Civil War Primer — by Pat Granstra

My husband and I are looking forward to attending the Grand Review of the Civil War Preservation Trust in Franklin, Tennessee this September.  We have visited the city several times, always awed by the magintude of suffering inflicted on soldiers and civilians alike by the battle of November 30, 1864. 

Among Franklin’s most poignant stories is that of Captain Tod Carter.  After spending three years away from Franklin fighting in the Confederate army, Carter was within a only few hundred feet from his home when he was severely wounded.  Family members found him on the battlefield and took him home, where he died two days later.

A similar occurrence is said to have taken place in Iowa.  Yes, IOWA, which, of course, never saw a Civil War battle on its soil.  However, on August 5, 1861, a handful of Iowans in the tiny village of Croton could look south across the Des Moines River to see a battle unfolding on the soil of their Missouri neighbors in Athens (Aye-thens). 

The Unionist Home Guards in Athens confronted units of the Secessionist State Guards.  Consisting mostly of untrained volunteers, the two sides struggled for a few hours before the Home Guards prevailed, aided by arms and men from Iowa. 

Among the Iowans was William Sprouse, whose home in Croton became a field hopsital for Unionists wounded in the battle.  Sprouse himself was among the 23 Home Guard casualties.  Like Tod Carter, he was taken to his own home and died there.

At least, that’s what Edith Wasson McElroy reports in her article “Years of Valor” published by the Iowa Civil War Centennial Commission in 1969.  On the other hand, Jonathan Kearns Cooper-Wiele, author of Skim Milk Yankees Fighting: The Battle of Athens, Missouri, August 5, 1861, acknowledges that William Sprouse died in a Croton residence known as “the Sprouse House”  but  does not identify him as its owner.  He does, however, include a picture of the building. Until I hear something definitive, I’ll give credence to Edith’s version; it’s more dramatic.

Trivia: 

• Franklin, Tennessee is sometimes called “The Gettysburg of the West.”
• The Battle of Athens was the northernmost Civil War battle west of the Mississippi.
• The pro-South State Guards brought three pieces of artillary to Athens.  One was made with a hollow log; it exploded the first time it was fired, injuring members of the artillery crew.

What you can do:

• Read McElroy’s article and Cooper-Wiele’s book on line.
• Read about the Battle of Athens
• Visit Athens in Northeast Missouri.  Not much is left of the town, but what is there is part of a nice state park.  A few original buildings stand, including the Thome-Benning House, through which a cannonball was shot.  You can see the holes.  The house contains a small museum.
• Visit Croton in Southeast Iowa to see its Civil War Memorial Park, supposed to be the site of the only cannonballs to reach Iowa soil during the Civil War.  You may also view whatever is left of the Sprouse House.