ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

In 1860 C. F. Jackson was elected governor of Missouri. Abraham Lincoln had been elected President of the United States at the same time. Governor Jackson took his seat January 4, 1861; the question of secession was then already in warm discussion in some of the southern states, and Governor Jackson in his inaugural address maintained that "Missouri must stand by the other slave-holding states, whatever course they may pursue." The general assembly ordered an election to be held February 18th, for members of a state convention; the proposed object of this convention was "to consider the then existing relations between the United States, the people and government of the different states, and the government and people of the state of Missouri; and to adopt such measures for vindicating the sovereignty of the state and the protection of its institutions as shall appear to them to be demanded." This convention met, first at Jefferson City, and afterward at St. Louis, and had a decided majority of Unionists—that is, of men opposed to secession; some because they believed in the doctrine of "Federal Nationality," as against the doctrine called “State Rights;" others because, like A. H. Stevens, of Georgia, they saw with a clear eye that secession must inevitably result in the overthrow of slavery. And thus the Union men themselves were strongly divided into northern and southern sympathizers. The convention sat at St. Louis, without any important results, from March 9th to 22d, when it adjourned, subject to the call of its committee on federal relations.

National events rushed on rapidly to a crisis which would admit of no temporizing. In April, Fort Sumter was fired upon; President Lincoln called for 75,000 troops; and men must now take sides for or against the national sovereignty of the lawfully constituted Federal authorities. Our legislature was in session; its measures and discussions were almost entirely of the "State Rights" type; and in a message to the legislature on May 3, 1861, Governor Jackson said the President's call for troops "is unconstitutional and illegal, tending toward a consolidated despotism. ** Our interest and sympathies are identical with those of the slave-holding states, and necessarily unite our destiny with theirs." While these influences were working in the central and western parts of the state, and organizations of "state guards" were being rapidly formed to resist the federal authority, Gen. Nathaniel Lyon and Col. F. P. Blair were actively enlisting men and organizing regiments in St. Louis and vicinity, to maintain the federal authority. The most intense alarm and consternation prevailed throughout the state. Several minor conflicts occurred between state militia or "guards" and Union troops, all hinging upon the question of which power had the right of paramount sovereignty. The state troops were mostly under command of General Sterling Price, subordinate only to the governor of the state; while the federal troops were under

command of General Lyon, by authority of the President of the United States.*

Governor Jackson finally tried to make terms with Gen. Lyon, that no federal troops should be stationed in or allowed to pass through the state. This was refused; and the governor then immediately issued a formal call, June 12, for 50,000 state militia. About April 20th, nearly two months before this, the "state guards" had seized the United States arsenal at Liberty, in Clay county, and taken its stores and arms for their own use. This was several weeks before the celebrated "Camp Jackson" affair. The wager of battle was now fairly joined in Missouri between different parties of her own citizens, although volunteers from other states soon began to pour in. The following is a chronological list of the more important actions and events:

April 12, 1861.-Confederates opened fire on Fort Sumter, which was yielded up and evacuated on the 14th.

April 15.-President Lincoln's proclamation, calling for 75,000 volunteers to sustain the government, and calling a special session of congress.

SUCCEEDING EVENTS IN MISSOURI.†

April 19.-Gov. Jackson wrote to David Walker, President of the Arkansas Convention, thus: "I have been from the beginning in favor of decided and prompt action on the part of the southern states, but the majority of the people of Missouri, up to the present time, have differed with me.

[ocr errors]

April 20.-The U. S. arsenal, at Liberty, in Clay county, was seized and garrisoned by about a hundred "state guards," and the arms and cannon were distributed to their friends throughout the county, with the concurrence of the governor.‡

April 22.-Governor Jackson officially resented the president's call for troops, and called an extra session of the legislature, to arm and equip state troops. State militia ordered to go into encampment on May 3, for one week.

*It is not the purpose of this history to give a detailed narrative of events of the war time; neither to discuss the right or the wrong of the views of either party in the conflict. We only give a brief mention of some of the most important incidents and leading actors, to show how and wherein the people of Missouri were themselves divided in opinion, what motives moved them, and what events stand out as of chief historic celebrity. Indeed, we would gladly skip this period of our state history entirely, if it were permissible in such a work.

