Eleventh Missouri Volunteer Infantry

• Home
• Battles
• Biographies
• Flags
• History
• Rosters
• Unknown Soldiers

Biographies

Joseph Plummer

Joseph Plummer was born on November 15, 1816 in Barre, Massachusetts.  He was a school teacher after completing his education.  In 1837, he obtained an appointment to the United Stated Military Academy at West Point, New York.   He graduate and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in 1841.  He served on the Texas frontier from 1848 to 1861.  He was promoted to the rank of Captain in the 1st U. S. Infantry in 1852
Joseph Plummer was commissioned as the first Colonel of the 11th Missouri Infantry in September 1861 and moved the regiment to take up their first station at Cape Girardeau, Missouri.  He led the 11th Missouri in combat at Fredericktown, Missouri on October 21, 1861.  Plummer remained with the 11th Missouri until March 1862 when he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general, of the U. S.. Volunteers.   He commanded the 1st Battalion of 1st US Infantry Regulars at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek and was wounded in that battle.

Later he commanded the 5th Division of Pope’s Army at the New Madrid and Island Number 10.  He later commanded a brigade within Stanley’s Division at Corinth.  One day before the anniversary of his wounding at the Battle of Wilson Creek, Joseph Plummer died in Corinth, MS at the age of 45 years on August 9, 1862.

William E. Panabaker

Colonel Plummer assumed the command of the 11th Missouri Infantry and would also command the Union garrison at Cape Girardeau leaving command of the 11th Missouri in the hands of Lieutenant-Colonel W. E. Panabaker.  William Ephraim Panabaker was born in 1822 and served during the Mexican War as a soldier, and he later became a physician, farmer and Methodist minister.  Panabaker was a man who lived life to the fullest and he even became one of the “Forty-Niners” seeking his fortune in California in the goldfields.  He returned back to Lawrence County, Illinois in 1856 and as the country drifted into Civil War, he recruited a company that would ultimately become Company A of the 11th Missouri Infantry.  By October, Lieutenant-Colonel William Panabaker was the regimental commander of the 11th Missouri.
“A History of Lawrence County Physicians and A Review of Medicine as Practiced 100 Years Ago”, Compiled and Written by Tom Kirkwood, M.D., published by Lawrence County Historical Society, Reproduced by Unigraphic, Inc, Evansville IN, 1975.

William Panabaker would serve as Lt. Colonel and, while under command of the regimental colonel, he practically served as the  regimental commander for the Eleventh Missouri Infantry until the summer of 1862 when he would resign due to medical reasons.

Joseph Mower

Colonel Plummer demonstrated his ability to lead men in battle was promoted to Divisional Commander of Pope’s Army, leaving the permanent command position open for the 11th Missouri.  The position was filled by Joseph Anthony Mower on May 3, 1862.  Joseph Mower was born in Woodstock, Vermont.

Mower attended Norwich University for two years in 1843.  He enlisted in the United States Engineers in 1847 and would fight in the Mexican War until 1848.  He was appointed to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant in the 1st United States Infantry in 1855 and served in the army in Texas until the beginning of the Civil War.  Mower held the rank of Captain at the beginning of the war and commanded the Union forces in New Madrid, Missouri until his promotion into the 11th Missouri Infantry.  Mower was promoted to the rank of major on May 9, 1862 for “gallant and meritorious service” at the Battle of Farmington, Missouri.  He was promoted again to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in September 1862 for “gallant and meritorious service” at the Battle of Iuka, and Colonel in May 1863 again or “gallant and meritorious service” during the capture of Jackson, Mississippi. (Ellis, William. Ed.  Norwich University 1819-1911.  1911. Capital City Press, Montpelier, Vermont. p. 401.)

Mower was fighter and it was under his command the 11th Missouri would establish it’s reputation of a regiment that would fight.

Andrew J. Weber

A. J. Weber  born Sept. 9, 1840, in Springfield. At the first call for seventy- five thousand men, by President Lincoln, in April, 1861, he, with other young men of Sangamon county, organized a company, but the quota of Illinois was already full. Andrew J. Weber was elected captain, and the company was sworn into the United States service as the 1st Reg. U. S. Rifles. After a number of changes it became Co. B, 11th Mo. Inf.  Captain Weber was promoted April 21, 1862, to major of the regiment. In the absence of higher officers he was in command of the regiment at the battle of luka, Sept. 17, and the battle of Corinth, Oct. 3 and 4, 1862.   Major Weber was promoted and commissioned lieutenant colonel, March 20, 1863, and commissioned colonel May 15, 1863.  Colonel Weber was wounded in the head by a cannon ball, while on duty, on the Peninsula, in front of Vicksburg, June 29, 1863. The wound at first was not thought to be mortal, but he died the next day, June 30.  

