Joseph O.

Shelby
a company of border ruans. Shelbys rst direct involvement inside Kansas was at Lawrence during the
March 30, 1855 election of the Kansas Territorial Legislature. Many Missourians without residence in the territory voted illegally in the election. This was partially
achieved through intimidation of election judges, who
were prevented from administering residency oaths. Additionally, Shelby and other Missourians harassed several
abolitionists attempting to vote, although they were generally were not prevented from doing so.[1]
Shelbys leadership in the border war would damage his
business ventures and partnership with his step brother,
Henry Howard Gratz. In December 1855, their new
sawmill had burned, and evidence suggested use of an
incendiary. The mill was uninsured and losses exceeded
$9,000.[2] The partnership remained, but Gratz returned
to Lexington, Kentucky. Shelby would have to auction
o the business in February 1860.[3]

3 Marriage
On July 22, 1857 Jo married his Elizabeth Nancy Shelby
(daughter of 1st cousin) in a grand steamboat wedding
and honeymoon trip to St. Louis. Known as Betty or
Betsy, she was much younger than Jo.[4]

Joseph O. Shelby

Joseph Orville Jo Shelby (December 12, 1830

February 13, 1897) was a noted Confederate cavalry
general in the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American
Civil War.

4 The war years

Following the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in April

1861, Governor Claiborne Jackson refused Lincolns call
1 Early life and education
for volunteers and maneuvered to take the state out of
the Union. The resulting friction between State and FedShelby was born in Lexington, Kentucky, to one of the eral militia vying for control of the St. Louis Arsenal led
states wealthiest and most inuential families. He lost to the Camp Jackson Aair and the creation of the prohis father at age 5, and was raised by a stepfather. Shelby secession Missouri State Guard.
attended Transylvania University and was a rope manu- Shelby formed the Lafayette County Mounted Ries for
facturer until 1852. He then moved to Waverly, Missouri, Missouri State Guard service, and was elected the comwhere he engaged in steamboating on the Missouri River, panys captain, leading it into battle at Carthage, Wilsons
running a hemp plantation, ropewalk, and sawmill. He Creek, and Pea Ridge. In 1862 he was promoted to
was one of the largest slaveholders in the state.
colonel and authorized to recruit a Confederate cavalry
regiment, returning to Lafayette County to do so. After successfully recruiting his regiment and bringing them
safely back to Arkansas he was given command of brigade
2 Border War
of newly recruited regiments which he would lead at
During the "Bleeding Kansas" struggle, he organized Prairie Grove.
the pro-slavery Blue Lodge group in Waverly and led Shelby led his "Iron Brigade" of Missouri volunteers on
1

what was to be the longest cavalry raid of the war at

that time, Shelbys Great Raid. Between September 22
and November 3, 1863, Shelbys brigade travelled 1,500
miles through Missouri, inicting over 1,000 casualties on
Union forces, and capturing or destroying an estimated $2
million worth of Federal supplies and property. He was
promoted to brigadier general on December 15, 1863, at
the successful conclusion of his raid.
In 1864, Union General Steele's failure in the Camden
Expedition (March 23May 2, 1864,) was largely due
to Shelbys brilliant and determined harassment, in concert with other Confederate forces. Steeles men were
forced to retreat to Little Rock by the destruction or capture of their supply trains at Marks Mill.[5] Reassigned
to Clarendon, Arkansas, Shelby succeeded capturing a
Union tinclad (lightly armored) gunboat, the USS Queen
City. The gunboat was burned to prevent her recapture.[6]
Shelby then commanded a division during Sterling Price's
1864 Missouri raid. He distinguished himself at the
battles of Little Blue River and Westport, and captured
many towns from their Union garrisons, including Potosi,
Boonville, Waverly, Stockton, Lexington, and California,
Missouri.

REFERENCES

cept the ex-Confederates into his armed forces, but he did

grant them land for an American colony in Mexico near
Veracruz. The grant would be revoked two years later
following the collapse of the empire and Maximilans execution. Reportedly, Shelby sank his battle ag in the Rio
Grande near present-day Eagle Pass (TX) on the way to
Mexico rather than risk the ag falling into the hands of
the Federals. The event is depicted in a painting displayed
at the Eagle Pass City Hall. The memory of Shelby and
his men as The Undefeated is used as a distant basis
for the 1969 John Wayne-Rock Hudson lm by the same
name.[7]
The historian Edwin Adams Davis of Louisiana State
University in Baton Rouge penned Fallen Guidon: The
Saga of Confederate General Jo Shelbys March to Mexico,
rst published in 1962 and reprinted a year after Davis
death in 1995. Davis was a descendant of one of Shelbys
men.[8]

Shelby returned to Missouri in 1867 and resumed farming. In 1883, Shelby was a critical witness for fellow exConfederate Frank James at James trial.[9] He was appointed the U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Missouri in 1893, and retained this position until his death in
After Robert E. Lee's army surrendered in Virginia, Gen- 1897. He died in Adrian, Missouri,[10] and is buried at
eral Edmund Kirby Smith appointed Shelby a major gen- Forest Hill Cemetery, Kansas City.
eral on May 10, 1865. However, the promotion was never
formally submitted, due to the collapse of the Confederate government.
6 See also
Shelbys adjutant had been John Newman Edwards, who
years later as editor of the Kansas City Times was largely
responsible for creating the anti-hero legend of Jesse
James and his fellow Confederate guerrillas.

List of American Civil War Generals (Confederate)

7 Notes
5

Post war

In June 1865, rather than surrender, Shelby and approximately 1,000 of his remaining troops rode south into
Mexico. For their determination not to surrender, they
were immortalized as the undefeated. A later verse
appended to the post-war Confederate anthem, The
Unreconstructed Rebel commemorates the deance of
Shelby and his men:
I won't be reconstructed, I'm better now
than then.
And for a Carpetbagger I do not give a damn.
So its forward to the frontier, soon as I can go.
I'll x me up a weapon and start for Mexico.[1]
1. ^ with variations by Ry Cooder for the
1980 lm, The Long Riders": http:
//www.rycooder.nl/pages/ry_cooder_
the_long_riders_chords_lyrics.htm
Their plan was to oer their services to Emperor Maximilian as a 'foreign legion.' Maximilian declined to ac-

Eicher, John H., & Eicher, David J., Civil War High
Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN
0-8047-3641-3.
Biography from History of U.S. Marshals
O'Flaherty, Daniel C. General Jo Shelby:
Undefeated Rebel, (University of North Carolina
Press) 1954; ISBN 0-8078-4878-6; republished,
2000.

8 References
[1] O'Flaherty, pp. 33-40
[2] O'Flaherty, pp. 15, 41
[3] O'Flaherty, p. 46
[4] O'Flaherty, pp 28, 47-50
[5] O'Flaherty General Jo Shelby, Undefeated Rebel pg 209211

[6] Confederates Sink Ironclad near DeValls Blu The

Arkansas News
[7]
[8] Edwin Adams Davis, Fallen Guidon: The Saga of Confederate General Jo Shelbys March to Mexico. College Station, Texas: Texas A&M University Press, 1995, ISBN
978-0890966846. Retrieved October 1, 2013.
[9] Paul I. Wellman, A Dynasty of Western Outlaws, 1961.
[10] (14 Feb. 1897). General J.O. Shelby, New-York Tribune,
p. 7 col. 5

External links
Joseph O. Shelby. Find a Grave. Retrieved 200802-13.

10

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