Colonel Robert "Black Bob" McCullough - Boonville, MO
Posted by: YoSam.
N 38° 58.374 W 092° 44.032
15S E 523053 N 4313802
This Civil War marker on the corner of Locust St. & Cemetery Rd., of this HUGE cemetery.
Waymark Code: WM1605Q
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 04/05/2022
Views: 0
County of marker: Cooper County
Location of marker: Cemetery Dr. & Locust St., Boonville
Erected by: Missouri Civil War Heritage Foundation, Inc.; Boonville Tourism Commission
Date Erected: 2010
Memorial Text:
Black Bob
Col. Robert McCullough was a native of Virginia who settled in Cooper County in 1835. When the Civil War began, McCullough fought with the Missouri State Guard, and he recruited battalion of cavalry that would form the nucleus of the famous Second Missouri Cavalry (C.S.A.). The Second Cavalry fought for most of the war east of the Mississippi as part of legendary General Nathan Bedford Forrest's Confederate cavalry. McCullogh was one of Forrest's senior commanders and is credited with saving Forrest's life during a battle at Okoloma, Mississippi. The Second Cavalry, with "Black Bob" McCullough at it head, participated in the battles at Holly Springs and Harrisburg, Mississippi, in the affair at Fort Pillow, Tennessee and in Forrest's 1864 raid on Memphis, among many other actions. At the close of the war, McCullough as head of a brigade fought in Selma, Alabama during Wilson's 1865 Alabama Raid. After surrendering, McCullogh returned to his life in Boonville.
Black Bob's nickname derives from the fact that his first cousin, Robert A. McCullough of Boonville, was a subordinate officer to Black Bob during most of the Civil War. To distinguish the two, troopers referred to Robert A. as "white-haired Bob" (he was a redhead turning prematurely grey) and to their colonel as "black-haired Bob."