Buchanan County, Missouri - Chapter 3: The Civil War. - Agitation of the Abolition of, 1900

THE CIVIL WAR. - AGITATION OF THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY. - GOVERNOR STEWART'S AIM. - GOVERNOR JACKSON'S UTTERANCES. - THE CONVENTION OF 1861. - LYON AND BLAIR AT ST. LOUIS. - LIBERTY ARSENAL AND CAMP JACKSON. - THE GOVERNOR ABANDONS THE CAPITAL. - STERLING PRICE. - THE FIRST BATTLE. - SKIRMISH AT CARTHAGE. - WILSON'S CREEK.

Governor Stewart was succeeded by Claiborne F. Jackson of Saline County, who was elected as a Douglas Democrat in i860. He received 77446 votes. Opposed to him were Sample Orr, a "Know- Nothing," who received 64,583 votes, and Hancock Jackson, a Breckenridge Democrat, who received 6,135 votes.

Public feeling was at unrest, for the agitation of the abolition of negro slavery had stirred the people as nothing before had ever done. The North and South were divided, and secession from the Union was urged in slave states, that the people therein might hold their property in peace, for slaves were valuable chattels. Others advised arbitration and the perpetuation of the Union.

The fugitive slave law did much to aggravate the troubles. 'Phis law gave the owner of a fugitive slave the right to pursue the fugitive into any state and take him out without any verdict of court. In the celebrated Dred Scott decision the supreme court said this law was constitutional.

As a result of this decision, the legislatures of a number of Northern states passed laws nullifying the fugitive slav e law. and the United States authorities found themselves powerless. At this asser- ' tion of state's rights on the part of the Northern states, the Southern states argued that if the Northern states could nullify one law of the Union, the Southern states could, by application of the same principle, nullify all of the laws of the Union and withdraw from the Union entirely.

In the presidential campaign of i860 the Breckenridge party declared if the Republican party (which had come into existence in 1856, after the passing of the Whig party) were successful at the polls.

the Southern states would withdraw from the Union. Abraham Lincoln was elected, and subsequent events show how the Southern states made good their threat. Missouri was the only state that gave Stephen A. Douglas its electoral vote.

When the Southern states seceded, in i860, Missouri was confronted with a grave problem, being at the time the most populous of the slave-holding states. Governor Stewart, who was then retiring from office, sincerely desired to keep Missouri in the Union, but he was opposed to forcing the seceded states back into the Union, and was opposed to Missouri's taking part in such a project ; so, also, was he.opposed to the introduction of troops, either to force Missouri out of the Union or to keep her in.

Governor Jackson, though he had been elected as a Douglas Democrat, now expressed different views. "The destiny of the slaveholding states is one and inseparable," he declard in his inaugural, "and Missouri," he concluded, "will, in my opinion, best consult her own interests, and the interests of the whole country, by a timely determination to stand by her sister states." Lieutenant-Governor Reynolds, who presided over the senate, favored secession, because he believed it impossible for Missouri to preserve an "armed neutrality."

A bill providing for a state convention to consider what position Missouri should take with regard to secession was passed by the legislature soon after it convened. This convention met at St. Louis on the last day of February, 1861.

In the election of delegates the people had divided into three parties - Secessionists, Conditional Union men and Unconditional Union men. Governor Jackson, Lieutenant-Governor Reynolds, Senators Polk and Green and ex-Senator David R. Atchison led the Secessionists. Judge Hamilton R. Gamble of St. Louis, Alexander W. Doniphan, Sterling Price and ex-Governor Stewart led the Conditional Union men. They were for union, provided the federal government would not attempt to force the seceded states back and attempt to coerce them into submission. The Unconditional Union men were for the LTnion, come what might, and they were in favor of forcing the seceded states back into the Union. They were led by Frank P. Blair of St. Louis, Judge Fagg of Pike County, Arnold Krekel of St. Charles, General John D. Stephenson of Franklin County, and Sam Breckenridge of St. Louis, and were most ardently supported by the German- Americans of the state.

Sterling Price presided over the convention. Buchanan County was represented by ex-Governor Stewart, ex-Congressman Willard P. Hall and Robert W. Donnell. Secession was defeated, the convention declaring that there was "no adequate cause to compel Missouri to dissolve the connection with the federal Union." The convention perpetuated itself, after a session of twenty-three days, by adjourning subject to the call of the executive committee.

A measure making provision for arming the state militia was defeated in the legislature, and that body adjourned without making arrangements for war. In fact, neither war nor armed neutrality were desired by the people.

When Fort Sumter fell, on April 13, 1861, President Lincoln called for 75,000 troops. In response to a requisition for four regiments, Governor Jackson replied that Missouri would not furnish a man to "carry on an unholy crusade upon the seceded states."

