On Sunday, September 22, 1861, Kansas Jayhawkers, led by James Lane, a radical abolitionist, raided the town of Osceola, Missouri. No military advantage was gained; it was a senseless two-day spree of looting, arson and drinking, just another chapter in the sordid guerrilla war along the Kansas-Missouri border. Several pro-Southern citizens were executed in the town square.
When the raid was over, Lane's jayhawkers looted the town of everything they could carry and burned the rest. The once prosperous town of 2500 was reduced to just 200 inhabitants and never again would have as many people as it did before the raid.
Showing posts with label Missouri. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Missouri. Show all posts
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Sunday, September 11, 2011
150 Years Ago -- Lincoln Orders Fremont to Modify Emancipation Proclamation
On Wednesday, September 11, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln wrote to Major General John Frémont in St. Louis ordering him to modify his August 30 proclamation to the people of Missouri.
The general had declared:
On August 6, Lincoln had signed a Confiscation Act into law. This act allowed for the confiscation only of those "persons held to service" who were "employed in hostility to the United States." The act did not free the confiscated slaves. Their status was left undefined, presumably for Congress to decide at some future time. Lincoln found Frémont's emancipation proclamation to be dictatorial, far beyond the power of any general in the field. At this point, he was trying to limit the war to the question of preserving the Union. He asked Frémont to modify the order to conform with the Confiscation Act; the general refused. Now Lincoln was through asking:
Also on September 11, 1861, in Kentucky, the legislature passed a resolution calling on Governor Beriah Magoffin to order Confederate troops to leave the state. Another resolution calling for both armies to leave was defeated.
The general had declared:
"The property, real and personal, of all persons in the State of Missouri who shall take up arms against the United States, and who shall be directly proven to have taken active part with their enemies in the field, is declared to be confiscated to the public use; and their slaves, if any they have, are hereby declared free."
On August 6, Lincoln had signed a Confiscation Act into law. This act allowed for the confiscation only of those "persons held to service" who were "employed in hostility to the United States." The act did not free the confiscated slaves. Their status was left undefined, presumably for Congress to decide at some future time. Lincoln found Frémont's emancipation proclamation to be dictatorial, far beyond the power of any general in the field. At this point, he was trying to limit the war to the question of preserving the Union. He asked Frémont to modify the order to conform with the Confiscation Act; the general refused. Now Lincoln was through asking:
WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 11, 1861,
Major-Gen. John C. Fremont:
SIR: Yours of the 8th, in answer to mine of 2d inst., was just received. Assuming that you upon the ground could better judge of the necessities of your position, than I could at this distance, on seeing your proclamation of Aug. 30, I perceived no general objection to it; the particular objectionable clause, however, in relation to the confiscation of property, and the liberation of slaves, appeared to me to be objectionable in its non-conformity to the act of Congress, passed the 6th of last August upon the same subjects, and hence I wrote you expressing my wish that that clause should be modified accordingly. Your answer just received, expresses the preference on your part that I should make an open order for the modification, which I very cheerfully do. It is therefore ordered that the said clause of said proclamation be so modified, held and construed as to conform with and not to transcend the provisions on the same subject contained in the act of Congress, entitled "An act to confiscate property used for insurrectionary purposes, approved Aug. 6, 1861," and that said act be published at length with this order. Your obedient servant,
(Signed) A. LINCOLN.
Also on September 11, 1861, in Kentucky, the legislature passed a resolution calling on Governor Beriah Magoffin to order Confederate troops to leave the state. Another resolution calling for both armies to leave was defeated.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
150 Years Ago -- Jessie Fremont's Audience with the President
On Tuesday, September 10, 1861, Jessie Benton Frémont arrived in Washington to plead her husband's case for his August 30 emancipation proclamation.
John Frémont, commander of the Western Department, had issued a proclamation declaring martial law in the state of Missouri, but he had gone further, promising to free the slaves of anyone found to be in rebellion against the United States. There was also the matter of threatening to shoot anyone who was found guilty by a court-martial "who shall be taken with arms in their hands within these lines."
Lincoln had written to Frémont urging the general to modify his proclamation. He saw it as dictatorial, far beyond any authority a general in the field might have. The proclamation threatened to expand the war; Lincoln was trying to keep the war a simple matter of preserving the Union. Freeing slaves would have a disastrous effect on the war effort, alienating Northern Democrats and the few slave states that were still in the Union, especially Kentucky.
Frémont took six days before replying to Lincoln. He refused Lincoln's suggestion to modify the proclamation -- "If I were to retract of my own accord it would imply that I myself thought it wrong and that I had acted without the reflection which the gravity of the point demanded. But I did not. I acted with full deliberation and upon the certain conviction that it was a measure right and necessary and I think so still." He would only modify the proclamation if ordered to do so by Lincoln.
Now Mrs. Frémont was in Washington to plead her husband's case. Jessie Benton Frémont was the daughter of Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton. She was no stranger to Washington and had met with most of the leading politicians of the day. This trip would not be a pleasant one though.
After a tiring, two-day journey by train, she arrived at the Willard Hotel late in the evening of September 10 and sent a message to the White House, inquiring as to when she might meet with the president. The reply was surprising: "Now, at once. A. Lincoln." Mrs. Frémont hurried to the White House. Lincoln met her in the Red Room. He was standing and did not offer her a seat. She presented the general's letter. Lincoln "smiled with an expression that was not agreeable" and read it.
"(B)oth voice and manner made the impression that I was to be got rid of briefly...In answer to his question, 'Well?' I explained that the general wished so much to have his attention to the letter sent, that I had brought it to make sure it would reach him. He answered, not to that, but to the subject his own mind was upon, that 'It was a war for a great national idea, the Union, and that General Frémont should not have dragged the negro into it. -- that he never would if he had consulted with Frank Blair. I sent Frank there to advise him.'"
When Mrs. Frémont began to make the argument that emancipation would keep England and France from recognizing the Confederacy, Lincoln cut her off, noting "in a sneering tone," "You are quite a female politician."
Lincoln's side of the story was almost as equally unpleasant. He told his secretary John Hay,
"She sought an audience with me and tasked me so violently with so many things, that I had to exercise all the awkward tact I have to avoid quarreling with her. She more than once intimated that if Gen. Frémont should conclude to try conclusions with me he could set up for himself."
The next day, Mrs. Frémont met with Francis Blair, a longtime friend. He scolded her, "Who would have expected you to do such a thing as this, to come here and find fault with the President?" He later added, "Look what Frémont has done; made the President his enemy!"
Also on September 10, 1861, Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston was appointed commander of the Western armies, commanding troops in Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas and Kentucky.
Thursday, September 08, 2011
150 Years Ago -- Fremont's Reply to Lincoln
On Sunday, September 8, 1861, Union Major General John Frémont replied to President Lincoln's "request" to modify his emancipation proclamation.
Frémont, commanding the Department of the West, had issued a proclamation on August 30, declaring martial law throughout the state of Missouri. Lincoln had problems with the third paragraph which went further than the Confiscation Act recently signed into law:
Lincoln, who just then was trying hard to keep Kentucky in the Union, wrote to Frémont on September 2, asking the general to modify his proclamation. Frémont finally replied on September 8:
In addition to sending the letter, Frémont sent his wife, Jessie Benton Frémont, to Washington to plead his case. She would arrive in Washington on September 10.
Frémont, commanding the Department of the West, had issued a proclamation on August 30, declaring martial law throughout the state of Missouri. Lincoln had problems with the third paragraph which went further than the Confiscation Act recently signed into law:
All persons who shall be taken with arms in their hands within these lines shall be tried by court-martial, and, if found guilty, will be shot. The property, real and personal, of all persons in the State of Missouri who shall take up arms against the United States, and who shall be directly proven to have taken active part with their enemies in the field, is declared to be confiscated to the public use; and their slaves, if any they have, are hereby declared free.
Lincoln, who just then was trying hard to keep Kentucky in the Union, wrote to Frémont on September 2, asking the general to modify his proclamation. Frémont finally replied on September 8:
HEADQUARTERS WESTERN DEPARTMENT,
Saint Louis, September 8, 1861.
The PRESIDENT.
MY DEAR SIR: Your letter of the 2d by special messenger I know to have been written before you had received my letter, and before my telegraphic dispatches and the rapid development of critical conditions here had informed you of affairs in this quarter. I had not written to you fully and frequently, first, because in the incessant change of affairs I would be exposed to give you contradictory accounts; and, secondly, because the amount of the subjects to be laid before you would demand too much of your time.
Trusting to have your confidence I have been leaving it to events themselves to show you whether or not I was shaping affairs here according to your ideas. The shortest communication between Washington and Saint Louis generally involves two days and the employment of two days in time of war goes largely toward success or disaster. I therefore went along according to my own judgment leaving the result of my movements to justify me with you.
And so in regard to my proclamation of the 30th. Between the rebel armies, the Provisional Government and home traitors I felt the position bad and saw danger. In the night I decided upon the proclamation and the form of it. I wrote it the next morning and printed it the same day. I did it without consultation or advice with any one, acting solely with my best judgment to serve the country and yourself and perfectly willing to receive the amount of censure which should be thought due if I had made a false movement. This is as much a movement in the war as a battle, and in going into these I shall have to act according to my judgment of the ground before me as I did on this occasion. If upon reflection your better judgment still decides that I am wrong in the article respecting the liberation of slaves I have to ask that you will openly direct me to make the correction. The implied censure will be received as a soldier always should the reprimand of his chief. If I were to retract of my own accord it would imply that I myself thought it wrong and that I had acted without the reflection which the gravity of the point demanded. But I did not. I acted with full deliberation and upon the certain conviction that it was a measure right and necessary and I think so still.
