Confederados #3: Wild Goose Chase for Jo & Betty Shelby
by Denniele Bohannon
Joseph O. Shelby (1830-1897) & Elizabeth N. Shelby Shelby (1841-1929)
A composite picture
The Lost Cause has its heroes. Missourian Jo Shelby has come
to personify all the “Confederados” who left the United States after Confederate
defeat. He's still glorified today despite his traitorous behavior. “...the kind of chieftain that Dumas or Walter Scott
would have delighted in, a figure of legendary derring-do.” “J.P.G” in the Kansas
City Star in 1919.
The Star was at the heart of Shelby’s myth through
his lifetime and beyond.
Born in Kentucky to a prominent family of Gratzes, Shelbys
and Blairs, J. O. Shelby moved to
Waverly in Lafayette County, Missouri with half-brother Henry when they left
Transylvania University. His Aunt Rebecca Gratz in Philadelphia was optimistic
about his future: "So amiable affectionate & clever....he has gone to
such a thriving place and where he has so many friends!"
Shelby brought dozens of slaves from Kentucky to work his Waverly
Steam Rope company, a “Rope Walk,” where men wound hemp into rope in demand for baling cotton.
Twisting hemp on a rope walk was labor intensive work. In
1860 Lafayette County tallied more enslaved people than any other Missouri
county. Shelby became committed to the extreme proslavery cause as Missourians
defined it, alienating his brother who returned to Kentucky.
Kansas State Historical Society Collection
Flag carried by Missourians while terrorizing Kansans.
In 1857 27-year-old Jo Shelby married 15-year-old Elizabeth (Betty) Shelby, a distant cousin. When the Civil War began she had one boy to
raise as her husband enthusiastically joined Missouri’s Southern sympathizing
troops. Missouri did not secede but became the site for bitter guerilla mayhem.
Detail of an 1862 Thomas Nast illustration of guerrilla
warfare
Jo Shelby must have been a charismatic charmer. During
Missouri’s Civil War chaos his Union family continued to speak well of him and
help him out. Kentucky Gratzes traveled to Waverly to escort Jo's wife and
children (a boy was born in 1864) back to the safety of Lexington, Kentucky.
Wild Goose Chase by Jeanne Arnieri
After Appomattox Shelby, following his habitual path of
reckless narcissism, refused to accept Confederate defeat. He took troops and family
on a wild goose chase that failed to live up to expectations, leading about
1,000 soldiers to Mexico, then in the midst of its own Civil War between
Benito Juarez's Mexican troops and those affiliated with the Emperor
Maximilian, installed by Napoleon III of France.
Fanciful idea of a meeting between Shelby and the Mexican
imperial pair Maximilian and Carlotta drawn for the Kansas City Star by
Frank Miller to publicize the 1939 release of the Bette Davis movie Juarez.
In reality Maximilian rejected Shelby’s offer of troops because he worried
about a Union military response after the U.S. war.
Instead, the Emperor offered Shelby soldiers land grants in
Mexico, proposing Confederate colonies in Cordoba and Tuxpan.
Unsigned letter in the New York Times, winter 1865-6
In Cordoba Shelby began business on a large hacienda, a
coffee plantation, and Elizabeth gave birth to Benjamin Gratz Shelby born in
July, 1866. Mexicans, whether Juarista rebels or not, were displeased
with invading Yankees taking their land. Rebellion in the form of banditry,
assaults and raids convinced most Americans to abandon the colonies in 1867.
A Correspondent for the New Orleans paper wrote about the failure.
St. Louis Globe, May 2 , 1867
Not every Missouri paper was a fan of the General.
The Shelby family returned to Missouri in the summer of 1867.
Wild Goose Chase by Elsie Ridgley
Elizabeth in her widow’s weeds
The family remained in Aullville, Missouri until Joseph’s 1897 death. Although he avoided public life the Kansas City Star and other mythmakers lauded him before and after his passing.
State Historical Society of Missouri
George Caleb Bingham's Portrait of Jo Shelby
His widow soon moved to Bovina in Palmer County, Texas to live with her only daughter Ann Boswell Shelby Jersig (1874-1943.) Elizabeth died there in March, 1929.
Elizabeth Nancy (Betty) Shelby's Find-A-Grave file:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/10032/elizabeth-nancy-shelby
The Block
Error in first pattern. Updated---Thanks Sheila for the proofreading!
A popular block with many names.
Carlie Sexton called it Wild Goose Chase in the early 20th century.
Read More:Daniel O'Flaherty,
General Jo Shelby: Undefeated Rebel, 1954
Matthew C. Hulbert, Oracle of Lost Causes: John Newman Edwards and His Never-Ending Civil War, 2024
A post on the Kentucky/Missouri family
