|
|
|
|
James B. Russell Contributed by Leon Cooper James B. Russell was born In Rhea County, TN, Nov 20, 1833, the first child of Samuel J. Russell and Mary “Polly” Bell Russell. In 1850, they were living in Barry County, MO and later located in Benton County, AR. When he was 16 years old, he’d become attracted to a young lady and approached his mother about getting married. She was not in favor of “Jim” getting hitched to this particular girl and counseled him about it. Jim was dead-set on marrying the young lady. His mother described how difficult life would be for them starting out on a poor basis. She had a plan. Polly (her nickname) contacted a Mr. Smith who was organizing a wagon train to depart St. Joseph, MO and head west to California where gold had recently been discovered. Mr. Smith was in need of a scout for the wagon train. The handsome young Jim had been well trained by his parents. He was reported to stand 6 feet and 4 inches, was dark-skinned, had “steel-gray” eyes, was lean and lanky, an excellent horseman and outdoorsman and well suited for the job. Polly’s recommendation was that Jim should go west with the wagon train, make lots of money from working in the gold fields, return home a “rich” man and marry his girlfriend. Jim decided his mother’s advice was good, so he signed up with the Smith wagon train. At the last minute, Polly handed Jim a small, single-shot pistol and told him to carry and use it only for his ultimate protection against some wild animal but to never even think about pointing it at a person. He concealed the pistol in the waistband of his trousers. The Wagon train departed in the springtime in order to arrive in California well ahead of the mountain snows. (* They probably departed sometime between mid-March and mid-April of 1849. The wagon train undoubtedly traveled over the Oregon Trail, the most commonly used route to the west.) Jim rode on ahead each day, sought watering and camping sites and killed game for the group to eat. On frequent occasions, small groups of Indians would approach the wagon train and ask for gifts. Mr. Smith was familiar with this practice, so he’d packed bolts of brightly colored cloth, assorted beads and other gifts for those they met along the route. Not long after the wagon train departed “St. Joe” (perhaps in Iowa or Nebraska?), a small group of Indians approached the wagon train. A young lad riding in one of the rear wagons happened to be holding a rifle. For no reason, the lad took aim and shot an Indian woman from her horse. She fell to the ground, mortally wounded. The other Indians gathered around her and went through some wailing and mourning rituals. They picked up her body and rode away. Mr. Smith was most upset about this event and warned that many Indians would probably return to attack the wagon train. He prepared them for the worst. Shortly, a larger number of Indians approached the wagon train, and a leader (a chief?) informed Mr. Smith to turn the offender over to them. He didn’t wish to give them the 12-year old lad, but he was left with no choice – either give them the boy, or they would return and make war on the wagon train. A deal was made during which the Indians promised to return the lad (before sunset) after he was duly punished. The lad was taken away by the Indians. The wagon train remained in place while the young boy’s worried parents and other members waited several hours. Late in the afternoon, three Indians approached on horses, stopped at some distance, set the lad down and disappeared over the horizon. The lad walked toward the group. As he got closer, they noticed blood dribbling down from under his hat. He had been scalped. Two or three days later, he died and was buried beside the trail. As the Smith wagon train moved further westward into the more arid zone, game supply decreased. Jim was less fortunate in finding sufficient wild game, so he suggested capturing buffalo calves for taking across the dry plains. Two such calves were placed in a wagon near the rear of the train. At some point (perhaps Wyoming or Utah?), three Indians and a ‘leader’ (a chief?) approached the train and asked for handouts. During the encounter, one of the buffalo calves let out a bellow that distracted the Indians. They rode back and peered into a wagon where they saw the buffalo calves. Immediately, they accused Mr. Smith of stealing the calves, stating that buffalo were property of the Indians, not the travelers. Mr. Smith tried to explain why they were carrying the two calves, but the Indians were adamant that the calves should be released to them. During this exchange between the Indians and Mr. Smith, Jim came over to join the discussion. The Indian ‘leader’ noted Jim not being ‘white’ like the others and asked Mr. Smith where they stole the Indian (Jim). He informed Mr. Smith that the ‘Indian’ would have to remain with the Indians. Mr. Smith told them that Jim was one of his people -- not of the Indians. As the discussion heated, the ‘leader’ reached his hand down toward Jim as if to shake hands. Jim, being naïve to the situation, extended his hand up to the Indian. Suddenly, the Indian grabbed Jim about the right wrist and held on “like the jaws of an iron vise” (Jim’s words). They wheeled around and took off with Jim being dragged across the prairie, not being able to escape the clutches of the Indian. After some distance, he was able to reach his left hand into his waste band and extract the small pistol. He pointed it at the Indian’s midsection, hoping to injure him so he could escape, but his aim was not good. The slug hit the Indian in the throat, knocking