Case #1 - Includes 9 photos (archived)

Date: October 12, 2002

Time: 6:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

Location: Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO

Brenda, Dee Ann, Mark, Joyce, John, Jerry, Bonnie (guest investigator)

Alinda, Linda, Charlotta, John

Temp: 59 degrees (beginning) 47 degrees (ending)

Barometer: 30.23 rising (beginning) 30.46 rising (ending)

Humidity: 69% (beginning) 56% (ending)

Weather: Partly Cloudy (beginning) Fair (ending)

Lunar Phase: 1^st Quarter

Geomagnetic: Unsettled

Solar X-Rays: Active

Wind: North 13 mph (beginning) North 9 mph (ending)

*Note: It had rained most of the day prior to the investigation which would have greatly reduced dust particles in the air.

Digital Photos Taken: 181 (150+ photos were lost)

Positive Digital Photos: 124

35 mm Photos Taken: 24

35 mm Photos Positive: 1

Video: 2 (see videos under "Reported Findings and Experiences")

EVPs: 5 (see details under "Reported Findings and Experiences")

The Battle of Lone Jack, August 16, 1862

The situation in Missouri was unique during the War Between the States. Many citizens were Southern sympathizers, many others were true to the Union. As a Southern state, Missouri was surrounded on three sides by the Union states. Only to the south were Missouri citizens linked to their Confederate alliance.

The time was opportune for invasions of the state as the governor was enforcing his famous order requiring all men of military age to join the State Militia or Home Guards. This order sent thousands of men sympathetic to the Southern cause into the woods, all of whom were anxious to reach the Confederate Army.

Confederate Colonel Jeremiah Cockrell was marching up from the south when he was joined by Colonels John Coffee and Charles Tracy. As they converged on the area of Lone Jack, their Calvary units were swelled with eager though unarmed recruits. After a fatiguing march on the blistering hot August 15, each detachment camped in a great sweeping arc from northwest to southeast around the town. Colonel Upton Hays with local men recruited by Captain Caleb Winfrey and Captain George Webb were camped nearby.

The Union Army in Missouri was stinging under the defeat at the Battle of Independence a week earlier. Union Major Emory Foster received word in Lexington that rebels under the direction of Colonel Hays and William Quantrill were near Lone Jack. He immediately marched to meet them bivouacking on the streets and in the houses of "New Town." Over 2000 reinforcements were marching to join Foster.

Each side was unaware of the presence of the other until Foster's picket discovered Coffee's camp. A short skirmish ensued and the cannon fire alerted the rest of the Confederate forces of the presence of Union camp. Hayes moved swiftly to join Cockrell.

A meeting was called and it was decided to attack the Federals.

In the dark morning hours of August 16 the main body of Confederates dismounted a mile northwest of town. Six rounds of ammunition were carefully doled out to the men with arms. Then they crept up a draw and into an overgrown field west of the town square.

Meanwhile, Captain David Shanks and his men rode to the east to feint and to cut off a Union retreat.

At first light, a new recruit stumbled over some weed stubble accidentally discharging his weapon. In an instant the time for attack had come, the time for surprise had passed. A wild rush took them to the fence line separating the houses and gardens from the overgrown field.

In vicious hand to hand combat, across a street 60 feet wide under a cloudless sky and merciless sun, the battle raged for 5 hours. The two Union cannon, located near what is now the entrance to the Civil War Museum, became the focal point of the battle and were captured and lost several times. Major Foster was seriously wounded in the last retaking and was forced to surrender. Winfrey led his men in a successful charge on his own home and Hays ordered the hotel set afire to drive out Foster's deadly accurate riflemen. The flames also drove out the proprietress Lucinda Cave with her small children. She was shot by a stray bullet and died five weeks later from complications.

The loss of life on both sides was heavy. As the Confederate victors took over the town, they began an intense humanitarian outpouring of relief for the broken and mangled bodies clad both in blue and in gray. Captain Winfrey who was a doctor, was joined by Dr Edward Ragsdale and Dr Minor Smith of Raytown in caring for the wounded.

The reports vary and the exact number of dead will never be known, but a generally accepted number is 270. The number of wounded men was many times that number. Also, approximately 110 Federal horses lay dead in the street.

The staggering task of removing the dead began. It was August and it was oppressively hot. Local citizens and able-bodied war prisoners buried the fallen men in parallel trenches near the old Black Jack oak tree. One trench for gray and the other one for blue.

· Seeing campfires and the smell of smoke

· Soldiers have been seen walking across the battlefield

· Reports of hauntings in the houses built on the battlefield

· A sweet smell in the cemetery

· Loud voices and yelling heard in the battlefield area

· Many more incidents may be reported in the future as the community learns that an

official investigation is underway. We will keep you updated if any additional reportings are received.

