Platte Bridge Railroad Tragedy
 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (February 2013) |
39°43′31″N 94°42′21″W / 39.7253°N 94.7059°W
The Platte Bridge Railroad Tragedy was a
Platte River east of St. Joseph, Missouri, killing between 17 and 20 and injuring 100. The bridge crosses the river in Buchanan County, between Marion Township on the east, and Washington Township
on the west.
passenger cars with 100 men, women and children. Bodies and the injured were taken to the Patee House near the St. Joseph depot. Union
soldiers were ordered to track down and execute bushwhackers for their part in the incident.
Barclay Coppock.[1]
Confederate
Missouri Governor Robert Marcellus Stewart
.
The most prominent of the bushwhackers sought by the Federal troops was Silas M. Gordon. Union troops were to burn Platte City, Missouri twice (in December 1861 and July 1864) in unsuccessful attempts to force the townspeople to surrender him (see the Burning of Platte City).
The railroad at the time was the first to cross the state of Missouri and it was used to deliver mail to and from the Pony Express terminus in St. Joseph, Missouri. Col. Ulysses S. Grant's first commission in the Civil War had been guarding the trains. In August he was promoted to brigadier general on a new assignment.
References
- Filbert, Preston. The Half Not Told: The Civil War in a Frontier Town. ISBN 0-8117-1536-1.
- ^ photo from: Aurner, Clarence Ray (1910). A topical history of Cedar County, Iowa. Vol. 1. S.J. Clarke Publishing Company.
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