Reflections: Capt. Haynes survived the Civil War, but not its aftermath

Down at the Cowdrey Cemetery, just off Ill. Route 71 between Oswego and Yorkville, you’ll discover the once-towering marker for Andrew Jackson Haynes, and wonder at the mystery of the monument’s inscription.

The Haynes monument is a two-part obelisk (the top of which has since fallen from its base) memorializing Haynes, who was murdered in 1869 in Arkansas.

According to the epitaph on the monument: “Capt. A. J. Haynes, Assassinated by Collyer while in defence of his country at Marion, Ark, July 15 1869, Aged 31 yrs 1 m 5 dys, O Mother do not weep though You never see again thy noblemanly Son who in a distant land was slain.”

That epitaph has fascinated me ever since I first saw it more than 40 years ago. As we recognize the service of our veterans this month, it might be a good time to look into how a young Kendall County man came to be shot dead in Arkansas.

When the Civil War broke out, Haynes decided to enlist in Company C, 4th Illinois Volunteer Cavalry Regiment.

The 4th Illinois Cavalry was recruited by Democratic political heavyweight T. Lyle Dickey. Dickey, an Ottawa lawyer and judge, was a Mexican War veteran, where he had served as a captain of cavalry, meaning he had military experience – along with his considerable political pull. As a result, he was authorized by the U.S. Army to recruit a federal cavalry regiment. Republican Illinois Gov. Richard Yates, however, complained, probably to his close friend Abraham Lincoln, and the War Department decided Dickey’s unit ought to be an Illinois volunteer regiment after all.

Company C was recruited mostly in Kendall County, with the pitch to enlist made by Capt. Charles Townsend and Lt. Asher B. Hall. Both men were well-known Oswego-area residents, Townsend a wealthy farmer and Hall a merchant, and both came from substantial Kendall County families.

In his enlistment papers, Haynes, an Oswego tinsmith by trade, was described as black-haired and blue-eyed, standing almost two inches over six feet. Enlisting as a private, Haynes served with the 4th though some pretty heavy campaigning in the western theater of the war with the Army of the Tennessee at Pea Ridge, Shiloh, Forts Henry and Donelson, and Vicksburg.

Late in the war, Haynes heard there was a chance at promotion with one of the new black regiments being formed. On Feb. 18, 1864, he was discharged from the 4th Illinois Cavalry as a sergeant and then mustered in the same day as a captain in the brand new 1st Mississippi Cavalry (African Descent). A month later, the 1st Mississippi was converted to the 3rd U.S. Colored Cavalry Regiment.

During the Civil War, the Union was willing to recruit regiments among escaped slaves and free blacks, but there was a strong cultural prohibition against black officers. Thus, officers in black regiments were almost uniformly white. When the 1st Mississippi was formed, the call went out for experienced horse soldiers, of which by then, Haynes was certainly one.

If Andrew Haynes expected his new post to be less rigorous than serving with the 4th Illinois, he was mistaken. By all accounts, he was an effective combat leader, receiving a commendation for his actions during the battle at Black River Bridge. The 3rd USCC saw lots more hard campaigning, including the hunt for Jefferson Davis as he and his wife attempted, unsuccessfully, to flee the country at the end of the war.

The 3rd USCC was mustered out of U.S. service on Jan. 26, 1866, but Haynes decided to stay in the South to assist in reconstruction and was subsequently appointed as an officer in a black Arkansas militia unit. His reconstruction activities did not make friends among defeated rebel military officers and troops. One of those with whom he had a dispute was a former rebel soldier and Ku Klux Klansman named Clarence Collier. On July 15, 1869, Collier, who already had a $500 price on his head for the murder of George J. Bethel, took his revenge by ambushing Haynes in downtown Marion, Arkansas, shooting him dead.

An article in the Aug. 5, 1869 Kendall County Record reported the incident: "…Clarence Collier, who had apparently been lying in wait for him [Haynes], came out of a grocery on the opposite corner of the street Haynes was leaving, and without a word of warning, drew a bead upon him with a double-barreled shotgun and fired. The charge took effect in Captain Haynes' left side. The assassin instantly discharged the contents of the second barrel into his back. The Captain fell upon his face a corpse. But the vengeance of the brutal fiend was not satisfied. He advanced toward his prostrate victim and emptied his revolver into his body, riddling it with balls. Two lodged in his head. The assassin coolly returned to the grocery whence he had issued to do his bloody work, received his coat, mounted a horse, evidently prepared for the occasion, and rode out of town undisturbed."

Collier was just 23 when he pulled the triggers on his shotgun and emptied his revolver into Haynes.

Haynes' body was brought back to Kendall County for burial, John Redmond Marshall wrote in the Aug. 5, 1869 Record: "The corpse of Andrew J. Haynes, who was murderously shot dead by one Collier, at Marion, Arkansas, arrived last Thursday and was buried next day in the Cemetery near Morgan's."

Collier was never arrested despite the public nature of Haynes’ murder, the authorities protesting they were unsure what had happened. According to at least one source, the case is still considered unsolved by Arkansas law enforcement officials.

You might think 1869 is an awful long time ago, but the poison of those divisive years of war and more war are still with us as yet another Veterans Day rolls around. As William Faulkner (who knew a thing or two about the South) so famously and so accurately phrased it: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”

• Looking for more local history? Visit http://historyonthefox.wordpress.com.