him to the ground where he quickly expired. Jim got up off the ground and started running back toward the wagon train while the mesmerized group watched. The Indians jumped off their horses to assist their fallen leader. Realizing he was dead, they wailed and flung their arms into the air, then picked up the body, placed it across a horse and rode off over the horizon. Jim and Mr. Smith held a hasty conference during which Mr. Smith realized the wagon train was in big trouble and that a larger number of hostile Indians would probably return to wreak havoc on the travelers. Jim was given the fastest horse, handed a rifle, ammo and a small sack of provisions and instructed to ride on into San Francisco to report the incident to the federal marshals. Jim hastily departed. Before long, about 30 Indians arrived on horseback and demanded that Jim be turned over to them. Mr. Smith explained that Jim had run away and would not be returning. The Indians rode off in pursuit. For the next two days, Jim paced his horse, staying well in front of the Indians giving chase. Their ponies finally began to falter, and Jim continued on to San Francisco, arriving about ten days later. He reported the incident to the marshals, but they were somewhat skeptical of his report. However, another wagon train arrived and verified that the Smith wagon train had in fact been trailing them by a few days. When the Smith wagon train didn’t arrive the following week, the marshals organized a group (including Jim) and set out to look for the wagon train. Several days later, they found evidence that the wagon train had wandered into what was possibly Death Valley. When the search group arrived, only four members remained alive to narrate their story. Without a scout, they had become lost, ran out of water and drank the blood of the draft animals. The survivors were provided food, water and medical care, but all died before the party reached civilization. James B. Russell was the only survivor from the Smith wagon train. Devastated by what had occurred, young Jim wanted no more from the trip than to return home. The federal marshals, however, had learned that Jim was a ‘wanted man’ who stood out like a ‘sore thumb’ and would probably not survive returning through the Indian lands. James B. Russell was placed on a sailing ship that left San Francisco (probably around September or October of 1849) and headed southward. About 2 months later, the ship sailed around Cape Horn (Magellan’s route) and turned northward along the east coast of South America. He reported that there were several occasions during which the captain and the crew were deeply concerned about being dashed against the rocks by high winds and heavy seas. 115 days after departing San Francisco, the ship sailed into the Port of Galveston. Jim spent 2 months on the trails, mostly on foot, and arrived back home almost a year after beginning his epic voyage. He planned to marry the girlfriend he’d left behind. Jim’s mother, Mary “Polly” Bell Russell, had ‘bad news’ for her son -- his girlfriend had gone away and married another man. Polly’s plan had worked. A few years later, James B. Russell married Olive Jane Horton. ** The preceding was narrated by Easter Elizabeth Russell Kirk, youngest child of James B. Russell, on multiple occasions. Other family members are also knowledgeable of the facts of this account, including Ronald Kirk Cooper, Bert Russell Kirk and his sister, Eleanor Kirk Seibert. *** Bonnie Jo Hunt, Lakota descendant and author, wrote of a “Smith Wagon Train” that became lost in Oregon, with most members perishing from harsh conditions. This may, or may not, be the same wagon train described in this account. [“Cayuse Country”, by Bonnie Jo and Larry Hunt]-Part 2- Of interest, Davey Crockett, senator from Tennessee, stood before the joint meeting of the U. S. Congress to protest the federal governments treatment of the Indians, the Cherokees in particular. Prior to the arrival of the Europeans on the American continent, the Cherokees occupied what is now Tennessee, Kentucky, the western parts of Virginia and North Carolina and the northern corners of Alabama and Georgia. The Cherokees were well organized into towns (communities) each governed by a chief and a council of 7 elected members. The tribes were organized around 7 different matriarchal clans. The federal government made agreements with the Cherokees by which they gave up lands for certain benefits. Davey Crockett had great consideration for the human rights of the Indians. He stood before the Congress and the President and spoke at length about the unjust actions of the federal government in making, then breaking treaties. Near the end of his speech, he stated that this discourse would likely cost him his position and his life. It cost him both. He made a visit to the Alamo where he died during the onslaught of the Mexican Army. In the fall of 1862, another 300-400 Cherokees were inducted into the Cherokee Mounted Rifles at which time it was divided into 2 regiments. James B. Russell (a private) and Andrew Russell (a sergeant) were assigned to Company C of the 2nd Regiment under the command of Captain William Penn Adair. Hostilities had broken out over much of the territory east of the Mississippi, and battles were spilling over into Missouri and other states. Union raids resulted in the theft of horses and cattle from the Cherokee people as large numbers of Union troops migrated toward the Cherokee Nation and Arkansas. The Confederacy sent several regiments of Texas volunteers to Missouri in an attempt to head off the Union advances. Battles were fought