Harry Endicott

The name is spelled Endicott in some documents.  He was the son of Clayton Welsh Endecott (see below) and Mary McGaugh and was born in Gallatin Township in Clayton County, Missouri,  but after the war he moved to Cass County, Missouri.  (See below for Albert’s descent from Governor John Endecott.)

Missouri Endicotts were on both sides of the Civil War.  By the end of the war nearly 110,000 Missourians had served in the Union Army and at least 30,000 in the Confederate Army.

Statehood for Missouri had come following the Missouri Compromise of 1820 that allowed Missouri to be admitted to the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state. Settlement in Missouri was rapid after that, settlers being attracted by the abundance of high quality inexpensive land, the easy access provided by the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, and the fact that slavery was permitted in Missouri.

The slave holders, who included some Endicotts in Clay County, tended to live in the region of counties called “Little Dixie,” along the Missouri river.

During the Civil War, Missouri, even though it was a slave state, was one of the border states that stayed loyal to the Union, like Kentucky, Delaware, Maryland, and West Virginia.  But many people in these states supported the Confederacy.

Albert Gallatin Endicott was a Private with Company I, 11th Regiment, Missouri Infantry, Confederate Army.  He enlisted in 1861 and served under Captain Amos Bradley.  His unit was in the following battles: Morristown (September 17, 1861; Pea Ridge; Prairie Grove (December 7, 1862 – Union victory); Jenkins Prairie; and Pleasant Hill (April 9, 1864 – Union Victory).  The last two battles were in Louisiana.  He was slightly wounded at Prairie Grove.  References to him are in the History of Cass County, Missouri, and it is known that he attended the Ex-Confederate Missourians Association 9th Annual Reunion, in Kansas City, in 1891.

It is said that Albert was awarded the Southern Cross of Honor, a medal that has an interesting history.  The original medal, intended to be the Confederate equivalent to the Union’s Congressional Medal of Honor, was authorized by the Congress of the Confederate States on October 13, 1862.  Due to a shortage of metal, however, none was ever given out, although the honorees’ names were to be printed on an honor roll with intent that they would be get their medals after the South won the war.  To date, however, no evidence has appeared that Albert’s name was on such a roll.

But then, in 1898, the United Daughters of the Confederacy decided to give a Southern Cross of Honor (it resembles a Maltese Cross) that they designed to any Confederate veteran who had provided "loyal, honorable service to the South” and about 17,000 were given out.  Presumably it is this second version of the medal that Albert would have received.