Alexander A. Lesueur, born on November 25, 1842, participated in the “Southwest Expedition” (the Missouri State Militia expedition to the Kansas-Missouri border in the winter of 1860-61).
According to the 1881 History of Lafayette County, he enlisted in Captain Joseph M. Kelly’s Washington Blues company of Missouri State Militia on May 8, 1861, and served with that company at the battles of Boonville, Carthage, Wilson’s Creek, and Lexington. Other sources state as a private in Company G, 1st Infantry, Missouri State Militia, he was captured by Captain Nathaniel Lyon’s forces at Camp Jackson (St. Louis) on May 10, 1861.
Lesueur served as sergeant major of the 1st Light Artillery Battalion, 6th Division, which was mustered into service at Cassville, Missouri, in November 1861. After fighting at Pea Ridge, the unit was reorganized for Confederate service. Lesueur was promoted to second lieutenant and first lieutenant in what became known as Gorham’s Battery, and, after Gorham was replaced on November 10, 1862, Tilden’s Missouri Battery.
Although held in reserve at the Battle of Prairie Grove, the battery saw combat the following July during the Battle of Helena. There, Lesueur lead 32 of his artillerymen (serving as infantrymen) in an attack on the Federal position on Graveyard Hill. Thirteen of the battery’s members became casualties in the action.
While in winter quarters in 1863, the artillerymen refused all duties until they were allowed to elect their own officers; on December 18, 1863, Lesueur was elected captain.
In April 1864, Lesueur’s Battery went to Louisiana and participated in the Red River campaign, only to return to Arkansas to pursue General Frederick Steele’s Union army in his retreat from Camden to Little Rock; afterwards the Missourians occupied camps in Arkansas and Louisiana until the end of the war. They disbanded and were paroled on June 9, 1865.
On November 19, 1864, the battery’s name was changed to the 3rd Missouri Field Artillery.
Following the war, Lesueur settled in Lexington, Missouri, where he edited a newspaper and served in the Missouri legislature; in 1888 he was elected secretary of state, and was reelected in 1892 and 1896. He died in Burbank, California, in January 1924.
Carte-de-Visite by Brown’s Gallery, Little Rock, Ark.
Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 30197
