Jonas Tebbetts (right) was born about 1820 in Rochester, New Hampshire, but moved to the Arkansas frontier in 1839. He built a home in Fayetteville in 1853 and became a popular leader in the town. With the start of the Civil War, Tebbetts expressed strong pro-Union sentiments, and in March 1862 was arrested by Confederate General Benjamin McCulloch and jailed. According to some sources, McCulloch threatened to hang Tebbetts, but after McCulloch was killed at the Battle of Pea Ridge, Tebbetts was released. Returning to Fayetteville, he was warned of an assassination plot, so he escaped behind Union lines in Missouri; he returned briefly to secure his wife and children. Tebbetts never returned to his home, which became the headquarters for Union forces in the area in early 1863.

Colonel Clark Wright (left) moved to Missouri from Ohio in 1858. He settled in Polk County, and with the outbreak of the war he organized 240 men from Polk and Dade counties into a cavalry squadron. He was commissioned a captain of the Dade County Home Guard in July 1861. Wright led the Home Guards at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek in August 1861, and participated in John C. Freemont’s advance on Springfield, Missouri later that fall. He became lieutenant colonel and colonel of the 6th Missouri Cavalry in early 1862, and was discharged from the service by special order of the War Department in September 1863. During this period the 6th Missouri saw action at Pea Ridge and participated in the Vicksburg campaign.

Albumen by Unknown Photographer

Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 31948