· Some high EMF readings were recorded in the museum, ranging from 7 to 10+.

Over one display cabinet the EMF meter peaked over 10 when it crossed over two items in the cabinet. Those items were a rifle and a book of poems written by Martin Rice. The book was removed from the cabinet, and EMF readings still peaked at 10+ when the meter crossed over the book.

· MPR experienced an unusual amount of battery drainage with the tape recorders. Fresh batteries were installed in each recorder before the investigation. Of the 7 recorders used, 3 required battery changes during the investigation. The recorder used by our psychic, required 2 battery changes.

· A museum volunteer witnessed the doorknob of the storage room turn as the storage

door closed on its own while MPR was shooting photos in the museum. A photo taken by a team member showed several orbs lingering above the doorway just after this incident.

· Investigator Dee Ann had a strange experience with her camera. As she attempted to

take a photograph, she heard a pop and sparks flew out from the camera which temporarily quit working. A few minutes later it resumed normal functions and no pictures were damaged.

· Over 150 photos were lost when errors occurred during the download. This happened on two different computers, two different cameras and with two different investigators. These lost photos did not involve those that were on the camera chip when the sparks flew from the camera.

· One of the EVP's was captured during the MPR's interview with museum volunteers on September 28 of a young male voice saying, "Those we killed was the good enemies." This EVP was recorded in the museum. There were no males present.

· On the night of the investigation, it was very windy and many EVP's may have been

drowned out by wind noise, but we were lucky enough to capture 4 of them. 1 EVP was of two male voices was recorded in the cemetery but their words are unintelligible. Another EVP was captured in the museum of a male voice saying "Two are back there." This was recorded just after investigator Brenda said that she was going to move some of the tape recorders to the back of the museum. Two more EVP's were captured on the main battlefield. A male voice saying "The Gray is Coming" was captured just after Joyce stated that we were standing where the Union line was. The other EVP was of

another male voice saying "The Blue Approach". This was captured when Joyce was describing the Confederate movements upon the battlefield.

· Two very fast moving orbs were captured on video. One was near the cemetery when Joyce was describing the flag-signal which indicated where Cole Younger and the men that rode in with him were to leave the supplies. The other was on the main battlefield when Joyce revealed that the 14 men who rode in were Quantrill's men.  See  Video.

· After the investigation, Brenda returned to dowse the cemetery in an attempt to mark the beginning and end of each burial trench and to locate other possible unmarked graves.  At the north end of the Union trench, (1st row) 2 single female graves were located.  Two rows of unmarked graves were located between the Union trench and the Confederate trench, consisting of 18 males and 3 females.  Also located were two additional infant graves buried on each side of the marker for the infant RIGGS daughter, one female (north side) and one male (south side).  There were no additional burials along the row that contains the Confederate trench.  On the row east of the Confederate trench, a single male grave was located just to the north of the Confederate trench.  Near the south end and at the foot of the Confederate trench, the grave of a male child (approximately 3 1/2 foot tall) was located.  Just south of this child's grave, a male infant grave was found.  On the south side of the grave marker for John Owen, another male child was located (approximately 4 ft. tall).  The back row of the cemetery contained 7 additional male graves and 2 additional female graves.

Outside of the fenced area, beginning at the 2nd pole from the northeast corner and extending to three graves beyond the northwest corner, 7 rows of three graves were discovered.  These graves contained an even mixture of male and female graves.  A single male grave was found just to the south of the first row extending past the fence line at the northeast corner.  The north-end graves that were located inside the fence line and north of the trenches may have been associated with those located outside the fence line and were probably burials of an earlier era since there are not records available indicating these burials.  There are approximately 24 unmarked graves outside the perimeter of the fence.

1. There were 2 days of fighting with the battle lasting until just after noon on the 2^nd day.

2. There was more artillery and hardware at the battle than is recorded in the records.

3. There were many horses in the battle. More than they think. Many of the soldiers were on horseback.

4. The number of 74 comes up. Don't know what this is but there is something to do with the number 74.

5. At the start of the battle the lines were caddy cornered.

6. There is something significant about 14 men. They came from behind on horseback and a general was with them.

7. Something happened to 14 men. 8 of them were killed, 2 wounded and 4 were not.

8. There is a big gray tent that was erected near where the museum now sits. This was used as a hospital for the Confederate wounded. Another tent was erected to the north of the gray one for the Union wounded.

9. The battle was very fast and furious.

10. One man yells "Move it back, move it back!" He is either yelling to the men to move back or for them to move the cannon back. They were in the northeast section of the battlefield.

