Battle of Westport

Posted on March 20, 2019March 20, 2019 by vlwadmin

(Article courtesy of Wikipedia)

General Curtis sent the bulk of his 1st Division under Gen. James Blunt to confront the Confederates at Lexington, approximately forty miles east of Kansas City, on October 19. Blunt was unable to stop Price, but did slow his progress and gathered information on the Confederate forces. Again, at the Little Blue River on October 21, Blunt was forced to retire — but not without slowing Price enough for a pursuing Federal cavalry division under Alfred Pleasonton to close the gap between himself and the Rebels. Additional fighting occurred the next day at Independence, with Price emerging victorious yet again. Curtis was nearly sixty years old, and age had taken a toll on his desire for combat; however, thanks to his aggressive subordinate Gen. Blunt, Curtis decided to make another stand south of Westport. Blunt personally oversaw the construction of a defensive line south of the town along Brush Creek, perpendicular to the Kansas state line.

Map of Westport Battlefield core and study areas by the American Battlefield Protection Program

Price was aware of the forces to his front and rear, which together outnumbered him nearly three-to-one, so he determined to deal with them one at a time. He decided to attack Curtis’s army first, at Westport. Almost as old as his adversary, Price left direction of the engagement to his subordinate, General Jo Shelby. With about 500 wagons and 5,000 head of cattle, Price first needed a ford for his supply trains to cross the Blue River near Westport. One of Price’s divisions under John S. Marmaduke accordingly forced a crossing at Byram’s Ford on the 22nd, then took up positions on the west bank to hold off Pleasonton’s Federal Cavalry, which now threatened Price’s rear. Two other Confederate divisions, under Shelby and James Fagan, were poised to assault Blunt along Brush Creek the next day, hoping to defeat him before Pleasonton could arrive on the field in force.

Action at Brush Creek

Anticipating Price’s impending attack, Blunt had positioned his three available brigades along Brush Creek, while a fourth under Col. Charles Blair was en route from Kansas City. East of Wornall Lane (present-day Wornall Road) was the brigade of J. Hobart Ford. West of Wornall was the brigade of Charles “Doc” Jennison, with an artillery battery in support. Two regiments of cavalry filled the gap to the west between Jennison and the Kansas/Missouri state line. At a right angle to Jennison was the brigade of Thomas Moonlight, running parallel to the state line. Moonlight was positioned to either support Jennison or move against the Confederate flank.

At daybreak on the 23rd, Blunt opened the battle by sending Jennison and Ford over an icy Brush Creek with their skirmishers. Advancing up a ridge, the Union forces engaged the Confederates in an open field to the south. The rebel divisions of Joseph O. Shelby and James Fagan had meanwhile received orders from Price to hold Curtis in front of Westport. Shelby counterattacked with the famed Iron Brigade under M. Jeff Thompson in the lead. This attack drove the outflanked Federals back across the creek. Moonlight’s brigade was hit so hard that it was forced to fall back to the high ground on Brush Creek’s west bluff, into what is now Westwood, Kansas, while Jennison’s brigade retreated almost to the streets of Westport. It appeared at this point that the Confederates might carry the day.

But this was not to be. Shelby’s force was out of ammunition, and remained on the heights south of Brush Creek. Also at this crucial hour, Col. Blair’s brigade arrived and Curtis heard Pleasonton’s guns engaging the Confederates at nearby Byram’s Ford. His spirits lifted, the Union commander rode to the front lines and personally directed Blair’s troops into battle west of Jennison. The reinforced Federals charged across the creek once more, with Blair in the lead, but were again repulsed and retreated to the north bank.

Needing another option besides frontal assaults, Curtis decided to search for a weak point elsewhere in the Rebel lines. His scouts found a local farmer named George Thoman, who was eager to help the Federals as the Confederates had absconded with his horse the previous night. Thoman showed Curtis a gulch, cut by Swan Creek, running up to a rise along Shelby’s left flank. Curtis personally directed his headquarters escort and the 9th Wisconsin Battery through this gully. Meanwhile, Blunt continued to push Jennison and Ford up the rise across Brush Creek, making slow progress until the 9th Wisconsin opened fire upon the Confederate flank and rear. Encouraged, Blunt’s men now poured over the ridge, but Shelby’s men fought back stubbornly and a see-saw battle ensued in the open prairie. The Union army gradually gained the upper hand, slowly pushing Shelby’s brigades back to the Wornall House.