+The events here given, in their chronological order, have been collated from more than thirty different volumes containing different items or parts of Missouri's war history. The narratives, dates and statistics were found often conflicting; and we have endeavored to use those only which seemed to be the best authenticated, or the most probable under the circumstances-and to localize events as closely as possible by naming the towns, streams, counties, etc., where they occurred.

The governor had already (April 20th) seized the United States arsenal at Liberty, and had distributed among his friends the arms it contained. "-Draper's History of the Civil War, Vol. II, p. 228.

April 25, Night.-Capt. Lyon secretly removed the war stores in U. S. arsenal at St. Louis, by steamboat, over to Alton, Illinois.

*

* * *

April 28.—Gov. Jackson wrote secretly to J. W. Tucker, Esq., of St. Louis: "I want a little time to arm the state, and I am assuming every responsibility to do it with all possible dispatch. We should keep our own counsels. * * Nothing should be said about the time or the manner in which Missouri should go out. That she ought to go, and will go at the proper time, I have no doubt. She ought to have gone last winter, when she could have seized the public arms and public property and defended herself. "*

May 3.-Legislature met. Governor Jackson denounced the president's call for troops as "unconstitutional and illegal." Meanwhile Col. F. P. Blair, Jr., member of congress from the 1st district, of St. Louis, had enlisted one full regiment, and had four others in course of organization, within ten days from the issue of the president's call.

May 10.-A body of "state guards," under command of Gen. D. M. Frost, acting under Governor Jackson's authority, had established a camp near St. Louis, called "Camp Jackson." Capt. Lyon, who had been since February in charge of the U. S. arsenal at St. Louis, with a few soldiers of the regular army (less than 500), discovered that the Camp Jackson men were receiving arms and ammunition by steamboats from the south, in boxes marked "marble. Accordingly, on the morning of May 10th, he with his regulars, and Col. Blair with his Missouri volunteers, surrounded, surprised and captured the camp, taking as prisoners of war 639 privates and 50 officers. The arms captured consisted of 20 cannon, 1200 new rifles, several chests of muskets, and large quantities of shot, shell, cartridges, etc.

[ocr errors]

May 12.-Gen. Wm. S. Harney took command of the Union forces in Missouri. Meanwhile the legislature had passed an act making every able-bodied man subject to military duty. All public revenues for 1860-61 (about $3,000,000) were authorized to be used by the governor for military purposes.

May 21.-Gen. Harney made a truce or compromise of peace with Gen. Price, commander of the state troops.

June 1.-The president repudiated Gen. Harney's truce with Price; also removed him from his command and gave it to Gen. Lyon, who had on May 17th been appointed a brigadier-general of volunteers.

June 4.-Governor Jackson issued a circular claiming the HarneyPrice compact to be still in force.

June 11.-Gen. Price and Gov. Jackson sought a "peace conference" with Gen. Lyon and Col. Blair. The governor stipulated as a vital con* See official address of the state convention, issued to the people July 31, 1861.

[ocr errors]

dition of peace, that no Federal troops should be stationed in or pass through Missouri. The proposition was rejected.

June 12.-Gasconade railroad bridge burnt; also, Osage river bridge; and telegraph lines cut that connected with St. Louis.

June 13.-Governor Jackson issued a call for 50,000 state militia, to repel federal invasion; referred to the president as "the military despotism which has introduced itself at Washington;" and said to the people, "your first allegiance is due to your own state." He appointed ex-Governor Sterling Price as major general; and M. L. Clark, John B. Clark, Parsons, Slack, Harris, Rains, McBride, Stein and Jeff. Thomson, as brigadiergenerals. The state militia were called to rendezvous at Boonville and Lexington. The governor and other officers left Jefferson City for Boonville this day,* while at the same time General Lyon was embarking with 1,500 men at St. Louis, to take and hold the state capital. June 15.-General Lyon arrived at Jefferson City. June 16.-Re-embarked his troops for Boonville.

June 17.-Battle of Boonville. Colonel Marmaduke defeated. troops retreated to Warsaw, with loss of fifty killed. killed.

