As the Mockingbird Sang, the Civil War Diary of Pvt. Robert Caldwell Dunlap, C.S.A.

As the Mockingbird Sang is the story of nineteen-year old Robert Caldwell Dunlap, who in response to the news his father brought home from town, left his plow, saddled up his horse, and rode off from southern Buchanan County at sundown on June 10, 1861, to find General Sterling Price’s army. During the next three years, Caldwell logged his personal experiences as a member of the Missouri State Guard and then as a private in the Confederate States Army.

Caldwell’s entries describe the major battle at Wilson’s Creek; the Battle of Lexington, with the unique hemp bale charge, resulting in a major defeat for the Federals; and the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas. It also describes his travels south and east across a land foreign to him geographically, yet connected to him politically, and where he witnessed some of the South’s fiercest battles. In June 1864, Caldwell became separated from his personal diary, and it would be 27 years before he would again be in possession of it.

Suzanne Staker Lehr, first Research Associate of the St. Joseph Museums, Inc., brings together the diary she discovered through her research of historic Mount Mora Cemetery with an overview of Missouri’s history leading up to the war. She also tells of the saga of the diary while out of Caldwell’s possession and presents a description of the he wounds received during the War's Atlanta Campaign written by Caldwell in 1918. As the Mockingbird Sang includes the authors own annotations regarding much of this history.
[Contributed by St. Joseph Museums, Inc.]

St. Joseph Museum [Web Site]
3406 Frederick Avenue, St. Joseph, MO 816-232-8471