County of grave: Washington County
Location of grave: MO Z, 500' N. of MO C, right hand side of the road, near former town of Palmer
Buried by unknown where he fell
Date of burial: 1864
Stone at site:
Burial site of
AN UNKNOWN SOLDIER
Fallen During the Civil War
1861 - 1865
Dedicated by Citizens of the area
To Preserve his memory and Dignity
From the Delashmit family history. This Unions soldier was wounded, and stumbled onto their farm. He was treated by William Delashmit's grandmother for weeks. When strong enough to move about, he left, determined to find his unit and resume the war. While walking toward the town of Webster [later re-named Palmer], he ran into a Confederate patrol who gunned him down.
The Delashmits, when discovering he left, when after him, and with the help of other local farmers searched the woods, fearing he was not strong enough to travel. They came upon his body and buried him where he lay.
Civil War History of Webster [Palmer], Missouri
"Webster, Missouri, now known as Palmer, Missouri, has played an important part in Missouri’s Civil War history. It typifies what many small towns went through. Webster is also the stopping point for the northern troops involved in the retreat of Brigadier General Thomas J. Ewing Jr. and the small army that had been surrounded at Fort Davidson in Pilot Knob.
One of the major battles during the 1864 Confederate raid of Missouri by Major General Sterling Price’s army was fought at Fort Davidson. He chose to capture Fort Davidson instead of bypassing it. One of his reasons was to help arm the large amount of men who had no weapons. He also considered the fact that if he could capture this strong fort he could maybe strike fear into the hearts of those who would want to stop him. If he could capture Fort Davidson and its force he would also have eliminated a formable force in his rear. A success in the defeat of Fort Davidson would have caused many to flock to his banner and fulfilled one of the objectives of his raid, the enlistment of over twenty-thousand badly needed men for the Confederate army. In his opinion these men were waiting for just such an opportunity to escape Federal oppression. After defeating Fort Davidson his next goal was to head to St. Louis and capture it. This would have caused the Federal government to send more troops to try and retake the State of Missouri. This would draw troops from the Eastern front and relieve some of the pressure on General Robert E. Lee’s army.
General Price failed. He did capture the fort but he did not capture the men. On the morning of September 28, 1864 General Price found out, much to his dismay, that the fort had been destroyed, along with its valuable arms and ammunition, and that the army had escaped. This was a major disaster to his claim of victory. He ordered Major General John S. Marmaduke and Brigadier General Jo Shelby to capture this retreating force. This should have been an easy task. The division of Marmaduke was behind them and the division of Shelby was between the retreating army and St. Louis. General Shelby had been destroying bridges at Mineral Point and had attacked Potosi and was without orders on his way to Fort Davidson to help in the attack.
The force in Fort Davidson was completely surrounded on the night of September 27th. After a conference, General Ewing made the decision to evacuate the fort and blow it up. Around midnight the evacuation started. The artillery, infantry and cavalry left the fort. The cavalry and artillery had taken precautions to make sure that they did not make any noise by the wrapping of horse hooves and wheels on the artillery pieces, with blankets and sacks. Somehow they were able to march through the Confederate army without being attacked. Around three the fort blew up. Many in the Confederate army considered it an accident and that the force in the fort was probably destroyed. When the Federal army reached the town of Caledonia they turned left to go towards Rolla. They made this decision after running into a patrol of General Shelby’s men. General Ewing, finding their way blocked towards St. Louis by Shelby’s division moved onto the Webster Road and marched to Webster.
Arriving in Webster around sundown on September 28th, the army for the most part collapsed where they stood and slept. They had traveled over thirty miles, spent the day before in a battle and most had spent the day before that preparing for the battle or actually participating in skirmishes with Price’s men in and around Ironton. They had little sleep in this time period and little to eat. The men rested until about midnight when they were aroused and made to march on. The new destination was a small town on the tracks called Leasburg. It was about half way between Cuba and Sullivan.
Shortly after the Federal army left the combined force of Marmaduke and Shelby encircled the town. Finding that the bird had flown the coop they bedded down for the night to allow their men and horses some rest. All was not well for some of the men who lived in the area.
Company C, 8 Provisional Enrolled Missouri Militia had been raised in this area. For some reason they had incurred the wrath of some of the Confederates. Colonel Timothy Reeves commander of 15th Missouri Confederate Cavalry was part of this force. There was a long standing feud between the 15th Missouri Cavalry and the 3rd Missouri State Militia Cavalry. When these two forces face each other there were usually no prisoners taken on either side. They had in their possession Major James Wilson and a number of other prisoners that had been captured in Pilot Knob. Major Wilson was the commander of the 3rd Missouri State Militia Cavalry. For some reason, men of the 8th Provisional Enrolled Missouri Militia were rounded up. They found six of them and they were summarily shot and left to lay. These men are buried in a mass grave in the Palmer Cemetery. Two of them have tombstones to mark their resting place. They are Sergeant David Crockett Mason and Solomon Gilliam. Sergeant Mason had served in Company M, 3rd Missouri State Militia Cavalry but had been discharged due to illness. Another man known to have been buried but has no tombstone was Captain Andrew Harris. Captain Harris was commander of Company C.
Another victim of the Confederate army was an unknown soldier who lies buried beside Hwy Z about one and one-half miles from Palmer. In a paper contained at the Missouri Historical Society Library in St. Louis, there was an interview with the last person to see him alive. She said that he left her house after asking directions and was within a short time killed by Confederate soldiers. She went and asked some neighbors to help bury him and he lies there today, almost one hundred and forty years later.
Price’s Raid came to Webster for a brief time. They left many families in distress. The six men that were killed, were buried by their wives in a mass grave because they were unable to dig six separate graves. The unknown soldier was buried by concerned citizens near where he fell.
There is a rich Civil War history in Palmer. It would be a shame to have it lost and destroyed by those who don’t care." ~ OrgSites.com