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<html>
    <h1>
      THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI
    </h1>
    <p>
      <br /><br />
    </p>
    <h2>
      BY JOHN McELROY
    </h2>
    <p>
      <br /><br />
    </p>
    <blockquote>
      <p>
        States are not great except as men may make them,<br /> Men are not
        great, except they do and dare.<br /><br /> &mdash;Eugene F. Ware.<br />
      </p>
    </blockquote>
    <p>
      <br /><br />
    </p>
    <h3>
      WASHINGTON, D. C: <br /><br /> THE NATIONAL TRIBUNE CO. <br /><br /><br /> 1909
    </h3>
    <p>
      <br /><br /><br />
    </p>
    <h4>
      DEDICATED <br /><br /> TO THE UNION MEN OF MISSOURI
    </h4>
    <p>
      <br /> <br />
    </p>
    <hr />
    <p>
      <br /> <br /> <br />
    </p>
    <div class="fig">
      <img alt="frontispiece (61K)" src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:j:john-mcelroy-struggle-for-missouri-frontispiece.jpg"  /><br />
    </div>
    <p>
      <br /> <br />
    </p>
    <div class="fig">
      <img alt="titlepage (27K)" src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:j:john-mcelroy-struggle-for-missouri-titlepage.jpg"  /><br />
    </div>
    <p>
      <br />
    </p>
    <blockquote>
      <p class="toc">
        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
      </p>
      <p>
        <br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <b>THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI.</b> </a>
        <br /><br /> <a href="#linkindex"> <b>INDEX</b> </a> <br /><br /><br /> <a
        href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. </a>A SALIENT BASTION FOR THE SLAVERY
        EMPIRE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. </a>THE WAR
        CLOUDS GATHER <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. </a>NATHANIEL
        LYON'S ENTRANCE ON THE SCENE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER
        IV. </a>THE CAPTURE OF CAMP JACKSON <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0005">
        CHAPTER V. </a>THE SCOTT-HARNEY AGREEMENT <br /><br /> <a
        href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI. </a>THE LAST WORD BEFORE THE BLOW
        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. </a>GEN. LYON BEGINS AN
        EFFECTIVE CAMPAIGN <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII.
        </a>STORM GATHERS IN SOUTHWESTERN MISSOURI <br /><br /> <a
        href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX. </a>EVE OF THE BATTLE OF WILSON'S
        CREEK <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X. </a>BATTLE OF
        WILSON'S CREEK <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI. </a>THE
        AFTERMATH OF WILSON'S CREEK <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER
        XII. </a>A GALAXY OF NOTABLE MEN <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0013">
        CHAPTER XIII. </a>FREMONT'S MARVELOUS INEFFECTIVENESS <br /><br /> <a
        href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER XIV. </a>THE SAD RETREAT FROM SPRINGFIELD
        <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER XI. </a>GEN. H. W. HALLECK
        IN COMMAND <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER XVI. </a>HUNTER,
        LANE, MISSOURI AND KANSAS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER
        XVII. </a>PRICE DRIVEN OUT OF THE STATE <br /><br /> <a
        href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER XVIII. &nbsp;&nbsp;</a>GEN. EARL VAN DORN
        TAKES COMMAND <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER XIX. </a>THE
        VICTORY IS WON <br /><br /> <br /><br /> <a href="#linkindex"> <b>INDEX</b>
        </a> <br /> <br />
      </p>
      <hr />
      <p>
        <br /> <br />
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <big><b>ILLUSTRATIONS</b></big>
      </p>
      <p>
        <br /><br />
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#linkimage-0001"> The Struggle for Missouri. </a>
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#linkimage-0002"> General Francis P Blair </a>
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#linkimage-0003"> The War Clouds Gather </a>
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#linkimage-0004"> The Harney Mansion </a>
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#linkimage-0005"> General Claiborne Jackson </a>
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#linkimage-0006"> General Lyon </a>
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#linkimage-0007"> General John C. Fremont </a>
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#linkimage-0008"> The Scott-harney Agreement </a>
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#linkimage-0009"> General Sterling Price </a>
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#linkimage-0010"> General Franz Sigel </a>
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#linkimage-0011"> General David Hunter </a>
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#linkimage-0012"> The St Louis Levee </a>
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#linkimage-0013"> The Storm Gathers </a>
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#linkimage-0014"> Sigel Crossing the Osage </a>
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#linkimage-0015"> General Henry W. Halleck </a>
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#linkimage-0016"> Battlefield of Wilson's Creek </a>
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#linkimage-0017"> Table of Union Casualties </a>
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#linkimage-0018"> Table of Confederate Casualties </a>
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#linkimage-0019"> Table </a>
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#linkimage-0020"> General Samuel R. J. Curtis </a>
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#linkimage-0021"> General Albert Pike </a>
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#linkimage-0022"> Battle of Pea Ridge </a>
      </p>
    </blockquote>
    <p>
      <br /> <br />
    </p>
    <hr />
    <p>
      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001">
       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
    </p>
<p>
      <a name="link2" id="link2"></a><span class="pn">{2}</span>
    </p>
    <h1>
      THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI.
    </h1>
    <p>
      <a name="linkimage-0001" id="linkimage-0001">
       <!--  IMG --> </a>
    </p>
    <div class="fig">
      <img src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:j:john-mcelroy-struggle-for-missouri-003.jpg" alt="003-the Struggle for Missouri."  /><br />
    </div>
    <p>
      <a name="link3" id="link3"></a><span class="pn">{3}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
    </p>
    <div style="height: 4em;">
      <br /><br /><br /><br />
    </div>
    <h2>
      CHAPTER I. A SALIENT BASTION FOR THE SLAVERY EMPIRE.
    </h2>
    <p>
      Whatever else may be said of Southern statesmen, of the elder school, they
      certainly had an imperial breadth of view. They took in the whole
      continent in a way that their Northern colleagues were slow in doing. It
      cannot be said just when they began to plan for a separate Government
      which would have Slavery as its cornerstone, would dominate the Continent
      and ultimately absorb Cuba, Mexico and Central America as far as the
      Isthmus of Panama.
    </p>
    <p>
      Undoubtedly it was in the minds of a large number of them from the
      organization of the Government, which they regarded as merely a temporary
      expedient&mdash;an alliance with the Northern States until the South was
      strong enough to "assume among the Powers of the Earth the separate and
      equal station to which the laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle
      them."
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link4" id="link4"></a><span class="pn">{4}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      They achieved a great strategic victory when in 1818 they drew the
      boundaries of the State of Missouri.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Ordinance of 1787 dedicated to Freedom all of the immense territory
      which became the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and
      Wisconsin. The wonderful growth of these in population, wealth and
      political influence alarmed the Slave Power&mdash;keenly sensitive, as bad
      causes always are, to anything which may possibly threaten,&mdash;and it
      proceeded to erect in the State of Missouri a strong barrier to the
      forward march of the Free Soil idea.
    </p>
    <p>
      When the time for the separation came, the Northern fragment of the
      Republic would find itself almost cut in two by the northward projection
      of Virginia to within 100 miles of Lake Erie. It would be again nearly cut
      in two by the projection of the northeast corner of Missouri to within 200
      miles of Lake Michigan.
    </p>
    <p>
      In those days substantially all travel and commerce was along the lines of
      the rivers. For the country between the Alleghany Mountains and the
      Mississippi the Ohio River was the great artery. Into it empty the
      Alleghany, Monongahela, Muskingum, the Kanawhas, Big Sandy, Scioto, the
      Miamis, Licking, Kentucky, Green, Wabash, Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers,
      each draining great valleys, and bringing with its volume of waters a
      proportionate quota of travel and commerce. The Illinois River also
      entered the Mississippi from the east with the commerce of a great and
      fruitful region.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link5" id="link5"></a><span class="pn">{5}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      West of the Mississippi the mighty Missouri was the almost sole highway
      for thousands of miles.
    </p>
    <p>
      The State was made unusually large&mdash;68,735 square miles, where the
      previous rule for States had been about 40,000 square miles&mdash;stretching
      it so as to cover the mouths of the Ohio and the Illinois, and to lie on
      both sides of the great Missouri for 200 miles. A glance at the map will
      show how complete this maneuver seemed to be. Iowa and Minnesota were then
      unbroken and unvisited stretches of prairie and forest, railroads were
      only dreamed of by mechanical visionaries, and no man in Ohio, Indiana,
      Illinois, Kentucky or Tennessee could send a load of produce to market
      without Missouri's permission; he could make no considerable journey
      without traversing her highways, while all of the imperial area west of
      the Mississippi was made, it seemed, forever distinctly tributary to her.
    </p>
    <p>
      New Orleans was then the sole mart of the West, for the Erie Canal had not
      been dug to convert the Great, Lakes into a colossal commercial highway.
    </p>
    <p>
      Out of a country possessing the unusual combination of surpassing
      agricultural fertility with the most extraordinary mineral wealth they
      carved a State larger in area than England and Wales and more than
      one-fourth the size of France or Germany.
    </p>
    <p>
      All ordinary calculations as to the development of such a favored region
      would make of it a barrier which would effectively stay the propulsive
      waves of Free Soilism.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link6" id="link6"></a><span class="pn">{6}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      So far as man's schemes could go there would never be an acre of free soil
      west of Illinois.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Anti-Slavery men were keenly alive to this strategic advantage of
      their opponents. Though the opposition to Slavery might be said to be yet
      in the gristle, the men hostile to the institution were found in all
      parties, and were beginning to divide from its more ardent supporters.
    </p>
    <p>
      Under the ban of public opinion Slavery was either dead or legally dying
      in all the older States north of Mason and Dixon's line. In the kingly
      stretch of territory lying north of the Ohio and between the Alleghanies
      and the Mississippi there was no taint of the foot of a slave, and the
      settlers there wanted to "set the bounds of Freedom wider yet."
    </p>
    <p>
      The Anti-Slavery men everywhere, and at that time there were very many in
      the Southern States, protested vigorously against the admission of
      Missouri into the Union as a Slave State, and the controversy soon became
      so violent as to convulse the Nation. In 1818, when the bill for the
      admission of Missouri was being considered by the House of
      Representatives, Gen. James Tallmadge, of New York, introduced the
      following amendment:
    </p>
    <p>
      And provided, That the introduction of slavery, or involuntary servitude,
      be prohibited, except for the punishment of crimes, whereof the party has
      been duly convicted; and that all children born within the said State,
      after the admission thereof into the Union, shall be declared free at the
      age of 25 years.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link7" id="link7"></a><span class="pn">{7}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      This was adopted by practically all the votes from the Free States, with a
      few from the Border States, which constituted a majority in the House. But
      the Senate, in which the Slave States had a majority, rejected the
      amendment, and the struggle began which was only ended two years later by
      the adoption of the famous Missouri Compromise of 1820, which admitted
      Missouri as a Slave State, but prohibited for the future any "Slavery or
      involuntary servitude" outside the limits of that State north of 36
      degrees 30 minutes.
    </p>
    <p>
      As in all compromises, this was unsatisfactory to the earnest men on both
      sides of the dispute.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Anti-Slavery men, who claimed that Freedom was National and Slavery
      local, were incensed that such an enormous area as that south of 36
      degrees 30 minutes had been taken from Freedom by the implication that it
      was reserved for Slavery.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Pro-Slavery men, on the other hand, who had shrewdly made Slavery
      extension appear one of the fundamental and cherished rights of the South,
      set up the clamorous protest, which never ceased till Appomattox, that the
      denial of the privilege of taking property in Slaves to any part of the
      National domain won by the arms or purchased by the money of the whole
      country, was a violation of the compact entered into at the formation of
      the Government, guaranteeing to the citizens of all the States the same
      rights and privileges.
    </p>
    <p>
      They also complained that under this arrangement the Free-Soilers gained
      control of 1,238,025 square miles of the Nation's territory, while Slavery
      only had 609,023 square miles, or less than half so much. This complaint,
      which seemed so forceful to the Pro-Slaveryites, appeared as rank
      impudence to their opponents, since it placed Slavery on the same plane
      with Freedom.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link8" id="link8"></a><span class="pn">{8}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The great State, however, did not flourish in accordance with the
      expectations based upon its climate, natural resources and central
      position. The tide of immigration paused before her borders, or swept
      around under colder skies to Iowa and Minnesota, or to the remote prairies
      of Kansas and Nebraska. Careless as the average home-seeker might seem as
      to moral and social questions so long as he found fertile land at cheap
      prices, yet he appeared reluctant to raise his humble cabin on soil that
      had the least taint of Slavery. In spite of her long frontage on the two
      greatest rivers of the continent, and which were its main highways; in
      spite of skies and soils and rippling streams unsurpassed on earth; in
      spite of having within her borders the great and growing city of St.
      Louis, the Metropolis of the Mississippi Valley, Missouri in 1860, after
      40 years of Statehood, had only 1,182,012 people, against 1,711,951 in
      Illinois, 1,350,428 in Indiana, 674,913 in Iowa, 172,023 in Minnesota,
      2,329,511 in Ohio, 749,113 in Michigan, 775,881 in Wisconsin, with nearly
      150,000 in Kansas and Nebraska.
    </p>
    <p>
      More than a million settlers who had crossed the Mississippi within a few
      years had shunned her contaminated borders for the free air of otherwise
      less attractive localities.
    </p>
    <p>
      Nor had the Slaveholders gone into the country in the numbers that were
      expected. Less than 20,000 had settled there, which was a small showing
      against nearly 40,000 in Kentucky and 55,000 in Virginia. All these had
      conspicuously small holdings. Nearly one-third of them owned but one
      slave, and considerably more than one-half had less than five. Only one
      man had taken as many as 200 slaves into the State.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link9" id="link9"></a><span class="pn">{9}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The Census of 1860 showed Missouri to rank eleventh among the Slave
      States, according to the following table of the number of slaves in each:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     1.  Virginia.........490,865     10. Texas..........182,566

     2.   Georgia.........462,198     11. Missouri.......114,931

     3.   Mississippi.....436,631     12. Arkansas.......111,114

     4.   Alabama.........435,080     13. Maryland....... 87,189

     5.   South Carolina..402,406     14. Florida.........61,745

     6.   Louisiana.......331,726     15. Delaware.......  1,798

     7.  North Carolina...331,059     16. New Jersey......    18

     8.   Tennessee.......275,719     17. Nebraska.......     15

     9.   Kentucky........225,483     18. Kansas.........      2
</pre>
    <p>
      There were 3,185 slaves in the District of Columbia and 29 in the
      Territory of Utah, with all the rest of the country absolutely free.
    </p>
    <p>
      The immigrant Slaveowners promptly planted themselves where they could
      command the great highway of the Missouri River, taking up broad tracts of
      the fertile lands on both sides of the stream. The Census of 1860 showed
      that of the 114,965 slaves held in the State, 50,280 were in the 12
      Counties along the Missouri:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     Boone........... ....5,034     Jackson..............3,944

     Calloway.............4,257     Lafayette............6,357

     Chariton.............2,837     Pike.................4,056

     Clay.................3,456     Platte...............3,313

     Cooper...............3,800     St. Charles..........2,181

     Howard...............5,889     Saline...............4,876
</pre>
    <p>
      Two-thirds of all the slaves in the State were held within 20 miles of the
      Missouri River.
    </p>
    <p>
      As everywhere, the Slaveowners exerted an influence immeasurably
      disproportionate to their numbers, intelligence and wealth.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link10" id="link10"></a><span class="pn">{10}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      A very large proportion of the immigration had not been of a character to
      give much promise as to the future.
    </p>
    <p>
      The new State had been the Adullam's Cave for the South, where "every one
      that was in distress, and every one that was in debt and every one that
      was discontented gathered themselves." Next to Slavery, the South had been
      cursed by the importation of paupers and criminals who had been
      transported from England for England's good, in the early history of the
      Colonies, to work the new lands. The negro proving the better worker in
      servitude than this class, they had been driven off the plantations to
      squat on unoccupied lands, where they bred like the beasts of the field,
      getting a precarious living from hunting the forest, and the bolder eking
      out this by depredations upon their thriftier neighbors. Their forebears
      had been paupers and criminals when sent from England, and the descendants
      continued to be paupers and criminals in the new country, forming a
      clearly marked social class, so distinct as to warrant the surmise that
      they belonged to a different race. As the eastern part of the South and
      the administration of the laws improved, this element was to some extent
      forced out, and spread in a noisome trail over Mississippi, Arkansas and
      Missouri. While other immigrants went into the unbroken forest with a few
      rude tools and in the course of several years built up comfortable homes,
      their's never rose above abject squalor. The crudest of cabins sufficed
      them for shelter, beds of beech leaves were all the couches they required;
      they had more guns in their huts than agricultural or mechanical
      implements; they scarcely pretended to raise anything more than a scanty
      patch of corn; and when they could not put on their tables the flesh of
      the almost wild razor-back hog which roamed the woods, they made meat of
      woodchucks, raccoons, opossums or any other "varmint" their guns could
      bring down. They did not scorn hawks or owls if hunger demanded and no
      better meat could be found.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link11" id="link11"></a><span class="pn">{11}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      It was this "White Trash" which added so much to the horrors of the war,
      especially in Missouri, and so little to its real prosecution. Wolf-like
      in ferocity, when the advantages were on their side, they were wolf-like
      in cowardice when the terms were at all equal. They were the Croats,
      Cossacks, Tolpatches, Pandours of the Confederacy&mdash;of little value in
      battle, but terrible as guerrillas and bushwhackers. From this "White
      Trash" came the gangs of murderers and robbers, like those led by the
      Youngers, Jameses, Quantrils and scores of other names of criminal memory.
    </p>
    <p>
      As has been the case in all times and countries, these dregs of society
      became the willing tools of the Slaveholding aristocrats. With dog-like
      fidelity they followed and served the class which despised and overrode
      them. Somehow, by inherited habits likely, they seemed to avoid the more
      fertile parts of the State. They thus became "Bald Knobbers" and
      "Ozarkers" in Missouri, as they had been "Clay Eaters" in South Carolina,
      or "Sang Diggers" in Virginia.
    </p>
    <p>
      With these immigrants from the South came also large numbers of a far
      better element even than the arrogant Slaveowners or the abject "White
      Trash."
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link12" id="link12"></a><span class="pn">{12}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The Middle Class in the South was made up of much the same stock as the
      bulk of the Northerners&mdash;that is of Scotch, Scotch-Irish and North
      English&mdash;Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Baptists and Dissenters
      generally&mdash;who had been forced out of Great Britain by the intolerant
      Episcopalians when the latter gained complete power after the suppression
      of the Rebellion of 1745. With these were also the descendants of the
      sturdy German Protestants who had been driven from Europe during the
      religious wars when the Catholics gained the ascendency in their
      particular country. These were the backbone of the South, and had largely
      settled along the foothills of the Alleghanies and in the fruitful valleys
      between the mountains, while the "White Trash" lived either on the barren
      parts of the lowlands or the bare and untillable highlands.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link13" id="link13"></a><span class="pn">{13}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      It is a grave mistake to confound these two classes of Non-Slaveholding
      whites in the South. They were as absolutely unlike as two distinct races,
      and an illustration of the habits of the two in migrating will suffice to
      show this. It was the custom in the Middle Classes when a boy attained
      majority that he chose for his wife a girl of the same class who was just
      ripening into vigorous womanhood. Both boy and girl had been brought up to
      labor with their own hands and to work constantly toward a definite
      purpose. They had been given a little rudimentary education, could read
      their Bibles and almanacs, "cipher" a little, write their names and a
      letter which could be read. When quite a lad the boy's father had given
      him a colt, which he took care of until it became a horse. To this, his
      first property, was added a suit of stout homespun cloth, which, with a
      rifle, an ax and some few other necessary tools, constituted his sole
      equipment for married life. The girl had been given a calf, which she had
      raised to a heifer; she had also a feather bed and some blankets of her
      own making and a little stock of the most obvious housekeeping utensils.
      With this simple outfit the young couple were married, and either went in
      debt for a little spot of land near home or pushed out into the new
      country. There they built a rude log cabin to shelter them from the storm,
      and by the time their children had reached the age they were when they
      married they had built up an unpretentious but very comfortable home, with
      their land well cleared and fenced, and stocked with cattle, pigs, sheep
      and poultry sufficient to maintain them in comfort. From this class came
      always the best and strongest men in the South. Comparatively few of them
      became Slaveowners, and then but rarely owned more than one or two
      negroes. A very large proportion found homes in the great free States
      north of the Ohio River.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link14" id="link14"></a><span class="pn">{14}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      On the other hand, none of this accession to comparative wealth seemed
      possible to the "White Trash." The boys and girls mated, squatted on any
      ground they could find unoccupied, raised there the merest shelter, which
      never by any chance improved, no matter how long they lived there, and
      proceeded to breed with amazing prolificacy others like themselves,
      destined for the same lives of ignorance and squalor. The hut of the "Clay
      Eater" in South Carolina, the "Sand Hiller" in Georgia, the "Sang Digger"
      in Virginia was the same as that his grandfather had lived in. It was the
      same that his sons and grandsons to the third and fourth generations built
      on the bleak knobs of the Ozarks or the malarious banks of the
      Mississippi. The Census of 1850 showed that about 70,000 of the population
      of Missouri had come from Kentucky, 45,000 from Tennessee, 41,000 from
      Virginia, 17,000 from North Carolina and 15,000 from the other Southern
      States. Nearly 40,000 had gone from Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, but a very
      large proportion of this number was the same element which had streamed
      across the southern parts of those States on its way to Missouri. Only
      13,000 had entered from the great States of New York and Pennsylvania, and
      but 1,100 from New England. Nearly 15,000 Irishmen, mostly employed along
      the rivers, had settled in the State.
    </p>
    <p>
      While the Slaveowners and their "White Trash" myrmidons were Pro-Slavery
      Democrats, the Middle Class were inclined to be Whigs, or if Democrats,
      belonging to that wing of the party less subservient to Slavery which in
      later years was led by Stephen A. Douglas.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link15" id="link15"></a><span class="pn">{15}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Upon these three distinct strata in society, which little mingled but were
      all native Americans, was projected an element of startling differences in
      birth, thought, speech and manners. The so-called Revolution of 1848 in
      Germany was a movement by the educated, enthusiastic, idealistic youth of
      the Fatherland to sweep away the horde of petty despots, and unite their
      pigmy Principalities and Duchies into a glorious and wide-ruling Germany.
      They were a generation too soon, however, and when the movement was
      crushed under the heavy hand of military power, hundreds of thousands of
      these energetic young men thought it safest and best to make new homes in
      the young Republic beyond the seas. The United States therefore received a
      migration of the highest character and of inestimable benefit to the
      country.
    </p>
    <p>
      Somewhere near 150,000 of these went to Missouri. They had none of the
      antipathy of Northern Americans to a Slave State. They were like their
      Gothic forebears, to whom it was sufficient to know that the land was
      good. Other matters could be settled by their strong right arms. The
      climate and fertility of Missouri pleased them; they saw the State's
      possibilities and flocked thither. Possibly one-half settled in the
      pleasant valleys and on the sunny prairies, following the trail of good
      land in the Southwest clear down to the Arkansas line. The other half
      settled mostly in St. Louis, and through them the city experienced another
      of its wonderful transformations. Beginning as a trading post of the
      French with the Indians, it had only as residents merchant adventurers
      from sunny France, officers and soldiers of the royal army and the
      half-breed voyageurs and trappers who served the fur companies. Next the
      Americans had swarmed in, and made the trading post a great market for the
      exchange of the grain and meat of the North, for the cotton and sugar of
      the South. Its merchants and people took their tone and complexion from
      the plantations of the Mississippi Valley.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link16" id="link16"></a><span class="pn">{16}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Now came these Germans, intent upon reproducing there the characteristics
      of the old world cities beyond the Rhine. They brought with them lager
      beer, to which the Americans took very readily, and a decided taste for
      music, painting and literature, to which the Americans were not so much
      inclined. German signs, with their quaint Gothic lettering and grotesque
      names, blossomed out on the buildings, military bands in German uniforms
      paraded the streets, especially on Sundays. German theaters also open on
      Sunday represented by astonishingly good companies the popular plays of
      the Fatherland, and newsboys cried the German newspapers on the streets.
      Those who went into the country were excellent farmers, shrewd in buying
      and selling, and industrious workers. They dreamed of covering the low
      hills of the western part of the State with the vineyards that were so
      profitable on the Rhine and of rivaling the products of Johannesburg and
      the Moselle on the banks of the Gasconade and the Maramec.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link17" id="link17"></a><span class="pn">{17}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The newcomers were skilled men in their departments of civilized
      activities&mdash;far above the average of the Americans. They were good
      physicians, fine musicians, finished painters, excellent actors and
      skillful mechanics, and each began the intelligent exercise of his
      vocation, to the great advantage of the community, which was, however,
      shocked at many of the ways of the newcomers, particularly their devoting
      Sunday to all manner of merrymaking. Still more shocking was their
      attitude toward the Slavery question. Even those Americans who were
      opposed to Slavery had a respect approaching awe of the "Sacred
      Institution." It had always been in the country; it was protected by a
      network of laws, and so feared that it could only be discussed with the
      greatest formality and circumspection. The radical Germans had absolutely
      none of this feeling. In their scheme of humanity all Slavery was so
      horrible that there could be no reason for its longer continuance, and it
      ought to be put to an end in the most summary manner. The epithet
      "Abolitionists," from which most Americans shrank as from an insult, had
      no terrors for them. It frankly described their mental attitude, and they
      gloried in it as they did in being Free Thinkers. They had not rebelled
      against timeworn traditions and superstitions in Germany to become slaves
      to something worse in this.
    </p>
    <p>
      Vigorous growths as they were, they readily took root in the new soil,
      became naturalized as fast as they could, and entered into the life of the
      country which they had elected for their homes. They joined the Republican
      Party from admiration of its Free Soil principles, and in the election of
      1860 cast 17,028 votes for Abraham Lincoln.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link18" id="link18"></a><span class="pn">{18}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Such were the strangely differing elements which were fermenting together
      in the formation of the great Commonwealth during those turbulent days
      from 1850 to 1860, and which were to be fused into unexpected combinations
      in the fierce heat of civil war. The same fermentation&mdash;minus the
      modifying influences of the radical Germans&mdash;was going on in all the
      States of the South except South Carolina, where the Middle Class hardly
      existed. Everywhere the Middle Class was strongly attached to the Union,
      and averse to Secession. Everywhere the Slaveowners, a small minority, but
      of extraordinary ability and influence, were actively preaching
      dissatisfaction with the Union, bitterly complaining of wrongs suffered at
      the hands of the North, and untiring in their machinations to win over or
      crush the leaders of those favorable to the Union. Everywhere they had the
      "White Trash" solidly behind them to vote as they wished, and to harry and
      persecute the Union men. As machinery for malevolence the "White Trash"
      myrmidons could not be surpassed. Criminal instincts inherited from their
      villain forefathers made them ready and capable of anything from maiming a
      Union man's stock and burning his stacks to shooting him down from ambush.
      They had personal feeling to animate them in this, for their depredations
      upon the hogs and crops of their thriftier neighbors had brought them into
      lifelong collisions with the Middle Class, while they had but little
      opportunity for resentment against the owners of the large plantations. In
      every State in the South the story was the same, of the Middle Class Union
      men being harassed at the command of the Slaveowners by the "White Trash"
      hounds. They had been sent into Kansas to drive out the Free State
      immigrants there and secure the territory for Slavery, but though backed
      up by the power of the Administration, they had been signally defeated by
      the numerically inferior but bolder and hardier immigrants from the North.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link19" id="link19"></a><span class="pn">{19}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Force rules this world; it always has; it always will. Not merely physical
      force, but that incomparably higher type&mdash;intellectual force&mdash;Power
      of Will. It seemed that in nearly all the States of the South the
      Slaveowners by sheer audacity and force of will succeeded in dominating
      the great majority which favored the Union, and by one device or another
      committing them hopelessly to the rebellion. This was notably the case in
      Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia, where the majority
      repeatedly expressed itself in favor of the Union, but was dragooned into
      Secession.
    </p>
    <p>
      In Missouri, however, the Secessionists encountered leaders with will and
      courage superior to their own. Many of these were Slaveowners themselves,
      and nearly all of them were of Southern birth. Head and shoulders above
      these, standing up among them like Saul among the Sons of Israel, was
      Frank P. Blair, then in the full powers of perfect manhood. He was 42
      years old, tall and sinewy in body, blue-eyed and sandy-haired. He came of
      the best Virginia and Kentucky stock, and had long been a resident and
      slaveowner in Missouri. As a boy he had served in the ranks in the Mexican
      War, had an adventurous career on the Pacific Coast, had gone back to
      Missouri to achieve prominence at the bar, and as early as 1848 had come
      to the front as the unflinching advocate of Emancipation and the
      conversion of Missouri into a Free State. Against his perfect panoply of
      courage and resource all the lances of the Slaveowners were hurled in
      vain. Their violence recoiled before him, their orators were no match for
      him upon the stump, and their leaders not his equal in party management.
      In 1852 he was elected to the Missouri Legislature as a Free Soiler, was
      re-elected in 1854, and in 1856 to Congress. His value to the Union was
      immeasurable, for he was a leader around whom the Union men could rally
      with the utmost confidence that he would never weaken, never resort to
      devious ways, and never blunder. As a Southerner of the best ancestry, he
      was not open to the charge of being a "Yankee Abolitionist," which had so
      much effect upon the Southern people of his State.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linkimage-0002" id="linkimage-0002">
       <!--  IMG --> </a> <img src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:j:john-mcelroy-struggle-for-missouri-056-Gen%20Francis%20P%20Blair.jpg"
      alt="056-general Francis P Blair"  /><br />
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link20" id="link20"></a><span class="pn">{20}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      A very dangerous element was composed of a number of leaders who belonged
      to the Pro-Slavery wing, but desiring to be elected to offices, masked
      their designs under the cover of the Douglas Democracy. The most important
      of these was Claiborne F. Jackson, a politician of moderate abilities and
      only tolerable courage, but of great partisan activity. He professed to be
      a Douglas Democrat, and as such was elected Governor at the State
      election. Born in Kentucky 54 years before, he had resided in Missouri
      since 1822. A Captain in the Black Hawk War, his service had been as
      uneventful and brief as that of Abraham Lincoln, who was two years his
      junior, and he was one of the Pro-Slavery clique who had hounded the great
      Thomas H. Benton out of politics on account of his mild Free Soilism. In
      person he was tall, erect, with something of dignity in his bearing. He
      essayed to be an orator, had much reputation as such, but his speeches
      developed little depth of thought or anything beyond the customary phrases
      which were the stock in trade of all the orators of his class south of
      Mason and Dixon's line.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link21" id="link21"></a><span class="pn">{21}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The fermentation period culminated in the Presidential campaign of 1860,
      the hottest political battle this country had ever known.
    </p>
    <p>
      The intensity of the interest felt in Missouri was shown by the bigness of
      the vote, which aggregated 165,618. As the population was but 1,182,012,
      of which 114,965 were slaves, it will be seen that substantially every
      white man went to the polls.
    </p>
    <p>
      The newly-formed Republican Party, mostly confined to the radical Germans
      of St. Louis, cast 17,028 votes for Abraham Lincoln.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Slaveowners and their henchmen&mdash;"Southern Rights Democrats"&mdash;cast
      31,317 votes for John C. Breckinridge.
    </p>
    <p>
      The "Regular Democrats" polled 58,801 votes for Stephen A. Douglas and
      "Squatter Sovereignty."
    </p>
    <p>
      The remains of the "Old Line Whigs," and a host of other men who did not
      want to be Democrats and would not be Republicans, cast 58,372 votes for
      John Bell, the "Constitutional Union" candidate.
    </p>
    <p>
      Thus it will be seen that out of every 165 men who went to the polls 17
      were quite positive that the extension of Slavery must cease; 31 were
      equally positive that Slavery should be extended or the Union dissolved;
      59 favored "Squatter Sovereignty," or local option in the Territories in
      regard to Slavery; 58 thought that "all this fuss about the nigger was
      absurd, criminal, and dangerous. It ought to be stopped at once by
      suppressing, if necessary, by hanging, the extremists on both sides, and
      letting things go on just as they have been."
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link22" id="link22"></a><span class="pn">{22}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Thus so great a proportion as 117 out of the total of 165&mdash;nearly
      five-sevenths of the whole&mdash;professed strong hostility to the views
      of the "extremists, both North and South."
    </p>
    <p>
      The time was at hand, however, when they must make their election as to
      which of these opposite poles of thought and action they would drift. They
      could no longer hold aloof, suggesting mild political placeboes, lamenting
      alike the wickedness of the Northern Abolitionists and the madness of the
      Southern Nullifiers, and expressing a patriotic desire to hang selected
      crowds of each on the same trees.
    </p>
    <p>
      South Carolina had promptly responded to the election of Abraham Lincoln
      as President of the United States by passing an Ordinance of Secession,
      and seizing all the United States forts, arsenals and other places, except
      Fort Sumter, within her limits.
    </p>
    <p>
      The rest of the Cotton States were hastening to follow her example.
    </p>
    <p>
      To the 117 "Middle-of-the-Road" voters out of every total of 165 it was
      therefore necessary to choose whether they would approve of the withdrawal
      of States and seizures of forts, and become Secessionists, or whether they
      would disapprove of this and ally themselves with the much-contemned Black
      Republicans.
    </p>
    <p>
      It was the old, old vital question, asked so many times of neutrals with
      the sword at their throats:
    </p>
    <p>
      "Under which King, Bezonian? Speak, or die."
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link23" id="link23"></a><span class="pn">{23}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linkimage-0003" id="linkimage-0003">
       <!--  -->
      <!--  IMG --> </a> <img src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:j:john-mcelroy-struggle-for-missouri-023.jpg"
      alt="023-the War Clouds Gather"  /><br /> <a name="link2HCH0002"
      id="link2HCH0002">
       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
    </p>
    <div style="height: 4em;">
      <br /><br /><br /><br />
    </div>
    <h2>
      CHAPTER II. THE WAR CLOUDS GATHER
    </h2>
    <p>
      The storm-clouds gathered with cyclonic swiftness. South Carolina seceded
      Dec. 20, 1860, and sent a Commission to Washington to negotiate for the
      delivery of all the forts, arsenals, magazines, lighthouses, and other
      National property within her boundaries, organizing in the meanwhile to
      seize them. Her Senators and Representatives formally withdrew from
      Congress; the Judges and other Federal officials solemnly resigned their
      places; and Maj. Robert Anderson, recognizing the impossibility of
      defending the decrepit Fort Moultrie against assault, transferred his
      garrison to Fort Sumter.
    </p>
    <p>
      President Buchanan announced the fatal doctrine that while no State had
      the right to secede, the Constitution gave no power to coerce a State
      which had withdrawn, or was attempting to withdraw from the Union.
    </p>
    <p>
      Mississippi seceded Jan. 9, 1861; Florida, Jan. 10; Alabama, Jan. 11;
      Georgia, Jan. 19; Louisiana, Jan. 26; and Texas, Feb. 1;&mdash;all the
      Cotton States precipitately following South Carolina's example.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link24" id="link24"></a><span class="pn">{24}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Each made haste&mdash;before or after Secession&mdash;to seize all the
      United States forts and property within her borders.
    </p>
    <p>
      In the midst of this political cataclysm the Legislature of Missouri met
      on the last day of 1860.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Senate consisted of 25 Democrats, seven Unionists, and one Republican;
      the House of 85 Democrats, 35 Unionists, and 12 Republicans.
    </p>
    <p>
      The retiring Governor&mdash;Robert M. Stewart&mdash;sent in his final
      message Jan. 3, and the same day his successor&mdash;Claiborne F. Jackson&mdash;was
      inaugurated, and delivered his address. Gov. Stewart was a typical
      Northern Democrat, born in New York, but long a resident of Missouri. He
      was a strong Douglas man, and believed that the Southern people had the
      Constitutional right to take their slaves into the Territories and hold
      them there, and that this right ought to be assured them. He had never
      pretended to be in love with Slavery, but he believed that the
      Constitution and laws granted full protection to the Institution. He
      denied the right of Secession, particularly as to Missouri, which had been
      bought with the money of the whole country. In his final message he did
      not hesitate to clearly set this forth, and to denounce South Carolina as
      having acted with consummate folly. He recognized the Union as the source
      of innumerable blessings, and would preserve it to the last. He said:
    </p>
    <p>
      As matters are at present Missouri will stand by her lot, and hold to the
      Union as long as it is worth an effort to preserve it. So long as there is
      hope of success she will seek for justice within the Union. She cannot be
      frightened from her propriety by the past unfriendly legislation of the
      North, nor be dragooned into secession by the extreme South. If those who
      should be our friends and allies undertake to render our property
      worthless by a system of prohibitory laws, or by reopening the slave trade
      in opposition to the moral sense of the civilized world, and at the same
      time reduce us to the position of an humble sentinel to watch over and
      protect their interests, receiving all the blows and none of the benefits,
      Missouri will hesitate long before sanctioning such an arrangement She
      will rather take the high position of armed neutrality. She is able to
      take care of herself, and will be neither forced nor flattered, driven nor
      coaxed, into a course of action that must end in her own destruction.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link25" id="link25"></a><span class="pn">{25}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The inaugural address of the new Governor was, under a thin vail of
      professed love for the Union, a bitter Secession appeal. He said that the
      destiny of the Slaveholding States was one and the same; that what injured
      one necessarily hurt all; that separate action meant certain defeat by the
      insolent North, which was alone and wholly responsible for the present
      deplorable conditions. He applauded the "gallantry" of South Carolina,
      urged that she be not condemned for "precipitancy," and said
      significantly: "If South Carolina has acted hastily, let not her error
      lead to the more fatal one&mdash;an attempt at coercion."
    </p>
    <p>
      With reference to the Republican Party and the future policy of Missouri,
      he said:
    </p>
    <p>
      The prominent characteristic of this party * * * is that it is purely
      sectional in its locality and its principles. The only principle inscribed
      upon its banner is Hostility to Slavery;&mdash;its object not merely to
      confine Slavery within its present limits; not merely to exclude it from
      the Territories, and prevent the formation and admission of any
      Slaveholding States; not merely to abolish it in the District of Columbia,
      and interdict its passage from one State to another; but to strike down
      its existence everywhere; to sap its foundation in public sentiment; to
      annoy and harass, and gradually destroy its vitality, by every means,
      direct or indirect, physical and moral, which human ingenuity can devise.
      The triumph of such an organization is not the victory of a political
      party, but the domination of a Section. It proclaims in significant tones
      the destruction of that equality among the States which is the vital
      cement for our Federal Union. It places 15 of the 33 States in the
      position of humble recipients of the bounty, or sullen submissionists to
      the power of a Government which they had no voice in creating, and in
      whose councils they do not participate.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link26" id="link26"></a><span class="pn">{26}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      It cannot, then, be a matter of surprise to any&mdash;victors or
      vanquished&mdash;that these 16 States, with a pecuniary interest at stake
      reaching the enormous sum of $3,600,000,000 should be aroused and excited
      at the advent of such a party to power.
    </p>
    <p>
      Would it not rather be an instance of unprecedented blindness and fatuity,
      if the people and Governments of these 16 Slaveholding States were, under
      such circumstances, to manifest quiet indifference, and to make no effort
      to avoid the destruction which awaited them?
    </p>
    <p>
      The meeting of the Legislature naturally brought to the State Capital at
      Jefferson City all of the powerful coterie which was self-charged with the
      work of taking Missouri into the road whither South Carolina was leading
      the Cotton States. This coterie included the Judges of the Supreme Court
      and all the State officials, and the United States Senators and
      Representatives. Ever since the Anti-Benton faction had accomplished the
      great Senator's defeat, the shibboleth for admission into the higher
      circles of Missouri Democracy had been "Southern Rights." As the mass of
      the Middle Class Democrats favored Senator Douglas's plan of letting the
      settlers in each Territory decide for themselves whether they would have
      Slavery, it was highly politic for every candidate to claim that he was a
      Douglas Democrat. It must be known to the inner ring, however, that he was
      at heart fully in accord with the views of the extreme Pro-Slavery men,
      and ready at the word to join the Secessionists. So thorough was this
      preliminary organization, that while in Missouri tens of thousands of
      professed Union men went over to Secession when the stress came, there was
      no instance of an avowed Pro-Slavery man cleaving to the side of the
      Union.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link27" id="link27"></a><span class="pn">{27}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Next to Gov. Jackson,&mdash;surpassing him in intellectual acuteness and
      fertile energy,&mdash;was Lieut.-Gov. Thos. C. Reynolds, then in his 40th
      year, a short, full-bodied man, with jet-black hair and eyes shaded by
      gold-rimmed glasses. He boasted of being born of Virginia parents in South
      Carolina, but some of the Germans claimed to know that his right name was
      Reinhold, and that he was a Jew born in Prague, the Capital of Bohemia,
      and brought to this country when a child. He was a man of more than
      ordinary ability, and had accomplishments quite unusual in that day.
    </p>
    <p>
      He spoke French, German and Spanish fluently, wrote profusely and with
      considerable force, and prided himself on being a diplomat. He had seen
      some service as Secretary of Legation and Charge d' Affaires at Madrid. He
      had been elected as a Douglas Democrat, but was an outspoken Secessionist,
      and as he was ex-officio President of the Senate, he had much power in
      forming committees and shaping legislation. He clung to the wrecked rebel
      ship of state to the last, went with Gov. Jackson and the rest when they
      were driven out of the State, assumed the Governorship when Jackson&mdash;worn
      out by the terrible strains and vicissitudes&mdash;died at Little Rock,
      Ark., in December, 1862&mdash;and was last heard from near the end of the
      war, with the shattered and melancholy remnants of the Missouri State
      Government and troops, on the banks of the Rio Grande, writing furious
      diatribes against Gen. Sterling Price, the admired leader of the Missouri
      Confederates.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link28" id="link28"></a><span class="pn">{28}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Another man of great influence in the State was United States Senator
      James S. Green, a Virginian by birth, but who had been a resident of
      Missouri for about a quarter of a century. He was a lawyer of fine
      talents, and in the Senate ranked as a debater with Douglas, Seward,
      Chase, Toombs, Wigfall, Fessenden, Wade, and others of that class. In
      Missouri he was one of the leaders of the Ultra-Slavery "Softs" against
      Thos. H. Benton; had been Minister to New Granada, and Representative in
      Congress, and in the Senate belonged to the Jefferson Davis-Toombs-Wigfall
      cabal, which was planning the disruption of the Union. His term expiring
      March 3, 1861, he was now in Jefferson City for the rather irreconcilable
      purposes of securing his re-election to the United States Senate and of
      fulfilling his pledge to his Secessionist colleagues to carry Missouri out
      of the Union.
    </p>
    <p>
      His colleague&mdash;Senator Trusten Polk&mdash;a strong, kindly, graceful
      man&mdash;was there to assist him in both purposes. Born in Delaware, he
      had been a resident of Missouri since 1835, elected Governor of the State
      in 1856, resigned to accept Benton's seat in the Senate, from which he was
      to be expelled in 1862 for disloyalty, and to follow the failing fortunes
      of the Missouri Confederates to the banks of the Rio Grande.
    </p>
    <p>
      The problem of absorbing intensity for the Secession leaders&mdash;Messrs.
      Jackson, Reynolds, Green, Polk and others&mdash;was to win over, entrap or
      constrain a sufficient number of the 117 "Doubtful" voters out of every
      165, to give them a working majority in the State. There was fiery zeal
      enough and to spare on the Secession side; what was needed was skillful
      management to convince the Union-loving peace-loving majority that the
      Northern "Abolitionists," flushed with victory, meant unheard-of wrongs
      and insults to the South; that Missouri must put herself in shape to
      protect her borders, call a halt on the insolent North, and in connection
      with the other Border States be the arbiter between the contending
      sections, and in the last resort ally herself with the other Slave States
      for mutual protection.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link29" id="link29"></a><span class="pn">{29}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      A man to be reckoned with in those days was the Commander of the
      Department of the West, which included all that immense territory
      stretching from the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains, except Texas, New
      Mexico, and Utah. This man was the embodiment of the Regular Army as it
      was developed after the War of 1812. At this time that Army was a very
      small one&mdash;two regiments of dragoons, two of cavalry, one of mounted
      riflemen, four of artillery, and 10 of infantry, making, with engineers,
      ordnance and staff, a total of only 12,698 officers and men&mdash;but its
      personnel and discipline were unsurpassed in the world. Among its 1,040
      commissioned officers there was no finer soldier than William Selby
      Harney. A better Colonel no army ever had. A Colonel, mind you&mdash;not a
      General; there is a wide difference between the two, as we found out
      during the war. There are very many Americans&mdash;every little community
      has at least one&mdash;who, given a regiment, where every man is within
      reach of his eye and voice, will discipline it, provide for it, rule it,
      and fight it in the very best fashion. Give him some piece of work to do,
      of which he can see the beginning and the end, and he will make the
      regiment do every pound of which it is capable. But put in command of a
      brigade, anything beyond voice and eye, set to a task outreaching his
      visual horizon, he becomes obviously unequal to the higher range of duty.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linkimage-0004" id="linkimage-0004">
       <!--  IMG --> </a> <img src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:j:john-mcelroy-struggle-for-missouri-029-The%20Harney%20Mansiion.jpg"
      alt="029-the Harney Mansion"  /><br />
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link30" id="link30"></a><span class="pn">{30}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      A form of commanding hight (sp.), physique equal to any test of activity
      or endurance, a natural leader of men through superiority of courage and
      ability, William Selby Harney had for 43 years made an unsurpassed record
      as a commander of soldiers. He had served in the everglades of Florida, on
      the boundless plains west of the Mississippi, and in Mexico, during the
      brilliantly spectacular war which ended with our "reveling in the Halls of
      the Montezumas." He it was, who, eager for his country's honor and
      advancement, had, while the diplomats were disputing with Great Britain,
      pounced down upon and seized the debatable island of San Juan in Vancouver
      waters. For this he was recalled, but the island remained American
      territory. He was soon assigned to the Department of the West, with
      headquarters at St. Louis.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link31" id="link31"></a><span class="pn">{31}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      He had been for 12 years the Colonel of the crack 2d U. S. Dragoons, and
      for three years one of the three Brigadier-Generals in the Regular Army,
      his only seniors being Maj.-Gen. and Brevet Lieut.-Gen. Winfield Scott,
      the General-in-Chief; Brig.-Gen. John E. Wool, commanding the Department
      of the East; and Brig.-Gen. David E. Twiggs, commanding the Department of
      Texas.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Harney's assignment, while a recognition of his eminent fitness for
      ruling the territory over which he had campaigned for more than a quarter
      of a century, was highly gratifying to him inasmuch as he was married to a
      wealthy St. Louis woman, and in that city he had an abundance of the
      luxurious social enjoyment so dear to the heart of the old warrior. A
      Southerner by birth and education, a large Slave-owner, with all his
      interests in the South, and at all times seemingly in full sympathy with
      the Southern spirit that dominated the Army, the Secessionists sanguinely
      expected that he would prove as pliant to their proposals as had Gen.
      Twiggs, the Commander of the Department of Texas. We shall see how
      soldierly instincts and training measurably disappointed them.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link32" id="link32"></a><span class="pn">{32}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      To return to the Missouri Legislature: Lieut.-Gov. Reynolds could, as a
      lieutenant always can, be more outspoken and radical than his chief, who
      labored under responsibility. On the day the Legislature met he published
      an important letter which thoroughly indicates the feeling of the
      Secessionists at that period. He urged the General Assembly to promptly
      express the determination of Missouri to resist every attempt by the
      Federal Government to coerce any State to remain in the Union, or to use
      force in any way to collect revenues or execute the laws in any seceding
      State. He denounced President Buchanan's distinction between "coercing a
      State" and "compelling the citizens of the State to obey the laws of the
      United States" as a "transparent sophistry." "To levy tribute, molest
      commerce, or hold fortresses, are as much acts of war as to bombard a
      city." He also urged immediate and thorough organization of the militia
      and other preparations for "putting the State in complete condition for
      defense." If the present controversy could not be adjusted before March 4,
      the State of Missouri "should not permit Mr. Lincoln to exercise any act
      of Government" within her borders.
    </p>
    <p>
      This was certainly distinctly defiant, and shrewdly calculated to gather
      about the new administration all the wavering men who could be attracted
      by inflammatory appeals to their prejudices against the North, to their
      State pride, and to their hopes of making Missouri the arbiter in the
      dispute. Lieut.&mdash;Gov. Reynolds followed up his pronunciamento by
      carefully organizing the Senate committees with radical Secessionists at
      the head, and the immediate introduction of bills ably contrived to put
      the control of the State in the hands of those who favored Secession.
      These committees promptly reported several bills.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link33" id="link33"></a><span class="pn">{33}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      One provided for calling a State Convention, an effective device by which
      the other Southern States had been dragged into Secession. Another
      provided for the organization of the Militia of the State, which would be
      done by officers reliable for Secession, and the third was intended to
      extinguish resistance by taking away much of the police power of the
      Republican Mayor of St. Louis, who had at his back the radical Germans,
      organized into semi-military Wide-Awake Clubs. All these bills seemed to
      be heartily approved all over the State, and the Southern Rights leaders
      were exultant at their success. Apparently the 117 "Doubtfuls" were
      flocking over to them.
    </p>
    <p>
      It seemed for a few momentous days in the opening of 1861 that Missouri
      would be inevitably swept into the tide of Secession, and even in St.
      Louis, the stronghold of Republicanism, a monster mass meeting, called and
      controlled by such afterwards&mdash;strong loyalists as Hamilton R.
      Gamble, later the Union Governor of the State, Nathaniel Paschall, James
      E. Yeatman, and Robert Campbell, unanimously passed resolutions declaring
      slave property to be held as a Constitutional right which the Government
      should secure, and if it did not, Missouri "would join with her sister
      States and share their duties and dangers," and that the Government should
      not attempt to coerce the seceding States. This word "coerce" had an
      extraordinarily ugly sound to all ears, and was a potent enchantment in
      taking many of the professedly Union men into the ranks of the rebellion.
      Even Horace Greeley recoiled from "a Union held together by bayonets."
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link34" id="link34"></a><span class="pn">{34}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The bill "to call a Convention to consider the relations of the State of
      Missouri to the United States, and to adopt measures for vindicating the
      sovereignty of the State, and the protection of her institutions," was
      promptly reported back to both Houses on the 9th of January, and as
      promptly passed by them, with only two adverse votes in the Senate and 18
      in the House. Of the latter 11 were from St. Louis.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Secessionists proceeded to a joyful celebration of this new triumph.
      They hastened at once to another step to ally Missouri with the South. A
      Commissioner arrived from the State of Mississippi to ask the co-operation
      of Missouri in measures of common defense and safety. The Governor
      received him with the distinction accredited an Embassador from a foreign
      power, and recommended the Legislature to do likewise. The serviceable
      Lieut.-Gov. Reynolds carried out this idea by putting through a joint
      resolution to receive the Commissioner in the House Chamber, with both
      bodies, the Governor and other chief officers of the State, and the Judges
      of the Supreme Court in attendance, and with every other honor. He
      dictated that upon the announcement of the entrance of the Commissioner,
      the whole body should respectfully rise. The radical Union men from St.
      Louis resisted this vehemently, and did not hesitate to apply the ugly
      word "traitor" to the Commissioner, and those who were aiding and abetting
      him.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link35" id="link35"></a><span class="pn">{35}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The Commissioner made a long address, in which he said that the Union had
      been dissolved, could never be reconstructed; that war was inevitable, and
      the people of Mississippi earnestly invited those of Missouri to unite
      with their kindred for common defense and safety. A few days later the
      Legislature adopted a resolution against coercion, and another introduced
      by George Graham Vest, of the Committee on Federal Relations, afterwards
      Senator in the Confederate House from Missouri, and for 24 years
      representing Missouri in the Senate of the United States. This resolution
      declared that so "abhorrent was the doctrine of coercion, that any attempt
      at such would result in the people of Missouri rallying on the side of
      their Southern brethren to resist to the last extremity." There was only
      one vote against this in the Senate, and but 14 in the House.
    </p>
    <p>
      The eager young Secessionists were impatient to emulate their brethren
      farther south, and strike a definite blow&mdash;seize something that would
      wreck the sovereignty of the United States. Forts there were none. In the
      historic old Jefferson Barracks, below St. Louis, there were only a small
      squad of raw recruits, and a few officers, mostly of Southern
      proclivities, whom it would be cruel to turn out of house and home while
      they were waiting "for their States to go out."
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link36" id="link36"></a><span class="pn">{36}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      There were but two Arsenals in the State; a small affair at Liberty, in
      the northwest, near the Missouri River, which contained several hundred
      muskets, a dozen cannon, and a considerable quantity of powder. The other
      was the great Arsenal at St. Louis, one of the most important in the
      country. It covered 56 acres of ground, fronting on the Mississippi River,
      was inclosed by a high stone wall on all sides but that of the river, and
      had within it four massive stone buildings standing in a rectangle. In
      these were stored 60,000 stands of arms, mostly Enfield and Springfield
      rifles, 1,500,000 cartridges, 90,000 pounds of powder, a number of field
      pieces and siege guns, and a great quantity of munitions of various kinds.
      There were also machinery and appliances of great value. The Arsenal was
      situated on rather low ground, and was commanded from hills near by. At
      the beginning of 1861 the only persons in it were some staff officers,
      with their servants and orderlies, and the unarmed workmen. The officer in
      command was Maj. Wm. Haywood Bell, a North Carolinian, graduate of West
      Point, and Ordnance Officer, but who had spent nearly the whole of his 40
      years' service in Bureau work, attending meanwhile so providently to his
      own affairs that he was quite a wealthy man, with most of his investments
      in St. Louis.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gov. Claiborne F. Jackson had as his military adviser and executant
      Maj.-Gen. Daniel M. Frost, a New Yorker by birth and a graduate of West
      Point. He had served awhile in the Mexican War, where he received a brevet
      as First Lieutenant for gallantry at Cerro Gordo, and then became
      Quartermaster of his regiment. He had been sent to Europe as a student of
      the military art there, but resigned in 1853, to take charge of a planing
      mill and carpentry work in St. Louis. He subsequently became a farmer, was
      elected to the Missouri Senate, entered the Missouri Militia, rose to be
      Brigadier-General, and was sanguinely expected to become for Missouri what
      Lee and Jos. E. Johnston were for Virginia, Beauregard for South Carolina,
      and Braxton Bragg for Louisiana. He was really a good deal of a soldier,
      with foresight and initiative force, and had the Governor had the courage
      to follow his bold counsels, the course of events might have been
      different.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linkimage-0005" id="linkimage-0005">
       <!--  IMG --> </a> <br /> <img alt="032-Gen Claiborne Jackson (29K)"
      src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:j:john-mcelroy-struggle-for-missouri-032-Gen%20Claiborne%20Jackson.jpg" /> <br />
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link37" id="link37"></a><span class="pn">{37}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      As early as Jan. 8 he visited the Arsenal, and had an interview with its
      commandant, which he reported to the Governor as entirely satisfactory.
      Maj. Bell was wholly in sympathy with the South, and regarded the Arsenal
      as being virtually Missouri's property when she should choose to demand
      it. His honor as a soldier would compel him to resist any attack from an
      irresponsible mob, but a summons from the sovereign State of Missouri
      would meet with the respectful obedience to which it was entitled. It was
      therefore decided that this was the best shape in which to leave matters.
      Maj. Bell would hold the Arsenal in trust against both the radical St.
      Louis Germans and over-zealous Secessionists, who wanted to seize it and
      arm their particular followers. When Gen. Frost had organized the Missouri
      Militia to his satisfaction, he would march into the Arsenal, and under
      the plea of protecting it from mobs, use its contents to thoroughly arm
      and equip his Militia, which would thus be put in very much better shape
      than the troops of any other State.
    </p>
    <p>
      Meanwhile, Gen. Frost recommended that as little as possible be said about
      the Arsenal, in order to avoid attracting attention to it.
    </p>
    <p>
      All the same, the Arsenal was intently watched by both sides, and for the
      next four months it was the great stake for which they played, since its
      possession would go far toward giving possession of the State. There were
      but 150,000 stands of arms in the rest of the South, while here were
      60,000.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link38" id="link38"></a><span class="pn">{38}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Even before South Carolina seceded the ardent young Secessionists of St.
      Louis had begun the organization of "Minute Men" to "protect the State."
      Naturally, their first step in protecting the State would be to seize the
      Arsenal, to prevent its arms being used to "coerce the people." Their
      headquarters were in the Berthold House, a fine residence at the corner of
      Fifth and Pine streets, over which floated the Secession flag.
    </p>
    <p>
      Into these companies went numbers of young men from the best families of
      the South, who had come to St. Louis to take advantage of business
      opportunities, and young Irishmen, of whom there were many thousands in
      the city, and who; having in their blood an antipathy to "the Dutch"
      dating from William of Orange's days, were skillfully wrought upon by the
      assertion that the "infidel, Sabbath-breaking, beer-drinking Dutch who had
      invaded St. Louis" were of the same breed as those who harried Ireland and
      inflicted innumerable persecutions in 1689. Very effective in this was one
      Brock Champion, a big-hearted, big-bodied young Irishman, of much
      influence among his countrymen, who played little part, however, in the
      war which ensued. More conspicuous later was Basil Wilson Duke, a bright
      Kentucky lawyer, 25 years old, who was Captain of one of the companies,
      and afterwards became the second in command and an inspiration to John H.
      Morgan, the great raider. The Captain of another company was Colton
      Greene, a South Carolinian, a year or two younger than Duke, a merchant, a
      man of delicate physique and cultivated mind, but of great courage and
      constancy of purpose.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link39" id="link39"></a><span class="pn">{39}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Everywhere in the State began a systematic persecution of the
      Unconditional Union men and the bullying of the Conditional Union men.
      Secession flags in numbers floated from buildings in St. Louis, Rolla,
      Lexington, Jefferson City, Kansas City, and elsewhere. Union meetings were
      disturbed and broken up in all the larger towns, the Star Spangled Banner
      torn down and trampled upon, and the borders of Kansas and Iowa were
      thronged with Union refugees telling how they had been robbed, maltreated,
      and threatened with death, their stock killed, their houses and crops
      burned by the "White Trash" which the Slave Power had turned loose upon
      them.
    </p>
    <p>
      When Maj. Bell had talked of "irresponsible mobs," he may have thought of
      premature young fire-eaters like Duke, Greene, and Champion, eager for the
      distinction of capturing the Arsenal, covetous of distributing its arms to
      their followers. Most likely, however, he had in mind forays from
      Illinois, or by the radical Germans of St. Louis, who were ill disposed
      toward seeing their enemies equipped from its stores.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Frost had the Germans in mind as early as Jan. 8, probably
      immediately following his interview with Maj. Bell, for he sent out a
      secret circular to his trusted subordinates instructing them that "upon
      the bells of the churches sounding a continuous peal, interrupted by a
      pause of five minutes, they should assemble with their men in their
      armories, and there await further orders." One of these circulars fell
      into the hands of a good Union man, who immediately took it to Frank P.
      Blair. It was found that it was the Catholic church bells that were relied
      upon to do the ringing, implying that the enthusiastic, reckless Irishmen
      were to take the initiative.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link40" id="link40"></a><span class="pn">{40}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The Archbishop of St. Louis was immediately seen, to prohibit the bells of
      the churches being used as a tocsin to light the flames of civil war. Mr.
      Blair sent the circular with other information to Gen. Scott, with an
      urgent request that an officer of sounder loyalty supersede Maj. Bell, and
      that some troops be sent to Jefferson Barracks against an emergency. Mr.
      Montgomery Blair, brother of F. P. Blair, Jr., and soon to be
      Postmaster-General, Gov. Yates, of Illinois, and President-elect Lincoln
      supported this request. A fortnight later Maj. Bell was relieved, and
      assigned to duty in the East.
    </p>
    <p>
      A gallant one-armed Irish First Lieutenant of the 2d U. S., one Thomas W.
      Sweeny, of whom we shall hear more later, was ordered to Jefferson
      Barracks, where it was supposed his influence with his countrymen might
      offset that of Mr. Champion. A small squad of Regulars was sent him from
      Newport Barracks.
    </p>
    <p>
      Maj. Bell foreseeing that the Army was to be no longer a place for a quiet
      gentleman with business tastes, resigned his commission, to remain with
      his well-placed investments in St. Louis.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link41" id="link41"></a><span class="pn">{41}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      All this disturbed the Secessionists. They saw that the Government had an
      eye on the important Arsenal, and did not intend to give it up as tamely
      as it had other places in the South. The arrival of the Regulars was made
      the basis of inflammatory appeals that the Government was trying to
      "overawe and coerce the people." Two days later this "intimidation" became
      flagrant. Isaac H. Sturgeon, Assistant United States Treasurer at St.
      Louis, a Kentuckian and Secessionist, had for reasons of his own reported
      to President Buchanan that he was concerned about the safety of $400,000
      in gold in his vaults. The President handed the letter to Gen. Scott, who
      sent an order to Jefferson Barracks which resulted in a Lieutenant with 40
      men being sent to the Post Office Building to protect the removal of the
      gold. The city was thrown into the greatest excitement as the troops
      marched through the streets, the papers issued extras, and it required all
      the efforts of the officials and the leaders on both sides to preserve the
      peace.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gov. Claiborne Jackson took advantage of the occasion to send a message to
      the Legislature, in which he said that this was an "act insulting to the
      dignity and patriotism of the people."
    </p>
    <p>
      The gold having been removed, Gen. Harney ordered the troops back to the
      Arsenal, and quiet was restored.
    </p>
    <p>
      Maj. Peter B. Hagner, of the District of Columbia, who graduated from West
      Point in 1832, and had distinguished himself in the Mexican War, succeeded
      Maj. Bell in the command of the Arsenal. His sympathies were strongly with
      the South, but not so strongly as to overmaster his desire to retain his
      commission and its emoluments. He was willing to go any length in serving
      the Secessionists that did not involve his dismissal from the Army. He had
      two brothers in the service, and all three held on to their commissions
      until forced from their hands by the grim grasp of death.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link42" id="link42"></a><span class="pn">{42}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Meanwhile, Lieut.-Gov. Reynolds was pushing the Legislative work to carry
      Missouri out of the Union. The acts which proved so successful in the
      other Southern States in binding the people hand and foot and dragging
      them over to the rebellion were closely imitated. One of these was the
      celebrated "Military Bill" introduced in the Senate, Jan. 5, 1861. This
      put every man of military age in the State into the Militia, and at the
      disposal of the Governor, who was given $150,000 outright to enable him to
      carry out his plans. It made everybody owe paramount allegiance to the
      State, and prescribed severe penalties, including even death, to be
      inflicted by drum-head court martial for "treason" to the State&mdash;for
      even the utterance of disrespectful words against the Governor or
      Legislature. This went a little too far for many of the members, and by
      obstinate fighting the passage of the bill was postponed from time to time
      and at last defeated.
    </p>
    <p>
      Another bill was generally understood as one to stamp out Republicanism in
      St. Louis, but officially designated as "An Act to amend an act for the
      suppression of riot in St. Louis City and County." This took out of the
      hands of the Republican Sheriff and Mayor most of their peace-preserving
      powers, which were given to a Board to be appointed by the Governor,
      thereby to tie their hands when the time came for taking the Arsenal. One
      of the Governor's Police Commissioners was Basil Duke, the leader of the
      "Minute-Men."
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link43" id="link43"></a><span class="pn">{43}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Though they had none of the noisy aggressiveness of the Secessionists, the
      leaders of the Unionists, during those bitterly intense Winter days, were
      no less able, courageous, and earnest. Blair had a masterful courage and
      determination not equalled by any man opposed to him. He was one of those
      men of mighty purpose who set their faces toward an object with the calm
      resolution to die rather than fail. Against the hardened steel of his
      relentless will the softer iron of such thrasonic Secessionists as Gov.
      Jackson, Lieut.-Gov. Reynolds, United States Senators James S. Green and
      Trusten Polk, Gen. Frost and lesser leaders, clashed without producing a
      dent.
    </p>
    <p>
      Blair had skill and tact equal to his courage. He foresaw every movement
      of his antagonists and met it with a prompt countermove. To their
      inflammatory rhetoric he opposed clear common sense, loyalty and wise
      judgment as to the future. When occasion demanded, he did not hesitate to
      publicly express the hope "that every traitor among them would be made to
      test the strength of Missouri hemp." He was swift to subordinate himself
      and "the Cause," when anything could be gained. There were many prominent
      men who wanted to save the Union, but would deny to Frank Blair the credit
      of it. He unhesitatingly gave them the highest places, and took the
      subordinate one for himself. There were tens of thousands of Whigs and
      Democrats who loved the Union, but shuddered at the thought of becoming
      Black Republicans. He abolished the Republican Party, that they might form
      a Union Party, the sole principle of which should be support of the
      Government.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link44" id="link44"></a><span class="pn">{44}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Next to Blair was the famous "Committee of Safety," which did such high
      work for the Union during those fermenting days. These and their
      birthplaces were:
    </p>
    <p>
      O. D. Filley, New England.
    </p>
    <p>
      John How, Pennsylvania.
    </p>
    <p>
      Samuel T. Glover, Kentucky.
    </p>
    <p>
      James O. Broadhead, Virginia.
    </p>
    <p>
      J. J. Witzig, Germany.
    </p>
    <p>
      These self-denying, self-sacrificing patriots worked together with Blair
      in perfect harmony and with the utmost skill. They were more than a match
      for their Secession opponents in organization and management, and lost
      very few points in the great game that was played throughout the Winter,
      with the possession of the City, the State, and the Arsenal for the main
      prizes.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Committee of Safety had its Home Guards to offset the Minute Men.
      Where there were hundreds of these latter drilling more or less openly,
      with much fifing and drumming and flaunting of Secession flags, there were
      thousands of Home Guards meeting and training with greatest secresy in old
      foundries, breweries, and halls, with pickets out to prevent surprise,
      sawdust on the floors to drown the sound of their feet, and blankets at
      the windows to arrest the light and the words of command. The drill hall
      was only approached at night, and singly or by twos or threes, to avoid
      attracting attention. Most of these Home Guards were Germans, and a large
      proportion had had military training in Europe. The great problem with
      them, as with the Minute Men, was to get arms, and both sides watched the
      Arsenal with its 60,000 rifles and 1,500,000 cartridges with sharp
      covetousness.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link45" id="link45"></a><span class="pn">{45}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The Governor of Illinois loaned the Home Guards a few arms, but it was
      expected that these would be repaid with interest from the stores of the
      Arsenal.
    </p>
    <p>
      The appointment of Maj. Hagner to the command of the Arsenal was
      satisfactory to the Secessionists, but there was naturally a good deal of
      interest as to the bias of Capt. Thomas W. Sweeny. One day a man presented
      himself at the west gate of the Arsenal and asked to see Capt. Sweeny.
      Sweeny went to the gate and recognized an old acquaintance, St. George
      Croghan, the son of that Lieut. Croghan who had so brilliantly defended
      Fort Stephenson, at Lower Sandusky, in the War of 1812, and who afterwards
      was for many years Inspector-General of the United States Army. Croghan's
      grandfather had been a gallant officer in the Revolution. It was a cold
      day, and Croghan wore a citizen's overcoat. On their way to the quarters,
      the guards properly saluted Sweeny as they passed. Said Croghan, "Sweeny,
      don't you think those sentinels ought to salute me&mdash;my rank is higher
      than yours?" at the same time throwing open his overcoat and revealing the
      uniform of a rebel field officer.
    </p>
    <p>
      "Not to such as that, by heavens!" responded Sweeny; and added: "If that
      is your business, you can have nothing to do with me. You had better not
      let my men see you with that thing on."
    </p>
    <p>
      Croghan assured him his business in calling was one of sincere friendship;
      but he would remark while on the subject, that Sweeny had better find it
      convenient to get out of there, and very soon, too.
    </p>
    <p>
      "Why?" asked Sweeny.
    </p>
    <p>
      Replied Croghan: "Because we intend to take it."
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link46" id="link46"></a><span class="pn">{46}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Sweeny in great excitement exclaimed: "Never! As sure as my name is
      Sweeny, the property in this place shall never fall into your hands. I'll
      blow it to hell first, and you know I am the man to do it."
    </p>
    <p>
      Nine months later this Croghan was to fall mortally wounded at the head of
      a cavalry regiment while attacking the Union troops near Fayetteville, W.
      Va., while Sweeny was to do gallant service in the Union army, rising to
      the rank of Brigadier-General of Volunteers, and command of a Division,
      and being retired in 1870 with the rank of Brigadier-General.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
    </p>
    <div style="height: 4em;">
      <br /><br /><br /><br />
    </div>
<p>
      <a name="link47" id="link47"></a><span class="pn">{47}</span>
    </p>
    <h2>
      CHAPTER III. NATHANIEL LYON'S ENTRANCE ON THE SCENE
    </h2>
    <p>
      The Secessionists were in the meanwhile hardly making the headway in the
      Legislature that they had anticipated, in spite of the stimulating events
      in the extreme Southern States.
    </p>
    <p>
      A curious situation developed in the Legislature leading to the arrest for
      a while of Lieut.-Gov. Reynolds's plans for organizing the State for
      rebellion. The term of Senator James S. Green expired on the 3d of March,
      and he was desirous of being his own successor. The first consideration
      was whether Missouri was likely to stay in the Union and have a Senator.
      At the moment this seemed probable enough to warrant going on and electing
      a Senator, and the Pro-Slavery men made strenuous efforts to re-elect Mr.
      Green, but it was significant that he was deemed too ultra a Secessionist,
      and Waldo P. Johnson was elected in his stead. Among the many things in
      the war which turned out surprisingly different from what men had
      confidently expected was that Mr. Green took the selfish politician's view
      of the "ingratitude" of those who refused to re-elect him, sullenly
      retired to private life, and did not raise his hand nor his voice for the
      South during the war, while Mr. Johnson, who was elected because he was a
      better Union man, soon resigned his seat in the United States Senate,
      entered the Confederate army, became Lieutenant-Colonel of the 4th Mo.
      (Confederate), and fought till the close of the war.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link48" id="link48"></a><span class="pn">{48}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Jan. 18, after a prolonged debate, both Houses passed a bill to call a
      Convention "to consider the relations of Missouri to the United States."
      This was the successful device which had been used in carrying other
      States out of the Union, and despite the conservatism of the language of
      the act it was hoped that it would be successful in this instance. In the
      Senate there were only 26 votes against it, and in the House but 18, of
      whom 11 were from St. Louis. The Southern Rights men regarded this as a
      great triumph, however, and made much jubilation throughout the State. The
      election for members to the Convention was fixed for Feb. 18, and the
      Convention was to meet on the last day of the month. This act was followed
      by the adoption of a joint resolution which expressed profound regret that
      the States of New York and Ohio had tendered men and money to the
      President for "the avowed purpose of coercing certain sovereign States of
      the South into obedience to the Federal Government," and declaring that
      the people of Missouri would rally to the side of their Southern brethren
      to "resist the invaders and to the last extremity." Only 14 votes were
      cast against this resolution.
    </p>
    <p>
      The main interest now centered upon the election of delegates to the
      Convention. New political lines ran among the people, dividing them into
      Secessionists, "Conditional Union" men and "Unconditional Union" men.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link49" id="link49"></a><span class="pn">{49}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Blair's leadership was able to efface the Republican Party for the time
      being, and carry all of the members over to the Unconditional Unionists.
      The result of the election was a blow to the Secessionists, not one of
      whose candidates was elected.
    </p>
    <p>
      In St. Louis the Unconditional Union candidates were elected by over 5,000
      majority.
    </p>
    <p>
      The bitterly-disappointed Secessionists denounced the majority as
      "Submissionists," and threatened all manner of things.
    </p>
    <p>
      The election occurred on the same day that Jefferson Davis was inaugurated
      President of the Southern Confederacy.
    </p>
    <p>
      When the State Convention met at Jefferson City, it was found that of its
      99 members 53 were natives of either Virginia of Kentucky, and all but 17
      had been born in Slave States. Only 13 were natives of the North, three
      were Germans, and one an Irishman. A struggle at once ensued for the
      organization of the Convention, which resulted in a victory for the Union
      men, ex-Gov. Sterling Price being elected President by 75 votes, to 15
      cast for Nathaniel W. Watkins, a half-brother of Henry Clay, and a
      strenuous advocate of Southern Rights. As soon as the Convention completed
      its organization it adjourned to St. Louis, to avoid the badgering of the
      pronounced Secessionists, who constituted the State Government, and the
      clamorous bullying of the crowd assembled in the State Capital to
      influence its action.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link50" id="link50"></a><span class="pn">{50}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      On assembling at St. Louis the Convention immediately addressed itself to
      the duty for which it had assembled. Judge Hamilton R. Gamble, a
      Virginian, leader of the Unconditional Union men, and afterwards Governor
      of the State, as Chairman of the Committee on Federal Relations, made a
      long report, in which it was denied that the grievances complained of were
      sufficient to involve Missouri in rebellion; that in a military sense
      Missouri's union with the Southern Confederacy meant annihilation; that
      the true position of the State was to try to bring back her seceding
      sisters, and to this effect a Convention of all the States was
      recommended, to adopt the Crittenden Proposition. An attempt to amend this
      report by the declaration that if the Northern States refused to assent to
      the Crittenden Compromise Missouri would then side with her sister States
      of the South received only 23 votes, but among them was that of Sterling
      Price, who had begun to drift southward.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Convention adopted Gamble's report, and a few days afterward adjourned
      subject to call of the committee.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Secessionists were greatly discouraged by the result, and the
      Legislature also adjourned. Then came another fluctuation in public
      opinion. The great majority wanted peace. The attitude of the Governor and
      his faction, who seemed to look toward peace by putting Missouri in a
      state of defense to prevent the new Republican President from making war,
      appealed to many, and in the Spring elections the Unconditional Union men
      were defeated by a small majority, and St. Louis passed from their
      official control to that of the Conditional Union Men.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link51" id="link51"></a><span class="pn">{51}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      While these events were occupying public attention there occurred another,
      little noted at the time, but which was soon to be of controlling
      importance. Feb. 6 there marched up from the steamboat landing to the
      Arsenal a company of 80 Regular soldiers of the 2d U. S., from Fort Riley,
      Kan., at the head of which was a Captain, under the average hight, and a
      well knit but rather slender frame. He had a long, narrow face, with full,
      high forehead, keen, deep-set blue eyes, and hair and whiskers almost red.
      His face was thoughtful but determined, his manner quick and nervous. He
      bore himself towards his men as an exact and rigid disciplinarian, mingled
      with thoughtful kindness for all who did their duty and tried their best
      This was Capt. Nathaniel Lyon, born in Connecticut, descended from old
      Puritan stock, with the blood of Cromwell's Ironsides flowing in his
      veins. He was then 42 years old, and before another birthday was to fill
      the country with his fame, and fall in battle-face to the front. He had
      graduated from West Point in 1841, the 11th in his class. That his
      intellectual abilities were of high order is shown by his standing in that
      class, of which Zealous B. Tower, an eminent engineer, and brevet
      Major-General, U. S. A., was the head, and Horatio G. Wright, who
      commanded the Sixth Corps during the last and greatest year of its
      history, was the second.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linkimage-0006" id="linkimage-0006">
       <!--  IMG --> </a> <img src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:j:john-mcelroy-struggle-for-missouri-010Gen.Lyon.jpg"
      alt="010-general Lyon"  /><br />
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. John F. Reynolds, the superb commander of the First Corps and of the
      Right Wing of the Army of the Potomac, with which he brought on the battle
      of Gettysburg, where he was killed, graduated 26th in the class, and Gen.
      Don Carlos Buell, who organized and commanded the Army of the Ohio,
      graduated 32d. Gen. Robert Garnett, the first Confederate General officer
      to fall in the struggle,&mdash;killed July 13, 1861, at Carrick's Ford,&mdash;was
      the 27th in the class. Julius P. Garesche, who graduated 16th in the
      class, became Chief of Staff to Gen. Rosecrans, and was killed at Stone
      River.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link52" id="link52"></a><span class="pn">{52}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Besides being thoroughly versed in all that related to his profession of
      arms, Capt. Lyon was well informed in history and general literature; was
      a devoted student of the Bible and Shakspere, and wrote well and forcibly.
      What was very rare among the officers of the old Army, he was a radical
      Abolitionist, and believer in the National Sovereignty. He was so
      outspoken in these views as to render his position quite unpleasant, where
      nearly every one was so antagonistic. A weaker-willed man would have been
      forced either out of the Army or into tacit acquiescence with the
      prevailing sentiment.
    </p>
    <p>
      Upon graduation he had been assigned to the 2d U. S., and sent to get his
      first lessons in actual war fighting the Florida Indians. There his
      superiors found occasion to remark that his zeal sometimes outran his
      discretion&mdash;not an infrequent fault of earnest young men. He had
      distinguished himself and received a brevet in the Mexican War for
      gallantry at Contreras and Churubusco, and had then been sent to
      California. With a slender force he was charged with the duty of keeping a
      long frontier in order against turbulent Indians. He accomplished this by
      making the Indians more afraid of him than the whites could possibly be of
      them. No quick retreat, no impregnable fastness, could shelter them from
      his inexorable pursuit. On one occasion he carried boats on wagons over a
      mountain range to cross a river and strike an Indian lair where the
      marauders were resting in the fullest sense of security. His company had
      next been transferred to Kansas in the midst of the political troubles
      there, where, while doing his official duty with strict impartiality, his
      sympathies were actively with the Free State settlers.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link53" id="link53"></a><span class="pn">{53}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      For 42 years he had been growing and fitting himself for a great
      Opportunity.
    </p>
    <p>
      For once Opportunity and the Man equal to it met.
    </p>
    <p>
      Immediately after settling his company in the Arsenal, Capt. Lyon went to
      the city to meet Frank P. Blair. The two strong men recognized each the
      other's strength, and at once came into harmonious cooperation.
    </p>
    <p>
      The fate of the Arsenal, of the City of St. Louis, and of the State of
      Missouri, was settled.
    </p>
    <p>
      Before Capt. Lyon arrived, the Committee of Safety had had an alarm about
      the Arsenal, and rallied a strong force of their Home Guards in waiting to
      go to the assistance of Capt. Sweeny and his 40 men, should the Minute Men
      attack him. But the Secessionist leaders had such confidence in Maj.
      Hagner that they dissuaded the impatient Basil Duke, Colton Greene, Brock
      Champion and other eager young Captains from making the attack.
    </p>
    <p>
      Capt. Lyon was soon reinforced. Lieut. Warren L. Lothrop, of the 4th U. S.
      Art., a Maine man, who had risen from the ranks, came in with 40 men. He
      was afterwards to succeed Frank P. Blair, jr., as Colonel of the 1st Mo.
      Light Art. Next came Capt. Rufus Saxton, also of the 4th Art., a
      Massachusetts man, later to rise to brevet Major-General of Volunteers,
      and to play an important part in caring for the freedmen of the South
      Carolina coast.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link54" id="link54"></a><span class="pn">{54}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Still later came Capt. James Totten, of the 2d U. S. Art., with his
      company. He had been born in Pennsylvania, but was appointed to West Point
      from Virginia, and was in command of the Arsenal at Little Rock until he
      evacuated his post, Feb. 8, before a large force of rebels, and retired
      with his command to the Indian Territory, by virtue of the agreement with
      the Governor of the State. While Lothrop and Saxton appear to have been
      taken at once into the councils of Capt. Lyon, Capt. Totten does not,
      probably because the uncompromising Lyon did not like his methods in
      Arkansas. He was, however, true to his loyalty, and rose eventually to the
      rank of Brigadier-General.
    </p>
    <p>
      There were now in the Arsenal nine officers and 484 men. Hagner and Lyon
      at once came into collision. Though Hagner belonged to the Ordnance, and
      not therefore regarded as eligible to command troops, he secured an order
      assigning himself to command according to his brevet rank of Major, which
      made him superior to Lyon. Hagner had been five years longer in the
      service than Lyon, but his commission as Captain was 20 days junior to
      Lyon's. Lyon energetically protested against Hagner's assignment in a
      letter to Blair, who was then in Washington, D. C, looking out for matters
      at that end of the line, in which he said:
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link55" id="link55"></a><span class="pn">{55}</span>
    </p>
    <blockquote>
      <p>
        It is obvious that the fine stone wall inclosing our grounds affords us
        an excellent defense against attack, if we will take advantage of it;
        and for this purpose platforms should be erected for our men to stand on
        and fire over; and that artillery should be ready at the gates, to be
        run out and sweep down a hostile force; and sand-bags should be prepared
        and at hand to throw up a parapet to protect the parties at these pieces
        of artillery; inside pieces should be placed to rake the whole length,
        and sweep down each side a party that should get over the walls,
        traverses being erected to protect parties at these pieces. A pretty
        strong field work, with three heavy pieces, should be erected on the
        side toward the river, to oppose either a floating battery or one that
        might be established on the island; and, finally, besides our houses,
        every building should be mined, with a train arranged so as to blow them
        up successively, as occupied by the enemy. Maj. Hagner refuses, as I
        mentioned to you, to do any of these things, and has given his orders
        not to fly to the walls to repel an approach, but to let the enemy have
        all the advantages of the wall to lodge himself behind it, and get
        possession of all outside buildings overlooking us, and to get inside
        and under shelter of our outbuildings, which we are not to occupy before
        we make resistance. This is either imbecility or d&mdash;&mdash;d
        villainy, and in contemplating the risks we run and the sacrifices we
        must make in case of an attack in contrast to the vigorous and effective
        defense we are capable of, and which, in view of the cause of our
        country and humanity, the disgrace and degradation to which the
        Government has been subject by pusillanimity and treachery, we are now
        called upon to make, I get myself into a most unhappy state of
        solicitude and irritability. With even less force and proper
        disposition, I am confident we can resist any force which can be brought
        against us; by which I mean such force as would not be overcome by our
        sympathizing friends outside. These needful dispositions, with proper
        industry, can be made in 24 hours. There cannot be, as you know, a more
        important occasion nor a better opportunity to strike an effective blow
        at this arrogant and domineering infatuation of Secessionism than here;
        and must this all be lost, by either false notions of duty or covert
        disloyalty? As I have said, Maj. Hagner has no right to the command,
        and, under the 62d Article of War, can only have it by a special
        assignment of the President, which I do not believe has been made; but
        that the announcement of Gen. Scott that the command belongs to Maj.
        Hagner is his own decision, and done in his usual sordid spirit of
        partisanship and favoritism to pets, and personal associates, and
        toadies; nor can he, even in the present straits of the country, rise
        above this, in earnest devotion to justice and the wants of his country.
      </p>
    </blockquote>
    <p>
      Lyon went to Gen. Harney to urge his right to command, from seniority of
      commission; but Harney sustained Hagner, who was in some things much more
      Harney's style than Lyon. Lyon thereupon appealed to President Buchanan,
      which meant to Gen. Scott, who, of course, sustained Hagner. Lyon was,
      therefore, forced to submit until Lincoln was inaugurated.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link56" id="link56"></a><span class="pn">{56}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      There was no vanity or self-seeking in this urgency of Lyon's. In the Army
      he was distinguished for his readiness to subordinate himself to carry out
      any plans which commended themselves to him. He had repeatedly offered to
      subordinate himself to Hagner if the latter would take what Lyon thought
      only the most necessary steps at that crisis for the defense of the
      position and stores of priceless importance.
    </p>
    <p>
      What Lyon dreaded above all things was something akin to that which had
      freshly occurred at Little Rock, where Capt. Totten had withdrawn from the
      Little Rock Arsenal with his company in the face of a large mob of
      Secessionists, upon a receipt by the Governor for the arms and stores, and
      the promise that he would account for them to the United States
      Government. Lyon was determined to bury himself and his men in the ruins
      of the Arsenal before it should pass into the hands of the Secessionists.
    </p>
    <p>
      Basil Duke, Colton Greene, and the other chafing young Captains had
      matured a plot with the connivance of Gen. Frost, of the Militia, probably
      somewhat at his instigation, which would brush aside the network of
      intrigue which Claiborne Jackson and others were spinning, bring matters
      to a focus, and in one blow crush Union sentiment, overawe the timid,
      fasten the wavering, seize the Arsenal and launch Missouri upon the tide
      of Secession with the Cotton States.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link57" id="link57"></a><span class="pn">{57}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The police powers of the city of St. Louis had been taken away from the
      Mayor, Frost had his Militia in readiness, the Irish were properly worked
      up to a state of exasperation against the "infidel, Sabbath-breaking
      Dutch," and hosts of Americans were in the same net when on the day of
      Lincoln's inauguration the Secession flag was boldly hoisted from the roof
      of the Berthold Mansion, in the most prominent part of the city. At once
      excitement burned to fever heat. Incensed by the wanton insult, the
      Germans and other Unconditional Union men raged that the flag should be
      torn down, and crowds gathered around the Berthold Mansion for that
      purpose. The house had, however, been converted into an arsenal, with all
      the arms and ammunition that could at that time be gathered, and filled
      with determined men under the leadership of Duke, Greene and others, eager
      to precipitate a riot, under the cover of which the Irish and Americans
      could be hurled against the Germans, and the Arsenal seized.
    </p>
    <p>
      Blair and the Committee of Safety saw the danger of this. Their followers
      were not so ready for battle as the enemy was, and in conjunction with the
      more conservative leaders of the other side they succeeded in restraining
      their indignant friends from opening up a day of blood which would have
      been forever memorable in the history of St. Louis. Blair at once hastened
      back to Washington, and a few days after the Inauguration secured from the
      new Secretary of War an order assigning Capt. Lyon to the command of the
      Arsenal. This had to come through Gen. Harney's hands, and in transmitting
      it he informed Capt. Lyon:
    </p>
    <p>
      You shall not exercise any control over the operations of the Ordnance
      Department. The arrangements heretofore made for the accommodation of the
      troops at the Arsenal and for the defense of the place will not be
      disturbed without the sanction of the Commanding General.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link58" id="link58"></a><span class="pn">{58}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      This was to save Hagner's pride, as well as propitiate Gen. Harney's
      Secession friends in St. Louis, who were becoming very uneasy at the way
      the "Yankee Abolitionist" was taking hold.
    </p>
    <p>
      The dilemma into which Gen. Harney was becoming daily more involved was
      far more perplexing than any he had encountered in his fighting days. A
      question that could be settled sword in hand never had troubled him much.
      Alas! this could not be&mdash;not then. On the one side were the lifelong
      associations and habits of thought of the plain old soldier. All of his
      friends were Southerners and Slaveholders, as he himself was. Nearly all
      of the public men he knew, the officials of the State of Louisiana, which
      he called his home; of Missouri, which was almost equally his home, had
      either gone over irrevocably to Secession, or were preparing to do so. In
      his real home, the Army, it was almost as bad. The next Brigadier-General
      above him, Daniel E. Twiggs, had just surrendered all the men and property
      under his command to the State of Texas. The men who controlled the War
      Department,&mdash;Secretary Floyd, Adjutant-General Samuel Cooper,
      Quartermaster-General Joe E. Johnston, Assistant Adjutants-General John
      Withers and George Deas, had gone into the Confederate army. Robert E.
      Lee, Gen. Scott's prime favorite, was preparing to do so.
    </p>
    <p>
      On the other hand were the deep, ineradicable instincts of soldierly
      loyalty to the Flag under which he had fought for 40 years. The man who
      had hanged 60 men at one time in Mexico for deserting the Flag was likely
      to have a severe struggle before he could bring himself to do the same. He
      was deeply incensed at the "Black Republicans" for irritating the
      Southerners so that they felt compelled to secede, but did not believe
      that the latter should have seceded. At least, until Missouri seceded he
      was going to maintain, as best he could, the National authority in his
      Department.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link59" id="link59"></a><span class="pn">{59}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      A flashlight is thrown on his mental attitude by his reply to Lieut,
      (afterwards General) Schofield, when informed by him of the
      above-mentioned preparations for seizing the Arsenal under the cover of a
      riot. "A &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash; outrage," he exclaimed in his usual
      explosive way. "Why, the State has not yet passed the Ordinance of
      Secession. Missouri has not gone out of the United States."
    </p>
    <p>
      The limitations placed by Gen. Harney upon Lyon's assignment to command
      were aggravating. Hagner commanded the buildings, the arms, ammunition,
      and other stores, and the strong walls surrounding the grounds. Lyon
      commanded merely the men. He could not draw a musket, a cannon, or a
      cartridge for either, not even a hammer, a spade nor an ax, without a
      requisition duly approved by Harney. Nor could he change a single
      arrangement of the grounds without Harney's approval.
    </p>
    <p>
      Lyon was almost nightly meeting with the Committee of Safety, and visiting
      the drill-rooms of the Home Guards, where he advised, encouraged and
      drilled the men. The Secessionists were extremely fearful that in some way
      he would manage to get the arms and ammunition, and besought Harney and
      Hagner to omit no precaution to prevent this.
    </p>
    <p>
      When away from his Secessionist environment, Harney's soldierly instincts
      asserted themselves. Lyon's vigorous, uncompromising course was far more
      to his mind than the dull, shifty Hagner's.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link60" id="link60"></a><span class="pn">{60}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      One was zealous in the performance of his duty, and the other a red-tape
      bureaucrat, whose first thought always seemed to be to clog and hamper the
      men in the field. Harney had suffered too much from these "office fellows"
      to be especially enamored of them. Therefore he had moods, when he gave
      Lyon a free hand, which the latter made the most of until the General's
      mood changed.
    </p>
    <p>
      During one of these Lyon had undermined the walls of the buildings, placed
      batteries, built banquettes for the men to fire over the walls, cut
      portholes, reinforced the weaker places with sandbags, and established a
      vigilant sentry system to prevent surprise.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Secessionists were equally full of plans, though not of performances.
      Minute Men were organizing throughout the State to rush in at the given
      day by every train and overwhelm St. Louis, taking the Arsenal by sheer
      force of numbers. Many of the Captains of the large steamboats which
      carried on the trade between St. Louis and New Orleans were zealous
      Secessionists, and mooted plans for assailing the Arsenal on the river
      side with cannon mounted on boats, backed up by large crowds of men. But
      Gov. Jackson and his coterie still relied mainly upon inciting some form
      of riot in the city, which would allow Gen. Frost to get possession of the
      Arsenal with his Militia and "protect it from violence." Once in Gen.
      Frost's hands&mdash;then!
    </p>
    <p>
      The Secessionists scored a point and carried dismay to the Unionists by
      securing an order from Gen. Scott for Capt. Lyon to attend a Court of
      Inquiry at Fort Leavenworth. While he was gone they might carry out their
      plans with comparative ease and safety. Blair, however, succeeded in
      getting Gen. Scott to revoke the order.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link61" id="link61"></a><span class="pn">{61}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      To find out precisely what the position of affairs inside the Arsenal was,
      and to spy out its defenses, a number of prominent citizens, among whom
      was James S. Rains, afterwards Brigadier-General in the Confederate army,
      calling themselves Grand Jurors for the United States District Court,
      presented themselves at the Arsenal and attempted an entrance. The
      Sergeant of the Guard held them awhile till he could communicate with
      Capt. Lyon, and they went away in anger.
    </p>
    <p>
      There were other officers in the Arsenal whom Lyon could trust as little
      as he could Maj. Hagner, but Capts. Saxton and Sweeny and Lieut. Lothrop
      stood firmly by him in every movement, going so far as to mutually agree
      that they would shoot Maj. Hagner before he should be allowed to turn over
      the arms to the Secessionists.
    </p>
    <p>
      The bombardment and surrender of Fort Sumter and the President's call for
      troops threw the country into a tumult of excitement, and changed the
      political relations everywhere. All over the South the Secessionists were
      jubilant, and those in Missouri particularly exultant. Very many of the
      waverers at once flocked over to the Secessionists, while others sided
      with the Union. To what extent this change took place was as yet unknown,
      nor which side had a majority. Public sympathy as voiced by the leading
      papers seemed to be that the Union had "been riven asunder by the mad
      policy of Mr. Lincoln, and that it was necessary for Missouri to take a
      stand with the other Border States to prevent his attempting to subjugate
      them."
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link62" id="link62"></a><span class="pn">{62}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Frost submitted a memorial to Governor Jackson, in which were the
      following recommendations:
    </p>
    <p>
      1. Convene the General Assembly at once.
    </p>
    <p>
      2. Send an agent to the South to procure mortars and siege guns.
    </p>
    <p>
      3. Prevent the garrisoning of the United States Arsenal at Liberty.
    </p>
    <p>
      4. Warn the people of Missouri "that the President has acted illegally in
      calling out troops, thus arrogating to himself the war-making power, and
      that they are therefore by no means, bound to give him aid or comfort in
      his attempt to subjugate by force of arms a people who are still free;
      but, on the contrary, should prepare themselves to maintain all their
      rights as citizens of Misouri."
    </p>
    <p>
      5. Order me (Frost) to form a military camp of instruction at or near the
      city of St. Louis; to muster military companies into the service of the
      State; and to erect batteries and do all things necessary and proper to be
      done in order to maintain the peace, dignity, and sovereignty of the
      State.
    </p>
    <p>
      6. Order Gen. Bowen to report with his command to me (Frost) for duty.
    </p>
    <p>
      He proposed to form a camp of instruction for the Militia on the river
      bluffs near the Arsenal, from which it could be commanded by guns and
      mortars to be obtained from the South when Frost with his brigade and that
      of Gen. John S. Bowen, who was afterwards to be a Major-General in the
      Confederate army and command a division at Vicksburg, with what volunteers
      they could obtain, would force Lyon to surrender the Arsenal and its
      stores.
    </p>
    <p>
      While considering these recommendations the Governor received a request
      from the Secretary of War for four regiments of infantry, Missouri's quota
      of the 75,000 men the President had called for. To this Governor Jackson
      replied the next day:
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link63" id="link63"></a><span class="pn">{63}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Your dispatch of the 13th instant, making a call upon Missouri for four
      regiments of men for immediate service, has been received. There can be, I
      apprehend, no doubt but these men are intended to form a part of the
      President's army to make war upon the people of the seceded States. Your
      requisition, in my judgment, is illegal, unconstitutional, and
      revolutionary in his objects, inhuman and diabolical, and cannot be
      complied with. Not one man will the State of Missouri furnish to carry on
      such an unholy crusade.
    </p>
    <p>
      The same day he sent Capts. Greene and Duke to Montgomery with a letter to
      the President of the Confederacy, requesting him to furnish the siege guns
      and mortars which Gen. Frost wanted, and another messenger to Virginia
      with a similar request. He also called the Legislature to meet at
      Jefferson City May 2, to take "measures to perfect the organization and
      equipment of the Militia and raise the money to place the State in a
      proper attitude for defense." He did not dare order Gen. Frost to
      establish his military camp of instruction in St. Louis, but he took the
      more prudent and strictly legal course of ordering the commanding officers
      of the several Militia Districts of the State to assemble their respective
      commands at some convenient place, and go into encampment for six days for
      drilling and discipline. This order authorized Gen. Frost to establish his
      camp wherever he pleased within the City or County of St. Louis.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Bowen, who was in command of a force in the southwest to guard the
      State against the marauders from Kansas, was ordered to report with
      certain of his troops to Gen. Frost. The Arsenal at Liberty was at once
      seized by the Secessionists in that neighborhood, who secured several
      hundred muskets, four brass guns, and a large amount of powder. These
      proceedings of the Governor disturbed Gen. Harney greatly, and he wrote at
      once to Gen. Scott asking him for instructions.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link64" id="link64"></a><span class="pn">{64}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Capt. Lyon did not ask or wait for instructions. He wrote at once to Gov.
      Dick Yates, of Illinois, to obtain authority to hold in readiness for
      service in St. Louis the six regiments which Illinois was called upon to
      furnish. Gov. Yates acted promptly, and received authority to send two or
      three regiments "to support the garrison of the St. Louis Arsenal." Lyon
      received orders to equip these troops, and to issue 10,000 additional
      stands of arms to the agent of the Governor of Illinois.
    </p>
    <p>
      Mr. Blair reached St. Louis from Washington, April 17, and at once began
      acting with the boldness and foresight that the situation demanded. By his
      advice Col. Pritchard and other Union officers of the Militia resigned. He
      procured from the War Department an order placing 5,000 stands of arms at
      the disposal of Lyon for arming "the loyal citizens"&mdash;the Home Guards&mdash;and
      requested orders by telegraph for Capt. Lyon to muster men into the
      service to fill Missouri's requisition, and to have Hagner removed.
    </p>
    <p>
      Lyon, determined not to be taken by surprise, had the streets leading to
      the Arsenal nightly patrolled and pickets stationed outside the walls.
      Gov. Jackson's Police Board complained that this was a violation of the
      City ordinances and in direct interference with their duties. They
      demanded that he should obey the law, but he refused. When they appealed
      to Harney, he at once ordered Lyon to quarter his men in the Arsenal and
      forbade him to issue arms to anyone without Harney's sanction. This
      brought Blair and Lyon to a parting of the ways with Harney. They demanded
      his removal, and April 21 Harney was removed from the command, and ordered
      to repair to Washington and report to the General-in-Chief.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link65" id="link65"></a><span class="pn">{65}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      On the same day Capt. Lyon was instructed to immediately execute the order
      previously given to "arm loyal citizens." He was also ordered to muster
      into the service four regiments, which the Governor had refused to
      furnish. As the men had long been in waiting, Lyon quickly organized the
      four regiments, which elected him their Brigadier-General. Some of the
      field officers of these regiments were notable men, and were to have
      brilliant careers during the war. The Colonel of the 1st Regiment was F.
      P. Blair, afterwards to become Major-General commanding a corps; the
      Lieutenant-Colonel was George L. Andrews, afterwards to be a Colonel in
      the Regular Army; the Major was John M. Schofield, later to be
      Major-General commanding the Twenty-third Corps, and still later
      Lieutenant-General commanding the Army of the United States. The Colonel
      of the 3d Regiment was Franz Sigel, afterwards Major-General commanding
      the Eleventh Corps and the Army of the Shenandoah.
    </p>
    <p>
      The four regiments having been filled to the maximum, there were large
      numbers yet demanding muster. From these a fifth regiment of Missouri
      Volunteers and five regiments of "United States Reserves" were formed. The
      most notable among the field officers of these were John McNeil, Colonel
      of the 3d Regiment, who afterwards became a Brigadier-General, and B.
      Gratz Brown, Colonel of the 4th U. S. Reserves, afterwards Vice
      Presidential nominee on the Greeley ticket. These additional regiments
      formed another brigade, and elected Capt. Sweeny their Brigadier-General.
      After arming these 10,000 men Lyon secured the balance of the stores from
      all danger of treachery or capture by transferring them to Alton, Ill..,
      where they would be under the guardianship of loyal men.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link66" id="link66"></a><span class="pn">{66}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Thus, in a few, swift weeks after the inauguration of President Lincoln,
      Blair and Lyon, bold even to temerity, and even more sagacious than bold,
      had snatched away from the sanguine Secessionists the great Arsenal, with
      its momentous contents, which were placed at the service of the Union.
    </p>
    <p>
      More than 10,000 loyal men of Missouri were standing, arms in hand, on her
      soil to confront their enemies.
    </p>
    <p>
      Above all, the Government showed that it would no longer tamely submit to
      being throttled and stabbed, but would fight, then, there, and everywhere,
      for its life.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link67" id="link67"></a><span class="pn">{67}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
    </p>
    <div style="height: 4em;">
      <br /><br /><br /><br />
    </div>
    <h2>
      CHAPTER IV. THE CAPTURE OF CAMP JACKSON
    </h2>
    <p>
      Up to the time that Gen. Harney was relieved and ordered to Washington,
      and Capt. Lyon was given a free hand, Gen. D. M. Frost's course and advice
      were worthy of his reputation as a resolute, far-seeing commander. With
      the organized military companies of his district and the Minute Men he had
      a good nucleus for action, and had he made a rush on the Arsenal at any of
      the several times that he seems to have contemplated, it would have been
      backed up by several thousand young Irishmen and Americans in St. Louis,
      as well as by tens of thousands from the country swarming in as fast as
      they could have gotten railroads and steamboats to carry them.
    </p>
    <p>
      Then the capture of the Arsenal would have opened the war instead of the
      firing on Fort Sumter.
    </p>
    <p>
      He was then, however, restrained by Gov. Jackson and his coterie, who
      expected to gain their ends by intrigues and manipulations which had
      proved so successful in the other States.
    </p>
    <p>
      After, however, Capt. Lyon had equipped some 10,000 Missourians from the
      Arsenal and sent most of the rest of the arms across the river into
      Illinois, Frost seems to have suddenly become doddering. The Rev. Henry W.
      Beecher used to tell a very effective story about an old house dog named
      Noble. Some time in the dim past Noble had found a rabbit in a hole under
      an apple tree. Every day ever after, for the rest of his life, Noble would
      go to the hole and bark industriously at it for an hour or so, with as
      much zeal as if he had found another rabbit there, which he never did.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link68" id="link68"></a><span class="pn">{68}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      There seemed to be something of this in Gen. Frost's carrying out his idea
      of establishing a camp ostensibly for the instruction of his Militia, on
      the hills near the Arsenal, which he did May 3. It is hard to reconcile
      this with any clear purpose. If he intended to assault and capture the
      Arsenal, the force that he gathered was absurdly inadequate, in view of
      what he must have known Lyon had to oppose him. Accounts differ as to the
      highest number he ever had assembled, but it must have been less than
      2,000.
    </p>
    <p>
      His camp, which was in a beautiful grove, then in the first flush of the
      charms of early Springtime, was quite an attractive place for the
      "knightly" young Southerners who, filled with the chivalrous ideas of Sir
      Walter Scott's novels, then the prevalent romantic literature of the
      South, had made much ado before their "ladye loves" of "going off to the
      warres," and the aforesaid "ladye loves," decorated with Secession
      rosettes and the red-white-and-red colors then emblematic of Secession,
      followed their "true-loves" to the camp, and made Lindell Grove bright
      with the gaily-contrasting hues in bonnets and gowns. There were music and
      parades, presentations, flags and banners, dancing and feasting, and all
      the charming accessories of a military picnic. But some how the material
      for common soldiers did not flock to the Camp as the Secessionists had
      hoped. Possibly the stern uprising of the loyal people of the North in
      response to the firing upon Fort Sumter, and the mustering of solid
      battalions in Illinois, Iowa, and Kansas, immediately around the Missouri
      borders, had a repressing effect upon those who had at first thought of
      going with a light heart into Secession. It began to look as if there were
      going to be something more serious than a Fourth of July barbecue about
      this work of breaking up the Union.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link69" id="link69"></a><span class="pn">{69}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Certainly, recruits had not come to Camp Jackson, which Frost had so named
      in honor of the Governor of the State, as they had flocked into similar
      camps farther South. Nor had they come in the numbers which were assembled
      around Lyon and Blair, appealing for arms. Still, the men in Camp Jackson
      had a resolute purpose, under all the frivolity and merry-making of the
      gay camp, and presently Capts. Colton Greene and Basil Duke returned with
      the cheering news that their mission to Jefferson Davis had been entirely
      successful. Heavy artillery would be furnished with which to batter down
      the walls of the Arsenal, and force the Home Guards to fight or surrender.
      They brought with them the following encouraging letter from the President
      of the Southern Confederacy:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     Montgomery, Ala., April 23, 1861. His Excellency C. F.
     Jackson, Governor of Missouri.

     Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge yours of the 17th
     Instant, borne by Capts. Greene and Duke, and have most
     cordially welcomed the fraternal assurances it brings.

     A misplaced but generous confidence has, for years past,
     prevented the Southern States from making the preparation
     required by the present emergency, and our power to supply
     you with ordnance is far short of the will to serve you.
     After learning as well as I could from the gentlemen
     accredited to me what was most needful for the attack on the
     Arsenal, I have directed that Capts. Greene and Duke should
     be furnished with two 12-pounder howitzers and two 32-
     pounder guns, with the proper ammunition for each. These,
     from the commanding hills, will be effective, both against
     the garrison and to breach the inclosing walls of the place.
     I concur with you as to the great importance of capturing
     the Arsenal and securing its supplies, rendered doubly
     important by the means taken to obstruct your commerce and
     render you unarmed victims of a hostile invasion.
</pre>
    <p>
      <a name="link70" id="link70"></a><span class="pn">{70}</span>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     We look anxiously and hopefully for the day when the star of
     Missouri shall be added to the constellation of the
     Confederate States of America.

     With best wishes, I am, very respectfully, yours,

     JEFFERSON DAVIS.
</pre>
    <p>
      This promise was at once made good by a letter to the Governor of
      Louisiana to deliver the required war material from the stores in the
      lately-captured arsenal at Baton Rouge. These, carefully disguised as
      marble, ale, and other innocent stores, were shipped upon the steamboat J.
      C. Swan, and consigned to a well-known Union firm in St. Louis, with
      private marks to identify them to the Secessionists, who, on the watch for
      them, had them at once loaded on drays and taken to Camp Jackson. Their
      movements, however, were made known to Blair and the Committee of Safety
      by their spies, and Capt. Lyon was urged to seize the stores upon their
      arrival at the wharf, but he preferred to allow them to reach their
      destination, where they would serve to fix the purpose of the camp upon
      those commanding the garrison.
    </p>
    <p>
      Lyon, who as a soldier had naturally chafed under the insulting presence
      on the hills of a force hardly concealing its hostility under a thin vail
      of professed loyalty, at once resolved upon the capture of the camp. The
      more cautious of the Union men tried to restrain him. They argued that the
      camp would expire by legal limitation within a few days. To this Lyon
      opposed the probability that the Legislature would pass the military bill
      in some form and make the camp a permanent one.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link71" id="link71"></a><span class="pn">{71}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Then, those timorous ones insisted that the forms of the law should be
      employed, and that the United States Marshal, armed with a writ of
      replevin to recover United States property, should precede the attack upon
      the camp. Lyon fretted under this; The writ of replevin was a tiresome
      formality to men who talked of fighting and were ready to fight;
      furthermore, if served and recognized, Frost might put off the Marshal
      with some trumpery stuff of no value. Still further came the news that
      Harney, with Gen. Scott's assistance, had reinstated himself in favor at
      Washington, and would return the following Sunday. It was now Wednesday,
      the 8th of May.
    </p>
    <p>
      Above all, Lyon saw with a clearer insight than the strict law-abiders the
      immense moral effect of his contemplated action. Heretofore all the
      initiativeness, all the aggressiveness, all the audacity, had been on the
      side of the Secessionists. They were everywhere taking daring steps to the
      confusion and overthrow of the conservative Unionists, and so dragging
      with them hosts of the wavering. He longed to strike a quick, sharp blow
      to teach the enemies of the Government that they could no longer proceed
      with impunity, but must expect a return blow for every one they gave, and
      probably more.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link72" id="link72"></a><span class="pn">{72}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      On Wednesday evening, May 8, Capt. Lyon requested Mr. J. J. Witzig, one of
      the Committee of Safety, to meet him at 2 o'clock the next day with a
      horse and buggy. At the appointed hour Witzig went to Lyon's quarters and
      inquired for the "General," by which title Lyon was known after his
      election as Brigadier-General of the Missouri Militia. As he entered
      Lyon's room, Witzig saw a lady seated near the door, vailed and evidently
      waiting for some one. He inquired if she was waiting for the General to
      come in, and seating himself near the window awaited the coming of Lyon. A
      few minutes later the lady arose, lifted her vail, and astonished Mr.
      Witzig with the very unfeminine features of Lyon himself. Mrs. Alexander
      had loaned him the clothes, and succeeded in attiring him so that the
      deception was complete. Taking a couple of heavy revolvers, Gen. Lyon
      entered a barouche belonging to the loyal Franklin Dick, and was driven by
      Mr. Dick's servant leisurely out to Camp Jackson, followed by Mr. Witzig
      in a buggy. Lyon saw everything in the camp that he wished to see; noticed
      that the streets were named Davis Avenue, Beauregard Avenue, and the like;
      took in the lay of the ground, and returning toward the Arsenal, stopped
      and directed Witzig to summon the other members of the Committee of Safety
      to immediately meet him at the Arsenal.
    </p>
    <p>
      He stated to them, when they gathered, the necessity of at once capturing
      the camp, and his determination to do so and hold all in it as prisoners
      of war. Blair and Witzig warmly approved this; Filley and Broadhead
      finally acquiesced, while How and Glover were opposed to both the manner
      and time and wanted a writ of replevin served by the United States
      Marshal. If Gen. Frost refused to respect this, Lyon could then go to his
      assistance.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link73" id="link73"></a><span class="pn">{73}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Lyon yielded so far as to allow Glover to get out the writ of replevin,
      but he was not disposed to dally long with that subterfuge, and his line
      of battle would not be far behind the Marshal. Even before he went out to
      the camp he had sent an Aid to procure 36 horses for his batteries from
      the leading livery stables in the city, because he feared that Maj.
      McKinstry, the Chief Quartermaster of the Department, could not be
      trusted; a doubt which seems to have been well founded, for Maj. McKinstry
      afterwards refused to pay for the horses until he was compelled to do so
      by a peremptory order from Lyon. The Secessionist spies were as vigilant
      and successful as those of the Unionists, and Gen. Frost was promptly
      informed of the designs upon him, whereupon on the morning of the fateful
      May 10 he dispatched Col. Bowen, his Chief of Staff, with the following
      letter to Gen. Lyon:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     Headquarters, Camp Jackson,

     Missouri Militia, May 10, 1861. Capt. N. Lyon, Commanding
     United States troops in and about St. Louis Arsenal.

     Sir: I am constantly in receipt of information that you
     contemplate an attack upon my camp. Whilst I understand you
     are impressed with the idea that an attack upon the Arsenal
     and the United States troops is intended on the part of the
     Militia of Missouri, I am greatly at a loss to know what
     could justify you in attacking: citizens of the United
     States, who are in the lawful performance of duties
     devolving upon them, under the Constitution, in organizing
     and instructing the Militia of the State in obedience to her
     laws, and therefore have been disposed to doubt the
     correctness of the information I have received.

     I would be glad to know from you personally whether there is
     any truth in the statements that are constantly poured into
     my ears. So far as regards any hostility being intended
     toward the United States or its property or representatives,
     by any portion of my command, or as far as I can learn (and
     I think I am fully informed) of any other part of the State
     forces, I can say positively that the idea has never been
     entertained. On the contrary, prior to your taking command
     of the Arsenal, I proffered to Maj. Bell, then in command of
     the very few troops constituting its guard, the services of
     myself and all my command, and, if necessary, the whole
     power of the State to protect the United States in the full
     possession of all her property. Upon Gen. Harney's taking
     command of this Department I made the same proffer of
     services to him and authorized his Adjutant-General, Capt.
     Williams, to communicate the fact that such had been done to
     the War
</pre>
    <p>
      <a name="link74" id="link74"></a><span class="pn">{74}</span>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     Department. I have had no occasion to change any of the
     views I entertained at that time, neither of my own volition
     nor through orders of my constitutional commander.

     I trust that after this explicit statement we may be able,
     by fully understanding each other, to keep far from our
     borders the misfortunes which so unhappily afflict our
     common country.

     This communication will be handed you by Col. Bowen, my
     Chief of Staff, who may be able to explain anything not
     fully set forth in the foregoing.

     I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

     D. M. FROST,

     Brigadier-General, Commanding Camp Jackson, M. V. M.
</pre>
    <p>
      It is an almost impossible task for the historian to reconcile this
      extraordinary letter with Gen. Frost's standing as an officer and a
      gentleman. It certainly passes the limits of deception allowable in war,
      and has no place in the ethics of civil life.
    </p>
    <p>
      The camp was located where it was for the generally understood purpose of
      attacking the Arsenal, and this purpose had been recommended to the
      Governor of the State by Gen. Frost himself. Every Secessionist, North and
      South, understood and boasted of it. Jefferson Davis approved of this, and
      he sent artillery with which to attack the Arsenal, which was then in
      Frost's camp. Gen. Lyon refused to receive the letter. He was busily
      engaged in preparations to carry its answer himself. He had under arms
      almost his entire force. Two regiments of Home Guards were left on duty
      protecting the Arsenal, and to be ready for any outbreak in the city, and
      a majority of the Regulars were also so employed.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link75" id="link75"></a><span class="pn">{75}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Lyon was a thorough organizer, and had his work well in hand with
      every one of his subordinates fully instructed as to his part. The
      previous military training of the Germans here came into good play, and
      regiments formed quickly and moved promptly. Col. Blair, with his regiment
      and a battalion of Regulars, marched to a position on the west of the
      camp. Col. Schuttner with his regiment went up Market street; Col. Sigel
      led his column up Olive street; Col. Brown went up Morgan street; and Col.
      McNeil up Clark avenue. A battery of six pieces went with a Regular
      battalion, at the head of which rode Gen. Lyon. The news of the movement
      rapidly diffused through the city; everybody was excited and eagerly
      expectant; and the roofs of the houses were black with people watching
      events. Not the least important, factor were the Secessionist belles of
      the city, whose lovers and brothers were in Camp Jackson, and who, with
      that inconsequence which is so charming in the young feminine mind, were
      breathlessly expectant of their young heroes each surrounding himself with
      a group of "Dutch myrmidons," slain by his red right hand.
    </p>
    <p>
      So admirably had Lyon planned that the heads of all his columns appeared
      at their designated places almost simultaneously, and Gen. Frost found his
      camp entirely surrounded in the most soldierly way. The six light pieces
      galloped into position to entirely command the camp. With a glance of
      satisfaction at the success of his arrangements, Gen. Lyon rode up to
      Sweeny, his second in command, and said:
    </p>
    <p>
      "Sweeny, if their batteries open on you, deploy your leading company as
      skirmishers, charge on the nearest battery, and take it."
    </p>
    <p>
      Sweeny turned to the next two companies to him, and ordered them to move
      their cartridge-boxes to the front, to prepare for action. Lyon then sent
      Maj. B. G. Farrar with the following letter to Gen. Frost:
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link76" id="link76"></a><span class="pn">{76}</span>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     Headquarters United States Troops,

     St. Louis, Mo., May 10, 1861. Gen. D. M. Frost, Commanding
     Camp Jackson.

     Sir: Your command is regarded as evidently hostile to the
     Government of the United States.

     It is for the most part made up of those Secessionists who
     have openly avowed their hostility to the General
     Government, and have been plotting at the seizure of its
     property and the overthrow of its authority. You are openly
     in communication with the so-called Southern Confederacy,
     which is now at war with the United States; and you are
     receiving at your camp, from said Confederacy and under its
     flag, large supplies of the material of war, most of which
     is known to be the property of the United States. These
     extraordinary preparations plainly indicate none other than
     the well-known purpose of the Governor of this State, under
     whose orders you are acting, and whose purpose, recently
     communicated to the Legislature, has just been responded to
     in the most unparalleled legislation, having in direct view
     hostilities to the General Government and cooperation with
     its enemies.

     In view of these considerations, and of your failure to
     disperse in obedience to the proclamation of the President,
     and of the eminent necessities of State policy and welfare,
     and the obligations imposed upon me by Instructions from
     Washington, it is my duty to demand, and I do hereby demand
     of you, an immediate surrender of your command, with no
     other conditions than that all persons surrendering under
     this demand shall be humanely and kindly treated. Believing
     myself prepared to enforce this demand, one-half hour's time
     before doing so will be allowed for your compliance
     therewith. Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

     N. LYON, Captain, 2d United States Infantry,
     Commanding Troops.
</pre>
    <p>
      There were a few anxious minutes following this, but it must be said to
      Frost's credit as a soldier that he promptly recognized the situation and
      acted upon it. Soon a horseman rode out from the camp, and approaching
      Lyon handed him the following note:
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link77" id="link77"></a><span class="pn">{77}</span>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     Camp Jackson, Mo., May 10, 1861. Capt. N. Lyon, Commanding
     U. S. Troops.

     Sir: I, never for a moment having conceived the Idea that so
     illegal and unconstitutional a demand as I have just
     received from you would be made by an officer of the United
     States Army, am wholly unprepared to defend my command from
     this unwarranted attack, and shall therefore be forced to
     comply with your demand.

     I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

     D. M. FROST, Brigadier-General, Commanding Camp Jackson,
     Missouri Volunteer Militia.
</pre>
    <p>
      Lyon read it, turned to his second in command and remarked: "Sweeny, they
      surrender."
    </p>
    <p>
      Sweeny turned to his men with the order to replace their cartridge-boxes,
      which they did with an air of disappointment. There had been so much talk
      during the weeks and months of preparation about fighting and such
      irritating threatenings, that the Union troops were anxious to "take a
      fall" out of their opponents, and see what would be the result. Lyon
      dismounted, and unfortunately the fractious horse of one of his Aids at
      that instant kicked him in the stomach, knocking him senseless. While in
      this condition, Wm. D. Wood, Frost's Adjutant-General, rode up and
      inquired for Gen. Lyon. Gen. Sweeny, desiring to conceal Lyon's condition
      from the enemy, replied that he would receive any message intended for the
      General. Col. Wood then said:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     "Gen. Frost sends his compliments to Gen. Lyon, and wishes
     to know if the officers will be allowed to retain their
     side-arms, what disposition shall be made of Government
     property, and if a guard will be sent to relieve his men now
     on post, and take possession of everything when the camp
     shall be evacuated?"
</pre>
    <p>
      <a name="link78" id="link78"></a><span class="pn">{78}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Sweeny replied affirmatively, when Wood rode off and Sweeney returned to
      Lyon, to find him slowly recovering. Lyon approved of Sweeny's answer, and
      directed Sweeny to take possession of the camp with two companies of
      Regulars. Frost's men stacked arms and marched off through a lane formed
      by the 1st Mo., which faced inward. Up to this time everything had gone on
      peacefully. The surrendered Militia, without any special protest or
      demonstration, took their places quietly under guard. Not so with the
      immense mob which had gathered, expecting to see the Militia make
      sanguinary havoc of their assailants. These were deeply chagrined at the
      tame issue of the affair, and after exhausting all the vile epithets at
      their command, began throwing stones, brickbats, and other missiles, which
      the soldiers received as patiently as they did the contumely, when the
      bolder of the mob began firing with revolvers. Presently one of Co. F, 3d
      Mo., commanded by Capt. C. Blandowski, was shot dead, several severely
      wounded, and the Captain himself fell with a bullet through his leg. As he
      fell he ordered his men to fire, which resulted in about 20 of the rioters
      dropping under a volley from the soldiers' muskets. The mob fled in
      dismay, and Gen. Lyon ordered his troops to cease firing.
    </p>
    <p>
      One of the leaders of the mob had deliberately fired three times at Capt.
      Saxton, of the Regulars, and had laid his revolver across his arm for a
      fourth more deliberate shot, when one of Capt. Saxton's men bayoneted
      while another shot him. When the smoke cleared away, it was found that 15
      had been killed. Three of these were prisoners from Camp Jackson, and two
      were women whose morbid curiosity, or worse, had led them to mingle with
      the mob, One was a child.
    </p>
    <p>
      Capt. Blandowski died of his wounds the next day.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link79" id="link79"></a><span class="pn">{79}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      At 6 o'clock the troops and prisoners marched back to the Arsenal, leaving
      Gen. Sweeny with his Regulars in charge of Camp Jackson. On the way
      rioters thronged the line of march and vilely abused the soldiers, but
      Lyon was vigilant in restraining his men, and prevented their making any
      return by firing upon their assailants.
    </p>
    <p>
      During the night and the next day the prisoners were all released, the
      privates taking an oath not to serve in any capacity against the
      Government during the war, and the officers giving a parole not to serve
      in any military capacity against the United States. It was provided that
      the parole should be returned upon anyone surrendering himself as a
      prisoner of war, and was accompanied with a protest against the justice of
      executing it. One exception, Capt. Emmett MacDonald, who had been
      efficient in bringing the Irishmen into opposition to the "Dutch," refused
      to accept the parole on the ground taken by all the others that they had
      done nothing wrong, and finally secured his release through a writ of
      habeas corpus.
    </p>
    <p>
      The excitement that night in St. Louis was fearful, with the Secessionists
      raging. It is to the credit, however, of James McDonough, whom Governor
      Jackson's Secessionist Police Commissioners had appointed Chief of Police,
      that, whatever his sympathies, he did not allow them to interfere with his
      official duties, and exerted himself to the utmost to preserve the
      municipal peace. The violent Secessionists started to mob the offices of
      the Republican papers, and to attack the residences of Union leaders, but
      were everywhere met by squads of police backed up by an armed force of
      Home Guards, which, with the appeals of the conservative men of influence
      on both sides, managed to stay the storm.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link80" id="link80"></a><span class="pn">{80}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      McDonough could not, however, prevent a number of outrages, and several of
      the Home Guards caught alone were killed by the rowdies that night and the
      next day&mdash;Saturday. This incensed the Germans terribly, and stories
      reached the Secession parts of the city that they contemplated fearful
      revenge, which they could wreak, having arms in their own hands, while the
      "natural protectors" of the people&mdash;Frost's military companies&mdash;were
      prisoners of war and disarmed.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Mayor issued a proclamation to quiet the people, and requested all
      keepers of drinking places to at once close and remain closed during the
      excitement. All minors were ordered to remain in doors for three days, and
      all good citizens were requested to remain in doors after nightfall and to
      avoid gatherings and meetings.
    </p>
    <p>
      As was usual, a good many people who meant no evil obeyed this
      proclamation, while the mobites, who meant a great deal of harm, paid no
      attention to it. Saturday afternoon, the 5th Regiment of United States
      Reserves, under the command of Lieut-Col. Robert White, attempted to go to
      their barracks, when they were assailed by a mob with stones, brickbats
      and pistol shots. The patience of the soldiers finally gave way, and they
      fired into the crowd, killing several persons&mdash;and wounding many
      others.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link81" id="link81"></a><span class="pn">{81}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linkimage-0007" id="linkimage-0007">
       <!--  IMG --> </a> <img src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:j:john-mcelroy-struggle-for-missouri-065-Gen%20John%20C%20Fremont.jpg"
      alt="General John C. Fremont"  /><br />
    </p>
    <p>
      Sunday the Secessionists were in a panic, and began a wild flight from the
      city. Every vehicle that could be obtained was employed at exorbitant
      prices to carry men, women and children, baggage and personal effects, to
      the depots and wharves, where the railroads and steamboats were ready to
      receive them. The Mayor attempted to stay the stampede by a speech at the
      Planters' House, in which he assured the people that the Home Guards were
      entirely under the control of their officers, and would only be used to
      preserve the peace and protect property.
    </p>
    <p>
      What was more effective was the news that Gen. Harney, hurrying back from
      Washington, had arrived the preceding evening and resumed command. Harney
      had reached the city on Saturday evening, May 11, and Sunday morning
      called at the Arsenal on Col. Blair, not Gen. Lyon, whom he informed of
      his intentions to remove the Home Guards from the Arsenal and disband
      them. Blair succeeded in convincing him that this was beyond his
      authority, and did not hesitate to say that his attempt to do so would be
      resisted. Being convinced, Harney sent a messenger to the Board of Police
      Commissioners, who were anxiously awaiting the result of his visit, to the
      effect that he had "no control over the Home Guards," which was intended
      to mean that he could not remove or disband them, but which the
      Commissioners and the people understood to mean that he had lost control
      over them.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link82" id="link82"></a><span class="pn">{82}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The panic at once resumed its former proportions, and Gen. Harney found it
      necessary to issue a proclamation, in which he said that the public peace
      must and would be preserved, and the lives and property of the people
      protected, but he trusted that he would not be compelled to resort to
      martial law. He would avoid all cause of irritation and excitement
      whenever called upon to aid the local authorities by using in preference
      the Regular troops. Therefore he began by restricting the Home Guards to
      the German parts of the city, while he moved about 250 Regulars, under the
      command of Capts. Totten and Sweeny and Lieuts. Saxton and Lothrop, with
      four pieces of artillery, into a central position, where they went into
      quarters, to the great relief of everybody.
    </p>
    <p>
      It will be perceived that a remarkable change had come over the people
      since a few weeks before, when the arrival of a little squad of Regulars
      at the Sub-Treasury to protect its gold had thrown the city in the wildest
      excitement over "the attempt to overawe and cow the people of Missouri."
    </p>
    <p>
      Confidence was restored, and quiet ensued. Gen. Frost lodged a protest
      with Gen. Harney, in which he recited the circumstances of Lyon's attack
      upon him, claimed that every officer and soldier in his command had taken,
      with uplifted hand, the following oath:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     You, each and every one of you, do solemnly swear that you
     will honestly and faithfully serve the State of Missouri
     against her enemies, and that you will do your utmost to
     sustain the Constitution and laws of the United States and
     of this State against all violence, of whatsoever kind or
     description, and you do further swear that you will well and
     truly execute and obey the legal orders of all officers
     properly placed over you whilst on duty; so help you God.
</pre>
    <p>
      A casual inspection shows how cunningly this was framed. It will be
      perceived that every one solemnly swore to "serve the State of Missouri
      against all her enemies," and to "obey the orders of the officers" placed
      over him, while he was merely enjoined to do his utmost to sustain the
      Constitution and laws of the United States and this State against all
      violence.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link83" id="link83"></a><span class="pn">{83}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      It is easy to see how such an obligation would be construed.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Frost recited again that he had offered to help Gen. Lyon protect the
      United States property with his whole force, and if necessary with that of
      Missouri, and appealed to Gen. Harney not to require the indignity of a
      parole, but to order the restoration of all the officers and men to
      liberty, and of all the property of the State and of private individuals.
      The language of this protest did as little to enhance the reputation of
      Gen. Frost as his letter to Gen. Lyon.
    </p>
    <p>
      It was an intense disappointment to the Secessionists everywhere that he
      made no show of a fight before surrendering. It would have been the
      greatest satisfaction to all of them had he chosen to make Camp Jackson a
      Thermopylae or an Alamo. Such a sacrifice would have been of priceless
      worth in firing the Southern heart, and placing him high among the world's
      heroes. Somehow the idea of martyrdom did not appeal to him, as it has not
      to millions of other men placed in critical positions. The wonder to the
      calm student of history is that, having made such a bold bluff at Lyon, he
      did not "fill his hand" better, to use a sporting phrase, and prevent Lyon
      from "calling" him so effectually. The frost which was in his name settled
      on this "young Napoleon" thereafter&mdash;the country was filled with
      young Napoleons at that time&mdash;and though he commanded a brigade in
      the Confederate army for some two years or more, his name is only
      "mentioned" afterward in the Rebellion Records.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link84" id="link84"></a><span class="pn">{84}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Lyon's decisive act did not meet with the unanimous approval of the Union
      men of the State. There began then that unhappy division between the
      "Conservative Union men" and the "Radicals" which led to so many
      collisions, and sorely distracted President Lincoln. The "Radicals" who
      fell under the lead of F. P. Blair, and had their representative in the
      Cabinet at Washington in the shape of Montgomery Blair, the
      Postmaster-General, dubbed their opponents "Claybanks," while the latter,
      whose representative in the Cabinet was Edward Bates, the
      Attorney-General, tainted with the name of "Charcoals" their opponents.
      The "Conservatives," who represented a very large portion of the wealth
      and education of the State, had for leaders such men as Hamilton R.
      Gamble, Robert Campbell, James E. Yeatman, H. S. Turner, Washington King,
      N. J. Eaton, and James H. Lucas. They at once sent a delegation to
      Washington to represent to Mr. Lincoln that Lyon, while undoubtedly "a
      loyal and brave soldier," was "rash," "imprudent," and "indiscreet." This
      representation carried great weight, for they were all men of the highest
      character and standing, and at their instance Gen. Harney was pushed
      further to the front again.
    </p>
    <p>
      The "Old Dragoon" now asserted itself in Harney, as it was likely to when
      there was the smell of gunpowder in the air. Lyon's course was, in spite
      of the intense influence of Harney's Secession convives, very much to the
      taste of the old fighter. He wrote to Gen. Scott that he approved Lyon's
      action, and replied to the Judge in the habeas corpus writ of Capt.
      McDonald, that the man had been properly arrested. May 14 he issued a
      proclamation in which he said:
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link85" id="link85"></a><span class="pn">{85}</span>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     It is with regret that I feel it my duty to call your
     attention to the recent act of the General Assembly of
     Missouri, known as the "Military Bill," which is the result,
     no doubt, of the temporary excitement that now pervades the
     public mind. This bill cannot be regarded in any other light
     than an indirect Secession ordinance, Ignoring even the form
     resorted to by other States. Manifestly, its most material
     provisions are in conflict with the Constitution and laws of
     the United States. To this extent it is a nullity, and
     cannot and ought not to be upheld or regarded by the good
     citizens of Missouri. There are obligations and duties
     resting upon the people of Missouri under the Constitution
     and laws of the United States which are paramount, and which
     I trust you will carefully consider and weigh well before
     you will allow yourselves to be carried out of the Union
     under the form of yielding obedience to this military bill,
     which is clearly in violation of your duties as citizens of
     the United States.

