Buchanan County, Missouri - Chapter 4: Second Session of the Convention. - Hamilton R. Gamble Made Governor, Willard P. Hall, 1900

R. Gamble Made Governor, Willard P. Hall Neill At Palmyra And Anderson At Centralia

SECOND SESSION OF THE CONVENTION. - HAMILTON R. GAMBLE MADE GOVERNOR, WILLARD P. HALL, SR, LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR, AND MORDECAI OLIVER SECRETARY OF STATE. - BATTLE OF LEXINGTON. - GOVERNOR JACKSON CONVENES THE LEGISLATURE AT NEOSHO. - SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES TO THE CONFEDERATE STATES CONGRESS. - BATTLE OF PEA RIDGE. - PRICE'S RAID. - LAWRENCE MASSACRE AND ORDER NO. n. - Mc- NEILL AT PALMYRA AND ANDERSON AT CENTRALIA.

The convention which had met at St. Louis in March and adjourned subject to call, met at Jefferson City on July 22, 1861. General Robert Wilson of Andrew County, who at that time lived on his farm at "Jimtown," three miles northeast of St. Joseph, was elected president in the place of Sterling- Price. The convention declared the offices of governor, lieutenant-governor and secretary of state vacant, and selected Hamilton R. Gamble of St. Louis to succeed Governor Jackson. Willard P. Hall of St. Joseph was elected to succeed Lieut. -Governor Reynolds, and Mordecai Oliver of Spring - field was appointed secretary of state. The convention also declared vacant the seats in the legislature, and for seventeen months it exercised the duties of the general assembly.

The next battle of importance in Missouri was fought at Lexington, where Price besieged General James Mulligan, commanding three thousand men, one-half from Missouri and the other half comprising the ''Irish Brigade" of Chicago. After fifty-two hours, Mulligan surrendered.

Governor Jackson issued a proclamation at New Madrid declaring the independence of Missouri. He also issued a call for the general assembly to meet October 1, 1861, at Neosho. The legislature, or a part of it, at least, met and declared that Missouri had withdrawn from the Union. John B. Clark, Sr, and R. L. Y. Peyton were elected senators to the Confederate States senate. Senator Peyi6 ton was succeeded by George Graham Vest, who now represents Missouri in the United States senate. Eight members of the lower house were also elected. The Confederate Congress, which met at Richmond, Va., recognized these proceedings and admitted Missouri to the Confederacy. But the United States Congress recognized the convention in all future dealings, and thus Missouri remained a Union state.

Governor Jackson went south after this and died at Little Rock, December 6, 1862. Thomas C. Reynolds, his lieutenant-governor, continued to act, however, in dispute of the right of Governor Gamble, until the election of Governor Fletcher in 1864. But he was governor in name only. He was killed by falling through an elevator shaft at St. Louis, March 30, 1887.

The next important battle in which Missouri figured was at Pea Ridge, in Arkansas, about thirty miles from Cassville, Mo. Price, McCulloch and Pike had a combined force of 20,000 men, who were placed under the command of General Van Dorn. The Federal forces were under Curtis. It was a desperate battle, skillfully fought on both sides, and continued for three days. Victory finally fell to the Federals. Over thirteen hundred men were killed or wounded on either side. Generals McCulloch, McIntosh and Slack fell, and Price was wounded. After this engagement, which opened early in the morning, March 16, 1862, and closed on March 19, Price, with about 5,000 state troops, joined the Confederacy and his command was transferred to the east side of the Mississippi.

The slaughter of ten innocent men bv General John H. McNeill at Palmyra on October 8, 1862, is classed as one of the horrors of the civil war. Some of the troops of Colonel Porter, a Secessionist marauder. had captured one Andrew Allsman, a disabled Union soldier, and doubtless put him to death. McNeill notified Porter that if Allsman was not safely returned in ten days he (McNeill) would put to death ten citizens of that section whom he held in captivity at Palmyra upon the suspicion that they were in sympathy with the South, Allsman was not returned and, at the end of ten days, McNeill fulfilled his threat. I he ten victims, some of whom were connected with the best families of the community, were taken from the Palmyra prison and placed in wagons, each man sitting upon his coffin. Half a mile east of town they were shot, each victim kneeling beside his coffin.

ever, some mention of the sacking of Lawrence and General Ewing's consequent "Order No. 11" should be made. But a short digression is necessary.

