NCHS Military History Exhibits
Unionists
In the summer of 1861, some local citizens with Northern sympathies organized the Nodaway County Home Guard to protect the area from rebel bushwhackers. The Home Guard consisted of seven companies, all of which disbanded in the fall of 1861. However, one of these regiments, Company D (more colloquially identified as the Midnight Rangers), would inspire a spirit of violent vigilantism that endured through the entirety of the war. A sweeping crusade began in order to purge Nodaway County of people who were or were suspected to be Southern sympathizers. “If a man sympathized with the south, be he ever so inoffensive,” remembered a local citizen, “he was a prey to every indignity, and his life and property were at the mercy of the stronger side. If he were outspoken, his house was burned and he had to flee for his life." (Maryville Republican, December 12, 1901)
Company D Strikes the Home of a Southerner
Illustrated by Aaron Schmidt
COMPANY D: MIDNIGHT RANGERS
Operating from their headquarters in Guilford, the Midnight Rangers (Company D) began pressuring Southern sympathizers in Washington Township to leave. The Rangers posted chilling notes – sometimes accompanied with matches – on the homes of suspected Southerners and threatened to burn their property and kill the inhabitants of the house.
RADICAL NORTHERNERS
Even after Company D disbanded in the fall of 1861, some individuals in southern Nodaway County did not escape the wrath of bitter Northerners. Extremists who also identified themselves as “Midnight Rangers” continued to terrorize the county. These vigilante Northerners were successful in their campaign to evict people from Nodaway County.
Click on the links below to learn more about Unionists in Nodaway County.