State

Federal loss, two

June 18-19.-Colonel O'Kane, with 350 state militia, surprised in the night, a half-formed Union regiment at Cole Camp, in Benton county, under Capt. Cook. Pollard's "Southern History" says, in this affair the Unionists lost 206 killed, a large number wounded, and over 100 taken prisoners, beside 362 muskets captured; O'Kane lost 15 killed and 20 wounded. July 3.-Governor Jackson and General Price were at Montevallo, in Vernon county, with (Pollard says) 3,600 state troops.

July 5-6.-Battle of Carthage (or Dry Fork), in Jasper county; union loss, 13 killed and 31 wounded; state troops, under Price and Jackson, lost about 300 killed and wounded. Gen. Seigel, the union commander, fell back sixty miles, to Springfield and joined Gen. Lyon.

July 8-A small fight occurred at Bird's Point, in Mississippi county. Confederates lost 3 killed and 8 wounded. Federal loss, if any, not reported. July 22.-The state convention, which had adjourned subject to the call of its committee on federal relations, re-convened at Jefferson City. July 25.-Maj. Gen. Fremont arrived at St. Louis, as commander of the western department, which comprised Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas, and the territories westward.

July 30.-State convention, by a vote of 56 to 25, declared the state offices and seats in legislature vacant, by reason of their occupants being engaged in treasonable and armed hostilities against the lawfully consti

"*The capture of Camp Jackson and the flight of the chief executive from the capital, was the occasion of a partial destruction of the Osage and Gasconade bridges [railroad], as well as those over Gray's creek, west of Jefferson City."-Annual report of state commissioner of statistics, 1866, p. 255.

tuted federal authorities, and that all legislative and executive acts in pur suance of such treason or armed hostility, pretended to be done in the name and by authority of the state of Missouri, were null and void. They elected to fill the state office vacancies, H. R. Gamble, governor; W. P. Hall, lieutenant governor; Mordecai Oliver, secretary of state; and appointed the first Monday of November as a day of general election. July 31.-Lieut. Governor Reynolds, whose office had been declared vacant by the state convention, issued a proclamation, dated at New Madrid, July 31, in which he said: "I return to the state, to accompany in my official capacity, one of the armies which the warrior statesman [Jefferson Davis], whose genius now presides over the affairs of our half of the Union, has prepared to advance against the common foe.

*

*

*

You behold the most warlike population on the globe, the people of the lower Mississippi valley, about to rush with their gleaming bowie-knives and unerring rifles, to aid us in driving out the abolitionists and their Hession allies. The road to peace and internal security is only through union with the south. Rally to the stars and bars,

*

*

*

*

in union with the glorious ensign of the grizzly bear."*

August 2.—Battle of Dug Springs, in Lawrence county. General McCulloch, of Arkansas, in command of Confederates, marching to attack Springfield, was checked, and fell back to Sarcoxie; loss, 40 killed, 44 wounded. General Lyon fell back to Springfield; loss, 8 killed, 30 wounded.

August 5.-Confederate troops under Col. Martin E. Green, attacked Missouri state militia, under Col. Moore, at Athens, in Clark county, and were defeated with a loss of 43 killed.

August 6.-Governor Jackson, being now at Carthage, and just hearing of the action of the state convention, also issued a proclamation, declaring the union between Missouri and the other states totally dissolved, and proclaiming the state of Missouri to be "a sovereign, free and independent republic."

August 10.- Battle of Wilson's Creek. Gen. Lyon, Federal, had 5,500 infantry, 400 cavalry, and 18 cannon. Gen. McCulloch, Confederate, says that his "effective force was 5,300 infantry, 15 pieces of artillery, and 6,000 horsemen." (The Union officers imagined and reported more than double this number against them; one said 23,000, and another 24,000.) The Confederates lost 421 killed, 1,317 wounded and 30 missing. The Federals reported 223 killed, 721 wounded and 292 missing, and 5 cannon lost. Gen. Lyon was killed in this engagement.

August 14-Federals evacuated Springfield and retreated to Rolla, but

*Early in March the confederate congress had adopted the "stars and bars" as the flag of their confederacy. The state seal of Missouri has two grizzly bears among its emblems.

« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »