John Russell Kelso

John Russell Kelso (March 23, 1831 – January 26, 1891) was a nineteenth-century American politician, author, lecturer, school principal, and Union Army officer from Missouri. Born into a pro-slavery family, he grew up in an environment that accepted human bondage as a social and economic norm. Over time, however, Kelso came to resent both slavery and slaveholders, though he initially kept his antislavery views private. Known later for his intellectual interests and reportedly fluent in five languages, he developed a reputation as a school teacher who always carried a book in his saddle pockets, reading whenever circumstances allowed, even in the midst of war.

Kelso’s early adult life was devoted largely to education. He worked as a school teacher and school principal in Missouri, occupations that reflected both his scholarly inclinations and his commitment to public instruction. His facility with languages and his habit of constant reading contributed to his later work as an author and lecturer. These pursuits, combined with his emerging political convictions, laid the groundwork for his transition from educator to public figure during the national crisis of the Civil War.

The outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861 marked a decisive turning point in Kelso’s life. At that time he publicly declared his pro-Union sympathies, breaking with the pro-slavery background of his youth. He joined the Home Guard regiment of Dallas County, Missouri, where he attained the rank of major. In this capacity he met with Union Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon prior to the Battle of Wilson’s Creek in August 1861, a pivotal early engagement in the Trans-Mississippi Theater. After Lyon’s army was defeated at Wilson’s Creek, Kelso’s Home Guard regiment dispersed, forcing him to seek another avenue for military service.

Kelso subsequently enlisted as a private in the 24th Missouri Infantry of the Union Army. His superiors quickly recognized his potential for irregular and intelligence work and decided he could be employed as a spy. In August 1861 he was sent on a secret mission to Springfield, Missouri, and over the fall and winter of 1861 he completed several additional covert assignments under orders from Union General Samuel Ryan Curtis. In February 1862, Kelso rejoined his regiment to participate in Curtis’s campaign against Confederate forces led by General Sterling Price, further establishing his reputation as a resourceful and daring soldier.

In April 1862 Kelso was elected lieutenant of Company H, 14th Missouri State Militia Cavalry. His service with this unit began inauspiciously with a defeat on May 31, 1862, during the Skirmish at Neosho, where the 14th fled after facing the 6th Regiment of the Missouri Confederate Cavalry and the Second Cherokee Mounted Rifles. Despite this setback, Kelso and his comrades soon distinguished themselves. In August 1862 his company successfully repulsed Confederate raiders under Colonel Robert R. Lawther, and in September they took part in a scouting expedition that routed the bushwhacking Medlock brothers operating out of Arkansas. Kelso fought in the Second Battle of Springfield, where he engaged in combat by day and conducted espionage by night. Over time he developed a reputation as a skillful and fearless soldier who successfully completed both solo and group reconnaissance missions. Accounts from the period describe him as a fanatic in his Unionism, convinced that all Confederates were traitors guilty of treason and deserving death, and it was said that he killed many men without cause even as he maintained his habit of reading while waiting to “drop the rebel.”

Kelso later continued his military service in Company M of the 8th Missouri State Militia Cavalry, where he was promoted to captain in the spring of 1864. During the autumn of that year he performed scouting and reconnaissance missions in connection with Price’s Missouri Expedition in September and October 1864, one of the last major Confederate offensives in the West. His war exploits became widely known throughout Missouri, and his notoriety as a daring Union officer and uncompromising opponent of secession helped propel him into political life. Admiring supporters nominated him for Congress, and he ran as an Independent Republican against Colonel Sempronius H. Boyd, his former regimental commander in the 24th Missouri Infantry.

As a member of the Independent Party representing Missouri, Kelso was elected to the United States House of Representatives and served one term in Congress during the Reconstruction era, a significant and turbulent period in American history. In Congress he participated in the legislative process as an Independent Republican voice from Missouri, contributing to debates shaped by the aftermath of the Civil War, the reintegration of the former Confederate states, and the redefinition of civil and political rights. His service in the House reflected both his wartime Unionism and his determination to represent the interests of his constituents during a time of profound national transformation.

After leaving Congress, Kelso continued his work as an author and lecturer, drawing on his experiences as a soldier, educator, and legislator. He remained engaged in public discourse, using his skills as a writer and speaker to comment on the issues of his day. John Russell Kelso died on January 26, 1891, closing a life that spanned the antebellum, Civil War, and Reconstruction eras and that combined the roles of teacher, soldier, and statesman in the history of Missouri and the United States.