By Nancy

Robert Cunningham, my (3) great grandfather, was an ardent supporter of the Northern cause during the Civil War. Though he was not a member of any of the Military services, he had one tragic experience right in his own yard. I have read several accounts and the information is about the same except for a few additional details each supplies.

He was born in April 1805, so on August 28, 1862 when this incident occurred he would have been 57 though he is referred to as "elderly abolitionist firebrand" in the account from The Twenty-first Missouri. It reads: In early September, the Cunningham boys of Company D teamed that their home had been a battlefield on August 28. Bill Ewing's guerillas, slipping down to the Middle Fabius above Millport, rode across "Old Bob" Cunningham's farm intending to arrest him (as named above), burn his house, and appropriate his horses. Cunningham proved a hard man to arrest. He pitched into the gang trying to capture him, and even though one intruder shot him in the arm, Old Bob managed to wrench an attacker's revolver out of his hand. As the little civil war raged in Cunningham's yard, a strong force of the Fiftieth Enrolled Missouri Militia suddenly appeared, having galloped up from Edina. As coincidence would have it, the rescuers were partly from Company C, commanded by Captain Lucius Woodruff. Old Bob's son and namesake, Rob Cunningham, was fatally wounded as he rode into the barnyard with his comrades. It little assuaged the old man's grief that Ewing himself was among the guerrillas slain in the "affair at Cunningham farm."

In History of Knox County, State of Missouri, there is a more detailed report on this sad incident. It is subtitled, The Skirmish at Cunningham's and says: About the 28th of August, three weeks after the battle of Kirksville, there occurred in the northern part of the county what is known as the Cunningham fight.

The Confederate partisans had recovered somewhat from their crushing defeat at Kirksville, and were reorganizing. Capt. William Ewing had gotten together about 30 men, and was at work in the northern part of this county and the southern portion of Scotland. Some horses and guns were taken from Union men in that region and threats were made to burn out and drive out certain members of the militia. "You burned MY house," said Ewing, and "I will even up with you before this war is over."

Meanwhile the word had reached Edina that Ewing was at large in the country about Millport, and 100 of the enrolled militia at the county seat were at once mounted, and sent out under Maj. Pugh and a Lieutenant Easley, of Iowa, temporarily in the place. When this force reached the neighborhood west of Millport, word came that the Confederates were at Cunningham's. An advance party led by Maj. Pugh, and having for one of its members Robert Cunningham, Jr. struck by a near route for the Cunningham house. The party reached the house just in time. The Confederates were taking the horses from the stables, and a squad under Ewing had seized Mr., Cunningham. The old man was fighting like a tiger. He was in his dooryard struggling with two or three of his assailants. He had already been shot through the wrist and fore-arm, but had wrenched the revolver from the rebel who had shot him, and was trying to use the weapon himself.

The clatter of the horses of Maj. Pugh's party, as they crossed a little bridge approaching the house, distracted the attention of the Confederates from their struggles with the old man, and they prepared to repel the unexpected attack. The militiamen were coming at a swift gallop, young Bob Cunningham three lengths ahead, eager to rescue his father. Quite a spirited little fight resulted, lasting some minutes. Pugh's party was reinforced by the remainder of the militia, and the Confederates were driven away in disorder and with all ease, leaving behind them fifteen of their own horses from which they had dismounted when they entered the stable lot,

Capt. Bill Ewing himself was instantly killed. His lieutenant, Dr. Robinson, was mortally wounded, dying not many hours later. On his person was found the muster roll of Ewing's company, containing 80 names. Three or four prisoners were taken unhurt, and brought to Edina and eventually sent to the Confederate lines and exchanged. The forces that escaped, their leaders having been killed, were scattered to the four winds, some of them joined other companies, but majority left the service altogether.

The gravestone in the Cunningham Cemetery for Robert M. Cunningham has this engraving: Son of R. & R. Cunningham was killed Aug. 22, 1862, Aged 18 yr.6m 22 d. with an American Flag. (I don't know why the date differs from the historical accounts.)

