ESU grad tells story of Civil War regiment
By Joey Berlin
Originally published 02:45 p.m., June 6, 2008
Updated 02:45 p.m., June 6, 2008
Emporia’s place in Civil War history is part of a new book by a former Emporian and Emporia State University master’s degree holder.
“Keep the Flag to the Front: The Story of the Eighth Kansas Volunteer Infantry” is the first book by Bill McFarland, who now teaches at Washburn Rural Middle School in Topeka. Released in March by Leathers Publishing of Overland Park, the book tracks the story of the last Kansas regiment to be discharged after the war was over. The infantry was organized in 1861 and discharged in 1866 after 10,750 miles of travel.
“They were ... probably one of the hardest-fighting regiments from Kansas,” McFarland said. “They started out as Home Guard — sorta like the National Guard — but then they nationalized, I guess you would say, and federalized. And then they were in the service longer than any other regiment from Kansas during the Civil War.”
A Civil War buff who collects photography from the conflict, McFarland came across pictures of people from the Eighth Kansas. He later joined a reenactment group that portrayed the unit and, trying to find out what the regiment’s men looked like, hunted down other pictures.
“And once I found a picture, I wanted to know, ‘Well, what happened to them?’” he said. “And so, from there it just sort of blossomed into a book that told the story of not just the regiment, but the gentlemen that were in the regiment as well.”
The author researched the book using journals, diaries and newspaper records, including documents at the Lyon County Historical Society. He also talked to descendants of some of the members of the Eighth Kansas.
“I sort of compare it to panning for gold a little bit,” he said. “Sometimes, you go through a whole lot of stuff and you don’t find too much, but every once in a while, you come across something that’s just a fascinating story or interesting thing, and that’s what got me wanting to share it.”
The Eighth Kansas fought in 17 battles during the war, and one of its companies responded to the first raid in Kansas forged by the notorious Confederate guerrilla William Quantrill. After Quantrill led a band of about 50 fighters into Johnson County and attacked the small town of Aubrey, Col. Robert Graham of the Eighth Kansas dispatched Capt. John Greelish’s Infantry Company E to defend Aubrey. Forty-two members of Company E fought with Quantrill’s men about a half-mile outside the town and killed two of them, with only one Company E man wounded. But because Quantrill’s men were mounted on horseback, they outran the infantry unit.
The Eighth’s commanding officer, Col. John Martin, later became governor of Kansas, and two counties, Trego and Graham, are named after men from the Eighth.
The regiment was made up of both infantry and cavalry, and one of the cavalry companies, Company H, was made up mostly of men from the Emporia area. A member of Company H whom McFarland enjoyed learning about during his research was First Lt. Lemuel T. Heritage. Heritage was originally from New Jersey but moved to Emporia in 1857 at age 19, working as a store bookkeeper.
McFarland writes that Heritage was “instrumental in raising Cavalry Company H of the Eighth Kansas.”
He later served as captain of Company C in the state’s 11th infantry. After his death, his estate was donated as a fund to help Emporia’s needy children.
“He left sort of an interesting heritage there,” McFarland said. “He was an orphan himself, and so had a real affinity for needy children, I think.”
McFarland lived in Emporia for eight years of his youth. He attended college at Geneva College in Pennsylvania and at Washburn University before attending Emporia State for graduate school.
“Keep the Flag to the Front” is available at selected bookstores or on amazon.com, barnes&noble.com or leatherspublishing.com.