Fight for the fords

Byram’s Ford

As disaster was befalling Shelby and Fagan, a similar fate was happening to Price’s rearguard, under Marmaduke, at Byram’s Ford. A division of Price’s army under General Shelby had forced a crossing at the ford on the 22nd (the day prior to the battle), forcing Federal defenders there to retire to Westport. Shelby’s colleague General Marmaduke had subsequently established his own defensive line on the west bank of the river to hold off Pleasanton’s cavalry, which was pressing them hard from the east. If Pleasanton could now force his way across the Blue River, he would be in position to threaten Price’s army as well as his supplies.^{[citation needed]}

Marmaduke’s division was attacked by three of Pleasonton’s brigades starting at 8:00 on the morning of the 23rd; the Confederates initially managed to hold their own. One of the Union brigade commanders, Brig. Gen. Egbert B. Brown stalled his attack and was placed under arrest by Pleasonton for disobeying orders. Another of Pleasonton’s brigade commanders, Col. Edward F. Winslow, was wounded and succeeded by Lt. Col. Frederick Benteen, who would later ride to fame at Little Bighorn. Despite these setbacks, Federal troopers gained the west bank by 11:00 and Marmaduke retired. As Brown’s brigade (now led by Col. John F. Philips) forded the river, they came under heavy fire from Marmaduke’s artillery. Once they had crossed, they charged Marmaduke across an open field; during this charge, Union troops from Missouri and Arkansas battled Confederates from these same two states. Marmaduke was forced back, rejoining Shelby and Fagan, and Blunt pounded the now-consolidated Confederate remnants with his own cannon.^{[citation needed]}

While the main Confederate army was now being hit hard on two sides, Pleasonton’s fourth brigade under Brig. Gen. John McNeil moved against a Rebel brigade under William Lewis Cabell guarding a second ford near Hickman Mills. McNeil’s brigade was able to drive the Confederates from the ford and cross the river. Federal columns were now converging on Price from three different directions.

Confederate retreat

The Confederates pulled back to their last line of defense, along the road south of Forest Hill (present day Gregory Blvd), with Colonel Jennison leading the pursuit. By now thirty Union guns had been brought to bear against the lone remaining Confederate cannon. One Federal battery had just unlimbered when Colonel James H. McGhee’s Arkansas Cavalry charged down Wornall’s Lane in an attempt to capture it. Captain Curtis Johnson of the 15th Kansas Cavalry saw the Confederate attack forming and immediately moved to intercept. Johnson and McGhee personally engaged each other with their revolvers; both commanders were badly wounded, but survived. The fight continued to rage until Union reinforcements secured the battery.

Shelby sent a brigade under Colonel Sidney D. Jackman to secure his wagon trains, but these had already been removed by order of General Price. Jackman was instead intercepted by General Fagan, who alerted him to the massed Union cavalry (Pleasonton’s) which had just crossed the Big Blue River to the east. Seeing Pleasanton’s close proximity to the Confederate flank and rear, General Curtis had ordered a general advance of the entire Union line, with Blair’s and Jennison’s brigades leading the charge. Shelby, meanwhile, had only Thompson’s Iron Brigade to hold off this massive assault. When one of Pleasonton’s batteries arrived in support of Curtis’s men, Thompson’s Confederates finally broke and fled.

Price’s men set fire to prairie grass in the area to create a smoke screen to cover their withdrawal. Witnesses reported that the road was strewn with debris from the fleeing Rebel army.

The following day, Blunt and Pleasonton took up their pursuit of Price’s remaining forces. They would chase Price through Kansas and southern Missouri, engaging him at the Marais des Cygnes, Mine Creek, the Marmiton River, and finally at Newtonia, forcing Price to withdraw into Indian Territory, from which he eventually returned to Arkansas via Texas, and ultimately leaving the Confederate leader with less than 6,000 survivors from his initial force of 12,000 when his campaign officially ended on November 1, 1864.