In regard to the other point of the proclamation to which you refer I desire to say that I do not think the enemy can either misconstrue or urge anything against it, or undertake to make unusual retaliation. The shooting of men who shall rise in arms against an army in the military occupation of a country is merely a necessary measure of defense and entirely according to the usages of civilized warfare. The article does not at all refer to prisoners of war and certainly our enemies have no ground for requiring that we should waive in their benefit any of the ordinary advantages which the usages of war allow to us. As promptitude is itself an advantage in war I have also to ask that you will permit me to carry out upon the spot the provisions of the proclamation in this respect. Looking at affairs from this point of view I am satisfled that strong and vigorous measures have now become necessary to the success of our arms; and hoping that my views may have the honor to meet your approval,
I am, with respect and regard, very truly, yours,
J. C. FRÉMONT.
In addition to sending the letter, Frémont sent his wife, Jessie Benton Frémont, to Washington to plead his case. She would arrive in Washington on September 10.
Friday, September 02, 2011
150 Years Ago -- Lincoln Writes to Fremont
On Monday, September 2, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln wrote to Major General John C. Frémont regarding the general's August 31 proclamation to the people of Missouri.
Lincoln ordered Frémont not to shoot any prisoners without his (the president's) authorization. Lincoln feared that Frémont's threat that "all persons who shall be taken with arms in their hands within these lines shall be tried by court-martial, and, if found guilty, will be shot" would lead to the Confederates executing any prisoners they had taken in retaliation.
Lincoln did not order, but strongly suggested that Frémont modify his emancipation proclamation. In his letter, Lincoln said that he believed the proclamation "will alarm our Southern Union friends and turn them against us; perhaps ruin our rather fair prospect for Kentucky."
Kentucky, with its divided population, was still pursuing a policy of neutrality, and both sides were still tip-toeing around that neutrality, recruiting, arming and training men from the state, but avoiding overt acts that might push the state toward the opposing side. Lincoln feared that making the war about slavery would be just the thing to push Kentucky into the Confederacy.
Lincoln also feared that this proclamation would have an adverse affect on the slave states that were still in the Union and the Northern Democrats who were helping to fight the war.
On August 6, Lincoln had signed a confiscation act into law. This act, which passed the House 60-48 and the Senate 24-11, permitted the confiscation of any property, including slaves, that was used to support the Confederacy. The act stripped owners of their slaves, but left the status of the slaves unresolved. For the time being, they would be the property of the Federal government. Lincoln suggested that Frémont modify his proclamation to conform to the confiscation act.
Lincoln's letter to Frémont:
Lincoln ordered Frémont not to shoot any prisoners without his (the president's) authorization. Lincoln feared that Frémont's threat that "all persons who shall be taken with arms in their hands within these lines shall be tried by court-martial, and, if found guilty, will be shot" would lead to the Confederates executing any prisoners they had taken in retaliation.
Lincoln did not order, but strongly suggested that Frémont modify his emancipation proclamation. In his letter, Lincoln said that he believed the proclamation "will alarm our Southern Union friends and turn them against us; perhaps ruin our rather fair prospect for Kentucky."
Kentucky, with its divided population, was still pursuing a policy of neutrality, and both sides were still tip-toeing around that neutrality, recruiting, arming and training men from the state, but avoiding overt acts that might push the state toward the opposing side. Lincoln feared that making the war about slavery would be just the thing to push Kentucky into the Confederacy.
Lincoln also feared that this proclamation would have an adverse affect on the slave states that were still in the Union and the Northern Democrats who were helping to fight the war.
On August 6, Lincoln had signed a confiscation act into law. This act, which passed the House 60-48 and the Senate 24-11, permitted the confiscation of any property, including slaves, that was used to support the Confederacy. The act stripped owners of their slaves, but left the status of the slaves unresolved. For the time being, they would be the property of the Federal government. Lincoln suggested that Frémont modify his proclamation to conform to the confiscation act.
Lincoln's letter to Frémont:
WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 2, 1861
MAJOR-GENERAL FREMONT.
MY DEAR SIR:--Two points in your proclamation of August 30 give me some anxiety.
First. Should you shoot a man, according to the proclamation, the Confederates would very certainly shoot our best men in their hands in retaliation; and so, man for man, indefinitely. It is, therefore, my order that you allow no man to be shot under the proclamation without first having my approbation or consent.
Second. I think there is great danger that the closing paragraph, in relation to the confiscation of property and the liberating slaves of traitorous owners, will alarm our Southern Union friends and turn them against us; perhaps ruin our rather fair prospect for Kentucky. Allow me, therefore, to ask that you will, as of your own motion, modify that paragraph so as to conform to the first and fourth sections of the act of Congress entitled "An act to confiscate property used for insurrectionary purposes," approved August 6, 1861, and a copy of which act I herewith send you.
This letter is written in a spirit of caution, and not of censure. I send it by special messenger, in order that it may certainly and speedily reach you.
Yours very truly,
A. LINCOLN.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
150 Years Ago -- Fremont's Proclamation
On August 30, 1861, Union General John Frémont, commanding the Department of the West, issued an emancipation proclamation and confiscation act, stating, "The property, real and personal, of all persons in the state of Missouri who shall take up arms against the United States, or who shall be directly proven to have taken an active part with their enemies in the field, is declared to be confiscated to the public use, and their slaves, if any they have, are hereby declared freemen."
Since Union General John Frémont had arrived in St. Louis, Missouri, on July 25 to take command of the Department of the West, his reputation had quickly plummeted. The influential Blair family had urged his appointment, but had quickly turned against him, blaming him, among other things, for the death of Nathaniel Lyon, another Blair family favorite, and for the disaster that had befallen the main Union army in the west at Wilson's Creek.
Frémont had much to do -- he was expected to secure the state and plan an expedition down the Mississippi toward New Orleans -- but had little in the way of men or equipment to get the job done. Guerrilla warfare was rapidly becoming rampant in the state, St. Louis seemed to be a hotbed of secessionist activity --Frémont had declared martial law in the city and suppressed two local newspapers on August 14 -- and there was also the problem of the combined army of Confederate/Arkansas/Missouri militia that had defeated Lyon at Wilson's Creek.
Luckily for Frémont, the pro-Southern forces had not followed up on their victory. Ben McCulloch, commander of the Confederate forces, had not wanted to enter Missouri, and now couldn't be persuaded to pursue the defeated Federals to Rolla. The Arkansans, their terms of enlistment nearing an end, had returned home, leaving Sterling Price's state militia force to go it alone.
Frémont had the makings of a good plan to secure the state. Union troops under John Pope were already in the northeastern part of Missouri, stamping out the guerrilla warfare there. Frémont proposed to hold the railroads radiating out from St. Louis by fortifying and garrisoning Rolla, Jefferson City and Ironton. He would protect the Mississippi by fortifying Cape Girardeau, St. Louis and Cairo, Illinois. When all that was done "my plan is New Orleans straight."
One of the few good decisions Frémont would make during his time at St. Louis was to select the right man to command the force at Cairo, Illinois: Ulysses S. Grant. Grant was nominated as a brigadier general of volunteers on July 31. When his father learned of his promotion, he wrote, saying, "Ulyss, this is a good job, don''t lose it."
But two other problems were causing Washington to take a negative view of Frémont. The first was that he needed all kinds of military equipment in a big hurry. This would almost always cause a lot of irregularities and graft. In fact, the War Department was also experiencing some of the same problems on a national scale, which would soon lead to Simon Cameron's ouster from his position as Secretary of War.
This rapid arming of his troops probably exacerbated the problems Frémont was having with the Blairs. They were not getting what they thought was their rightful share of the action.
The other problem was Frémont's headquarters. From Terrible Swift Sword by Bruce Catton:
"It began with the headquarters itself -- with the look of it, the atmosphere that pervaded it, and the people who were visible there. Headquarters had been housed in a good three-story dwelling that lay behind a pleasant lawn enclosed by a stone wall, at Chouteau Avenue and Eighth Street, rented for $6000 a year. The building was not actually too big and although the price was high it perhaps was not really excessive, in view of the fact that this was one of the most important military departments in the United States; but somehow the place seemed a little too imposing. Frémont had guards all over the premises, and there were staff officers to sift his callers -- the unending stream of people who simply had to see the general, most of whom had no business getting within half a mile of him -- and presently people were muttering that the man lived in a vast mansion and surrounded himself with the barriers of a haughty aristocracy.
"Many of these complaints reflected nothing more than the inability of a young republic to understand that an overburdened executive must shield himself if he is to get any work done. (After all, this was the era when the White House itself was open to the general public, so that any persistent citizen could get in, shake the hand of the President and consume time which that harassed official could have used in more fruitful ways.) But it is also true that Frémont brought a great many of these complaints on himself by his inability to surround himself with the right kind of assistants.
"Frémont had a fatal attraction for foreigners -- displaced revolutionists from the German states, from Hungary and from France, fortune hunters from practically everywhere, men who had been trained and commissioned in European armies but who knew nothing at all about this western nation whose uniforms they wore and whose citizens they irritated with their heel-clickings and their outlandish mangling of the American idiom. Frémont was taking part in a peculiarly American sort of war -- Price's backwoods militia was wholly representative -- and Missouri had felt from the beginning that the German-born recruits from St. Louis were a little too prominent. Now headquarters had this profoundly foreign air, and when a man was told that he could not see the general -- to sell a load of hay or a tugboat, to apply for a commission, to give a little information about Rebel plots, or just to pass the time of day -- he was given the bad news in broken English by a dandified type who obviously belonged somewhere east of the Rhine. It was all rather hard to take."