In the meantime Captain Nathaniel Lyon and Francis P. Blair were preparing for trouble at St. Louis. Captain Lyon, a West Point graduate, had enlisted and drilled five regiments and armed them from the St. Louis arsenal. General Frost, who had returned with 700 state troops from the Kansas troubles, was quartered at the edge of St. Louis, in Camp Jackson.

When the call for troops came Lyon and Blair were to a considerable extent prepared for business. Under a special order from the Secretary of War to enroll ten thousand loyal citizens of St. Louis and vicinity, five new regiments were formed, known as the "Home Guards." The first five regiments were known as Missouri Volunteers. Of the ten regiments, nine were made up largely of German- Americans.

There was a government arsenal about four miles south of Liberty, in Clay County. It was in charge of Major Nathaniel Grant and two other men and contained about 11.000 pounds of powder, about 1,500 guns and twenty or thirty small cannon. On April 20,' 1861, two hundred men, under Colonel IT. L. Routt, most of them from Clay and Jackson Counties, quietly took possession of this arsenal, without interruption. The guns and ammunition were removed, some of the supplies being brought to St. Joseph and ultimately reaching the Confederate army. General Lyon drove through Camp Jackson, disguised in female attire, and convinced himself that some of the supplies had been brought there. He had been hoping for an opportunity to break up General Frost's command, and lost no time in setting about this work.

Camp Jackson was attacked on May 10th, and General Frost surrendered without a struggle. It was a case of 700 to 7,000, and he did the best he could. General Lyon's troops were frightened by a mob of citizens while returning with their prisoners, and fired several volleys into the crowd, leaving some forty people dead and wounded in the streets.

General Harney, who was in command at St. Louis, justified the attack upon Camp Jackson, but many people disagreed with him, and the breach between the Union and Secession classes was at once widened. Among those who differed with General Harney was General Trice, who now offered his services to Governor Jackson for what he declared to be in defense of the state, and he was at once appointed major-general of the Missouri state guards.

On June 11, 1861, Governor Jackson and General Lyon met in a conference at St. Louis to agree, if possible, upon a plan for the restoration of order. No agreement was reached, however, after five hours, and General Lyon, who was an impetuous man, suddenly broke up the conference and gave the governor an hour to get ready to be conducted out of his lines.

General Jackson hastened to Jefferson City and issued a proclamation, calling for fifty thousand volunteers "for the purpose of repelling the attack that has been made on the state, and for the protection of the lives, liberties and property of her citizens." On the following day he and General Price, together with the state officers and state papers, left for Boonville.

Flere the first battle of the rebellion in Missouri was fought, on June 1 7, 1861, between the forces of General Lyon and Colonel John S. Marmaduke, resulting in a victory for Lyon. Marmaduke had two killed and five wounded, while Lyon's loss was two killed and nine wounded.

Jackson retreated southward with an army of 7,000 men, so poorly organized and wretchedly equipped that it was little better than a mob. At Carthage General Sigel was encountered, with a loss to Jackson of ten killed and sixty-one wounded, and to Sigel of thirteen killed and thirty-one wounded ; but Jackson carried the day and Sigel retreated to Sarcoxie.

Governor Jackson went to Memphis and induced Governor Polk to send General Pillow with 6,000 men to Missouri, but General Fremont checked this invasion at Bird's Point, on the Mississippi. It was planned that Pillow should co-operate with General Jeff Thompson, who had gone from St. Joseph.

However, Price received aid from McCulloch and Pearce, who were stationed in the Indian Territory. On August io, 1861, was fought the terrific battle of. Wilson's Creek. Lyon was at Springfield and Price and McCulloch were pressing him. He felt that his only chance was to turn and fight. The armies met nine miles southeast of Springfield. A hill that rises from the ford of Wilson's Creek was the scene of action, and this has since been known as "Bloody Hill." Of the 5,400 Union men who took part in the fight 1,317 officers and men were killed, wounded or missing. General Lyon was killed, and every Union brigadier-general and colonel engaged on Bloody Hill was either killed or wounded, and the defeated Union forces were led off bv a major. The total loss to the Confederate and state troops was 1,230 killed, wounded and missing.

Price pleaded with McCulloch to follow up the attack, but McCulloch argued that he was a Confederate officer, in command of a Confederate army ; that he had been stationed in Arkansas to defend the Indian Territory; that it was his duty to defend, not to attack ; that he had aided in repelling General Lyon because Lyon was about to invade the Indian Territory; that having done this, his mission was ended. Price was unable to alone follow the retreating troops, and before he could undertake it the Union army had increased to many times larger than his own.