The border troubles that arose over the Kansas question are well remembered by older people who lived in Platte and Buchanan Counties before the war. Both the North and South wished to be triumphant in Kansas, and the Missourians who desired that Kansas be admitted as a slave-holding state took an active part in regulating the affairs of the neighboring territory. In order to carry the state for abolition, Massachusetts sent out men under the auspices of "Emigration Aid Companies," "Kansas Societies," and the like. These men brought more guns and powder than agricultural implements. Missouri formed "Blue Lodges," to counteract the Massachusetts companies.

In 1855 the pro-slavery party elected the territorial legislature in Kansas, and it was charged that 5,000 Missourians had crossed the border from Buchanan, Platte, Jackson and Cass Counties, and voted. As a counter charge, the pro-slavery people claimed that a company of immigrants had voted at Lawrence on the day of their arrival. The election of six pro-slavery candidates was contested and sustained by the territorial governor, who gave certificates to the antislavery candidates.

But he anti-slavery men were still dissatisfied. They refused to acknowledge the authority of the legislature or to obey its laws. Active troubles now began, and the contending factions soon learned to rob each other, burn each other's houses, and destroy property. The inhabitants of Missouri border counties now began to suffer severely also.

John Brown of Osawatomie instigated raids and headed some of them himself. In one of these raids, made in December of 1858, he carried off eleven slaves. The general assembly of Missouri appropriated $30,000 to be used by Governor Stewart as he thought best. He offered $3,000 as a reward for John Brown, all of whose raids into Missouri were marked with blood.

The efforts put forth by the legislature, the governors of Missouri and Kansas, and the United States army, partially quieted the "Jayhawkers," as these marauders were called, for two years., but in i860 they broke out afresh, under the leadership of a desperado named James Montgomery. Governor Stewart sent General Frost with 7,000 men to the border, but General Harney of the United States army had preceded him.

Historians declare that the depredations of the "Javhawkers" and other raids of Kansas troops and freebooters into Missouri led to the destruction of Lawrence by Quantrell and his band of guerrillas on August 21, 1863. Stores, banks, hotels and dwellings were sacked and burned, and one hundred and eighty-three men, women and children were killed. It was a most cruel and inhuman deed, even in warfare.

General Ewing, stationed at Kansas City, issued Order Xo. 1 1 on August 25, four days after the massacre. All persons then living in Jackson, Cass and Bates Counties, except those dwelling in the principal towns, were ordered to remove from their places of abode within fifteen days. Those who could show that they were loyal were permitted to remove to the military stations or to Kansas. All others were to remove entirely out of these counties. Their grain and hay were to be taken to the nearest military station, where the owners were to be granted certificates showing their value, and all produce not so delivered was to be destroyed. The whole district soon presented a scene of desolation. In 1866, when the inhabitants returned, they found their homes destroyed bv fire, with nothing left but the blackened chimneys. Thus did General Ewing square up accounts for the sacking of Lawrence.

That Missouri was the scene of much bloodshed during the war is easily proven by the fact that 450 battles and skirmishes were fought from the time of the capture of Liberty Arsenal until the end of the great struggle. It is estimated that Missouri furnished to Governor Jackson and the Confederate service about 40,000 men. The number of Union enlistments reaches nearly 1 10.000, of which number about 8,000 were negroes.

That feature of the war in Missouri known as Price's raid began in September of 1864. Price entered Southeastern Missouri with a large force and was making for Jefferson City, where the Union forces from every part of the state were rapidly concentrated to defend the capital. Price evaded Jefferson Citv, upon information of the formidable resistance to be made there, and moved toward Boonville and Lexington, hotly pursued by Generals A. J. Smith and Pleasanton. At Independence he was defeated by Pleasanton and retreated to Arkansas.

1 he Centralia massacre, which also lives in historv as a war horror, occurred on September 27, 1864. Bill Anderson, a notorious guerilla and a band of two hundred cut-throats,* surrounded a train aboard which were some twenty-five Federal soldiers who were on furlough and unarmed. Anderson's men opened fire and the soldiers made desperate efforts to escape, leaving the cars and running, only to be shot down. Some sought protection under the depot platform, others in outhouses and barns, but the ferocious guerillas permitted none to escape. On the same day, in a battle between Major Johnson's forces and Anderson's band, sixty-eight of Johnson's men were killed. Johnson's forces scattered and were pursued, seventy more being killed by the guerillas before these terrors ended their bloody work. A month later Anderson was killed in Ray County.