Military Figure. Colonel Henry M. Hendley of the Army of the Confederate States of America received notoriety during the American Civil War as a prisoner of war on the “Maple Leaf,” a civilian steamboat chartered by the Union Army to transport prisoners north. The steamboat left Fort Monroe, Virginia at 1:30 pm on June 10, 1863 with Confederate prisoners, who were all officers from various Confederate states, that had boarded in New Orleans or Norfolk, heading north for Fort Delaware Prison. When the steamboat was about 10 miles away from Fort Monroe at 3 pm, the Confederate prisoners quickly overtook the the crew of the vessel at gunpoint along with the Union soldiers and officers on board. Orders were given to the pilot to turn south, eventually docking the vessel near the shore. Seventy-one of the Confederate prisoners managed to escape the steamboat leaving 27 on board, who were in no condition to travel or due for parole. During the night, the prisoners marched south 32 miles without food or water through the marsh of the low country. In the next couple of days, they managed to travel, while dodging Union forces, another 71 miles with 68 of the escapees safely reaching Richmond, Virginia on June 22nd. This morsel of American history is documented in a letter written by Lt. Alexander Porter Morse , a prisoner who had escaped, to his mother and an article in the “Southern Magazine” dated September of 1871, entitled: "The Capture of the Maple Leaf." After serving the Union Army for eighteen months, the fate of the “Maple Leaf” came on April 1, 1864 when a Confederate torpedo or mine hit the vessel while crossing the St. Johns River near Jacksonville, Florida. From the damage, the steamship took-on water sinking with the total cargo being loss. Four crew members were killed in the sinking, which was the first of this type of casualty during the war. The site of the wreckage was declared a National Historic Landmark on October 12, 1994. To clear the waterway, part of the wreckage was removed in 1880, and in 1984 the remaining well-preserved wreckage was removed from a dark wet grave to become part of the Smithsonian Museum collection, hence the stories of the “Maple Leaf” will be known for generations. As for Hendley, his family, came to southeast Missouri in 1857. During the American Civil War, Henry M. Hendley served as a Confederate soldier from Missouri in the Fourth Cavalry, D-H. In April of 1863 he was taken prisoner for the first time by Union forces. During the war, he was confined in five prisons for a total of twenty-two months. Although he never had a formal education, he learned mathematics and surveying skills while in Union prisons. Born in North Carolina as one of five children, he lived in Tennessee before coming to Missouri with his extended family. After the war in 187O, he purchased a 400-acre farm in Pike Township, and his descendants are still living on the land in the 21st century. The next year, he married and had a son. In 1872 Hendley was elected county surveyor, serving in that capacity twelve years and later as the county deputy two years, but refused to hold any other public office after that service. Besides farming, he had a saw mill and was one of the leading and most respected men in the county. His military grave marker documents that he was one of the prisoners on the “Maple Leaf.”