Members of the public are invited to come to the R&R Restaurant in Thomasville, Missouri, at 6 p.m. on Thursday, November 3rd for the “big reveal” of the newly-digitized version of the Civil War era diary of James Posey Woodside. 

John Rowlett Woodside, father of James, who spent most of his adult life in Thomasville in Oregon County, Missouri, was a Colonel in the Confederate Army. As a private he fought at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek. According to one blog post, “Woodside …  was recruiting at Mountain Home, Arkansas, when he was captured … on June 1, 1862, in Marion County, Arkansas. Upon this capture, Woodside was sent to Gratiot Street Prison in St. Louis where he later posted Bond of $3,000 and gave the Oath of Allegiance on September 12, 1863.”

John Woodside was born on September 3, 1814 at Rowlett’s Landing, Owen County, Kentucky. He was a teacher for some time, then became a lawyer. He and Emily Harris Old were married in Scott County, Missouri. Together they had eight children. A staunch Democrat, Woodside served in the Missouri State Legislature from 1860 to 1861, and as a Circuit Judge from 1871 to 1887. He died in Thomasville on February 28, 1887, where he is buried. 

James Posey Woodside (1843-1912) was born in Scott County, Missouri. In the 1850s the Woodside family moved to Thomasville, Missouri in Oregon County. When he was 18, James enlisted in the Confederate Army, 2nd Reg 1st Infantry, 7th Div. Missouri State Guard, achieving the rank of Captain. He was wounded at Wilson’s Creek, where his father also had fought, and again at Corinth in 1862 and surrendered with his regiment following the fall of Vicksburg in 1863. He spent the rest of the war in Alabama and was paroled in May of 1865.

After the Civil War, James returned to Thomasville. He worked for his father’s company as a land agent, pursued farming, and studied law. He married Martha A. Bumpass on May 1, 1867 (documented in the diary) and they had four children. He was a member of the MO House of Representatives in 1876. His brother, Leigh B. Woodside also served as a representative from Salem in Dent County. J. Posey Woodside was again elected as a representative in 1895 and served as Treasurer of Oregon County from 1904 until his death in 1912.

James Woodside’s 1867 diary documents a year in the life of a former Confederate soldier, detailing his travels throughout south and southeast Missouri working for his father’s land agency, his study of law, his marriage, documentation of his monthly expenses, and daily life in and around Oregon County, Missouri. Of particular interest are passages from the autumn of 1867, when Woodside was arrested and held prisoner on suspicion of being a member of the “Sons of Liberty,” a guerrilla group active in southern Missouri in the years following the Civil War.

Through a collaborative partnership between the MSU West Plains campus, the MSU Libraries in Springfield, and Tracey Swift, a leading citizen of Thomasville, the MSU West Plains campus acquired the diary and the Digitization Lab in Meyer Library on the main Springfield campus digitized the diary, thanks to the painstaking work of Jeffrey Lawson. The diary is now ready to be made in digital form to researchers and members of the general public. The actual print diary eventually will reside in the Ozarks Heritage Research Center in the Garnett Library on the West Plains campus. 

At the November 3rd evening reception in Thomasville, appetizers and non-alcoholic drinks will be served.