By the end of August 1861, it was all getting to be rather hard to take for Frémont as well. He felt he needed some grand gesture that would set everything right, and thus came his proclamation to the people of Missouri:
Head-quarters of the Western Department,
St. Louis, August 31, 1861.
Circumstances, in my judgment of sufficient urgency, render it necessary that the Commanding General of this Department should assume the administrative powers of the State. Its disorganized condition, the helplessness of the civil authority, the total insecurity of life, and the devastation of property by bands of murderers and marauders who infest nearly every county in the State and avail themselves of the public misfortunes and the vicinity of a hostile force to gratify private and neighborhood vengeance, and who find an enemy wherever they find plunder, finally demand the severest measure to repress the daily increasing crimes and outrages which are driving off the inhabitants and ruining the State. In this condition the public safety and the success of our arms require unity of purpose, without let or hindrance, to the prompt administration of affairs.
In order, therefore, to suppress disorders, to maintain as far as now practicable the public peace, and to give security and protection to the persons and property of loyal citizens, I do hereby extend, and declare established, martial law throughout the State of Missouri. The lines of the army of occupation in this State are for the present declared to extend from Leavenworth by way of the posts of Jefferson City, Rolla, and Ironton, to Cape Giradeau on the Mississippi River.
All persons who shall be taken with arms in their hands within these lines shall be tried by court-martial, and, if found guilty, will be shot. The property, real and personal, of all persons in the State of Missouri who shall take up arms against the United States, and who shall be directly proven to have taken active part with their enemies in the field, is declared to be confiscated to the public use; and their slaves, if any they have, are hereby declared free.
All persons who shall be proven to have destroyed, after the publication of this order, railroad tracks, bridges, or telegraphs, shall suffer the extreme penalty of the law.
All persons engaged in treasonable correspondence, in giving or procuring aid to the enemies of the United States, in disturbing the public tranquility by creating and circulating false reports or incendiary documents, are in their own interest warned that they are exposing themselves.
All persons who have been led away from their allegiance are required to return to their homes forthwith; any such absence without sufficient cause will be held to be presumptive evidence against them.
The object of this declaration is to place in the hands of the military authorities the power to give instantaneous effect to existing laws, and to supply such deficiencies as the conditions of war demand. But it is not intended to suspend the ordinary tribunals of the country, where the law will be administered by the civil officers in the usual manner and with their customary authority, while the same can be peaceably exercised.
The Commanding General will labor vigilantly for the public welfare, and in his efforts for their safety hopes to obtain not only the acquiescence, but the active support of the people of the country.
J. C. Fremont,
Major-General Commanding.
The proclamation was quickly printed and made public. Frémont also sent a copy to Washington for the president's input.
Friday, August 19, 2011
150 Years Ago -- Henry Halleck's Promotion
Image via WikipediaAugust 19, 1861: The effective date of Henry Halleck's promotion to major general, making him the fourth-highest ranking officer in the U.S. Army after General-in-chief Winfield Scott, George McClellan and John Frémont.
Scott recommended Halleck for the promotion in consideration of his reputation as a military genius. Halleck, a New Yorker, attended Hudson Academy and Union College, then West Point, graduating third in the class of 1839. During his 15 years of service in the U.S. Army, he constructed seacoast defenses, studied French military tactics, lectured, wrote, taught.
He was assigned to California during the Mexican War, eventually serving under General Bennet Riley, the governor general of the California Territory. Halleck was appointed military secretary of state and was one of the principal authors of the state constitution. Halleck retired from the army in 1854. When the Civil War began, he was amassing a fortune as a lawyer and land speculator in San Francisco.
Also on this date, the Confederate Congress passed a bill admitting Missouri into the Confederacy. The bill did not mean much as it recognized the government of Governor Claiborne Jackson as the legal authority to ratify the constitution. That government had been deposed and replaced with a more Unionist body.
Friday, August 12, 2011
150 Years Ago -- Proclamations
On Monday, August 12, 1861, Confederate General Ben McCulloch issued a proclamation to the people of Missouri. McCulloch had defeated General Nathaniel Lyon's forces at the Battle of Wilson's Creek just two days before. Now he was urging Missourians to pick a side:
In Washington, President Lincoln had a proclamation of his own, declaring the last Thursday in September to be "a day of humiliation, prayer and fasting for all the people of the nation," recommending to all that they "recognize the hand of God in this terrible visitation, and in sorrowful remembrance of our own faults and crimes as a nation and as individuals, to humble ourselves before Him, and to pray for His mercy, — to pray that we may be spared further punishment, though most justly deserved; that our arms may be blessed and made effectual for the re-establishment of law, order and peace, throughout the wide extent of our country; and that the inestimable boon of civil and religious liberty, earned under His guidance and blessing, by the labors and sufferings of our fathers, may be restored in all its original excellence."
In West Texas, Mescalero Apaches raided Fort Davis, killing some cattle and scattering some horses. The Confederates now holding the fort sent Lieutenant Reuben Mays and 14 troopers in pursuit. The Apaches ambushed the cavalrymen in the Big Bend region, killing them all.
And, in Ilion, New York, Eliphalet Remington, the designer of the Remington Rifle, died of a heart attack while overseeing munitions manufacture at the E. Remington & Sons plant.
TO THE PEOPLE OF MISSOURI: Having been called by the Governor of your State to assist in driving the National forces out of the State, and restoring the people to their just rights, I have come among you simply with the view of making war upon Northern foes and to drive them back. I give the oppressed of your State an opportunity of again standing up as freemen, and uttering their true sentiments. You have been overrun and trampled upon by the mercenary hordes of the North. Your beautiful State has been nearly subjugated, but those sons of Missouri who have continued in arms, together with my forces, came back upon the enemy, and we have gained over them a great and signal victory. Their General-in-Chief is slain, and many other of their other general officers wounded; their army is in full flight, and now if the true men of Missouri will rise up and rally around their standard, the State will be redeemed.
I do not come among you to make war upon any of your people, whether of Union or otherwise. The Union people will all be protected in their rights and property. It is earnestly recommended to them to return to their homes. Prisoners of the Union party, which have been arrested by the army will be released, and allowed to return to their friends.
Missouri must be allowed to choose her own destiny. No oaths binding your consciences will be administered.
I have driven the enemy from among you. The time has now arrived for the people of the State to act. There is no time to procrastinate. She must take her position, be it North or South.
BEN MCCULLOCH, Commanding.
In Washington, President Lincoln had a proclamation of his own, declaring the last Thursday in September to be "a day of humiliation, prayer and fasting for all the people of the nation," recommending to all that they "recognize the hand of God in this terrible visitation, and in sorrowful remembrance of our own faults and crimes as a nation and as individuals, to humble ourselves before Him, and to pray for His mercy, — to pray that we may be spared further punishment, though most justly deserved; that our arms may be blessed and made effectual for the re-establishment of law, order and peace, throughout the wide extent of our country; and that the inestimable boon of civil and religious liberty, earned under His guidance and blessing, by the labors and sufferings of our fathers, may be restored in all its original excellence."
In West Texas, Mescalero Apaches raided Fort Davis, killing some cattle and scattering some horses. The Confederates now holding the fort sent Lieutenant Reuben Mays and 14 troopers in pursuit. The Apaches ambushed the cavalrymen in the Big Bend region, killing them all.
And, in Ilion, New York, Eliphalet Remington, the designer of the Remington Rifle, died of a heart attack while overseeing munitions manufacture at the E. Remington & Sons plant.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
150 Years Ago -- The Battle of Wilson's Creek
Image via WikipediaOn Saturday, August 10, 1861, the Battle of Wilson's Creek was fought in southwestern Missouri.
Missouri had been a busy place during the opening months of the Civil War. Union Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon had done much to keep Missouri in the Union, including driving secessionist-minded Governor Claiborne Jackson out of the capital and routing the state militia at the Battle of Boonville.
Now Lyon was in a precarious situation. He had pursued the militia to the southwest corner of the state, but they had been reinforced by Confederate troops -- mostly Texans and Arkansans -- under General Ben McCulloch, and now outnumbered his force 2-to-1. Lyon was now twenty miles past his advance base of Springfield and suddenly realized that he could not advance, hold his ground, or even retreat without reinforcements, but his superior, John Frémont, had very few men to send him.
The commander of the state militia, Sterling Price, saw Lyon's predicament and tried to get McCulloch to attack, but the Confederate general demurred. McCulloch had a low opinion of Price and his troops, and wasn't sure he should even be in Missouri at all. The Confederate government did not want to wage war on foreign soil, which included Missouri. McCulloch and Price argued, and Price finally told him, "You must either fight beside us or look on at a safe distance and see us fight all alone the army you dare not attack even with our aid."
Price finally won the argument and McCulloch ordered the combined Confederate/Missouri/Arkansas army to move to attack Lyon on the night of August 9. But it rained that night and McCulloch cancelled the attack.
Lyon, meanwhile, decided that the best defense is a good offense, and launched his own attack, relying on surprise to overcome his lack of numbers.