     It must be apparent to every one who has taken a proper and
     unbiased view of the subject that, whatever may be the
     termination of the unfortunate condition of things in
     respect to the so-called Cotton States, Missouri must share
     the destiny of the Union. Her geographical position, her
     soil, productions, and, in short, all her material
     interests, point to this result. We cannot shut our eyes
     against this controlling fact. It is seen and its force is
     felt throughout the Nation. So important is this regarded to
     the great interests of the country, that I venture to
     express the opinion that the whole power of the Government
     of the United States, if necessary, will be exerted to
     maintain Missouri in her present position in the Union. I
     express to you, in all frankness and sincerity, my own
     deliberate convictions, without assuming to speak for the
     Government of the United States, whose authority here and
     elsewhere I shall at all times and under all circumstances
     endeavor faithfully to uphold. I desire above all things
     most earnestly to invite my fellow-citizens dispassionately
     to consider their true interests as well as their true
     relations to the Government under which we live and to which
     we owe so much.

     In this connection I desire to direct attention to one
     subject which, no doubt, will be made the pretext for more
     or less popular excitement. I allude to the recent
     transactions at Camp Jackson, near St. Louis. It is not
     proper for me to comment upon the official conduct of my
     predecessor in command of this Department, but it is right
     and proper for the people of Missouri to know that the main
     avenue of Camp Jackson, recently under the command of Gen.
     Frost, had the name of Davis; and a principal street of the
     same camp that of Beauregard, and that a body of men had
     been received into that camp by its commander which had been
     notoriously organized in the interests of the Secessionists,
     the men openly wearing the dress and badge distinguishing
     the Army of the so-called Southern Confederacy. It is also a
     notorious fact that a quantity of arms had been received
     into the camp which were unlawfully taken from the United
     States Arsenal at Baton Rouge, and surreptitiously passed up
     the river in boxes marked "Marble."
</pre>
    <p>
      <a name="link86" id="link86"></a><span class="pn">{86}</span>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     Upon facts like these, and having in view what occurred at
     Liberty, the people can draw their own inferences, and it
     cannot be difficult for any one to arrive at a correct
     conclusion as to the character and ultimate purpose of that
     encampment. No Government in the world would be entitled to
     respect that would tolerate for a moment such openly
     treasonable preparations. It is but simple justice, however,
     that I should state the fact that there were many good and
     loyal men in the camp who were in no manner responsible for
     its treasonable character. Disclaiming as I do all desire or
     intention to interfere in any way with the prerogatives of
     the State of Missouri or with the functions of its executive
     or other authorities, yet I regard it as my plain path of
     duty to express to the people, In respectful but at the same
     time decided language, that within the field and scope of my
     command and authority the "supreme law" of the land must and
     shall be maintained, and no subterfuges, whether in the
     forms of legislative acts or otherwise, can be permitted to
     harass or oppress the good and law-abiding people of
     Missouri. I shall exert my authority to protect their
     persons and property from violations of every kind, and
     shall deem it my duty to suppress all unlawful combinations
     of men, whether formed under pretext of military
     organizations or otherwise.

     WM. S.  HARNEY. Brigadier-General, United States Army,
     Commanding.
</pre>
    <p>
      These were certainly "brave words, my masters," and had great influence
      upon the people of Missouri. Unhappily there was reason to think
      afterwards that Gen. Harney was not quite living up to them.
    </p>
    <p>
      When the account of stock of the capture of Camp Jackson came to be taken,
      the invoice was as follows:
    </p>
    <p>
      Three 32-pounders.
    </p>
    <p>
      Three mortar-beds.
    </p>
    <p>
      A large quantity of balls and bombs in ale barrels.
    </p>
    <p>
      Artillery pieces, in boxes of heavy plank, the boxes marked "Marble,"
      "Tamaroa, care of Greeley &amp; Gale, St Louis&mdash;Iron Mountain
      Railroad."
    </p>
    <p>
      Twelve hundred rifles, of late model, United States manufacture.
    </p>
    <p>
      Tents and camp equipage.
    </p>
    <p>
      Six brass field pieces.
    </p>
    <p>
      Twenty-five kegs of powder.
    </p>
    <p>
      Ninety-six 10-Inch bombshells.
    </p>
    <p>
      Three hundred six-inch bombshells. ..
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link87" id="link87"></a><span class="pn">{87}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Six brass mortars, six inches diameter.
    </p>
    <p>
      One iron mortar, 10 inches.
    </p>
    <p>
      Three iron cannon, six inches.
    </p>
    <p>
      Five boxes of canister shot.
    </p>
    <p>
      Fifty artillery swords.
    </p>
    <p>
      Two hundred and twenty-seven spades.
    </p>
    <p>
      Thirty-eight hatchets.
    </p>
    <p>
      Eleven mallets.
    </p>
    <p>
      One hundred and ninety-one axes.
    </p>
    <p>
      Forty horses.
    </p>
    <p>
      Several boxes of new muskets.
    </p>
    <p>
      A very large number of musket stocks and musket barrels; together with
      lots of bayonets, bayonet scabbards, etc.
    </p>
    <p>
      One thousand one hundred and ten enlisted men were taken prisoners,
      besides from 50 to 75 officers.
    </p>
    <p>
      Nothing legislates so firmly and finally as a successful sword-blow for
      the right. Gen. Lyon's capture of Camp Jackson was an epoch-making
      incident. In spite of the protests of the wealthy and respectable Messrs.
      Gamble, Yeatman, and others, it was the right thing, done at the right
      time, to stay the surging sweep of the waves of Secession. It destroyed
      the captivating aggressiveness of the "Disunionists," and threw their
      leaders upon the defensive. Other people than they had wants and desires
      which must be listened to, or the Loyalists would find a way to compel
      attention. The Secessionists must now plead at their bar; not they in the
      court of those who would destroy the Government.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link88" id="link88"></a><span class="pn">{88}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linkimage-0008" id="linkimage-0008">
       <!--  IMG --> </a> <img src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:j:john-mcelroy-struggle-for-missouri-088.jpg"
      alt="088-the Scott-harney Agreement"  /><br /> <a
      name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
    </p>
    <div style="height: 4em;">
      <br /><br /><br /><br />
    </div>
    <h2>
      CHAPTER V. THE SCOTT-HARNEY AGREEMENT
    </h2>
    <p>
      The General Assembly of Missouri met at Jefferson City, in obedience to
      the Governor's call, on the 2d of May, and the Governor, after calling
      attention of the body to the state of the country, made an out-and-out
      appeal for Secession, saying that the interests and sympathies of Missouri
      were identical with those of other Slaveholding States, and she must
      unquestionably unite her destiny with theirs. She had no desire for war,
      but she would be faithless as to her honor and recreant as to her duty if
      she hesitated a moment to make complete preparations for the protection of
      her people, and that therefore the Legislature should "place the State at
      the earliest practicable moment in a complete state of defense." As this
      is what the Legislature had expected, and what it had met for, no time was
      lost in going into secret session to carry out the program.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link89" id="link89"></a><span class="pn">{89}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The first of these was the odious Military Bill, the passage of which was
      stubbornly resisted, step by step, by the small band of Union men. This,
      it will be recollected, put every able-bodied man into the Militia of
      Missouri, under the orders of officers to be appointed by the Governor;
      compelled him to obey implicitly the orders received from those above him,
      and prescribed the heinous crime of "treason to the State," which extended
      even to words spoken in derogation of the Governor or Legislature.
      Offenses of this kind were to be punished by summary court-martial, which
      had even the power to inflict death. Other bills perverted the funds for
      the State charitable institutions into the State military chest, seized
      the school fund for the same purpose, and authorized a loan from the banks
      of $1,000,000 and another of $1,000,000 of State bonds, to provide funds
      by which to carry out the program.
    </p>
    <p>
      On the evening of Friday, May 10, while these measures were being fought
      over, the Governor entered the House with a dispatch which he handed to
      Representative Vest, afterwards United States Senator from Missouri, who
      sprang upon a chair and thrilled all his hearers by reading that "Frank
      Blair, Capt. Lyon and the Dutch" had captured Camp Jackson, seized all the
      property there, and marched the State troops prisoners to the Arsenal. The
      wild scene that followed is simply indescribable. For many months there
      had been much talk about "firing the Southern heart," and here was
      something of immediate and furnace heat.
    </p>
    <p>
      As soon as the members recovered from the stun of the blow, they went into
      paroxysms of passion. In a few minutes the Military Bill was rushed
      through, followed by the others, and a new one to appropriate $10,000 for
      the purpose of securing an alliance with the Indians on the borders of the
      State. This done, the members bolted out in search of weapons with which
      to arm themselves, as there was a rumor that the awful Blair and Lyon with
      their "mercenaries" were on the march to subject the Legislature to the
      same treatment that they had Frost's Militia.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link90" id="link90"></a><span class="pn">{90}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Muskets, shotguns, rifles, pistols and pikes were brought out, cleaned up,
      bullets molded and cartridges made, and the Governor ordered the members
      of his staff to seize a locomotive and press on as fast as possible
      towards St. Louis to reconnoiter the advance of the enemy; if necessary,
      to destroy the bridges over the Gasconade and Osage Rivers to obstruct the
      march.
    </p>
    <p>
      No enemy was found, but the zealous Basil Duke, in order not to be guilty
      of any sin of omission, burnt a part of the Osage bridge. The meeting of
      the Legislature in the evening was grotesque, as every member came with a
      more or less liberal supply of arms, usually including a couple of
      revolvers and a bowie-knife in belt. During the exciting session which
      followed, rifles stood by the desks or were laid across them, with other
      arms, and it was good luck more than anything else that no casualty
      resulted from accidental discharge of fire-arms. The excitement grew over
      the stirring events in St. Louis of Saturday and Sunday, and the Governor
      immediately proceeded to the exercise of the extraordinary powers
      conferred upon him by the Military Bill.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link91" id="link91"></a><span class="pn">{91}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      As the star of Gen. D. M. Frost sank ingloriously below the horizon of
      Camp Jackson, that of Sterling Price rose above it to remain for four
      years the principal luminary in the Confederate firmament west of the
      Mississippi.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linkimage-0009" id="linkimage-0009">
       <!--  IMG --> </a> <img src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:j:john-mcelroy-struggle-for-missouri-038-Gen%20Sterling%20Price.jpg"
      alt="038-general Sterling Price"  /><br />
    </p>
    <p>
      That does not seem to depend upon intellectual superiority, upon greater
      courage or devotion, or even upon clearer insight. A man leads his fellows&mdash;many
      of whom are his superiors in most namable qualities&mdash;simply because
      of something unnamable in him that makes him assume the leadership, and
      they accept it. There was hardly a prominent man in Missouri who was not
      Price's superior in some quality usually regarded as essential. For
      example, he was a pleasing and popular speaker, but Missouri abounded in
      men much more attractive to public assemblages. He was a fair politician,
      but rarely got more than the second prize. He had distinguished himself in
      the Mexican War, but Claiborne Jackson made more capital out of his few
      weeks of inconsequential service in the Black Hawk War than Price did out
      of the conquest of New Mexico and the capture of Chihuahua.
    </p>
    <p>
      He served one term in Congress, but had failed to secure a renomination.
      He had been elected Governor of Missouri while his Mexican laurels were
      yet green, but when he tried to enter the Senate, he was easily defeated
      by that able politician and orator, James S. Green.
    </p>
    <p>
      Though he belonged to the dominant Anti-Benton faction of the Missouri
      Democracy and the Stephen A. Douglas wing, he never was admitted to the
      select inner council, nor secured any of its higher rewards, except one
      term as Governor.
    </p>
    <p>
      At the outbreak of the war he was holding the comparatively unimportant
      place of Bank Commissioner. For all that, he was to become and remain
      throughout the struggle the central figure of Secession in the
      trans-Mississippi country.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link92" id="link92"></a><span class="pn">{92}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Officers of high rank and brilliant reputation like Ben McCulloch, Earl
      Van Dorn, Richard Taylor and E. Kirby Smith were to be put over him, yet
      his fame and influence outshone them all.
    </p>
    <p>
      Unquestionably able soldiers such as Marmaduke, Shelby, Bowen, Jeff
      Thompson, Parsons, M. L. Clark and Little, were to serve him with
      unfaltering loyalty as subordinates.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Secessionist leaders of Missouri, headed by Gov. Reynolds, were to
      denounce him for drunkenness, crass incapacity, gross blundering, and a
      most shocking lack of discipline and organization.
    </p>
    <p>
      Very few commanding officers ever had so many defeats or so few successes.
      He was continually embarking upon enterprises of the greatest promise and
      almost as continually having them come to naught; generally through
      defeats inflicted by Union commanders of no special reputation.
    </p>
    <p>
      Yet from first to last his was a name to conjure with. No other than his
      in the South had the spell in it for Missourians and the people west of
      the Mississippi. They flocked to his standard wherever it was raised, and
      after three years of failures they followed him with as much eager hope in
      his last disastrous campaign as in the first, and when he died in St.
      Louis, two years after the war, his death was regretted as a calamity to
      the State, and he had the largest funeral of any man in the history of
      Missouri.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link93" id="link93"></a><span class="pn">{93}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Sterling Price was born in 1809 in Prince Edward County, Va., of a family
      of no special prominence, and in 1831 settled upon a farm in Chariton
      County, Mo. He went into politics, was elected to the Legislature, and
      then to Congress for one term, after which he commanded a Missouri
      regiment in Doniphan's famous march to the Southwest, where he showed
      great vigor and ability. He was a man of the finest physique and presence,
      six feet two inches high, with small hands and feet and unusually large
      body and limbs; a superb horseman; with a broad, bland, kindly face framed
      in snow-white hair and beard. His name would indicate Welsh origin, but
      his face, figure, and mental habits seemed rather Teutonic. He had a voice
      of much sweetness and strength, and a paternal way of addressing his men,
      who speedily gave him the sobriquet of "Pap Price." He appeared on the
      field in a straw hat and linen duster in the Summer, and with a blanket
      thrown over his shoulders and a tall hat in Winter. These became standards
      which the Missourians followed into the thick of the fight, as the French
      did the white plume of Henry of Navarre.
    </p>
    <p>
      He had been elected as a Union man to the Convention, which at once chose
      him for President, but his Unionism seemed to be a mere varnish easily
      scratched off by any act in favor of the Union.
    </p>
    <p>
      Thus, immediately after the occurrences in St. Louis, he went to the
      Governor with the remark that "the slaughter of the people of Missouri" in
      St. Louis had proved too much for him, and his sword was at the service of
      the State.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link94" id="link94"></a><span class="pn">{94}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      It is significant of the way men were swayed in those days, that the
      murder of the German volunteers patriotically rallying to the defense of
      the Arsenal, and the murder and outrages upon the Union people throughout
      the State, did not affect Gen. Price at all, but he was moved to wrath by
      the shooting down of a few rioters.
    </p>
    <p>
      His going over was welcomed as a great victory by the Secessionists,
      offsetting the capture of Camp Jackson. Gov. Jackson promptly availed
      himself of the offer, and at once appointed Gen. Price Major-General in
      command of the forces of Missouri to be organized under the Military Bill.
    </p>
    <p>
      Though even to Gen. Harney's eyes the Military Bill was repugnant and he
      denounced it as direct Secession, the Governor proceeded with all speed to
      execute it.
    </p>
    <p>
      Each Congressional District in the State was made a Military Division. A
      Brigadier-General was appointed to the command of each, and ordered to
      immediately proceed to the enrollment of the men in it who were fit for
      military duty, and to prepare them for active service.
    </p>
    <p>
      The able and witty Alexander W. Doniphan&mdash;"Xenophon" Doniphan of
      Mexican fame&mdash;who had made the astonishing march upon New Mexico and
      Chihuahua, was appointed to command one of the Divisions, but he was too
      much of a Union man, and declined. It was significant from the first that
      all the officers commissioned were more or less open Secessionists, and
      commissions were refused to some who sought them because they would not
      swear to make allegiance to Missouri paramount to that of the United
      States.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link95" id="link95"></a><span class="pn">{95}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      As finally arranged the Divisions were commanded as follows:
    </p>
    <p>
      First Division, M. Jeff Thompson.
    </p>
    <p>
      Second Division, Thos. A. Harris.
    </p>
    <p>
      Third Division, M. L. Clark.
    </p>
    <p>
      Fourth Division, Wm. Y. Slack.
    </p>
    <p>
      Fifth Division, A. E. Steen.
    </p>
    <p>
      Sixth Division, M. M. Parsons.
    </p>
    <p>
      Seventh Division, J. H. McBride.
    </p>
    <p>
      Eighth Division, Jas L. Rains.
    </p>
    <p>
      All of these were men of decided ability and standing, and Parsons, M. L.
      Clark and Slack had served with credit in the Mexican War. Parsons became
      a Major-General in the Confederate army, and Clark, Slack, Steen and Rains
      Brigadier-Generals.
    </p>
    <p>
      A striking figure among them was M. Jeff Thompson, called the "Missouri
      Swamp Fox" by his admirers, and who aspired to become the Francis Marion
      of the Southern Confederacy. He was a tall, lank, wiry man, at least six
      feet high, about 35 years old, with a thin, long, hatchet face, and high,
      sharp nose, blue eyes, and thick, yellow hair combed behind his ears. He
      wore a slouch white hat with feather and a bob-tailed coat, short
      pantaloons, and high rough boots. A white-handled bowie-knife, stuck
      perpendicularly in his belt in the middle of his back, completed his
      armament, and he was never seen without it. His weakness was for writing
      poetry, and he "threw" a poem on the slightest provocation. Fortunately
      none of these has been preserved.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link96" id="link96"></a><span class="pn">{96}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Each Brigadier-General soon raised in his Division several regiments and
      battalions of infantry, troops of cavalry, and batteries of artillery,
      composed of very excellent material, for the young men of the Middle Class
      were persuaded that it was their duty to respond to the State's call to
      defend her. The strongest political, social and local influences were
      brought to bear to bring them into the ranks, and the Missouri State Guard
      was formed, which was to fight valorously against the Government on many
      bitterly contested fields.
    </p>
    <p>
      The White Trash, always impatient of the restrains of law and
      organization, did not enter so largely into these forces, but remained
      outside, to form bands of bushwhackers and guerrillas, to harry Union men
      and curse the State with their depredations, in which the Secessionists
      were scarcely more favored than the Union men.
    </p>
    <p>
      The influence of Gen. Scott and Attorney-General Bates, added to the
      passionate representations of the Gamble-Yeatman delegation, and the
      frantic telegrams from Missouri, had restored Harney to full power, with
      Lyon, who had been commissioned a Brigadier-General of Volunteers, as his
      subordinate.
    </p>
    <p>
      Harney was exerting himself to the utmost to restore peace and confidence
      in Missouri, and when free from the social influence of the Secessionists
      who surrounded him his soldierly instincts made him perceive that the
      emergency was greater than he had calculated upon. In one of these better
      moods he telegraphed to the Adjutant-General, May 17, that he ought to
      have 10,000 stand of arms placed at his disposal to arm the Union men of
      Missouri; that Iowa be called upon to send him 6,000, and Minnesota 3,000
      men. Then the Secessionists would get hold of him again, and induce
      another mood, such as brought about a conference between him and Gov.
      Jackson and Gen. Price, leading to an agreement which Gen. Harney
      published in a proclamation. The agreement was as follows:
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linkimage-0010" id="linkimage-0010">
       <!--  IMG --> </a> <img src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:j:john-mcelroy-struggle-for-missouri-090-Gen%20Franz%20Sigel.jpg"
      alt="090-general Franz Sigel"  /><br />
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link97" id="link97"></a><span class="pn">{97}</span>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     Saint Louis, May 21, 1861.

     The undersigned, officers of the United States Government
     and of the Government of the State of Missouri, for the
     purpose of removing misapprehensions and allaying public
     excitement, deem it proper to declare publicly that they
     have this day had a personal interview in this city, in
     which it has been mutually understood, without the semblance
     of dissent on either part, that each of them has no other
     than a common object equally interesting and important to
     every citizen of Missouri&mdash;that of restoring peace and good
     order to the people of the State in subordination to the
     laws of the General and State Governments. It being thus
     understood, there seems no reason why every citizen should
     not confide in the proper officers of the General and State
     Governments to restore quiet, and, as among the best means
     of offering no counter-influences, we mutually recommend to
     all persons to respect each other's rights throughout the
     State, making no attempt to exercise unauthorized powers, as
     it is the determination of the proper authorities to
     suppress all unlawful proceedings, which can only disturb
     the public peace.

     Gen. Price, having by commission full authority over the
     Militia of the State of Missouri, undertakes, with the
     sanction of the Governor of the State, already declared, to
     direct the whole power of the State officers to maintain
     order within the State among the people thereof, and Gen.
     Harney publicly declares that, this object being thus
     assured, he can have no other occasion, as he has no wish,
     to make military movements, which might otherwise create
     excitements and jealousies which he most earnestly desires
     to avoid.

     We, the undersigned, do mutually enjoin upon the people of
     the State to attend to their civil business of whatever sort
     it may be, and it is to be hoped that the unquiet elements
     which have threatened so seriously to disturb the public
     peace may soon subside and be remembered only to be
     deplored.

     STERLING PRICE, Major-General Missouri State Guard.
     WILLIAM S. HARNEY, Brigadier-General Commanding.
</pre>
    <p>
      Harney was convinced of the sincerity of Jackson and Price in carrying out
      this agreement, which he submitted for approval to the War Department.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link98" id="link98"></a><span class="pn">{98}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      F. P. Blair wrote to the Secretary of War urging that the four regiments
      assigned to Missouri for three years' service, which Lyon was to command,
      should not be officered by the Governor of Missouri, but that it would be
      better that they be nominated by Gen. Lyon, subject to the approval of the
      President, and he said: "The agreement between Harney and Gen. Price gives
      me great disgust and dissatisfaction to the Union men; but I am in hopes
      we can get along with it, and think that Harney will insist on its
      execution to the fullest extent, in which case it will be satisfactory."
    </p>
    <p>
      In spite of Gen. Harney's faith, he was inundated with complaints from all
      parts of the State as to loyal citizens in great numbers being outraged,
      persecuted, and driven from their homes. These complaints also reached the
      President, and Adjutant-General Thomas called Gen. Harney's attention to
      them in a strong letter May 27, in which he said: "The professions of
      loyalty to the Union by the State authorities of Missouri are not to be
      relied upon. They have already falsified their professions too often, and
      are too far committed to Secession to be entitled to your confidence, and
      you can only be sure of desisting from their wicked purposes when it is
      out of their power to prosecute them."
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link99" id="link99"></a><span class="pn">{99}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Two days later Gen. Harney replied that the State was rapidly becoming
      tranquilized; that he was convinced that his policy would soon restore
      peace and confidence in the ability of the Government to maintain its
      authority. He asserted that the agreement between himself and Price was
      being carried out in good faith. At the same time he called the attention
      of Gen. Price to the reports that the Secessionists had seized 15,000
      pounds of lead at Lebanon, a lot of powder elsewhere, had torn down the
      American Flag from several post offices, and hoisted Secessionist flags in
      their places, and that troops and arms were coming into Missouri from
      Arkansas and elsewhere, etc., etc. Price replied that he was satisfied
      that the information was incorrect; that neither he nor the Governor knew
      of any arms or troops coming into the State from any quarter; that he was
      dismissing his troops, and that Gen. Harney had better not send out any
      force, as it would exasperate the people.
    </p>
    <p>
      Again Gen. Harney wrote Gen. Price reciting fresh acts of disloyalty and
      outrage, and saying that unless these ceased, he would feel justified in
      authorizing the organization of Home Guards among the Union men to protect
      themselves. Price replied at length opposing the organization of Home
      Guards as having a tendency to "excite those who now hold conservative
      peace positions into exactly the contrary attitude, an example of which we
      have in St. Louis. It would undoubtedly, in my opinion, lead to
      neighborhood collision, the forerunner of civil war." Price finished by
      calling attention to his orders to all citizens to scrupulously protect
      property and rights, irrespective of political opinion, denying the
      reports which had reached Gen. Harney, and reiterating that he was
      carrying out the agreement in good faith.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link100" id="link100"></a><span class="pn">{100}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Lyon, Blair and the other Unconditional Union leaders had become convinced
      of what they feared; to wit, that the agreement simply tied Harney's
      hands, and prevented any assertion of the Government's power to protect
      its citizens, while leaving the Secessionists free to do as they pleased
      and mature their organization until they were ready to attack the Union
      men and sweep the State into Secession.
    </p>
    <p>
      In spite of Gen. Scott and Attorney-General Bates, the Administration at
      Washington was rapidly coming to this conclusion, and sent a special
      messenger to St. Louis from Washington with dispatches to Col. Blair. In
      an envelope was found a notice from the War Department to Capt. Lyon that
      he had been appointed a Brigadier-General to rank from the 18th of May,
      and there was also an order relieving Gen. Harney from the command of the
      Department of the West, and granting him leave of absence until further
      orders. There was a private letter to Col. Blair in the handwriting of
      President Lincoln, in which he expressed his anxiety in regard to St.
      Louis and Gen. Harney's course. He was, however, a little in doubt as to
      the propriety of relieving him, but asked Col. Blair to hold the order
      until such time as in his judgment the necessity for such action became
      urgent. This for several reasons:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     We had better have him for a friend than an enemy. It will
     dissatisfy a good many who would otherwise remain quiet.
     More than all, we first relieved him, then restored him; now
     If we relieve him again the public will ask: "Why all this
     vacillation?"
</pre>
    <p>
      Col. Blair fully understood and sympathized with the President. He put the
      letter and order in his pocket and talked confidentially to Lyon in regard
      to it. They decided not to publish the order until it would be wicked to
      delay it. They both liked and admired Harney, and if he could be
      decisively separated from his Secession environment, he could be of the
      greatest possible value. They would give him the opportunity of thoroughly
      testing his policy.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link101" id="link101"></a><span class="pn">{101}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Blair tried his best to arouse Gen. Harney to a sense of what was going
      on, and particularly to demand suspension of the execution of the Military
      Bill, but without effect. He sent to Gen. Harney telegrams and
      correspondence, showing that the Brigadier-Generals were rapidly
      organizing their forces, that emissaries were stirring up the Indians, and
      that Chief Ross, of the Cherokee Nation, had promised 15,000 well-armed
      men to help the Secessionists. When Harney called Price's attention to
      this, Price calmly pooh-poohed it all as of no consequence.
    </p>
    <p>
      Therefore, on May 30, Blair decided that the emergency for the delivery of
      the order had come, and sent it to Gen. Harney, and at the same time wrote
      to the President in explanation of what he had done.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Harney wrote the Adjutant-General of the Army a pathetic letter, in
      which he said:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     My confidence in the honor and integrity of Gen. Price, in
     the purity of his motives, and in his loyalty to the
     Government, remains unimpaired. His course as President of
     the State Convention that voted by a large majority against
     submitting an Ordinance of Secession, and his efforts since
     that time to calm the elements of discord, have served to
     confirm the high opinion of him I have for many years
     entertained.

     My whole course as Commander of the Department of the West
     has been dictated by a desire to carry out in good faith the
     instructions of my Government, regardless of the clamor of
     the conflicting elements surrounding me, and whose advice
     and dictation could not be followed without involving the
     State in blood and the Government in the unnecessary
     expenditure of millions. Under the course I pursued Missouri
     was secured to the Union, and the triumph of the Government
     was only the more glorious, being almost a bloodless
     victory; but those who clamored for blood have not ceased to
     impugn my motives. Twice within a brief space of time have
     I been relieved from the command here; the second time in a
     manner that has inflicted unmerited disgrace upon a true and
     loyal soldier. During a long life, dedicated to my country,
     I have seen some service, and more than once I have held her
     honor in my hands; and during that time my loyalty,
</pre>
    <p>
      <a name="link102" id="link102"></a><span class="pn">{102}</span>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     I believe, was never questioned; and now, when in the
     natural course of things I shall, before the lapse of many
     years, lay aside the sword which has so long served my
     country, my countrymen will be slow to believe that I have
     chosen this portion of my career to damn with treason my
     life, which is so soon to become a record of the past, and
     which I shall most willingly leave to the unbiased judgment
     of posterity. I trust that I may yet be spared to do my
     country some further service that will testify to the love I
     bear her, and that the vigor of my arm may never relax while
     there is a blow to be struck in her defense.

     I respectfully ask to be assigned to the command of the
     Department of California, and I doubt not the present
     commander of the Division is even now anxious to serve on
     the Atlantic frontier.

     I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

     WM. S. HARNEY, Brigadier-General, U. S. Army.
</pre>
    <p>
      He started for Washington, but the train on which he was going was
      captured at Harper's Ferry by a Secession force, and he was taken a
      prisoner to Richmond, where the authorities immediately ordered his
      release.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Government made no further use of him; he was retired in 1863 as a
      Brigadier-General. At the conclusion of the struggle, in which he took no
      further part, he was brevetted a Major-General, and died in the fullness
      of years May 9,1889, at his home at Pass Christian, Miss.
    </p>
    <p>
      Once more Gen. Lyon was in the saddle, this time for good, with Frank
      Blair and the Radicals massed behind him.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link103" id="link103"></a><span class="pn">{103}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
    </p>
    <div style="height: 4em;">
      <br /><br /><br /><br />
    </div>
    <h2>
      CHAPTER VI. THE LAST WORD BEFORE THE BLOW
    </h2>
    <p>
      Brig.-Gen. Nathaniel Lyon was now in full command, not only of the City of
      St. Louis and the State of Missouri, but of all the vast territory lying
      between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains, except Texas, New Mexico,
      and Utah.
    </p>
    <p>
      His sudden elevation from a simple Captain heading a company to wide
      command did not for an instant dizzy him as it seemed to McClellan and
      Fremont, who had made similar leaps in rank. Where McClellan surrounded
      himself with all the pomp and circumstance of glorious war as he had seen
      it exemplified by officers of his rank in Europe, where he was followed at
      all times by a numerous and glittering staff, resplendent with military
      millinery; and where Fremont set up a vice-regal court, in which were
      heard nearly all the tongues of the Continent, spoken by pretentious
      adventurers who claimed service in substantially every war since those of
      Napoleon, and under every possible flag raised in those wars, Lyon did not
      change a particle from the plain, straightforward, earnest soldier he had
      always been. His common dress was the private soldier's blouse with the
      single star of his rank, and a slouch hat. He was accoutered for the real
      work of war, not its spectacular effects. Grant was not simpler than he.
      Dominated by a great purpose, he made himself and every one and every
      thing about him tend directly towards that focus. He had only enough of a
      staff to do the necessary work, and they must be plain, matter-of-fact
      soldiers like himself, devoting their energies through all their waking
      hours to the cause he had at heart.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link104" id="link104"></a><span class="pn">{104}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      His first Chief of Staff was Chester Harding, a Massachusetts man, a
      thoroughgoing, practical, businesslike Yankee, animated by intense love of
      the Union. He preferred, however, service in the field, and became Colonel
      of the 10th Mo., then of the 25th, and later of the 43d Mo., doing good
      service wherever placed, and receiving at the last a well-earned brevet as
      Brigadier-General of Volunteers.
    </p>
    <p>
      While Gen. Lyon was organizing the Home Guards into volunteer regiments at
      the Arsenal, there came to his assistance a rather stockily-built First
      Lieutenant of the Regular Army, who was in the prime of manhood, with
      broad, full face and well-developed and increasing baldness, a graduate of
      West Point, and of some eight years' experience in the military
      establishment.
    </p>
    <p>
      John McAllister Schofield was born in Illinois, the son of an itinerant
      Baptist preacher, who mainly devoted himself to the cause of church
      extension. Schofield's name would indicate Germanic extraction. His face
      and figure supports the same theory, as do most of his mental habits. The
      McAllister in his name hints at an infusion of Celtic blood, of which we
      find few if any intellectual traces. Without any special enthusiasm or
      public demonstration of his attachment to principle, with a great deal of
      the courtier in his ways, he was yet firm, courageous and persistent in
      the policy he had marked out for himself. He was true to the Union cause,
      in his own way, from the time he offered his services to Gen. Lyon, was
      obedient and helpful to his superiors, always did more than respectably
      well what was committed to his charge, and no failure of any kind lowers
      the high average of his performance.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link105" id="link105"></a><span class="pn">{105}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      When after four years of the most careful scrutiny and tutelage the
      Military Academy at West Point graduates a young man, it assumes that it
      has absolutely determined his X&mdash;that is, has sounded and measured
      his moral and intellectual depth, and settled his place in any human
      equation.
    </p>
    <p>
      It will, therefore, be quite interesting in making our estimate of Gen.
      Schofield, to examine the label attached to him upon his graduation from
      West Point in the class of 1853.
    </p>
    <p>
      At the head of that class was the brilliant James B. McPherson, who was to
      rise to the command of a corps and then to the Army of the Tennessee, and
      fall before Atlanta, to the intense sorrow of every man in the army who
      had come in contact with him.
    </p>
    <p>
      The second in the class was William P. Craighill, a fine engineer officer,
      who, however, rose no higher during the war than a brevet Colonel.
    </p>
    <p>
      The third in the class was Joshua W. Sill, a splendid soldier, who died at
      the head of his brigade on the banks of Stone River.
    </p>
    <p>
      The fourth in the class was William R. Boggs, a Georgian, who became a
      Brigadier-General in the Confederate army and achieved no special
      distinction.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link106" id="link106"></a><span class="pn">{106}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The fifth in the class was Francis J. Shunk, of Pennsylvania, who went
      into the ordnance and became a brevet Major.
    </p>
    <p>
      The sixth in the class was William Sooy Smith, an Ohio man, who attained
      the rank of Brigadier-General, and who achieved prominence in civil life
      as an engineer.
    </p>
    <p>
      The seventh in the class was John M. Schofield, who was commissioned in
      the artillery, and who had had some years of army experience in the forts
      along the South Atlantic coast.
    </p>
    <p>
      In the 45 who graduated below Schofield were many names afterwards to
      become very prominent in history.
    </p>
    <p>
      John S. Bowen, of Georgia, who commanded a regiment of the Home Guards,
      and who did his utmost to drag his State into Secession, afterward be-.
      coming a Major-General in the Confederate army, graduated 13th in the
      class.
    </p>
    <p>
      William R. Terrill, of Virginia, killed at Perryville while in command of
      a Union brigade, was the 16th.
    </p>
    <p>
      John R. Chambliss, of Virginia, who was killed while commanding a
      Confederate brigade at Deep Bottom, Va., was the 31st, and William McE.
      Dye, who commanded a brigade with success in the Trans-Mississippi,
      afterwards helped to organize the Khedive's army, and who died while in
      command of the Korean army, was the 32d.
    </p>
    <p>
      Philip H. Sheridan, one of the most brilliant commanders the world ever
      saw, stood 34th in the class, and Elmer Otis, of Philippine fame, was the
      37th.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link107" id="link107"></a><span class="pn">{107}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      John B. Hood, who rose to the rank of a full General in the Confederate
      army, and commanded the forces arrayed against Sherman and Thomas at
      Atlanta and Nashville, was the 44th.
    </p>
    <p>
      It is very interesting to study this list and compare it with the
      confident markings made by the West Point Faculty when the young men were
      dismissed to the active life for which the Academy had prepared them. It
      at least shows that, judged by West Point standards, Schofield's
      intellectual equipment was of the very best. He had married the daughter
      of his Professor of Physics, and children had come to them; promotion was
      very slow; he had wearied of the dull routine of the artillery officer in
      seacoast forts, and had seriously thought of resigning and entering the
      profession of law. Friends had dissuaded him from this, secured him a
      position as Professor of Physics in the Washington University at St.
      Louis, and Gen. Scott, who liked him, induced him to remain in the service
      and obtained for him a year's leave of absence to enable him to accept the
      professorship. He was engaged in his duty of teaching at the University
      and of writing a work on physics, of which he was very proud, when the
      firing on Fort Sumter took place. His political views were those of the
      Douglas wing of the Democracy, and he remained a Democrat ever after. He
      made no public profession of his views on the Slavery question or
      Secession, but immediately wrote to Washington offering to cancel his
      leave of absence, and was directed to report to Gen. Lyon for the duty of
      mustering in the volunteers.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link108" id="link108"></a><span class="pn">{108}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Inasmuch as the Governor, with much contumely, had refused to supply the
      four regiments from Missouri which the President had called for,
      Schofield, with his unfailing respect for the law, saw no way to fulfill
      his duty, until Gen. Scott, who was dimly perceiving the gigantic nature
      of the emergency, reluctantly gave authority to muster in and arm the Home
      Guards, adding the indorsement, pathetically eloquent as to his aged
      slowness of recognition that old things were passing away and new being
      born in volcanic travail&mdash;"This is irregular, but, being times of
      revolution, is approved."
    </p>
    <p>
      Schofield showed his heart in the matter by becoming a Major of the first
      regiment organized.
    </p>
    <p>
      The whole atmosphere at once changed with Lyon's permanent assignment to
      command.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Union people of Missouri, those who really believed that the
      Government was worth fighting for, no longer had to retire, as they had
      from Harney's presence, with cold comfort, and advice to stop thinking
      about fighting and attend to their regular business, but were welcomed by
      Lyon, had their earnestness stimulated by his own, and were given direct
      advice as to how they could be of the most service. They were encouraged
      to put themselves in readiness, strike blow for blow, and if possible to
      give two blows for one. The work of preparation was systematized, and
      everything made to move toward the one great event&mdash;the Government's
      overwhelming assertion of its power.
    </p>
    <p>
      Home Guards were organized in every County where Union men wanted to do
      so, and began presenting a stubborn front to their opponents, who were
      being brought together under the Military Bill.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link109" id="link109"></a><span class="pn">{109}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Gov. Jackson and Gen. Price did not lose all heart at the change in
      commanders. They seemed to have hopes that they might in some way mold
      Lyon to their wishes as they had Harney, and sought an interview with him.
      Gen. Lyon was not averse to an interview, and sent to Jackson and Price
      the following passport:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     Headquarters, Department of the West,

     St. Louis, June 8, 1861.

     It having been suggested that Gov. Claiborne F. Jackson and
     ex-Gov. Sterling Price are desirous of an interview with
     Gen. Lyon, commanding this Department, for the purpose of
     effecting, if possible, a pacific solution of the domestic
     troubles of Missouri, it is hereby stipulated on the part of
     Brig.-Gen. N. Lyon, U. S. A., commanding this Military
     Department, that, should Gov. Jackson or ez-Gov. Price, or
     either of them, at any time prior to or on the 12th day of
     June, 1861, visit St. Louis for the purpose of such
     interview, they and each of them shall be free from
     molestation or arrest on account of any charges pending
     against them, or either of them, on the part of the United
     States, during their journey to St. Louis and their return
     from St Louis to Jefferson City.

     Given under the hand of the General commanding, the day and
     year above written.

     N. LYON,

     Brigadier-General, Commanding.
</pre>
    <p>
      Accordingly on June 12, 1861, Price and Jackson arrived at St. Louis by
      special train from Jefferson City, put up at the Planters' House, and
      informed Gen. Lyon of their arrival. The old State pride cropped out in a
      little dispute as to which should call upon the other. Jackson as Governor
      of the "sovereign and independent" State of Missouri and Price as
      Major-General commanding the forces, felt that it was due them that Lyon,
      a Brigadier-General in the United States service, should visit them rather
      than they him at the Arsenal. Lyon's soul going direct to the heart of the
      matter, was above these technicalities, waved them aside impatiently, and
      said that he would go to the Planters' House and call on them.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link110" id="link110"></a><span class="pn">{110}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Accompanied by Col. Frank P. Blair and Maj. Conant, of his Staff, he went
      at once to the Planters' House, and there ensued a four hours' interview
      of mightiest consequences to the State and the Nation.
    </p>
    <p>
      Jackson and Price were accompanied by Col. Thomas L. Snead, then an Aid of
      the Governor, afterwards Acting Adjutant-General of the Missouri State
      Guards, Chief of Staff of the Army of the West, and a member of the
      Confederate Congress. He makes this statement as to the opening of the
      conference:
    </p>
    <p>
      "Lyon opened it by saying that the discussion on the part of his
      Government 'would be conducted by Col. Blair, who enjoyed its confidence
      in the very highest degree, and was authorized to speak for it.' Blair
      was, in fact, better fitted than any man in the Union to discuss with
      Jackson and Price the grave questions then at issue between the United
      States and the State of Missouri, and in all her borders there were no men
      better fitted than they to speak for Missouri on that momentous occasion.
    </p>
    <p>
      "But despite the modesty of his opening, Lyon was too much in earnest, too
      zealous, too well informed on the subject, too aggressive, and too fond of
      disputation to let Blair conduct the discussion on the part of his
      Government. In half an hour it was he who was conducting it, holding his
      own at every point against Jackson and Price, masters though they were of
      Missouri politics, whose course they had been directing and controlling
      for years, while he was only the Captain of an infantry regiment on the
      Plains. He had not, however, been a mere soldier in those days, but had
      been an earnest student of the very questions that he was now discussing,
      and he comprehended the matter as well as any man, and handled it in the
      soldierly way to which he had been bred, using the sword to cut knots that
      he could not untie."
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link111" id="link111"></a><span class="pn">{111}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Really the interview soon became a parley between the two strong men who
      were quickly to draw their swords upon one another. The talking men, the
      men of discussion and appeal passed out, and the issue was in the hands of
      the men who were soon to hurl the mighty weapons of war.
    </p>
    <p>
      Jackson, who was a light, facile politician, used to moving public
      assemblies which were already of his mind, had but little to say in the
      hours of intense parley, but interjected from time to time with
      parrot-like reiteration, that the United States troops must leave the
      State and not enter it. "I will then disband my own troops and we shall
      certainly have peace."
    </p>
    <p>
      Blair, an incomparably stronger man, but still a politician and rather
      accustomed to accomplishing results by speeches and arguments, soon felt
      himself obscured by the mightier grasp and earnestness of Lyon, and took
      little further part. There remained, then, the stern, portentous parley
      between Lyon and Price, who weighed their words, intending to make every
      one of them good by deadly blows. They looked into one another's eyes with
      set wills, between which were the awful consequences of unsheathed swords.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Price stated at some length his proposals, and claimed that he had
      carried out his understanding with Gen. Harney in good faith, not
      violating it one iota.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link112" id="link112"></a><span class="pn">{112}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Lyon asked him sharply how that could be, according to Gen. Harney's
      second proclamation in which he denounced the Military Bill as
      unconstitutional and treasonable?
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Price replied that he had made no agreement whatever with Gen. Harney
      about the enforcement or carrying out of the Military Bill.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Lyon answered this by presenting a copy of the following memorandum
      which had been sent by Gen. Harney as the only basis on which he would
      treat with Jackson and Price:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     Memorandum for Gen. Price.&mdash;May 21, 1861.

     Gen. Harney is here as a citizen of Missouri, with all his
     interests at stake in the preservation of the peace of the
     State.

     He earnestly wishes to do nothing to complicate matters, and
     will do everything in his power, consistently with his
     Instructions, to preserve peace and order.

     He is, however, compelled to recognize the existence of a
     rebellion in a portion of the United States, and in view of
     it he stands upon the proclamation of the President itself,
     based upon the laws and Constitution of the United States.

     The proclamation demands the dispersion of all armed bodies
     hostile to the supreme law of the land.

     Gen. Harney sees in the Missouri Military Bill features
     which compel him to look upon such armed bodies as may be
     organized under its provisions as antagonistic to the United
     States, within the meaning of the proclamation, and
     calculated to precipitate a conflict between the State and
     the United States.

     He laments the tendency of things, and most cordially and
     earnestly invites the co-operation of Gen. Price to avert
     it.

     For this purpose Gen. Harney respectfully asks Gen. Price to
     review the features of the bill, in the spirit of law,
     warmed and elevated by that of humanity, and seek to
     discover some means by which its action may be suspended
     until some competent tribunal shall decide upon its
     character.

     The most material features of the bill calculated to bring
     about a conflict are, first, the oath required to be taken
     by the Militia and State Guards (an oath of allegiance to
     the State of Missouri without recognizing the existence of
     the Government of the United States); and, secondly, the
     express requirements by which troops within the State not
     organized under the provisions of the Military Bill are to
     be disarmed by the State Guards.

     Gen. Harney cannot be expected to await a summons to
     surrender his arms by the State troops.

     From this statement of the case the true question becomes
     immediately visible and cannot be shut out of view.

     Gen. Price Is earnestly requested to consider this, and Gen.
     Harney will be happy to confer with him on the subject
     whenever It may suit his convenience.

     N. B.&mdash;Read to Gen. Price, In the presence of Maj. H. B.
     Turner, on the evening of the 21st of May.
</pre>
    <p>
      <a name="linkimage-0011" id="linkimage-0011">
       <!--  IMG --> </a> <img src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:j:john-mcelroy-struggle-for-missouri-100-Gen%20David%20Hunter.jpg"
      alt="100-general David Hunter"  /><br />
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link113" id="link113"></a><span class="pn">{113}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Naturally this threw Gen. Price into much confusion, and his face reddened
      with mortification, but after a few minutes he said that he did not
      remember hearing the paper read; that it was true that Hitchcock and
      Turner had come from Gen. Harney to see him, but he could recall nothing
      of any such paper being presented. The discussion grew warmer as Gen. Lyon
      felt more strongly the force of his position. Gen. Price insisted that no
      armed bodies of Union troops should pass through or be stationed in
      Missouri, as such would occasion civil war. He asserted that Missouri must
      be neutral, and neither side should arm. Gov. Jackson would protect the
      Union men and would disband his State troops.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Lyon opposed this by saying, in effect, "that, if the Government
      withdrew its forces entirely, secret and subtle measures would be resorted
      to to provide arms and perfect organizations which, upon any pretext,
      could put forth a formidable opposition to the General Government; and
      even without arming, combinations would doubtless form in certain
      localities, to oppress and drive out loyal citizens, to whom the
      Government was bound to give protection, but which it would be helpless to
      do, as also to repress such combinations, if its forces could not be sent
      into the State. A large aggressive force might be formed and advanced from
      the exterior into the State, to assist it in carrying out the Secession
      program; and the Government could not, under the limitation proposed, take
      posts on these borders to meet and repel such force.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link114" id="link114"></a><span class="pn">{114}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The Government could not shrink from its duties nor abdicate its
      corresponding right; and, in addition to the above, it was the duty of its
      civil officers to execute civil process, and in case of resistance to
      receive the support of military force. The proposition of the Governor
      would at once overturn the Government privileges and prerogatives, which
      he (Gen. Lyon) had neither the wish nor the authority to do. In his
      opinion, if the Governor and the State authorities would earnestly set
      about to maintain the peace of the State, and declare their purposes to
      resist outrages upon loyal citizens of the Government, and repress
      insurrections against it, and in case of violent combinations, needing
      co-operation of the United States troops, they should call upon or accept
      such assistance, and in case of threatened invasion the Government troops
      took suitable posts to meet it, the purposes of the Government would be
      subserved, and no infringement of the State rights or dignity committed.
      He would take good care, in such faithful co-operation of the State
      authorities to this end, that no individual should be injured in person or
      property, and that the utmost delicacy should be observed toward all
      peaceable persons concerned in these relations."
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Lyon based himself unalterably upon this proposition, and could not
      be moved from it by anything Price or Jackson could say.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gov. Jackson entered into the discussion again to suggest that they
      separate and continue the conference further by correspondence; but Lyon,
      who felt vividly that the main object of the Secessionists was to gain
      time to perfect their plans, rejected this proposition, but said that he
      was quite willing that all those present should reduce their views to
      writing and publish them; which, however, did not strike Jackson and Price
      favorably. As to the close of the interview, Maj. Conant says:
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link115" id="link115"></a><span class="pn">{115}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      "As Gen. Lyon was about to take his leave, he said: 'Gov. Jackson, no man
      in the State of Missouri has been more ardently desirous of preserving
      peace than myself. Heretofore Missouri has only felt the fostering care of
      the Federal Government, which has raised her from the condition of a
      feeble French colony to that of an empire State. Now, however, from the
      failure on the part of the Chief Executive to comply with constitutional
      requirements, I fear she will be made to feel its power. Better, sir, far
      better, that the blood of every man, woman and child of the State should
      flow than that she should successfully defy the Federal Government.'"
    </p>
    <p>
      Col. Snead has published this account of the close of the conference:
    </p>
    <p>
      "Finally, when the conference had lasted four or five hours, Lyon closed
      it, as he had opened it. 'Rather,' said he (he was still seated, and spoke
      deliberately, slowly, and with a peculiar emphasis), '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 its 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 (rising as he said this, and pointing in turn to
      every one in the room) see you, and you, and you, and you, and every man,
      woman, and child in the State, dead and buried.'
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link116" id="link116"></a><span class="pn">{116}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      "Then turning to the Governor, he said: 'This means war. In an hour one of
      my officers will call for you and conduct you out of my lines.'
    </p>
    <p>
      "And then, without another word, without an inclination of the head,
      without even a look, he turned upon his heel and strode out of the room,
      rattling his spurs and clanking his saber, while we, whom he left, and who
      had known each other for years, bade farewell to each other courteously
      and kindly, and separated&mdash;Blair and Conant to fight for the Union,
      we for the land of our birth."
    </p>
    <p>
      When the great American painter shall arise, one of the grandest themes
      for his pencil will be that destiny-shaping conference on that afternoon
      in June, 1861. He will show the face of Gov. Jackson as typical of that
      class of Southern politicians who raised the storm from the unexpected
      violence of which they retreated in dismay. There will be more than a
      suggestion of this in Jackson's expression and attitude. He entered the
      conference full of his official importance as the head of the great
      Sovereign State, braving the whole United States, and quite complacent as
      to his own powers of diction and argument. He quickly subsided, however,
      from the leading character occupying the center of the stage to that of
      chorus in the wings, in the deadly grapple of men of mightier purpose&mdash;Lyon
      and Price, who were to ride the whirlwind he had been contriving, and rule
      the storm he had been instrumental in raising.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link117" id="link117"></a><span class="pn">{117}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Even Blair, immeasurably stronger mentally and morally than Jackson&mdash;Blair,
      tall, sinewy, alert, with face and pose revealing the ideal leader that he
      was&mdash;even he felt the presence of stronger geniuses, and lapsed into
      silence.
    </p>
    <p>
      The time for talking men was past Captains of hosts were now uttering the
      last stern words, which meant the crash of battle and the death and misery
      of myriads. Hereafter voices would be in swords, and arguments flame from
      the brazen mouths of cannon hot with slaughter.
    </p>
    <p>
      Sterling Price, white-haired, large of frame, imposing, benignant,
      paternal, inflexible as to what he considered principle, was to point the
      way which 100,000 young Missourians were to follow through a thousand red
      battlefields.
    </p>
    <p>
      Nathaniel Lyon, short of stature, red-haired, in the prime of manhood and
      perfected soldiership, fiery, jealous for his country's rights and
      dignity, was to set another 100,000 young Missourians in battle array
      against their opponents, to fight them to complete overthrow.
    </p>
    <p>
      After they withdrew from the conference, Gov. Jackson, as Price's
      trumpeter, sounded the call "to arms" in a proclamation to the people of
      Missouri.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link118" id="link118"></a><span class="pn">{118}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linkimage-0012" id="linkimage-0012">
       <!--  IMG --> </a> <img src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:j:john-mcelroy-struggle-for-missouri-118-St%20Louis%20Levee.jpg"
      alt="118-the St Louis Levee"  /><br /> <a name="link2HCH0007"
      id="link2HCH0007">
       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
    </p>
    <div style="height: 4em;">
      <br /><br /><br /><br />
    </div>
    <h2>
      CHAPTER VII. GEN. LYON BEGINS AN EFFECTIVE CAMPAIGN
    </h2>
    <p>
      Gen. Sterling Price was soldier enough to recognize that Gen. Lyon was a
      different character from the talking men who had been holding the center
      of the stage for so long. When his trumpet sounded his sword was sure to
      leap from its scabbard. Blows were to follow so quickly upon words as to
      tread upon their heels.
    </p>
    <p>
      At the close of the interview of June 11, Gen. Lyon, with Col. Blair and
      Maj. Conant, returned to the Arsenal, while Gov. Jackson and Gen. Price
      hurried to the depot of the Pacific Railroad, where they impressed a
      locomotive, tender and cars, and urged the railroad men to get up steam in
      the shortest possible time. Imperative orders cleared the track ahead of
      them, and they rushed away for the Capital of the State with all speed.
    </p>
    <p>
      At the crossing of the Gasconade River they stopped long enough to
      thoroughly burn the bridge to check Lyon's certain advance, and while
      doing this Sterling Price cut the telegraph wires with his own hands. The
      train then ran on to the Osage River, where, to give greater assurance
      against rapid pursuit, they burnt that bridge also.
    </p>
    <p>
      Arriving at Jefferson City about 2 o'clock in the morning, the rest of the
      night was spent in anxious preparation of a proclamation by the Governor
      to the people of Missouri, which was intended to be a trumpet call to
      bring every man capable of bearing arms at once to the support of the
      Governor and the furtherance of his plans.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link119" id="link119"></a><span class="pn">{119}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      According to the Census of 1860 there were 236,402 men in Missouri capable
      of bearing arms, and if the matter could be put in such a way that a half
      or even one-third of these would respond to the Governor's mandate, a host
      would be mustered which would quickly sweep Lyon and his small band out of
      the State. The proclamation to effect this which was elaborated by the
      joint efforts of Gov. Jackson and Col. Snead, the editor of the St. Louis
      Bulletin, a Secessionist organ, and the Governor's Secretary and
      Adjutant-General, together with Gen. Price.
    </p>
    <p>
      Considered as a trumpet call it was entirely too verbose. Col. Snead could
      not break himself of writing long, ponderous editorials. The more
      pertinent paragraphs were:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     To the People of Missouri:

     A series of unprovoked and unparalleled outrages have been
     inflicted upon the peace and dignity of this Commonwealth
     and upon the rights and liberties of its people, by wicked
     and unprincipled men, professing to act under the authority
     of the United States Government. The solemn enactments
     of your Legislature have been nullified; your volunteer
     soldiers have been taken prisoners; your commerce with your
     sister States has been suspended; your trade with your
     fellow-citizens has been, and is, subjected to the harassing
     control of an armed soldiery; peaceful citizens have been
     imprisoned without warrant of law; unoffending and
     defenseless men, women, and children have been ruthlessly
     shot down and murdered; and other unbearable indignities
     have been heaped upon your State and yourselves....

     They (Blair and Lyon) demanded not only the disorganization
     and disarming of the State Militia, and the nullification of
     the Military Bill, but they refused to disarm their own Home
     Guards, and insisted that the Federal Government should
     enjoy an unrestricted right to move and station its troops
     throughout the State, whenever and wherever that might, in
     the opinion of its officers, be necessary, either for  the
     protection of the "loyal subjects" of the Federal Government
     or for the repelling of invasion; and they plainly announced
     that it was the intention of the Administration to take
     military occupation, under these pretexts, of the whole
     State, and to reduce it, as avowed by Gen. Lyon himself, to
     the "exact condition of Maryland."
</pre>
    <p>
      <a name="link120" id="link120"></a><span class="pn">{120}</span>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     The acceptance by me of these degrading terms would not only
     have sullied the honor of Missouri, but would have aroused
     the Indignation of every brave citizen, and precipitated the
     very conflict which it has been my aim to prevent. We
     refused to accede to them, and the conference was broken
     up....

     Now, therefore, I, C. F. Jackson, Governor of the State of
     Missouri, do, in view of the foregoing facts, and by virtue
     of the power invested in me by the Constitution and laws of
     this Commonwealth, issue this, my proclamation, calling the
     Militia of the State, to the number of 60,000, into the
     active service of the State, for the purpose of repelling
     said invasion, and for the protection of the lives, liberty,
     and property of the citizens of this State. And I earnestly
     exhort all good citizens of Missouri to rally under the flag
     of their State, for the protection of their endangered homes
     and firesides, and for the defense of their most sacred
     rights and dearest liberties.
</pre>
    <p>
      This proclamation was given out to the press, but even before it appeared
      the Governor had telegraphed throughout the State to leading Secessionists
      to arm and rush to his assistance.
    </p>
    <p>
      This did not catch Gen. Lyon at all unawares. He had long ago determined
      upon a movement to Springfield, which, being in the midst of the farming
      region, was the center of the Union element of southwest Missouri.
      Immediately, upon reading the Governor's proclamation, he saw the
      necessity of forestalling the projected concentration by reaching
      Jefferson City with the least possible delay. Before he retired that night
      he had given orders for the formation of a marching column, and had placed
      the affairs of his great Department outside of this column, of which he
      proposed to take personal command, in the hands of Col. Chester Harding,
      to whom he gave full powers to sign his name and issue orders.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link121" id="link121"></a><span class="pn">{121}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Having thought out his plans well beforehand, Gen. Lyon began his campaign
      with well-ordered celerity. Part of the troops he had at command were sent
      down the southwestern branch of the Pacific Railroad to secure it. Others
      were sent to points at which the militia were known to be gathering to
      disperse them.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Lyon himself, with his staff, the Regulars, infantry and artillery,
      and a force of volunteers, embarked on two steamboats to move directly
      upon Jefferson City by the way of the Missouri River.
    </p>
    <p>
      They arrived at the Capital of Missouri about 2 o'clock in the afternoon
      of June 15, and were met with an enthusiastic reception from the loyal
      citizens, of whom a large proportion were Germans. Gov. Jackson had only
      been able to assemble about 120 men, with whom he made a hasty retreat to
      Boonville, about 50 miles further up the river, which had been selected by
      Gen. Price as one of his principal strategic points. Boonville is situated
      on the highlands at a natural crossing of the Missouri, and by holding it
      communication could be maintained between the parts of the State lying
      north and south of the river, and thus allow the concentration of the
      Militia, which Gov. Jackson had called out. The hights on the river bank
      would enable the river to be blockaded against expeditions ascending it,
      and the entire length of the stream to Kansas City, about 100 miles in a
      direct line, could be thus controlled.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Missouri River divides the State unequally, leaving about one-third on
      the north and two-thirds on the south. Of the 99 Counties in the State, 44
      are north of the Missouri River, but these are smaller than those south.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link122" id="link122"></a><span class="pn">{122}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Gov. Jackson had telegraphed orders for the Brigade-Generals commanding
      the districts into which the State had been divided to concentrate their
      men with all haste at Boonville and at Lexington, still further up the
      river, nearly midway between Boonville and Kansas City. The beginnings of
      an arsenal were made at Boonville, to furnish arms and ammunition.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Lyon saw the strategic importance of the place, and did not propose
      to allow any concentration to be made there. He did not, as most Regular
      officers were prone, wait deliberately for wagons and rations and other
      supplies, but with a truer instinct of soldiership comprehended that his
      men could live wherever an enemy could, and leaving a small squad at
      Jefferson City, immediately started his column for Boonville, sending
      orders to other columns in Iowa and Kansas to converge toward that place.
    </p>
    <p>
      Progress up the Missouri River was tedious, as the water was low, and the
      troops had to frequently disembark in order to allow the boats to go over
      the shoals. It was reported to Gen. Lyon that about 4,000 Confederates had
      already concentrated at Boonville.
    </p>
    <p>
      While Gen. Price was the Commander-in-Chief, several prominent
      Secessionists were commanders upon the field of the whole or parts of the
      force. The man, however, who was the most in evidence in the fighting was
      John Sappington Marmaduke, a native Missourian, born in Saline County in
      1833, and therefore 28 years old. He was the son of a farmer, had been at
      Yale and Harvard, and then graduated from West Point in 1857, standing 30
      in a class of 38. He had been on frontier duty with the 7th U. S. until
      after the firing on Fort Sumter, when he resigned to return to Missouri
      and raise a regiment for the Southern Confederacy. He was to rise to the
      rank of Major-General in the Confederate army, achieve much fame for
      military ability, and be elected, in 1884, Governor of the State.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link123" id="link123"></a><span class="pn">{123}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The column immediately under the command of Gen. Lyon consisted of
      Totten's Light Battery (F, 2d U. S. Art.); Co. B, 2d U. S.; two companies
      of Regular recruits; Col. Blair's Missouri regiment and nine companies of
      Boernstein's Missouri regiment; aggregating somewhere between 1,700 and
      2,000 men. On the evening of Sunday, June 16, the boats carrying the
      command arrived within 15 miles of Boonville, and lay there during the
      night. The next morning they proceeded up to within about eight miles of
      the town, when all but one company of Blair's regiment and an artillery
      detachment disembarked and began a land march upon the enemy's position.
      The remaining company and the howitzer were sent on with the boats to give
      the impression that an attack was to be made from the river side.
    </p>
    <p>
      The people in the country reported to Gen. Lyon that the enemy was fully
      4,000 strong, and intended an obstinate defense. He therefore moved
      forward cautiously, arriving at last at the foot of a gently undulating
      slope to a crest one mile distant, on which the enemy was stationed, with
      the ground quite favorable for them. Gen. Lyon formed a line of battle
      about 300 yards from the crest, with Totten's battery in the rear and nine
      companies of Boernstein's regiment on the right, under the command of
      Lieut.-Col. Schaeffer, and the Regulars and Col. Blair's regiment on the
      left. It was a momentous period, big with Missouri's future.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link124" id="link124"></a><span class="pn">{124}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The engagement opened with Capt. Totten shelling the enemy's position and
      the well-drilled German infantry advancing with the Regulars, firing as
      they went. The question was now to be tried as to the value of the
      much-vaunted Missouri riflemen in conflict with the disciplined Germans.
      The former had been led to believe that they would repeat the achievements
      of their forefathers at New Orleans.
    </p>
    <p>
      Under the lead of Col. Marmaduke, the Confederates stood their ground
      pluckily for a few minutes, but the steady advance of the Union troops,
      with the demoralizing effect of the shells, were too much for them. Col.
      Marmaduke attempted to make an orderly retreat, and at first seemed to
      succeed, but finally the movement degenerated into a rout, and the
      Confederates scattered in wild flight, led by their Governor, who, like
      James II. at the battle of the Boyne, had witnessed the skirmish from a
      neighboring eminence. The losses on each side were equal&mdash;two killed
      and some eight or nine wounded.
    </p>
    <p>
      Lyon pushed on at once to the camp of the enemy, and there captured some
      1,200 pairs of shoes, 20 to 30 tents, and a considerable quantity of
      ammunition, with quite a supply of arms, blankets and personal effects.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link125" id="link125"></a><span class="pn">{125}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The detachment which had gone by the river on the boats aided in securing
      the victory by a noisy bombardment with their howitzer, and landing at the
      town, captured two six-pounders, with a number of prisoners. The Mayor of
      Boonville came out and formally surrendered the town to Gen. Lyon and Col.
      Blair. Parties were sent out the various roads to continue the pursuit,
      and Gen. Lyon issued the following proclamation, admirable in tone and
      wording, to counteract that of the Governor and quiet the people,
      especially as to interference with slave property:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     To the People of Missouri:

     Upon leaving the city of St. Louis, In consequence of the
     declaration of war made by the Governor of this State
     against the Government of the United States, because I would
     not assume in its behalf to relinquish its duties and
     abdicate its rights of protecting loyal citizens from the
     oppression and cruelties of Secessionists in this State, I
     published an address to the people, in which I declared my
     intention to use the force under my command for no other
     purpose than the maintenance of the authority of the General
     Government and the protection of the rights and property of
     all law-abiding citizens. The State authorities, in
     violation of an agreement with Gen. Harney, on the 21st of
     May last, had drawn together and organized upon a large
     scale the means of warfare, and having made declaration of
     war, they abandoned the Capital, issued orders for the
     destruction of the railroad and telegraph lines, and
     proceeded to this point to put in execution their purposes
     toward the General Government. This devolved upon me the
     necessity of meeting this issue to the best of my ability,
     and accordingly I moved to this point with a portion of the
     force under my command, attacked and dispersed hostile
     forces gathered here by the Governor, and took possession of
     the camp equipage left and a considerable number of
     prisoners, most of them young and of immature age, who
     represent that they have been misled by frauds ingeniously
     devised and industriously circulated by designing leaders,
     who seek to devolve upon unreflecting and deluded followers
     the task of securing the object of their own false ambition.
     Out of compassion for these misguided youths, and to correct
     impressions created by unscrupulous calumniators, I have
     liberated them, upon condition that they will not serve in
     the impending hostilities against the United States
     Government. I have done this in spite of the known facts
     that the leaders in the present rebellion, having long
     experienced the mildness of the General Government, still
     feel confident that this mildness cannot be overtaxed even
     by factious hostilities having In view its overthrow; but
     if, as in the case of the late Camp Jackson affair, this
     clemency than still be misconstrued, it is proper to give
     warning that the Government cannot be always expected to
     indulge it to the compromise of its evident welfare.
</pre>
    <p>
      <a name="link126" id="link126"></a><span class="pn">{126}</span>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     Having learned that those plotting against the Government
     have falsely represented that the Government troops intended
     a forcible and violent invasion of Missouri for the purposes
     of military despotism and tyranny, I hereby give notice to
     the people of this State that I shall scrupulously avoid all
     interferences with the business, rights, and property of
     every description recognized by the laws of this State, and
     belonging to law-abiding citizens; but that it is equally my
     duty to maintain the paramount authority of the United Sates
     with such force as I have at my command, which will be
     retained only so long as opposition shall make it necessary;
     and that it is my wish, and shall be my purpose, to devolve
     any unavoidable rigor arising in this issue upon those only
     who provoke it.

