Soldiers Housed In Macon

Taken from an article in a 1976 Edition of the Macon Chronicle-Herald - By Mrs. Lina Tedford

Macon was headquarters of a Federal post throughout the Civil War. The military population at times was as great as its entire citizenship is now. Troops were quartered in churches, tobacco barns, and storerooms.

The old Harris House, located where the Miller Hotel stood at 201 South Rollins Street, was a military prison and officers' headquarters. At one time there were 144 Confederate prisoners here.

The location of the old North Missouri Lumber Yard was the site of the Federal troop barracks. This was surrounded by a stockade within which men, women and children were once hastily assembled when it was reported that General Price and his men were approaching.

The Union soldiers established a camp extending several blocks cost and west of Vine Street and south to the Hannibal and St. Joe (Burlington) Railroad. This camp area was surrounded by a deep trench around which breastworks were thrown up.

On the corner of Jackson and Locust streets stood the building erected by the Southern Methodists in 1857. It was used as wartime headquarters by the Federal troops. At one time, it is said 7000 soldiers were housed there and in tents surrounding the church.

In 1925 an alley just behind the Miller House caved in, exposing an underground tunnel used by Civil War soldiers for transporting ammunition - the planks lining it still remarkably well preserved.