11. There is wounded and dead all over. Lots of body parts.

12. Lots of swearing

13. A Brigadier General was present, he was wounded in the knee or thigh but was not killed.

14. There are lots of ghosts and spirits here. Many spirits have come to help tonight.

15. Someone named Winfrey, maybe John James Winfrey.

16. There was a cholera epidemic before the battle, maybe in the 1840's. They wrapped the victims in blankets and put them in the houses and then burned the houses.

17. More fought and were killed in this battle than what is recorded. This was a much bigger battle than what is thought.

18. There are men laid out in a row near here (the Cave house). They were shot in the head by 2 men. Just shot. These men were with Jackman.

19. There were a lot of men in the southwest corner of the town square. The battle started outside of the square and then moved towards it. There weren't thousands, but there were a lot of men, too many to count.

20. The battle was very hot and heated.

1. A man is heard saying "The men of the north, all around me, all around me, they're all blue, they're all blue."

2. Many of the Confederates were local boys.

3. Some guerillas came into the battle from the Northwest corner. These may have been the 14 men seen earlier. Among these 14 men are Frank James and William Quantrill. Quantrill was not supposed to have been there but he was. He came in near the end of the battle and they shot up everything.

4. Cole Younger comes into the battle bringing supplies along with 3 other men. A strip of cloth that is about 3 feet long and 6-8 inches wide is tied to a tree. This is suppose to be a signal of some kind. Maybe a signal of where they were to leave the supplies. They brought in food, ammunition and other supplies.

5. The Confederates came into the battle in a hook shape and then bowed out. They were pinned down for awhile but managed to move the Union back. Then there were pockets of men fighting, pockets of men everywhere. They looked like blue and gray mist moving through the battlefield, everything moved so fast. The pockets of men were moving from northwest to southeast in a hook shape.

1. A man named Mallard fought on the Union side.

2. From the southwest corner, a Union battalion comes in. There is a rider on a big black horse carrying the Union flag.

3. Some of the dead were buried in the trenches but some were taken somewhere else. No one knows it, but some of the Union men in the trench were dug up later and taken somewhere else.

1. There was much blood up around the cemetery. They laid the dead and wounded up near here.

2. An unknown soldier is buried in the cemetery. His name is David Bradford but they called him by another name. He wants his family to know that he fought in the battle and is buried there. He did not live around here.

3. Another soldier named Isaac was wounded and died later. He is also buried here.

4. There is blood all over the cemetery.

5. A 9 year old boy was killed during the battle. He is buried in the cemetery. He may have been wounded and died later. His name was Thomas (Sickle, Seikel, or something that sounds like that.)

6. There is a baby buried in the cemetery at the feet of one of the soldiers. His last name may be Payne.

7. Sees the name of TAYLOR. May be someone buried in the cemetery.

8. The soldiers are buried shoulder to shoulder, in a long trench and they are layered 3 deep. There are Confederates buried alongside Union, no one knows this, but it's true. They ran out of room. There is blood everywhere. They're clothes are soaked and there is blood in their shoes. Some are just body parts. It was hot and sticky and the smell of blood was everywhere. They brought in the dead and wounded in wagons, one wagon for Confederate and one for Union. The fight had gone out of them and they all helped bury the dead, working side by side.

9. A Confederate who is buried at the end of the trench also lost a brother in the battle. A friend who he hated to see fall is buried at the other end of the trench. He was a guerilla.

10. The Confederate soldier named Owens had a friend who was buried outside of the fenced area and he is concerned that no one knows his friend is there. There are also some other burials outside the fence that were buried from an earlier time that he is concerned about. There are at least 3 graves on the northeast corner, outside the fenced area that are unmarked and more graves on the other side. He says the baby boy is buried at his feet. He's concerned about the baby and a 9 year old who's also buried there with no marker. He stayed earthbound for awhile after he died and talked with many of the other earthbound spirits.

11. The baby that is buried died after the battle of natural causes.

1. There was a community here. Lots of people with lots of buildings and small houses around.

2. One of the buildings was hit by a cannonball near the foundation.

3. A man was killed in the blacksmith shop. He was shot in the chest.

4. There is a big commotion in the stables. They fought in the stables or carriage house. Someone named Parmon was hit in the chest with a mini-ball. Parmon may be his first name but it could be John Parmon.

5. Something was significant about the mule barn.

6. The blacksmith shop had a horse carriage and stable by it. There are several buildings around the blacksmith shop. The buildings were in a U-shape. The barbershop was down the street from the blacksmith shop and it was blown up.

7. There was a Harold's Saddle Shop and Shoe Repair.

8. The Marshall Funeral Parlor had a front porch and had two big rooms and a partial cellar. It was located on the northeast side of the town square near the Sheriff's office.