     All persons who, under the misapprehensions above mentioned,
     have taken up arms, or who are now preparing to do so, are
     invited to return to their homes, and relinquish their
     hostile attitude to the General Government, and are assured
     that they may do so without being molested for past
     occurrences.

     N. LYON,

     Brigadier-General, U. S. Vols., Commanding.
</pre>
    <p>
      Several thousand of Jackson's Militia had already assembled at Lexington,
      nearly midway between Boonville and Kansas City. When they heard of the
      affair at Boonville they realized that they were in danger of being caught
      between the column advancing from that direction and the one under Maj.
      Sturgis, which Gen. Lyon had ordered forward from Leavenworth through
      Kansas City, while a third, under Col. Curtis, was approaching from the
      Iowa line. They dispersed at once, to fall back behind the Osage River, at
      Gen. Price's direction. Thus Lyon gained complete control of the Missouri
      River in its course through the State, enabling him to cut off the
      Confederates in the northern from those in the southern part of the State.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link127" id="link127"></a><span class="pn">{127}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Another success which came to him was the seizure of the office of the St.
      Louis Bulletin, and the discovery there of a letter from Gov, Jackson to
      the publisher, which completely proved all the allegations that had been
      made as to the Governor's action, decisively contradicted the material
      assertions in his proclamations and vindicated Gen. Lyon from the charges
      against him of undue precipitancy. The letter was long, personal and
      confidential. In it he said:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     I do not think Missouri should secede today or tomorrow, but
     I do not think it good policy that I should so disclose. I
     want a little time to arm the State, and I am assuming every
     responsibility to do it with all possible dispatch. Missouri
     should act in concert with Tennessee and Kentucky. They are
     all bound to go out, and should go together, if possible. My
     judgment is that North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas will
     all be out in a few days, and when they go Missouri should
     follow. Let us, then, prepare to make our exit. We should
     keep our own counsels. Every man in the State is in favor of
     arming the State. Then let it be done. All are opposed to
     furnishing Mr. Lincoln with soldiers. Time will settle the
     balance.

     Nothing should be said about the time or the manner in which
     Missouri should go out. That she ought to go, and will go at
     the proper time, I have no doubt. She ought to have gone out
     last Winter, when she could have seized the public arms and
     public property, and defended herself. That she has failed
     to do, and must wait a little while. Paschall is a base
     submissionist, and desires to remain with the North, if
     every Slave State should go out. Call on every country paper
     to defend me, and assure them I am fighting under the true
     flag. Who does not know that every sympathy of my heart is
     with the South? The Legislature, in my view, should sit in
     secret session, and touch nothing but the measures of
     defense.

     Though in point of fighting and losses this initial campaign
     ending with the skirmish at Boonville had been
     insignificant, its results far surpassed those of many of
     the bloodiest battles of the rebellion. The Governor of the
     State was in flight from his Capital; his troops had been
     scattered in the first collision; control had been gained of
     the Missouri River, cutting the enemy's line in two; and
     above all, there was the immense moral effect of the defeat
     in action of the boastful Secessionists by the much
     denounced "St. Louis Dutch."   This alone accounted for the
     acquisition of many thousand wavering men to the side of the
     Union. Missourians were not different from the rest of
     mankind, and every community had its large proportion of
     those who, when the Secessionists seemed to have everything
     their own way, inclined to that side, but came back to their
     true allegiance at the first sign of the Government being
     able to assert its supremacy. The Government was now aroused
     and striking&mdash;and striking successfully. Its enemies were
     immensely depressed, and its friends correspondingly elated.
</pre>
    <p>
      <a name="link129" id="link129"></a><span class="pn">{129}</span>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     Gen. Lyon's next thought was to drive Gov. Jackson and his
     Secession clique out of Missouri into Arkansas, free the
     people from their pernicious influence, protect the Union
     people, especially in the southwestern part of the State,
     and keep tens of thousands of young men from being persuaded
     or dragged into the rebel army.

     He would demonstrate the Government's position so
     convincingly that there would be no longer any doubt of
     Missouri's remaining in the Union.
</pre>
    <p>
      <a name="linkimage-0013" id="linkimage-0013">
       <!--  IMG --> </a> <img src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:j:john-mcelroy-struggle-for-missouri-129.jpg" alt="129-the Storm Gathers"
       /><br /> <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
    </p>
    <div style="height: 4em;">
      <br /><br /><br /><br />
    </div>
    <h2>
      CHAPTER VIII. STORM GATHERS IN SOUTHWESTERN MISSOURI
    </h2>
    <p>
      The Osage River enters Missouri from Kansas about 60 miles south of the
      Missouri River, and flowing a little south of east empties into that river
      a few miles below Jefferson City. It thus forms a natural line of defense
      across the State, which Gen. Price's soldierly eye had noted, and he
      advised the Governor to order his troops to take up their position behind
      it, gain time for organization, and prepare for battle for possession of
      the State.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Lyon had also noticed the strategic advantages of the Osage River,
      and did not propose to allow his enemies to have the benefit of them. He
      did not intend to permit them to concentrate there, and be joined in time
      by heavy forces already coming up from Arkansas, Indian Territory, and
      Texas. While he was collecting farm wagons around Boonville to move his
      own columns forward, laboring to gather a sufficient stock of ammunition
      and supplies, and planning to make secure his holding of the important
      points already gained, he began moving other columns under Gen. Sweeny and
      Maj. Sturgis directly upon Springfield, the central point of the
      southwestern part of the State, which would take the Osage line in the
      rear, and compel Jackson and Price to retreat with their forces across the
      Missouri line into Arkansas.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link130" id="link130"></a><span class="pn">{130}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      This would clear the State of the whole congerie of Secession leaders,
      remove the young men from their influence, stop the persecutions of the
      Union men in that section, and cement Missouri solidly in the Union line.
      He also wrote Gen. B. M. Prentiss, in command of the troops at Cairo,
      asking co-operation by clearing out the rebels from the southeastern
      portion of the State. Lyon's far-reaching plans did not stop with
      Missouri. He also contemplated pushing his advance directly upon Little
      Rock, through the Union-loving region in northwestern Arkansas, and
      clinching that State as firmly as Missouri.
    </p>
    <p>
      The next day after the decisive little victory at Boonville occurred an
      event which greatly raised the drooping spirits of the Secessionists, and
      was much exaggerated by them in order to offset their defeat at Boonville
      by Lyon.
    </p>
    <p>
      Benton is one of the interior Counties of the State, lying on both sides
      of the Osage River. In 1860 its people had cast 74 votes for Lincoln, 306
      for Bell and Everett, 100 for Breckinridge, and 574 for Stephen A.
      Douglas. All the County officials and leading men were Secessionists, and
      doing their utmost to aid the rebellion; still, the Union people, under
      the leadership of A. H. W. Cook and Alex. Mackey, were undaunted and
      earnestly desirous of doing effective service for the United States. Cook
      and Mackey had been warned to leave the State, and Cook had done so, but
      returned to take part in the capture of Camp Jackson, and afterward went
      back to his home to organize the Germans and Americans there for their own
      defense.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link131" id="link131"></a><span class="pn">{131}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      A meeting was held at which the Stars and Stripes were raised, and nine
      companies of Home Guards organized, sworn into service, and given arms.
      These companies went into camp in a couple of barns some three miles south
      of Cole Camp, where their presence and support to the Union sentiment was
      the source of the greatest irritation to the Secessionists, who attempted
      to disperse them by legal processes, and failing in this, determined to
      attack them. In the meanwhile all but about 400 of the men were allowed to
      return to their homes to put their affairs in order for a prolonged
      absence.
    </p>
    <p>
      About 1,000 Secessionists, under the command of Walter S. O'Kane, marched
      on June 19 to attack them. Col. Cook was informed of the intended attack
      and prepared for it by throwing out pickets and summoning his absentees.
    </p>
    <p>
      At 3 o'clock in the morning of June 20 the Secessionists reached the
      pickets, whom they bayonetted to prevent their giving the alarm, and
      rushed in upon the sleeping Unionists, pouring volley after volley into
      the barns. The men in one of the barns had been warned, but were prevented
      from firing by the Union Flag which the Secessionists carried. Many of
      them who managed to get out of the barns were rallied behind the corn
      cribs, and began an obstinate fight which lasted till daylight. The
      absentees, whom Col. Cook had summoned, came up during the engagement, but
      not being able to comprehend the situation, rendered no assistance.
      Finally all the Union men got together and retreated in good order,
      repulsing their pursuers.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link132" id="link132"></a><span class="pn">{132}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The reports as to this affair are so conflicting that it is difficult to
      determine the truth. It seems pretty certain that Col. Cook had only about
      400 men. He reports that he was attacked by 1,200, but the Secessionists
      say that O'Kane's force was only 350. Cook reports his loss as 23 killed,
      20 wounded, and 30 taken prisoners, while Pollard, the Secessionist
      historian, insists that we lost 206 killed, a large number wounded, and
      over 100 taken prisoners, with the Secession loss of 14 killed and 15 or
      20 wounded. Probably the truth lies between these two extremes, the only
      definite thing being that the Secessionists captured 362 muskets.
    </p>
    <p>
      There were five or six prominent Secessionists among the killed, one of
      them being Mr. Leach, the editor of the Southwestern Democrat.
    </p>
    <p>
      Col. Cook gathered up his men, received some additional recruits, some
      arms and ammunition, and pushed on to Warsaw, on the Osage, one of the
      points of concentration indicated by Gen. Price, capturing 1,500 pound
      cans and 1,500 kegs of fine rifle powder, many tons of pig-lead, 70 stand
      of small-arms, a steamboat-load of tent cloth, a lot of State Guard
      uniforms, four Confederate flags, and 1,200 false-faces which had been
      used by the "border ruffians" in their political operations in Kansas. A
      little further on they surrounded and captured 1,000 Secessionists, and
      paroled them on the spot.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Secessionists, on the other hand, took much comfort out of the
      surprise and defeat and the acquisition of 362 new muskets and 150 more
      which they had beguiled from a German company in a neighboring County.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link133" id="link133"></a><span class="pn">{133}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      In the meanwhile the Conservatives, aided by Lieut-Gen. Scott, whose
      distrust of "Capt." Lyon never abated, secured the addition of Missouri to
      the Department commanded by McClellan, whom it was thought would hold the
      "audacious" officer in check. Lyon, though he felt that McClellan, then
      far distant in West Virginia, could not give matters in the State the
      attention they needed, yet loyally accepted the assignment, wrote at once
      to McClellan cordially welcoming him as his commander, and giving full
      information as to the conditions, with suggestions as to what should be
      done. Col. Blair and the Radicals were much displeased at this move, and
      began efforts to have Missouri erected into a separate Department and
      placed under the command of John C. Fremont, lately appointed a
      Major-General, and from whose military talents there were the greatest
      expectations.
    </p>
    <p>
      As the first Presidential candidate of the Republican Party Fremont had a
      strong hold upon the hearts of the Northern people. During the campaign of
      1856 there had been the customary partisan eulogies of the candidates,
      which placed "the Great Pathfinder" and all he had done in the most
      favorable light before the American people. Above all he was thought to be
      thoroughly in sympathy with the policy which Blair and his following
      desired to pursue.
    </p>
    <p>
      In reality Fremont was a man of somewhat more than moderate ability, but
      boundless aspirations. He was the son-in-law of Senator Benton, and his
      wife, the queenly, ambitious, handsome Jessie Benton Fremont, was
      naturally eager for her husband to be as prominent in the National
      councils as had been her father. What Fremont was equal to is one of the
      many unsolved problems of the war, but certainly he was not to the command
      of the great Western Department, including the State of Illinois and all
      the States and Territories west of the Mississippi River and east of the
      Rocky Mountains, to which he was assigned by General Orders, No. 40,
      issued July 3,1861.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link134" id="link134"></a><span class="pn">{134}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Fremont's father was a Frenchman, who had married a Virginia woman, and
      followed the occupation of a teacher of French at Norfolk, Va., but died
      at an early age, leaving the members of his family to struggle for
      themselves. Fremont became a teacher of mathematics on a sloop of war,
      then Professor of Mathematics for the Navy, and later a surveyor and
      engineer for railroad lines, and was commissioned by President Van Buren a
      Second Lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers. Owing to the opposition of
      Senator Benton, his daughter had to be secretly married to Lieut. Fremont
      in 1841, but soon after the Senator gave his son-in-law the benefit of his
      great influence.
    </p>
    <p>
      Fremont was designated to conduct surveys across the continent into the
      unknown region lying between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific, and made
      several very important explorations. He was in California prior to the
      outbreak of the Mexican War, and became involved in hostilities with the
      Mexicans. When the war did break out he assumed command of the country
      around under authority from Commodore Stockton, and proceeded to declare
      the independence of California. A quarrel between him and Stockton
      followed, and later another quarrel ensued with Gen. Kearny, who had been
      sent into this country in command of an expedition.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link135" id="link135"></a><span class="pn">{135}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      He was court-martialed by Gen. Kearny's orders and found guilty of mutiny,
      disobedience, and conduct prejudicial to good order and military
      discipline. He was sentenced to be dismissed, but the majority of the
      court recommended him to the clemency of President Polk, who refused to
      approve the verdict of mutiny, but did approve the rest, though he
      remitted the penalty. Fremont, refusing to accept the President's pardon,
      then resigned from the Army, settled in California, and bought the famous
      Mariposa estate, containing rich gold mines. He became a leader of the
      Free-Soil Party in California, and was elected to the Senate for a brief
      term of three weeks. He was nominated by the first Republican Convention
      in Philadelphia, June 17, 1856, and in his letter of acceptance expressed
      himself strongly against the extension of Slavery, and in favor of free
      labor. The hot campaign of 1856 resulted in a surprising showing of
      strength by the new party. Fremont received 114 electoral votes from 11
      States to 174 from 19 States for Buchanan and eight votes from Maryland
      for Fillmore. The popular vote was 874,000 for Fillmore, 1,341,000 for
      Fremont, and 1,838,000 for Buchanan.
    </p>
    <p>
      Lyon welcomed the appointment of Fremont to command, because he felt the
      need of having a superior officer at hand who would appreciate the urgency
      of the situation, and stand between him and the authorities at Washington,
      who apparently did not understand the emergency, were not honoring his
      requisitions for money, arms, and supplies, and who were drawing to the
      eastward the troops that Lyon felt ought to be sent to him. It was also
      satisfactory to him that the State of Illinois was in the Department,
      since the important point of Cairo should be administered with reference
      to controlling the situation in southeastern Missouri.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link136" id="link136"></a><span class="pn">{136}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The first distrust of Fremont came from his deliberation in repairing to
      his command. The people of Missouri felt very keenly that no time should
      be lost in the General arriving on the spot and getting the situation in
      hand, but in spite of all importunities, Fremont lingered for weeks in New
      York, and it required a rather sharp admonition from the War Department to
      start him for St. Louis, where he arrived as late as July 25.
    </p>
    <p>
      Lyon's prompt advance upon Jefferson City now bore fruit in another
      direction. The Union people of Missouri decided that as Gov. Jackson,
      Lieut-Gov. Reynolds and other State officials had abandoned the State
      Capital to engage in active rebellion against the United States, the State
      Convention, which had been called to carry the State out of the Union, but
      which had so signally disappointed the expectations of its originators,
      should reconvene, declare the State offices vacant, and instate a loyal
      Government A strong party desired that a Military Governor should be
      appointed, and urged Col. Frank P. Blair for that place, but he refused to
      countenance the project. The Convention, by a vote of 56 to 25, declared
      the offices of Governor, Lieutenant-Governor and Secretary of State
      vacant, and elected Hamilton R. Gamble Governor, Willard P. Hall
      Lieutenants Governor, Mordecai Oliver Secretary of State, and George A.
      Bingham Treasurer. An oath of loyalty was adopted to be required of all
      citizens before being allowed to vote, and to be taken by all incumbents
      of office and all who should be qualified for office thereafter.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link137" id="link137"></a><span class="pn">{137}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Gov. Jackson established his Capital at Lamar, in Barton County, about 30
      miles south of the Osage, and the men who had been appointed to command
      the Militia Districts began to come in with their contingents. None seemed
      to know about the flanking columns which had been sent out toward
      Springfield, to take the line of the Osage in the rear, and they were
      astounded when forces under Sweeny and Sigel, which had dispersed the
      gathering Militia before them at Holla, Lebanon, and other intervening
      points, reached Springfield, and began sending out from there expeditions
      to Neosho, Ozark, Sarcoxie and other towns in the southwestern corner.
      Col. Franz Sigel, who had shown much activity and enterprise, learned at
      Sarcoxie that several divisions of State Guards under Gens. Rains,
      Parsons, Slack and Clark were to the north of him, and the Governor and
      Gen. Price were endeavoring to bring them together in order to turn upon
      and crush Gen. Lyon in his advance from Boonville. Sigel's men, who were
      anxious to accomplish something decisive before the expiration of their
      three months' term, brought about a decision in their commander's mind to
      march upon the force encamped upon Pool's Prairie, whip and scatter it,
      and then attack the other forces in turn.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link138" id="link138"></a><span class="pn">{138}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      After making the necessary detachments to guard his flanks and rear, Col.
      Sigel had under his command nine companies of the 8d Mo., 550 men under
      Lieut.-Col. Hassendeubel; seven companies of the 5th Mo., under Col.
      Charles E. Salomon, 400 men, and two batteries of light artillery, four
      guns each, under Maj. Backof.
    </p>
    <p>
      After a hard day's march of 22 miles in very hot weather, Col. Sigel came,
      on the evening of July 4, about one mile southeast of Carthage, on the
      south side of Spring River. He made preparations to attack the enemy,
      reported to be from 10 to 15 miles in his front.
    </p>
    <p>
      That night Gov. Jackson received news of Sigel's advance, and gathered his
      forces to resist him. He had already concentrated many more men than Sigel
      had expected, and had with him seven pieces of artillery. Most of his men
      carried the arms which they had brought from home, and were arranged,
      according to the provisions in the Military Bill, into divisions, of which
      there were no less than four present. The Second Division, commanded by
      Brig.-Gen. James S. Rains, who afterward attained much reputation in the
      Confederate army, had present 1,208 infantry and artillery and 608
      cavalry. The Third Division, commanded by Gen. John B. Clark, also to
      attain eminence in the Confederate army, had 365 present. The Fourth
      Division, commanded by Gen. Wm. Y. Slack, later a Brigadier-General in the
      Confederate army, had 500 cavalry and 700 infantry. The Sixth Division,
      commanded by Gen. Monroe M. Parsons, who served with distinction
      throughout the war, had altogether about 1,000 men and four pieces of
      artillery. The official returns show that Gov. Jackson had thus 4,375 men
      with seven guns to oppose something over 1,000 men with eight guns under
      Col. Sigel. The Union force was strong in artillery, while the
      Confederates were powerful in cavalry, of which the Unionists had none.
      Both sides were poorly supplied with ammunition, especially for the
      cannon, and loaded these with railroad spikes, bits of trace chains, etc.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link139" id="link139"></a><span class="pn">{139}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Early on the morning of July 5 Sigel marched out of camp, crossing the
      Spring River about one mile north of Carthage, and soon came upon an open
      prairie. He advanced slowly and cautiously along the Lamar Road, with his
      wagons under a small escort following a mile or so in the rear. Nine miles
      north of Carthage and three miles north of Coon Creek he came in sight of
      the Governor's troops drawn up in line of battle on a slight rise of the
      prairie, and about one mile and a half away. The enemy's skirmish line,
      which was under the command of Capt. J. O. Shelby, of whom we shall hear
      much more later, opened fire on Sigel's advance, but was soon driven
      across the creek and through the narrow strip of timber less than one-half
      mile wide, followed by Sigel's men in line of battle. They came out on the
      smooth prairie, covered with a fine growth of grass, and offering
      unequalled facilities for manuvering, except that from the ridge Sigel's
      line could be accurately observed and its numbers known.
    </p>
    <p>
      Sigel formed his line of battle within a half mile of the enemy's
      position, distributed his artillery along it, then ordered an advance, and
      opened the battle with a fire from his guns, which was promptly responded
      to by the enemy's pieces. The distance was so close that the Union guns
      could fire canister and shell very effectively; but the enemy, perceiving
      that Sigel had no cavalry, sent out their numerous mounted force on a
      flank movement, which soon compelled the retirement of the line across the
      creek, where the battle was renewed and maintained for two hours, during
      which time the enemy suffered some loss from the artillery fire.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link140" id="link140"></a><span class="pn">{140}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Again the enemy made a flank movement with their cavalry, reaching this
      time back toward the baggage-train, to which Sigel retreated. The Union
      men broke up the cavalry formation, and Sigel followed this with a charge
      which scattered his enemies and enabled him to continue his retreat
      unmolested across the prairie in full sight of his foes. Sigel could also
      see the rallied cavalry making a wide circuit over the prairie to gain the
      hights of Spring River and cut off his retreat Gen. Rains, who led this
      movement, succeeded in reaching the road at Spring River, but in coming up
      Sigel at once attacked with his artillery, and after a brisk little
      engagement of half an hour drove the enemy out of the woods, and marched
      on to Carthage, which he reached about 5 o'clock, and there prepared to
      give a short rest to his men, who were worn out by 18 miles of marching
      under a hot sun and almost continual fighting and manuvering. The
      Secessionists renewed their attack, but were again driven off by the
      infantry and artillery, and the march was resumed.
    </p>
    <p>
      Again Gens. Slack, Parsons, and Clark pushed their men forward on the
      Union flank, while Rains renewed his attack, and again they were all
      repulsed, largely by the skillful handling of the artillery. As darkness
      came on the Secessionists disappeared, but Sigel moved on to Sarcoxie, 12
      miles distant, and went into camp.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link141" id="link141"></a><span class="pn">{141}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Gov. Jackson's forces camped in and around Carthage, and the next day
      marched to Neosho, where they met Gen. Ben McCulloch coming up from
      Arkansas with a force of Arkansans and Texans and also 1,700 of the State
      Guards, which Gen. Price had brought forward. In the fighting the Union
      side had lost 13 killed and 21 wounded. The Confederates report 74 killed
      and wounded in the four divisions under the command of Gov. Jackson.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linkimage-0014" id="linkimage-0014">
       <!--  IMG --> </a> <img
      src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:j:john-mcelroy-struggle-for-missouri-141-Sigel%20Crossing%20the%20Osage.jpg"
      alt="141-sigel Crossing the Osage"  /><br />
    </p>
    <p>
      The battle of Carthage produced a great sensation over the country, the
      Confederates rejoicing that they had cut through the Union line and forced
      it to retreat, while Sigel received unstinted praise for his skillful
      retreat and the masterly handling of his artillery. While one battery
      would hold the enemy in check, another would be placed at the most
      advantageous position in the rear, where it would withdraw behind it to
      repeat the manuver. Several times during the day the batteries were
      cunningly masked, and the enemy rushed up to the muzzle, to receive the
      death-dealing discharge full in the faces of the compact mass.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link142" id="link142"></a><span class="pn">{142}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      This brings Gen. Sigel prominently before us. Of the many highly-educated
      Germans who had migrated to this country in consequence of their
      connection with the Revolution of 1848, Franz Sigel had, far and away, the
      most brilliant reputation as a soldier. A slight, dark, nervous man, with
      a rather saturnine countenance, he was born at Zinsheim, Baden, Nov. 18,
      1824, and was therefore in his 37th year. He graduated from the Military
      School at Carlsruhe with high promise, which he filled by becoming one of
      the Chief Adjutants in the Grand Duke's army. He ardently shared the
      aspirations of the young Germans for German Unity, and resigned his
      commission in 1847 to become one of the leaders in the revolutionary
      forces. He was appointed to chief command of the army sent from the
      Grand-Duchy to the assistance of the revolutionists in Hesse-Darmstadt,
      but a disagreement arose, another was appointed to the command, and Sigel
      assumed the position of Minister of War. Upon the defeat of the expedition
      by the Prussian forces, he resumed the chief command of the demoralized
      men, and conducted a brilliantly successful retreat to a place of safety
      in the fortress of Rastadt. This achievement at the age of 24 seemed to
      stamp the character of his military career.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link143" id="link143"></a><span class="pn">{143}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      At the collapse of the revolution he escaped to Switzerland, which
      expelled him, and he then came to New York, where he supported himself as
      a teacher of mathematics, later engaging in the same occupation in St.
      Louis, where he was living when the war broke out, and rendered invaluable
      service in organizing and leading the Germans in support of Blair and
      Lyon.
    </p>
    <p>
      Unfortunately for his reputation, the war upon which he had now entered
      was to be carried on by stern aggressiveness, to which he seemed unsuited.
      He had a strong hold on the affections of the Germans, whose support of
      the Union was exceedingly valuable, and in spite of repeated failures to
      satisfy the expectations of his superior officers, he was promoted and
      given high commands, in all of which his misfortune was the same. After
      Rastadt he seemed bent only upon conducting brilliant retreats, and that
      from Carthage greatly helped to confirm this tendency. He was finally
      relegated to the shelf, which contained so many men who had started out
      with brilliant promise, and died in New York in 1902, supported during his
      later years by a pension of $100 a month granted him by Congress.
    </p>
    <p>
      After resting his men a few hours at Sarcoxie, Sigel marched on to
      Springfield, where Gen. Sweeny was, and to which point Gen. Lyon hurried
      with all the force he could gather, to forestall the junction of Gen. Ben
      McCulloch's Arkansas column with the force that Price and Jackson would
      bring to him.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link144" id="link144"></a><span class="pn">{144}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      There was strong need of his presence there and of his utmost efforts. He
      had rolled back the Secession tide only to have it gather volume enough to
      completely submerge him. Not only had Gov. Jackson and Sterling Price
      concentrated many more men than he had, but a still stronger column
      composed of Arkansans and Texans under the noted Gen. Ben. McCulloch was
      near at hand and pushing forward with all speed.
    </p>
    <p>
      Benjamin McCulloch, a tall, bony, sinewy man of iron will and dauntless
      courage, was easily a leader and master of the bold, aggressive spirits
      who had wrested Texas away from Mexico and erected her into a great State.
      He had achieved much reputation in the command of the Texan Rangers during
      the Mexican War and in the Indian fights which succeeded that struggle. As
      a soldier and a fighter he had the highest fame of any living Texan,
      except Sam Houston, and when he espoused the cause of Secession he drew
      after him many thousands of the adventurous, daring young men of the
      State. The Confederate army had immediately commissioned him a
      Brigadier-General, and he had set about organizing, with his accustomed
      energy and enterprise, a strong column for aggressive service west of the
      Mississippi. Warlike young leaders, ambitious for distinction, hastened to
      join him with whatever men they could raise, for such was their confidence
      that they felt his banner would point to the most direct road to fame and
      glory. Many of these, then Captains and Colonels, afterward rose to be
      Generals in the Confederate army. He had proposed to the Confederate
      Government to aid the situation in Virginia by active operations in
      Missouri, and to this plan the Governors of Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas
      gave their hearty consent and co-operation. McCulloch had another motive
      for aggressive action, as it would determine the position of the Indians.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linkimage-0015" id="linkimage-0015">
       <!--  IMG --> </a> <img src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:j:john-mcelroy-struggle-for-missouri-145-Gen%20Henry%20W%20Halleck.jpg"
      alt="145-genereal Henry W. Halleck"  /><br />
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link145" id="link145"></a><span class="pn">{145}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The wisest among the Chiefs of the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Creeks and
      Seminoles desired to remain neutral in the struggle, since they did not
      wish to bring down upon them the wrath of the Kansas people, who were
      within easy striking distance. By prompt action these wavering aborigines
      could be brought into the Confederate ranks and be made to render
      important assistance.
    </p>
    <p>
      He had already crossed the Missouri line with 3,000 mounted men, and on
      the night of the 4th of July came to Buffalo Creek, 12 miles southwest of
      Neosho, where he was joined by Gen. Price with 1,700 mounted men, and he
      sent urgent messages back to the rest of his men to hurry forward to him.
      These were so well obeyed that he shortly had, independent of Price's men,
      fully 5,000 men from Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana, who were better
      equipt and organized than the Missourians.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gov. Jackson and Gen. Price also sent urgent messages for concentration,
      which were as promptly responded to. The result was that there were
      shortly assembled Confederates under Gen. McCulloch and "State Guards"
      under Gov. Jackson and Gen. Price, a total estimated by Maj. Sturgis and
      others at 23,-000 men. For lack of proper arms and organization, many of
      these were not very effective. McCulloch says that the great horde of
      mounted men "were much in the way," and hindered rather than helped But
      they were certainly very effective in harrying the Union people; in
      impressing recruits; in embarrassing Lyon's gathering of supplies; in
      driving in the small parties he sent out, and confining his operations to
      the neighborhood of Springfield.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link146" id="link146"></a><span class="pn">{146}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      In the meanwhile the great disaster of Bull Run had occurred to depress
      the Union people and fill the Secessionists with unbounded enthusiasm and
      confidence. The thoughts of the Government and of the loyal people of the
      country became concentrated upon securing the safety of Washington. Troops
      were being rushed from every part of the country to the National Capital.
      Lyon's forces were constantly dwindling, from the expiration of the three
      months for which the regiments had been enlisted. The men felt the need of
      their presence at home, to attend to their hastily-left affairs, and could
      see no prospect of a decisive battle as a reason for remaining. Gen. Lyon
      importuned Gen. Fremont and the War Department for some regiments, for
      adequate supplies for those he had, and money with which to pay them. The
      War Department, however, could apparently think of nothing else than
      making Washington safe, while Gen. Fremont, deeming St. Louis and Cairo
      all-important, gathered in what troops he could save from the eastward
      rush, for holding those places. Gen. Scott even proposed to deprive Gen.
      Lyon of his little squad of Regulars, and sent orders for seven companies
      to be forwarded East.
    </p>
    <p>
      Laboring with all these embarrassments, Gen. Lyon confronted the storm
      rising before him with a firm countenance.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link147" id="link147"></a><span class="pn">{147}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
    </p>
    <div style="height: 4em;">
      <br /><br /><br /><br />
    </div>
    <h2>
      CHAPTER IX. EVE OF THE BATTLE OF WILSON'S CREEK
    </h2>
    <p>
      Mountainous perplexities and burdens weighed upon Gen. Lyon during the
      last days of July.
    </p>
    <p>
      The country was hysterical over the safety of the National Capital, and it
      seemed that the Administration was equally emotional. Every regiment and
      gun was being rushed to the heights in front of Washington, and all eyes
      were fixed on the line of the Potomac.
    </p>
    <p>
      The perennial adventurer in Gen. Fremont did not fail to suggest to him
      that the greatest of opportunities might develop in Washington, and he
      lingered in New York until peremptorily ordered by Gen. Scott to his
      command. He did not arrive in St. Louis until July 25.
    </p>
    <p>
      Like Seward, Chase, McClellan, and many other aspiring men, Fremont had
      little confidence that the untrained Illinois Rail Splitter in the
      Presidential chair would be able to keep his head above the waves in the
      sea of troubles the country had entered. The disaster at Bull Run was but
      the beginning of a series of catastrophes which would soon call for a
      stronger brain and a more experienced hand at the helm.
    </p>
    <p>
      Then?
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link148" id="link148"></a><span class="pn">{148}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Mrs. Jessie Benton Fremont was not the only one to suggest that the man
      for the hour would be found to be the first Republican candidate for
      President&mdash;the Great Pathfinder of the Rocky Mountains!
    </p>
    <p>
      Upon his arrival at St Louis Gen. Fremont was immediately waited upon by
      the faithful Chester Harding and others who had been awaiting his coming
      with painful anxiety. They represented most energetically Gen. Lyon's
      predicament, without money, clothing or rations, and with a force even
      more rapidly diminishing than that of the enemy was augmenting. They
      revealed Gen. Lyon's far-reaching plans of making Springfield a base from
      which to carry the war into Arkansas, and begged for men, money, arms,
      food; shoes and clothing for him.
    </p>
    <p>
      Fremont was too much engrossed in forming in the Brant Mansion that
      vice-regal court of his&mdash;the main requirement for which seemed to be
      inability to speak English&mdash;to feel the urgency of these
      importunities.
    </p>
    <p>
      The country was swarming with military adventurers from Europe, men with
      more or less shadow on their connection with the foreign armies, and eager
      to sell their swords to the highest advantage. They swarmed around Fremont
      like bees around a sugar barrel, much to the detriment of the honest and
      earnest men of foreign birth who were rallying to the support of the
      Union.
    </p>
    <p>
      Next to his satrapal court of exotic manners and speech, Fremont was most
      concerned about the safety of Cairo, Ill., a most important point, then
      noisily threatened by Maj.-Gen. Leonidas Polk, the militant Protestant
      Episcopal Bishop of Louisiana, and his subordinate, the blatant Gen.
      Gideon J. Pillow, of Mexican War notoriety.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link149" id="link149"></a><span class="pn">{149}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Fremont made quite a show of reinforcing Cairo, sending a most
      imposing fleet of steamboats to carry the 4,000 troops sent thither.
    </p>
    <p>
      Pretense still counted for much in the war. Later it burnt up like dry
      straw in the fierce blaze of actualities.
    </p>
    <p>
      Not being Fremont's own, nor contributing particularly to his
      aggrandizement, Gen. Lyon's plans and aims had little importance to his
      Commanding General.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Lyon saw clearly that the place to fight for St. Louis and Missouri
      was in the neighborhood of Springfield, and by messenger and letter he
      importuned that St. Louis be left to the care of the loyal Germans of the
      Home Guards, who had shown their ability to handle the city, and that all
      the other troops there and elsewhere in the State be rushed forward to
      him, with shoes and clothing for his unshod, ragged soldiers, and
      sufficient rations for the army, which had well-nigh exhausted the country
      upon which it had been living for so long.
    </p>
    <p>
      But Fremont frittered away his strength in sending regiments to chase
      guerrilla bands which dissolved as soon as the trail became too hot.
    </p>
    <p>
      Two regiments were ordered to Lyon from points so distant that they could
      not make the march in less than 10 days or a fortnight, and some scanty
      supplies sent to Rolla remained there because of lack of wagons to carry
      them forward to Springfield, 120 miles away.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link150" id="link150"></a><span class="pn">{150}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Later Gen. Fremont testified before the Committee on the Conduct of the
      War that he had ordered Gen. Lyon, if he could not maintain himself at
      Springfield, to fall back to Rolla, but singularly he did not produce this
      order.
    </p>
    <p>
      Though Gen. Lyon had marched his men 50 miles in one day to prevent the
      junction of Gen. Ben Mc-Culloch's Arkansas column with the hosts Gen.
      Sterling Price was gathering from Missouri, he was not able to interpose
      between them.
    </p>
    <p>
      On Saturday, Aug. 3, the Confederates had all gotten together on the banks
      of Crane Creek, 55 miles southwest of Springfield, with general
      headquarters in and around the village of Cassville.
    </p>
    <p>
      How many were concentrated is subject to the same obscurity which usually
      envelops Confederate numbers. Lyon estimated there were 30,000. Later
      estimates by competent men put the number at 23,000. Gen. Snead, Price's
      Adjutant-General, put the number at 11,000, which would be a severe
      reflection on the loyalty of the Missouri Secessionists to their Governor,
      since Gen. McCulloch certainly brought up about 5,000 from Arkansas, which
      would leave only 6,000 to respond to Gov. Jackson's proclamation, and
      gather under the standards set up by his seven Brigadier-Generals&mdash;Parsons,
      Rains, Slack, J. B. Clark, M. L. Clark, Watkins and Randolph.
    </p>
    <p>
      While Lyon had incomparable troubles, there was far from concord in the
      camp of his opponents. Like thousands of other men, McCulloch's ambition
      far transcended his abilities. He at once assumed the attitude that as a
      Brigadier-General in the Confederate army he out-ranked Sterling Price,
      who was a Major-General of state troops. This, at that early period of the
      war, was a humorous reversal of the State Sovereignty idea, so flagrant in
      the minds of those precipitating Secession.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link151" id="link151"></a><span class="pn">{151}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Jefferson Davis and his school of thought had been fierce in their
      contention that the part was greater than the whole, and that the States
      were greater than the General Government. Yet Gen. McCulloch was
      unflinching in his insistence that a Confederate Brigadier-General
      outranked a State Major-General. The dispute became quite acrimonious, but
      was at last settled by Price's yielding to McCulloch, so anxious was he
      that something decisive should be done toward driving back Lyon and
      "redeeming the State of Missouri." According to Gen. Thomas L. Snead, his
      Chief of Staff, he went to Gen. McCulloch's quarters on Sunday morning,
      Aug. 4, and after vainly trying to persuade McCulloch to attack Lyon, he
      said:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     "I am an older man than you, Gen. McCulloch, and I am not
     only your senior in rank now, but I was a Brigadier-General
     in the Mexican War, with an independent command, when you
     were only a Captain; I have fought and won more battles
     than you have ever witnessed; my force is twice as great as
     yours; and some of my officers rank, and have seen more
     service than you, and we are also upon the soil of our own
     State; but, Gen. McCulloch, if you will consent to help us
     to whip Lyon and to repossess Missouri, I will put myself
     and all my forces under your command, and we will obey you
     as faithfully as the humblest of your own men. We can whip
     Lyon, and we will whip him and drive the enemy out of
     Missouri, and all the honor and all the glory shall be
     yours,  All that we want is to regain our homes and to
     establish the independence of Missouri and the South. If you
     refuse to accept this offer, I will move with the
     Missourians alone against Lyon; for it is better that they
     and I should all perish than Missouri be abandoned without a
     struggle. You must either fight beside us or look on at a
     safe distance and see us fight all alone the army which you
     dare not attack even with our aid. I must have your answer
     before dark, for I intend to attack Lyon tomorrow."
</pre>
    <p>
      <a name="link152" id="link152"></a><span class="pn">{152}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. McCulloch replied that he was expecting dispatches from the East, but
      would make known his determination before sundown. At that time,
      accompanied by Gen. Mcintosh, in whose abilities Gen. McCulloch had the
      highest confidence, and was largely influenced by him, he went to Price's
      headquarters and informed him that he had just received dispatches that
      Gen. Pillow was advancing into the southeastern part of the State from New
      Madrid with 12,000 men, and that he would accept the command of the united
      forces and attack Lyon. Price at once published an order that he had
      turned over the command of the Missouri troops to Gen. McCulloch, but
      reserved the right to resume command at any time he might see fit.
    </p>
    <p>
      Their friends in Springfield kept Price and McCulloch well-informed as to
      Lyon's diminishing force and perplexities.
    </p>
    <p>
      Brilliant as McCulloch may have been in command of 100 or so men, he was
      clearly unequal to the leadership of such a host. He was as much feebler
      in temper to Lyon as he was inferior in force and grasp to Sterling Price.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link153" id="link153"></a><span class="pn">{153}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      An audacious stroke by Lyon on Friday, Aug. 2, quite unsettled his nerves.
      Getting information that his enemies were moving on him by three different
      roads, Lyon formed the soldierly determination to move out swiftly and
      attack one of the columns and crush it before the other could come to its
      assistance.
    </p>
    <p>
      Putting Capt. D. S. Stanley&mdash;of whom we shall hear much hereafter&mdash;at
      the head with his troop of Regular cavalry, and following him with a
      battalion of Regulars under Capt. Frederick Steele&mdash;of whom we shall
      also hear a great deal hereafter&mdash;and a section of Totten's Regular
      Battery, he marched out the Cassville Road with his whole force and at Dug
      Springs, 20 miles away, came up with McCulloch's advance, commanded by
      Brig.-Gen. J. S. Rains, of the Missouri State Guards, of whom, too, we
      shall hear much. Col. Mcintosh, McCulloch's adviser, was also on the
      ground with 150 men.
    </p>
    <p>
      Rains attempted to put into operation the tactics employed against Sigel
      at Carthage, but Steele and Stanley were men of different temper, and
      attacked him so savagely as to scatter his force in wild confusion.
    </p>
    <p>
      Lyon marched forward to within six miles of the main Confederate position,
      and lay there 24 hours, when, not deeming it wise to attack so far from
      his base, retired unmolested to Springfield.
    </p>
    <p>
      This startling aggressiveness quite overcame Gen. McCulloch, and the
      conduct of the Missourians disgusted him. He was strong in his
      denunciation of them and quite frank in his reluctance to attack Gen. Lyon
      without further information as to "his position and fortifications," and
      complained bitterly that he could get no information as to the
      "barricades" in Springfield and other positions he might encounter. He
      said that "he would not make a blind attack on Springfield," and "would
      order the whole army back to Cassville rather than bring on an engagement
      with an unknown enemy."
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link154" id="link154"></a><span class="pn">{154}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Price was strenuous in his insistence upon attack, and finally
      McCulloch consented to meet all the general officers at his headquarters.
      In the council McCulloch was plain in his unwillingness to engage Lyon or
      to enter on any aggressive campaign, but Price, seconded by Gens. Parsons,
      Bains, Slack and McBride, were most determined that Lyon should be
      attacked at once, and declared that if McCulloch would not do it he would
      resume command and fight the battle himself. McCulloch finally yielded,
      and ordered a forward movement, and on the morning of Aug. 6 the entire
      force was in camp along the bank of Wilson's Creek, about six miles south
      of Springfield. This position was taken largely because of its proximity
      to immense cornfields, which would supply the troops and animals with
      food.
    </p>
    <p>
      Wilson's Creek, rising in the neighborhood of Springfield, flows west some
      five miles, and then runs south nine or 10 miles in order to empty into
      the James River, a tributary of White River. Tyrel's Creek and Skegg's
      Branch, which have considerable valleys, are tributaries of Wilson's
      Creek. Above Skegg's Branch rises a hill, since known as Bloody Hill,
      nearly 100 feet high. Its sides are scored with ravines, the rock comes to
      the surface in many places, and the hight was thickly covered with an
      overgrowth of scrub-oak. There are other eminences and ravines, generally
      covered with scrub-oak and undergrowth, and the Confederates were camped
      in an irregular line along these for a distance of about three miles up
      and down Wilson's Creek, from the extreme right to the extreme left. Here
      they remained three days, with the much-disturbed McCulloch riding out
      every day with his Maynard rifle slung over his shoulder for a personal
      reconnoissance, which, as far as could be judged from his conversation on
      his return, was quite unsatisfactory.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link155" id="link155"></a><span class="pn">{155}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      He had little stomach for the attack, and naturally found reasons against
      it.
    </p>
    <p>
      Price and his Generals, on the other hand, were fretting over the delay.
      Price's accurate information of Lyon's condition made him sure that Lyon
      would do the obvious thing&mdash;retreat. It was the warlike thing to do
      to attack at once, which had every chance of success. Success meant as
      telling a stroke for Secession in the West as Bull Run had been in the
      East It would be quite as sensational, for there was no refuge or rallying
      point for the beaten Union army short of Rolla, 120 miles away, and the
      rough country, cut by innumerable valleys, gorges and streams, would
      enable the swarming mounted force to get in its wild work, and not permit
      the escape of a man, a gun or a wagon.
    </p>
    <p>
      McCulloch, yielding to Price's importunities, ordered the army forward,
      and at dawn of Aug. 19 he and Mcintosh were sitting down to breakfast with
      Price and Snead, preparatory to leading their forces forward, when they
      were startled by their pickets being driven in. McCulloch, who had hated
      Rains from Old Army days, and despised him and his Missourians since the
      Dug Springs affair, remarked contemptuously, "O, it's only one of Rains's
      scares," and turned to his meal.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link156" id="link156"></a><span class="pn">{156}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      But the matter instantly became more pressing than breakfast. Gen. Lyon
      had returned to Springfield Monday, Aug. 5, to meet an intense
      disappointment. Not a thing had been sent to meet his desperate needs.
      Fremont had ordered one regiment from Kansas and from the Missouri River
      to go forward to him, but they could hardly reach him in less than a
      fortnight. There were at that time some 44 regiments in Missouri&mdash;regiments
      commanded by men whose names afterward shine in history&mdash;U. S. Grant,
      John Pope, S. A. Hurlbut, John M. Palmer, John B. Turchin, S. B. Curtis,
      Morgan L. Smith, O. E. Salomon, John McNeil, etc.,&mdash;but they were
      kept garrisoning posts, chasing guerrillas, and at almost everything else
      than hurrying forward toward him, as they should have been.
    </p>
    <p>
      Two of his regiments&mdash;the 3d and 4th Mo.&mdash;took their discharge
      and started for St. Louis. The 1st Iowa's time was out, but Lyon asked the
      men to stay with him a few days longer, and they did to a man.
    </p>
    <p>
      Aside from the military reasons for holding Springfield there were others
      which appealed to Lyon's mind with equal power. His heart had bled over
      the outrages committed by the Secessionists upon the Union people in that
      section of the State. The presence of his army was the only security that
      the loyal people had that their farms would not be robbed and themselves
      murdered. Hundreds of them had gone into Springfield to be under his
      protection. How they could be ever gotten back to a place of safety in
      retreat was the gravest of problems. Gen. Schofield, at that time his
      Adjutant-General, and who disapproved of fighting the battle of Wilson's
      Creek, thinks that this consideration had more weight with him than the
      military reasons, and induced him to fight where the judgment of the
      soldier was against it.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link157" id="link157"></a><span class="pn">{157}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Four anxious days longer Lyon remained at Springfield. He called a council
      of his principal officers, and the unanimous decision was that the army
      should retreat.
    </p>
    <p>
      On Aug. 9 he sent the following letter to Gen. Fremont, the last he ever
      wrote:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     General: I retired to this place, as I before informed you,
     reaching here on the 5th. The enemy followed to within 10
     miles of here. He has taken a strong position, and is
     recruiting his supply of horses, mules, and provisions by
     forages Into the surrounding country, his large force of
     mounted men enabling him to do this without much annoyance
     from me. I find my position extremely embarrassing, and am
     at present unable to determine whether I shall be able to
     maintain my ground or be forced to retire. I can resist any
     attack from the front, but if the enemy move to surround me
     I must retire. I shall hold my ground as long as possible,
     though I may, without knowing how far, endanger the safety
     of my entire force, with its valuable material, being
     induced by the valuable considerations involved to take the
     step. The enemy showed himself in considerable force
     yesterday five miles from here, and has doubtless a full
     purpose of attacking me.

