John S. Marmaduke

By Terry Beckenbaugh, US Army Command and General Staff College

Shelby’s Raid is one of the great unsung raids of the American Civil War. The raid lasted over 40 days and covered more than 800 miles of territory in west central and northwest Arkansas and southwest and west central Missouri in the autumn of 1863. While spectacular, the raid had little lasting result on the course and conduct of the war in Missouri or in other theaters. It did earn Joseph O. “Jo” Shelby a general’s star and cemented his reputation as one of the Civil War’s most daring cavalry commanders.

By Russell S. Perkins, University of Saint Mary

John Sappington Marmaduke was born on March 14, 1833, in Saline County, Missouri, into a prominent political family. His father, Meredith Marmaduke, was the eighth governor of the state and a staunch Unionist before and during the Civil War. But it was the political lead of his uncle, a pro-secessionist governor of Missouri, Claiborne Fox Jackson, which Marmaduke followed in the critical opening months of the Civil War.

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