In Terrible Swift Sword, historian Bruce Catton offers a lengthy, but entertaining summary of the armies involved in the Battle of Wilson's Creek:
"It was an odd sort of army, wholly representative of its time and place. Lyon had, to begin with, a handful of regular infantry and artillery, tough and disciplined, full of contempt for volunteers, home guards, and amateur soldiers generally, whether Union or Confederate. He also had several regiments of Missouri infantry, principally German levies from St. Louis, short of equipment and training, most of them grouped in a brigade commanded by Franz Sigel. Sigel was an émigré from the German revolutionary troubles of 1848, trained as a soldier, humorless, dedicated, unhappily lacking in the capacity to lead soldiers in action; a baffling sort, devoted but incapable, who induced many Germans to enlist but who was rarely able to use them properly after they had enlisted. There were two rough-hewn regiments from Kansas and there was a ninety-day outfit from Iowa, a happy-go-lucky regiment whose time was about to expire but whose members had agreed to stick around for a few days in case the general was going to have a battle. (The Iowans did not like Lyon at all but they trusted him, considering him a tough customer and competent.) There were also stray companies and detachments from here and there whose numbers were small and whose value was entirely problematic. In miniature, this was much like the Union army that had been so spectacularly routed at Bull Run except that it was even less well equipped and disciplined.
"Yet if this army was odd the army which it was about to fight was ever so much odder -- one of the very oddest, all things considered, that ever played a part in the Civil War. Lyon's army would have struck any precisionist as something out of a military nightmare, but it was a veritable Prussian guard compared to its foes. The Southerners were armed with everything from regulation army rifles to back-country fowling pieces, a few of them wore Confederate gray but most of them wore whatever homespun garments happened to be at hand when they left home, and for at least three fourths of them there were no commissary and quartermaster arrangements whatever. The various levies were tied together by a loose gentleman's agreement rather than by any formal military organization, and many of the men were not Confederates at all, owing no allegiance to Jefferson Davis, fighting for Missouri rather than for the Confederacy. The war was still a bit puzzling, in these parts.
"The core of this army (from a professional soldier's viewpoint, at any rate) was a brigade of some 3200 Confederate troops led by Brigadier General Ben McCulloch, veteran of the Mexican War and one-time Texas Ranger, an old pal of Davy Crockett who looked the part, an officer who liked to sling a rifle over his shoulder, get on his his horse, and do his scouting personally. His men were well armed, most of them wore uniforms, and they had had about as much military training as anybody got in those days -- enough to get by on, but nothing special. There were also 2200 state troops from Arkansas, one cavalry and three infantry regiments led by Brigadier General N. B. Pearce. These men had good weapons but no uniforms and little equipment -- they carried their ammunition in their haversacks for want of better containers -- and they brought along two batteries of artillery, guns which until quite recently had been reposed in the United States arsenal at Little Rock. And, in addition, there was the Missouri State Guard under Major General Sterling Price.
"No one quite knew how many men Price had -- between 9000 and 10,000, probably, of which number only about 7000 could be used in action; the rest had no weapons at all. There were a few regimental organizations, but for the most part the formations were nothing more than bands bearing the names of the men who led them -- Wingo's infantry, Kelly's infantry, Foster's infantry, and so on. The men had no tents, no supplies, no pay, hardly any ammunition and nothing whatever in the way of uniforms; an officer could be distinguished by the fact that he would have a strip of colored flannel on his shoulders, and one of the men described General Price himself with the words: "He is a large fine looking bald fellow dressed in common citizen clothes an oald linen coat yarn pants." None of them had been given anything which West Point would have recognized as drill; one group, led by former country lawyers, was called to quarters daily by the courtroom cry of "Oyez! Oyez!" and customarily addressed its commanding officer as "Jedge." Not even in the American Revolution was there ever a more completely backwoods army; these men were not so much soldiers as rangy characters who had come down from the north fork of the creek to get into a fight. Their commissary department consisted of the nearest cornfield, and their horses got their forage on the prairie; and a veteran of the State Guard wrote after the war that any regular soldier given command of the host would have spent a solid six months drilling, equipping, organizing, and provisioning it, during which time the Yankees would have overrun every last county in Missouri once and for all. He added that although Price's men had very poor weapons -- some of them actually carried ancient flintlocks -- they knew very well how to use them, and they did not scare easily."
Sigel convinced Lyon to try a pincer movement. Lyon would split his outnumbered army, sending Sigel with 1200 men on a night march around McCulloch's army to attack his rear. Lyon, meanwhile, would march straight ahead with the remainder of the army and attack McCulloch's center and left. Everyone was in position at daybreak and the battle began.
Sigel's movement took the Confederates by surprise, driving them back, but a case of mistaken identity ruined the attack. A unit in gray uniforms approached Sigel's position. They were thought to be the 1st Iowa from Lyon's command, but turned out to be a Louisiana regiment. They closed and fired a volley that disintegrated Sigel's forces. An artillery barrage and an infantry counterattack sealed the deal. Sigel's force broke and fled.
Once Sigel's flanking move dissolved, the battle turned into a bloody, head-on attack that lasted most of the morning.
Lyon was wounded twice and had a horse shot out from under him, but he found another horse and was attempting to rally his men when he was shot through the heart. The battle gradually petered out and the Federals disengaged from the fight. They soon discovered that their highest ranking officer on the field was Major Samuel D. Sturgis of the regulars. Sturgis took command and led the army back to Springfield.
Both sides suffered about the same number of casualties -- a little over 1300 for the Federals (25% of the total present) and just over 1200 for the Confederate/Missouri/Arkansas force.
The Federals would retreat to Rolla. Price tried to get McCulloch to pursue, but he refused, concerned about his own supply line back to Arkansas. The Confederate and Arkansas troops would withdraw from the state, leaving Price to go it alone. Price would begin an invasion of northern Missouri, culminating in the Battle of Lexington on September 20.
While Price's reputation soared, Frémont's plummeted. He seemed to have lost half the state in the short time he was in command.
Saturday, August 06, 2011
150 Years Ago -- A Lull
Events moved swiftly after the war began at Fort Sumter, but there was a lull in the aftermath of the Battle of Bull Run as both sides paused to reassess the situation. An update:
As the dog days of August 1861 began the war was starting to take shape along the border or what historian Bruce Catton called "that cross section of nineteenth-century America that ran for a thousand miles from Virginia tidewater to the plains of Kansas, reaching from the place of the nation's oldest traditions to the rude frontier where no tradition ran back farther than the day before yesterday."
In eastern Virginia, between the two capitols of Washington and Richmond, the two armies, both called the Army of the Potomac, were licking their wounds after Bull Run. The "Forward to Richmond" sentiment and the belief in a short war were over. Both commanders, George McClellan and Joe Johnston, were working hard now, organizing, drilling and equipping their men. It would be many months before they would face off again.
After resigning his commission in the U.S. Army and going south, Robert E. Lee had been put in charge of Virginia's state troops. He was briefly unemployed when those troops were put under Confederate control, but he became the top military adviser to Virginia Governor John Letcher, then to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
Lee was sent to western Virginia to try to salvage the situation there after the Union victory at Rich Mountain. Lee arrived on August 1, charged with "combining all our forces in western Virginia on one plan of operations." Lee would soon find that it was impossible to get everyone on the same page.
The Federals had about 11,000 soldiers in the region. Brigadier General Jacob Cox commanded a force of 2700 in the Kanawha Valley. There were some small detachments in the north guarding key points along the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, the only direct link between Washington and the West. Brigadier General William Rosecrans commanded the rest near Cheat Mountain.
Brigadier General W. W. Loring commanded the principal Confederate force, some 10,000 men, at Huntersville. Lee joined up with this contingent that was facing Rosecrans's army. Farther south, two politicians, former Virginia Governor Henry Wise and former U.S. Secretary of War John Floyd, commanded separate forces facing Cox. Wise and Floyd would spend more time competing against each other for authority than they ever would against Cox.
Farther west, the war was not being fought at all in Kentucky as both sides endeavored for a time to respect the state's proclaimed neutrality. Both sides badly needed Kentucky. Lincoln would soon remark, "I think to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game." The state served as a big shield separating the two powers. A Confederate Kentucky would move the border all the way up to the Ohio River, depriving the Federals of a base from which to launch an offensive in the Mississippi Valley. If the Union took the state, Tennessee and the Mississippi River would be threatened. Neither side could afford to antagonize the state and push it to the other side, but both sides had camps either in the state or just outside its borders, rallying Kentuckians to their respective causes.
The next major conflagration of the war would take place on the far west end of the border in Missouri. Union Major General John Frémont arrived on July 25 to take command of the Department of the West.
Frémont was a career U.S. Army officer, but he had come up through the Topographical Corps, where he had become famous as "The Pathfinder," charting trails to the West. In 1856, he had become the first presidential nominee of the new Republican Party. Now he was in over his head. As Catton put it in Terrible Swift Sword, "Now he was in Missouri, a bewildering jungle where a trail could be blazed only by a man gifted with a profound understanding of the American character, the talents of a canny politician, and enormous skill as an administrator. Of these gifts General Frémont had hardly a trace."
Frémont had a big job to do, but little to do it with. He was expected to secure the state and also to organize an army and lead it down the Mississippi toward New Orleans, reopening the river to commerce and isolating the western part of the Confederacy.
He had about 23,000 troops, but about a third of those were three-month volunteers whose terms were about to expire. He was receiving new recruits, but had few arms, uniforms or other equipment, few rations and no money. Guerrilla warfare was becoming rampant in the state, and like many other commanders he was exaggerating the number of enemy troops he was facing. He thought he faced about 25,000 state militia with another 50,000 Confederate soldiers in Arkansas and Tennessee ready to invade. In actuality, he faced about half that number of both.