in the area between Joplin and Springfield, with hundreds of deaths and many more injuries. The Battle of Wilsons Creek was one of the major conflicts prior to the Battle of Pea Ridge. James B. and Andrew Russell were involved in several of those battles. A curious thing happened, probably in late January or early February of 1863. The Union was burying Confederate bodies in the cemetery at Joplin, MO. Among them was an individual they identified as Pvt. James B. Russell. The body was in fact that of a Pvt. Gray, a friend of James B. Russell. It’s possible that Pvt. Gray may have been wearing a coat belonging to James B. Russell in which a letter had been left in a pocket. Olive Jane Horton Russell was informed that her husband had been killed in battle and buried in the Joplin cemetery. She persuaded a neighbor lady to accompany her by buggy to the cemetery where she mourned for a time, then returned home (to either their home site near the trading post about 10 miles north of Ft. Scott, KN, or to their home site in Benton County, AR). Olive now had two ‘orphaned’ children – Andrew, age 3, and Josephine, age 1. James B. Russell was a forward scout for Company “C”. During the Battle of Elkhorn Tavern (one of the Battles at Pea Ridge), Captain William Penn Adair, while drunk in his tent, sent “Jim” on scouting patrol to determine the positions of Union troops. Jim returned with the report that Union troops were approaching from a couple of miles distant. The captain sent him out again and he returned with the report that they were approaching from a mile away. He was sent out a third time by the drunken captain and was captured on February 24, 1863. Union troops overran the unsuspecting Company “C” and sent them scurrying. Many were killed or captured. (* It’s possible that Sergeant Andrew Russell was killed in this encounter. His descendants state that he died in 1863; he may have died from injuries after returning home.) According to his account, James B. Russell was transported by train to Camp Lee, VA where he remained imprisoned for the next two years. He was signed into the Union prison camp on June 10, 1863. He reported being malnourished, maltreated and having endured deplorable conditions during his imprisonment. Many prisoners died and Jim was gravely ill for an extended period, but he managed to survive. When the Civil War came to an end in 1865, the prison gates were opened and the prisoners literally turned out into the streets wearing the same clothes with which they’d entered the prison. James B. Russell started the long trek back home. Union troops had torn out all the railroads, destroyed the bridges and burned most homes and crops, leaving little on which the survivors could subsist. He survived by digging roots and foraging whatever he could from the woodlands as he walked home. He arrived about 5 months later, not having had any communication with his wife or other family members since early February of 1863 – more than two years! There are two different accounts regarding his arrival: - - - - - [1] Vina Russell McCurdy, a granddaughter of James B. Russell, wrote that Olive Jane and her two small children (Andrew, age 5 and Josephine, age 3) had walked down to the creek to gather firewood. There had been a big rain the previous day, and the creek had overflowed its banks. After the water subsided, several pools remained. As she gathered sticks into her arms, a large catfish suddenly splashed around in one of the pools. Recognizing the fish as providing meat for several meals, she broke off a small tree branch with a short fork of a limb remaining, pulled the fish from the pond and pushed the limb through its gills. Young Andrew drug the fish while Olive Jane carried the armload of firewood, with little Josephine holding onto her mother’s apron. As they rounded the side of the house, the neighbor lady remarked that a stranger had come over the hill almost a mile away. Olive Jane dropped the firewood and exclaimed: “Why that’s Jim!” The neighbor remarked that it couldn’t be Jim, that they’d visited his grave at Joplin more than two years earlier, to which she shouted, “That’s him! I recognize his gangly (gangling?) gait!” She rushed up the hill to greet this man who’d returned from the dead! - - - - - [2] Another account relates how Olive was sitting on the porch smoking a corncob pipe when she noticed a stranger coming over the hill in the distance. She recognized him as her husband, James B. Russell, ran up the road and greeted the man who’d returned from the dead. She threw her corncob pipe away and vowed never to smoke again. - - - - - In later years, Olive Jane (Horton) Russell was asked about how she compared the ‘two deaths’ of her husband. She remarked that the first was much more difficult to bear. General Stand Watie later became Chief of the Western Cherokees. He was the last Confederate general to surrender at the end of the Civil War, laying down his arms 30 days after General Robert E. Lee. Stand Watie’s wife, Sarah Bell, appears to be distantly related to Mary “Polly” Bell through her father, James Bell. William Penn Adair was promoted to Colonel later in the Civil War. Following the war, James B. Russell worked for the federal government as a Cherokee and Choctaw interpreter, making trips to Texas to obtain fine horses with which to rebuild the depleted horse stock of the Cherokee and Choctaw nations. His daughter, Josephine, and her husband, George Austin, continued this work for several years, according to Gary Austin (descendent of Josephine Russell). ** by Leon Cooper, from accounts gathered from family members.
|
