Civil War and Death
Hughes was a cousin to Sterling Price and like Price professed Conditional Unionism until the Camp Jackson Affair, after which he joined the Missouri State Guard and was elected colonel of the 1st Regiment, 4th Division. He participated in the Battle of Carthage and the Battle of Wilson's Creek. He was slightly wounded in the Siege of Lexington.
At the Battle of Pea Ridge in March 1862, Hughes took over command of a brigade from the wounded Brigadier general William Yarnell Slack. Hughes returned to Missouri in the summer of 1862 to recruit for the Confederacy. At this time he may have been appointed as either an acting Confederate or Missouri State Guard brigadier general. No record of the appointment has been found but he was known as "general."
He, his recruits, and several other recruiting or partisan bands united to attack the garrison of Independence, Missouri on August 11, 1862 with Hughes in overall command. During this battle (the First Battle of Independence), he was killed instantly by a shot to the head while leading a charge, but the city was captured. He is interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in Independence. He left behind a wife, Mary, and five young sons.
Read more about this topic: John T. Hughes
Famous quotes containing the words civil, war and/or death:
“A man’s real and deep feelings are surely those which he acts upon when challenged, not those which, mellow-eyed and soft-voiced, he spouts in easy times.”
—Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author. The Desegregated Heart, part 2, ch. 13 (1962)
“A democracy which makes or even effectively prepares for modern, scientific war must necessarily cease to be democratic. No country can be really well prepared for modern war unless it is governed by a tyrant, at the head of a highly trained and perfectly obedient bureaucracy.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“All societies on the verge of death are masculine. A society can survive with only one man; no society will survive a shortage of women.”
—Germaine Greer (b. 1939)