Aftermath

The Battle of Westport was one of the largest battles west of the Mississippi River, with over 30,000 troops involved. The Union victory put an end to Price’s campaign for Missouri, and the battle has accordingly been referred to as “The Gettysburg of the West”. Curtis wrote to Henry W. Halleck after the battle that “the victory at Westport was most decisive”. This greatly contested border state was now firmly under Union control, and would remain so until the end of the war.

Although never capturing Price or the tattered remnants of his army, Federal forces did manage to render the Army of Missouri incapable of any future significant operations. Indeed, Price’s campaign would prove the last in the Trans-Mississippi Theater.

According to the latest work on Price’s campaign, Kyle S. Sinisi’s The Last Hurrah, historians have long exaggerated the casualties inflicted in the fighting around Westport on October 21-23, 1864. Sinisi cites new estimates that the Union forces lost 361 and the Confederates 510 men, killed, wounded, or captured, on October 23.(Ar

A MEMORABLE SUNDAY, LONG AGO, AT FAIRYLAND PARK

Posted on March 20, 2019 by vlwadmin

October 3, 2017 by jimmycsays

Does anybody out there remember Fairyland Park? The former amusement park at 75th and Prospect, which was later bisected by Bruce R. Watkins Drive, a.k.a. U.S. 71?

Many of you do, I’m sure.

But one person who obviously doesn’t remember Fairyland is The Star’s music writer, Tim Finn.

Finn has been at The Star about 30 years, and I would have thought he would have heard about Fairyland somewhere along the line but…

In reporting today that 1970s rock’n’roll star Bob Seger was postponing several shows, including one in Kansas City, because of vertebrae problems, Finn wrote the following:

“Seger previously performed in Kansas City in March 2015, a show at the Sprint Center. His history in Kansas City goes back to the mid-1970s, when he played at Kemper Arena, Municipal Auditorium and a place called Fairyland Park.”

I wish he would have at least Googled Fairyland Park so he wouldn’t have made it sound like it was some place in outer space.

…I arrived in KC in the fall of 1969, when Fairyland was well on the way to extinction. I missed the glory days — the 1950s and 1960s, when, according to Wikipedia, Fairyland “boasted 3 roller coasters, an 8 story ferris wheel (which was bent in half during tornado), a swimming pool (double olympic size — closed in late 50s), bumper cars, a shooting range and even a petting zoo at one time.”

In a 2014 KCUR-FM story, reporter Laura Ziegler recounted the long and mostly successful history of Fairyland. It was developed and opened on 80 acres by the late Salvatore “Sam” Brancato, a Sicilian immigrant and blacksmith who had come to the States in 1896.

“After settling in Kansas City,” Ziegler wrote, “he went into the grocery business, then began buying up real estate. He opened Fairyland Park in 1923. It would be in the family until its closing in 1977.”

It quickly became a popular destination, but it was fading by the late ’60s, in no small part because of civil rights protests regarding its largely “whites-only” policy. In the early ’70s, it turned to rock’n’roll shows to try to come back. Performers, according to Wiki, included REO Speedwagon, Dr. Hook, Blue Oyster Cult and Charlie Daniels. Obviously, Bob Seger performed there, too, although I didn’t know that until reading Finn’s story today.

The nail in Fairyland’s coffin, according to Laura Ziegler’s story, was the 1974 opening of Worlds of Fun. Among other things, WOF staged musical acts every Friday evening during the summer, as I recall. I remember seeing an Osmond-Brothers-type group called The DeFranco Family at Worlds of Fun and being enthralled. (A former roommate still trashes me about that. Truth is, after the ’60s, I lost my musical traction and stumbled around in the desert for several years, including being reeled in by disco.)

Like I said, I missed Fairyland’s heyday. But I do remember being there once. In fact, I have a photo of me and a young lady who were there on a hot Sunday afternoon. I don’t remember what the occasion was — some kind of gathering or party. At the time, I was a young reporter covering my first beat, the Jackson County Courthouse, where I was assigned from 1971 to 1978.

