JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) – A Missouri State University graduate student’s research findings may rewrite the history of the Civil War in Jasper County in Missouri.
The Joplin Globe reports that Christopher Dukes outlined two findings based on his research to the Jasper County Commission Tuesday.
Dukes says that land acquired by the county to commemorate an 1863 Civil War fight known as the Battle of Sherwood and the Battle of Rader’s Farm was part of the actual skirmish site.
Dukes says his research shows white Union soldiers with the 2nd Kansas Volunteer Artillery Battery did not abandon black Union soldiers of the 1st Kansas Colored unit when they were ambushed on the farm by 70 men led by Confederate guerrilla leader Thomas Livingston, as was previously believed.
According to Dukes, the surviving soldiers, instead, rallied at a point west of the farm and fought together.