John Marmaduke was born in Arrow Rock, Missouri, was educated in local schools and attended Yale and Harvard before accepting an appointment to the U. S. Military Academy. He graduated in the class of 1857, thirtieth in a class of thirty-eight. Returning home on leave at the start of the Civil War, he resigned his commission and accepted an appointment as colonel in the Missouri State Guard. Soon after the State Guard’s defeat at the Battle of Boonville, he accepted a commission in the Confederate army and by the end of 1861 became colonel of the 3rd Confederate Infantry. He was commended for leading his regiment at Shiloh in April 1862, where he was wounded, and for his actions at Shiloh and Corinth he was promoted to brigadier general.
In December 1862 Marmaduke commanded a cavalry brigade of Thomas Hindman’s division at Prairie Grove, Arkansas, where he distinguished himself in an enveloping maneuver of one of the Union positions early in the battle. The following month, he led his brigade in a raid into Missouri from Arkansas; he repeated the feat in April 1863. On July 4, 1863, Marmaduke commanded a cavalry division in Sterling Price’s unsuccessful attack on Helena, Arkansas, and the defense of Little Rock, Arkansas in September 1863.
During the spring of 1864, Marmaduke and his division fought in the Red River Campaign and that Fall was part of Price’s raid into Missouri. He was captured on October 25 at Mine Creek, Kansas. Marmaduke remained a prisoner until the summer of 1865.
After the war Marmaduke returned to St. Louis and was elected governor of Missouri in 1884, but died in office.
Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 31542
