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Submitted: 1/8/16 • Approved: 1/8/16 • Last Updated: 4/2/18 • R781996-G0-S3
Article from St. Louis Today:
If you were to travel a couple hundred yards down a faint, grassy trail off Missouri Highway W about two miles north of Campell, you might discover a neatly manicured burial site that always has fresh flowers lying by the granite grave marker.
This story is related to that gravesite:
In 1863, the American Civil War raged. Missouri was considered a Border State, which meant that loyalties were divided, families were torn apart. Dunklin County, down in the Bootheel, was a center of Confederate unrest.
Marmaduke's Raiders made regular raids up from their Confederate stronghold in northeastern Arkansas with intentions to disrupt the Union supply line which was being maintained by Gen. John McNeil and the 2nd Missouri State Militia Cavalry from its headquarters in Cape Girardeau County.
Local farmers not only aided the troops with food and shelter, but would often join in the fray and scuffles that broke out in the surrounding countryside. This was a common practice at the time. Gen. McNeil, aided by Brig. Gen. William Vandever and his men put up a good fight at the Battle of Crowley's Ridge. Marmaduke and his Confederate raiders were forced to retreat to the Chalk Bluff Ferry and return to Arkansas across the St. Francis River. This was before the pontoon bridge that Marmaduke later ordered to be built.
Invariably when armies fight innocent people get drawn into the conflict, their safety is often undecided and put to risk. This story is about such people.
On a hardscramble farm north of Campbell, Billy DeMint and his family resided.
Now Billy's father was a farmer, not a fighter. He was much more suited to a team and a plow. But like so many of his neighbors, Billy's father was soon caught up in the skirmish and never really understood why or how.
Raiders on horseback invaded the meadows with bloodhounds baying. They were searching for where a Rebel might likely hide.
Now Billy DeMint was only 10 years old. He was an innocent country child, and certainly no match for a gang of raiders fired up and behaving like wild animals.
My research has uncovered two versions of the events that ensued. One story was that Billy DeMint's father was an active combatant in the battles and skirmishes that were occurring in the surrounding countryside.
A seemingly more likely version is that the DeMint family was in the process of moving from the farm and taking up temporary residence in the nearby village of Campbell until the turmoil of war left their little area of Missouri. In this version, Billy DeMint's father told him to run back to the farm to feed the pigs and chickens one last time.
In either case, the little plot of grass is always kept neatly trimmed to this day. The gravesite is maintained by the Dunklin County Historical Society located at nearby Malden. The granite marker tells the story.
Here's what it has to say:
"Here lies the body of Billy DeMint, ten years old, hung by guerilla raiders because he would not tell where his father was hiding."
Rest In Peace, Billy DeMint.
by Ronnie Launius
Contributed on 1/8/16 by tslundberg
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Record #: 781996