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The Civil War In Bloomfield
During the Civil War, Bloomfield was a geographically commanding point in southeastern Missouri by virtue of its location atop Crowley's Ridge, the only high ground separating two nearly impenetrable swamps. Whichever force held Bloomfield controlled movements on the ridge in and out of Arkansas, and to a lesser degree blocked passage of the swamps on an east-west axis. Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant first noted the town's regional importance early in the Civil War and recommended that Union troops occupy the town.
Bu Gen. M. Jeff Thompson's "Swamp Fox Brigade" of the pro-Confederate Missouri State Guard struck first, seizing the town in late July 1861. Thompson set up his headquarters at Bloomfield and made the town a military center with gunsmith shops, hospitals, and enough supplies to accommodate some 3,000 southeast Missourians in his command.
In early November 1861, Union troops converged on Bloomfield from Pilot Knob and Cape Girardeau, Mo, and Cairo, Ill, to destroy Thompson's command. Two of the Federal columns marched into Bloomfield on November 8, only to find that Thompson and the Swamp Brigade had gone. Unable to contend with these forces, Thompson had retreated to New Madrid. The occupying Union soldiers ransacked some stores before making camp. That evening Federals commandeered the press of the Bloomfield Herald. With it, pringers from the ranks published a camp newspaper titled the Stars and Stripes. This was the first edition of this famous military newspaper. The next morning brought word of Grant's defeat at Belmont, MO. and orders from Grant for the Union columns to return to their bases at Cape Girardeau and Cairo, Ill. Elements of Thompson's cavalry reoccupied the town the following day.
Union forces raided Bloomfield again in January 1862, and captured a number of discharged Guardsmen enjoying a dance at the courthouse. In May, the 1st Wisconsin Calvary rode into town once more and surprised Col. William G. Phelan's recruitment camp south of town. The Wisconsin troopers captured Phelan and several others and scattered the recruits. Detachments of the 1st Wisconsin retained possession of the town through the summer.
On Sept. 11, 1862 Capt. William L. Jeffers' Confederate command attacked Bloomfield, which was lightly defended by only a company of the 1st Wisconsin and a few Enrolled Missouri Militia. Jeffers drove the Union troops from the town and captured a large cache of weapons and ammunition including two pieces of artillery. The next day, Union reinforcements shelled the town and sent Jeffers retreating into Dunklin County.
The town changed hands again later in 1862, but, by spring of 1863, Gen. John McNeil's Union troops occupied Bloomfield. During Confederate Gen. John S. Marmaduke's raid into southeast Missouri in April 1863, he dispatched troops to capture McNeil and his command, but they had escaped to Cape Girardeau. Marmaduke followed but was repulsed at Cape Girardeau on April 26, 1863. The Confederates, now pursued, retreated south along Crowley's Ridge through Bloomfield en route back to Arkansas. Marmaduke initially intended to make a stand in the northeast par of town near the Henry Miller home, but reconsidered and continued his withdrawal rather than face a superior Federal force.
After several relatively quiet months, Jeffers attacked Bloomfield for a second time on September 22, 1864. This was during Gen. Sterling Price's celebrated "Raid" through Missouri. With a mere 200 men available to defend the town, the Union commander started for Cape Girardeau with wagons filled with supplies. Jeffers attacked the fleeing Unionists near the Caster River, east of Bloomfield. The Union troops offered only feeble resistance, but enjoyed good fortune when their wagons jammed the bridge over the river, preventing Jeffers' men from crossing. The Confederates shoved the abandoned wagons into the Castor, but the Union troops out paced them and escaped across Little River after a brief pursuit and some minor skirmishing. The Confederates captured weapons and wagons, inflicted several casualties without loss, and burned the bridge over the Castor River. Returning to Bloomfield, Jeffers' command destroyed the Union fortifications before marching to rejoin Price's army.
Guerrillas commanded by Plk Conyers arrived shortly after Jeffer's regiment left Bloomfield. Conyers was a notorious free-booter who usually operated in New Madrid and Pemiscot Counties. His guerrillas looted and destroyed much of the war-ravaged town, torching the courthouse along with several businesses and residences. Most of the property destroyed belonged to men serving in the Confederate army. After the devastation, Conyers boldly joined Price's army near Ironton, but when Price learned of the guerrilla's actions he order him arrested. Although taken into custody, Conyers escaped and returned to his Pemiscot County haunts where Union militia killed him.
Bloomfield changed hands sixteen times during the war. The different occupation forces, the raids, guerrillas, and finally the burning of the town in 1864, made the town another casualty of the long bitter struggle for control of southeast Missouri.