Nathaniel Lyon had done much to keep Missouri in the Union, but he had been blunt about it, forcing almost everyone in the state to choose sides. He had moved quickly and thwarted a plot by Governor Claiborne Jackson to capture the arsenal at St. Louis. In May, he had surrounded and captured some state militia legally encamped near St. Louis, then when he marched them through the town, it touched off a riot that left some two dozen civilians dead. One of the Missourians who had chosen a side was Sterling Price, now in charge of most of the remaining state militia. Price was fighting not so much for the Confederacy but to try to keep the war from engulfing the state.
Lyon had gone on to declare war on Price and Jackson, and had driven them away from the capital of Jefferson City. Then he had routed the militia at Boonsville and pursued them to the southwest corner of the state. His actions had allowed the Union men of the state to declare state offices vacant and to set up a new pro-Union government with Hamilton Gamble as governor. But Lyon was now in a bad predicament. He had advanced too far and was at the end of a long, precarious supply line. He wrote to Frémont, asking for reinforcements and confessing that he now could not attack, stay where he was, or even conduct an orderly retreat.
Frémont, with much to do and little to do it with, decided his best bet was to reinforce the key town of Cairo, Illinois, where the Ohio River met the Mississippi. He told Lyon to do the best he could and sent a few reinforcements, but Lyon would not see them. He would die on August 10 at the Battle of Wilson's Creek.
As the dog days of August 1861 began the war was starting to take shape along the border or what historian Bruce Catton called "that cross section of nineteenth-century America that ran for a thousand miles from Virginia tidewater to the plains of Kansas, reaching from the place of the nation's oldest traditions to the rude frontier where no tradition ran back farther than the day before yesterday."
In eastern Virginia, between the two capitols of Washington and Richmond, the two armies, both called the Army of the Potomac, were licking their wounds after Bull Run. The "Forward to Richmond" sentiment and the belief in a short war were over. Both commanders, George McClellan and Joe Johnston, were working hard now, organizing, drilling and equipping their men. It would be many months before they would face off again.
After resigning his commission in the U.S. Army and going south, Robert E. Lee had been put in charge of Virginia's state troops. He was briefly unemployed when those troops were put under Confederate control, but he became the top military adviser to Virginia Governor John Letcher, then to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
Lee was sent to western Virginia to try to salvage the situation there after the Union victory at Rich Mountain. Lee arrived on August 1, charged with "combining all our forces in western Virginia on one plan of operations." Lee would soon find that it was impossible to get everyone on the same page.
The Federals had about 11,000 soldiers in the region. Brigadier General Jacob Cox commanded a force of 2700 in the Kanawha Valley. There were some small detachments in the north guarding key points along the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, the only direct link between Washington and the West. Brigadier General William Rosecrans commanded the rest near Cheat Mountain.
Brigadier General W. W. Loring commanded the principal Confederate force, some 10,000 men, at Huntersville. Lee joined up with this contingent that was facing Rosecrans's army. Farther south, two politicians, former Virginia Governor Henry Wise and former U.S. Secretary of War John Floyd, commanded separate forces facing Cox. Wise and Floyd would spend more time competing against each other for authority than they ever would against Cox.
Farther west, the war was not being fought at all in Kentucky as both sides endeavored for a time to respect the state's proclaimed neutrality. Both sides badly needed Kentucky. Lincoln would soon remark, "I think to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game." The state served as a big shield separating the two powers. A Confederate Kentucky would move the border all the way up to the Ohio River, depriving the Federals of a base from which to launch an offensive in the Mississippi Valley. If the Union took the state, Tennessee and the Mississippi River would be threatened. Neither side could afford to antagonize the state and push it to the other side, but both sides had camps either in the state or just outside its borders, rallying Kentuckians to their respective causes.
The next major conflagration of the war would take place on the far west end of the border in Missouri. Union Major General John Frémont arrived on July 25 to take command of the Department of the West.
Frémont was a career U.S. Army officer, but he had come up through the Topographical Corps, where he had become famous as "The Pathfinder," charting trails to the West. In 1856, he had become the first presidential nominee of the new Republican Party. Now he was in over his head. As Catton put it in Terrible Swift Sword, "Now he was in Missouri, a bewildering jungle where a trail could be blazed only by a man gifted with a profound understanding of the American character, the talents of a canny politician, and enormous skill as an administrator. Of these gifts General Frémont had hardly a trace."
Frémont had a big job to do, but little to do it with. He was expected to secure the state and also to organize an army and lead it down the Mississippi toward New Orleans, reopening the river to commerce and isolating the western part of the Confederacy.
He had about 23,000 troops, but about a third of those were three-month volunteers whose terms were about to expire. He was receiving new recruits, but had few arms, uniforms or other equipment, few rations and no money. Guerrilla warfare was becoming rampant in the state, and like many other commanders he was exaggerating the number of enemy troops he was facing. He thought he faced about 25,000 state militia with another 50,000 Confederate soldiers in Arkansas and Tennessee ready to invade. In actuality, he faced about half that number of both.
Nathaniel Lyon had done much to keep Missouri in the Union, but he had been blunt about it, forcing almost everyone in the state to choose sides. He had moved quickly and thwarted a plot by Governor Claiborne Jackson to capture the arsenal at St. Louis. In May, he had surrounded and captured some state militia legally encamped near St. Louis, then when he marched them through the town, it touched off a riot that left some two dozen civilians dead. One of the Missourians who had chosen a side was Sterling Price, now in charge of most of the remaining state militia. Price was fighting not so much for the Confederacy but to try to keep the war from engulfing the state.
Lyon had gone on to declare war on Price and Jackson, and had driven them away from the capital of Jefferson City. Then he had routed the militia at Boonsville and pursued them to the southwest corner of the state. His actions had allowed the Union men of the state to declare state offices vacant and to set up a new pro-Union government with Hamilton Gamble as governor. But Lyon was now in a bad predicament. He had advanced too far and was at the end of a long, precarious supply line. He wrote to Frémont, asking for reinforcements and confessing that he now could not attack, stay where he was, or even conduct an orderly retreat.
Frémont, with much to do and little to do it with, decided his best bet was to reinforce the key town of Cairo, Illinois, where the Ohio River met the Mississippi. He told Lyon to do the best he could and sent a few reinforcements, but Lyon would not see them. He would die on August 10 at the Battle of Wilson's Creek.
Tuesday, August 02, 2011
150 Years Ago -- Dug Springs
On Friday, August 2, 1861, the Battle of Dug Springs took place in Missouri. Events were rapidly coming to a head in the state.
Union General Nathaniel Lyon had declared war on Governor Claiborne Jackson and Sterling Price, the commander of the state militia. He drove them away from Jefferson City, the state capital, routed the militia at Boonville, and pursued them to the southwest corner of the state.
Now Lyon was in a precarious situation. He was in Springfield, far from his home base of St. Louis, and outnumbered. Price's militia had joined with Confederate troops from Arkansas under General Ben McCulloch, giving them about a 2-to-1 advantage over Lyon. Also, many of Lyon's men were leaving or preparing to leave as their 90-day enlistments ran out.
On August 1, Lyon got the news that the large Southern force was advancing on his position. There were said to be three columns of troops with the main column advancing up the Wire road (named for the telegraph wires that lined it).
Lyon would have been wise to retreat, but did not want to do so without a fight. He put his forces on the road to meet this threat. They camped 12 miles south of Springfield that night, and continued the march the next morning. Lyon planned to attack the main column, and if all went well, take on the other columns in turn.
Advance units from the opposing forces ran into each other at 9 a.m. on August 2 on the Wire road. The Battle of Dug Springs lasted for about five hours, ebbing back and forth as both sides cautiously launched probing attacks to determine the size of the force they faced. Although he was outnumbered by the combined Southern forces, Lyon had the advantage with the troops that were present for this fight. His vanguard, composed of U.S. Army regulars, faced six companies of Missouri State Guard troops under General James Rains.
Eventually, a charge by troops from the 2nd U.S. Infantry scattered Rains's men, and they retreated back down the Wire road. The Southerners would call the battle "Rains' Scare," and it would reinforce McCulloch's low opinion of the fighting abilities of the Missouri troops, but they would regroup and continue the advance. Lyon would plan one more attack. The armies would meet on August 10 at Wilson's Creek.
Also on this date, Colonel William Tecumseh Sherman was promoted to brigadier general, dated from May 17. He was transferred to Kentucky where he was second in command under General Robert Anderson, the hero of Fort Sumter.
And, the U.S. Congress voted to impose the first national income tax. In addition to new tariffs, the bill called for a flat tax of 3% on income over $800 to help finance the war. President Lincoln would sign the bill into law on August 5. The Revenue Act of 1861 would be repealed by the Revenue Act of 1862, which replaced the flat rate with a progressive scale -- 3% on income over $600 and 5% on income over $10,000.
Union General Nathaniel Lyon had declared war on Governor Claiborne Jackson and Sterling Price, the commander of the state militia. He drove them away from Jefferson City, the state capital, routed the militia at Boonville, and pursued them to the southwest corner of the state.
Now Lyon was in a precarious situation. He was in Springfield, far from his home base of St. Louis, and outnumbered. Price's militia had joined with Confederate troops from Arkansas under General Ben McCulloch, giving them about a 2-to-1 advantage over Lyon. Also, many of Lyon's men were leaving or preparing to leave as their 90-day enlistments ran out.
On August 1, Lyon got the news that the large Southern force was advancing on his position. There were said to be three columns of troops with the main column advancing up the Wire road (named for the telegraph wires that lined it).