William Barnum

William Barnum was born on August 24, 1829 in Newark, New Jersey and had moved to Springfield, Illinois by the outbreak of the Civil War.  He was 5’ 10 ½” tall with blue eyes and light hair, and he was merchant in Springfield when he enlisted.   He was elected captain of Company I and while serving as Lt. Colonel, he was promoted to Colonel for “meritorious conduct at Vicksburg, Miss., but was not mustered because we had lost so many..”  William Barnum served the regiment well as Colonel and resigned at the end of his enlistment period on August 15, 1864,

Eli Bowyer

Eli Bowyer, M.D., ex-Brevet-Brigadier-General, Postmaster at Olney, Ill, was born in Warren County, Ohio, March 20, 1818, and is the third of nine children born to John and Jane Bowyer, the former a native of Virginia, and the latter of Pennsylvania.   Eli Bowyer received the major part of his education at the Harveysburgh Academy, in his native county. On leaving school he commenced life as a teacher, and continued in this avocation for two years  He attended lectures primarily at the Willoughby University, and finally at the Ohio Medical College, in Cincinnati, where he graduated in 1844. He then commenced the practice of his profession at Mason, Warren County, Ohio, where he resided during the following two years. At the expiration of that time he removed to Prairieton, Indiana, and from Prairieton he moved to Sullivan, in the same state. Here he remained for seven years, when he was again compelled to change his location, on account of failing health. In 1860, he came to Olney, Ill, where for several months he relinquished the practice of medicine. In 1861 he entered the United States Army as Assistant Surgeon of the Eleventh Missouri Infantry and later became the last Colonel of the 11th Missouri Infantry. In March, 1865, he was brevetted Brigadier-General "for gallant and meritorious service."  (pg. 731, "Counties of Cumberland, Jasper and Richland, Illinois - Historical and Biographical", Chicago: F.A. Battey & Co., 1884)

Chaplain Joseph Brooks

A clergyman, born in Butler County, Ohio, 1 November, 1821; died in Little Rock, Arkansas, 30 April, 1877. He was graduated at Indiana Asbury University, and in 1840 entered the Methodist ministry. He removed to Iowa in 1846, and in 1856 became editor of the St. Louis "Central Christian Advocate," the only anti-slavery paper published on slave soil west of the Mississippi. When the civil war began, he became chaplain of the 1st Missouri artillery, Col. Frank P. Blair's regiment. He afterward aided in raising the 11th and 33d Missouri regiments, and was transferred to the latter as chaplain. Early in the war Mr. Brooks urged the enlistment of colored troops, and, when it was decided to employ them, he was offered a major general's commission if he would raise a division, but he declined. He afterward became chaplain of the 3d Arkansas colored infantry. After the war Mr. Brooks became a planter in Arkansas, and was a leader in the State constitutional convention of 1868. During the presidential canvass of that year an attempt was made to assassinate Mr. Brooks and Congressman C. C. Hines, which resulted in the death of the latter and the wounding of Mr. Brooks. He removed to Little Rock in the autumn of 1868, and was elected state senator in 1870. In 1872 he was a candidate for governor, and, when his opponent was declared to be elected by the legislature, he claimed that the election was fraudulent, and, relying on the decision of a state court in his favor, took forcible possession of the state-house, 13 April, 1874, and held it till dispossessed by proclamation of President Grant, 23 May, 1874. (See Baxter, Elisha.) Mr. Brooks was appointed postmaster at Little Rock in March, 1875, and held the office till his death, he was a man of great will-power and a strong speaker.

Chaplain Samuel Baldrige

SAMUEL COULTER BALDRIDGE was born on August 6, 1829, at Eugene (Vermillion County), Indiana.  He graduated from Hanover College (Hanover, Indiana) in the class of 1849 and then attended the New Albany Presbyterian Theological Seminary until 1852.  As soon as he completed his ministerial studies, Hanover College conferred an honorary A. M. degree upon him that same year.  His church, the Presbyterian, then licensed him to preach in 1853, and he was ordained on October 15, 1854.  Baldridge became the pastor of a small rural congregation, the Wabash Church (Wabash County, Illinois), where he remained until 1857 at which time he went to the Friendsville (Illinois) Church.   Here he was preaching when the Civil War came.  In the meantime, he had married Jane Corrie in 1855.

During the summer of 1861, army officers recruited men from both Illinois and Missouri for the 11th Missouri Volunteer Infantry Regiment.  It was finally organized on August 1 at the United States Arsenal in St. Louis.  Joseph Brooks became chaplain of this rifle regiment on December 31, 1861 (his commission was dated back to August 6, 1861), but he resigned on April 11, 1862.  Rev. Baldridge then received a request from the staff officers to be their chaplain, and he accepted the post on July 5, 1862.  However, his rank dated from April 12, the day following the resignation of Chaplain Brooks.

Although chaplains in the Civil War wore no bars, leaves or stars, they were considered to be “field and staff” and had the privileges of officers.  But it was a hard life, and the lack of definite rank did not make their tasks easier.  Struggling to do his holy wok, the Rev. Baldridge moved forward with his regiment while it fought the enemy along the Mississippi.  But he evidently became discouraged, and, fortunately for him, the Wabash and Friendsville churches asked him to return.  So, on January 7, 1863, he resigned, and the records do not indicate that any other chaplain ever replaced him. Few ministers would follow the footsteps of a fighting regiment. ("A Chaplain in the 11th Missouri Infantry." Edited by Wayne C. Temple)