Robert and Rachel had been fortunate in seeing most of their children survive early childhood, which wasn't common in those times. But the Civil War era handed them several family deaths, in and out of the conflict. This little item is found in The Twenty- first Missouri, Sergeant Elias Davidson of Company D died on June 29 (1962) at Louisville, bringing down the curtain on a pathetic family drama. Lucinda Cunningham Davidson had been in her grave beside their infant daughter less than a year in the Cunningham family cemetery back in Knox County near Greensburg. Grief-ridden old Robert Cunningham would in quieter years see his lost daughter's family forever reunited in their companion graves back home.

Lucinda's gravestone is engraved, Lucinda, wife of E.B. Davidson, daughter of R. & R. Cunningham, Sept. ? 1861. The infant daughter's marker reads: Rosalie, dau of E.B. & Davidson, died, Sep 1, 1860, age I mo. 9 days

Two other grandchildren of Robert and Rachel died during the war years. Fanny L. daughter of W. & V.A. Cunningham died Nov. 6, 1861, age I yr. 9 mo 16 d. I am assuming this refers to their son Wilford whose wife was Virginia Funk because the child was buried in the Cunningham Cemetery. There is also an "infant son" Boone born in 1862 and died 25 March 1862 in this cemetery. I believe this is the child of Milton C. and their daughter, Ann Cunningham Boone.

Before leaving the .... topic of the Cunninghams and the Civil War, excerpts from the two above mentioned sources give us a little more family data. From The Twenty- first Missouri we learn: Most of the boys had come from the farms and most of them returned to farms. John H. Cunningham became "one of the leading farmers of northern Knox County for half a century, and he was well known and respected all over the county." There were many Cunninghams in Missouri but because Robert and Rachel had a son John H., and there is mention that the Cunningham boys of Company D later learned of the skirmish at the family farm, and they were from Knox County, I am assuming this is their son. He would have been about 21 when the war began.

The other Cunningham with mention of war service is Wilford. This is taken from Knox County:

Wilford Cunningham, a prominent citizen of Benton Township, Knox County, was born in Harrison County, Ind., December 26, 1826, and is the son of Robert and Rachel (Moyers) Cunningham. The father was a native, of Hamilton County, Ohio.

(Note by Nancy:

He was of Irish descent. He was a boatman in his youthful days, and made many trips to New Orleans. This was before many steamboats were on the Mississippi River. He was also engaged in the saw mill business, but the latter part of his life was passed on the farm. He moved to Harrison County, Ind., with his parents, when but nine years of age, and, remained a resident of that county until 1851, when he came to Knox County, MO.

After the war he held the office of register (sic) for one year. He was a Union man, and took an active part during the late war, and freely expressed his opinion. He was shot at while in his own house, and the, same time his son, the brother of our subject, Robert M., was killed. The mother of our subject was born in Shenandoah County, VA. in August, 1805, and is of German descent (alive and still residing in Knox County when this account was written in the late 1880s). Her father came to Harrison County, IND, during the early settlement of the country, and her mother died when she was quite young. Her father was a member of the United Breathren Church, of which she has been a member for the past forty years. Our subject is the eldest of nine children, six now living. He received the rudiments of an education in Harrison County, IND, and assisted his father on the flatboat, in the saw mill, and on the farm. February 18, 1849 he married Virginia A. Funk, who was born in Harrison County, IND, February 28, 1831.

Her parents, Amos and Catherine Brown, were natives of Indiana and Virginia, respectively. They were married in Virginia, and moved to Indiana, and then to Louisiana, and from there to Missouri in 185 1. This marriage of our subject resulted in the birth of twelve children - seven sons and five daughters - nine living when the account was written. In 1850 (a year earlier than mentioned just above) our subject moved to some land that his father had entered, in Knox County, MO, and after living on this five years moved to the property that he now owns.

Although starting with very little means, he possesses 215 acres of the best land in the county. During the early part of the late war he was second lieutenant of the Home Guards. After they had disbanded he joined company C, of the Fiftieth Enrolled Militia, was corporal, and was in two skirmishes. Since coming to Missouri he has been engaged in farming and stock dealing. He is an ardent supporter of the Republican party.

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