Lyon would have been wise to retreat, but did not want to do so without a fight. He put his forces on the road to meet this threat. They camped 12 miles south of Springfield that night, and continued the march the next morning. Lyon planned to attack the main column, and if all went well, take on the other columns in turn.
Advance units from the opposing forces ran into each other at 9 a.m. on August 2 on the Wire road. The Battle of Dug Springs lasted for about five hours, ebbing back and forth as both sides cautiously launched probing attacks to determine the size of the force they faced. Although he was outnumbered by the combined Southern forces, Lyon had the advantage with the troops that were present for this fight. His vanguard, composed of U.S. Army regulars, faced six companies of Missouri State Guard troops under General James Rains.
Eventually, a charge by troops from the 2nd U.S. Infantry scattered Rains's men, and they retreated back down the Wire road. The Southerners would call the battle "Rains' Scare," and it would reinforce McCulloch's low opinion of the fighting abilities of the Missouri troops, but they would regroup and continue the advance. Lyon would plan one more attack. The armies would meet on August 10 at Wilson's Creek.
Also on this date, Colonel William Tecumseh Sherman was promoted to brigadier general, dated from May 17. He was transferred to Kentucky where he was second in command under General Robert Anderson, the hero of Fort Sumter.
And, the U.S. Congress voted to impose the first national income tax. In addition to new tariffs, the bill called for a flat tax of 3% on income over $800 to help finance the war. President Lincoln would sign the bill into law on August 5. The Revenue Act of 1861 would be repealed by the Revenue Act of 1862, which replaced the flat rate with a progressive scale -- 3% on income over $600 and 5% on income over $10,000.
Tuesday, July 05, 2011
150 Years Ago: Carthage
On Friday, July 5, 1861, the Battle of Carthage took place in Missouri. This was the largest battle to date in the Civil War.
Governor Claiborne Jackson's State Guard had been on the run since they were routed at Boonville on June 17. They headed toward the southwest corner of the state to regroup, and met up in Lamar on July 3 with another group of State Guards led by Sterling Price. Jackson now had around 4000 inexperienced soldiers and another 2000 that had no weapons.
Lyon was pursuing Jackson's militia from Boonville, but could not keep up. Meanwhile, Colonel Franz Sigel led another detachment of 1100 Union troops toward Lexington to cut off Price's retreat. Sigel headed on to Carthage to try to catch the fleeing States Guardsmen, unaware that the two groups had already merged.
Learning that Sigel was at Carthage, Jackson took command and advanced to attack the smaller, but better trained and armed force. The two armies met about ten miles north of Carthage.
The battle opened around 8:30 a.m. It began as an artillery duel that was largely ineffective. Eventually Sigel realized how outnumbered he was. With his line fully extended, the State Guard line extended past both of his flanks. Sigel began an orderly withdrawal that turned into a running battle that lasted most of the day. Sigel was eventually able to escape the trap, withdrawing back through Carthage before escaping to Sarcoxie.
Casualties were light. Union: 13 killed, 31 wounded. State Guard: 12 killed, 64 wounded, 1 missing.
The battle was fairly insignificant, not a great tactical or strategic victory, but the pro-Southerners in Missouri had not had much good news lately and celebrated their first victory. The State Guard had almost taken Sigel by surprise and destroyed his army. Only a skillful withdrawal had saved him. The State Guard was able to link up with Confederate troops, mostly Texans and Arkansans, led by Ben McCulloch on July 6, and continue the fight for Missouri.
Governor Claiborne Jackson's State Guard had been on the run since they were routed at Boonville on June 17. They headed toward the southwest corner of the state to regroup, and met up in Lamar on July 3 with another group of State Guards led by Sterling Price. Jackson now had around 4000 inexperienced soldiers and another 2000 that had no weapons.
Lyon was pursuing Jackson's militia from Boonville, but could not keep up. Meanwhile, Colonel Franz Sigel led another detachment of 1100 Union troops toward Lexington to cut off Price's retreat. Sigel headed on to Carthage to try to catch the fleeing States Guardsmen, unaware that the two groups had already merged.
Learning that Sigel was at Carthage, Jackson took command and advanced to attack the smaller, but better trained and armed force. The two armies met about ten miles north of Carthage.
The battle opened around 8:30 a.m. It began as an artillery duel that was largely ineffective. Eventually Sigel realized how outnumbered he was. With his line fully extended, the State Guard line extended past both of his flanks. Sigel began an orderly withdrawal that turned into a running battle that lasted most of the day. Sigel was eventually able to escape the trap, withdrawing back through Carthage before escaping to Sarcoxie.
Casualties were light. Union: 13 killed, 31 wounded. State Guard: 12 killed, 64 wounded, 1 missing.
The battle was fairly insignificant, not a great tactical or strategic victory, but the pro-Southerners in Missouri had not had much good news lately and celebrated their first victory. The State Guard had almost taken Sigel by surprise and destroyed his army. Only a skillful withdrawal had saved him. The State Guard was able to link up with Confederate troops, mostly Texans and Arkansans, led by Ben McCulloch on July 6, and continue the fight for Missouri.
Friday, June 17, 2011
150 Years Ago: Boonville and Greeneville
Months of tension reached a climax in Missouri on Monday, June 17, 1861, near the little town of Boonville.
A meeting had been set up days earlier in St. Louis to try to bring some peace to the divided state, but it had ended with Union General Nathaniel Lyon declaring war on the pro-Southern leaders, Governor Claiborne Jackson and General Sterling Price.
After the meeting, Jackson and Price fled to the state capital of Jefferson City. They quickly decided that the capital could not be held and retreated with the State Guard northwest to Boonville. They needed time to consolidate the militia forces at Boonville and Lexington, and to train and arm them. But time was the one thing Lyon did not intend to give them.
Price had planned to retreat from Boonville if Lyon's army showed up, but he became ill with dysentary and traveled on to Lexington where more militia forces were gathering, leaving the governor in charge. Jackson, fearing the political price of another retreat, decided to have the showdown at Boonville.
Lyon's army of 1700, two volunteer brigades, a company of regulars and an artillery battery, advanced down the Rocheport Road toward Boonville. They ran into Colonel John Marmaduke's regiment of militia, some 500 men, positioned around a house, its outbuildings and a wheat field. Union artillery fire drove the militiamen back, but they quickly regrouped on a nearby ridge. More artillery fire drove the militiamen back through their camp to the fairgrounds east of town. Supported by fire from an eight-inch howitzer aboard the
Augustus McDowell on the nearby Missouri River, the Union forces flanked the line of militia and the retreat quickly turned into a rout. The militia disintegrated; the men scattering in all directions.
The bulk of the fighting lasted less than thirty minutes and casualties were light on both sides, but the consequences were huge. The Union army now had control of the Missouri River and much of the state, including the state capital. Although the fighting in Missouri would continue throughout much of the war, Governor Claiborne Jackson's dream of putting the state in the Confederacy were over. Much of the militia would retreat with Jackson to the extreme southwestern corner of the state and attempt to regroup.
Also on this date, in Greenville, Tennessee, delegates met in a convention to discuss ways to keep east Tennessee in the Union.
The pro-Unionists of East Tennessee followed a script that was very similar to the one the pro-Unionists of western Virginia followed. The main difference was that the Tennesseans did not have a Union army nearby to help them out.
The east Tennesseans met in Knoxville on May 30-31 to protest Governor Isham Harris's efforts to align the state with the Confederacy. One of their biggest grievances was that Harris had called for a statewide referendum on June 8 to approve an "Ordinance of Secession," skipping a convention to debate the issue. After many speeches condemning the governor and the state legislature for their disregard of the U.S. Constitution, the delegates agreed to meet again if Tennessee voters approved secession.
The Greeneville convention got underway on June 17. The first two days were spent mainly on organizing the convention, debating voting rules, and speechmaking. On the third day, the delegates heard two similar sets of resolutions. The first called for the formation of military companies, and pledged retaliation if any convention members were harmed or if the region were occupied by Confederate forces. The second set of resolutions was less violent in nature, mainly resolving to send a memorial to the state legislature seeking its consent for the region to form a separate state.
The second set of resolutions was adopted after much debate. The memorial was sent to the legislature, which rejected the convention's bid for statehood. The legislature promised not to pass any conscription laws, but the governor sent Confederate troops into the region to protect secessionists there. Many delegates fled to the north or went into hiding.
In other news, in Washington, Thaddeus S. C. Lowe ascended in a tethered balloon some 500 feet above the White House to demonstrate the effectiveness of aerial reconnaissance. Using a telegraph set he communicated with Lincoln, "I have the pleasure of sending you this first dispatch ever telegraphed from an aerial station..." In July 1861, Lowe would be named Chief Aeronaut of the Union Army Balloon Corps. He made several successful observations, but disputes over his operations and his pay forced his resignation in 1863.
A meeting had been set up days earlier in St. Louis to try to bring some peace to the divided state, but it had ended with Union General Nathaniel Lyon declaring war on the pro-Southern leaders, Governor Claiborne Jackson and General Sterling Price.
After the meeting, Jackson and Price fled to the state capital of Jefferson City. They quickly decided that the capital could not be held and retreated with the State Guard northwest to Boonville. They needed time to consolidate the militia forces at Boonville and Lexington, and to train and arm them. But time was the one thing Lyon did not intend to give them.
Price had planned to retreat from Boonville if Lyon's army showed up, but he became ill with dysentary and traveled on to Lexington where more militia forces were gathering, leaving the governor in charge. Jackson, fearing the political price of another retreat, decided to have the showdown at Boonville.
