William was, as he declared in allowing James to join the Enrolled Militia, “a Union man.”
The New York Times declared on September 22, 1863, that northern Missouri was a battleground of Union soldiers versus “free floating bands of armed men-only loosely allied with Confederate forces and under no control. Human life is less safe there than anywhere else.” Civilians of both persuasions were bushwhacked. In 1864 guerilla insurgents burned the Chariton County courthouse in Brunswick to the ground.
In this conflict of neighbor against neighbor, young James W. faced another, more insidious, foe. The 9th Missouri State Militia Cavalry recorded 2 officers and 29 enlisted men killed or wounded in combat. Disease claimed the lives of one officer and 76 enlisted men. Survival often meant a lifetime of persevering with the aftereffects of Civil War service.
The history of James W. Case’s time “on scout” is meager, reduced to compensation for horse and equipment, $95 for each two-month period, and for expenditures: 40 cents for cap pouch, $15.95 for muzzle loading rifle, 67 cents for haversack. His medical history is more abundant. On March 19, 1880, James filed a claim for a pension, based on injuries he had suffered during the Civil War. There followed documents and affidavits, pro and con in his cause, continuing until his death in 1917. The injuries were the result of a spurious vaccination given him for small pox in 1864 that resulted in the “enlargement of his bones and corruption of his blood rendering him unable to labor.”
But labor James Case did, for the remainder of his life. Returning to Chariton County, he married Sarah Jane Allen in 1866. The 1880 census has him working there as a car inspector. John W. and George H. Allen, Sara’s brothers, were both pioneer homesteaders on Pass Creek, to the west of Elk Mountain, Wyoming. A family history related George H. Allen came west to escape “the hard times in Missouri.” The same reason undoubtedly brought James W. and his family to settle among family along the same creek. During the early 1890s there are social notes in the Saratoga newspapers describing events in the lives of the Cases: the grown children marry into local families, James and his partners invest in various livestock enterprises and in the valley’s copper boom.
The census of 1900 listed James, 53, a stockman and wife Sarah, 51, mother of twelve children, five living. Other family members were George H., 32, and James B., 24, both laborers, Hazel, 11, and Alphus, 7, “at school.” On June 25, 1903, a “Notice for Publication” appeared in the Saratoga Sun announcing that James W. Case had made final proof on his 160 acre homestead claim. But wresting a living from a quarter section of Wyoming’s prairie was difficult. Many homesteaders found hard cash came at a premium, and there was a place where it might be procured-the coal mines of nearby Hanna.
As early as November of 1906, the family was living in Hanna and James W. and son George H. employed at No. 1 Mine. On the fateful day of Saturday, March 28, 1908, two explosions rocked the mine and the town. The first annihilated the mine superintendent and seventeen men, the elite of the camp, all attempting to extinguish a fire. What happened next and the parts father James and son George played must be surmised from various, sometimes contradictory, sources. James Case and John Jones were coming out of the mine for supplies when the first explosion occurred. Both men were carried unconscious to the surface by rescuers; both lived. Soon after, George H., perhaps in search of his father, whom he knew to be in the mine but unaware of his rescue, joined the rush of miners determined to save their comrades; he, along with forty others, was killed in the second deadly blast.
During this time of tragedy, James W. entered the 1908 election as a Republican candidate for the Wyoming State Legislature. Public office was reserved for mine bosses and even that a rare event. One of a crowded field, James missed a seat by fewer than one hundred votes. He won overwhelmingly in those precincts where he was best known, Hanna, Medicine Bow, and Green, which was near his homestead.
When James applied for an increase in pension in 1908, Dr. H. J. McArthur, coal company physician, recommended,
[James] certainly should not work as he is not physically able, but as he has always
earned his living by manual labor, he is compelled to work whenever his is able
to be around. I have no hesitation in saying he should receive an increase
of pension sufficient to enable him to have a living.
In the 1910 census, James, 63, remained in the mine, and son Alphus had joined him. Sarah now listed herself as mother of twelve, four living; she was to live but two more years. Around this time son James B. Case moved his family to a remote homestead north of Hanna. Here, James W. Case died on April 15, 1917, one month before his 70th birthday.
Attending the Dedication
Family and friends present at the Hanna Cemetery and Hanna Basin Museum when James was recognized for his Civil War Service are pictured below. James Case in the middle is the great-grandson of the Civil War veteran James W. Case and grandson of James Buchanan Case.
DENISE CASE; CASEY CASE; THEIR FATHER JAMES CASE, JOHN ALEXANDER AND HIS MOTHER, SHIRLEY ALEXANDER. (PICTURE FROM LYNNE KUDERKO, JUNE 2014)
Visiting the Homestead
During their visit to Hanna the family was able to visit the Case homestead located north of Hanna. Their local historians and guides were Powd and Mary Ann Boles.
POWD and MARY ANN BOLES; JOHN ALEXANDER; JAMES CASE; DENISE CASE; SHIRLEY ALEXANDER. (PICTURE FROM LYNNE KUDERKO, JUNE 2014)
Information from the following persons made this article and the new headstone possible: 1. Lynne Kuderko, researcher whose investigation into the Hanna No. 1 Mine 1908 Disaster uncovered James W.’s story; 2. Shirley Alexander whose family research led to 3. Bill Case, great-grandson who shared stories and authorized the placing of the military stone.
Nancy Anderson
Nancy Anderson
Sources
- Article by Nancy Anderson, Director Hanna Basin Museum and Lynn Kuderko, June 2014.
- Pictures courtesy of Lynne Kuderko, June 2014.
- Page by Bob Leathers
