It was after the battle of Westport when a tired and battle-weary unit from Warrensburg was returning home. They heard shooting ahead and found a skirmish under way between other Union soldiers barricaded behind a stone wall and some Confederates. When the second unit showed up, the Confederates fled and the Union men went after them, leaving orders with the head of that second unit, Captain George Grover of Warrensburg, to stay behind and take the governor to Pleasant Hill The Governor!?!! When the Westport veterans reached the stone wall they found an ambulance behind it, the top part of the ambulance splintered by the Confederate gunfire. Inside was Governor Willare Hall who, although shaken, was still calm enough to ask Grover if he had any whiskey. The captain did, and after a long and refreshing drink from the canteen, Hall said he was ready for the road and got back into the ambulance. He was unhurt but the Confederacy had missed another golden opportunity to change the Civil War history of Missouri by capturing the governor.

AUDIO: AOWM May 9, 2005 (mp3)