Lyon's army of 1700, two volunteer brigades, a company of regulars and an artillery battery, advanced down the Rocheport Road toward Boonville. They ran into Colonel John Marmaduke's regiment of militia, some 500 men, positioned around a house, its outbuildings and a wheat field. Union artillery fire drove the militiamen back, but they quickly regrouped on a nearby ridge. More artillery fire drove the militiamen back through their camp to the fairgrounds east of town. Supported by fire from an eight-inch howitzer aboard the
Augustus McDowell on the nearby Missouri River, the Union forces flanked the line of militia and the retreat quickly turned into a rout. The militia disintegrated; the men scattering in all directions.
The bulk of the fighting lasted less than thirty minutes and casualties were light on both sides, but the consequences were huge. The Union army now had control of the Missouri River and much of the state, including the state capital. Although the fighting in Missouri would continue throughout much of the war, Governor Claiborne Jackson's dream of putting the state in the Confederacy were over. Much of the militia would retreat with Jackson to the extreme southwestern corner of the state and attempt to regroup.
Also on this date, in Greenville, Tennessee, delegates met in a convention to discuss ways to keep east Tennessee in the Union.
The pro-Unionists of East Tennessee followed a script that was very similar to the one the pro-Unionists of western Virginia followed. The main difference was that the Tennesseans did not have a Union army nearby to help them out.
The east Tennesseans met in Knoxville on May 30-31 to protest Governor Isham Harris's efforts to align the state with the Confederacy. One of their biggest grievances was that Harris had called for a statewide referendum on June 8 to approve an "Ordinance of Secession," skipping a convention to debate the issue. After many speeches condemning the governor and the state legislature for their disregard of the U.S. Constitution, the delegates agreed to meet again if Tennessee voters approved secession.
The Greeneville convention got underway on June 17. The first two days were spent mainly on organizing the convention, debating voting rules, and speechmaking. On the third day, the delegates heard two similar sets of resolutions. The first called for the formation of military companies, and pledged retaliation if any convention members were harmed or if the region were occupied by Confederate forces. The second set of resolutions was less violent in nature, mainly resolving to send a memorial to the state legislature seeking its consent for the region to form a separate state.
The second set of resolutions was adopted after much debate. The memorial was sent to the legislature, which rejected the convention's bid for statehood. The legislature promised not to pass any conscription laws, but the governor sent Confederate troops into the region to protect secessionists there. Many delegates fled to the north or went into hiding.
In other news, in Washington, Thaddeus S. C. Lowe ascended in a tethered balloon some 500 feet above the White House to demonstrate the effectiveness of aerial reconnaissance. Using a telegraph set he communicated with Lincoln, "I have the pleasure of sending you this first dispatch ever telegraphed from an aerial station..." In July 1861, Lowe would be named Chief Aeronaut of the Union Army Balloon Corps. He made several successful observations, but disputes over his operations and his pay forced his resignation in 1863.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
150 Years Ago: Lyon Captures Jefferson City
Image via WikipediaOn Friday, June 14, 1861, Union General Nathaniel Lyon captured the Missouri capital, Jefferson City, without a fight. Governor Claiborne Jackson and General Sterling Price fled south to Boonville, where the state militia were gathered. Jackson's administration was now a government-in-exile; Lyon had seized the machinery of the state government.
In a meeting earlier in the week that had been set up to attempt to bring some peace to Missouri, Lyon had declared war on the pro-Southern forces in the state led by Jackson and Price. The seizure of the capital was just the first step. He would, with barely a pause, move on to Boonville to battle the state militia forces there.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
150 Years Ago: A Meeting in St. Louis
On Tuesday, June 11, 1861, moderates in Missouri arranged a meeting between Union General Nathaniel Lyon, Frank Blair, Governor Claiborne Jackson and Sterling Price in St. Louis to try to keep the conflict from spreading in the state. They met around 11 a.m. at the Planter's House hotel. The meeting lasted for four or five hours and was very stormy; the two sides had opposing goals and neither trusted the other.
At first, Lyon deferred to Blair, his political counterpart, but as the meeting progressed and grew more contentious Lyon became more outspoken. For a short time it seemed like an uneasy ceasefire between the two sides might be established. Governor Jackson offered to disband Price's pro-Southern state guards and remain neutral if the Federals would disband the pro-Unionist St. Louis home guards and promise not to move troops into any part of the state not already occupied by Federal soldiers.
Lyon refused, demanding that the militia be disbanded but refusing to disband the home guards. Then declared,
Also on this date: The Wheeling Convention
At first, Lyon deferred to Blair, his political counterpart, but as the meeting progressed and grew more contentious Lyon became more outspoken. For a short time it seemed like an uneasy ceasefire between the two sides might be established. Governor Jackson offered to disband Price's pro-Southern state guards and remain neutral if the Federals would disband the pro-Unionist St. Louis home guards and promise not to move troops into any part of the state not already occupied by Federal soldiers.
Lyon refused, demanding that the militia be disbanded but refusing to disband the home guards. Then declared,
"Rather than concede to the State of Missouri the right to demand that my government shall not enlist troops within her limits, or bring troops into the State whenever it pleases, or move troops at its own will into, out of, or through the State; rather than concede to the State of Missouri for one single instant the right to dictate to my government in any matter, however unimportant, I would see you, and you, and you, and you, [pointing to each man in the room] and every man, woman, and child in the State dead and buried. This means war. In an hour one of my officers will call for you and conduct you out of my lines."Rather than wait for the escort out, Jackson and Price left immediately for the capital, Jefferson City. On the way, Jackson ordered the destruction of key bridges and telegraph lines. He also issued a proclamation calling for 50,000 militia:
"Rise, then, and drive out ignominiously the invaders who have dared to desecrate the soil which your labors have made fruitful, and which is consecrated by your homes."Lyon quickly had his troops on the move toward the capital.
Also on this date: The Wheeling Convention
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
150 Years Ago -- The St. Louis Riot
Image via WikipediaOn Friday, May 10, 1861, the situation in St. Louis turned violent.
Union General Nathaniel Lyon, with two companies of regulars and several thousand German Home Guards, surrounded the state militia at Camp Jackson and demanded their surrender.
The militia protested, but had no choice but to surrender. Soon the 639 enlisted men and five officers were marched through St. Louis to the arsenal to be paroled. A crowd gathered to see what was going on, and when they saw the prisoners surrounded by the hated Dutchmen, they became more and more hostile, and soon erupted into violence.
From The Coming Fury by Bruce Catton:
"A woman screamed 'They've got my lover!' and ran close to spit on one of the guards; the guard turned on her with his bayonet and chased her down the street, wholly ignoring the storied sanctity of Southern womanhood. A drunken man with a revolver tried to break through the cordon, was pushed violently away, and began to fire, wounding an officer. Some of the Germans fired in reply; then the column wavered to a halt and suddenly the firing was general. In the beginning, it was said that most of the soldiers fired in the air, but this did not last long, and many of the bullets found human targets. In a little open square (William Tecumseh) Sherman stood watching with his small son at his side. When the firing began, he pulled the boy to the ground and lay over him to protect him; he estimated that at least 100 bullets passed over them before the firing died down. Smoke clouds drifting across the pavement veiled the movement of running men and women, and there was a wild uproar of musket fire, shouts, screams, hoarse cries of command, and the clatter of hurrying feet."
When it was over, at least 28 people -- civilians, soldiers and prisoners -- were dead.
"St. Louis was a wild town that night. Thousands of people were on the streets, asking for news, prepared to make news on their own account. Groups paraded back and forth, shouting, brandishing weapons, now and then firing in the darkness, some carrying the United States flag, others bearing the flag of the Confederacy. Proprietors of saloons, restaurants, and theaters prudently shut up shop, fearing a general riot. A store selling firearms was raided, and fifteen or twenty rifles were carried off before the police could disperse the mob. Somehow, general rioting was averted, but trouble broke out afresh the next day when one of the German regiments, marching from the arsenal to its mustering place, fell afoul of an angry crowd at Fifth and Walnut streets. In the senseless firing that resulted, from six to twelve persons were killed -- some of them, it was believed, soldiers hit by wild shots fired by their own comrades."
At Jefferson City, the state capital, the legislature was in session. They leaned toward the Union until the news arrived from St. Louis. Suddenly, they were vehemently pro-Confederate. They passed a bill authorizing Governor Claiborne Jackson to spend two million dollars to repel invasion. The bill also put every able-bodied man in the state in the militia, gave Jackson the power to appoint all militia officers, and made criticism of the governor an offense that could be punished by court-martial.
They adjourned for the evening, but were called back into an emergency session around midnight. The rumor was that 2000 Federal troops were on the way from St. Louis to capture the capital.
"That midnight session was eerie; tense, shadowed, poised halfway between the desperate and the ludicrous. Almost everybody came to the meeting armed, some men excessively so. Rifles were stacked in the aisles, or leaned against desks; some members sat in their places with guns between their knees, and some wore heavy belts to which were fastened revolvers and bowie knives; and there were armed guards at the doors. The tension was allayed when it became known that the Osage bridge, which must be crossed by any despotic Dutch levies that intended to enter Jefferson City, had been burned. There would be a breathing spell, then. The solons voted to send the state treasure to some safe place out of town, voted to do the same with the state's supply of powder, and then adjourned for the night, their weapons unused. In the morning it was learned that the march on the capital was not taking place after all."
Lyon's actions kept Missouri in the Union, but put the entire state in an uproar. Suddenly everyone was choosing sides, and many of those who had been for the Union before were changing sides. Among these was Sterling Price, a leading citizen of the state, a former governor, former Congressman, and Mexican War veteran. Jackson commissioned him a brigadier general and put him in command of the militia.