     N. LYON, Commanding.
</pre>
    <p>
      <a name="link158" id="link158"></a><span class="pn">{158}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The simple, soldierly dignity of this is pathetic. There is no murmur of
      complaint, such as a man treated as he had been was eminently justified in
      making. After sending this note, Gen. Lyon received intelligence that one
      of his cavalry parties had been attacked by rebel cavalry, but after a
      brief fight had beaten them off. He thereupon sent out a reconnoitering
      party to learn if the Secessionists had moved forward, and the party
      presently returned with two Texan and two Tennesseean prisoners, from whom
      Lyon learned for the first time of the junction of McCulloch's forces and
      Price's. He at once decided upon a bold stroke. Everything was prepared as
      if in readiness for retreat, with the tents struck and the Quartermaster's
      and Commissary's stores in the wagons. Quartermaster Alexis Mudd went to
      headquarters and asked Gen. Lyon:
    </p>
    <p>
      "When do we start back?"
    </p>
    <p>
      The General fixed his keen blue eyes upon the Quartermaster and said,
      clearly and firmly:
    </p>
    <p>
      "When we are whipped back, and not until then."
    </p>
    <p>
      An order was at once issued for every man to be prepared to march at 6
      o'clock that evening, without any luggage, and with all the ammunition he
      could carry.
    </p>
    <p>
      Calling a council of officers, Gen. Lyon announced his intention to move
      out and attack the enemy in his chosen position. Gen. Sigel proposed that
      he be allowed to take his regiment and Col. Salomon's to move
      independently and take the enemy in flank and rear. The other officers
      strongly opposed this, while Gen. Lyon withheld his consent, but finally
      yielded to Sigel's entreaties and authorized the movement, giving Sigel
      1,400 infantry, two companies of cavalry and six pieces of artillery, to
      move along the Fayetteville Road until he should reach the right flank and
      rear of the enemy, and at daybreak attack them vigorously.
    </p>
    <p>
      Lyon was to retain 3,700 men and 10 pieces of artillery and move down the
      Mount Vernon Road and attack in the morning on the left front and flank
      simultaneously with Sigel's attack on the right.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link159" id="link159"></a><span class="pn">{159}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      A force of 250 Home Guards with two pieces of artillery was left at
      Springfield to guard the trains and public property. Col. Sigel's column
      moved out at 6:30 o'clock in the evening by the left and arrived at
      daybreak of the 10th within two miles of the extreme right and rear of the
      enemy's camp, where they proceeded to cut off and bring into camp some 40
      stragglers who were out foraging. This was done to prevent their carrying
      intelligence into camp.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Lyon with the First, Second and Third Brigades, set out about the
      same hour, and by 1 o'clock in the morning came within sight of the
      enemy's camp-fires, where they halted until morning. Capt. Plummer was
      ordered to deploy his battalion to act as skirmishers on the left, while
      Maj. Osterhaus did the same on the right with his battalion of the 2d Mo.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link160" id="link160"></a><span class="pn">{160}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
    </p>
    <div style="height: 4em;">
      <br /><br /><br /><br />
    </div>
    <h2>
      CHAPTER X. BATTLE OF WILSON'S CREEK
    </h2>
    <p>
      If the idea of an attack by Gen. Lyon was remote from Gen. McCulloch's
      thoughts, it was entirely absent from those of Gen. Sterling Price. Gen.
      Price's mind was concentrated upon the plan to which he had wrung
      McCulloch's reluctant consent of advancing that morning upon Lyon in four
      columns, and thereby crushing him, probably capturing his army entire or
      driving him into a ruinous retreat The first messengers bringing the news
      of Lyon's close proximity were received with contemptuous disbelief by
      McCulloch, but on their heels came an Aid from Gen. Rains with the
      announcement that the fields in front of Rains were "covered with Yankees,
      infantry and artillery." This roused all to soldierly activity. Neither
      Price nor McCulloch lacked anything of the full measure of martial
      courage, and both at once sped to their respective commands to lead them
      into action.
    </p>
    <p>
      After breaking up the council of war, the previous afternoon, Gen. Lyon
      said very little beyond giving from time to time, as circumstances called,
      sharp, precise, practical orders. Naturally talkative and disputatious, he
      was, when action was demanded, brief, sententious, and sparing of any
      words but what the occasion demanded. He had carefully thought out his
      plan of march and battle to the last detail&mdash;determined exactly what
      he and every subordinate, every regiment and battery should do, and his
      directions to them were clear, concise, prompt and unmistakable.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linkimage-0016" id="linkimage-0016">
       <!--  IMG --> </a> <img src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:j:john-mcelroy-struggle-for-missouri-165-Wilson's%20Creek.jpg"
      alt="165-battlefield of Wilson's Creek"  /><br />
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link161" id="link161"></a><span class="pn">{161}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      He rode with Maj. Schofield, his Chief of Staff, to the place where they
      halted about midnight in sight of the rebel campfires and slept with him
      in the brief bivouac under the same blanket. To Schofield he seemed
      unusually depressed. The only words he said, beyond necessary orders, were
      almost as if talking to himself:
    </p>
    <p>
      "I would give my life for a victory."
    </p>
    <p>
      Again, in response to Schofield's discreet criticism of the wisdom of
      dividing his forces and giving Sigel an independent command, he said
      briefly:
    </p>
    <p>
      "It is Sigel's plan."
    </p>
    <p>
      Sige's theoretical knowledge of war and his experience were then felt to
      be so overshadowing to everybody else's as to estop criticism.
    </p>
    <p>
      The men of Lyon's little army lay down on their grassy bivouac with
      feelings of tensest expectation. With the exception of the few of the
      Regulars who had been in the Mexican and Indian wars, not one of them had
      ever heard a gun fired in anger. They had been talking battle for three
      months. Now it was upon them, but none of them could realize how sharp
      would be the combat, nor how exceedingly well they were going to acquit
      themselves.
    </p>
    <p>
      At the first streak of dawn Lyon was up&mdash;all activity and
      anticipation&mdash;to open the battle. He had wisely selected the two men
      who were to strike the first blows.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link162" id="link162"></a><span class="pn">{162}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Capt. Jos. B. Plummer, who commanded the Regulars deployed as skirmishers
      on the left, and who sun should set, was a man after Lyon's own heart He
      was strongly in favor of the battle, and afterward defended it as the
      wisest thing to do under the circumstances. He was born in Massachusetts,
      and had graduated in 1841 in the same class with Lyon and Totten, whose
      battery was to do magnificent service, and avenge the insults and
      humiliations of Little Rock. Rummer's standing in his class was 22, where
      Lyon's was 11 and Totten's 25. He had been in garrison in Vera Cruz during
      the Mexican War, and so had escaped getting the brevets "for gallant and
      meritorious conduct" which had been so freely bestowed on all who had been
      "present" at any engagement, but had reached the rank of Captain in 1862,
      a year later than Capt Lyon. He was to rise to Colonel of the 11th Mo. and
      Brigadier-General of Volunteers, and everywhere display vigor and capacity
      in important commands, but to have his career cut short by his untimely
      death near Corinth, Miss., Aug. 9,1862, at the age of 43 years. Maj. Peter
      Joseph Osterhaus, who commanded the two companies of his regiment&mdash;the
      2d Mo.&mdash;deployed on the right, was the best soldier in that wonderful
      immigration of bright, educated, enthusiastic young Germans who took
      refuge in this country after the failure of the Revolution of 1848. At
      least, he was tried longer in large commands, and rose to a higher rank
      than any of them. Sigel and Carl Schurz became, like him, Major-Generals
      of Volunteers, but his service was regarded as much higher than theirs,
      and he was esteemed as one of the best division and corps commanders in
      the Army of the Tennessee. After long service as a division commander he
      commanded the Fifteenth Corps on the March to the Sea. He was born in
      Prussia, educated as a soldier, took part in the Revolution, migrated to
      this country, and was invaluable to Lyon in organizing the Home Guards
      among the Germans to save the Arsenal He still lives, a specially honored
      veteran, at Mannheim, in Prussia.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link163" id="link163"></a><span class="pn">{163}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Capt. Jas. Totten, whose battery was placed in the center, was to win a
      Lieutenant-Colonel's brevet for his splendid service during the day, but
      got few honors during the rest of the war. He became a Brigadier-General
      of Missouri Militia, and received the complimentary brevets of Colonel and
      Brigadier-General when they were generally handed round on March 13, 1865,
      but his unfortunate habits caused his dismissal from the Army in 1870. He
      was then Lieutenant-Colonel and Assistant Inspector-General.
    </p>
    <p>
      There were many men among Lyon's subordinates whose conduct during the day
      brought them prominence and started them on the way to distinction.
    </p>
    <p>
      Maj. Samuel D. Sturgis, of the 4th U. S. Cav., a Pennsylvanian, who was
      that day to win the star of a Brigadier-General of Volunteers, and who
      commanded the First Brigade, afterward rose to the command of a division,
      fought with credit at Second Manassas, South Mountain and Fredericksburg,
      for which he received brevets, and was overwhelmingly defeated, while in
      command of an independent expedition, by Forrest, at Guntown, Miss., June
      10, 1864, and passed into retirement. He became Colonel of the 7th U. S.
      Cav. after the war. He was a graduate of West Point in 1882.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link164" id="link164"></a><span class="pn">{164}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Lieut-Col. I. F. Shepard, who was Lyon's Aid, became a Brigadier-General
      of Volunteers.
    </p>
    <p>
      Maj. John M. Schofield, Lyon's Adjutant-General, has been spoken of
      elsewhere.
    </p>
    <p>
      Capt Gordon Granger, 3d U. S. Cav., a New Yorker and a graduate of the
      class of 1841, was Lyon's Assistant Adjutant-General, and won a brevet for
      his conduct that day. He was a man of far more than ordinary abilities&mdash;many
      pronounced him a great soldier, and said that only his unbridled tongue
      prevented him rising higher than he did. He became a Major-General and a
      Corps Commander, led the troops to Thomas's assistance at the critical
      moment at Chickamauga, but fell under the displeasure of Sherman, who
      relieved him. He afterward commanded the army which captured Forts Gaines
      and Morgan, and received the surrender of Mobile.
    </p>
    <p>
      Capt Frederick Steele, 2d U. S., Gen. Grant's classmate and lifelong
      friend, who had won brevets in Mexico, commanded a battalion of two
      companies. He was to become Colonel of the 8th Iowa, Brigadier and
      Major-General, and render brilliant service at Vicksburg and in Arkansas.
    </p>
    <p>
      Maj. John A. Halderman, 1st Kan., who succeeded to the command of the
      regiment when Col. Deitzler was wounded, was commended by all his superior
      officers, for his handsome conduct. He had been appointed by Gen. Lyon
      Provost Marshal-General of the Western Army, and was afterwards
      commissioned a Major-General. He entered the diplomatic service under
      President Grant; became Minister to Siam, and was praised all over the
      world for his success in bringing that country into touch with
      civilization.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link165" id="link165"></a><span class="pn">{165}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Lieut.-Col. G. L. Andrews, who in the absence of Col. F. P. Blair,
      commanded the 1st Mo., was a Rhode Island man, who afterward entered the
      Regular Army, fought creditably through the war, and in 1892 was retired
      as a Colonel.
    </p>
    <p>
      In the 1st Mo. was Capt. Nelson Cole, who was severely wounded. He served
      through the war, rose to be a Colonel, became Senior Vice
      Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, and was a
      Brigadier-General of Volunteers in the war with Spain.
    </p>
    <p>
      In the 1st Kan. were Col. Geo. W. Detzler, who later became a
      Brigadier-General; Capt. Powell Clayton, who was to become a Colonel,
      Brigadier-General, Governor of Arkansas, Senator, and Embassador to
      Mexico, and Capt. Daniel McCook, who was to become Brigadier-General, and
      fall at Kene-saw.
    </p>
    <p>
      In the 2d Kan. were Col. Robert B. Mitchell, of Ohio, who rose to be
      Brigadier-General and did gallant service in the Army of the Cumberland;
      Maj. Charles W. Blair, who became a Brigadier-General, and Capt. Samuel J.
      Crawford, who became a Colonel, a brevet Brigadier-General, and Governor
      of Kansas.
    </p>
    <p>
      In the 1st Iowa were Lieut.-Col. W. H. Merritt, a New Yorker, who
      commanded the regiment and afterwards became a Colonel on the staff, and
      Capt. Francis J. Herron, who became a Major-General of Volunteers and
      commanded a division at Prairie Grove, Vicksburg, and in Texas.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link166" id="link166"></a><span class="pn">{166}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      There were very many in these regiments serving as privates and
      non-commissioned officers who afterwards made fine records as commanders
      of companies and regiments and became distinguished in civil life. Taken
      altogether, Lyon's army was an unusually fine body of fighting men. The
      Iowa and Kansas men were ardent, enthusiastic youths, accustomed to the
      use of the gun, and who hunted their enemies as they did the wild beasts
      they had to encounter. They were free from the superstition inculcated in
      the Eastern armies that the soldier's duty was to stand up in the open and
      be shot at. When it was necessary to stand up they stood up gallantly, but
      at other times they took advantage of every protection and lay behind any
      rock or trunk of tree in wait for the enemy to come within easy range, and
      then fired with fatal effect.
    </p>
    <p>
      The older Regulars trained to Indian fighting were equally effective, and
      speedily brought the mass of recruits associated with them into similar
      efficiency.
    </p>
    <p>
      Nowhere else at that early period of the war was the fire of the Union
      soldiers so deliberate and deadly as at Wilson's Creek.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Confederates had no pickets out&mdash;not even camp-guards. They had
      been marched and countermarched severely for days, and were resting
      preparatory to advancing that morning on Springfield. Many were at
      breakfast, many others starting out to get material for breakfast in the
      neighboring fields. Rains's Division was the most advanced, and Rains
      reports that he discovered the enemy when about three miles from camp, and
      that he put his Second Brigade&mdash;mounted men commanded by Col.
      Caw-thorn, of the 4th Mo.&mdash;into line to resist the advance. He says
      that the brigade maintained its position all day, which does not agree
      with the other accounts of the battle.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link167" id="link167"></a><span class="pn">{167}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Before Gen. Lyon&mdash;a mile and a half away&mdash;rose the eminence,
      afterward known as "Bloody Hill," which overlooked the encampment of the
      Confederates along Wilson's Creek, and on which substantially all the
      fighting was to take place. From it the Confederate trains were in short
      reach, and the rout of the enemy could be secured. Its central position,
      however, made it easy to concentrate troops for its defense and bring up
      reinforcements.
    </p>
    <p>
      Capt. Plummer sent forward Capt. C. C. Gilbert, 1st U. S., with his
      company to guard the left of the advance, cross Wilson's Creek, and engage
      the right of the enemy. Capt. Gilbert was a soldier of fine reputation,
      who was to win much credit on subsequent fields; to rise to the rank of
      Brigadier-General and the brief command of a corps, and then to fall under
      the displeasure of his commanding officers. Capt. Gilbert moved forward
      rapidly until he came to Wilson's Creek, where his skirmishers were
      stopped by swamps and jungles of brushwood, when Capt. Plummer caught up
      with him, and the whole battalion finally crossed the creek and advanced
      into a cornfield, easily driving away the first slight force that
      attempted to arrest them.
    </p>
    <p>
      In the meanwhile quite a number of the enemy was discovered assembling on
      the crest of the ridge, and Gen. Lyon forming the 1st Mo. into line sent
      them forward on the right to engage these, while the 1st Kan. came up on
      the left and opened a brisk fire, with Totten's battery in the center,
      which also opened fire.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link168" id="link168"></a><span class="pn">{168}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      This was about 10 minutes past 5, when the battle may be said to have
      fairly opened. The 1st Iowa and the 2d Kan., with Capt. Steele's battalion
      of Regulars, were held in reserve. Rains's Missourians responded pluckily
      to the fire, and Gen. Price began rushing up assistance to them until he
      says that he had over 2,000 men on the ridge. The 1st Kan. and the 1st Mo.
      pressed resolutely forward, delivering their fire at short range, and
      after a sharp contest of 20 minutes the Missourians gave way and fled down
      the hill.
    </p>
    <p>
      There was a brief lull, in which the Union men were encouraged by hearing
      Sigel's artillery open two miles away, on the other flank of the enemy,
      and Lyon found his line preparatory to pushing forward and striking the
      trains. Already there were symptoms of panic there, and some of the wagons
      were actually in flames.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Rains soon succeeded in rallying his men.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gens. Slack, McBride, Parsons and Clark rushed to his assistance with what
      men they could hastily assemble, and Gen. Price led them forward in a line
      covering Gen. Lyon's entire front. Both sides showed an earnest
      disposition to come to close quarters, and a fierce fight lasting for
      perhaps half an hour followed. Sometimes portions of the Union troops were
      thrown into temporary disorder, but they only fell back a few yards, when
      they would rally and return to the field. The enemy strove to reach the
      crest of the ridge and drive the Union troops back, but were repulsed,
      while the Union troops, following them to the foot of the ridge, were
      driven back to the crest.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link169" id="link169"></a><span class="pn">{169}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The Confederates brought up a battery, which, however, was soon silenced
      by the fire concentrated upon it from Totten's battery and that of Lieut.
      Du Bois. In the meanwhile Capt. Plummer had been pushing his Regulars thru
      the corn and oat fields toward the battery which he wanted to take, and
      was within 200 yards of it when Capt. Mcintosh, an officer of the Old
      Army, and now Adjutant-General for McCulloch, saw the danger and rushed up
      the 3d La. and the 2d Ark. against Plummer's left The Regulars made a
      stubborn resistance for a few minutes, but their line was enveloped by the
      long line of the two regiments, and they fell back with considerable haste
      across the creek toward Totten's battery.
    </p>
    <p>
      Mcintosh saw his advantage and pursued it to the utmost, sending his
      Louisianians and Arkansans forward on the double-quick to prevent Plummer
      from rallying. The watchful DuBois saw the trouble the Regulars were in,
      and turning his guns upon his pursuers enfiladed them with canister and
      shell with such effect that they in turn ran, and were rallied by Mcintosh
      behind a little log house, into which DuBois put a couple of shells and
      sent them further back.
    </p>
    <p>
      By this time the battle was two hours old and the roar of the conflict
      died down, except on the extreme right, where the 1st Mo. was still having
      a bitter struggle with a superior force of fresh troops with which Price
      was endeavoring to turn the Union right flank.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link170" id="link170"></a><span class="pn">{170}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Lyon, who had watched every phase of the battle closely, ordered
      Capt. Totten to move part of his battery to the support of the 1st Mo.,
      but as the Captain was about to open he was restrained by seeing a
      regiment advancing to within a distance of about 200 yards, carrying both
      a Federal and a Confederate flag. It was the direction from which Sigel
      had been anxiously expected, and as the uniform of the advancing regiment
      was similar to that of Sigel's men, both the infantry and the artillery
      withheld their fire until the enemy revealed his character by a volley,
      when Capt Totten opened all his guns upon them with canister and inflicted
      great slaughter.
    </p>
    <p>
      Capt Cary Gratz, of the 1st Mo., was so indignant at this treachery that
      he dashed out and shot down the man who was carrying the Union flag, only
      to be shot down himself almost immediately afterwards by several bullets
      from the Confederates. The 2d Kan. was also hurried forward to support the
      1st Mo. Capt Steele's battalion was brought up and the 1st Iowa was sent
      in to relieve the 1st Kan., which had suffered quite severely and was
      nearly out of ammunition.
    </p>
    <p>
      The battle was renewed with much greater fierceness than ever, the
      Confederates advancing in three or four ranks, lying down, kneeling,
      standing, sometimes getting within 30 or 40 yards of the Union line before
      they were forced back.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Lyon was everywhere where his presence was needed to encourage the
      troops, rally them, and bring them back into line. His horse was shot, and
      he received a wound in the head and one on the ankle. He continued to walk
      along the line, but he was evidently much depressed by the way in which
      Price and McCulloch succeeded in bringing forward fresh troops to replace
      those which had been driven from the field. He said to Maj. Schofield
      sadly, "I fear the day is lost." Schofield replied encouragingly,
      dismounted one of his orderlies and gave the horse to Lyon, when they
      separated, each to lead a regiment It was now 9 o'clock, or little after,
      and there was a lull in the fight, during which time the enemy seemed to
      be reorganizing his force, and Lyon began concentrating his into a more
      compact form on the crest of the ridge.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link171" id="link171"></a><span class="pn">{171}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Capt. Sweeny called Lyon's attention to his wounds, but Lyon answered
      briefly, "It is nothing."
    </p>
    <p>
      Schofield moved off to rally a portion of the 1st Iowa, which showed a
      disposition to break under the terrific fire, and lead it back into
      action. Gen. Lyon rode for a moment or two with the file closers on the
      right of the 1st Iowa, and then turned toward the 2d Kan., which was moved
      forward under the lead of Col. Mitchell. In a few moments the Colonel
      fell, wounded, and Gen. Lyon shouted to the regiment to come on, that he
      would lead them. The next instant, almost, a bullet pierced his breast and
      he fell dead. Lehman, his faithful orderly, was near him when he fell, and
      rushed to his assistance, raising a terrible outcry, which some of the
      officers near promptly quieted lest it discourage the troops.
    </p>
    <p>
      After a bitter struggle of fully half an hour the Confederates were driven
      back all along the line, and the battle ceased for a little while. The
      Confederates retired so completely that it looked as if the battle was
      won, and Maj. Schofield, finding Maj. Sturgis, informed him that he was in
      command, and the principal officers were hastily gathered together for a
      consultation. The first and most anxious inquiry of all was as to what had
      become of Sigel. It was all-important to know that. If a junction could be
      formed with him the army could advance and drive the enemy completely from
      the field.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link172" id="link172"></a><span class="pn">{172}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Sigel had crossed Wilson's Creek and come into line within easy range of
      McCulloch's headquarters, where Capt Shaeffer opened with his battery upon
      a large force of Arkansan, Texan and Missourian troops who were engaged in
      getting breakfast. They were so demoralized by the awful storm of shells
      that at least one regiment&mdash;Col. Greer's of Texas&mdash;did not
      recover its composure during the day, and took little if any part in the
      rest of the engagement.
    </p>
    <p>
      Col. Churchill succeeded in rallying his Arkansas regiment, but before he
      could return and engage Sigel he received urgent orders to hurry over to
      the right and help drive back Lyon. Sigel's men moved forward into the
      deserted camp, but unfortunately broke ranks and began plundering it.
    </p>
    <p>
      McCulloch had rushed over to his headquarters in time to meet the
      fugitives, and by great exertions succeeded in rallying about 2,000 men,
      with whom he attacked Sigel's disorganized men in the camps, and drove
      them out. Sigel succeeded in rallying a portion of his men, when McCulloch
      advanced upon them with a regiment the uniforms of which were so like that
      of the volunteers under Lyon that his men could not be persuaded that it
      was not a portion of Lyon's troops advancing to their assistance, and they
      withheld their fire until the Confederates were within 10 paces, when the
      latter poured in such a destructive volley that men and horses went down
      before it, and Sigel's Brigade was utterly routed, with a loss of some 250
      prisoners and a regimental flag, which was afterwards used to deceive the
      Union troops.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link173" id="link173"></a><span class="pn">{173}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      With the exception of the two troops of Regular cavalry under Capt. E. A.
      Carr, which seem to have done nothing during this time, Sigel's Brigade
      disappeared completely from the action, and Sigel and Salomon, with a few
      men, rode back to Springfield, where it is said that they went to bed.
      This inexplicable action by Sigel bitterly prejudiced the other officers
      against him, and was continually coming up in judgment against him.
    </p>
    <p>
      There is no doubt of Sigel's personal courage, but why, with the sound of
      Lyon's cannon in his ears, and knowing full well the desperate struggle
      his superior officer was engaged in, he made no effort to rally his troops
      or to take any further part in the battle, is beyond comprehension. Col.
      Salomon, who accompanied him in his flight to Springfield, afterward
      became Colonel of a Wisconsin regiment, and made a brilliant record.
    </p>
    <p>
      It was yet but little after 9 o'clock, and despite the stubbornness of the
      fighting no decisive advantage had been gained on either side.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Union troops were masters of the savagely contested hill, but all
      their previous efforts to advance beyond, pierce the main Confederate
      line, and reach the trains below had been repulsed. Had they better make
      another attempt?
    </p>
    <p>
      The hasty council of war decided that it would be unsafe to do so until
      Col. Sigel was heard from. The army was already badly crippled, for the
      1st Kan. and the 1st Mo. had lost one-third of their men and half their
      officers, the others had suffered nearly as severely, and everybody was
      running short of ammunition. They had marched all night, and gone into
      battle without breakfast, had been fighting five hours, and were suffering
      terribly from heat, thirst and exhaustion.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link174" id="link174"></a><span class="pn">{174}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The council was suddenly brought to an end by seeing a large force which
      Price and McCulloch had rallied come over the hill directly in the Union
      front A battery which Gen. Price had established on the crest of the hill
      somewhat to the left opened a fire of canister and shrapnel, but the Union
      troops showed the firmest front of any time during the day, and Totten's
      and DuBois's batteries hurled a storm of canister into the advancing
      infantry. Gen. Price had brought up fresh regiments to replace those which
      had been fought out, and it seemed as if the Union line would be
      overwhelmed. But the officers brought up every man they could reach. Capt
      Gordon Granger threw three companies of the 1st Mo., three companies of
      the 1st Kan., and two companies of the 1st Iowa, which had been supporting
      DuBois's battery, against the right flank of the enemy and by their
      terrible enfilade fire sent it back in great disorder. On the right
      Lieut.-Col. Blair, with the 2d Kan., was having an obstinate fight, but
      with the assistance of a section of Totten's battery under Lieut. Sokalski
      the enemy was at last driven back clear out of sight.
    </p>
    <p>
      The battle had now raged bitterly for six hours, with every attempt of the
      enemy to drive foe stubborn defenders from the crest of the hill repulsed.
      The slope on the eminence was thickly strewn with the dead and wounded.
      The Confederates had suffered fearfully. Cols. Weightman and Brown, who
      commanded brigades, had been killed, and Gens. Price, Slack and Clark
      wounded. The loss of subordinate officers had been very heavy. They had
      been clearly fought to a finish, and an attempt of their cavalry to turn
      the Union right flank had been repulsed with great loss by Totten's
      battery and several companies of the 1st Mo. and the 1st Kan. The shells
      produced the greatest consternation among the horses and men, as they were
      delivered at short range with unerring aim. The entire Confederate line
      left the field, disappearing thru the thick woods in the valley to their
      camp on Wilson's Creek, somewhat to the right of the Union center.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link175" id="link175"></a><span class="pn">{175}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Another brief council of war resulted in an order from Maj. Sturgis to
      fall back. Nothing could be heard from Sigel, the men were exhausted, the
      ammunition nearly gone, and it seemed best to retire while there was an
      opportunity left. As subsequently learned this was a great mistake,
      because the Confederate army was in full retreat, and an advance from the
      Union army would have sent them off the field for good.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Union officers did the best they could according to their light, and
      their retirement was in the best order and absolutely unmolested.
    </p>
    <p>
      The retreat began about 11:30 and continued two miles to a prairie
      northeast of the battleground, where a halt was made to enable the
      Surgeons to collect the wounded in ambulances. Gen. Lyon's body had been
      placed in an ambulance, but by someone's order was taken out again and
      left on the prairie with the rest of the dead.
    </p>
    <p>
      About 5 o'clock in the afternoon the army reached Springfield, and there
      found Sigel and Salomon and most of their brigade, with the others coming
      in from all directions.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link176" id="link176"></a><span class="pn">{176}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      In spite of his conduct on the battlefield, Sigel's great theoretical
      knowledge and experience in European wars decided that the command should
      be turned over to him, and he was formally placed at the head.
    </p>
    <p>
      According to official reports the casualties in the Union army were as
      follows:
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linkimage-0017" id="linkimage-0017">
       <!--  IMG --> </a> <img src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:j:john-mcelroy-struggle-for-missouri-176-Union%20Casualties.jpg"
      alt="176-table of Union Casualties"  /><br />
    </p>
    <p>
      The official reports give the casualties in the Confederate army as
      follows:
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linkimage-0018" id="linkimage-0018">
       <!--  IMG --> </a> <img src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:j:john-mcelroy-struggle-for-missouri-177-Confederate%20Casualties.jpg"
      alt="177-table of Confederate Casualties"  /><br />
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link177" id="link177"></a><span class="pn">{177}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
    </p>
    <div style="height: 4em;">
      <br /><br /><br /><br />
    </div>
    <h2>
      CHAPTER XI. THE AFTERMATH OF WILSON'S CREEK
    </h2>
    <p>
      An analytical study of the losses in the preceding chapter will aid in a
      more thoro appreciation of the most bitter battle fought on the American
      Continent up to that time, and by far the severest which had ever been
      waged west of the Allegheny Mountains. It will be perceived that the loss
      in the Union army was almost wholly in Gen. Lyon's column of 4,000 men, or
      less, which suffered to the extent of almost one-third of its number. In
      the 1,300 men in Gen. Sigel's command the loss was insignificant, except
      in prisoners.
    </p>
    <p>
      Both sides fought with a stubbornness absolutely unknown in European wars,
      but the regiments of the Union army seemed to be inspired with that higher
      invincibility of purpose which characterized their great leader.
    </p>
    <p>
      Judged by the simple equation of losses, the Union regiments displayed a
      far greater tenacity of purpose than the Confederates. We have no exact
      figures as to the number in each Union regiment, as there were constant
      changes taking place; a great many men had served their time out and more
      were claiming and receiving their discharges.
    </p>
    <p>
      Aug. 4, 1861, six days before the battle, Gen. Lyon gave from
      "recollection" the following estimate of the strength of his command,
      which must have been considerably reduced in the seven days between that
      and the battle, and from which must be deducted some 250 men left to guard
      the trains and property in Springfield:
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link178" id="link178"></a><span class="pn">{178}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linkimage-0019" id="linkimage-0019">
       <!--  IMG --> </a> <img src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:j:john-mcelroy-struggle-for-missouri-179-Table.jpg" alt="179-table"
       /><br />
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link179" id="link179"></a><span class="pn">{179}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      It is altogether unlikely that the 1st Mo., for example, took into battle
      within 100 or more of the 900 men assigned to it, and the same thing is
      true of the 900 men given for the 1st Iowa, and the 700 each for the two
      Kansas regiments.
    </p>
    <p>
      If we assume that the 1st Mo. and the 1st Iowa had 800 men each and the
      Kansas regiments 600 each, we find that the loss of 295 for the 1st Mo.,
      284 for the 1st Kan., and 154 for the 1st Iowa to be appalling. The
      Regulars suffered severely, but not so badly as the volunteers.
    </p>
    <p>
      Among those who were noted for gallant conduct in the battle of Wilson's
      Creek was Eugene F. Ware, then a private in the 1st Iowa, and who
      afterward became a Captain in the 7th Iowa Cav. In civil life he attained
      a leading place at the Kansas bar, and was appointed Commissioner of
      Pensions by President Roosevelt.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link180" id="link180"></a><span class="pn">{180}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      None of the Confederate regiments engaged suffered to anything like the
      same extent, and as they were driven from the field, while the Union
      regiments maintained their position and were even ready for further
      aggression, the palm of higher purposes and more desperate fighting must
      be unhesitatingly conceded to the Union volunteers. Few of the Confederate
      commanders give reports of the number they carried into action, but many
      of their regiments must have been approximately as strong as those of the
      Union, and they had many more of them.
    </p>
    <p>
      The moral effect of the battle was prodigious on both sides. The Union
      troops were conscious of having met overwhelming forces and fought them to
      a stand-still, if not actual defeat. Every man felt himself a victor as he
      left the field, and only retreated because the exigencies of the situation
      rendered that the most politic move.
    </p>
    <p>
      It was consequently a great encouragement to the Union sentiment
      everywhere, and did much to retrieve the humiliation of Bull Run. The
      Confederates naturally made the very most of the fact that they had been
      left masters of the field, and they dilated extensively upon the killing
      of Gen. Lyon and the crushing defeat they had administered upon Sigel,
      with capture of prisoners, guns and flags. They used this to so good
      purpose as to greatly stimulate the Secession spirit thruout the State.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link181" id="link181"></a><span class="pn">{181}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. McCulloch's dispatches to the Confederate War Department are, to say
      the least, disingenuous. His first dispatch that evening stated that the
      enemy was 12,000 strong, but had "fled" after eight hours' hard fighting.
      His second official report, dated two days after the battle, gave his
      "effective" forces at 5,300 infantry, 15 pieces of artillery and 6,000
      horsemen, armed with flintlock muskets, rifles and shotguns. He says:
      "There were, other horsemen with the army, but they were entirely unarmed,
      and instead of being a help they were continually in the way." He
      repeatedly pronounces the collisions at the different periods of the
      battle as "terrific," and says: "The incessant roar of musketry was
      deafening, and the balls fell as thick as hailstones." His next sentences
      are at surprising variance with the concurrent testimony on the Union
      side; for he says: "Nothing could withstand the impetuosity of our final
      charge. The enemy fell back and could not again be rallied, and they were
      seen at 12 m. fast retreating among the hills in the distance. This ended
      the battle. It lasted six hours and a half."
    </p>
    <p>
      By this time Gen. McCulloch had reduced the Union force to between 9,000
      and 10,000, and he claims the Union loss to have been 800 killed, 1,000
      wounded and 300 prisoners. He gave his own loss at 265 killed, 800 wounded
      and 30 missing. His colleague, Gen. Price, he curtly dismisses with this
      brief laudation: "To Gen. Price I am under many obligations for assistance
      on the battlefield. He was at the head of his force, leading them on and
      sustaining them by his gallant bearing."
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link182" id="link182"></a><span class="pn">{182}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Price's report is more accurate and soldierlike, but he says that
      after several "severe and bloody conflicts" had ensued, and the battle had
      been conducted with the "greatest gallantry and vigor on both sides for
      more than five hours, the enemy retreated in great confusion, leaving
      their Commander-in-Chief, Gen. Lyon, dead upon the battlefield, over 500
      killed and a great number wounded." He claims that his forces numbered
      5,221 officers and men, of whom 156 were killed and 517 wounded. This
      would make the loss of his whole division of 5,000 men 673, or about the
      same lost by the 1st Mo. and the 1st Kan., with these two regiments still
      maintaining their position, while the enemy retired.
    </p>
    <p>
      It seems difficult to understand why, if the enemy "retreated in great
      confusion," as reported by Mc-Culloch and Price, the several thousand
      horsemen who did little or nothing during the battle were not let loose to
      complete the ruin of the Union forces. No matter how poorly armed or
      disciplined these might have been, their appearance on the flank of the
      retiring column would have been fatal to any orderly retreat such as was
      conducted. The universal testimony of the Union officers and soldiers is
      that there was no enemy in sight when they started to leave the field, and
      that they suffered no molestation whatever, though they halted two miles
      from the field and in plain sight for some time.
    </p>
    <p>
      It also passes comprehension that this horde of irregular horsemen were
      not employed during the long hours of the battle in making some diversion
      in the rear of the Union army.
    </p>
    <p>
      Both Price and McCulloch seem to have had their attention so fully
      engrossed in bringing up new regiments to keep Lyon from breaking thru
      their lines and reaching their trains that they had no opportunity to give
      orders or organize manuvers by the horsemen, and nobody seems to have
      suggested to the mounted men that they could employ their time better than
      by standing back and watching the progress of the terrible conflict
      between the two opposing lines of infantry.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link183" id="link183"></a><span class="pn">{183}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      It appears that the Union officers in the council called by Gen. Sturgis
      were not at all unanimous for retreat. Capt. Sweeny, altho severely
      wounded, vehemently insisted upon pursuing the enemy, and Capt. Gordon
      Granger, also severely wounded, rode up to Sturgis, pointed out that there
      was not a man in sight and that the fire could be seen from where the
      retreating foe was burning his wagons, and he urged the pursuit so
      vigorously that Sturgis had to repeat his order for him to leave the
      field.
    </p>
    <p>
      Col. Sigel, in his report made at Rolla eight days after the battle, made
      a long and labored explanation of his operations during the day. He thus
      explained his failure to do more:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     In order to understand clearly our actions and our fate, you
     will allow me to state the following facts:

     1st. According to orders, it was the duty of this brigade to
     attack the enemy in the rear and to cut off his retreat,
     which order I tried to execute, whatever the consequences
     might be.

     2d. The time of service of the 6th Regiment Mo. Volunteers
     had expired before the battle. I had induced them, company
     by company, not to leave us in the most critical and
     dangerous moment, and had engaged them for the time of eight
     days, this term ending on Friday, the 9th, the day before
     the battle.

     3d. The 3d Regiment, of which 400 three-months men had been
     dismissed, was composed for the greatest part of recruits,
     who had not seen the enemy before and were only
     insufficiently drilled.

     4th. The men serving the pieces and the drivers consisted of
     infantry taken from the 3d Regiment and were mostly
     recruits, who had had only a few days' instruction.

     5th. About two-thirds of our officers had left us. Some
     companies had no officers at all; a great pity, but a
     consequence of the system of the three months' service.
</pre>
    <p>
      Later, when Gen. Sigel was seeking promotion, Maj. Schofield, then a
      Brigadier-General, sent the following communication to Gen. Halleck:
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link184" id="link184"></a><span class="pn">{184}</span>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     St Louis, Mo.. Feb. 18, 1862. Maj.-Gen.   Halleck,
     Commanding  Department  of  the   Missouri.

     General: The question of the merits of Brig.-Gen. Franz
     Slgel as a commander having assumed such shape as to deeply
     involve the interests of the service, I deem it my duty to
     make a statement of facts which came to my knowledge during
     the campaign of last Summer in the Southwest, ending in the
     death of Gen. Lyon and the retreat of his army from
     Springfield.

     Soon after the capture of Camp Jackson, in May, Gen. Lyon
     sent Col. Slgel, with his two regiments of infantry and two
     batteries of artillery, to the southwestern part of the
     State, by way of Rolla, to cut off the retreat of Price's
     force which he (Lyon) was about to drive from Boonville. Col.
     Sigel passed beyond Springfield, reaching a point not far
     from the Kansas line, and on the main road used by Price's
     men in their movement south to join him. Here he left a
     single company of infantry in a small town, with no apparent
     object, unless that It might fall in the hands of the enemy,
     which it did the next day (6th of July). Sigel met Price the
     next day, and fought the celebrated "battle of Carthage."
     Sigel had about two regiments of infantry, well armed and
     equipped, most of the men old German soldiers, and two good
     batteries of artillery. Price had about twice Sigel's number
     of men, but most of them mounted, armed with shotguns and
     common rifles, and entirely without organization and
     discipline, and a few pieces of almost worthless artillery.
     Sigel retreated all day before this miserable rabble,
     contenting himself with repelling their irregular attacks,
     which he did with perfect ease whenever they ventured to make
     them. The loss on either side was quite insignificant. Price
     and McCulloch were thus permitted to join each other
     absolutely without opposition; Sigel, who had been sent
     there to prevent their Junction, making a "masterly
     retreat."

     Several days before the battle of Wilson's Creek it was
     ascertained beyond a doubt that the enemy's strength was
     about 22,000 men, with at least 20 pieces of artillery,
     while our force was only about 5,000. About the 7th of
     August the main body of the enemy reached Wilson's Creek,
     and Gen. Lyon decided to attack him. The plan of attack was
     freely discussed between Gen. Lyon, the members of his
     staff, CoL Sigel, and several officers of the Regular Army.
     Col. Sigel, apparently anxious for a separate command,
     advocated the plan of a divided attack.   All others, I
     believe, opposed it.

     On the 8th of August the plan of a single attack was
     adopted, to be carried out on the 9th. This had to be
     postponed on account of the exhaustion of part of our
     troops. During the morning of the 9th Col. Sigel had a long
     interview with Gen. Lyon, and prevailed upon him to adopt
     his plan, which led to the mixture of glory, disgrace and
     disaster of the ever-memorable 10th of August Slgel, in
     attempting to perform the part assigned to himself, lost his
     artillery, lost his infantry, and fled alone, or nearly so,
     to Springfield, arriving there long before the battle was
     ended. Yet he had almost nobody killed or wounded. One piece
     of his artillery and 500 or 600 infantry were picked up and
     brought in by a company of Regular cavalry.   No effort was
     made by Sigel or any of his officers to rally their men and
     join Lyon's Division, altho the battle raged furiously for
     hours after Sigel's rout; and most of his men in their
     retreat passed in rear of Lyon's line of battle.
</pre>
    <p>
      <a name="link185" id="link185"></a><span class="pn">{185}</span>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     On our return to Springfield, at about 5 o'clock p. m., Maj.
     Sturgis yielded the command to Col. Sigel, and the latter,
     after consultation with many of the officers of the army,
     decided to retreat toward Rolla; starting at 2 o'clock a. m.
     in order that the column might be in favorable position for
     defense before daylight. At the hour appointed for the
     troops to move I found Col. Sigel asleep in bed, and his own
     brigade, which was to be the advance guard, making
     preparations to cook their breakfast It was 4 o'clock before
     I could get them started. Sigel remained in command three
     days, kept his two regiments in front all the time, made
     little more than ordinary day's marches, but yet did not get
     in camp until 10, and on one occasion 12 o'clock at night.
     On the second day he kept the main column waiting, exposed
     to the sun on a dry prairie, while his own men killed beef
     and cooked their breakfast. They finished their breakfast at
     about noon, and then began their day's march.

     The fatigue and annoyance to the troops soon became so
     intolerable that discipline was impossible. The officers,
     therefore, almost unanimously demanded a change. Maj.
     Sturgis, in compliance with the demand, assumed the command.

     My position as Gen. Lyon's principal staff officer gave mo
     very favorable opportunities for judging of Gen. Sigel's
     merits as an officer, and hence I appreciate his good as
     well as his bad qualities more accurately than most of those
     who presume to judge him. Gen. Sigel, in point of
     theoretical education, is far above the average of
     commanders in this country. He has studied with great care
     the science of strategy, and seems thoroly conversant with
     the campaigns of all the great captains, so far as covers
     their main strategic features, and also seems familiar with
     the duties of the staff; but in tactics, great and small
     logistics, and discipline he is greatly deficient. These
     defects are so apparent as to make it absolutely impossible
     for him to gain the confidence of American officers and men,
     and entirely unfit him for a high command in our army. While
     I do not condemn Gen. Sigel in the unmeasured terms so
     common among many, but on the contrary see in him many fine
     qualities, I would do less than my duty did I not enter my
     protest against the appointment to a high command in the
     army of a man who, whatever may be his merits, I know cannot
     have the confidence of the troops he is to command.

     I am, General, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

     J. M. SCHOFIELD, Brigadier-General. U. S. Volunteers.
</pre>
    <p>
      This was accompanied by a statement embodying the same facts and signed by
      substantially all the higher officers who had been with Lyon.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link186" id="link186"></a><span class="pn">{186}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      At the first halt of the army, about two miles from the battlefield, while
      the dead and wounded were being gathered up, it was discovered that Gen.
      Lyon's body had been left behind. The Surgeon and another officer
      volunteered to take an ambulance and return to the battlefield for it They
      were received graciously by Gen. McCulloch; the body was delivered to them
      and they reached Springfield with it shortly after dark. The Surgeon made
      an attempt to embalm it by injecting arsenic into the veins, but
      decomposition, owing to exposure to the hot sun, had progressed too far to
      render it practicable, and they were compelled to leave it when the army
      moved off.
    </p>
    <p>
      Mrs. Phelps, wife of the member of Congress from that District, and a true
      Union woman, obtained it and had it placed in a wooden coffin, which was
      hermetically sealed in another one of zinc. Fearing that it might be
      molested by the Confederate troops when they entered the city, Mrs. Phelps
      had the coffin placed in an out-door cellar and covered with straw. Later
      she took an opportunity of having it secretly buried at night.
    </p>
    <p>
      Thinking that the remains had been brought on, Mr. Danford Knowlton, of
      New York, a cousin, and Mr. John B. Hasler, of Webster, Mass., a
      brother-in-law of Gen. Lyon, came on at the instance of the Connecticut
      relatives to obtain the remains. Not finding them at St. Louis, they went
      forward to Rolla, where Col. Wyman furnished them with an ambulance, with
      which they proceeded to Springfield under a flag of truce. They were
      kindly received by Gen. Price, and also by Gen. Parsons, whose brigade was
      encamped on the ground where the body was buried, and exhuming it, brought
      it to St. Louis. The city went into mourning, and the remains were
      conducted by a military and civic procession to the depot, where they were
      delivered to the Adams Express Company to be conveyed East under an escort
      of officers and enlisted men.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link187" id="link187"></a><span class="pn">{187}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      At every station on the road crowds gathered to pay their tribute of
      respect to the deceased hero and distinguished honors were paid at
      Cincinnati, Pittsburg, New York, and Hartford. The body was taken to
      Eastford, Conn., where the General was born, and in the presence of a
      large assemblage was interred in a grave beside his parents, in accordance
      with the desire the General expressed while in life.
    </p>
    <p>
      Upon opening Lyons' will it was found that he had bequeathed all his
      savings, prudent investments and property, amounting to about $50,000, to
      the Government to aid it in the prosecution of the war for its existence.
    </p>
    <p>
      Aug. 25, Gen. Fremont issued congratulatory orders, in which he said:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     The General Commanding laments, in sympathy with the
     country, the loss of the indomitable Gen. Nathaniel Lyon.
     His fame cannot be better eulogized than in these words in
     the official report of his gallant successor, Maj. Sturgis,
     U. S. Cavalry: "Thus gallantly fell as true a soldier as
     ever drew a sword; a man whose honesty of purpose was
     proverbial; a noble patriot, and one who held his life as
     nothing where his country demanded it of him. Let us emulate
     his prowess and undying devotion to his duty!"

     The order also permitted the regiments and other
     organizations engaged to put "Springfield" on their colors,
     and directed that the order should be read at the head of
     every company in the Department of Missouri.
</pre>
    <p>
      <a name="link188" id="link188"></a><span class="pn">{188}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Dec. 30, 1861, Congress passed a joint resolution, in which it said:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     That Congress deems it just and proper to enter upon its
     records a recognition of the eminent and patriotic services
     of the late Brig-Gen. Nathaniel Lyon.   The country to whose
     service he devoted his life will guard and preserve his fame
     as a part of its own glory.

     2. That the thanks of Congress are hereby given to the brave
     officers and soldiers who, under the command of the late
     Gen. Lyon, sustained the honor of the flag, and achieved
     victory against overwhelming numbers at the battle of
     Springfield, in Missouri, and that, in order to commemorate
     an event so honorable to the country and to themselves, it
     is ordered that each regiment engaged shall be authorized to
     bear upon its colors the word "Springfield," embroidered in
     letters of gold. And the President of the United States is
     hereby requested to cause these resolutions to be read at
     the head of every regiment in the Army of the United States.
</pre>
    <p>
      <a name="link189" id="link189"></a><span class="pn">{189}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
    </p>
    <div style="height: 4em;">
      <br /><br /><br /><br />
    </div>
    <h2>
      CHAPTER XII. A GALAXY OF NOTABLE MEN
    </h2>
    <p>
      The Union commanders were naturally very apprehensive that as soon as
      Price and Mc-Culloch realized that the field had been abandoned they would
      precipitate upon them their immense horde of vengeful horsemen. Such was
      not the case. Nothing tells so eloquently of the severity of the blow
      which Lyon had dealt his enemies than that it was two whole days before
      Price and McCulloch were in a frame of mind to move forward 10 miles and
      occupy Springfield, the goal of their campaign. This delay was golden to
      the Union commanders, hampered as they were by hosts of Union refugees
      fleeing from the rebel wrath, and incumbering the column with all manner
      of vehicles and great droves of stock. Considering the activity of the
      Missourians in guerrilla warfare, and the vicious way they usually harried
      the Union forces, it is incomprehensible, except on the theory that the
      Confederate forces had been stunned into torpor by the blow. The Union
      column was able to make its long retreat of 125 miles from Springfield to
      Rolla and traverse an exceedingly rough country cut up every few miles by
      ravines, gorges and creeks, without the slightest molestation from the six
      or eight thousand horsemen whom McCulloch had complained were so much in
      the way during the battle on the banks of Wilson's Creek.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link190" id="link190"></a><span class="pn">{190}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. McCulloch made a number of lengthy and labored explanations to the
      Confederate War Department of his failure to make any pursuit, but in the
      light of facts that then should have been attainable none of these was at
      all satisfactory. He admits that he did not enter Springfield until after
      his scouts had brought him satisfactory assurances that the Union army had
      abandoned the town. Aug. 12 he advanced to Springfield, and issued
      proclamations to the people announcing himself as their deliverer, and
      that his army "by great gallantry and determined courage" had entirely
      "routed the enemy with great slaughter."
    </p>
    <p>
      If he expected to be received and feted as a liberator he was sorely
      disappointed, and in one of his letters he says in connection with his
      customary uncomplimentary allusions to Gen. Price's army, "and from all I
      can see we had as well be in Boston as far as the friendly feelings of the
      inhabitants are concerned."
    </p>
    <p>
      The truth was that the advance of the Confederates had had a blighting
      effect upon that large portion of the people which had hoped to remain
      neutral in the struggle.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Lyon, with all his intensity of purpose, had kept uppermost in mind
      that he was an agent of the law, and his mission was to enforce the law.
      He had kept his troops under excellent discipline, had permitted no
      outrages upon citizens, and had either paid for or given vouchers for
      anything his men needed, and had generally conducted himself in strict
      obedience of the law. His course was a crushing refutal of the
      inflammatory proclamations of Gov. Jackson and others about the Union
      soldiers being robbers, thieves, ravishers and outragers.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link191" id="link191"></a><span class="pn">{191}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Quite different was the course of the twenty or more thousand men whom
      Price and McCulloch led into Springfield. They were under very little
      discipline of any kind, and were burning with a desire to punish and drive
      out of the country not merely those who were outspoken Unionists, but all
      who were not radical Secessionists. They knew that the sentiment in
      Springfield and the country of which it was the center was in favor of the
      Union, and they wanted to stamp this out by terror.
    </p>
    <p>
      While this brought to their ranks a great many of the more pliant
      neutrals, it drove away from them a great number, and put into the ranks
      of the Union many who had been more or less inclined to the pro-slavery
      element.
    </p>
    <p>
      The soreness between Price and McCulloch which had been filmed over before
      the battle by Price subordinating himself and his troops to McCulloch,
      became more inflamed during the stay at Springfield. In spite of the fact
      that the Missouri troops had done much better fighting, and suffered
      severer losses in the battle than McCulloch, he persisted in denouncing
      them as cowards, stragglers and mobites, without soldierly qualities.
    </p>
    <p>
      The following extracts from a report to J. P. Benjamin, Confederate
      Secretary of War, will show the temper which pervaded all his
      correspondence, and was probably still more manifest in his personal
      relations with the Missourians:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     It was at this point that I first saw the total inefficiency
     of the Missouri mounted men under Brig.-Gen. Rains. A
     thousand, more or less, of them composed the advance guard,
     and whilst reconnoiterlng the enemy's position, some eight
     miles distant from our camp, were put to flight by a single
     cannon-shot, running in the greatest confusion, without the
     loss of a single man except one who died of overheat or
     sunstroke, and bringing no reliable information as to the
     position or fore of the enemy; nor were they of the
     slightest service as scouts or spies afterwards.
</pre>
    <p>
      <a name="link192" id="link192"></a><span class="pn">{192}</span>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     As evidence of this I will mention here the fact of the
     enemy being allowed to leave his position, six miles distant
     from us, 20 hours before we knew it; thus causing us to make
     a night march to surprise the enemy, who was at that time
     entirely out of our reach. A day or two previous to this
     march the Generals of the Missouri forces, by common consent
     on their part and unasked on mine, tendered me the command
     of their troops, which I at first declined, saying to them
     it was done to throw the responsibility of ordering a
     retreat upon me if one had to be ordered for the want of
     supplies, their breadstuffs giving out about this time; and,
     in truth, we would have been in a starving condition had it
     not been for the young corn, which was just in condition to
     be used.    *    *    *

     The battle over, it was ascertained that the camp followers,
     whose presence I had so strongly objected to, had robbed our
     dead and wounded on the battlefield of their arms, and at
     the same time had taken those left by the enemy. I tried to
     recover the arms thus lost by my men, and also a portion of
     those taken from the enemy, but in vain. Gen. Pearce made an
     effort to get back those muskets loaned to Gen. Price before
     we entered Missouri the first time. I was informed he
     recovered only 10 out of 615. I then asked that the battery
     be given me, which was one taken by the Louisiana regiment
     at the point of the bayonet. The guns were turned over by
     the order of Gen. Price, minus the horses and most of the
     harness. I would not have demanded these guns had Gen. Price
     done the Louisiana regiment justice in his official report
     The language used by him was calculated to make the
     impression that the battery was captured by his men Instead
     of that regiment    *    *    *
</pre>
    <p>
      McCulloch was a voluminous writer, both to the Confederate War Department
      and to personal and official friends, and few of these communications are
      without some complaint about the Missouri troops. Everything that he had
      failed to do was due to their inefficiency, their lack of soldierly
      perceptions, and conduct. They would give him no information, would not
      scout nor reconnoiter, and he was continually left in the dark as to the
      movements of the enemy. When they were attacked he claimed that they would
      run away in a shameful manner. His dislike of Gen. Rains seemed to grow
      more bitter continually.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linkimage-0020" id="linkimage-0020">
       <!--  IMG --> </a> <img src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:j:john-mcelroy-struggle-for-missouri-195-Gen%20Samuel%20R%20Curtis.jpg"
      alt="195-general Samuel R. J. Curtis"  /><br />
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link193" id="link193"></a><span class="pn">{193}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Price saw a great opportunity and was anxious to improve it. The
      retreat of the Union forces from Springfield opened up the whole western
      part of the State, and a prompt movement would carry the army forward to
      the Missouri River again, where it could control the navigation of that
      great stream, receive thousands of recruits now being assembled at places
      north of the river, separate the Unionists of Missouri from the loyal
      people in Kansas and Nebraska, and hearten up the Secessionists everywhere
      as much as it disheartened the Union people, and possibly recover St.
      Louis.
    </p>
    <p>
      He pressed this with all earnestness upon Gen. McCulloch, only to have it
      received with cold indifference or strong objections. He proposed that if
      McCulloch would undertake the movement, that he, Price, would continue in
      subordination to him and give him all the assistance that his troops could
      give.
    </p>
    <p>
      There is no doubt that Price was entirely right in his views, and that a
      prompt forward movement with such forces as he and McCulloch commanded
      would have been a very serious matter for the Union cause and carry
      discouragement everywhere to add to that which had been caused by the
      disaster of Bull Run.
    </p>
    <p>
      The relations between the two Generals constantly became more strained,
      and for the latter part of the two weeks which McCulloch remained at
      Springfield there was little communication between them. Gen. Price made
      good use of the time to bring in recruits from every part of the State
      which was accessible and to organize and discipline them for further
      service.
    </p>
    <p>
      At the end of a fortnight Gen. McCulloch suffered Gen. Pearce to return to
      Arkansas with his Arkansas Division, while Gen. McCulloch retired with his
      brigade of Louisianians and Texans, and Price was left free to do as he
      pleased.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link194" id="link194"></a><span class="pn">{194}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The death of Gen. Lyon at last aroused Gen. Fremont to a fever of energy
      to do the things that he should have done weeks before. He began a
      bombardment of Washington with telegrams asking for men, money and
      supplies, and sent dispatches of the most urgent nature to everybody from
      whom he could expect the least help. He called on the Governors of the
      loyal Western States to hurry to him all the troops that they could raise,
      and asked from Washington Regular troops, artillery, $3,000,000 for the
      Quartermaster's Department, and other requirements in proportion. He made
      a requisition on the St. Louis banks for money, and showed a great deal of
      fertility of resource.
    </p>
    <p>
      Aug. 15, five days after the battle, President Lincoln, stirred up by his
      fusillade of telegrams, dispatched him the following:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     Washington, Aug. 15, 1861. To Gen. Fremont:

     Been answering your messages ever since day before
     yesterday. Do you receive the answers? The War Department
     has notified all the Governors you designate to forward all
     available force. So telegraphed you. Have you received these
     messages?    Answer immediately.

                    A. LINCOLN.
</pre>
    <p>
      With relation to his conduct toward Gen. Lyon, Gen. Fremont afterward
      testified to this effect before the Committee on the Conduct of the War:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     A glance at the map will make it apparent that Cairo was the
     point which first demanded immediate attention. The force
     under Gen. Lyon could retreat, but the position at Cairo
     could not be abandoned; the question of holding Cairo was
     one which involved the safety of the whole Northwest. Had
     the taking of St. Louis followed the defeat of Manassas, the
     disaster might have been irretrievable; while the loss of
     Springfield, should our army be compelled to fall back upon
     Rolla, would only carry with it the loss of a part of
     Missouri&mdash;a loss greatly to be regretted, but not
     irretrievable. Having reinforced Cape Girardeau and Ironton,
     by the ut-most exertions, I succeeded in getting together
     and embarking with a force of 3,800 men, five days after my
     arrival in St Louis.
</pre>
    <p>
      <a name="link195" id="link195"></a><span class="pn">{195}</span>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     From St. Louis to Cairo was an easy day's Journey by water,
     and transportation abundant To Springfield was a week's
     march; and before I could have reached it Cairo would have
     been taken and with it, I believe, St Louis.

     On my arrival at Cairo I found the force under Gen. Prentiss
     reduced to 1,200 men, consisting mainly of a regiment which
     had agreed to await my arrival. A few miles below, at New
     Madrid, Gen. Pillow had landed a force estimated at 20,000,
     which subsequent events showed was not exaggerated. Our
     force, greatly increased to the enemy by rumor, drove him
     to a hasty retreat and permanently secured the position.

     I returned to St. Louis on the 4th, having in the meantime
     ordered Col. Stephenson's regiment from Boonville, and Col.
     Montgomery's from Kansas, to march to the relief of Gen.
     Lyon.

     Immediately upon my arrival from Cairo, I set myself at
     work, amid incessant demands upon my time from every
     quarter, principally to provide reinforcements for Gen.
     Lyon.

     I do not accept Springfield as a disaster belonging to my
     administration. Causes wholly out of my jurisdiction had
     already prepared the defeat of Gen. Lyon before my arrival
     at St Louis.
</pre>
    <p>
      The ebullition of the Secession sentiment in Missouri following the news
      of the battle of Wilson's Creek made Gen. Fremont feel that the most
      extraordinary measures were necessary in order to hold the State. He had
      reasons for this alarm, for the greatest activity was manifested in every
      County in enrolling young men in Secession companies and regiments. Heavy
      columns were threatening invasion from various points. One of these was
      led by Gen. Hardee, a Regular officer of much ability, who had acquired
      considerable fame by his translation of the tactics in use in the Army. He
      had been appointed to the command of North Arkansas, and had collected
      considerable force at Pocahontas, at the head of navigation on the White
      River, where he was within easy striking distance of the State and Lyon's
      line of retreat, and was threatening numberless direful things.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link196" id="link196"></a><span class="pn">{196}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      McCulloch and Price had sent special messengers to him to urge him to join
      his force with theirs to crush Lyon, or at least to move forward and cut
      off Lyon's communications with Rolla. They found Hardee within 400 yards
      of the Missouri State line. He had every disposition to do as desired, but
      had too much of the Regular officer in him to be willing to move until his
      forces were thoroly organized and equipped. There was little in him of the
      spirit of Lyon or Price, who improvised means for doing what they wanted
      to do, no matter whether regulations permitted it or not.
    </p>
    <p>
      Hardee complained that though he had then 2,300 men and expected to
      shortly raise this force to 5,000, one of his batteries had no horses and
      no harness, and none of his regiments had transportation enough for field
      service, and that all regiments were badly equipped and needed discipline
      and instruction.
    </p>
    <p>
      Later, Hardee repaired many of these deficiencies, and was in shape to do
      a great deal of damage to the Union cause, and of this Fremont and his
      subordinates were well aware. Gens. Polk and Pillow, with quite strong
      forces at Columbus, were threatening Cairo and southeast Missouri, and an
      advance was made into the State by their picturesque subordinate, Gen. M.
      Jeff Thompson, the poet laureate of the New Madrid marshes and the "Swamp
      Fox" who was to emulate the exploits of Francis Marion. Thompson moved
      forward with a considerable force of irregular mounted men, the number of
      which was greatly exaggerated, and it was reported that behind him was a
      column commanded by Pillow, ranging all the way from 8,000 to 25,000.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link197" id="link197"></a><span class="pn">{197}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Fremont set an immense force of laborers to work on an elaborate
      system of fortification for the city of St. Louis, and also began the
      construction of fortifications at Cape Girardeau, Ironton, Rolla and
      Jefferson City. He employed laborers instead of using his troops, in order
      to give the latter opportunity to be drilled and equipped. He issued the
      following startling General Order, which produced the greatest commotion
      in the State and outside of it:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     Headquarters of the Western Department,

     St Louis, Aug. 31, 1861.

     Circumstances in my judgment of sufficient urgency render it
     necessary that the Commanding General of this Department
     should assume the administrative power of the State. Its
     disorganized condition, 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 measures 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 thru-out 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 Girardeau, 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, or 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 men.

     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.
</pre>
    <p>
      <a name="link198" id="link198"></a><span class="pn">{198}</span>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     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.
</pre>
    <p>
      Another man who appeared on the scene as Colonel of the 2d Iowa was Samuel
      R. Curtis, an Ohio man, who graduated from West Point in 1831, in the same
      class with Gens. Ammen, Humphreys and W. H. Emory. He resigned the next
      year and became a prominent civil engineer in Ohio. He served in the
      Mexican War as Colonel of the 2d Ohio, and at the close of that struggle
      returned to his profession of engineering, removed to Iowa, and at the
      outbreak of the war was a member of Congress from that State. He was a man
      of decided military ability, and the victory won at Pea Ridge was his
      personal triumph. He was to rise to the rank of Major-General and command
      an independent army, but become involved in the factional fights in
      Missouri and have his further career curtailed.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link199" id="link199"></a><span class="pn">{199}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Still another name which appears with increased frequency about this time
      is that of U. S. Grant, an Ohio man, who had graduated from West Point in
      1843, and had shown much real enterprise and soldiership in Mexico, but
      had fallen under the disfavor of his commanding officers; had been
      compelled to resign while holding the rank of Captain in the 4th U. S.,
      and for eight years had had a losing struggle in trying to make a living
      in civil pursuits. A happy accident put him at the head of the 21st Ill.,
      with which he had entered Missouri to guard the Hannibal &amp; St. Joseph
      Railroad, and incidentally to dispose of one Thomas A. Harris, a very
      energetic and able man who held a Brigadier-Generalship from Gov. Jackson,
      and who was making himself particularly active in the neighborhood of that
      railroad. Grant showed much energy in chasing around for Harris, but had
      never succeeded in bringing him into battle, though when he left for other
      scenes Harris was hiding among the knobs of Salt River, with his command
      reduced to three enlisted men and his staff.
    </p>
    <p>
      Though he was out of favor with Gen. McClellan and many others who were
      directing military operations, in some way a Brigadier-General's
      commission came to U. S. Grant, and he was assigned to the District of
      Southeastern Missouri, with headquarters at Cape Girardeau, where his duty
      was to hold in check the poetical M. Jeff Thompson, the noisy Gideon J.
      Pillow and the prelatic Leonidas J. Polk in their efforts to get control
      of the southeastern corner of the State and menace Cairo and St. Louis.
    </p>
    <p>
      Maj. Sturgis was promptly made a Brigadier-General to date from Wilson's
      Creek, and assigned to the command of Northeast Missouri, where he had
      five or six thousand men under him.
    </p>
    <p>
      Capt. Fred Steele had accepted a commission as Colonel of the 8th Iowa;
      Capt. Jos. B. Plummer shortly took the Colonelcy of a new regiment, the
      11th Mo.; Capt. Totten became Lieutenant-Colonel and Colonel of the 1st
      Mo. Art., of which Schofield was Major.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link200" id="link200"></a><span class="pn">{200}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Notwithstanding the feeling of the officers and soldiers who had
      participated in the battle of Wilson's Creek against Sigel, it was found
      so necessary to "recognize the Germans" and hold them strongly for the
      Union cause that he was made a Brigadier-General to date from May 17,
      1861, which put him in the same class of Volunteer Brigadier-Generals as
      Hunter, Heintzelman, Fitz John Porter, Wm. B. Franklin, Wm. T. Sherman, C.
      P. Stone, Don Carlos Buell, John Pope, Philip Kearny, Joseph Hooker, U. S.
      Grant, John A. McClernand and A. S. Williams, all of whose volunteer
      commissions bore the date of May 17. This was subsequently a cause of
      trouble.
    </p>
    <p>
      There appeared also another of those figures so common among the State
      builders of this country, and upholding to the fullest the character of a
      leader of pioneers. James H. Lane was an Indiana man, son of a preacher;
      had served with credit as Colonel of Indiana troops in Mexico, and had
      been Lieutenant-Governor of Indiana and Member of Congress, but getting at
      odds with his party had migrated to Kansas, where his natural talents and
      fiery, aggressive courage speedily brought him to the front as the leader
      of the warlike Free State men, who resisted with force and arms the
      attempts of the Pro-slavery men to dominate the Territory. His instant
      readiness for battle and the unsparing energy with which he prosecuted his
      enterprises so endeared him to the Free State men that when the State was
      admitted there was no question about his election as her first United
      States Senator.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link201" id="link201"></a><span class="pn">{201}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Kansas had promptly raised two regiments, which had fought superbly at
      Wilson's Creek and afterwards joined in the retrograde movement to Rolla.
      This left Kansas without any protection, and the people naturally reasoned
      that in the advance upon the territory left unguarded by the retirement of
      the Union army, Gen. Price and his Missourians would embrace the
      opportunity to pay back with interest the debt of vengeance which had been
      running since the wars of '56 and '57. Therefore Lane received the
      authority to recruit five regiments in Kansas, and went about his work
      with his characteristic energy.
    </p>
    <p>
      The 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Kan. at once began organizing, receiving
      many recruits from the young Union men who had been forced to leave
      Missouri, and within a week or more after the battle of Wilson's Creek
      Gen. Lane had mustered an effective force of about 2,500 men, who had
      received some clothing and equipment and much instruction from the Regular
      officers and men at Forts Scott, Riley and Leavenworth.
    </p>
    <p>
      With these forces in hand under a man of Lane's well-known character,
      neither Gen. Price nor his men had much disposition to meddle with Kansas,
      even if the General had not other and more comprehensive views.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Price was not waiting for Fremont's plans to develop before executing
      his own. He employed the two weeks after the battle in diligently
      organizing his men, and Aug. 26 left Springfield at the head of a column
      of about 10,000 enthusiastic young Missourians, who had in that brief time
      made great progress in soldiership. He caused great alarm at Fort Scott,
      by pointing the head of his column toward that place, and arriving within
      10 miles of it on the night of the 1st of September, sent Rains's
      Division, which was made up of men from southwest Missouri, forward to
      reconnoiter.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link202" id="link202"></a><span class="pn">{202}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Rains's advance of 30 mounted men under Capt. Rector Johnson pushed
      forward to within sight of Fort Scott, on the morning of Sept. 1, and
      captured a drove of 80 Government mules which had been sent out to graze
      on the prairies. They also carried off all the able-bodied men that they
      could find on their line of march. Two companies of the newly-raised
      Kansas cavalry promptly attacked Johnson's command, which fell back across
      the line toward the main body, encamped at Dry Wood. Gen. Lane gathered up
      such of his volunteers as were in reach, and moved to Dry Wood, where he
      offered Gen. Rains battle, but the latter declined to be drawn from the
      shelter in the woods in which he had formed his lines, and Lane did not
      think it was prudent to attack a force the strength of which he could not
      ascertain.
    </p>
    <p>
      A noisy, long-range skirmish ensued, which terminated at nightfall by Lane
      withdrawing his forces to Fort Scott. The next day, leaving Col. Jennison
      with 400 cavalry in Fort Scott, Lane crossed the Little Osage and threw up
      fortifications on its banks to oppose Price's further advance and give him
      battle should he attempt to move into Kansas.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Price declined to fight him in his chosen position, but drew his
      forces together and started to execute his cherished plan of advancing to
      the Missouri River and forming connection there with the troops which
      Gens. Harris and Green had been raising in northern Missouri, not
      seriously molested in their work by the Union forces under Gens. Pope and
      Sturgis. The action at Dry Wood was made the most of by the Secessionists,
      who claimed a defeat for the terror-striking "Jim" Lane. The casualties
      were insignificant for the forces engaged, as there were but five killed
      and 12 wounded on the Union side, and four killed and 16 wounded on the
      Confederate.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link203" id="link203"></a><span class="pn">{203}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      It was feared that after Gen. Price had moved forward to the Missouri
      River McCulloch would come up from Arkansas and take Fort Scott, which he
      had been authorized to do by the Confederate Secretary of War; but
      McCulloch seems to have had other ideas, and spent the weeks in inaction.
    </p>
    <p>
      The situation of the Union men of southwest Missouri became gloomy in the
      extreme. The whole country was overrun with guerrilla bands hunting down
      the Union men, and not infrequently shooting them on sight.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Fremont had seriously alarmed Polk, Pillow and Thompson by his showy
      reinforcement of Cairo with 3,800 men. Though Pillow was reputed to have
      about 20,000 troops at his disposal, he was seized with a great fear,
      wrote to Hardee at Pocahontas urging him to come to his help, and limited
      the sphere of the operations of his dashing lieutenant, M. Jeff Thompson.
      Maj.-Gen. Polk seems to have also been deeply impressed, for he wrote to
      Pillow urging him to put his troops in trenches in the neighborhood of New
      Madrid, strongly fortify that place and stretch a chain across the river
      to prevent the passage of gunboats.
    </p>
    <p>
      Then Polk had another tremor, and ordered Pillow to evacuate New Madrid at
      once, taking his men and heavy guns across the river to the strong works
      of Fort Pillow. Pillow, however, as insubordinate and self-seeking as he
      had been in the Mexican War, and thirsting for the distinction of taking
      Cape Girardeau, did not obey his superior's orders, but retained his
      forces at New Madrid. He had the audacity to write to his superior,
      "Withdraw your control over me for a few hours."
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link204" id="link204"></a><span class="pn">{204}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Pillow, merely hanging on to the remotest fringe of the State, assumed the
      title of "Liberator of Missouri", and his correspondence, orders and
      proclamations were headed, "Headquarters Army of Liberation."
    </p>
    <p>
      About the same time an old acquaintance, Lieut-Gov. Thos. C. Reynolds, he
      of the ready pen and fluent phrases, taking advantage of a hasty journey
      of Gov. Jackson to Richmond, assumed full gubernatorial powers, set up his
      capital in Pillow's camp at New Madrid, and proceeded to clothe him with
      the most extraordinary prerogatives. He made himself the whole of the
      "Sovereign people of Missouri," and issued a proclamation withdrawing the
      State from the Union. He said that "disregarding the forms and considering
      only realities, I view an ordinance for the separation from the North and
      union with the Confederate States as a mere outward expression giving
      notice to others of an act already consummated in the hearts of the
      people." He then proceeded to establish a military despotism which made
      the worst of what had been said of Fremont pale before it. He clothed all
      the military commanders&mdash;not merely those of Missouri provided by the
      odious Military Act, but such Confederate commanders as Pillow and Hardee,
      who should enter the State&mdash;with a most absolute power over the lives
      and property of the people of Missouri.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link205" id="link205"></a><span class="pn">{205}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The following oath was prescribed which all citizens were to be compelled
      to take by any officer of the Missouri State Guards or Confederate army
      who might come upon them:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     Know all men, that I&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;, of the County of&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;,
     State of Missouri, do solemnly swear that I will bear
     true faith and allegiance to the State of Missouri, and
     support the Constitution of the State, and that I will not
     give aid, comfort, information, protection or encouragement
     to the enemies or opposers of the Missouri State Guards, or
     their allies, the armies of the Confederate States, upon the
     penalty of death for treason.
</pre>
    <p>
      In the meanwhile Gen. Price, more practical and capable than any of them,
      with true military foresight was rushing his troops toward the Missouri
      River, gaining recruits and arousing enthusiasm with every day's march.
      Leading his own advance he hurried towards Warrensburg, the County seat of
      Johnson County, about 30 miles south of Lexington, where he hoped to seize
      about $100,000 deposited in the State banks. He arrived too late for this
      however, because the Union troops had the same object in view, and had
      anticipated him, carrying the money off with them and leaving behind some
      very clever caricatures, drawn by the skillful artists among the Germans,
      which irritated Price and his men more than it was reasonable they should.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Union commander at Warrensburg, Col. Everett Peabody, of the 13th Mo.,
      had kept himself well informed as to Price's movements, and retreated from
      Warrensburg to Lexington, burning the bridges after he had crossed them.
      He sent notice to Fremont of Price's movements.
    </p>
    <p>
      Col. James A. Mulligan, with the 23d 111., an Irish regiment, was ordered
      forward to Lexington to Col. Peabdy's assistance, and to hold the place to
      the last.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link206" id="link206"></a><span class="pn">{206}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The 1st Ill. Cav., Col. Thos. A. Marshall, and fragments of Home Guard
      regiments in process of organization, were drawn back to Lexington, in
      face of the advance of Price's columns. There was also a mongrel field
      battery, consisting of one 4-pounder, three 6-pounders, one 12-pounder and
      two little 4-inch howitzers, the latter being useless on account of having
      no shells.
    </p>
    <p>
      The cavalry was only armed with pistols and sabers.
    </p>
    <p>
      No official Union reports are on file as to the affair, but the total
      strength of the garrison is given unofficially at from 2,640 to 3,300. The
      correspondent of the Missouri Republican gives these figures:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     23d 111., Col. Mulligan...............................    800