9. There is a long house, buildings, barns and sheds and a slave quarters on the southwest corner. A barn with hay in it was burned.

10. Along with the blacksmith shop is a barber shop, hotel, dry goods store and houses dotted behind the buildings. A lot of the town square was burnt and left.

11. There were between 1500-2000 people living in Lone Jack during the battle.

12. A school was located in the area where the present church now sits. There was also two churches on the town square, one Baptist and the other Catholic or Protestant.

13. There were two sections of the Cave Hotel. One floor was segregated for single women and men were not allowed there. Some of the rooms were designated for just men and some of the rooms were for everyone. There was a fire south of the hotel.

14. (Locations were given of the buildings in the town square but because these readings were on audio, those exact locations could not be transcribed).

1. Someone named Winfrey, maybe John James Winfrey.

2. A man said "I am the preacher." His name was Benjamin Lawrence but he did not give a last name.

3. There were several Irish families living here at the time of the battle. One said, "Remember when there is a brogue like that my name was Cadwell (or Caldwell). His real name may have been Fields.

4. James Jackson moved to Lone Jack to be near his family. His brother John was killed in the battle but is buried in another cemetery. His also had a sister named Agnes and 4 other siblings. He and his wife had 8 children. He was from Clarksdale, KY or something sounding like that. He was born in KY or TN.

5. The man named Winfrey had a big two-story house that was square shaped. He lived next to or behind his business.

1. A woman who had a child was shot in the upper shoulder and died later.

2. A woman named Sarah Ann was hurt or killed. She played some role in the battle.

3. A woman who is dressed in a gray blouse with puffy sleeves and a dark gray skirt comes out of her house waving a pole with a red or white cloth attached to the end. She is waving it frantically back and forth. She is worried that she will be hurt. She has babies.

4. A woman named Mary Riley Combs (McCombs?) who lived to be 87, recorded some of the names of the wounded and dead in a red ledger. She recorded 198 names but there were many who were unknown. Some of the unknown was identified by names found in their clothing. She recorded these names from little scraps of paper that were brought to her. She sat at a large desk at the Marshall Funeral Parlor recording these names. The ledger was put in a trunk and then she took it to the courthouse. It is still there, located in a small box way back in the archives. The box has not been opened for many years. It took her a long time to write down the names. They didn't know who many of them were or where they came from. The book is reddish/brown in color and thin. Mary had long, white thick hair which she wore rolled around her head. She was weathered and drawn. She shows what she looked like before she died, which may have been in the 1880's.

5. Mary Comb's (McCombs?) husband or son was wounded in the battle. He has a wound on the left side of his face and may have lost his eye.

Red spirit energy captured outside of the historic museum - ©MPR/Jerry

Bright orb captured behind Joyce while she is speaking to the spirit of Mary Riley Combs (McCombs?) inside the museum - ©MPR/Brenda

Very large orb captured outside of what is believed to be the site of the old Cave house - this photo was taken with 35mm black & white film - ©MPR/Brenda

What appears to be a vortex was captured in another area of the battlefield - ©MPR/Dee Ann

Photo of the Confederate Memorial - ©MPR/Brenda

Photo of the Union Memorial - ©MPR/Brenda

HELP SAVE THE BATTLEFIELD!

With the able assistance of Harry Truman the Civil War Museum was built and the battlefield was set aside, as a tribute to the bitter battle fought in the town of Lone Jack, Missouri on August 16th, 1862.  If it was good enough for Harry it's good enough for you.

Those soldiers engaged in the combat referred to this as the "bloodiest battle fought west of the Mississippi." The National Park Service has designated Lone Jack as a threatened and endangered site on their preservation survey. The Civil War Preservation Trust, in cooperation with the National Preservation Trust and the National Park Service, recently named the Battlefield, Museum and Civil War Cemetery to the Civil War Discovery Trail.

The Friends of Historic Lone Jack are asking for your assistance. We believe that the time has come for the people of this area to band together to help preserve the Civil War Battlefield, Museum and Cemetery, acquire the original battle line and endeavor to protect the western battlefield.

Our intent is to ensure that this will safeguard the significant place this area holds in history. The Border Wars of 1854-1861, are thought by several scholars to have been the start of the Civil War.

This conflict at Lone Jack set the stage for a series of far-reaching events. The Union had to commit a larger force to the western theater, by some estimates extending the length of the national struggle. Confederate presence in Jackson County was broken after the Battle of Lone Jack. Local border residents relied on the Partisan Rangers to a greater degree. In addition, this led to the most heinous order that our nation ever supported, Ewing's Order #11, displacing thousands of Missouri citizens.