Walnut Grove Cemetery

Walnut Grove Cemetery. Missouri's Civil war. The Walnut Grove Cemetery was founded in 1852 when 4 acres were set aside in a grove of walnut trees. During the Civil War graves of battle casualties were added to the cemetery, and over the years, so were graves of many veterans. Private histories mention Walnut Grove as a hiding place and watch for approaching enemy on the old Rocheport Road. , There are important Civil War figures buried in Walnut Grove. First and foremost is Confederate Gen. Robert McCulloch, whose biography appears in the right column. Also buried here is Dr. William Montgomery Quarles, a Boonville physician who fought for the Missouri State guard at the First Battle of Boonville, June 17, 1861. The State Guard was a body of men organized under the authority of the state that fought along side Confederate forces in 1861. Dr. Quarles, 30 year old, was killed in action at the battle, five miles east of here. John A. Hayn served as adjutant to a company of the Boonville Home Guard (Union), which in 1861 fortified the old state fairgrounds on East Morgan Street. At the Second Battle of Boonville, on September 13, 1861 at the fairgrounds, Hayn was one of two men on the Union side killed in action. He was shot in the head when he stood up behind the Union breastworks, and he died instantly. , Charles E. Leonard was a member of a prominent unionist family that founded Cooper County's Ravenswood Farm in the 1840s. In 1862, Charles Leonard enlisted a company of infantry for the 52nd Regiment, Missouri Enrolled Militia (Union). In October, 1863, he fought with the 7th Missouri State Militia Cavalry at Tipton, Missouri, dating Shelby's 1863 Raid. A graduate of Kemper Military Academy in Boonville and the University of Missouri, Charles died in 1916 and was interred here. Colonel David Wear, originally from Otterville in southern Cooper County, was Colonel of the 52nd Regiment, and later a captain in the 9th Regiment, Provisional Enrolled Missouri Militia. In this capacity he fought for the Union during Shelby's Raid, in actions at Boonville, Jonesborough and Marshall, October 11-13, 1863. After the Civil War, David Wear became an attorney in Boonville and St. Louis, and in the latter place was active in the dry goods business of his brother James Hutchinson Wear. Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush are direct descendants of James Wear, who also served in Boonville's 52nd Missouri Enrolled Militia. , Other notable burials include: J.F. Gmelich, a veteran of the Missouri State Guard who fought at the First Battle of Boonville, was Missouri's Lt. Governor from 1909 to 1914. John Cosgrove, a veteran of the 14th Missouri Calvary (Union), was a U.S. Congressman in 1883-1885. Both Gmelich and Cosgrove served on Walnut Grove's first official cemetery board. Walnut Grove Cemetery is also the resting place for David Barton (1783-1837), who was one of Missouri's first U.S. Senators. Barton's remains were brought here from Sunset Hills Cemetery when Walnut Grove was first established. , In 1901 an extensive expansion of the cemetery was designed by George Kessler, who would later design Forest Park for the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904. This new design doubled the size of the cemetery. , Sisters and Brothers, The 37th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, known as the "Illinois Greyhounds," fought in the Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove campaigns in 1862. This famous regiment's first post was Boonville, where part of the regiment wintered in 1861-62. Captain William P. Black was sightseeing in late October, 1861, and had this to say in a letter home: , "Boonville is a very pretty place lapped and almost hidden around the halls which all along skirt the Missouri. Buildings mostly are good and it has a beautiful cemetery with the prettiest monument in it. Never saw a statue of twin sisters in marble, some 4 ft. high. The chaplain, Quartermaster and I were riding out last evening when we came on this place and felt well repaid by it." , The stone that Black described marks the grave of Kate Tracy, and it stands on the east side of the cemetery. He was wrong. The stone does not depict sisters, but rather Kate's image is paired with a figure that represents a Greek goddess. , William Black was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions at the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, March 7, 1862. When John Charles Black of the 37th Illinois received his MOH for heroism at the Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas, William and John became the first brothers in American history to be so conspicuously honored. , Black Bob, Col. Robert McCulloch was a native of Virginia who settled in Cooper County in 1835. When the Civil War began, McCulloch fought with the Missouri State Guard, and he recruited a 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. McCulloch was one of Forrest's senior commanders and is credited with saving Forrest's life during a battle of Okoloma, Mississippi. The Second Cavalry, with "Black Bob" McCulloch at its 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, McCulloch as head of a brigade fought in Selma, Alabama during Wilson's 1865 Alabama Raid. After surrendering, McCulloch returned to his life in Boonville. , Black Bob's nickname derives from the fact that his first cousin, Robert A. McCulloch 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 gray) and to their colonel as "black-haired Bob.", (photo caption:), ·The 1843 home of the Thomas Nelson family, "Forest Hill," stands just north of here on Locust Street. It was here that Boonville mayor James O'Brian officially surrendered the City to Union General Nathaniel Lyon after the first battle of Boonville.