     Home   Guards,   Col.   White..........................   500

     13th Mo., Col. Peabody................................    840

     1st Ill. Cav., CoL Marshall...........................    500

     Total...................................................2,040
</pre>
    <p>
      Col. Mulligan assumed command of the whole by seniority of commission. He
      was an Irishman with all his race's pugnacity, and also its effervescence.
      He was born in Utica, N. Y., in 1830, had graduated from a Roman Catholic
      college, studied law, and edited the principal Roman Catholic paper in the
      West, "The Tablet."
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link207" id="link207"></a><span class="pn">{207}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Lexington, which is the County seat of Lafayette County, was a very
      important place in frontier times, and the center of the great
      hemp-growing region of Missouri. It is situated on the south bank of the
      Missouri River, about 300 miles by its course above St. Louis, and about
      84 miles below Kansas City by water, or 42 miles by rail. It consisted of
      two towns, Old and New Lexington, about a mile apart, having altogether
      about 5,000 people. It had some manufactories and two or three colleges,
      one of which, the Masonic College, situated on high ground between Old and
      New Lexington, a half mile from the river, was taken by Col. Mulligan for
      his position, which he proceeded to fortify with high, substantial works
      to accommodate 10,000 men, inclosing about 15 acres on the summit of the
      bluffs. Between 2,000 and 3,000 horses and other animals of the trains
      were gathered inside this inclosure.
    </p>
    <p>
      A week before Col. Mulligan's arrival, on Sept. 9, Gov. Jackson had
      briefly set up his Capital there, and held a session of that portion of
      the Legislature which adhered to him. The approach of Col. Pea-body caused
      a precipitate adjournment, and there was left behind $800,000 in coin,
      which was buried in the cellar of the college, with the great seal of the
      State of Missouri.
    </p>
    <p>
      At dawn on Sept. 12, Gen. Price, riding with his advance, Rains's
      Division, struck the Union pickets stretching through the cornfields
      outside of Lexington, but though he brought up all his infantry within
      reach, and McDonald's, Guibor's, and Clark's batteries, his heads of
      columns were beaten back everywhere by the stubborn Union soldiers, who
      had been waiting three days for him, and he wisely decided to withdraw two
      or three miles and wait for the rest of his forces and ammunition wagons
      to come up.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link208" id="link208"></a><span class="pn">{208}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Col. Mulligan telegraphed to Col. Jeff C. Davis, at Jefferson City&mdash;120
      miles away&mdash;the fact of Price's advance and his need for help, and
      Davis sent the news to Fremont, who ordered forward three regiments and
      two batteries to Davis, and directed him to reinforce Mulligan, which he
      could do by rail and river. Fremont also sent orders to Pope and Sturgis
      to help Mulligan out, but there was not much urgency in the orders, and
      each of his subordinates seems to have taken his own time and way of
      obeying or not obeying.
    </p>
    <p>
      Jeff C. Davis had at that time something over 5,000 men at Jefferson City,
      and subsequent reinforcements raised this number, it was claimed, to
      11,000&mdash;certainly to 8,000. Davis afterward became a valuable
      division and corps commander, but he certainly did not show up well in
      this transaction. He, also, had too much of the "Regular" in him. He
      complained of a lack of wagons and harness, commissary supplies and
      ammunition, to enable him to make a forward movement. He had none of the
      spirit of Lyon and Price, to impress teams and supplies and make means to
      do what ought to be done.
    </p>
    <p>
      It was harvest time in that fertile part of Missouri, and his army need
      not have suffered for food, wherever he went. But all that he did was to
      send forward a couple of regiments to occupy points and prevent the
      Secessionists from crossing the river at those places. They had all either
      crossed or found other unguarded places.
    </p>
    <p>
      Pope showed similar incapacity. He had 5,000 men in easy reach of
      Lexington, but he was more engrossed in the Hannibal &amp; St Joseph
      Railroad and in matters in Keokuk and Canton than in Lexington. He
      telegraphed to Gen. Fremont that he would move forward 4,000 men to
      Lexington, and actually did send forward Lieut.-Col. Scott with the 3d
      Iowa and Robt. F. Smith with the 16th 111., with instructions to form a
      junction at liberty, in Clay County, and then proceed to Lexington.
      Lieut-Col. Scott pushed on to the Blue Mills Landing on the Missouri
      River, where he came in contact with a large Secession force. Six
      regiments of the Missouri State Guard were there, making their way to
      Lexington.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link209" id="link209"></a><span class="pn">{209}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      D. R. Atchison, former Senator from Missouri, President of the United
      States Senate, and of much notoriety during the Kansas and Nebraska
      troubles, took command of this force and attacked Col. Scott, compelling
      rapid retreat. Atchison reported to Price the usual story about the small
      number under his command and the large force of the Yankees routed, but
      this does not harmonize with his praises to Cols. Sanders, Patten, Childs,
      Cundliff, Wilfley, and Maj. Gause, each of whom he says handled his
      "regiment" with great gallantry.
    </p>
    <p>
      Col. Smith met Col. Scott in his retreat, learned from him the
      overwhelming force in front, and retreated with him, so that portion of
      the relief came to naught.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Sturgis moved forward from Mexico with about 4,000 men and reached
      the Missouri River, but finding no means for crossing, and surveying the
      host that was gathered around the city, retired with such haste as to
      leave his tents and camp equipage.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Price proceeded with astonishing deliberation, when we consider that
      he must have known that Fremont had something over 20,000 men within
      striking distance.
    </p>
    <p>
      Retreat was still open for Col. Mulligan, as he had two steamboats at his
      command, but he felt that his orders obliged him to remain in Lexington
      for the protection of much public property which had been gathered there,
      and that as his situation was known to Gen. Fremont, relief would be
      speedily sent to him.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link210" id="link210"></a><span class="pn">{210}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      In the meantime, every hour had swelled Gen. Price's forces. Some of the
      Secession writers have claimed that there were actually as many as 38,000
      men gathered in his camps. Of course, a large proportion of his force was
      useless unless to help beat off a relieving column, because, owing to the
      small extent of the position occupied by Col. Mulligan, only a limited
      number of men could be employed against it, and 10,000 were as effective
      as 100,000. A very large portion of Gen. Price's forces were men who
      flocked to his camp as to a picnic or a barbecue, because something was
      going on, and they fell away from him again when he began a backward
      movement, as rapidly as they came.
    </p>
    <p>
      Then ensued for six days a very strange battle. Swarms of Missourians
      crowded the ravines in the bluffs, behind trees, stones, the walls, fences
      and chimneys of the houses, and whatever else would afford adequate
      protection, and kept up an incessant fusillade upon the garrison safely
      ensconced behind thick banks of earth. When a squad occupying a secure
      shelter grew tired, or had fired away all its ammunition, it would go back
      to camp for dinner, when their places would be taken by others eager to
      share in the noise and excitement and have a story to take back home of
      the number of Yankees who had fallen under their deadly aim. If all these
      stories of the men "who had been at Lexington" could have been true, more
      men would have been sent to the grave than answered Lincoln's call for
      500,000 volunteers. The artillerists were as enthusiastic and industrious
      as the men with "Yager" rifles and shotguns, and banged away with
      unflagging zeal and corresponding lack of mortality. The walls of the
      college were badly scarred, but the worst effect was that an occasional
      shell would take effect among the horses, and drop on the ground carcasses
      which speedily putrified under the hot sun, and added an unbearable stench
      to the other hardships of the garrison.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link211" id="link211"></a><span class="pn">{211}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      This went on day and night, for the moon was bright, and there was no
      reason why a man who had powder and shot, and could not get an opportunity
      at any of the coverts during the day, should not put in pleasantly a few
      hours at night.
    </p>
    <p>
      Naturally a rain of bullets, even though they might hit rarer than
      lightning strokes, had a wearing effect on the garrison.
    </p>
    <p>
      While this noisy fusillade by the mob of truculent bushwhackers was going
      on, there were much more soldierly occurrences by the more soldierly men
      on both sides.
    </p>
    <p>
      There were sorties and counter-sorties in which the greatest gallantry was
      displayed on both sides, and in which substantially all the losses
      occurred. The Secessionists captured a Union flag in one of these, which
      was balanced by a Secession flag captured by the 1st 111. Cav. Owing to
      the great superiority of the enemy in numbers, the finality of all these
      was against the garrison, which was everywhere pushed back from the edges
      of the bluff, and also from some buildings on the bluffs overlooking the
      works.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Rains's Division invested the eastern and northeastern position of
      Mulligan's works; Gen. Parsons the southwestern, with Clark's Division,
      commanded by Col. Congreve Jackson, and Steen's Division as reserves.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link212" id="link212"></a><span class="pn">{212}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Col. Rives, commanding Gen. Slack's Division, occupied the west along the
      river bank and captured the steamboats by which Mulligan could escape or
      receive reinforcements; Gens. Harris and Mc-Bride extended this line along
      the north, cutting off the garrison from all access to the river and
      water. This became very effective in forcing surrender, as not only the
      men but the animals suffered terribly from thirst.
    </p>
    <p>
      By the morning of Sept. 18, six days after the first encounter with the
      pickets, Gen. Price had all his forces up and properly disposed about the
      garrison. He and his principal subordinates were very weary of the noisy
      and fruitless bushwhacking, and eager for something more conclusive.
    </p>
    <p>
      Orders were issued for the whole line to close in upon the Union works,
      and they were gallantly responded to and met as gallant resistance from
      the beleaguered garrison in the 52 hours of stubborn fighting which
      ensued. Col. Congreve Jackson, commanding Gen. John B. Clark's Third
      Division, reported that he succeeded in getting to within 460 yards of the
      College.
    </p>
    <p>
      Col. Benj. A. Rives, commanding Gen. Slack's Fourth Division, says that
      after having been driven back by a gallant counter-assault, he got within
      100 yards of the College.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Steen lays claim for his division of having defeated Lieut.-Col.
      Scott, after which he passed back into the reserve.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link213" id="link213"></a><span class="pn">{213}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Mosby M. Parsons, commanding the Sixth Division, says that he reached
      to within 500 yards of the College, and also crossed the river with 3,000
      men, to repel Sturgis, who "retired in confusion, leaving 200 of their
      tents."
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. J. H. McBride, commanding the Seventh Division, says that he
      succeeded in forming a breastwork with hemp bales "100 yards from the
      enemy's works."
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Jas. S. Rains says that with the Second Division, numbering 3,025
      rank and file, he succeeded in gaining a position 350 yards north and 500
      yards east of the College.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Thos. A. Harris does not give the point he reached, but the
      concurrent testimony is that he was the closest of all, and is supported
      by the fact that his division sustained the heaviest loss. To his division
      is due the credit of the famous device of hemp bales as advancing
      breastworks.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Price quietly appropriates the credit for the device to himself,
      saying in his report:
    </p>
    <p>
      On the morning of the 20th inst I caused a number of hemp bales to be
      transported to the river nights, where moveable breastworks were speedily
      constructed out of them by Cols. Harris, McBride, Rives and Maj. Winston,
      and their respective commands. Capt. Kelly's battery was ordered at the
      same time to the position occupied by Gen. Harris's force, and quickly
      opened an effective fire under the direction of its gallant Captain.
    </p>
    <p>
      These demonstrations, particularly the continued advance of the hemp
      breastworks, which were as efficient as the cotton bales at New Orleans,
      quickly attracted attention and excited and alarmed the enemy. They were,
      however, repulsed in every instance by the unflinching courage and fixed
      determination of the men.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Harris says in his report to Gen. Price: "I then directed Capt. Geo.
      A. Turner, of my staff, to request of you 132 bales of hemp, which you
      promptly credited.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link214" id="link214"></a><span class="pn">{214}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      "I directed the bales to be wet in the river to protect them against the
      casualties of fire of our troops and the enemy's, and soon discovered that
      the wetting was so materially increasing the weight as to prevent our men
      in their exhausted condition from rolling them to the crest of the hill. I
      then adopted the idea of wetting the hemp after it had been transported to
      this position."
    </p>
    <p>
      The credit has also been stoutly claimed for Col. Thomas Hinkle, of
      Wellington County, Mo., who two years later was killed in command of a
      guerrilla organization. No matter whose, the idea was singularly
      effective, and despite the most gallant efforts of the garrison, the hemp
      bales were steadily rolled nearer, until by 2 o'clock in the afternoon of
      the 20th they were in places as close as from 50 to 75 yards of the Union
      works. At this distance it would be easy to mass an overpowering force
      behind their cover to rush upon and instantly overwhelm the garrison.
    </p>
    <p>
      The garrison, which had now been fighting for eight long days; which was
      so short of ammunition that most of the cartridge boxes were empty, and
      there was no supply from which to refill them; which was tortured with
      thirst, surrounded with hundreds of animals dying from lack of water, at
      last raised the white flag.
    </p>
    <p>
      After eight days of waiting there was no more sign of rescue than there
      was on the first, and everywhere they could look their enemies swarmed in
      apparently limitless numbers. Gen. Price granted the garrison honorable
      terms. The officers were to remain as prisoners of war, the men to lay
      down their arms, take the oath not to fight any more against Missouri, and
      to be sent across the river and allowed to go whither they would.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link215" id="link215"></a><span class="pn">{215}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      With shrewd policy he allowed Col. Mulligan to retain his sword and showed
      him a great many civilities. Mulligan was a representative Irishman, and
      this would bear fruit in the attitude of the Irish toward the war. In his
      report to Gov. Jackson Gen. Price sums up the fruits of his victory as
      follows:
    </p>
    <p>
      Our entire loss in this series of engagements amounts to 25 killed and 72
      wounded. The enemy's loss was much greater.
    </p>
    <p>
      The visible fruits of this almost bloodless victory are very great&mdash;about
      3.500 prisoners, among whom are Cols. Mulligan, Marshall, Peabody, White,
      and Grover, Maj. Van Horn and 118 other commissioned officers, five pieces
      of artillery and two mortars, over 8,000 stands of Infantry arms, a large
      number of sabers, about 750 horses, many sets of cavalry equipments,
      wagons, teams and ammunition, more than 8100,-000 worth of commissary
      stores, and a large amount of other property. In addition to all this, I
      obtained the restoration of the great seal of the State and the public
      records, which had been stolen from their proper custodian, and about
      $900,-000 in money, of which the bank at this place had been robbed, and
      which I have caused to be returned to it.
    </p>
    <p>
      Of Gen. Price's characteristics that of under-statement was certainly not
      one; but there is no use caviling about this, since the disaster was in
      all conscience bad enough for the Union side.
    </p>
    <p>
      Col Mulligan's official report is not included in the Rebellion Records.
      It was quite a rhetorical statement of the affair, with unstinted praise
      for his own regiment and Irish valor generally, much condemnation for the
      Germans, between whom and the Irish there was at that time a great deal of
      feeling, and absolutely ignoring all the rest who participated in the
      defense. This was particularly unjust to the 1st ID. Cav. While the 23d
      111. had taken the best and strongest part of the line, the 1st 111. Cav.
      had defended the weakest and most exposed part, that, too, with only
      pistols and sabers, and had captured the only flag taken during the siege.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link216" id="link216"></a><span class="pn">{216}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The total loss of the garrison is usually given as 39 killed and 120
      wounded.
    </p>
    <p>
      Probably Gen. Price in his report only mentioned the losses in his
      organized forces. If his wounded did not exceed 72, his men showed unusual
      ability in keeping under cover.
    </p>
    <p>
      While the loss did not approach that of the desperate fight at Wilson's
      Creek, yet it was respectably large according to European standards, the
      garrison having lost about six per cent before surrendering.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Fremont announced this calamity to Washington in the following
      telegrams:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     Headquarters Western Department, St. Louis, Sept. 28, 1861.
     I have a telegram from Brookfleld that Lexington has fallen
     into Price's hands, he having cut off Mulligan's supply of
     water. Reinforcements 4,000 strong, under Sturgis, by
     capture of ferryboats, had no means of crossing the river in
     time. Lane's force from the southwest and Davis's from the
     southeast upwards of 11,000, could not get there in time. I
     am taking the field myself, and hope to destroy the enemy
     either before or after the junction of forces under
     McCulloch. Please notify the President immediately.

     J. C. FREMONT,

     Major-General Commanding. Col. E. D. Townsend, Assistant
     Adjutant-General, Headquarters of the Army, Washington, D.C.
</pre>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     Headquarters Western Department, Sept 23, 1861. Nothing
     since my dispatch of this morning. Our loss 39 killed, 120
     wounded. Loss of enemy, 1,400 killed and wounded. Our non-
     commissioned officers and privates sworn and released.
     Commissioned officers held as prisoners. Our troops are
     gathering around the enemy. I will send you from the field
     more details in a few days.

     JOHN   C. FREMONT, Major-General   Commanding. Hon. S.
     Cameron, Secretary of War.
</pre>
    <p>
      The patient and much enduring President answered as follows:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     Headquarters of the Army, Washington, Sept. 23, 1861. John
     C. Fremont, Major-General Commanding, St Louis, Mo.: Your
     dispatch of this day is received. The President is glad that
     you are hastening to the scene of action. His words are "He
     expects you to repair the disaster at Lexington without loss
     of time."                                WINFIELD SCOTT.
</pre>
    <p>
      Fremont began to topple to his fall.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link217" id="link217"></a><span class="pn">{217}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
    </p>
    <div style="height: 4em;">
      <br /><br /><br /><br />
    </div>
    <h2>
      CHAPTER XIII. FREMONT'S MARVELOUS INEFFECTIVENESS.
    </h2>
    <p>
      Gen. Sterling Price had scored a victory which gave him an enduring hold
      upon the confidence and esteem of the Missourians. With the least means he
      had achieved the most success of any Confederate General so far. His
      conduct at the battle of Wilson's Creek had endeared him to the men he
      commanded. He exposed himself with utmost indifference to the fiercest
      firing, showed good judgment as to movements, was not discouraged after
      repeated repulses, and was everywhere animating and encouraging the men
      and bringing them forward into line of battle.
    </p>
    <p>
      He sympathized with those who were wounded, and had them cared for, and
      immediately returned to the fighting with fresh troops.
    </p>
    <p>
      It is true, however, that he had shown no generalship, but merely
      demonstrated himself a good Colonel, in leading up one regiment after
      another and putting them into the fight.
    </p>
    <p>
      Lexington brought an immensity of prestige to Price and encouragement to
      the Secessionists and did a corresponding injury to the Union cause. It
      added immeasurably to the burdens which President Lincoln had to bear. He
      could make Brigadier-and Major-Generals, but he could not endow them with
      generalship.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Senate could confirm them, but they were still more confirmed in the
      dull, unenterprising routine of camp and administrative regulations.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link218" id="link218"></a><span class="pn">{218}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The modest bars of a Captain on their shoulder straps had been, as it
      were, changed in the twinkling of an eye into the refulgent stars of a
      General, but they seemed to take this as a deserved tribute to their
      personal worth, rather than as an incentive and opportunity for the
      greater things which had made their predecessors illustrious.
    </p>
    <p>
      Fremont, in the palatial Brandt Mansion, for which the Government was
      paying the very unusual rent of $6,000 per year, was maintaining a vice
      regal court as difficultly accessible as that of any crowned head of
      Europe. His uncounted and glittering staff, which seemed to have received
      the Pentecostal gift of tongues&mdash;in which English was not included&mdash;was
      headed by a mysterious "Adlatus,"&mdash;a title before unknown in America
      or to the dictionaries, and since retired to oblivion. Naturally, the
      Adlatus's command of English was limited. His knowledge of Missouri was
      even more so. Though commanding Missouri and dealing intensely with
      Missouri affairs, the men surrounding Fremont were everything but
      Missourians or those acquainted with Missouri affairs. It would have been
      surprising to find one of them who could bound the State and name its
      principal rivers.
    </p>
    <p>
      This, too, in the midst of a multitude of able, educated, influential
      Missourians who were ardent Unionists and were burning with zeal to serve
      the cause. Not one of them appears in the Fremont entourage.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link219" id="link219"></a><span class="pn">{219}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Gens. Pope, Sturgis, Jeff C. Davis, Hunter,&mdash;all Regulars and trained
      to war; Sigel, with his profound theoretical knowledge and his large
      experience; Curtis, lately returned to the Army with his military training
      supplemented by wide experience in civil life; Hurlbut, the brilliant
      orator and politician, were all busily engaged in something or other that
      kept them from interfering with Price while he lingered on the Missouri
      River gathering up recruits and stripping the Union farmers of that rich
      agricultural region of cattle and grain sufficient to feed his army during
      the coming Winter, and of horses and wagons to haul off his spoils and
      thoroly equip his army with transportation.
    </p>
    <p>
      The only really soldierly thing done at this time was by the "political
      General,"&mdash;the erratic, demagogic, trumpet-sounding "Jim" Lane. He
      was commanding men who had come out from home to do something toward
      fighting the war and not to stay in camp and be drilled into automatons.
      He could only maintain his hold on them and his ascendency in Kansas
      politics by action.
    </p>
    <p>
      Learning that Price had left a large stock of ammunition at the important
      little town of Osceola, the head of navigation on the Osage River, under
      strong guard, Lane led his brigade a swift march from Kansas upon the
      town, and succeeded in surprising the garrison, which, after a brief
      resistance, retreated and left it to Lane's mercy, whereupon he proceeded
      to not only destroy the very considerable quantity of stores which Price
      had accumulated there, but to burn down the town. This was an exceedingly
      ill-advised ending to a piece of brilliant soldiership, because not only
      was it injustice to an enemy, but it was a severe blow upon Union men who
      owned full one-third of the property destroyed.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link220" id="link220"></a><span class="pn">{220}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      A large number of these were engaged in the trade of the Southwest, for
      which Osceola was a distributing center. Goods were brought up the river
      during the high water and then shipped through the country by wagons. The
      town was also the County seat of St. Clair County, and contained the
      public records, etc.
    </p>
    <p>
      Still more unfortunate was it that Lane's act was taken as an excuse for
      the Missouri guerrillas to retaliate upon Kansas towns and the property of
      the Union people in their own State. Lane says in his report: "The enemy
      ambushed the approaches to the town, and after being driven from them by
      the advance under Cols. Montgomery and Weer, they took refuge in the
      buildings of the town to annoy us. We were compelled to shell them out,
      and in doing so the place was burned to ashes, with an immense amount of
      stores of all descriptions. There were 15 or 20 of them killed and
      wounded; we lost none. Full particulars will be furnished you hereafter."
    </p>
    <p>
      This shows that even he felt the necessity of apologizing for the act, but
      the apology is too transparent. The fact was that the Kansas men saw an
      opportunity to pay back some of their old scores against the Missourians
      and did not fail to improve it.
    </p>
    <p>
      In spite of Gen. Fremont's promise to the President to "take the field
      himself and attempt to destroy the enemy," he moved with exceeding
      deliberation. It is true that he left St. Louis for Jefferson City, Sept.
      27, a week after Mulligan's surrender, but that week had been well
      employed by Price in gathering up all that he could carry away and making
      ready to avoid the blow which he knew must fall.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link221" id="link221"></a><span class="pn">{221}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      After arriving at Jefferson City, Fremont, instead of taking the troops
      which were near at hand and making a swift rush upon his enemy, the only
      way in which he could hope to hurt him, began the organization of a
      "grande armée" upon the European model, and that which McClellan was
      deliberately organizing in front of Washington.
    </p>
    <p>
      The impatient people, who were paying the $3,000,000 a day which the war
      was now beginning to cost, and who had begun to murmur for results, were
      amused by stories of plans of sweeping down the Mississippi clear to New
      Orleans, taking Memphis, Vicksburg and other strongholds on the way,
      severing the Southern Confederacy in twain, so that it would fall into
      hopeless ruin.
    </p>
    <p>
      This was entirely possible at that time with the army that had been given
      Fremont, had it been handled with the ability and boldness of Sherman's
      March to the Sea.
    </p>
    <p>
      Two weeks after Mulligan's surrender Fremont announced the formation of
      this grand "Army of the West," containing approximately 50,000 men. This
      was grouped as follows:
    </p>
    <p>
      The First Division, to which Gen. David Hunter was assigned, consisted of
      9,750 men, and was ordered to take position at Versailles, about 40 miles
      southwest of Jefferson City, and became the Left Wing of the Army.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. John Pope was given command of the Second Division of 9,220 men and
      ordered to take station at Boonville, 50 miles northwest of Jefferson
      City. His position was to be the Right Wing of the army.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Third Division, 7,980 strong, was put under command of Gen. Franz
      Sigel, and made the advance of the army, with its station at Sedalia and
      Georgetown, 64 miles west of Jefferson City.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link222" id="link222"></a><span class="pn">{222}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The Fifth Division, commanded by Gen. Asboth, had 6,461 men, and
      constituted the reserve at Tipton, on the railroad, 38 miles west of
      Jefferson City.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Fifth Division, 5,388 men, under Gen. Justus McKinstry, formed the
      center and was posted at Syracuse, five miles west of Tipton.
    </p>
    <p>
      Beside these, Gen. Sturgis held Kansas City with 3,000 men and Gen. Jas.
      H. Lane, with 2,500 men, was to move in Kansas down the State line,
      between Fort Scott and Kansas City, to protect Kansas from an incursion in
      that direction, and as opportunity offered attack Price's flank.
    </p>
    <p>
      Thus, there were 38,789 effectives in the five divisions, which with
      Sturgis's and Lane's forces made a total force of 44,289, not including
      garrisons which swell the total of the army to over 90,000.
    </p>
    <p>
      Among these Division Commanders were two whom Fremont had discovered and
      created Brigadier-Generals out of his own volition, without consultation
      at Washington.
    </p>
    <p>
      These were Gens. Asboth and McKinstry. Gen. Alexander (Sandor) Asboth,
      born in 1811, was a Hungarian and an educated engineer, with considerable
      experience in and against the Austrian army. He had entered ardently into
      the Revolution of 1848, and built a bridge in a single night by which the
      Revolutionary army crossed and won the brilliant victory of Nagy Salo. He
      became Adjutant-General of the Hungarian army, and when the Revolution was
      crushed by Russian troops, escaped with Kossuth into Turkey, came to this
      country, and became a naturalized citizen. He was by turns farmer,
      teacher, engineer, and manufacturer of galvanized articles. He sided with
      the Union Germans, went on Fremont's staff, and was appointed a
      Brigadier-General. The Senate refused to recognize the appointment, but in
      consideration of his good service he was reappointed, served creditably
      through the war, was brevetted a Major-General, and after the war sent as
      Minister to the Argentine Confederation, where he died in 1868.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link223" id="link223"></a><span class="pn">{223}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The other, Justus McKinstry, was born in New York and appointed to the
      Military Academy from Michigan, where he graduated 40th in the class of
      1838, of which Beauregard, Barry, Irvin McDowell, W. J. Hardee, R. S.
      Granger, Henry H. Sibley, Edward Johnson and A. J. Smith were members. He
      had served creditably in the Mexican War, receiving a brevet for gallantry
      at Contreras and Churubusco, and at the outbreak of the war was a Major
      and Quartermaster at St. Louis, where he did very much to frustrate Lyon's
      plans and was regarded by him as a Secessionist at heart. He continued to
      hold his position, however, as Chief Quartermaster of the Department of
      the West until Fremont appointed him Brigadier-General.
    </p>
    <p>
      Shortly after Fremont's removal he was placed under arrest at St. Louis
      and ordered before a court-martial, which did not convene, and he was at
      last summarily dismissed for "neglect and violation of duty, to the
      prejudice of good order and military discipline." He became a stock broker
      in New York City, and afterwards a land agent at Rolla, Mo.
    </p>
    <p>
      It will be seen by the map that the disposition of the troops was good,
      and that Fremont had the advantage of short lines from Sedalia and Rolla
      to cut Price's line of retreat, recapture the spoils he was hastening to a
      place of safely, and destroy, or at least disperse, his army.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link224" id="link224"></a><span class="pn">{224}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Fremont, however, made no use of this advantage, and Price seems to have
      had no apprehension that he would. Price remained in Lexington until Oct
      1, serenely contemplating the gigantic preparations made for his
      destruction, and then having gathered up all that he could readily get,
      and reading Fremont's order for a forward movement of the Army of the
      West, thought, like the prudent meadow lark, that probably something would
      be now done, and the time had come for moving. He began a deliberate
      retreat, crossing the Osage River at Osceola, and reaching Greenfield, 150
      miles away, at the very comfortable pace of 15 miles a day.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Fremont ordered the Army of the West forward, but the so-called
      pursuit was very much like hunting a fox on a dray. He was encumbered with
      immense trains, for which bridges had to be built over numerous streams
      and roads made thru the rough country. The trains seemed to contain a
      world of unnecessary things and an astonishing lack of those necessary.
      Apparently almost anybody who had anything to sell could find purchasers
      among the numerous men about Fremont's headquarters who had authority to
      buy, or assumed it.
    </p>
    <p>
      One astonishing item in the purchases was a great number of half barrels
      for holding water, rather an extraordinary provision in a country like
      Missouri, where in the month of October water is disposed to be in
      excessive quantities.
    </p>
    <p>
      Notwithstanding the astonishing purchase of mules by everybody and
      anybody, none of the Division Commanders seem to have had mules enough to
      pull their wagons.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link225" id="link225"></a><span class="pn">{225}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The division started out like the horses of a balky team. Gen. Pope, of
      the Right Wing, left Jefferson City Oct. 11, Sigel got away from Sedalia
      with the Third Division Oct. 13, the same day Hunter left Tipton with the
      Left Wing, and Asboth followed on Oct 14. Even when they started their
      progress was very slow, for the columns were halted at streams to build
      bridges and in the rough countries to wait for the sappers and miners to
      make passable roads.
    </p>
    <p>
      When one column was halted, all the rest had to do likewise, for though
      Price kept the safe distance of 100 miles away, Fremont was in constant
      apprehension of battle, and held his columns in close supporting distance.
      He did not get across the Osage River until Oct. 25, or nine days after
      Price's leisurely crossing that important stream, on the banks of which it
      was confidently expected that he would give battle.
    </p>
    <p>
      Price, with his diminishing forces, had no such intention, but fell back
      toward Neosho, to cover as long as possible the Granby Mines, seven miles
      from that place, which were the most important source of lead for the
      Southern Confederacy, to which they supplied 200,000 pounds per month.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gov. Jackson took advantage of this breathing spell to call the
      Legislature together at Neosho, where it held a two weeks' "rump" session
      of the small minority of that body which favored Secession. They passed an
      ordinance of Secession and elected Senators and Representatives to the
      Confederate Congress, adjourning when they heard that Fremont had at last
      passed the Osage.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link226" id="link226"></a><span class="pn">{226}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Then Price took up his line of retreat toward the southern boundary of the
      State to get near Gen. Ben McCulloch, who had posted his forces at Cross
      Hollow, in Benton County, northwest Arkansas. Gen. Price took up his
      position at Pineville, in the extreme southwestern corner of Missouri,
      where the rough, hilly country offered great chances to the defense, and
      again began communication with Gen. McCulloch to induce him to unite his
      force with his own and attack the Union army.
    </p>
    <p>
      He had correctly estimated Fremont's generalship, and thought there was a
      possibility of massing his and McCulloch's forces, to attack a portion of
      Fremont's army, drive it back and defeat him in detail. McCulloch, in
      spite of his ranger reputation, entirely lacked Price's aggressive spirit,
      and thought that it would be much better to fall back to the Boston
      Mountain, about 50 miles farther south, and make a stand there. He so
      informed Gen. Price.
    </p>
    <p>
      While McCulloch had no disposition to enter Missouri and defend it against
      the Union troops, he had no hesitation about treating it as part of
      Confederate territory. Desiring to embarrass and delay Fremont's advance
      as much as possible, he sent forward his Texas cavalry to burn the mills,
      forage and grain as far in the direction of Springfield as they could
      safely go, and urged Price to do the same. McCulloch's Texans soon lighted
      up the southwest country with burning mills, barns and stacks.
    </p>
    <p>
      To this Gen. Price was bitterly opposed. The mills and grain were in many
      instances the property of the Secessionists, and to destroy them would be
      to inflict worse punishment on his own people than the Union commanders
      had ever done, and would embitter them against his cause.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link227" id="link227"></a><span class="pn">{227}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Price repeatedly represented to McCulloch that altogether they would have
      25,000 men, and if McCulloch did not desire to go forward they could make
      a good defensive battle inside the State on the hills around Pineville. To
      leave it would cause the loss of very many Missourians who had enlisted in
      the State Guard to defend Missouri, and who would feel that they had no
      cause to fight outside of the State.
    </p>
    <p>
      After crossing the Osage Fremont halted near Connersville, about 25 miles
      south of Warsaw, where he crossed the river, and then advanced with Sigel
      to Bolivar, on the Springfield road, and sent forward Maj. Charles Zagonyi
      with 150 of his famous Body Guard and Maj. F. J. White with 180 men of the
      1st Mo. Cav., to make a reconnoissance in the direction of Springfield.
    </p>
    <p>
      Fremont's Body Guard had played a large part in the pomp and circumstance
      of his administration. Maj. Chas. Zagonyi was a picturesque and
      effervescent Hungarian, who recounted fascinating stories of his
      experience as a subordinate to Gen. Bern during the Hungarian Revolution.
      Fremont had authorized him to raise a body guard, in imitation of the
      famous troops of Europe, and the novelty of the organization attracted to
      it a great number of quite fine young men, most of whom were from the
      country around Cincinnati&mdash;one company being from Kentucky. They were
      formed into three companies, mounted on fine blooded bay horses, showily
      uniformed and each armed with two navy revolvers, a five-barreled rifle
      and a saber.
    </p>
    <p>
      All the officers were Americans except three&mdash;one Hollander and two
      Hungarians. The members of the Guard, in addition to their expensive and
      showy outfit, did not conceal from the other soldiers that they were
      picked men and considered themselves superior to the ordinary run, which
      did not enhance their popularity with their comrades.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link228" id="link228"></a><span class="pn">{228}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Majs. Zagonyi and White marched all that night, and the next day, about
      noon, when about eight miles north of Springfield, learned that there was
      a force of at least 1,500 Confederates in the town.
    </p>
    <p>
      One of the rebel pickets who had not been captured hastened back to
      Springfield and gave the alarm, so that the Confederates were in readiness
      for them. Feeling that this would be so, Majs. Zagonyi and White
      determined to move around the town and approach it from the west on the
      Mt. Vernon road. In this movement White became separated from Zagonyi,
      who, about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, came most unexpectedly upon the
      Secessionists drawn up in line at the end of a long lane.
    </p>
    <p>
      A heavy rail fence intervened between Zagonyi and the head of the lane,
      and an opening had to be made through this under a heavy fire from the
      enemy. The moment a gap was made, Zagonyi shouted to his men to follow
      him, and do as he did, raising the battle cry, "Fremont and the Union." He
      dashed gallantly forward, straight for the center of the rebel line,
      followed at a gallop by his command. The Confederate fire did fearful
      execution upon the Guard as it was crowded in the lane, but in a few
      seconds the lane was passed and the cavalry saber began doing its wild
      work.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link229" id="link229"></a><span class="pn">{229}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The center of the enemy's lines was at once broken by the terrible impact
      of galloping horses and the Confederates began a panicky retreat, followed
      by the vengeful horsemen shooting and sabering them as they ran. The
      infantry ran through the town to the shelter of the woods, and the
      Confederate cavalry fell back down the road, pursued by the Guard until it
      was getting nightfall, when Zagonyi recalled them and returned to the
      Court House, raised the Union flag from it, released the Union prisoners
      confined in the jail, gathered up his dead and wounded, and after dark
      decided to fall back until he met the advance of the army.
    </p>
    <p>
      He had lost 15 men killed and 26 wounded, and reported that he had found
      23 Confederates dead after the charge was over. This brilliant action,
      which was then compared with the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava,
      redeemed the soldiers of the Guards in the eyes of their comrades, and it
      became an honor to belong to that organization.
    </p>
    <p>
      The next morning Maj. White reached Springfield with a few Home Guards,
      where he found the Confederates still dazed by the occurrences of the day
      before, and he was careful not to undeceive them as to his strength. He
      solemnly received the flag of truce, said that he would have to refer the
      matter to Gen. Sigel, threw out his men as pickets, permitted the people
      to bury their dead, and then prudently fell back to meet the advance of
      the army.
    </p>
    <p>
      Fremont took up his quarters in Springfield, and began ostentatious
      preparations for an immediate decisive battle, though Price was then more
      than 50 miles away from him. This Fremont should have known, for in some
      mysterious manner he was within ready communication with him, so much so
      as to be able to conclude the following remarkable convention which was
      duly published in a joint proclamation:
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link230" id="link230"></a><span class="pn">{230}</span>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     To All Peaceably-Disposed Citizens of the State of Missouri,
     Greeting:

     Whereas a solemn agreement has been entered into by and
     between Maj.-Gens. Fremont and Price, respectively,
     commanding; antagonistic forces in the State of Missouri, to
     the effect that in the future arrests or forcible
     interference by armed or unarmed parties of citizens within
     the limits of said State for the mere entertainment or
     expression of political opinions shall hereafter cease; that
     families now broken up for such causes may be reunited, and
     that the war now progressing shall be exclusively confined
     to armies in the field:

     Therefore, be it known to all whom it may concern:

     1.  No arrests whatever on account of political opinions, or
     for the merely private expression of the same, shall
     hereafter be made within the limits of the State of
     Missouri, and all persons who may have been arrested and are
     now held to answer upon such charges only shall be forthwith
     released; but it is expressly declared that nothing in this
     proclamation shall be construed to bar or interfere with any
     of the usual and regular proceedings of the established
     courts under statutes and orders made and provided for such
     offenses.

     2.  All peaceably disposed citizens who may have been driven
     from their homes because of their political opinions, or who
     may have left them from fear of force and violence, are
     hereby advised and permitted to return, upon the faith of
     our positive assurances that while so returning they shall
     receive protection from both the armies in the field
     wherever it can be given.

     3.  All bodies of armed men acting without the authority or
     recognition of the Major-Generals before named, and not
     legitimately connected with the armies in the field, are
     hereby ordered at once to disband.

     4.  Any violation of either of the foregoing articles shall
     subject the offender to the penalty of military law,
     according to the nature of the offense.

     In testimony whereof the aforesaid Maj.-Gen. John Charles
     Fremont, at Springfield, Mo., on this 1st day of November,
     A. D. 1861, and Maj.-Gen. Sterling Price, at Cassville, Mo.,
     on this 6th day of November, A. D. 1861, have hereunto set
     their hands, and hereby mutually pledge their earnest
     efforts to the enforcement of the above articles of
     agreement according to their full tenor and effect, to the
     best of their ability.

     J. C FREMONT, Major-General   Commanding.

     STERLING PRICE, Major-General Commanding.
</pre>
    <p>
      The practical effect of this was that Price was allowed to send such of
      his men as he wished home for the Winter, with a safeguard against their
      being molested by the Union troops, but it had no effect in protecting
      Union men from being harassed by guerrilla tormentors, who cared as little
      for conventions and proclamations as for the Sermon on the Mount.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link231" id="link231"></a><span class="pn">{231}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      In the meanwhile Fremont's astonishing ill success in purely military
      matters, the freely expressed opinion of all who came in contact with him
      as to his glaring incompetence, added to the fearful stories of the
      corruption of the men immediately surrounding him, were making his
      position very insecure. President Lincoln sent his intimate and life-long
      friend, David Davis, whom he was about to elevate to the Supreme Bench, to
      St. Louis with a commission to investigate the rank-smelling contracts and
      disbursements. No report was ever made public, but it was generally known
      that they found even worse than they feared.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Secretary of War, Simon Cameron, undertook a tour of investigation on
      his own account, accompanied by Adj't-Gen. Lorenzo Thomas. Some of the
      things which they found are set forth in the following extracts from the
      memorandum from Gen. Thomas to his superior officer:
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Curtis said of Gen. Fremont that he found no difficulty in having:
      access to him, and when he presented business connected with his command,
      it was attended to. Gen. Fremont never consulted him on military matters,
      nor informed him of his plans. Gen. Curtis remarked that while he would go
      with freedom to Gen. Scott and express his opinions, he would not dare to
      do so to Gen. Fremont. He deemed Gen. Fremont unequal to the command of an
      army, and said that he was no more bound by law than by the winds.
    </p>
    <p>
      Col. Andrews, Chief Paymaster, called and presented irregularities in the
      Pay Department, and desired instruction from the Secretary for his
      government, stating: that he was required to make payments and transfers
      of money contrary to law and regulations. Once, upon objecting to what he
      conceived an improper payment, he was threatened with confinement by a
      file of soldiers. He exhibited an order for the transfer of $100,000 to
      the Quartermaster's Department, which was irregular. Exhibited abstract of
      payment by one Paymaster (Maj. Febiger) to 42 persons, appointed by Gen.
      Fremont, viz: one Colonel, three Majors, eight Captains, 15 First
      lieutenants, 11 Second Lieutenants, one Surgeon, three Assistant Surgeons;
      total 42. Nineteen of these have appointments as engineers, and are
      entitled to cavalry pay.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link232" id="link232"></a><span class="pn">{232}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Maj. Allen, Principal Quartermaster, had recently taken charge at St
      Louis, but reported great irregularities in his Department, and requested
      special Instructions. These he deemed important, as orders were
      communicated by a variety of persons, in a very irregular manner,
      requiring disbursements of money. These orders were often verbally given.
      He was sending, under Gen. Fremont's orders, large amounts of forage from
      St. Louis to.... where corn was abundant and very cheap. The distance was
      160 miles. He gave the indebtedness of the Quartermaster's Department in
      St. Louis to be $4,606,809.73.
    </p>
    <p>
      By direction of Gen. Meigs, advertisements were made to furnish grain and
      hay, and contracts made for specific sums&mdash;28 cents per bushel for
      corn, 30 cents for oats, and $17.95 per ton for hay. In face of this
      another party at St. Louis&mdash;Balrd, or Baird A Palmer (Palmer being of
      the old firm in California of Palmer, Cook &amp; Co.)&mdash;were directed
      to send to Jefferson City (where hay and corn abound) as fast as possible
      100,000 bushels of oats, with a corresponding amount of hay, at 33 cents
      per bushel for grain and $19 per ton for hay.
    </p>
    <p>
      Capt Edward M. Davis, a member of his staff, received a contract by the
      direct order of Gen. Fremont for blankets. They were examined by a board
      of army officers consisting of Capt Hendershott, 4th U. S. Art, Capt
      Haines, Commissary of Subsistence, and Capt Turnley, Assistant
      Quartermaster. The blankets were found to be made of cotton and were
      rotten and worthless. Notwithstanding this decision they were purchased,
      and given to the sick and wounded soldiers in hospitals.
    </p>
    <p>
      One week after the receipt of the President's order modifying Gen.
      Fremont's proclamation relative to emancipation of slaves, Gen. Fremont by
      note to Capt McKeever, required him to have 200 copies of the original
      proclamation and address to the army, of same date, printed and sent
      immediately to Ironton, for the use of Maj. Gavitt, Indiana Cavalry, for
      distribution through the country. Capt McKeever had the copies printed and
      delivered. The order is as follows:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     "Adjutant-General will have 200 copies of proclamation of
     Commanding General, dated Aug. 30, together with the address
     to the army of same date, sent immediately to Iron-ton, for
     the use of Maj. Gavitt Indiana Cavalry. Maj. Gavitt will
     distribute it through the country.

     "J. C. Ft.

     "Commanding General.

     "Sept. 23, 1861."
</pre>
    <p>
      As soon as I obtained a view of the several encampments at Tipton, I
      expressed the opinion that the forces there assembled could not be moved,
      as scarcely any means of transportation were visible. I saw Gen. Hunter,
      second in command, and conversed freely with him. He stated that there was
      great confusion, and that Fremont was utterly incompetent; that his own
      division was greatly scattered, and the force then present defective in
      many respects; that he required 100 wagons, yet he was ordered to march
      that day, and some of his troops were already drawn out on the road. His
      cavalry regiment (Ellis's) had horses, arms (indifferent), but no
      equipments; had to carry their cartridges in their pockets; consequently,
      on their first day's march from Jefferson City, in a heavy rain, the
      cartridges carried about their persons were destroyed. This march to
      Tipton (36 miles) was made on a miry, heavy earth road parallel to the
      railroad, and but a little distance from it. The troops were directed by
      Gen. Fremont to march without provisions or knapsacks, and without
      transportation. A violent rainstorm came up, and the troops were exposed
      to it all night, were without food for 24 hours, and when food was
      received the beef was found to be spoiled.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link233" id="link233"></a><span class="pn">{233}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Hunter stated that he had just received a written report from one of
      his Colonels, informing him that but 20 out of 100 of his guns would go
      off. These were the guns procured by Gen. Fremont in Europe. I may here
      state that Gen. Sherman, at Louisville, made a similar complaint of the
      great inferiority of these European arms. He had given the men orders to
      file down the nipples. In conversation with Col. Swords, Assistant
      Quartersmaster-General; at Louisville, just from California, he stated
      that Mr. Selover, who was in Europe with Gen. Fremont, wrote to some
      friend In San Francisco that his share of the profit of the purchase of
      these arms was $30,000.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Hunter expressed to the Secretary of War his decided opinion that
      Gen. Fremont was incompetent and unfit for his extensive and important
      command. This opinion he gave reluctantly, owing to his position as second
      in command.
    </p>
    <p>
      President Lincoln sent the following characteristic letter to Gen. S. R.
      Curtis, who, being in command at St. Louis, was directly accessible, and a
      man in whose discretion the President felt he might trust:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     Washington, Oct 24, 1861. Brig.-Gen. S. R. Curtis.

     Dear Sir: On receipt of this with the accompanying
     incisures, you will take safe, certain and suitable measures
     to have the inclosure addressed to Maj.-Gen. Fremont
     delivered to him with all reasonable dispatch, subject to
     these conditions only, that if, when Gen. Fremont shall be
     reached by the messenger&mdash;yourself or anyone sent by you&mdash;he
     shall then have, in personal command, fought and won a
     battle, or shall then be actually in battle, or shall then
     be in the immediate presence of the enemy in expectation of
     a battle, it is not to be delivered, but held for further
     orders. After, and not until after, the delivery to Gen.
     Fremont, let the inclosed addressed to Gen. Hunter be
     delivered to him.

     Tour obedient servant,
                                A. LINCOLN.
</pre>
    <p>
      The following decisive order was one of the inclosures:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     Headquarters of the Army, Washington, Oct. 24, 1861.

     General Orders No. 18.

     Maj.-Gen. Fremont, of the U. S. Army, the present Commander
     of the Western Department of the same, will, on the receipt
     of this order, call Maj.-Gen. Hunter, of the U. S.
     Volunteers, to relieve him temporarily in that command, when
     he (Maj.-Gen. Fremont) will report to General Headquarters,
     by letter, for further orders.
                  WINFIELD SCOTT.
</pre>
    <p>
      <a name="link234" id="link234"></a><span class="pn">{234}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      A special messenger arrived at Springfield, Nov. 2, with the order, which
      created consternation at Fremont's headquarters. It is more than probable
      that Fremont felt his elevation to be such that he could try conclusions
      with the Administration, and refuse to obey the order.
    </p>
    <p>
      There was considerable talk at that time about military headquarters as to
      a dictator, and this was so rife about McClellan's that his journal
      constantly abounds in allusions which indicate that he was putting the
      crown away from him with increasing gentleness each time. There was much
      of the same atmosphere about the headquarters of the Army of the West, and
      it is claimed that Fremont at first decided not to obey the order, but on
      Sigel's urgent representations finally concluded to do so, and issued the
      following farewell order to his troops:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     Headquarters Western Department,

     Springfield, Mo., Nov. 2, 1861. Soldiers of the Mississippi
     Army:

     Agreeably to orders this day received I take leave of you.
     Altho our army has been of sudden growth, we have grown up
     together, and I have become familiar with the brave and
     generous spirit which you bring to the defense of your
     country, and which makes me anticipate for you a brilliant
     career. Continue as you have begun, and give to my successor
     the same cordial and enthusiastic support with which you
     have encouraged me. Emulate the splendid example which you
     have already before you, and let me remain, as I am, proud
     of the noble army which I had thus far labored to bring
     together.

     Soldiers, I regret to leave you. Most sincerely I thank you
     for the regard and confidence you have invariably shown me.
     I deeply regret that I shall not have the honor to lead you
     to the victory which you are just about to win, but I shall
     claim to share with you in the joy of every triumph, and
     trust always to be fraternally remembered by my companions
     in arms.

     J. C. FREMONT,

     Major-General, U. S. Army.
</pre>
    <p>
      <a name="link235" id="link235"></a><span class="pn">{235}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      He left at once for St Louis, with his Body Guard for an escort. Though
      these men had been enlisted for three years, they were ordered by Gen.
      McClellan to be mustered out, and Maj. Zagonyi was offered the Colonelcy
      of a new regiment.
    </p>
    <p>
      The time and manner of the removal enabled Gen. Fremont's ardent partisans
      to complain loudly that he was relieved on the eve of a battle in which he
      would have accomplished great things, and was thus denied an opportunity
      to achieve lasting fame and render essential service to the country. The
      evidence, however, is conclusive that at that time Price was at Pineville,
      fully 50 miles away, and in the midst of a very rough country, instead of
      being in Fremont's immediate front, as Fremont certainly supposed.
    </p>
    <p>
      Whether he would have accepted battle after Fremont had reached him at
      Pineville, is a matter of conjecture. The pressure in favor of Fremont
      continued strong enough, however, to bring about the offer of a new
      command to him the following year, but it was grotesquely shrunken from
      the proud proportions of that from which he had been relieved. It was
      styled the Mountain Department, and embraced a large portion of West
      Virginia. Even in this restricted area he again failed to give
      satisfaction.
    </p>
    <p>
      June 8, 1862, he fought an indecisive battle against Stonewall Jackson at
      Cross Keys, took umbrage at being placed under the command of Gen. John
      Pope, whom he had once commanded, asked to be relieved from command, and
      joined the ranks of the bitter critics of President Lincoln's
      Administration, though still retaining his commission and pay as a
      Major-General.
    </p>
    <p>
      He still thought his was a name to conjure with, and May 31,1864, accepted
      the nomination for President from a convention of dissatisfied Republicans
      assembled at Cleveland, resigning his commission at last, June 4, 1864.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link236" id="link236"></a><span class="pn">{236}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The chill reception with which the country received his nomination at last
      disillusionized even him, and in September he withdrew from the field, to
      clear the way for Lincoln's re-election. He then became connected with the
      promotion of a Pacific railway over the southern of the routes which he
      had surveyed, lost his money and property in the course of time, appealed
      to Congress for relief, and in 1890 was by special act put on the retired
      list of the Army with the rank of Major-General.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link237" id="link237"></a><span class="pn">{237}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014">
       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
    </p>
    <div style="height: 4em;">
      <br /><br /><br /><br />
    </div>
    <h2>
      CHAPTER XIV. THE SAD RETREAT FROM SPRINGFIELD.
    </h2>
    <p>
      The partisans of Gen. Fremont bitterly blamed Gen. David Hunter for having
      intrigued to succeed Fremont, and they rejoiced that his tenure of that
      office proved to be so short-lived. This was both fallacious and unjust.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. David Hunter, while not of the highest type of military ability, was
      yet far above mediocrity. He was one of the best examples of the Old
      Regular Army officer&mdash;thoroughly devoted to his profession, a master
      of all its details, incorruptible, inflexible, and intolerant to all whose
      character and conduct lowered the standard of what Hunter thought an
      American officer should be.
    </p>
    <p>
      He was born in the District of Columbia, graduated from West Point in
      1822, 25th in a class of 40 members, and had an extensive experience in
      Indian fighting, commanding for several years a troop of dragoons. He
      resigned in 1836, but re-entered the Army in 1842 as a Paymaster and
      served as Chief Paymaster of Gen. Wool's Division in the Mexican War.
    </p>
    <p>
      At the outbreak of the war of the rebellion he had been made Colonel of
      the 6th U. S. Cav.&mdash;a new regiment&mdash;and commanded a division at
      Bull Run, where he showed great gallantry and was wounded. He had been
      sent out to Fremont as his second in command and adviser, in the hope that
      he would control in some measure the commander's erratic course and be
      instrumental in promoting better methods in his administration.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link238" id="link238"></a><span class="pn">{238}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      He was true to his duties in communicating to his superiors just what he
      found in the Department of the West and properly representing Fremont's
      incompetence. It was not intended that he should have permanent command of
      the army, and probably no man was less desirous that he should be than he
      himself, for he had a modest opinion of his own abilities and never
      hesitated to subordinate himself when he thought another man would do
      better in the place.
    </p>
    <p>
      The command was given him merely as a stop-gap until another commander
      could be determined upon.
    </p>
    <p>
      In the same envelope which contained Lincoln's letter to Gen. Curtis
      inclosing the order for the supersedure of Gen. Fremont, was another
      reading as follows:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     Washington, Oct. 24, 1861. To the Commander of the
     Department of the West

     Sir:   The command of the Department of the West having
     devolved upon you, I propose to offer you a few suggestions.
     Knowing how hazardous it is to bind down a distant commander
     in the field to specific lines and operations, as so much
     always depends on a knowledge of localities and passing
     events, it is intended, therefore, to leave a considerable
     margin for the exercise of your judgment and discretion.
     The main rebel army (Price's) west of the Mississippi is
     believed to have passed Dade County in full retreat upon
     northwestern Arkansas, leaving Missouri almost freed from
     the enemy, excepting in the southeast of the State.
     Assuming this  basis of fact, it seems desirable, as you are
     not likely to overtake Price, and are in danger of making
     too long a   line from your own base of supplies and
     reinforcements, that  you should give up the pursuit halt
     your main army, divide   it into two corps of observation,
     one occupying Sedalla and    the other Rolla, the present
     termini of railroad; then recruit the condition of both
     corps by reestablishing and improving their discipline and
     instruction, perfecting their clothing and  equipments, and
     providing less uncomfortable quarters.    Of course, both
     railroads must be guarded and kept open, judiciously
     employing just so much force as is necessary for this. 'From
     these two points, Sedalia and Rolla, and especially in
     judicious cooperation with Lane on the Kansas border, it
     would be so easy to concentrate and repel an army of the
     enemy returning on Missouri from the southwest that It is
     not probable any such attempt to return will be made before
     or during the approaching cold weather.
</pre>
    <p>
      <a name="link239" id="link239"></a><span class="pn">{239}</span>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     Before Spring the people of Missouri will probably be in no
     favorable mood to renew for next year the troubles which
     have so much afflicted and impoverished them during this. If
     you adopt this line of policy, and if, as I anticipate, you
     will see no enemy in great force approaching, you will have
     a surplus of force, which you can withdraw from these points
     and direct to others, as may be needed, the railroads
     furnishing ready means of reinforcing their main points, if
     occasion requires. Doubtless local uprisings will for a time
     continue to occur, but these can be met by detachments and
     local forces of our own, and will ere long tire out of
     themselves.

     While, as stated in the beginning of the letter, a large
     discretion must be and is left with yourself, I feel sure
     that an indefinite pursuit of Price or an attempt by this
     long and circuitous route to reach Memphis will be
     exhaustive beyond endurance, and will end in the loss of the
     whole force engaged.   Your obedient servant,

