This fragmented Confederate waist belt was worn by Alonzo W. Slayback.
Slayback was practicing law in Lexington, Missouri, in 1861 when the Civil War started. In June, he volunteered his services to General Sterling Price, commander of the Missouri State Guard. In July, while visiting his wife in Lexington, he was captured by Union troops, but was able to escape and return to his regiment. After the Battle of Lexington on September 23, 1861, he was elected colonel of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, 5th Division, Missouri State Guard. Contacting typhoid fever in 1863, he became gravely ill until his wife was able to join him and nurse him back to health. In March 1864 General Kirby Smith appointed Slayback bearer of special dispatches to Richmond. Later he was ordered to recruit a regiment of cavalry, was elected colonel of the unit, and was attached to General Joseph Shelby's old brigade where he remained until the end of the war.
When the war was over Slayback accompanied Shelby and the remnants of his old brigade into Mexico; as they crossed the Rio Grande they buried their Confederate battle flag in the river. Slayback returned to St. Louis by way of Havana, Cuba to practice law and become active in politics and social circles. In 1882, during an altercation with John Cockerill, editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Slayback was shot and killed. Cockerill was never charged in Slayback's murder.
Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 30155