The woman I was with that day was Susan Reeder, who was administrative assistant to then-Jackson County Executive George W. Lehr.

While Susan and I never dated seriously, we got together occasionally, mostly out of convenience. There was some mutual attraction there, plus some common interests, like drinking and partying, but nothing ever came of the relationship.

I have no idea what happened to Susan…if she married, if she is still in town, if she is still alive. I do remember that day very well, though, mostly because of the photo, which, in my opinion, is a classic.

I believe it was taken by a Star photographer who was there on assignment. I think we just ran into each other and he snapped the photo. The photographer might have been Vic Damon, who liked to take photos of reporters when they were on the job. (In this one, of course, I wasn’t working!)

In any event, check out this photo of a young JimmyC and his young date, on a Sunday afternoon when neither had a care in the world and were joyous to be at a place called Fairyland Park.

Note: Commenter Tim Bross of St. Louis noted the resemblance between Susan and the late actress Jill Clayburgh, who died of chronic lymphocytic leukemia in 2010. Here’s a photo of Jill…

The Story Behind the Lost Song About Fairyland Park

Posted on March 20, 2019 by vlwadmin

By LAURA ZIEGLER • June 14, 2014 (portion of an original article from KCUR.)

Thousands of dancers flocked each week to the Fairyland Park Dance Pavilion in Kansas City, Mo., in the decades between opening day in 1923 and when the park closed in the 1977. The park was owned by the Brancato family, a family of Italian immigrants and successful business people who’d come to the United States at the turn of the century.

Live music was a big part of Fairyland, and visitors would swing to Cab Calloway, Count Basie and Bennie Moten. But the iconic entertainment spot had an anthem of its own. It was called “Fairyland Park and You.”

It was written by William R. Clay and Ned Underhill in 1927 — three years after the park opened. The piece was published by Clay, Underhill & Bentley Music Publishers of Kansas City.

Dr. Peter Munstedt, music librarian at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and formerly with the music library at UMKC, has written about music publishing in Kansas City. He says publication of “Fairyland Park and You” appears to be an example of vanity publishing in which composers published under their own names.

“Many early sheet music publications were issued that way,” Munstedt says.

The composers

William Rout Clay moved to Kansas City at a young age after taking part in the 1893 land rush, according to his obituary. He lived in Kansas City for 67 years. In addition to an interest in politics, Clay published a number of songs, including “Our Yesterday,” “When Clouds Have Vanished and Skies Are Blue,” “The Deep Elm Blues” “Only a Fades Rosebud, “and “Down By The Old Garden Gate.”

Edwin “Ned” Underhill’s obituary doesn’t mention “Fairyland Park and You” either, it similarly identifies him as a songwriter, saying he submitted a “ditty” to the NRA (National Recovery Act), part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. It went:

“Keep faith in Roosevelt, He will not fail. Trust in his leadership, O’er the rocky trail. Pledge him your loyalty, Faithful and true. For our country is depending on Roosevelt and you!”

Clay and Underhill appear to have written the only song about Fairyland Park and it’s difficult to know where and how often the piece was played. There is no mention of “Fairyland Park and You” in references to composers Clay and Underhill and no recording of the song turned up in a wide search of music archives in the Kansas City area.

This look at Kansas City’s east side is part of KCUR’s months-long examination of how geographic borders affect our daily lives in Kansas City. KCUR will go Beyond Our Borders and spark a community conversation through social outreach and innovative journalism.

We will share the history of these lines, how the borders affect the current Kansas City experience and what’s being done to bridge or dissolve them. Be a source for Beyond Our Borders: Share your perspective and experiences east of Troost with KCUR.

YEARS AGO, SUMMER MEANT (ALMOST) EVERYONE HEADED TO FAIRYLAND PARK

Posted on March 13, 2019March 13, 2019 by vlwadmin

By LAURA ZIEGLER • MAY 30, 2014 (portion of an original article from KCUR.)

From the 1920s through the 1960s, summertime in Kansas City meant a thrilling trip to Fairyland Park.

The 80-acre amusement park in Kansas City, Mo., offered daring rides, an outdoor dance pavilion, a large swimming pool, and later, a drive-in movie theater.