     A. LINCOLN.
</pre>
    <p>
      This letter, undoubtedly dictated by McClellan, who was then the dominant
      military influence at Washington, is yet strikingly characteristic of
      President Lincoln, and abounds in that profound common sense which made
      him easily the first General of the War.
    </p>
    <p>
      The army was already 125 miles away from its base of suppliess on the
      railroad, with a terrible rough intervening country. Consequently, the
      problem of supplying it was of momentous seriousness and the expense
      appalling.
    </p>
    <p>
      Though in the midst of a region of wonderful fertility, with its crops
      gathered in barns, no one seems to have though of utilizing these. They
      left them for Price to gather in, while they hauled their supplies from
      Rolla. Our officers as yet were only in the primer class in war.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link240" id="link240"></a><span class="pn">{240}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The letter also shows the firm hold of the prevailing opinion that
      Secession was only a temporary madness, from which the people would
      recover when the Winter gave them time to reflect and reason. Probably
      this would have been the case had the Government put forth its power with
      crushing effectiveness. But the first year of the war was to end with the
      Secessionists successful almost everywhere, and big scores to their credit
      in Missouri. The fresh disaster at Ball's Bluff on the Potomac unnerved
      many loyal people.
    </p>
    <p>
      Possibly President Lincoln did not anticipate that his suggestions would
      be carried out so literally. His best information was that Price's army
      had virtually gone to pieces, and that by taking post at Sedalia and Rolla
      the central and southwestern parts of the State could be effectually
      controlled by parties sent out from there. He could not have conceived
      that Price had a strong, compact, aggressive army well in hand, and that
      the new commander of the Department of the West would march away from it
      without striking a blow or making a manuver to reduce its capacity for
      harmfulness.
    </p>
    <p>
      Certainly some shreds of Lyon's mantle must have fallen on that proud
      array of new-made Generals, and they would insist on striking a quick,
      sharp blow, as a return for Lexington, for the honor of the Union army,
      and to curb Price's rising conviction that he was an irresistible
      conqueror.
    </p>
    <p>
      But the next day after receiving his assignment to command, Gen. Hunter
      made a reconnoissance in force to the battlefield of Wilson's Greek, where
      Fremont had persisted in believing that Price was waiting to give him
      battle. He found no enemy on the scene of the terrible battle of two
      months before. Instead, all his information was to the effect that Price
      was among the rugged fastnesses about Pineville, 50 miles away, with
      McCulloch still farther off in the Boston Mountains.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link241" id="link241"></a><span class="pn">{241}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Hunter therefore ordered his columns to countermarch and proceeded to
      carry out the President's instructions promptly and exactly.
    </p>
    <p>
      This backward movement, without a blow at Price, abandoned the whole of
      the Union loving country of southwestern Missouri to the Secessionists,
      and was a measureless calamity.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Union people, taking heart from the advance of Fremont with his great
      army, had returned to their homes and attempted to re-establish themselves
      upon their farms and in their business. All these hopes were suddenly
      dashed to the ground by the retirement of the army, and they had to flee
      again in haste before the immediate advance of Price to occupy the
      abandoned region.
    </p>
    <p>
      It was not his army which was so terrible, but the horde of guerrilla
      bands, which rushed out like venomous serpents after a warm rain, intent
      upon rapine, outrage and murder. It was the "Poor White Trash" let loose
      under such leaders as Quantrill, the Young-ers, Jameses, Haywards,
      Freemans, and a thousand others of bandit infamy.
    </p>
    <p>
      Aside from these calamities, the retreat, added to Price's victory at
      Lexington, was a most stifling moral depression of the Union sentiment in
      Missouri.
    </p>
    <p>
      While the condition of things in the greater central and southwestern
      parts of Missouri had been grievously unsatisfactory for many weeks, and
      seemed to be growing steadily more so, it was otherwise in the
      southeastern section.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link242" id="link242"></a><span class="pn">{242}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The so-called Ozark Mountains, which are really a series of rough,
      picturesque highlands, separating the watersheds of the Missouri and the
      Arkansas Rivers, begin on the Mississippi at the mouth of the Meramec
      River, 20 miles below St. Louis, and extend along the Mississippi, rising
      frequently into cliffs of limestone 350 feet high, to Gape Girardeau, 44
      miles above Cairo, Ill.
    </p>
    <p>
      This range, less than 100 miles wide, one of the richest in the world in
      minerals, sinks away on the north and west to the valleys of the Osage and
      the Missouri and the prairies which stretch across Kansas and the Indian
      Territory to the Rocky Mountains. To the southeast it falls into the
      lowlands and swamps along the Mississippi, making there a separate and
      distinct section&mdash;about the size of Connecticut&mdash;and of entirely
      different character from the rest of the State. Over 3,000 square miles of
      this&mdash;or nearly three times the size of Rhode Island&mdash;are swamps
      thickly wooded with towering cypresses, and covered with jungles
      impenetrable to man. The principal town In the region was New Madrid, a
      fever-smitten little village on the banks of the Mississippi, 44 miles
      below Cairo. It had once much promise, but the terrible earthquakes of
      1811-12 had seamed the surrounding country with great crevices and
      gulches, adding hopelessly to its forbidding character, and giving a
      mortal blow to New Madrid's expectations.
    </p>
    <p>
      The region was drained&mdash;as far as it was drained&mdash;by the St.
      Francis River, a considerable stream, navigable nearly to the Missouri
      line, and emptying into the Mississippi nine miles above Helena, Ark.
    </p>
    <p>
      Besides the Mississippi River there were then two routes of access from
      St. Louis to this region. One was by the Iron Mountain Railroad, which ran
      through the Ozarks to Pilot Knob, 84 miles from the city, and the other by
      common road through Fredericktown, 105 miles from St. Louis.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link243" id="link243"></a><span class="pn">{243}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston&mdash;regarded by Jefferson Davis as a great
      military genius, and appointed to command the entire Confederate army in
      the West&mdash;had some idea of moving an army up through the swamps to
      these roads, flanking the Union position at Cairo and taking St. Louis.
      The St. Francis River would aid in supplying the army. His immediate
      subordinate, Maj. Gen. Polk, was still more in favor of the plan, and it
      went in this proportion down through Gen. Gideon Pillow, with his "Army of
      Liberation," to the most enthusiastic advocate, of the scheme, our
      poetical acquaintance, Gen. M. Jeff Thompson, file "Swamp Fox of
      Missouri." The idea was to move in concert with Price coming up from the
      southeast.
    </p>
    <p>
      Maj.-Gen. Leonidas Polk, C. S. A., who had been placed in command of the
      Mississippi River, and subsequently had the States of Arkansas and
      Missouri added to his Department, had gathered about him in the
      neighborhood of Memphis some 25,000 or 30,000 Mississippi, Louisiana,
      Tennessee and other troops, with which, scorning Kentucky's claim of
      neutrality, he advanced to Columbus, Ky., the terminus of the Mobile &amp;
      Ohio Railroad, and 20 miles from Cairo, Ill. Upon the high bluff there he
      proceeded to construct one of those "Gibraltars" so numerous in the early
      history of the war.
    </p>
    <p>
      With the force at his command and the opposition he was likely to meet
      from the Union commanders in southeast Missouri, a march on St. Louis by
      the roads indicated was a promising venture. Besides the forces
      immediately around him, he had control of McCulloch's, Pearce's and
      Hardee's columns in Arkansas, and potential control of Price's and
      Thompson's Missouri forces, making altogether an aggregate approaching
      70,000 men.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link244" id="link244"></a><span class="pn">{244}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      But he hesitated, while Pillow fretted and fumed, and wrote that while he
      honored his superior officer as a prelate and admired him as a patriot, he
      had small opinion of his military judgment.
    </p>
    <p>
      M. Jeff Thompson, who had no mean opinion of his own abilities, wrote to
      Jefferson Davis that what the Southern Confederacy needed in that quarter
      was "a first-class leader," and he cast a unanimous vote for himself for
      that position.
    </p>
    <p>
      In the meantime an event occurred as to the significance of which Polk,
      Pillow and Thompson were as unappreciative as the country at large.
    </p>
    <p>
      In August, U. S. Grant, lately commissioned a Brigadier-General, was sent
      down to Cape Girardeau to look after matters in southeast Missouri,
      including Cairo, Ill., and he took with him his former regiment, the 21st
      Ill., to the command of which Col. John W. S. Alexander had succeeded. A
      peculiarity of Gen. Grant, which President Lincoln speedily noticed, was
      that wherever he was "things kept moving." There were no grand reviews, no
      sounding proclamations, no sensational announcements of plans, but somehow
      everybody about him was found to be speedily employed in an effective way
      against the enemy. But little clamor ever came from Grant for
      reinforcements or additional strength. If he was given a thousand men he
      at once set them to work doing all that 1,000 men were capable of. Given
      2,000 men he would do twice as much, and so on. If supplies were not
      furnished him, he gathered them from the surrounding country, giving
      vouchers carefully based on the prevailing market rates. If no wagons or
      teams were at hand, he impressed them and gave vouchers.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link245" id="link245"></a><span class="pn">{245}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      As unassertive and modest as Grant seemed to be, he had a remarkable
      faculty for bringing in everybody near him and securing from them prompt
      and energetic obedience to his orders.
    </p>
    <p>
      Among Gen. Grant's subordinates was our old acquaintance, Capt. J. B.
      Plummer, who had done such good work at Wilson's Creek and who was now in
      command of the 11th Mo. There was also Col. W. P. Carlin, a Captain in the
      Regular Army, whom the Governor of Illinois had wisely made Colonel of the
      88th 111. Carlin, a graduate of West Point in the class of 1850, was a
      somewhat austere, highstrung man, wrapped up in his profession, an
      excellent soldier, and feverishly anxious to do his duty and justify his
      promotion to the important position he held.
    </p>
    <p>
      Like all Regulars he was jealously sensitive about his rank, and one of
      his first performances was insistence that he outranked Col. C. E. Hovey,
      of the 33d Ill., and should therefore have command of the post. Hovey, who
      had been Principal of the Normal Institute before becoming a Colonel, felt
      that his position had been quite as high as that of a Captain in the
      Regular Army, and his men, who entered warmly into the dispute, could
      hardly understand how the Colonel of the 38th Ill. could outrank the
      Colonel of the 33d, and though they at last gave way, there was some
      bitterness of feeling.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link246" id="link246"></a><span class="pn">{246}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Though Gen. Grant had only about 14,000 men all told, he kept Johnston,
      Polk and Thompson, with their 30,000, so well employed guarding points
      that he threatened, or might take without threatening, that their
      superiority was neutralized and they were kept on the defensive.
    </p>
    <p>
      Burning with desire to do something, M. Jeff Thompson, who, in spite of
      his gasconade, was really a brave, enterprising man, and a good deal of a
      soldier, started out from Columbus early in October with some 2,000 men,
      expecting to be joined by other forces on the way, capture Ironton and
      Frederick-town, open up the road for Pillow's columns to St. Lous, and to
      co-operate with Gen. Price.
    </p>
    <p>
      He went down the river in boats to New Madrid and there began a march
      across the country toward Bloomfield, which was to become the base of so
      many of his subsequent operations. Leaving his infantry under the command
      of Col. Aden Lowe, of the 3d Mo. State Guards, a prominent young attorney
      and politician, to follow more slowly, Thompson pushed on with 500 mounted
      men, whom he calls "dragoons," made a wide circuit, and struck the
      railroad north of Ironton at Big River Bridge, only about 40 miles from St
      Louis. He had made astonishing progress so far, and jubilantly reported to
      Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, who had come to Columbus to watch the
      movement, that his men were so anxious to fight that he reached his
      objective point two days ahead of the appointed time.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link247" id="link247"></a><span class="pn">{247}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      At the Big River Bridge he struck a small company of a somewhat noted
      regiment, the 33d Ill. (the Normal Regiment), largely made up of students
      and teachers in the Normal Institute of Illinois, who, despite the
      disparity in numbers, gave him a sharp little fight, in which he lost two
      killed and quite a number wounded. He reported having captured 45
      prisoners, with a quantity of supplies, and succeeded in burning the
      bridge across the river. While engaged in distributing the supplies,
      another company of the 33d Ill., hearing the noise, came up to the
      assistance of their comrades, and Thompson had another fight on his hands,
      in which he admits he lost four men killed and quite a number wounded, but
      insists that he "killed another lot of the enemy and took 10 prisoners."
      He said he "had the enemy terribly frightened," and that if Albert Sidney
      Johnston had the rest of his men in striking distance that he could take
      Ironton, with its 12,000,000 rations stored for the Winter, in an hour.
    </p>
    <p>
      Johnston transmitted Thompson's report to Richmond with a complimentary
      indorsement. Thompson also reported having received several hundred
      recruits and captured about 17,000 pounds of lead. These were destined to
      be the last of his rejoicings for some time.
    </p>
    <p>
      Thompson sent word to all the commanders of Confederate forces in the
      neighborhood to join in his attack on Ironton, promising them victory and
      unlimited spoils.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Grant ordered Col. Carlin to move forward with his force from Pilot
      Knob and attack Thompson's main body, which was then in the neighborhood
      of Fredericktown. He also ordered Col. J. B. Plum-mer to march from Cape
      Girardeau, strike at Thompson's line of retreat, and endeavor to capture
      his whole force.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link248" id="link248"></a><span class="pn">{248}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Thompson had cunningly magnified the number of his troops, and Plummer and
      Carlin were both impressed with the idea that he had somewhere in the
      neighborhood of 5,000 or 6,000 men and was likely to be joined by Gen.
      Hardee's column from Pocahontas, Ark., with many more.
    </p>
    <p>
      Grant, with that accurate knowledge of his enemy which was one of his
      conspicuous traits and never failed him at any time during the war,
      informed them that Thompson had only between 2,000 and 3,000 men. As usual
      in Grant's operations, the columns moved on time and arrived when
      expected.
    </p>
    <p>
      Col. Carlin moved Oct. 20 from Pilot Knob with about 3,000 men made up of
      the 21st Ill., Col. Alexander; 33d HI., Col. C. E. Hovey; 38th Ill., Maj.
      Gilman; 8th Wis., Col. Murphy; part of the 1st Ind. Cav., Col. Conrad
      Baker, and some of the guns of the 1st Mo. Art., under the charge of Maj.
      Schofield.
    </p>
    <p>
      Col. Plummets column, about 1,500 strong, consisted of the 17th Ill., Col
      Ross; 20th Ill., Col. Marsh; 11th Mo., Lieut.-Col. Panabaker; Lieut.
      White's section of Taylor's Illinois Battery, and two companies of cavalry
      commanded by Capts. Stewart and Lan-gen.
    </p>
    <p>
      Col. Plummer moved to Dallas, on Johnston's line of retreat, and there
      sent through a messenger to Col. Carlin, stating where he was and what his
      intentions were, so that the two forces could cooperate. The messenger was
      captured by some of the Missourians, and therefore Thompson came into
      possession of the plans of his enemies. He moved back with his train until
      he saw it safely on its way to Greenville, and then returned with his
      command toward Fredericktown to accommodate his opponents with a fight if
      they desired it and to gain time for his train to get back to Bloomfield
      and New Madrid.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link249" id="link249"></a><span class="pn">{249}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Not finding Thompson at Dallas, Col. Plummer moved up to Fredericktown,
      arriving there at noon, Monday, Oct. 21, and found that Col. Carlin had
      arrived with his forces about 8 o'clock in the morning. There was
      immediately one of those squabbles over rank which were so frequent on
      both sides during the early part of the war and not absent from its
      history at any time.
    </p>
    <p>
      In spite of being a younger man than Col. Plummer, a younger Captain in
      the Regular Army, and in spite of Plummer's experience in the Mexican War
      and at Wilson's Creek, Carlin insisted upon the command of the whole, upon
      the grounds that he had been commissioned a Colonel Aug. 15, and by the
      Governor of Illinois; while Plummer's commission was from Fremont. Carlin
      insisted that he had a plan by which Thompson's whole force could be
      captured, but was at length induced to yield the command to Plummer, who
      went ahead with the combined force to attack Thompson, leaving Carlin, who
      was exhausted and ill, in town with a portion of his command.
    </p>
    <p>
      Possibly, what helped induce Carlin to yield was the knowledge of an
      agreement between Col. Plummer and Col. Ross, of the 17th Ill., who
      outranked both of them, that if Carlin persisted in his claim, Ross should
      assert his seniority and take command of the whole. Carlin retained the
      8th Wis. and two 24-pound howitzers in Fredericktown to hold the place,
      while Plummer took the rest of the force and started out in search of
      Thompson.
    </p>
    <p>
      He did not have to go very far.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link250" id="link250"></a><span class="pn">{250}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      A half mile from town shots were heard, and the cavalry came back with the
      information that the enemy was just ahead. The leading infantry regiment,
      the 17th Ill., went into line to the left and moved forward into a
      cornfield, where the enemy's skirmishers were immediately encountered.
    </p>
    <p>
      Lieut. White came up with his section of artillery and opened fire upon a
      hill about 600 yards distant where it was likely that Thompson had his
      artillery masked. Thompson's guns could not stand the punishment quietly
      and opened up only to be speedily suppressed by other guns which Maj.
      Schofield hurried up to join two which had been firing.
    </p>
    <p>
      Col. Lowe, commanding the Missouri State Guards, first engaged, was soon
      shot through the head and his regiment began falling back before the
      steady advance of the 17th Ill., to which was soon added the fire of the
      33d Ill. and a part of the 11th Mo.
    </p>
    <p>
      At first the Missourians fell back steadily, but after the rough handling
      of the artillery their retreat became a rout and Col. Baker dashed forward
      with the 1st Ind. Cav. in pursuit.. A half mile in the rear Thompson
      succeeded in rallying his men and also brought one piece of artillery into
      action, receiving the cavalry with a fierce volley, by which Maj. Gavitt,
      who had been active and prominent in the operations in that section, and
      Capt. Highman were killed.
    </p>
    <p>
      Notwithstanding this, the cavalry rallied, charged, and took the gun,
      which they had, however, to soon give up under a charge led by Thompson
      himself.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link251" id="link251"></a><span class="pn">{251}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The 17th Ill. had already secured one gun, and now as the infantry came up
      Thompson's men broke and retreated rapidly in every direction. Hearing the
      noise of the fighting, Col. Carlin arose from a sick-bed, galloped to the
      battlefield, and took command of a part of the troops. The pursuit was
      continued by the infantry for 10 miles, and by the cavalry 12 miles
      farther, when it was decided that Thompson's men had scattered and gained
      a refuge in the swamps, and that further pursuit would be useless.
    </p>
    <p>
      Plummer recalled his forces to Fredericktown. He claims that he took 80
      prisoners, of whom 38 were wounded, and buried 158 of Thompson's dead,
      with other bodies being found from time to time in the woods. His own loss
      he reports as six killed and 16 wounded.
    </p>
    <p>
      Thompson reported that he had lost 20 killed, 27 wounded, and 15
      prisoners, but that he "had mowed down the enemy as with a scythe;" that
      "they acknowledge a loss of 400 killed and wounded," etc, etc. He admitted
      he had lost one cannon by its being disabled so that it could not be
      brought from the field. He said that his "dragoons" had stampeded in a
      shameful way, but that his infantry had behaved very well. Later, he
      reported from New Madrid that his command was "very much demoralized."
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Polk seems to have been much depressed by the news of Thompson's
      defeat, because he ordered an abandonment of the post at New Madrid and
      the bringing over of the men and guns to his "Gibraltar" at Columbus.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Grant, though probably disappointed at the failure of his plans to
      capture Thompson's force, was careful to write complimentary letters to
      all the commanders, recognizing their good services in the expedition.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link252" id="link252"></a><span class="pn">{252}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The fight at Fredericktown quieted things pretty effectually in
      southeastern Missouri, and ended for a long while the project of capturing
      St Louis by the New Madrid route.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Grant was preparing some startling things to occupy the attention of
      Johnston, Polk and Pillow in quite another quarter.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link253" id="link253"></a><span class="pn">{253}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015">
       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
    </p>
    <div style="height: 4em;">
      <br /><br /><br /><br />
    </div>
    <h2>
      CHAPTER XI. GEN. H. W. HALLECK IN COMMAND.
    </h2>
    <p>
      Henry Wager Halleck, who succeeded Gen. Fremont in command of the
      Department of Missouri, Nov. 9, 1861, had been pointed to as a brilliantly
      shining example of what West Point could produce. He was born in 1819 near
      Utica, N. Y., of a very good family, and had graduated July 1, 1839, from
      West Point, third in a class of which Isaac I. Stevens, afterward to
      conclude a brilliant career by dying a Major-General on the field of
      battle, was the head. Other conspicuous members of the class were
      Maj.-Gens. James B. Ricketts, E. O. C. Ord, H. J. Hunt, and E. R. S.
      Can-by, of the Union army, and A. R. Lawton, a Confederate
      Brigadier-General. Halleck was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers, and
      during the Mexican War received a couple of the brevets so easily won in
      that conflict.
    </p>
    <p>
      With his attainments and cast of mind, he made an admirable staff officer
      for Commodore Shubrick and Gens. Mason and Riley in their administration
      of California while the territory was being reduced to an American
      possession. He became a Captain in his Corps in 1852, but the
      opportunities in California were so tempting, that he resigned to enter
      the practice of the law and embark in various business enterprises of
      railroad building and quicksilver mining. He was unusually successful in
      all these, becoming Director-General of the New Almaden Quicksilver Mining
      Company, President of a railroad, and a member of a leading law firm. He
      kept up his military connection by accepting the commission of
      Major-General commanding the California Militia.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link254" id="link254"></a><span class="pn">{254}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      He was a constant student and a ready writer, and during this time
      published a number of military and scientific books, some of which were
      original and others translations.
    </p>
    <p>
      Intellectually, professionally and socially he stood very high, and the
      bestowal of a Major-General's commission upon him, dating from Aug.
      19,1861, met with universal approval, though it gave him seniority in that
      coveted rank to many distinguished soldiers. At that time Halleck was in
      his 46th year and the very prime of his powers. He was tall, spare, and
      commanding in figure, with a clean-shaven, authoritative, intellectual
      face in which men read great things. He had large, searching eyes, which
      seemed to penetrate the one with whom he was talking. As far as education
      and observation could go, Halleck was as complete a soldier as could be
      produced. Whatever could be done by calculation and careful operation, he
      could do on a high plane. He only lacked military instinct and soldierly
      intuition. Of that moral force which frequently overleaps mere physical
      limitation he seems to have had little, nor could he understand it in
      others.
    </p>
    <p>
      There was in him none of the fiery zeal of Lyon, or the relentless
      pugnacity of Grant; apparently these qualities were so absent in him that
      he did not know how to deal with them in others. He never put himself at
      the head of his troops to lead them in battle.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link255" id="link255"></a><span class="pn">{255}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      He could build up, block by block, with patient calculation, without
      comprehension that somewhere might be a volcanic energy suddenly unloosed
      which would scatter his blocks like straws.
    </p>
    <p>
      If he had political convictions, they were so unobtrusive as to be rarely
      mentioned in connection with him. Probably his views were the same as
      generally prevailed among the Regular Army officers of that day which were
      represented by the attitude of the Douglas Democrats and "Old Line Whigs."
    </p>
    <p>
      He believed, above all things, in law and system, and wanted all the
      affairs of this world to go ahead in strict accordance with them. The
      soldier epithet of "Old Brains" was bestowed upon him, and he seemed to
      relish the appellation.
    </p>
    <p>
      In the long and specific letter of instructions accompanying his
      assignment to command, Gen. McClellan directed him to carefully scrutinize
      all commissions and appointments, and revoke those not proceeding from the
      President or Secretary of War; to stop all pay and allowances to them, and
      if the appointees gave any trouble, send them out of the Department, and
      if they returned, place them in confinement. He was to examine into the
      legality of all organizations of troops serving in the Department, and
      deal with those unauthorized in a similar summary way. All contracts were
      to be rigidly probed, and payment suspended on those of which there was
      the slightest doubt. All officers who had in any way violated their duty
      to the Government were to be arrested and brought to prompt trial.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link256" id="link256"></a><span class="pn">{256}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Halleck began at once to justify the high expectations entertained of him.
      Order and system followed the erratic administration of his predecessor.
      Soldiers were subjected to vigorous discipline, but they were given the
      supplies to which they were entitled, and they were made to feel that they
      were being employed to some purpose.
    </p>
    <p>
      The futile and aggravating marches made in pursuit of the elusive
      guerrillas and bushwhackers, who were never caught, were replaced by
      well-directed movements striking at the heart of the trouble.
    </p>
    <p>
      Acting under Gen. Price's orders sometimes, but frequently under their own
      impulses to commit outrages, inflict blows, and create excitement, a large
      part of the State was covered by bands of guerrillas who appeared as
      citizens, were well armed, rode good horses, and were annoyingly
      successful in sweeping down on the railroad stations, water tanks,
      bridges, and settlements of Union people, burning, destroying, and
      creating havoc generally.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Halleck proclaimed martial law, and issued an order that any man
      disguised as a peaceful citizen, if caught in the act of burning bridges,
      etc., should be immediately shot. The troops proceeded to execute this
      order with good hearts. A large number of the offenders were shot down in
      the neighborhoods where they had committed their offenses; others were
      taken before a military commission and condemned to the same fate.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gens. Pope, Prentiss, Schofield and Henderson were given sufficient forces
      and ordered to move directly upon the more important bodies of
      Secessionists who formed a nucleus and support for these depredators. They
      all did so with good effect.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Prentiss moved against a force about 3,000 strong operating in
      Howard, Boone and Calloway Counties, and succeeded in striking them very
      heavily at Mount Zion Church, where they were dispersed with a loss of 25
      killed, 150 wounded, 30 prisoners, 90 horses, and 105 stands of arms.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link257" id="link257"></a><span class="pn">{257}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Pope operating from Sedalia achieved even better success, capturing
      Col. Robinson's command of 1,300 men and about 60 officers, 1,000 horses
      and mules, and 73 wagons loaded with powder, lead and supplies and 1,000
      stands of arms.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Prentiss very effectually cleaned out the State north of the Missouri
      River, and in conjunction with Gen. Pope's operations south of it, made it
      so threatening for Gen. Price, who had advanced to the Osage River to
      support the Secessionists there, that he broke up his camp and rather
      hurriedly retreated to Springfield.
    </p>
    <p>
      The year 1861 therefore ended with the Union men again in possession of
      nearly four-fifths of the State, with their hands full of prisoners and
      supplies captured from the enemy.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Secessionists of St. Louis had been encouraged by the untoward course
      of events in the East. After Bull Run had come the shocking disaster of
      Ball's Bluff, and with Gen. Price only a short distance away on the Osage
      threatening Jefferson City and north Missouri, they felt their star in the
      ascendant, and became unbearably insolent. Gen. Halleck repressed them
      with a vigorous hand, yet without causing the wild clamor of denunciation
      which characterized Gen. Butler's Administration of New Orleans.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link258" id="link258"></a><span class="pn">{258}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      It will be remembered that at that time it was thought quite the thing for
      young Secessionist women to show their "spirit" and their devotion to the
      South by all manner of open insult to the Yankee soldiers. Spitting at
      them, hurling epithets of abuse, and contemptuously twitching aside their
      skirts were regarded as quite the correct thing in the good society of
      which these young ladies were the ornaments. This had become so
      intolerable in New Orleans, that Gen. Butler felt constrained to issue his
      famous order directing that women so offending should be treated as "women
      of the town plying their vocation." This was made the pretext of "firing
      the Southern heart" to an unwarranted degree, and Jeff Davis issued a
      proclamation of outlawry against Ben Butler, with a reward for his head.
    </p>
    <p>
      Sanguine Secessionists hoped that this "flagrant outrage" by "Beast
      Butler" would be sufficient cause for the recognition of the Southern
      Confederacy by France and England.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Halleck met the same difficulty as Butler very shrewdly. The Chief of
      Police of St. Louis had some measure of control over the disreputable
      women of the city, and made law for them. Under Gen. Hal-leek's order he
      instructed these women to vie with and exceed their respectable sisters in
      their manifestations of hostility to the Union cause and of devotion to
      the South. Where the fair young ladies of the Southern aristocracy were
      wearing Secession rosettes as big as a rose, the women of the demimonde
      sported them as big as a dahlia or sunflower. Where the young belle gave a
      little graceful twitch to her skirts to prevent any possible contamination
      by touching a passing Yankee, the other class flirted theirs' aside in the
      most immodest way. It took but a few days of this to make the exuberant
      young ladies of uncontrollable rebel proclivities discard their Secession
      rosettes altogether, and subside into dignified, self-respecting persons,
      who took no more notice of a passing Union soldier than they did of a
      lamp-post or tree-box.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link259" id="link259"></a><span class="pn">{259}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Another of Gen. Halleck's orders did not result so happily. It will be
      remembered that Gen. Fremont declared free the slaves of men in arms
      against the Government, and that their freedom would be assured them upon
      reaching the Union lines.
    </p>
    <p>
      In the inflamed condition of public sentiment in the Border States on the
      negro question this was very impolitic, and the President promptly
      overruled the order.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Halleck went still further in the issuance of the following order,
      which created as intense feeling in the North as Gen. Fremont's "Abolition
      order" had excited in the Border States:
    </p>
    <p>
      It has been represented that important information respecting: the number
      and condition of our forces is conveyed to the enemy by means of fugitive
      slaves who are admitted within our lines. In order to remedy this evil, it
      is directed that no such persons be hereafter permitted to enter the lines
      of any camp, or of any forces on the march, and that any now within such
      lines be immediately excluded therefrom.
    </p>
    <p>
      It was particularly distasteful to the Radicals in Missouri who had been
      represented by Gen. Fremont. During his administration the Union party in
      the State had divided into two wings&mdash;the Radicals and the
      Conservatives, who soon came to hate each other almost if not quite as
      badly as they did the Secessionists. The Radicals, or, as their enemies
      called them, "the Charcoals," were largely made up, as before stated, of
      the young, aggressive, idealistic Germans who had poured into Missouri
      after the suppression of the Rebellion of 1848, and who looked upon
      slavery as they did on "priest-craft" and "despotism"&mdash;all monstrous
      relics of barbarism. They had absolutely no patience with the "peculiar
      institution," and could not understand how any rational, right-thinking
      man could tolerate it or hesitate about sweeping it off the earth at the
      first opportunity. Those of them who had gone into the army had only done
      so to fight for freedom, and without freedom the object of their crusade
      was lost.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link260" id="link260"></a><span class="pn">{260}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The German newspapers attacked Halleck with the greatest bitterness,
      meetings were held to denounce him and secure his removal, and strong
      efforts were made to obtain Sigel's promotion to a Major-General and his
      assignment to the command.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Halleck, in a letter to F. P. Blair, explained and justified this
      order, as follows:
    </p>
    <p>
      Order No. 3 was, in my mind, clearly a military necessity. Unauthorized
      persons, black or white, free or slave, must be kept out of our camps,
      unless we are willing to publish to the enemy everything we do or intend
      to do. It was a military, and not a political order.
    </p>
    <p>
      I am ready to carry out any lawful instructions in regard to fugitive
      slaves which my superiors may give me, and to enforce any law which
      Congress may pass. But I cannot make law, and will not violate it. You
      know my private opinion on the policy of confiscating the slave property
      of the rebels in arms. If Congress shall pass it, you may be certain that
      I shall enforce it.
    </p>
    <p>
      Among other well-taken measures was the passage of a law by Congress
      authorizing the enrollment of citizens of Missouri into regiments to be
      armed, equipped and paid by the United States, but officered by the
      Governor of Missouri, and employed only in the defense of the State. This
      had many advantages besides giving the services to the Government of about
      13,000 very good soldiers. It brought into the ranks many wavering young
      men who did not want to fight against the Union, nor did they want to
      fight against the South. To enlist for the "defense of the State"
      satisfied all their scruples.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link261" id="link261"></a><span class="pn">{261}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The time had come when every young man in the State had to be lined up
      somewhere. He could not remain neutral; if he was not for the Union he
      would inevitably be brought into the Secession ranks.
    </p>
    <p>
      The law authorized the necessary staff and commanding officers for this
      force, and prescribed that it should be under the command of a
      Brigadier-General of the United States selected by the Governor of
      Missouri.
    </p>
    <p>
      Our old acquaintance, John M. Schofield, Gen. Lyon's Chief of Staff at the
      battle of Wilson's Creek, who had since done good work in command of a
      regiment of Missouri artillery, was commissioned a Brigadier-General to
      date from Nov. 21, 1861, and put in command of the Missouri Enrolled
      Militia, beginning thus a career of endless trouble, but of quite extended
      usefulness.
    </p>
    <p>
      It will be remembered that Brig.-Gen. U. S. Grant, recently promoted from
      the Colonelcy of the 21st Ill., had been relieved from his command at
      Jefferson City, and sent to that of a new district consisting of southeast
      Missouri and southern Illinois. He had made his headquarters temporarily
      at Cape Girardeau, to attend to M. Jeff Thompson, who was determined to
      lead the way for Gens. Leonidas Polk and Gideon Pillow into St. Louis by
      the Mississippi River route. Grant, as we have seen, organized his
      movements so well that Thompson was driven back from Fredericktown and
      Ironton with some loss, and returned to his old stamping-ground at New
      Madrid, below Columbus, Ky., where Polk had established his headquarters
      and the fighting center of the Confederacy in the West.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link262" id="link262"></a><span class="pn">{262}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Polk was reputed to have at that time some 80,000 men under his command,
      and Grant, following his usual practice of getting into proximity to his
      enemy, transferred his headquarters to Cairo, where, also in accordance
      with his invariable habit, he begun to furnish active employment for those
      under him in ways unpleasant for his adversary. An enemy in the territory
      assigned to Gen. Grant was never allowed much opportunity to loll in
      careless indolence. This idiosyncrasy of Gen. Grant made him rather
      peculiar among the Union Generals at that stage of the war.
    </p>
    <p>
      Two days after Grant arrived at Cairo he learned that Gen. Polk was moving
      to take Paducah, at the mouth of the Tennessee River, 45 miles above
      Cairo. This was a most important point, as a lodgment there would have
      stopped navigation on the Ohio, and absolutely controlled that on the
      Cumberland and Tennessee. Grant at once decided that he would anticipate
      him and telegraphed for permission to St. Louis, but his telegram and
      another one still more urgent received no attention, and he proceeded to
      act on his own volition, loading his men on the steamers and starting for
      Paducah in the night, arriving there in the morning, thereby anticipating
      the rebel advance some six or eight hours. This was characteristic of
      Grant's other operations around Cairo, and it was not long until he had
      that point not only free from apprehension as to what Polk might do
      against it with his mighty army, but he had Polk becoming anxious as to
      what Grant might do against him at Columbus, which he had proclaimed as
      the "Gibraltar of the West."
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link263" id="link263"></a><span class="pn">{263}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Everywhere in his district Grant had introduced the best discipline into
      the force of 20,000 men which he had collected. He had looked out
      carefully for their wants, and had them well supplied, and he was gaining
      their confidence as well as his own by well directed movements which
      always led to considerable results.
    </p>
    <p>
      Fremont, who had at last started out in his grand movement against Price,
      was fearful that Price's army might be strongly reinforced by Polk from
      Columbus, and it was made Grant's duty to prevent this.
    </p>
    <p>
      Grant with his habitual boldness had been desirous of moving directly
      against Columbus, but the reputed strength of the works and the force
      there made the suggestion carry shivers to the minds of his superiors,
      where the memories of Bull Run and Ball's Bluff were so painfully recent.
      But if Grant was not allowed to do one thing, he would always do another.
      He heard of a force under M. J. Thompson, numbering about 3,000, on the
      St. Francois River, about 50 miles to the southwest of Cairo, and promptly
      started Col. Richard J. Oglesby with about 3,000 men to beat up Jeff
      Thompson and destroy him.
    </p>
    <p>
      Later he ordered Col. W. H. L. Wallace to take the remainder of the 11th
      Ill., and some other troops to move after Oglesby, to give him help should
      he need it.
    </p>
    <p>
      Soon after, believing that Jeff Thompson had gotten out of Col. Oglesby's
      reach, he sent another order to Oglesby to move directly upon New Madrid
      and take the place. This was a bold performance, for the capture of New
      Madrid would have placed him on the Mississippi below Columbus and cut off
      Polk's principal line of supplies.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link264" id="link264"></a><span class="pn">{264}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Urgent dispatches continued to come from Fremont to prevent any
      reinforcement of Price from Columbus, and Grant started in to impress Gen.
      Polk with the idea that he would have quite enough to attend to at home.
      He sent orders to Gen. C. F. Smith, commanding at Paducah, to send a
      column out to threaten Columbus from that side, and to Col. Marsh to
      advance from Mayfield, Ky., and Grant himself, gathering up about 3,000
      men from the troops he had around Cairo, embarking them on steamers, and
      under the convoy of two gunboats (the Lexington and Tyler), steamed down
      the river directly for Columbus, 20 miles away.
    </p>
    <p>
      Nov. 6 the flotilla dropped down the river to within six miles and in full
      view of Columbus, and landed a few men on the Kentucky side. This was to
      still further confuse the mind of Gen. Polk, and make him believe that he
      must expect an attack on the land side in co-operation with the forces
      advancing from Paducah and from Mayfield directly in front of Cairo.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Grant says that when he started out he had no intention of making a
      fight, and of course did not contemplate any such thing as a direct attack
      with the force he had upon the immensely superior numbers at Columbus, but
      he saw his men were eager to do something, and that they would be greatly
      discontented if they returned without a fight. Therefore, on learning that
      the enemy was crossing troops to the little hamlet of Belmont, opposite
      Columbus, presumably with the intention of cutting off and crushing
      Oglesby, he resolved to strike a blow, and determined to break up the
      small camp at Belmont, which would give the enemy something else to think
      about.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link265" id="link265"></a><span class="pn">{265}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      About an hour after daybreak he began landing his men on the west side of
      the Mississippi River, while the gunboats moved down a little further and
      waked up the enemy by throwing shells into the works at Columbus. Grant
      handled his men with the skill he always displayed on the field of battle,
      pushing forward the main body through the corn fields and woods, but
      leaving a regiment in a secure position in a dry slough as a resource for
      an emergency. They with the gunboats were to protect the transports.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Polk probably saw all this, but interpreted it as a mere feint to get
      him to send troops across the river and thus strip his fortifications so
      as to make easier the work of the columns advancing from Paducah and
      Mayfield. He therefore held his men with him and did not interfere with
      Grant's movements.
    </p>
    <p>
      Grant pushed on through the cornfields and woods for a mile or more, and
      then rearranged his lines and pushed forward a heavy line of skirmishers.
      By this time the enemy in camp at Belmont had learned of the movement, and
      started out to meet it. The two lines of skirmishers soon came in contact,
      and there was a spiteful, bickering fire opened between them. Both sides
      were expert woodsmen and riflemen, and thoroly at home at this kind of
      work. The Union line pressed the Confederates slowly back for four hours,
      receiving and inflicting considerable losses. Grant's horse was shot under
      him, but he got another, and kept his place in the advance, directing and
      encouraging the men, whom he says acted like veterans and behaved as well
      as any troops in the world could have done.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link266" id="link266"></a><span class="pn">{266}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      He pushed the enemy so closely that when the latter reached the abatis
      they broke into confusion and rushed over the river bank for shelter,
      yielding possession of their camp to the victorious Unionists.
    </p>
    <p>
      This triumph completely intoxicated the victors. They broke ranks, threw
      down their guns, began rummaging through the camps for trophies, running
      up and down and cheering wildly. Their officers were no better than they.
      Many of them had been political "spellbinders" in civil life and very
      naturally proceeded to "improve the occasion" by getting on stumps and
      delivering enthusiastic Union speeches and addresses of congratulation
      over the gallantry of their men and the wonderful victory achieved. In
      vain did Gen. Grant try to recall them to a sense of soldierly duty and
      discipline. He alone appeared to comprehend the object of the expedition,
      and what was necessary to be next done. He could not rally enough men to
      go down the river bank and capture the garrison which was sheltered there.
      A number of the men who were attracted by the captured cannon began firing
      them with great jubilation down the river at steamboats which they saw
      there, and Grant tried to have them, since they would fire guns, turn them
      upon the steamers which were coming across from Columbus loaded with
      troops. Polk had at last waked up to what was being done across the river,
      and began a fire upon Belmont from his siege guns, while he hurried troops
      aboard steamers to recover the lost position.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link267" id="link267"></a><span class="pn">{267}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The shells began to startle the exultant soldiers, and Grant took
      advantage of this to employ them in setting fire to the tents and other
      camp equipage. Presently the sky of victory was overcast by the sudden
      announcement that the rebels were in line of battle between them and the
      transports, and that they were cut off and surrounded. The exultation of
      victory was followed by almost a panic, but Grant steadied them with the
      quiet assurance "We have cut our way in here, and we can cut it out
      again." This was taken up by the officers as they reformed their men for
      the battle.
    </p>
    <p>
      Again the skirmish line was pushed forward in search of the enemy, but he
      offered only a moderate resistance, and the troops made their way back to
      the transports with little difficulty, though the excitement was
      tremendous.
    </p>
    <p>
      The commanders of the gunboats had kept alert, and came promptly forward
      to engage the guns on the Columbus bluffs and later to discourage the
      pursuing rebels with liberal volleys of grape and canister, which, as the
      bend of the river gave them an enfilade on the river line, were delivered
      with great effect and considerable slaughter.
    </p>
    <p>
      The troops were gotten again on board the transports without any
      particular trouble, though about 25 wounded were left in the hands of the
      enemy. The Union troops had brought off about 175 prisoners and two guns,
      besides spiking four other cannon.
    </p>
    <p>
      While the wounded were being gathered up and brought aboard, Gen. Grant
      rode out some distance to reconnoiter, and almost rode into a body of the
      enemy. He turned and made his way back to the transports, which were just
      starting; the Captain recognized him, and held his boat for a moment while
      Gen. Grant's horse slipped down the steep bank and then trotted on board
      over the single gangway. The expedition returned to Cairo immediately.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link268" id="link268"></a><span class="pn">{268}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Grant officially reported his losses as 485 in killed, wounded and
      missing. Gen. Polk officially reported his losses as killed, 105; wounded,
      419; missing, 117; total, 641. He estimated the Union losses at 1,500;
      "fourteen-fifteenths of that number must have been killed, wounded or
      drowned." He also said that he had a stand of colors, something over 1,000
      stand of arms, with knapsacks, ammunition, and other military stores.
    </p>
    <p>
      Medical Director J. H. Brinton gives the following list of losses by
      regiments:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     Command.                                  Killed.              Wounded

     27th Ill. Vol..........................     11                     47

     80th Ill. Vol.........................       9                     27

     31st Ill. Vol..........................     10                     70

     22d Ill. Vol...........................     23                     74

     7th Iowa Vol...........................     26                     93

     Cavalry and Artillery.................       1                     11

     Total..................................     80                    322
</pre>
    <p>
      While Gen. Grant and the officers and men under him regarded the affair as
      a great victory, and deservedly plumed themselves upon their achievements
      that day, there was a decidedly different opinion taken in the North, and
      the matter has been the subject of more or less sharp criticism ever
      since. It was pronounced by the McClellan-Halleck school of military men
      as a useless waste of men in gaining no object, and probably the most
      charitable of Gen. Grant's critics could find no better excuse for him
      than that he was like the man in the Bible who had bought two yoke of oxen
      and wanted to go and try them. All this did not disturb the equanimity of
      Gen. Grant and his men in the least. He knew he had accomplished what he
      had set out to do, to give Gen. Polk something else to occupy his mind
      than capturing Oglesby or reinforcing Thompson and Price.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link269" id="link269"></a><span class="pn">{269}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Col. Oglesby made his way unmolested back to Cairo. Polk was probably
      beginning to think that he would have quite enough to do to stay in
      Columbus, and his dreams as to St. Louis were dissipated.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Grant's men knew that they had met their enemies on equal terms in
      the open field, and had driven them, whether they were in their front or
      rear, and so they were content.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Confederates of course proclaimed a great victory, and made the most
      of it. Albert Sidney Johnston enthusiastically congratulated Polk,
      Jefferson Davis did the same, and the Confederate Congress passed a
      resolution of thanks to Maj.-Gen. Polk and Brig.-Gens. Pillow and Cheatham
      and the officers and soldiers under their commands.
    </p>
    <p>
      The battle was the occasion of still further increasing the bitterness
      between Polk and his insubordinate subordinate, Gideon J. Pillow, who
      resigned his commission, and sent to the Confederate War Department a long
      and bitter complaint against Gen. Polk, a large part of which was taken up
      with charges against his superior for non-support when he, Pillow, was
      engaged in a terrible struggle on the west side of the river with a force
      "three times my own." Pillow asserted that he had repeatedly driven back
      the Unionists at the point of the bayonet, after his ammunition had been
      exhausted, and no more was furnished him by Gen. Polk. He said that Polk
      had thus needlessly sacrificed many brave men, and that a like, if not
      greater, calamity was possible if he were to continue in command. "His
      retention is the source of great peril to the country." Pillow said: "As a
      zealous patriot, I admire him; as an eminent minister of the Gospel, I
      respect him; but as a Commanding General I cannot agree with him."
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link270" id="link270"></a><span class="pn">{270}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Southeastern Missouri had, therefore, a season of rest for some time.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link271" id="link271"></a><span class="pn">{271}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016">
       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
    </p>
    <div style="height: 4em;">
      <br /><br /><br /><br />
    </div>
    <h2>
      CHAPTER XVI. HUNTER, LANE, MISSOURI AND KANSAS.
    </h2>
    <p>
      Maj.-Gen. David Hunter felt that fortune was not smiling on him according
      to his deserts. He had graduated from West Point in 1822, and had been in
      the Army 39 years, or longer than any but few of the officers then in
      active employment. He was a thorough soldier, devoted to his profession,
      highly capable, inflexibly upright, strongly loyal, an old-time friend of
      President Lincoln, and enjoyed his full confidence. He had done a very
      painful piece of necessary work for the Administration in investigating
      the conditions in Gen. John C. Fremont's command, faithfully reporting
      them, and in relieving that officer, thereby incurring the enmity of all
      his partisans. Then he had handed the command over to Maj.-Gen. H. W.
      Hal-leck, who had graduated 17 years later than he, and who had been seven
      years out of the Army.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Hunter had been assigned to Kansas, which was created a Department
      for him, but it had few troops, and was remote from the scene of important
      operations. He was particularly hurt that Brig.-Gen. Don Carlos Buell, 19
      years his junior, should be assigned to the command of a splendid army of
      100,000 men in Kentucky; and Brig.-Gen. Thos. W. Sherman, 14 years his
      junior, should be selected to lead an important expedition to the coast of
      South Carolina and Georgia.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link272" id="link272"></a><span class="pn">{272}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Like the faithful soldier he was, however, he made little plaint of his
      own grievances, but addressed himself earnestly to the work to which he
      was assigned. He soon had other troubles enough to make him forget his
      own. His hardest work was to keep the Kansans off the Missourians. In the
      strained and wavering conditions of public opinion, every effort had to be
      made to prevent any pretext or incentive to take the young men of Missouri
      into the ranks of Price's army. Gen. Halleck estimated that indignation at
      the border raids of Lane, Jennison and Montgomery had given Price fully
      20,000 men. The years of strife along the borders had arrayed the people
      in both States against one another. Every Kansan considered every
      Missourian the enemy of himself and the State, and the feeling was
      reciprocated by the Missourians.
    </p>
    <p>
      For years Kansas had been inflicted with raids by the "Poor White Trash,"
      "Border Ruffians," and "Bald Knobbers," who had, beside committing other
      outrages, carried off into Missouri horses, cattle, furniture, farm
      implements, and other portable property.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Kansans held all Missourians responsible for these crimes by the
      worser element, and the war seemed a chance to get even. When opportunity
      offered, Kansas parties invaded Missouri, bringing back with them
      everything which they could load on wagons or drive along the road.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link273" id="link273"></a><span class="pn">{273}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The great mass of the Missourians still held aloof from both sides,
      remaining as neutral as they would be allowed. Douglas Democrats,
      Bell-and-Everett Old-Line Whigs, two-thirds of the entire population, were
      yet halting between their attachment for the Union and their political and
      social affiliations. It was all-important that they should be kept loyal,
      or at least out of the Confederate camps, hence the stringency of
      Halleck's orders against any spoliations or depredations by Union troops,
      and hence his orders that the negroes should be kept out of the camps, and
      their ownership settled by the civil courts. Every offense by Union
      soldiers was made the most of by Price's recruiting agents to bring into
      their ranks the young men for the "defense of the State."
    </p>
    <p>
      At the head of the vengeful Kansas element was the meteoric James H. Lane,
      who had for years ridden the whirlwind in the agitation following the
      passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, and the rush of settlers into those
      Territories. Volumes have been written about "Jim Lane," but the last
      definitive word as to his character is yet to be uttered. Arch demagogue
      he certainly was, but demagogues have their great uses in periods of storm
      and stress. We usually term "demagogues" those men active against us,
      while those who are rousing the people on our own side are "patriotic
      leaders." No man had more enemies nor more enthusiastic friends than "Jim
      Lane."
    </p>
    <p>
      As with all real leaders of men, the source of his power was a mystery.
      Tall, thin, bent, with red hair, a rugged countenance and rasping voice,
      he had little oratorical attractiveness, and what he said never read
      convincingly in print. No man, however, ever excelled him before an
      audience, and he swayed men as the winds do the sea.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link274" id="link274"></a><span class="pn">{274}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Lane was born in Lawrenceburg, Ind., in 1814, and was therefore 47 years
      of age. His father was Amos Lane, a lawyer of great ability, a member of
      Congress, and conspicuous in Indiana. James H. Lane went into politics at
      an early age, and entered the Mexican War as Colonel of the 3d Ind.,
      distinguishing himself at Buena Vista, where he was wounded. Upon the
      expiration of the term of service of his regiment he raised the 5th Ind.,
      and became its Colonel. This gave him quite a prestige in politics, and he
      was elected Lieutenant-Governor, and Representative in Congress. The
      atmosphere of Indiana was, however, too quiet for his turbulent spirit. He
      broke with his party, joined in the rush to Kansas, and speedily became
      the leader of the out-and-out Free State men. On the strength of his
      Mexican War reputation these elected him Major-General of their troops, in
      the troubles they were having with the Pro-Slavery men and the United
      State troops sent to assist in making the Territory a Slave State. When
      the Free State men gained control of the Territory, he was made
      Major-General of the Territorial troops. His principal lieutenants were
      James Montgomery and Dr. Charles R. Jenni-son, brave, daring men,
      colleagues of "Old Osawatomie Brown," entertaining the same opinions as he
      with regard to slavery, and with even fewer scruples than he as to other
      forms of property.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link275" id="link275"></a><span class="pn">{275}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      When the United States troops were assisting the Pro-Slavery men,
      Montgomery and Jennison went into active rebellion at the head of some
      hundreds of bold, fighting men&mdash;"Jayhawkers"&mdash;who carried terror
      into the ranks of their adversaries. They insisted that they were acting
      according to the light of their own consciences and the laws of God. So
      terrible did they become that, Nov. 26, 1860, Geo. M. Beebe, Acting
      Governor of the Territory, reported to President Buchanan that Montgomery
      and Jennison, at the head of between 300 and 500 "well-disciplined and
      desperate Jayhawkers," equipped with "arms of the latest and most deadly
      character," had hung two citizens of Linn County, and frightened 500
      citizens of that County into flight from the Territory. One of their
      number having been captured, was about to be brought to trial before the
      United States District Court at Fort Scott, and what they alleged was a
      packed jury. They had proceeded to so frighten the court that the Judge
      and Marshals incontinently fled to Missouri, leaving a notice on the door
      that there would be no session of the court. Therefore Gov. Beebe humanely
      recommended to the President that Montgomery and Jennison be immediately
      killed, as there would be no peace in the Territory until they were.
    </p>
    <p>
      In spite of Lane's constant prominence, there was always a faction in
      Kansas as bitterly his enemies as his friends were enthusiastic for him,
      and it was ever a question which of the two were the stronger. It demanded
      his utmost activity and cunning to keep himself on top. Upon the admission
      of the State, Lane succeeded in having himself elected Senator, but the
      legality of the proceeding was questioned and this called for more
      activity to keep himself at the front.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link276" id="link276"></a><span class="pn">{276}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      When the Union army retreated after the battle of Wilson's Creek, Aug. 10,
      there went back with it the 1st and 2d Kan.&mdash;all the organized troops
      the State had in the field. This left the border exposed to the vengeance
      of Price's on-sweeping hordes, who made loud threats of what they proposed
      to do. Lane sounded the trumpet. Wilson's Creek with Bull Run had awakened
      the people to the stern realities of the contest, and there speedily
      gathered into camp the men who formed the 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Kan.,
      Montgomery becoming Colonel of the 3d Kan.; Jennison of the 7th
      (Jennison's Jayhawkers). Lane took command of the troops assembled at Fort
      Scott, moved out aggressively on Price's flank, gave Rains, who was in
      command there, a sharp skirmish at Dry Wood, and his manuvers were so
      menacing that Price called Rains back when within five miles of the Kansas
      line, relinquishing his cherished idea of "scourging the Abolitionist
      nest," and pushed on to Lexington. Lane then made a dash into Missouri in
      Price's rear, fought a lively skirmish at Papinsville, and followed up the
      retreating Confederates, capturing Osceola, as has been previously stated.
    </p>
    <p>
      After Gen. Hunter assumed command Lane reappeared with a commission as
      Brigadier-General of Volunteers, of which he had beguiled President
      Lincoln, and began playing a game which gave intense annoyance to the
      bluff, straightforward old soldier. To Hunter he represented that he was
      there merely as a Senator and a member of the Senate Military Committee,
      which latter he was not. To the President and War Department he
      represented that he and Hunter were in brotherly sympathy and confidence,
      and planning a movement of mighty importance. The "sympathy" and
      "confidence" part were believed so completely, that the War Department did
      not take the trouble to communicate with Hunter in regard to the details
      of the proposed movement.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link277" id="link277"></a><span class="pn">{277}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      To his friends and to the press he talked magniloquently about a grand
      "Southern expedition" to be made up of 8,000 or 10,000 Kansas troops,
      4,000 Indians, seven regiments of cavalry, three batteries of artillery,
      and four regiments of infantry from Minnesota and Wisconsin, which he
      would command. It would move from Kansas down into Texas, and there meet
      an expedition coming up from the Gulf of Mexico. The War Department seems
      to have been impressed with the feasibility of this, and began ordering
      troops, officers and supplies to Fort Leavenworth to report to "Brig.-Gen.
      James H. Lane."
    </p>
    <p>
      Lane's enemies as well as his friends in Kansas heartily approved of this,
      as it would take him away from Kansas, and the Kansas Legislature united
      in a request to have him appointed a Major-General, as that would vacate
      his seat in the Senate.
    </p>
    <p>
      General-in-Chief McClellan "invited" Gen. Hunter's attention to the
      proposed expedition, and suggested that he prepare for it and report what
      might be necessary. Gen. Hunter replied that he had had no official
      information as to the expedition, and gently complained that the War
      Department seemed entirely unmindful of the Commander of the Department,
      and had consistently ignored him. As to the expedition, he regarded it as
      impracticable. It was 440 miles from Leavenworth to the nearest point in
      Texas, and the road was over a wild, barren country, which would require
      an immense train of supplies for the troops. He had in the Department only
      about 3,000 men, entirely too few to successfully defend Fort Leavenworth
      and its valuable supplies against a raid such as Price and McCulloch were
      continually threatening. He said he knew no such person as "Brig.-Gen. J.
      H. Lane," to whom so many came with orders to report. He also said that
      Lane himself now saw that he had raised expectations which he could not
      fulfill, and that he was seeking to pick a quarrel with the Department
      Commander to give him an excuse for dropping the whole business, and was
      making himself very annoying in a thousand ways.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link278" id="link278"></a><span class="pn">{278}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Secretary Stanton was profoundly distrustful of Lane, and said that he
      would leave the Cabinet rather than put him in independent command.
      Finally the matter came to President Lincoln, who wrote the following
      characteristic letter:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     Executive Mansion, Washington, Feb. 10. Maj.-Gen. Hunter and
     Brig.-Gen. Lane, Leavenworth, Kan.:

     My wish has been and is to avail the Government of the
     services of both Gen. Hunter and Gen. Lane, and, so far as
     possible, to personally oblige both. Gen. Hunter is the
     senior officer, and must command when they serve together;
     tho in so far as he can, consistently with the public
     service and his own honor, oblige Gen. Lane, he will also
     oblige me. If they cannot come to an amicable understanding,
     Gen. Lane must report to Gen. Hunter for duty, according to
     the rules, or decline the service.

     A.   LINCOLN.
</pre>
    <p>
      Lane, who then thought his seat in the Senate safe, decided that he would
      rather serve his country in the forum than in the field, and his
      commission was cancelled. Five years later, dismayed to find he had lost
      his hold on the people of Kansas by his support of Andrew Johnson, he
      ended his strange, eventful history with a pistol-shot from his own hand.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Hunter having reported that the division of Kansas from Missouri was
      unwise, the Department was merged into Gen. Halleck's command, and Gen.
      Hunter assigned to duty in South Carolina.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link279" id="link279"></a><span class="pn">{279}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Halleck's laboriously elaborate system received a little shock so
      ludicrous as to be almost incredible were it not solemnly told in an
      official communication by himself to Gen. Sterling Price:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     St Louis, Jan. 27, 1862. Maj.-Gen. Sterling Price,
     Commanding, etc., Springfield, Mo. General: A man calling
     himself L. V. Nichols came to my headquarters a day or two
     since, with a duplicate of your letter of the 12th instant.
     On being questioned, he admitted that he belonged to your
     service; that he had come in citizen's dress from
     Springfield, avoiding some of our military posts and passing
     through others in disguise, and without reporting himself to
     the Commander. He said that he had done this by your
     direction. On being asked for his flag of truce, he pulled
     from his pocket a dirty pocket-handkerchief, with a short
     stick tied to one corner.
</pre>
    <p>
      Gen. Halleck then proceeded to read Gen. Price a lecture on the etiquette
      of flags of truce.
    </p>
    <p>
      A feature of peculiar pathos was the war storms' reaching and rending of
      the haven of refuge which the Government had provided for its wards in the
      Indian Territory. More than a century of bitter struggling between the
      Creeks, Seminoles, Cherokees, Choctaws, and Chickasaws, and the
      Carolinians, Georgians, Floridians, Alabamians, and Mississippians, marked
      by murderous massacres and bloody retaliations, had culminated in the
      Indians being removed in a body from their tribal domains, and resettled
      hundreds of miles west of the Mississippi, where it was confidently hoped
      they would be out of the way of the advancing wave of settlement and out
      of the reach of the land-hungry whites. Their mills, churches, and school
      houses were reerected there, and the devoted missionaries, the
      Congregationalists, Methodists, Baptists, Moravians and Jesuits resumed
      with increased zeal the work of converting them to Christianity and
      civilization, which had been so far prosecuted with gratifying success.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link280" id="link280"></a><span class="pn">{280}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      In their new home they had prospered wonderfully. Their numbers increased
      until they were estimated from 100,000 to 120,000. Many of them lived in
      comfortable houses, wore white men's clothes, and tilled fields on which
      were raised in the aggregate great quantities of wheat, corn, cotton and
      potatoes. They had herds of horses, cattle, sheep and swine large beyond
      any precedent among the whites. It was common for an Indian to number his
      horses and cattle by the thousands, while the poorest of them owned scores
      which foraged in the plenty of limitless rich prairies and bottom land.
      Churches, school houses and mills abounded, and they had even a printing
      press, from which they issued a paper and many religious and educational
      works in an alphabet invented by a full-blood Cherokee. Each tribe
      constituted an individual Nation under a written Constitution, with a full
      set of elective officers. Slavery had been introduced by the half-breeds,
      and the census of 1860 shows the following number of slaves and
      slave-owners in the five Nations:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
                                        Owners.               Slaves.

     Choctaws..........................385                   2,297

     Cherokees.........................384                   2,604

     Creeks............................287                   1,661

     Chickasaws........................118                     917

     Semlnoles..................... ....&mdash;                  &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;.
</pre>
    <p>
      One Choctaw owned 227 negroes.
    </p>
    <p>
      Into the Territory the Government also gathered other tribes and remnants
      of tribes, Quapaws, Kiowas, Senecas, Comanches, etc., mostly in the
      "blanket" stage of savagery.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link281" id="link281"></a><span class="pn">{281}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The dominant sentiment in the civilized tribes was strongly averse to the
      war and in favor of peace. The memories and traditions as to the meaning
      of war were too fresh and grievous. The object lessons as to the advantage
      of peace were everywhere striking and overwhelming. They hoped to maintain
      a complete neutrality in the struggle, and pleaded to be allowed to do so.
      June 17, 1861, John Ross, Principal Chief of the Cherokees, wrote a long
      official letter to Gen. Ben. McCulloch, in which he said that his people
      had done nothing to bring about the war, were friends to both sides, and
      only desired to live in peace.
    </p>
    <p>
      As in the rest of the South, the Confederates were not listening to any
      talk of neutrality, and they proceeded as energetically to stifle it as
      they had the Union and peace advocates in the several Southern States. All
      the Indian Agents and officials were ardent Secessionists, and at the head
      of them was Superintendent Albert Pike, originally a Massachusetts Yankee,
      and the son of a poor shoemaker. He had gone South as one of the numerous
      "Yankee schoolmasters" who invaded that section in search of a livelihood,
      had become a States Rights Democrat, and, as usual with proselytes, was
      the most zealous of believers. He was a lawyer of some ability, a
      successful politician, an active worker in Masonry, and made much pretense
      as a poet. Nothing that he ever wrote survives today.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linkimage-0021" id="linkimage-0021">
       <!--  IMG --> </a> <img src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:j:john-mcelroy-struggle-for-missouri-281-Gen%20Albert%20Pike.jpg"
      alt="281-general Albert Pike"  /><br />
    </p>
    <p>
      Each of the Indian Agents began enlisting men into the Confederate service
      and using them to impose Secession ideas upon their fellow-tribesmen who
      were either indifferent or actually hostile.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link282" id="link282"></a><span class="pn">{282}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The missionaries, being mostly from the North, were strongly for the
      Union, and their influence had to be encountered and broken down.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Indian Agents were commissioned Colonels in the Confederate service,
      and were expected to raise regiments, with the Chiefs as subordinate
      officers. The leader among the Agents was Douglas H. Cooper, Agent for the
      Choctaws, a man of courage, decision and enterprise, who raised a regiment
      mainly of the half-breeds of the Choctaws and Chickasaws.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Cherokee regiment was almost wholly half-breeds, with Stand Waitie, a
      half-breed, courageous, implacable, merciless, as its Colonel. Albert Pike
      was rewarded for his great service in bringing the Indians into line with
      a commission of Brigadier-General, C. S. A., and placed in command of the
      whole force.
    </p>
    <p>
      Principal Chief John Ross temporarily bowed to superior force and gave his
      adhesion to the Southern Confederacy. A large portion of his people would
      not do this. They, with a similar element in the other Nations, gathered
      around the venerable Chief Hopoeithleyohola, nearly 100 years old, and
      whose span of life began before the Revolutionary War. He had been a
      dreaded young war leader against Gen. Jackson in the sanguinary scenes at
      Fort Mimms, Tallapoosa, and Red Sticks in 1813-14. When he was a boy his
      people were allied with the Spaniards in Florida to resist the British
      encroachments upon their tribal empire in Georgia. When he was a War
      Chief, the British at Pensacola and Mobile had put muskets and ammunition
      into his hands for his men to resist the North Carolinians, Georgians,
      Tennesseeans and Kentuckians. In every decade he had fought and treated
      with the grandfathers and fathers of the same men who were trying to
      coerce him.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link283" id="link283"></a><span class="pn">{283}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Every battle and every treaty had ended in a further spoliation of the
      "hunting grounds" of his people. He was now to end his career as he began,
      and consistently pursued it, in stern resistance to his hereditary
      enemies. He calculated that he could put into the field about 1,500
      reliable, well-armed warriors, who would be more than a match for the
      Indians who had entered into the Confederate service. If the white
      Confederates came to their assistance, he could make an orderly retreat
      into Kansas, where he hoped to receive help from Union troops, if they
      should not have advanced before then.
    </p>
    <p>
      Col. Douglas H. Cooper was sent against him, and at first tried diplomacy,
      but the wily old Hopoeithleyohola had seen the results of too many
      conferences, and refused to be drawn into one. Cooper then assembled a
      force of 1,400 men, consisting of some companies of white Texas cavalry
      and the Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole regiments, under their War Chiefs,
      D. N. Mcintosh and John Jumper, and moved out to attack Hopoeithleyohola,
      who beat them back with considerable loss.
    </p>
    <p>
      The advance of Gen. Fremont called for the concentration of every
      available man to oppose him, so Hopoeithleyohola was given a few weeks'
      respite. As soon, however, as the Union army retreated to Rolla and
      Sedalia, Col. Cooper resumed his operations against Hopoeithleyohola, who
      at Chusto-Talasah, Dec. 9, inflicted such a severe defeat upon him that
      Cooper retreated in a crippled condition to Fort Gibson. There Col. James
      Mcintosh, commanding the Confederate forces at Van Buren, Ark., went to
      his assistance with some 1,600 mounted Texans and Arkansans, and the
      combined force closed in upon the Union Indians at Shoal Greek.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link284" id="link284"></a><span class="pn">{284}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Hopoeithleyohola and his Lieutenant, Haleck-Tustenugge, handled their men
      with the greatest skill and courage in an obstinate battle, but after four
      hours of resistance the overpowered Union Indians were driven, pursued by
      Stand Waitie's murderous half-breeds, who took no men and but few women
      and children prisoners. Back over the wide, shelterless prairie, bitten by
      the cruel cold and pelted by the storms of an unusually severe Midwinter,
      Hopoeithleyohola led his defeated band to a refuge in far-away Kansas. The
      weather was so severe that Col. Cooper reports some his men as frozen to
      death as they rode along, but the scent of blood was in the half-breed
      Stand Waitie's nostrils, and he pressed onward remorselessly.
    </p>
    <p>
      More than 1,000 men, women and children of Hopoeithleyohola's band left
      their homes to whiten and mark the dismal trail, and the aged Chief
      himself died shortly after reaching Fort Scott, where he was buried with
      all the honors of war.
    </p>
    <p>
      Upon the fertile Indian Territory descended the war storm which blighted
      the work of the missionaries, and completely ruined the fairest prospects
      in our history for civilizing and Christianizing the aborigines. When the
      storm ended, one-quarter of the people had perished, the fences, houses,
      mills, schoolhouses and churches were all burnt, and the hundreds of
      thousands of horses, cattle, sheep and hogs had disappeared so completely
      that the Government was compelled to furnish the Indians with animals to
      stock their farms anew.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link285" id="link285"></a><span class="pn">{285}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Sterling Price had reached his zenith in the capture of Lexington, Sept
      20, 1861. In substantial results it was the biggest achievement of the war
      that far. Bull Run had been, indeed, a much larger battle, but at
      Lexington Price had captured 3,000 prisoners, including five Colonels and
      120 other commissioned officers; 1,000 horses and mules; 100 wagons; seven
      pieces of artillery; 3,000 stands of arms; $900,000 in money, and a very
      large quantity of Commissary and Quartermaster's supplies.
    </p>
    <p>
      Though he was to fight nearly four years longer with the greatest
      enterprise and determination, though he was to command vastly stronger
      forces, and though he was to be followed by myriads of Missourians with
      unfaltering courage and enthusiasm, he was never to approach a parallel to
      this shining achievement.
    </p>
    <p>
      It was felt that Lexington was only the earnest of incomparably greater
      things he was going to do in delivering Missouri from the hated Yankees,
      and making hers the brightest star in the Southern Confederacy, paling
      with her military glory even historic Virginia. Then McCulloch would come
      up with his Texans, Louisianians and Arkansans, and Albert Pike with his
      horde of Indians. There would be such an overthrow and annihilation of
      their enemies as the world had never before seen, followed by a race to
      get to St. Louis before Polk, Pillow and M. Jeff Thompson could reach her
      from down the Mississippi.
    </p>
    <p>
      Sterling Price was eager to fight Fremont among the rough, high lands
      south of Springfield, and his ardent followers wanted a repetition of the
      triumph of Lexington; but McCulloch would not come up from his fastness at
      Cross Hollows. Without him Sterling Price, his strength depleted by
      defections on his long retreat, did not feel warranted in offering battle,
      even with the advantage of the defensive hills.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link286" id="link286"></a><span class="pn">{286}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      McCulloch was importuned to come forward without success. The best comfort
      he could give Sterling Price was to destroy that part of Missouri and make
      it worthless to the enemy. McCulloch wanted to advance into Kansas,
      however, and utterly destroy that Territory, to strike terror to the
      Abolitionists. It speaks very badly for their intelligence system that
      both Price and McCulloch maintained, that neither of them was aware for
      days that the Union army had left Springfield, Nov. 8, on its retreat to
      Rolla and Sedalia. Although their camps were only some 70 miles from
      Springfield, they did not learn of the retreat until Nov. 16, when
      McCulloch, seized at last with a sudden desire to enter Missouri, rushed
      all his mounted men forward in hopes to capture trains and detachments.
      They were disgusted to find upon arriving at Springfield that the last
      Union soldier and wagon had left there more than a week previous.
    </p>
    <p>
      After some destruction of property, McCulloch sullenly returned to his old
      position in Arkansas, where, leaving his command to Col. James Mcintosh,
      lately Captain in the United States Army, he departed for Richmond to give
      the Confederate War Department his version of the occurrences in his
      territory.
    </p>
    <p>
      Sterling Price had learned the same day, Nov. 16, of the departure of the
      Union army, and set his columns in motion northward, announcing that he
      was going to winter on the Missouri River. Again he sent an appeal to
      McCulloch to cooperate, but Col. Mcintosh declined, on the ground that the
      troops were not properly clad for the rigorous weather so far north, and,
      besides, he did not think that the expedition would do any good.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link287" id="link287"></a><span class="pn">{287}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Sterling Price simply let loose his army on the country evacuated by the
      Union troops, and a reign of indescribable misery ensued for the Union
      people and those who were vainly trying to keep the neutral middle of the
      road. The army was spread out as much as possible in order to gather in
      recruits and supplies and assert its influence most widely.
    </p>
    <p>
      From Marshall, in Saline Co., Sterling Price issued a most remarkable
      proclamation to the people, calling for 50,000 volunteers. He reminded
      them that their harvests had been reaped, their preparation for Winter had
      been made, and now they had leisure to do something to relieve the people
      from the "inflictions of a foe marked with all the characteristics of
      barbarian warfare." He admitted that the great mass of the people were not
      in the war, and especially the substantial portion of the population, for,
      he said, "boys and small property-holders have in the main fought the
      battles." He begged, he implored that the herdsman should leave his folds,
      the lawyer his office, and come into camp to win the victory. He even
      dropped into poetry in his tearful earnestness, quoting the school boy's
      declamation from Marco Bozarris:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     Strike, till the last armed foe expires; Strike, for your
     altars and your fires! Strike for the green graves of your
     sires, God, and your native land!
</pre>
    <p>
      An infinitely harmful part of the proclamation was the following:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     Leave your property at home. What if it be taken&mdash;all taken?
     We have $200,000,000 worth of Northern means in Missouri
     which cannot be removed. When we are once free the State
     will indemnify every citizen who may have lost a dollar by
     adhesion to the cause of his country. We shall have our
     property, or its value, with interest.
</pre>
    <p>
      <a name="link288" id="link288"></a><span class="pn">{288}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      This was naturally interpreted as meaning that all those not distinctly
      favorable to Secession forfeited their property to those who were.
    </p>
    <p>
      This seemed ample warrant to the Poor White Trash banditti for seizure of
      the property of any man whose principles might not be of exactly the right
      shade.
    </p>
    <p>
      Experience teaches us that that class of people are pretty certain to find
      heterodox the opinions of any man who has something they may want. It
      certainly made a very dark outlook for anybody in Missouri to hold
      moveable property.
    </p>
    <p>
      The turbid thrasonics of the proclamation shows that it was not written by
      Price's Adjutant-General, Thomas L. Snead, who was a literary man. He was
      then absent at Richmond looking after the fences of his General. The
      proclamation sounds the more as if it came from the pen of our poetical
      acquaintance, M. Jeff Thompson, the "Swamp Fox" of the Mississippi. It
      concluded in this perfervid style:
    </p>
    <p>
      But, in the name of God and the attributes of manhood, let me appeal to
      you by considerations infinitely higher than money! Are we a generation of
      driveling, sniveling, degraded slaves? Or are we men who dare assert and
      maintain the rights which cannot be surrendered, and defend those
      principles of everlasting rectitude, pure and high and sacred, like God,
      their author? Be yours the office to choose between the glory of a free
      country and a just Government, and the bondage of your children! I will
      never see the chains fastened upon my country. I will ask for six and
      one-half feet of Missouri soil in which to repose, but will not live to
      see my people enslaved.
    </p>
    <p>
      Do I hear your shouts? Is that your war-cry which echoes through the land?
      Are you coming? Fifty thousand men! Missouri shall move to victory with
      the tread of a giant! Come on, my brave boys, 50,000 heroic, gallant,
      unconquerable Southern men! We await your coming.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link289" id="link289"></a><span class="pn">{289}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Sterling Price established his headquarters again at Osceola, on the banks
      of the Osage, but sent forward Gens. Rains and Steen to Lexington, the
      best point on the Missouri to hold the river and afford a passage for
      recruits coming in from the northern part of the State.
    </p>
    <p>
      The results of the proclamation were not commensurate with the desperate
      urgency of the appeal. Large parties of recruits, it is true, tried to
      make their way toward Price's camp, but many of them were intercepted, and
      dispersed; strong blows were delivered against Price's outlying
      detachments, driving them in from all sides. Meanwhile those he had in
      camp were melting away faster than hew ones were coming in.
    </p>
    <p>
      Sterling Price had other troubles. He was not a favorite in Richmond.
      Jefferson Davis was a man never doubtful as to the correctness of his own
      ideas, and he was most certain of those relating to military men and
      affairs. He had had extraordinary opportunities for familiarizing himself
      with all the fighting men, and possible fighting men, in the country. He
      graduated from West Point in 1828, 23d in a class of 33; none of whom,
      besides himself, became prominent. He had served seven years as a
      Lieutenant in the Regular Army on frontier duty, and as Colonel of a
      regiment in the Mexican War, where he achieved flattering distinction. He
      had been four years Chairman of the Senate Committee on Military Affairs,
      and four years Secretary of War. It must be admitted that his judgment
      with regard to officers was very often correct; yet he was a man of strong
      likes and dislikes. His reputation was that of "having the most quarrels
      and the fewest fights of any man in the Army."
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link290" id="link290"></a><span class="pn">{290}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Undoubtedly his partialities drew several men into the Confederate army
      who would otherwise have remained loyal, and his antipathies retained some
      men in the Union army who would otherwise have gone South. His reasons for
      disliking Price are obscure, further than that Price was a civilian, who
      had had no Regular Army training or experience, and that he believed Price
      to be in conspiracy to set up a Trans-Mississippi Confederacy. But little
      evidence of such intention is to be found anywhere, yet that little was
      sufficient for a man of Davis's jealous, suspicious nature. Repeatedly, at
      the mere mention of Price's name, he flew into an undignified passion and
      denounced him unsparingly.
    </p>
    <p>
      Price's men were carrying havoc as far as they could reach. Nov. 19 they
      burned the important little town of Warsaw, the County seat of Benton
      County and a Union stronghold. In 1860 the people of Benton County had
      cast but 74 votes for Lincoln and but 100 for Breckinridge, while they
      gave Bell and Everett 306 votes and Douglas 574. Dec 16 Platte City,
      County seat of Piatt County, was nearly destroyed by them. This was
      another Union community, and a large majority of the people were
      Bell-and-Everett Unionists or Douglas Democrats. Dec. 20 a concerted foray
      of guerrillas and bushwhackers burnt the bridges and otherwise crippled
      nearly 100 miles of Northern Railroad. But Halleck's splendid
      systematizing had begun to tell.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link291" id="link291"></a><span class="pn">{291}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The northern part of Missouri was made unbearably hot for bridge-burners
      and other depredators by the swift execution of a number of "peaceful
      citizens" caught red-handed, and the probability that others would be
      caught and served in the same way. Gen. John Pope, commanding in Central
      Missouri, began at last to show the stuff that was in him, and by a
      skillful movement got into the rear of Bains and Steen, compelling them to
      hurriedly abandon the line of the Missouri River, and striking them so
      sharply in their flight as to capture 300 prisoners, 70 wagons, with loads
      of supplies for Price's army, and much other valuable booty. Another of
      Pope's columns, under Col. Jeff C. Davis, surprised a camp at Mil-ford,
      Dec. 18, and forced its unconditional surrender, capturing three Colonels
      (one of whom was a brother of Gov. Magoffin, of Kentucky), 17 Captains,
      and over 1,000 prisoners, 1,000 stands of arms, 1,000 horses and mules,
      and a great amount of supplies, tents, baggage, and ammunition. In a
      couple of weeks Gen. Pope, with a loss of about 100 men, captured 2,500
      prisoners.
    </p>
    <p>
      Jan. 2 Gen. Fred Steele, commanding at Sedalia, and a level-minded man,
      who kept himself well informed, telegraphed to Gen. Halleck:
    </p>
    <p>
      Price's whole force not over 16,000. In all 63 pieces of artillery, none
      rifled. Horses very poor. Price says he is going to Jefferson City as soon
      as they are organized. At present he has no discipline; no sentinels or
      picket to prevent passing in and out. Rains drinking all the time. Price
      also drinking too much.
    </p>
    <p>
      Clearly Price had in him none of the startling aggressiveness which
      distinguished Lyon and Stonewall Jackson. He made no effort to suddenly
      collect his forces and inflict an overwhelming blow upon one after another
      of the columns converging upon him and defeat them in detail. Instead, he
      lost heart, and, abandoning the strong lines of the Osage and the Pomme de
      Terre, fell back to Springfield, where comfortable quarters were built for
      his men, and he gathered in an abundance of supplies from the Union
      farmers of the surrounding country, expecting that he would be left
      undisturbed until Spring.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link292" id="link292"></a><span class="pn">{292}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Thus the year 1861 ended with some 61 battles and considerable skirmishes
      having been fought on the soil of Missouri, with a loss to the Union side
      of between 500 and 600 killed, treble that number wounded, and about 3,600
      prisoners.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Confederate loss was probably in excess in most of the engagements.
      Besides, they had lost fully four-fifths of the State, and were in
      imminent danger of being driven from the restricted foothold they still
      retained in the southwestern corner.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Union State Government, with the conservative, able Hamilton R. Gamble
      at the head, was running with tolerable smoothness. Courts were sitting in
      most of the Counties to administer justice. Under Halleck's orders Judges,
      Sheriffs, Clerks, jurors, parties and witnesses had to take the oath of
      allegiance. Gen. Schofield was rapidly organizing his 13,000 Missouri
      Militia to maintain peace in the State, and incidentally to keep many of
      the men enrolled out of the rebel army.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link293" id="link293"></a><span class="pn">{293}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017">
       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
    </p>
    <div style="height: 4em;">
      <br /><br /><br /><br />
    </div>
    <h2>
      CHAPTER XVII. PRICE DRIVEN OUT OF THE STATE.
    </h2>
    <p>
      When he abandoned the strong line of the Osage and took up his position at
      Springfield, Gen. Sterling Price, like the Russians against Napoleon,
      relied upon his powerful allies, Gens. January, February and March. At
      that time the roads in Missouri were merely rough trails, running over
      hills and deep-soiled valleys of fertile loam, cut every few miles by
      rapid streams. The storms of Winter quickly converted the hills into icy
      precipices, the valleys into quagmires, and the streams into raging
      torrents. The Winters were never severe enough to give steady cold
      weather, and allow operations over a firmly-frozen footing. Rain, sleet
      and snow, hard frosts and warm thaws alternated with each other so
      frequently as to keep the roads in a condition of what the country people
      call a "breakup," when travel is very difficult for the individual and
      next to impossible for an army.
    </p>
    <p>
      When, therefore, at the last of December, Gen. Price returned to
      Springfield, in the heart of the rich farming district of southwest
      Missouri, and 125 miles or more distant from the Union bases&mdash;Rolla
      and Sedalia, at the ends of the railroads, he had much reason for
      believing he would be left undisturbed for at least two months, which rest
      he very much needed to prepare for the strenuous campaign that he knew the
      industrious Halleck was organizing against him. He wanted the rest for
      many reasons. Yielding to the strong pressure of Missourians, Jefferson
      Davis had agreed to appoint Price a Major-General, C. S. A., but upon the
      condition that he bring in the Confederate service a full division of
      Missouri troops.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link294" id="link294"></a><span class="pn">{294}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      With his towering influence in Misssouri this would not have been a
      difficult thing to do with the whole State to draw from. It was quite
      otherwise with three-fourths of Missouri held by the Union troops and
      Halleck's well-laid nets everywhere to catch parties of recruits trying to
      make their way to Price.
    </p>
    <p>
      Still, Price was justified in his confidence that the Union troops would
      be satisfied with holding northern and central Missouri during the Winter,
      and would not venture far from their base of supplies on the Missouri
      River and the termini of the railroads at Rolla and Sedalia.
    </p>
    <p>
      Whatever aggressive disposition they might have which the condition of the
      roads would not dampen would be quelled by the knowledge that McCulloch's
      army of Texans, Louisianians, Arkansans and Indians lay at Cross Hollow,
      within easy supporting distance of him.
    </p>
    <p>
      Therefore, Price settled down at Springfield, and his men built
      comfortable cabins in which to pass the time until Spring. The Union
      farmers in the country roundabout were stripped of their grain and cattle
      for supplies, and Price proceeded with the organization of his Confederate
      division.
    </p>
    <p>
      Jefferson Davis's feelings toward Price and Missouri are in a measure
      revealed in the following querulous letter, which also indicates Mr.
      Davis's tendencies to pose as a much-enduring, martyr-like man:
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link295" id="link295"></a><span class="pn">{295}</span>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     Hon. W. P. Harris, Confederate States Congress.