Monday, May 09, 2011
150 Years Ago -- Lyon's Ride
Image via WikipediaOne of those strange, weird, seriocomic episodes of the war occurred on Thursday, May 9, 1861. Union General Nathaniel Lyon, disguised as a woman, took a ride through Camp Jackson, searching for signs of subversion and rebellion.
Missouri Governor Claiborne Jackson was planning to take the state out of the Union, and wanted to capture the St. Louis Arsenal in the process. He assembled the state militia on the outskirts of St. Louis, ostensibly for drill and instruction. The plan was for the militia to capture the arsenal using some cannons sent by Jefferson Davis. The militia named their encampment Camp Jackson in honor of the governor.
Lyon had figured out the plot though. By the time the guns arrived, the muskets in the arsenal were gone. Now, Lyon was determined to close down Camp Jackson. But first, he needed to do a little reconnaissance.
Although Camp Jackson was open to all, and Lyon could have easily strolled through the place without much trouble, he dressed himself in an improbable disguise. Lyon, who had a full beard and a head full of bright, bushy red hair, dressed in a black dress and veil, got into a buggy with a black coachman, and had himself driven through the camp. If anyone asked, he was Frank Blair's mother-in-law out to see the sights.
When his trip was complete, Lyon was more determined than ever to stamp out this nest of rebellion as quickly as possible.
Sunday, May 08, 2011
150 Years Ago -- Jeff Davis's Guns Arrive
On Wednesday, May 8, 1861, the guns Jefferson Davis sent to Missouri finally arrived -- too late to do any good.
Missouri Governor Claiborne Jackson was trying to take his state out of the Union. He had his eye on capturing the St. Louis Arsenal for the Confederate cause as well, and had hatched a plot with Jefferson Davis. Jackson would assemble the militia for drill near the arsenal; Davis would send artillery pieces to help them capture it. The guns arrived too late. Most of arms the Confederacy coveted had already been removed.
Missouri Governor Claiborne Jackson was trying to take his state out of the Union. He had his eye on capturing the St. Louis Arsenal for the Confederate cause as well, and had hatched a plot with Jefferson Davis. Jackson would assemble the militia for drill near the arsenal; Davis would send artillery pieces to help them capture it. The guns arrived too late. Most of arms the Confederacy coveted had already been removed.
Tuesday, May 03, 2011
150 Years Ago -- the Department of the Ohio
On Friday, May 3, 1861, the U.S. War Department created the Department of the Ohio, organizing the troops being raised in the Northern states near the Ohio River -- Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. George McClellan, a West Point graduate and Mexican War veteran, was named as its first commander.
Also on this date, in Washington, Lincoln expanded his call for troops. He had called for 75,000 militia in his war proclamation on April 15. Now he was calling for 42,000 more. He also directed that the regular army by increased by over 22,000 and the Navy by 18,000. As Congress was not yet in session, he did this without their approval.
In Missouri, Governor Claiborne Jackson addressed the state legislature which he had called into special session. Jackson, who was toiling to take the state (and the St. Louis Arsenal) out of the Union, told the legislators that Missouri should remain neutral for the present, but should start arming for its own defense.
Also on this date, in Washington, Lincoln expanded his call for troops. He had called for 75,000 militia in his war proclamation on April 15. Now he was calling for 42,000 more. He also directed that the regular army by increased by over 22,000 and the Navy by 18,000. As Congress was not yet in session, he did this without their approval.
In Missouri, Governor Claiborne Jackson addressed the state legislature which he had called into special session. Jackson, who was toiling to take the state (and the St. Louis Arsenal) out of the Union, told the legislators that Missouri should remain neutral for the present, but should start arming for its own defense.
Monday, April 25, 2011
150 Years Ago -- Strange Times in Washington, Missouri and Tennessee
Thursday, April 25, 1861
Washington had been in a state of siege since the Baltimore riot on April 19. Railroads and telegraph lines to the capital had been cut, isolating it from the rest of the nation. No orders could get out; the only news that could get in was rumors -- mostly of an impending Rebel invasion.
The 6th Massachusetts Regiment had made it through the riot to Washington, but now the capital was cut off. More troops were on the way, but there was no news of them. Inspecting the troops that had been wounded in the riot, a despondent Lincoln told them, "I don't believe there is any North. The 7th (New York) Regiment is a myth. Rhode Island is not known in our geography any longer. You are the only Northern realities."
The 8th Massachusetts Regiment, led by General Benjamin Butler, had followed closely on the hills of the 6th Massachusetts. Hearing of the disturbance in Baltimore, Butler had detrained his regiment, the 8th Massachusetts, at the head of Chesapeake Bay, commandeered a steamboat, and headed for Annapolis, Maryland. After a short delay coming ashore, these troops were put to work reopening a route to Washington, repairing the railroad and the equipment.
The first troops sent forward were the 7th New York. They entered Washington on April 25, followed closely by troops from Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The route was open and Washington's siege was lifted.
Missouri would get out of hand very quickly. The governor, Claiborne Jackson, was trying to take the state out of the Union. In fact, he had worked out a plot with Jefferson Davis to capture the St. Louis Arsenal. Davis was sending cannons. Jackson would call the state militia into camp for drill and instruction. They would camp near the arsenal and take the facility when the cannons arrived.
Frank Blair and Nathaniel Lyon were determined to keep the state in the Union. Blair, the youngest son of the prominent Blair family, had begun forming his own militia, the Unionist Home Guard, composed mainly of German immigrants. Lyon, the commander of the arsenal's garrison, was temporarily in command of the Department of the West. General William Harney had been called away to Washington. Lyon quickly began inducting Blair's Germans into the United States Army.
Blair and Lyon knew that Jackson was after the arsenal. It was one of the most important military installations in the country -- a large complex dedicated to the manufacture and storage of arms and munitions. They would soon take very proactive steps to keep it out of the hands of the Confederates.
Illinois Governor Richard Yates enters the story on this date. He too was worried about the security of the arsenal. Working with Blair and Lyon, he sent Illinois militia into Missouri. On the night of April 25, they removed 20,000 muskets and 110,000 cartridges and transported them to the Springfield Armory. Blair kept enough of the muskets to arm the Home Guard.
On February 9, voters in Tennessee had voted against holding a convention to consider secession. Now, after Fort Sumter and Lincoln's call for troops, the sentiment had changed. Most of the Unionism in the state had simply evaporated.
Governor Isham Harris called the legislature into special session on this date. He recommended that the legislators declare Tennessee independence and enter into an alliance with the Confederacy. He also proposed that they pass "such legislation as will put the State upon war footing immediately." The legislature went into secret session to consider Governor Harris's proposals.
Washington had been in a state of siege since the Baltimore riot on April 19. Railroads and telegraph lines to the capital had been cut, isolating it from the rest of the nation. No orders could get out; the only news that could get in was rumors -- mostly of an impending Rebel invasion.
The 6th Massachusetts Regiment had made it through the riot to Washington, but now the capital was cut off. More troops were on the way, but there was no news of them. Inspecting the troops that had been wounded in the riot, a despondent Lincoln told them, "I don't believe there is any North. The 7th (New York) Regiment is a myth. Rhode Island is not known in our geography any longer. You are the only Northern realities."
The 8th Massachusetts Regiment, led by General Benjamin Butler, had followed closely on the hills of the 6th Massachusetts. Hearing of the disturbance in Baltimore, Butler had detrained his regiment, the 8th Massachusetts, at the head of Chesapeake Bay, commandeered a steamboat, and headed for Annapolis, Maryland. After a short delay coming ashore, these troops were put to work reopening a route to Washington, repairing the railroad and the equipment.
The first troops sent forward were the 7th New York. They entered Washington on April 25, followed closely by troops from Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The route was open and Washington's siege was lifted.
Missouri would get out of hand very quickly. The governor, Claiborne Jackson, was trying to take the state out of the Union. In fact, he had worked out a plot with Jefferson Davis to capture the St. Louis Arsenal. Davis was sending cannons. Jackson would call the state militia into camp for drill and instruction. They would camp near the arsenal and take the facility when the cannons arrived.
Frank Blair and Nathaniel Lyon were determined to keep the state in the Union. Blair, the youngest son of the prominent Blair family, had begun forming his own militia, the Unionist Home Guard, composed mainly of German immigrants. Lyon, the commander of the arsenal's garrison, was temporarily in command of the Department of the West. General William Harney had been called away to Washington. Lyon quickly began inducting Blair's Germans into the United States Army.
Blair and Lyon knew that Jackson was after the arsenal. It was one of the most important military installations in the country -- a large complex dedicated to the manufacture and storage of arms and munitions. They would soon take very proactive steps to keep it out of the hands of the Confederates.
Illinois Governor Richard Yates enters the story on this date. He too was worried about the security of the arsenal. Working with Blair and Lyon, he sent Illinois militia into Missouri. On the night of April 25, they removed 20,000 muskets and 110,000 cartridges and transported them to the Springfield Armory. Blair kept enough of the muskets to arm the Home Guard.
On February 9, voters in Tennessee had voted against holding a convention to consider secession. Now, after Fort Sumter and Lincoln's call for troops, the sentiment had changed. Most of the Unionism in the state had simply evaporated.
Governor Isham Harris called the legislature into special session on this date. He recommended that the legislators declare Tennessee independence and enter into an alliance with the Confederacy. He also proposed that they pass "such legislation as will put the State upon war footing immediately." The legislature went into secret session to consider Governor Harris's proposals.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)