As we move into the summer of 2014, we take a trip back to the heyday of a local summer ritual for many, but not all, Kansas City residents.

Every child’s dream

Maria Brancato Accurso grew up living a child’s fantasy. She and her family lived inside Fairyland Park.

At first, they would go after Memorial Day and return to their home in the Historic Northeast in mid-September.

Eventually, the house was winterized and she and her family would live there all year.

Accurso points out the house, in the same building as the park office, just inside the arched entrance to the park.

Maria Brancato Accurso (bottom left) and cousins spend the day at Fairyland Park in 1945.

CREDIT COURTESY PHOTO / BRANCATO FAMILY

A family business

Accurso’s grandfather, Salvatore “Sam” Brancato, a Sicilian immigrant and blacksmith by trade, came to the United States in 1896. After settling in Kansas City, he went into the grocery business, then began buying up real estate. He opened Fairyland Park in 1923. It would be in the family until its closing in 1977.

Fairyland Park fast became a popular destination. You could get there on the streetcar for a nickel. For just more than $1 you could see local and national performers.

The smell of popcorn, the rattling of the wooden roller coaster, the clanging of the carnival games, and the splashing from the giant Crystal Pool attracted young and old alike.

Accurso says she started working at the park when she was 12. She stayed on after high school, and as an adult when her brothers took over after heir father he retired.

She got to know many of the clients, who eyed her job with envy.

“I worked the concession selling popcorn and cotton candy and snow cones and worked some of the games,” she says.

Important to Kansas City culture

Fairyland Park was important to local musicians. Thousands would flock to the open air dance pavilion on sweltering summer evenings.

“During the summer the two main ballrooms in Kansas City, The Pla-Mor and the El Torreon, would shut down because didn’t have air conditioning,” says Chuck Haddix, Director of UMKC’s Marr Sound Archives, who wrote about Fairyland Park in his book on the history of Kansas City Jazz.

“For local bands, Fairyland Park provided them with work all summer long – Benny Moten and Jay McShann. Ironically they booked African-American bands when African-Americans were not allowed in the park.”

Racial divide

Maria Brancato Accurso says Fairyland wasn’t the only institution excluding black people.

Swope Park, a public park, excluded African-Americans from its swimming pool and for picnics they were segregated to Shelter #5 on what was called “Watermelon Hill.”

Accurso says her father was conforming to conventions of the time. She says he was a stubborn man and a shrewd businessman.

“He thought (integrating) was gonna hurt business a lot with the whites,” says Accurso. “He owned it privately, and to be told what you could do and what you can’t do when you own something yourself, that was tough for him.”

Margaret May, an African-American who grew up in Kansas City, felt the sting of that discrimination personally. When many of her friends would go to Fairyland on the one day of the year African-Americans were allowed in, her parents would not let her go. They told her if she couldn’t choose when to go, she wouldn’t go at all.

Now that Margaret May is older she says she sees why her parents made that decision.

“As an adult I can understand their reluctance and … when I became an adult, I didn’t let my kids go,” she says.

Civil rights

Civil rights protests came to Fairyland as protests at Kansas City lunch-countersand department stores escalated.

A group that was blocking the entrance to Fairyland was carted away in a paddy wagon, and the incident cast an unpopular spotlight on the segregated park. After that, Maria Brancato Accurso’s father, Mario Brancato, had no choice but to open the doors to black people.

With integration came white flight and declining attendance at the eastside park. Accurso waxes sentimental remembering her years at the park.

“They named it Fairyland and it was like Fairyland you know … that was the greatest thing a young kid could want,” she says.

The demise of Fairyland

In 1974, Worlds of Fun, Kansas City’s existing amusement park, opened. The state-of–the-art park created insurmountable competition for Fairyland.

Maintenance costs had become astronomical, and in 1977, a tumultuous storm bent the iconic Ferris wheel like a taco. Having survived five fires over the years, this time the family decided it was not worth the investment to rebuild, and the park closed.

In the 1990s, U.S. route 71 bisected the park. Today, Satchel Paige School and a youth facility run by the Kansas City Police Department share the land.