     My Dear Sir: Language was said by Talleyrand to be useful
     for the concealment of one's thoughts; but in our day it
     falls to communicate any thought. If it had been otherwise,
     the complaint in relation to Gen. Price of which you speak
     could not have been made. The Commissioners of Missouri were
     informed that when that State offered troops they would be
     organized according to our military laws, and Generals would
     be appointed for brigades and divisions. Until then I have
     no power to appoint Generals for those troops. The same
     statements, substantially, were made to the members of
     Congress from Missouri who called on me yesterday. They were
     also informed that, from conversation with Informed persons
     and from correspondence now on file in the War Department, I
     was convinced that it was needful to the public interest
     that a General should be sent to the Arkansas and Missouri
     Division who had not been connected with any of the troops
     on that line of operations; and to the statement that the
     Missouri troops would not fully enlist under any one except
     Gen. Price, I asked if they required their General to be put
     in command of the troops of Arkansas, of Texas, and of the
     other Southern States. To bring these different forces into
     harmonious co-operation is a necessity. I have sought to
     effect it by selecting Gen. Heth to command them in
     combination. If it is designed, by calling Heth a West Point
     Cadet, merely to object to his education in the science of
     war, it may pass for what it is worth; but if it be Intended
     to assert that he is without experience, his years of active
     and distinguished service on the frontier of Missouri and
     the territory west of it will, to those who examine before
     they censure, be a sufficient answer. The Federal forces are
     not hereafter as heretofore to be commanded by pathfinders
     and holiday soldiers, but by men of military education and
     experience in war. The contest is therefore to be on a scale
     of very different proportions than that of the partisan
     warfare witnessed during the past Summer and Fall. I have
     long since learned to bear hasty censure, in hope that
     justice, if tardy, is sure; and in any event to find
     consolation in the assurance that all my ends have been my
     country's.

     With high respect,

     JEFFERSON DAVIS.
</pre>
    <p>
      <a name="link296" id="link296"></a><span class="pn">{296}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Ben McCulloch thought best to go on to Richmond to explain his course
      since Wilson's Creek, and also to look after the very tender subject of
      his rank and powers. He left Gen. James S. Mcintosh in command of his
      troops. Mcintosh had grievances of his own. He was not being recognized by
      the Confederate authorities as he thought a man of his abilities and
      soldierly experience should have been, and he seems to have liked
      cooperation with Gen. Price very much less even than did Gen. McCulloch.
      In no very gentlemanly terms he repelled Price's proposition to combine
      their forces and push forward to the Missouri River. The best that Price
      could get out of him was the assurance that if the Federals advanced upon
      him at Springfield he, Mcintosh, would come forward to his assistance.
    </p>
    <p>
      Price had greatly underestimated Gen. Halleck's energy and aggressiveness.
      Gen. Halleck was the first of our commanders to really rise to the level
      of the occasion and take a comprehensive grasp upon affairs. Unlike some
      others, he wasted no time in sounding proclamations or in lengthy letters
      of advice to the Administration as to the political conduct of the war. He
      was a soldier, proud of his profession, true to his traditions, and
      possibly had ambition to be reckoned among the great commanders. He had
      been noted for high administrative ability, and this trait was well
      illustrated in his grasp of the situation in Missouri and on the borders
      of the State. His main communications to the people were orders, plain,
      practical, and to the point. Whatever he did was on the highest plane of
      the science of warfare as he understood it.
    </p>
    <p>
      Proper military discipline and subordination were introduced everywhere
      and a rigid system of accountability. He had troubles with his own men to
      add to his difficulties with the enemy. We find the most note of this with
      reference to the Germans.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link297" id="link297"></a><span class="pn">{297}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The Missouri Germans were a splendid lot of men, taken as a whole, and had
      an unusual number of officers who were trained soldiers of considerable
      military experience. At the head of this class was Gen. Peter J.
      Osterhaus, who had been a private soldier under Lyon in securing the
      Arsenal, and had commanded a battalion with high credit to himself at
      Wilson's Creek. He was now a Colonel commanding a brigade.
    </p>
    <p>
      With this excellent material there was a large per cent that ranged from
      worthless to actually criminal. Many adventurers from the European armies
      had hastened to this country to sell their swords to the best advantage,
      and many black sheep, who had been forced out of their armies, sought in
      our troubles and our ignorance of military matters an opportunity for
      their own exaltation and profit. Halleck dealt with all with a firm,
      unsparing hand. He began to weed out the worthless officers and to
      court-martial the rascals. Company, battalion and regimental organizations
      which he found too mutinous and disorderly for hopeful management, he
      either disarmed and set to hard labor or discharged from the service.
    </p>
    <p>
      The raids of the vengeful Kansans across the Missouri borders gave him
      excessive annoyance, and he issued orders that all Kansas parties entering
      the State should be arrested and disarmed. That he might have more
      complete control of them, however, he recommended that the Department of
      Kansas be merged with his command, and as this was in had mony with Gen.
      Hunter's ideas, it was subsequently done. In the meanwhile he had to look
      out for the Mississippi River and the highly important point of, Cairo. He
      started to construct a fleet of gunboats to help control the river and
      assist the Army in its operations.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link298" id="link298"></a><span class="pn">{298}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      His next neighbor to the eastward was Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell,
      commanding the Department of the Ohio, which extended from the Cumberland
      River to the Allegheny Mountains. Gen. Buell's complete cooperation was
      necessary to the management of affairs in the Mississippi Valley, but this
      seems to have been difficult to secure. Buell had his own ideas, and they
      frequently did not harmonize with those of Gen. Halleck. Halleck
      recommended that Buell's Department be put under his own command, which
      was also done later.
    </p>
    <p>
      Bridge-burning and other outrages by straggling bands claiming to be
      Confederates seriously disturbed the peace, embarrassed operations, and
      worried the Commanding General. Halleck reported that within 10 days prior
      to Jan. 1, 1862, these bridge-burners had destroyed $150,000 worth of
      railroad property and that they had concocted a plan to burn,
      simultaneously, every railroad bridge in the State, and set fire to the
      city of St. Louis in a number of places. In his comprehensive order
      advising summary and severe punishment against these marauders he took
      careful guards against such being made the pretext for any private
      vengeance or official malice, and instituted Military Commissions of not
      less than three responsible officers, acting under the solemnity of an
      oath, and making written reports of their proceedings. This order brought
      down a storm of abuse from the Secessionist and semi-Secessionist press,
      which Halleck calmly disregarded.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Sterling Price on Jan. 12 wrote Gen. Halleck a strong letter
      protesting against the order and asking the question whether "individuals
      and parties of men specially appointed and instructed by me to destroy
      railroads, culverts, bridges, etc." were, if captured, to be regarded as
      deserving of death.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link299" id="link299"></a><span class="pn">{299}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Halleck in reply said:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     You also complain that "individuals and parties of men
     specially appointed and instructed by you to destroy
     railroads, culverts and bridges by tearing them up, burning,
     etc., have been arrested and subjected to a general court-
     martial for alleged crimes." This statement is in the main
     correct. Where "individuals and parties of men" violate the
     laws of war they will be tried, and if found guilty will
     certainly be punished, whether acting by your "special
     appointment and instruction" or not. You must be aware,
     General, that no orders of yours can save from punishment
     spies, marauders, robbers, incendiaries, guerrilla bands,
     etc., who violate the laws of war. You cannot give immunity
     to crime. But let us fully understand each other on this
     point. If you send armed forces wearing the garb of soldiers
     and duly organized and enrolled as legitimate belligerents
     to destroy railroads, bridges, etc., as a military act, we
     shall kill them, if possible, in open warfare, or, if we
     capture them, we shall treat them as prisoners of war.

     But it is well understood that you have sent numbers of your
     adherents in the garb of peaceful citizens, and under false
     pretenses, through our lines into northern Missouri, to rob
     and destroy the property of Union men and to burn and
     destroy railroad bridges, thus endangering the lives of
     thousands, and this, too, without any military necessity or
     possible military advantage. Moreover, peaceful citizens of
     Missouri, quietly working on their farms, have been
     instigated by your emissaries to take up arms as insurgents,
     to rob and plunder and to commit arson and murder. They do
     not even act under the garb of soldiers, but in false
     pretenses and in the guise of peaceful citizens. You
     certainly will not pretend that men guilty of such crimes,
     although "specially appointed and instructed by you," are
     entitled to the rights and immunities of ordinary prisoners
     of war. If you do, will you refer me to a single authority
     on the laws of war which recognizes such a claim?

     You may rest assured, General, that all prisoners of war not
     guilty of crime will be treated with all proper
     consideration and kindness. With the exception of being
     properly confined, they will be lodged and fed, and where
     necessary clothed, the same as our own troops. I am sorry to
     say that our prisoners who have come from your camps do not
     report such treatment on your part. They say that you gave
     them no rations, no clothing, no blankets, but left them to
     perish with want and cold. Moreover, It is believed that you
     subsist your troops by robbing and plundering the non-
     combatant Union inhabitants of the southwestern Counties of
     this State. Thousands of poor families have fled to us for
     protection and support They say that your troops robbed them
     of their provisions and clothing, carrying away their shoes
     and bedding, and even cutting cloth from their looms, and
     that you have driven women and children from their homes to
     starve and perish in the cold. I have not retaliated such
     conduct upon your adherents here, as I have no intention of
     waging such a barbarous warfare; but I shall, whenever I
     can, punish such crimes, by whomsoever they may be
     committed.
</pre>
    <p>
      <a name="link300" id="link300"></a><span class="pn">{300}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      An examination of the correspondence leads to the conclusion that Halleck
      possessed very superior talents as a letter writer.
    </p>
    <p>
      Contrasted with Fremont, McClellan, Buell and others, Halleck gave great
      satisfaction in Washington, and Secretary Stanton telegraphed him as
      follows:
    </p>
    <p>
      Your energy and ability receive the strongest commendation of this
      Department You have my perfect confidence, and may rely upon the utmost
      support in your undertakings. The pressure of my engagements have
      prevented me from writing, but I shall do so fully in a day or two.
    </p>
    <p>
      Though he made the most of every resource, Halleck was sorely pressed for
      money and supplies for his force. His letters and messages mention the
      shipment of pantaloons to this one, shoes to another, blankets to a third,
      as he could get hold of articles to supply present wants, and of counsels
      of patience as to delays in paying off, since the Paymasters were far
      behind in their work. Jan. 17 he telegraphed to Gen. Curtis:
    </p>
    <p>
      General: Yours of yesterday received. I regret to inform you that neither
      the Pay nor Quartermaster's Departments have any money. Troops are sent
      from here to Cairo without pay. I can do no better for you. The moment
      money is received the forces under your command shall be supplied. They
      were all paid to the 31st of October. Some here and in north Missouri are
      not paid for September and October. I have done everything in my power for
      the troops at Rolla, and they have no cause to complain of me.
    </p>
    <p>
      The truth is that Congress is so busy discussing the eternal nigger
      question that they fail to make any appropriations, and the financial
      departments are dead broke. No requisitions for money are filled.
    </p>
    <p>
      The extra-duty pay will be forthcoming as soon as we get any money. Assure
      these men that they will be paid, but they must have patience. I am doing
      everything in my power for them.
    </p>
    <p>
      We must all do the best we can to make the men comfortable and contented
      till we get more means. I rely upon you to use all your powers of
      conciliation, especially with the German troops. You told me you could
      manage them, and I rely upon you to do it At present we have more
      difficulties to conquer with our own men than with the enemy.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link301" id="link301"></a><span class="pn">{301}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      While engaged in these numberless activities Gen. Halleck came down with a
      severe attack of measles, and was confined to his room for two weeks, but
      there does not appear to have been any intermittence in his energy.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Halleck's plans contemplated sending forward a column sufficient to
      crush Price, if he could be brought to battle, and drive him out of the
      State anyway. Another column was to advance from Ironton or Fredericktown
      and interpose between Polk at Columbus and Price, to prevent the former
      from assisting the latter. In the meanwhile Gen. Polk would have
      sufficient to occupy his attention in his "Gibraltar," as Gen. Grant would
      make a flank movement up the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. Halleck had
      come to the conclusion that Columbus would cost too much in life and blood
      to be taken by a direct assault, and it would be better therefore to turn
      it.
    </p>
    <p>
      This plan was an excellent one, as Halleck's plans usually were, at that
      time, and it was subsequently carried out substantially as conceived.
    </p>
    <p>
      There were the most conflicting reports as to the number of men Price had
      with him at Springfield at that time, but it was supposed all the way from
      25,-000 to 50,000, with rather the stronger emphasis on the greater
      number. The Secessionists insisted upon the immensity of the army which
      had flocked to Price encouraged by the events untoward to the Union cause
      of the last half of 1861 and the indignation aroused by the invasion and
      depredations of the Kansas Jayhawkers and the "St. Louis Dutch."
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link302" id="link302"></a><span class="pn">{302}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      It was reasonable to suppose, from the state of feeling in Missouri, that
      Price might have from 40,000 to 50,000 men, but Halleck, who was unusually
      well-informed for our Generals at that period of the war, decided that a
      column of about 10,000 men would be sufficient for the work. In this he
      was at a disagreement with Gen. Curtis and others in nearer contact with
      Price, who estimated the Secessionist force at Springfield in the
      neighborhood of 20,000 or 25,000. Yielding to their urgent
      representations, he increased his force to about 15,000, of which 3,000
      were required to guard the lengthening line of communications, leaving a
      movable column of 12,000 to move directly against Price. This force was
      officially designated the "Army of the Southwest," and there was assigned
      to its command our old acquaintance, Brig.-Gen. Samuel R. Curtis, West
      Point graduate, lawyer, Mexican veteran, railroad engineer, and
      Congressman. This made more or less heart-burning among Brig.-Gens. Franz
      Sigel, B. M. Prentiss, S. A. Hurlbut, S. D. Sturgis and others who had
      hopes in that direction. Sigel stood no chance for the place, however, for
      Halleck had conceived a strong distrust of him growing out of his action
      at Wilson's Creek, and also because he was a leader among the radical
      Germans who wanted to pull slavery up by the roots. Sturgis felt that more
      consideration should have been given to him as commander of the army at
      Wilson's Creek after Lyon fell. Curtis, in turn, gave strong
      dissatisfaction to some of the brigade commanders by selecting Jeff C.
      Davis, a Captain in the Regular Army and Colonel of the 22d Ind., and
      Eugene A. Carr, also a Captain in the Regular Army and Colonel of the 3d
      Ill. Cav., to command two of his four divisions.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link303" id="link303"></a><span class="pn">{303}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      In its forward movement the commanders had the benefit of the burning zeal
      of the young volunteers. These, who had enlisted to put down the
      rebellion, wanted to lose no time in doing their work. They were not
      minded to lie around camps, no matter how comfortable, during the long
      Winter months. In the Northern homes from which they came the Winter had
      always been a season of great activity. They could not understand why it
      should not be so in Missouri and they hungered for active employment to
      the great end of suppressing the rebellion. Their recent successes had
      inspired them with hopes that they might be able to finish up the work and
      get back home in time for their Spring duties.
    </p>
    <p>
      Though the Winter of 1861-'62 was an exceptionally hard, disagreeable one
      in Missouri, the volunteers left their camps with alacrity, pressing
      forward through the storms and mud with sanguine hopefulness that they
      were now about to accomplish their great purpose. Gen. Curtis selected his
      first base at Lebanon, 55 miles distant from Springfield, and sent forward
      Col. Carr with about 1,700 infantry and cavalry to occupy that point, gain
      information as to the condition of things in Price's camp, and to set on
      foot preparation for supplying the advancing army from the surrounding
      country.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Union commanders were to learn a lesson from Price, who did not
      encumber himself with long trains, but "compelled war to support war" by
      drawing his supplies from the country through which he operated. Under
      Halleck's orders Gen. Curtis directed that the cavalry should locate all
      the mills convenient to the line of march, set them to work grinding
      grain, and encourage the Union farmers to bring in their grain, hogs and
      cattle, for which the Quartermaster would pay them fair prices. This work
      was an admirable education for Halleck's Chief Quartermaster, a young
      Captain named Philip H. Sheridan, who was to turn the lessons then learned
      to magnificent account afterwards.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link304" id="link304"></a><span class="pn">{304}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Lebanon was taken possession of without more resistance than a running
      fight in which a notorious Capt. Tom Craig, of the Confederate army, was
      killed. Gen. Curtis arrived at Lebanon Jan. 31, leaving Sigel and Asboth
      at Rolla to follow as fast as the roads would permit. The recent severe
      storms of sleet and snow had been quite trying to the men and animals, but
      the columns were pressed forward, and on Feb. 7 Sigel's and Asboth's men
      were all in Lebanon, where they were joined by Jeff C. Davis's Division
      marching from Otterville by the way of Linn Creek.
    </p>
    <p>
      Halleck's orders to Curtis were clear, comprehending and purposeful.
      Curtis seems to have been not a little apprehensive of the force he might
      have to encounter, but Halleck constantly urged him forward, at the same
      time enjoining him to keep his troops well in hand, and not allow Price to
      attack him in detail. He was to "throw out his cavalry carefully, like
      fingers to the hands." Most particularly he was not to allow Sigel to go
      off on any independent expedition and serve him as Sigel had served Lyon
      at Wilson's Creek. Halleck urged Hunter to advance his Kansas troops down
      through his department so as to threaten Price's left flank, and he told
      Curtis that if he, Curtis, would take care of Price, that he himself would
      look out for Johnson, Polk, Beauregard and Hardee.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link305" id="link305"></a><span class="pn">{305}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The splendid young Missouri, Iowa and Illinois volunteers, welded into
      superb regiments by months of service, with the worthless of their
      officers removed by Halleck's rigid pruning, pressed forward with an
      enthusiasm that no storms could diminish or wretchedness of roads
      discourage. They forded swollen, icy streams, pulled their wagons up steep
      hills, or pried them out of quagmires, and bore the fury of the storm with
      sanguine cheerfulness, believing they were now moving directly forward to
      the great end of crushing the enemies of the Government and closing the
      war.
    </p>
    <p>
      Price's outlying detachments were come up with and struck with a
      suddenness and vigor that sent them flying in utter rout. It speaks very
      ill for Price, with all his means for accurate information, that he knew
      nothing of this rapid advance of the Union army until the heads of
      Curtis's columns were at his very pickets. He was entirely unready for
      battle, and could only hastily gather his men together and make a quick
      retreat to the rough hills south of Springfield, leaving all his stores
      and his laboriously-constructed cantonments for the Union army. Feb. 13
      Curtis had the satisfaction of reporting to Hal-leck as follows:
    </p>
    <p>
      The Flag of the Union floats over the Court House of Springfield, Mo. The
      enemy attacked us with small parties at 10:30 o'clock 12 miles out, and my
      front guards had a running Are with them most of the afternoon. At dusk a
      regiment of the Confederate cavalry attacked the outer picket, but did not
      move it. A few shots from a howitzer killed two and wounded several. The
      regiment retreated to this place, and the enemy immediately commenced the
      evacuation of the city. I entered the city at 10 a. m. My cavalry is in
      full pursuit. They say the enemy is making a stand at Wilson's Creek.
      Forage, flour and other stores in large quantities taken. Shall pursue as
      fast as the strength of the men will allow.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link306" id="link306"></a><span class="pn">{306}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      In Gen. Sheridan's "Memoirs" he gives this sidelight on the advance upon
      Springfield:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     By hard work we soon accumulated a sufficient quantity of
     flour and corn meal to justify the resumption of our march
     on Springfield, at or near which point the enemy was
     believed to be awaiting us, and the order was given to move
     forward, the Commanding General cautioning me, in the event
     of disaster, to let no salt fall into Gen. Price's hands.
     Gen. Curtis made a hobby of this matter of salt, believing
     the enemy sadly in need of that article, and he impressed me
     deeply with his conviction that our cause would be seriously
     injured by a loss which would inure so greatly and
     peculiarly to the enemy's benefit; but we discovered
     afterward, when Price abandoned his position, that about all
     he left behind was salt.

     When we were within about eight miles of Springfield Gen.
     Curtis decided to put his troops in line of battle for the
     advance on the town, and directed me to stretch out my
     supply train in a long line of battle, so that in falling
     back, in case the troops were repulsed, he could rally the
     men on the wagons. I did not like the tactics, but, of
     course, obeyed the order.
</pre>
    <p>
      The line moved on to Springfield, and took the town without resistance,
      the enemy having fled southward, in the direction of Pea Ridge, the
      preceding day. Of course, our success relieved my anxiety about the
      wagons; but fancy has often pictured since the stampede of six-mule teams
      that, had we met with any reverse, would have taken place over the
      prairies of southwest Missouri.
    </p>
    <p>
      It was felt almost certain that Price had only abandoned Springfield in
      order to offer battle more advantageously in the rough hills south of the
      town where Wilson's Creek had been fought. The spirit of the army was up,
      and it moved promptly forward to engage him in his chosen fastness. The
      Secessionist historians and the admirers of Price, Marmaduke, Shelby and
      others give thrillingly sanguinary stories of the fierce resistance
      offered in the defiles and passes through the foothills of the Ozarks, but
      these statements are not supported by either the official reports or the
      regimental histories of the Union army. These all concur in the statement
      that while there was a great deal of noisy cannonading, Price's troops
      yielded ground quite easily, and all were surprised that no more effective
      resistance was made at places that offered such wonderful opportunities
      for defense.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link307" id="link307"></a><span class="pn">{307}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      In his report to Gov. Jackson Gen. Price gives this succinct statement of
      his share in the movement:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     About the latter part of January my scouts reported that the
     enemy were concentrating in force at Rolla, and shortly
     thereafter they occupied Lebanon. Believing that this
     movement could be for no other purpose than to attack me,
     and knowing that my command was inadequate for such
     resistance as the Interest of my army and the cause
     demanded, I appealed to the commanders of the Confederate
     troops In Arkansas to come to my assistance. This from
     correspondence I was confidently led to expect, and, relying
     upon it, I held my position to the very last moment, and, as
     the sequel proved, almost too long, for on Wednesday, Feb.
     12, my pickets were driven in, and reported the enemy
     advancing upon me in force. No resource was now left me
     except retreat, without hazarding all with greatly unequal
     numbers upon the result of one engagement. This I deemed it
     unwise to do. I commenced retreating at once. I reached
     Cassville with loss unworthy of mention in any respect. Here
     the enemy in my rear commenced a series of attacks running
     through four days. Retreating and fighting all the way to
     Cross Hollows, in this State, I am rejoiced to say my
     command, under the most exhausting fatigue all that time,
     with but little rest for either man or beast and no sleep,
     sustained themselves and came through, repulsing the enemy
     upon every occasion with great determination and gallantry.
     My loss does not exceed four to six killed and some 15 to 18
     wounded. That of the enemy we know to be ten times as great.
</pre>
    <p>
      Gen. Price's estimate of the losses he inflicted is widely divergent from
      that of Gen. Curtis, who does not admit any losses in killed in the noisy
      engagements while pushing Price back through the rough gorges, until he
      arrived at the Sugar Creek Crossing, six miles into Arkansas, where he
      lost 13 killed and 15 or 20 wounded in a very spirited little fight with
      the combined troops of Price and McCulloch, and camped that night upon the
      battlefield from which the enemy had retreated. Here Col. Cyrus Bussey
      joined him with five companies of the 3d Iowa Cav., having made a forward
      march from Rolla, Mo., in four days.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link308" id="link308"></a><span class="pn">{308}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Curtis was so encouraged by his success that he kept on pushing Price back
      upon McCulloch, even upon the boasted "Gibraltar" at Cross Hollows, and
      then, to the astonishment and delight of himself and the whole army,
      forced the evacuation of this stronghold by a flank movement The rebels'
      abandonment of it was so complete that they burned all their stores and
      the great array of cabins built for quarters, leaving only the chimneys to
      mark the long rows.
    </p>
    <p>
      Thus any expectation of a sanguinary battle fell in disappointment. So
      much had been said about Cross Hollows that the Union troops were certain
      that they would have to fight a desperate battle at or near it. It was
      known that at least 4,000 regularly-organized troops had been quartered
      there for months, subjected to thorough drill and discipline. Gen.
      McCulloch had boasted that he had prepared a trap in which to catch and
      ruin the Federal General if he ventured that far south. McCulloch's only
      fear was of being unable to draw the Federal General into the trap.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Confederates left their sick and wounded behind them in the hospitals,
      and the untiring Gen. Asboth, commanding the cavalry, pushed the rear
      guard rapidly through to Bentonville. Returning to Curtis's camp a day or
      two later, Gen. Asboth was sent with a force of cavalry to Fayetteville, a
      most important town in northwestern Arkansas, where he learned that his
      enemies had hid themselves in the Boston Mountains.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link309" id="link309"></a><span class="pn">{309}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Curtis had completed his work of driving Price from Missouri and some
      distance beyond her borders. He then drew his forces together and
      established himself at Cross Hollows, with the ultimate intention of
      retiring to the better position of Sugar Creek Crossing, in the event of
      the enemy concentrating any force against him. In the meanwhile he would
      hope that the turning movements which Halleck had planned would occupy
      Price's and McCulloch's attention, and draw them away from him.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link310" id="link310"></a><span class="pn">{310}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018">
       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
    </p>
    <div style="height: 4em;">
      <br /><br /><br /><br />
    </div>
    <h2>
      CHAPTER XVIII. GEN. EARL VAN DORN TAKES COMMAND.
    </h2>
    <p>
      Jefferson Davis carried out his determination to appoint an officer
      superior in rank to both Gens. McCulloch and Price. After first appointing
      Gen. Harry Heth, and then offering the appointment to Gen. Braxton Bragg,
      he selected another of his favorites, Gen. Earl Van Dorn, who had been a
      fiery partisan among the officers of the Regular Army for States Rights
      and Secession, was a native of Mississippi, and had graduated from West
      Point in 1842, 52d in a class of 56. Whatever his intellectual qualities
      may have been, he was a man of great force and energy, and had won two
      brevets for distinguished gallantry in the Mexican War. He gained still
      more distinction by his successful expeditions against the fierce
      Comanches, a tribe then in the hight of its power. In one of these his
      small command killed 56 Indians. In his engagements with the Comanches he
      had received four wounds, two of which were quite serious. He had been
      very active in bringing about Gen. Twiggs's disgraceful surrender of his
      command in Texas.
    </p>
    <p>
      When Jefferson Davis, as Secretary of War, organized the additional
      regiments for the Regular Army he took particular pains to promote into
      them men of his way of thinking on States Rights, and who would be useful
      in the coming contest which he foresaw.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link311" id="link311"></a><span class="pn">{311}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      One of these new regiments,&mdash;then called the 2d U. S. Cav., later
      changed to the 5th U. S. Cav., was quite remarkable for this selection, as
      it showed Mr. Davis's thorough acquaintance with the character of the
      Regular officers, and what they could be relied upon to do when Secession
      should be brought about. He made Colonel of the regiment Albert Sidney
      Johnston, later General, C. S. A.; Lieutenant-Colonels, Robert E. Lee,
      afterward General, C. S. A.; W. J. Hardee, Lieutenant-General, C. S. A.,
      and E. Kirby Smith, General, C. S. A., and the Majors were George H.
      Thomas, W. H. Emory, Major-Generals, U. S. A., and Earl Van Dorn,
      Major-General, C. S. A.
    </p>
    <p>
      Mississippi seceded Jan. 9,1861. Earl Van Dorn promptly tendered his
      resignation and became active, if he had not been before, in bringing
      about the surrender by Gen. Twiggs of the United States troops, stores and
      munitions of war in Texas, by which we lost nearly half of the entire
      strength of the Regular Army, besides some $2,000,000 of supplies, the
      control of the Mexican frontier, and a large portion of Indian frontier.
      Van Dorn had been commissioned Colonel in the Confederate army, and hoped
      to add the surrendered troops to the military establishment of the
      Southern Confederacy. He put a great deal of pressure upon the officers
      and men to induce them to change their allegiance, but was remarkably
      unsuccessful in the latter, not a single enlisted man accepting his offers
      of promotion and increased pay. Only those officers went over whose course
      had been predetermined. None of previous loyalty wavered for an instant.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link312" id="link312"></a><span class="pn">{312}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Twiggs had made a capitulation with Gen. McCulloch, of Texas, as if
      treating with another Nation. The terms were that the troops should be
      conveyed to the nearest seaport, and thence sent home. The steamer "Star
      of the West," which had come into notoriety as being the object at which
      the first gun of the rebellion was aimed, had been sent to Indianola,
      Tex., to receive Twiggs's troops. Van Dorn, enraged by his failure to
      accomplish his purpose, violated the terms of the capitulation. He marched
      his forces upon the unarmed troops gathered near Indianola, compelled them
      to surrender, and captured the "Star of the West." The officers and men
      were kept prisoners in Texas for months afterwards, and subjected to much
      hardship.
    </p>
    <p>
      Halleck wrote to Curtis: "Beware of Van Dorn. He is an energetic officer."
    </p>
    <p>
      Van Dorn was not to justify the high expectations entertained of him, and
      after several failures to improve great opportunities he finally fell, in
      1863, at the age of 42, before the pistol of an injured husband.
    </p>
    <p>
      Van Dorn promptly repaired to his command, and seems to have been welcomed
      with entirely loyal subordination by both Price and McCulloch, though both
      were much older than he, and had held higher commands, Gen. Price having
      been a Brigadier-General at a time when Van Dorn was only a First
      Lieutenant.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link313" id="link313"></a><span class="pn">{313}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      At first Van Dorn meditated moving into Missouri by the Pocahontas route,
      intermediate between the Mississippi route and that by the way of
      Springfield. He began assembling troops at Jacksonport, Ark., to move
      directly up through the Ozark Mountains. Then the isolated situation of
      Gen. Curtis's little army, with scattered detachments thrown out in every
      direction, tempted him to concentrate suddenly his forces and make the
      effort to cut off the outlying Union detachments and finally crush the
      main body. Therefore, he hastened to the Boston Mountains, sending
      messages to the scattered Confederates to meet him there, and was welcomed
      on a chilly, snowy March 3 with the Major-General's salute of 40 guns,
      which were heard by Gen. Curtis at Cross Hollow.
    </p>
<p>
      <a name="link314" id="link314"></a><span class="pn">{314}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      After driving Gen. Price off into the Boston Mountains and successfully
      flanking Gen. McCulloch out of his "Gibraltar" at Cross Hollow, Gen.
      Curtis prudently halted his army there to consider his next move. The line
      of Sugar Creek offered fine opportunities for defense, and from there he
      could hope to maintain his communications along the great road leading to
      Springfield and Holla. Not having been able to force either McCulloch or
      Price to a decisive battle in which he might destroy or at least cripple
      them, it did not seem discreet to venture further forward where every step
      made them stronger and him weaker.
    </p>
    <p>
      Halleck had relied upon Gen. Hunter sending down a flanking column from
      Leavenworth by the way of Fort Scott, but this had not materialized, owing
      to the disputes between Gens. Hunter and Jas. H. Lane. Thus 5,000 men who
      should have been effectively employed, either in menacing Van Dorn's flank
      or increasing Curtis's strength, were held idly, at Leavenworth.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     [Transcriber's Note: The print copy has a
     two page error in numbering.]
</pre>
    <p>
      <a name="link316" id="link316"></a><span class="pn">{316}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Halleck had also relied upon the effect of Gen. Grant's startling victory
      at Fort Donelson, which shattered the first Confederate line, to withdraw
      a large portion of the forces west of the Mississippi, and relieve
      pressure upon Curtis. Nor had this at that time resulted. Though the
      general Confederate the roads leading northward crossed Sugar Greek, and
      several of them came together some two or three miles north of a country
      hostelry known as Elkhorn Tavern on the main road to Springfield, at the
      northeastern end of Pea Ridge.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linkimage-0022" id="linkimage-0022">
       <!--  IMG --> </a> <img src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:j:john-mcelroy-struggle-for-missouri-316-Battle%20of%20Pea%20Ridge.jpg"
      alt="316-battle of Pea Ridge"  /><br />
    </p>
    <p>
      At 2 p. m., March 4, Gen. Curtis was at Gross Hollow with Col. Carr's
      Fourth Division. The extreme left of his army was Col. Wm. Vandever, of
      the 9th Iowa, at War Eagle Mills, near White River, 42 miles to the
      southeast. The extreme right&mdash;the First and Second Divisions, under
      Gen. Franz Sigel&mdash;was at Cooper's Farm, four miles in front of
      Bentonville and 14 miles to the southwest of Sugar Creek. The Third
      Division, under Col. Jefferson C. Davis, had moved back to the line
      selected in rear of Sugar Creek, where Col. Bussey with his regiment was
      in camp.
    </p>
    <p>
      By 2 o'clock scouts and fugitives had convinced Gen. Curtis that Van Dorn
      had concentrated his forces, and was in rapid march upon him, only a few
      miles away. He sent orders by swift riders to all his outlying parties to
      march at once to the designated rendezvous at Sugar Creek, and started
      back himself with Carr's Division, arriving on the crest about 2 a. m. of
      March 5, and immediately setting his men to work preparing for the battle.
      Col. Dodge worked until midnight blockading with fallen trees the road
      from Bentonville to Springfield west of Leetown.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link317" id="link317"></a><span class="pn">{317}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      In spite of their wide dispersion, Gen. Van Dorn brought McCulloch's,
      Pike's and Price's forces together with great rapidity. How many fighting
      men he was able to assemble is a question. Gen. Curtis gravely estimated
      it at 30,000. Gen. Van Dorn in his reports after the battle, when he was
      putting the best face upon matters, stated his force at one time at 16,000
      men, and again at "less than 14,000."
    </p>
    <p>
      Probably if we follow an old arithmetical device, adding Curtis's
      overstatement and Van Dom's understatement together and dividing the sum
      by two&mdash;the number of statements&mdash;we may get somewhat near the
      truth. This would give Van Dorn 22,000 men. Students since the war have
      arrived at the conclusion that he actually had 26,000 men.
    </p>
    <p>
      Analysis of the various reports points to this being nearly correct.
    </p>
    <p>
      Feb. 24&mdash;nine days before the battle&mdash;Van Dorn reported to
      Albert Sidney Johnston that with the combined forces of McCulloch, Pike
      and Price, he would "be able to take about 26,000 men into battle."
    </p>
    <p>
      The best organized and drilled troops west of the Mississippi were
      McCulloch's. March 2 he reported his "effective total" to be 8,384 men,
      with 18 cannon. He received some accessions after that, raising his whole
      force to nearly 10,000 men.
    </p>
    <p>
      His division was organized as follows:
    </p>
    <p>
      FIRST BRIGADE.
    </p>
    <p>
      Col. James Mcintosh commanding:&mdash;1st Ark. M. R., Col. T. J.
      Churchill; 2d Ark. M. R., Col. James Mcintosh; 4th (9th) Tex. Cav., Col.
      W. B. Sims; 6th Tex. Cav., Col. B. W. Stone; South Kansas-Texas Regiment,
      Col. E. Greer; Lamar Cav., Capt. H. S. Bennett.
    </p>
    <p>
      SECOND BRIGADE.
    </p>
    <p>
      Col. Louis Hebert commanding&mdash;4th Ark., Col. E. McNair; 14th Ark.,
      Col. M. C. Mitchell; 16th Ark., Col. Hill, 17th Ark., Col. Frank Rector;
      21st Ark., Col. D. McRae; 1st Ark. Battery, Maj. W. H. Brooks; 3d La.,
      Col. Louis Hebert; Tex. Cav., Col. W. C. Young; Tex. M. R., Maj. J. W.
      Whitfield; Art. Bat. (four companies), Capt. W. R. Bradfute.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link318" id="link318"></a><span class="pn">{318}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Nothing definite can be ascertained as to Albert Pike's force. A short
      time before the battle he wrote confidently about having 10,000 men. The
      force he actually brought up is generally stated at 6,000, two of the
      regiments being white.
    </p>
    <p>
      The following extract from Gen. Sterling Price's report of March 22&mdash;eight
      days after the battle&mdash;gives us the best obtainable idea of the
      strength and organization of his force:
    </p>
    <p>
      My forces consisted of the First Brigade, Missouri Volunteers, Col. Henry
      Little commanding; the Second Brigade, Brg.-Gen. Slack commanding; a
      battalion of cavalry, under command of Lieut.-Col. Cearnal, and the State
      troops, under the command of Brig.-Gens. Rains, Green, and Frost, Cols.
      John B. Clark, Jr., and James P. Saunders, and Maj. Lindsay; numbering in
      all 6,818 men, with eight batteries of light artillery.
    </p>
    <p>
      Price, most probably, did not differ from other beaten commanders in
      minimizing his force to the utmost, so that it is entirely reasonable to
      assume that he had 2,000 or 3,000 more than he reported. Probably he and
      Van Dorn excluded from their fighting strength thousands, like Pike's
      In-lians, who proved themselves worthless in the actual shock of battle.
    </p>
    <p>
      Therefore we have the following aggregate of minimum strength:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     McCulloch......................................   10,000

     Pike...........................................    6,000

     Price..........................................    9,000

                                                       26,000
</pre>
    <p>
      It seems, therefore, entirely fair to say that Van Dorn had at least
      double Curtis's 10,000 when he left Cove Greek on the morning of March 4,
      with three days' cooked rations in his men's haversacks, and the intention
      of destroying the invaders and recovering the State of Missouri.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link319" id="link319"></a><span class="pn">{319}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Both sides were keenly eager for battle. The Confederates had been
      harangued with stories of great victories in the East, which they were to
      emulate; the Indians were fierce for scalps and plunder; the Missourians
      burning to march back to their homes m triumph.
    </p>
    <p>
      On the other hand, Curtis's men, weary of interminable marching and
      skirmishing, longed to deliver a decisive blow which would end all.
    </p>
    <p>
      Van Dorn's plan of battle was well-conceived, and if his immense
      preponderance of force had been adequately handled it would have won a
      crushing victory.
    </p>
    <p>
      McCulloch, during his long stay at Cross Hollow, had familiarized himself
      with the ground, and Price was also well acquainted with it. In the
      conference held in Gen. Van Dorn's tent it was decided not to attack in
      front, where Gen. Curtis had prepared, and where he had in addition to his
      obstructions the advantage of the steep side of the ridge. Instead, a
      movement would be made on Bentonville, to the southwest of Curtis, where
      it was hoped to catch Sigel and destroy him before he could receive
      assistance, then destroy Curtis before Vandever's Brigade could reach him
      from Huntsville. Pike's Indians were to follow McCulloch's Division, and
      when Curtis was beaten the wild Indian riders would be let loose to
      exterminate the fugitives.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link320" id="link320"></a><span class="pn">{320}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Sigel, with his usual indifference to orders, did not immediately obey
      Curtis's command to abandon his camp four miles west of Bentonville and
      move back to Sugar Creek. Instead he deferred starting his troops from
      Cooper's Farm until 2 o'clock of the morning of the 6th, and stopped
      himself with a small force at Bentonville while his troops and train were
      passing through the town, and he was attacked about 11 o'clock. Van Dorn
      reports that it was 11 o'clock before he could get the head of his column
      to Ben-tonville, and "we had the mortification of seeing Sigel's Division,
      7,000 strong, leaving it as we entered. Had we been an hour sooner we
      should have cut him right off with his whole force, and certainly have
      beaten the enemy the next day."
    </p>
    <p>
      Sigel had kept back about 600 men. His troops were part of the 12th Mo.
      and seven companies of cavalry, besides five field guns. They were resting
      with stacked arms when the rebel cavalry swarmed in upon the town from
      various directions. Sigel was able, however, to get his men together and
      march out of town to cover of some woods, where his artillery drove back
      the Confederates, who charged them, and the retreat was resumed.
    </p>
    <p>
      This performance was repeated several times along the road, which ran
      around the ridges through a growth of scrubby blackjacks, which broke up
      Sigel's men and also the eager Confederates who were trying to cut them
      off.
    </p>
    <p>
      Col. Elijah Gates, 1st Mo. Cav., Price's Division, led the pursuers with
      great activity and skill. There were incessant assaults with constant
      volleys of artillery, until Col. Osterhaus, who had reached Curtis's line,
      was ordered back to his relief, preceded by Col. Bussey with the 3d Iowa
      Cav. When they met Gen. Sigel he had just broken through the Confederate
      cavalry, which was still making efforts to surround him, but the arrival
      of the reinforcements caused the Confederates to withdraw, and the Union
      troops marched back to the camp which had been formed at Sugar Creek. The
      Union loss in this affair was reported as 35 killed and wounded.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link321" id="link321"></a><span class="pn">{321}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      After a forced march of 42 miles from Huntsville, Col. Vandever's Brigade
      reached Pea Ridge at dusk, and Curtis had his whole army together. A night
      attack from the south was confidently expected, and every preparation was
      made for it.
    </p>
    <p>
      When night came on Van Dorn built fires, pretending to go into camp, but
      moved forward until he came upon the blocked road, which halted him until
      after midnight, when he moved forward much embarrassed by the obstructions
      Dodge had placed in the wretched roads. Dodge on his return from
      blockading the roads notified Gen. Curtis of Price's movement to the rear,
      but Gen. Curtis did not believe it, as other reports were to the effect
      that Van Dorn's attack would be on the Sugar Creek front.
    </p>
    <p>
      Price having been delayed until after midnight, did not reach the
      telegraph road, a mile or so north of Elkhorn Tavern, until 7 o'clock on
      the morning of the 7th.
    </p>
    <p>
      McCulloch, in the meanwhile, was forming his men in the fields and woods
      near Leetown, west of Pea Ridge, with Albert Pike's Indians behind him.
    </p>
    <p>
      While, therefore, Curtis's men were straining their eyes southward from
      his strongly fortified position on Sugar Creek for the advance of the
      enemy, the whole Confederate army had gained their flank and rear, with
      Price's Division directly across their line of communication and retreat.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link322" id="link322"></a><span class="pn">{322}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Seeing no enemy in front, Curtis's men had a good, leisurely breakfast,
      but about 7 o'clock their commander was startled to learn of McCulloch's
      position on his right and Van Dorn and Price in his rear. With great
      promptness he faced his men about and swung his line back so that his new
      right&mdash;formerly his left&mdash;rested on Elkhorn Tavern, while his
      left rested where his old right had been, on the slope above Sugar Creek.
      This reversed the order of the divisions&mdash;Col. Carr's being the right
      at Elkhorn Tavern and Gen. Asboth's the extreme left, with Col.
      Osterhaus's and Col. Davis's in the center.
    </p>
    <p>
      It was now about 8:80 o'clock, and Gen. Curtis directed Col. Osterhaus to
      advance a force of cavalry, artillery and infantry and bring on the
      battle.
    </p>
    <p>
      There was soon after a swelling up of the firing about Elkhorn Tavern,
      where Carr was, which disturbed Curtis. He wanted the battle where he was
      preparing for it, and hoped that his opening it would stop any flank
      movements to his right. While Osterhaus was getting ready to advance,
      Curtis rode over to Elkhorn Tavern to see what the trouble was with Carr.
    </p>
    <p>
      During the early morning Price's troops getting into position on the main
      road had run afoul of the Union pickets about a mile northeast of Elkhorn
      Tavern. A little after 7 o'clock two companies of cavalry and one of
      infantry were sent out in that direction to investigate. They found a
      force of cavalry, which they drove back until they saw the woods full of
      Confederates, when they took cover behind trees and rocks and began a
      noisy skirmish, with the enemy slowly pressing forward and extending out
      on both flanks, as Van Dorn and Price brought their troops up and put them
      into line.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link323" id="link323"></a><span class="pn">{323}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The affair showed such seriousness that Col. Dodge came up about 9 o'clock
      with his brigade, and formed in line of battle to the right of Elkhorn
      Tavern, with the 85th Ill. on the left, the 4th Iowa in the center, the 3d
      Ill. Cav. on the right, and the pieces of the 1st Iowa Battery distributed
      along the line, and immediately moved forward and engaged the enemy.
    </p>
    <p>
      In the meanwhile Van Dorn and Price were placing their strong force of
      eight batteries in advantageous positions to crush out the Union artillery
      and pave the way for the advance of the infantry. When the storm burst the
      Confederate artillery quickly overwhelmed the Union guns, but Col. Dodge
      was able, after a sharp struggle, to beat back across the open fields the
      advance of the very much superior forces of the Missouri divisions,
      commanded by Gens. Steen, Clark, Frost, Rains and Green. He was so hard
      pressed, however, that Col. Carr, who accompanied Col. Dodge, sent back
      for his other brigade&mdash;Col. Vandever's&mdash;a mile and a half away,
      which arrived and went into position near Elkhorn Tavern in time to aid in
      repelling a fresh assault.
    </p>
    <p>
      More artillery had been brought up, but not enough to successfully contend
      with Van Dorn's massed guns.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Union infantry lay behind the cover of fences, logs and stumps, and
      when the Confederate infantry was pushed forward waited until it was
      within 100 paces, and then poured a deadly fire into it which shattered
      the ranks and drove it in retreat. Gen. Slack, one of Price's ablest
      brigade commanders, was killed and Lieut.-Col. Cearnal severely wounded.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link324" id="link324"></a><span class="pn">{324}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      There was a lull in the battle about 2 o'clock while Van Dorn and Price
      were reforming their men for a fresh and more determined assault. The
      brunt of it fell upon Col. Vandever on the crest of a hill about 300 yards
      north of Elkhorn Tavern. Vandever succeeded in driving back the enemy,
      though at a great cost, since the 9th Iowa lost upward of 100 men and Col.
      Phelps's 26th Mo. about 75.
    </p>
    <p>
      Though the enemy was repulsed, Col. Vandever deemed it better to fall back
      to Elkhorn Tavern, leaving the battleground in the possession of the
      enemy.
    </p>
    <p>
      Col. Carr sent to Gen. Curtis for reinforcements, but Curtis, still
      believing that the main fighting was in front of Leetown, could only spare
      him his headquarters guard, with two howitzers. He also sent urgent
      counsel to Carr to "persevere" and hold his ground with the utmost
      obstinacy.
    </p>
    <p>
      Another lull in the battle occurred while Van Dorn and Price were bringing
      up and forming fresh troops. This time it was Gen. Clark's Missouri
      Division, reinforced by other troops. The Union soldiers received it, as
      they had the others, lying behind fences and logs and waiting until the
      enemy was where every shot would tell.
    </p>
    <p>
      It was about 3 o'clock when this charge was repulsed.
    </p>
    <p>
      Again Col. Carr sent to Gen. Curtis for reinforcements, and this time the
      General sent him five companies of the 8th Ind., under Lieut.-Col. Shunk,
      and three rifled cannon.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link325" id="link325"></a><span class="pn">{325}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Van Dorn and Price now brought up everything, and concentrated their
      energies for a supreme effort to drive the stubborn Yankees from the field
      and achieve a victory before darkness should intervene. Their artillery
      speedily overpowered and drove off the Union guns, but when the infantry
      advanced it met the same terrific fire. This time the rebels did not give
      way, but pressed on around the left flank so that the Second (Vandever's)
      Brigade had to fall back. The First Brigade (Dodge's) held its position
      until night. The log barricades it had built enabled it to defeat charge
      after charge of the enemy, and when they swung around this flank a part of
      the 8th Ind. and 3d Ill., in a countercharge, drove the enemy back,
      protecting and holding that flank until dusk. In this bloody melee
      Lieut.-Col. Herron and Lieut.-Col. Chandler were wounded and captured, and
      nearly all the field officers were more or less severely wounded. Col.
      Dodge had three horses shot under him, and was himself wounded, and Col.
      Carr received the fourth wound of that day. Three of the Union guns were
      taken.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Second Brigade when it fell back took up a new and strong position a
      quarter of a mile to the rear, facing open ground, and resumed the battle.
    </p>
    <p>
      As evening was coming on, Curtis became at last convinced that the
      fighting in his front was over, and started the First and Second Divisions
      over to the right to the assistance of the Fourth. Gen. Asboth hurried
      forward in person with four companies of the 2d Mo. and four guns of the
      2d Ohio Battery, and assisted in checking and driving back the last
      assault.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Curtis came up, formed a new line along the edge of the timber, with
      the fields in front, and the men lay down on their arms for the night.
    </p>
    <p>
      Let us return to the left, in front of Leetown, where the main battle had
      been expected by both sides.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link326" id="link326"></a><span class="pn">{326}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Col. Osterhaus does not seem to have formed any very dear plan when he
      went out from the center at 9 o'clock to open the battle with McCulloch's
      and Pike's forces. Gen. Curtis sent Col. Bussey out in advance with five
      companies of the 3d Iowa Cav., four of the 5th Mo. Cav., four companies of
      the 1st Mo. Cav., and two companies of the 4th Mo. Cav., with three pieces
      of Capt. Elbert's Battery. Col. Greuset's Brigade of infantry followed the
      cavalry at a short distance.
    </p>
    <p>
      Col. Bussey went out to Leetown and thence to the open fields about half a
      mile north. The infantry took position in the fields north of Leetown.
      Col. Osterhaus came up to the head of the cavalry column where Col. Bussey
      was, and they saw the Confederates in plain view about a quarter of a mile
      away. It was Van Dorn's trains and cavalry guards which they saw moving
      towards the telegraph road. They did not see, however, McCulloch's troops,
      Mcintosh's Brigade of cavalry and Pike's Indians formed in heavy masses to
      the right and close to them.
    </p>
    <p>
      Col. Osterhaus ordered Capt. Welfley to open on the men in front, and the
      shells caused a very visible stampede. Osterhaus then ordered Col. Bussey
      to send two companies down the road to investigate the position. Col.
      Bussey ordered Lieut-Col. Trimble, who commanded the 3d Iowa Cav., to
      execute this order, while he gave his attention to the Fremont and Benton
      Hussars, then coming forward and forming line in rear of the guns.
    </p>
    <p>
      Lieut-Col. Trimble started with five companies of the 3d Iowa Cav., only
      to run into a heavy line of battle at close musket range, receiving a
      deadly fire which killed several of his men and was himself severely
      wounded in the face.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link327" id="link327"></a><span class="pn">{327}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      A minute later Mcintosh, at the head of five regiments of cavalry, and
      Pike leading three Indian and two Texas regiments, burst upon the cavalry
      and over the guns with appalling yells and a tempest of bullets. The Union
      cavalry was simply ridden down by overwhelming numbers and mixed up in a
      hand-to-hand conflict, but fought their way out and retreated through the
      open field to Osterhaus's infantry, where Col. Bussey rallied them and
      formed in line.
    </p>
    <p>
      The yelling Confederates rushed on until they came upon Greusel's line,
      where their yells were hushed by a storm of canister and bullets which
      stopped their advance. The Union line moved into the timber, where
      McCulloch was found working his way towards Curtis's camp. A terrible
      battle was fought with varying success until at 11 o'clock Col. Jeff Davis
      came to Osterhaus's assistance with the Third Division. The fighting was
      obstinate and bloody, generally duels between opposing regiments which
      crept slowly toward one another until they got within 60 or 70 yards, when
      they would open fire, maintaining it until one or the other gave way. The
      irregular lines thus surged back and forward for perhaps an hour, with the
      Union troops generally gaining ground.
    </p>
    <p>
      During this fighting Gens. McCulloch and Mcintosh were both shot through
      the heart by Union sharpshooters. Gen. McCulloch, who was easily
      distinguished by his peculiarly-colored clothes, was killed by Peter
      Pelican, of Co. B, 36th Ill. How Gen. Mcintosh was killed does not appear,
      further than he was shot through the heart. The shooting that day was
      remarkably accurate. The men who held the rifles were perfectly accustomed
      to their use.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link328" id="link328"></a><span class="pn">{328}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      After four hours of constant and desperate fighting there was a noticeable
      fading in the vim of the Confederate assaults and diminishing stubbornness
      of resistance to the Union blows. When the Union soldiers pushed on
      through the woods after their enemies they found them falling back across
      the fields beyond in great disorder. A few shells from the Union guns
      frustrated all attempts to rally them. Osterhaus and Davis pushed their
      skirmishers through the woods for a mile, and the cavalry went still
      further, finding the three guns of the flying battery with the carriages
      burned off, and reporting back that everything seemed to be in full
      retreat for Bentonville.
    </p>
    <p>
      One squad of cavalry came back with Col. Hebert, the next in command to
      Gen. Mcintosh; Col. Mitchell and Maj. W. F. Tunnard, of the 3d La., of the
      same division; a Major, two Captains and 33 privates, all having been
      separated from their commands in the rush through the woods, and unable to
      regain them.
    </p>
    <p>
      After the fall of Gens. McCulloch and Mcintosh the command in that part of
      the field devolved upon Gen. Albert Pike, and it is rare that so great a
      responsibility falls upon one so unfit. Something of a poet Pike certainly
      was; much more of a successful politician and place-hunter, but nothing of
      a leader of men upon the battlefield. His soldiership became sicklied o'er
      when he went beyond the parade ground. Apparently he did not know what to
      do, nor, if he did, how to do it.
    </p>
    <p>
      Regimental commanders reported that they were unable to find him.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link329" id="link329"></a><span class="pn">{329}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      His own verbose report, made six days after the battle, is quite full of
      unintentional humor. He says that after the first charge the field was "a
      mass of the utmost confusion, all talking, riding this way and that, and
      listening to no orders from any one." He could get no one to pay any
      attention to what he said. His Indians, who had stopped in the charge to
      scalp the dead and wounded, would at once stampede whenever a shell was
      thrown in their direction. He devoted himself for a couple of hours to
      what has been described as "heavy standing around."
    </p>
    <p>
      Then he fell back with some of the troops a short distance and did some
      more standing around, until a Union artillerist noticed him and threw a
      shell in his direction, when he fell back out of range, and again stood
      around until some one informed him that a body of 7,000 Federals was
      moving around the left flank. He quickly decided that the "position was
      not tenable," and fell back still more, "when the officers assured me that
      the men were in such condition that it would be worse than useless to
      bring them into acton again that day." Such is the demoralization of
      "standing around."
    </p>
    <p>
      Finally, it occurred to him to take what troops he could gather and join
      Gen. Van Dorn, whose cannon had been thundering two or three miles away
      all this time. First, however, he decided to march them back some distance
      to a creek, "where they could all get a drink, and join Gen. Van Dorn in
      the morning."
    </p>
    <p>
      Col. E. Greer, 3d Tex. Cav., who became the senior officer of McCulloch's
      Division, reported that he gathered up fragments of regiments to the
      number of 3,000 after the casualties to his superiors, and being informed
      that Gen. Pike had left the field with the remainder of the command,
      retired some distance, sending word to Gen. Van Dorn that, unless he
      ordered otherwise, he would march to join him at 1:30 in the morning. Van
      Dorn approved of this.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link330" id="link330"></a><span class="pn">{330}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The night of March 7 closed down with a tumult of widely-varying emotions
      in the 33,000 men who joined battle in the morning. All of Gen. Pike's
      Indians, except a portion of Col. Standwaitie's regiment of Cherokee
      half-breeds, and several thousand whites were rushing off toward the
      Arkansas River at full speed. The remnant of McCulloch's Division, which
      Col. Greer had rallied, and which had some fight left in it, unutterably
      weary, hungry and depressed, bivouacked near the battlefield, awaiting Van
      Dora's orders. Price's Missourians, who were no less weary and hungry than
      their comrades, from a night of severest marching and a day of sharp
      fighting, camped on the ground which they had wrung from Carr's Division
      by seven hours of bitter struggling and the cost of a number of prominent
      officers and several hundred men. Their success, though dearly bought, was
      sufficient to encourage them. They had captured several hundred prisoners
      and two pieces of artillery. They had driven Carr's Division back a
      quarter of a mile, were across the Union line of retreat, and Van Dorn had
      his headquarters at Elkhorn Tavern.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link331" id="link331"></a><span class="pn">{331}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Price had greatly endeared himself to his troops by his conduct during the
      day. He was everywhere at the front, leading and encouraging his men, and
      though wounded in the arm had refused to quit the field. His generalship
      was not so conspicuous as his soldiership. With him and Van Dorn it was
      the story of Wilson's Creek over again. Instead of lining up their
      superior force and sending all forward with a crushing solidarity, they
      had personally led detachments, and when these had been fought out, gone
      back and brought up fresh forces, Van Dorn had shown generalship only in
      the concentration of his artillery. He had been so engrossed in this, and
      in pushing forward detachments he had better left to the Missouri
      leadership that he neglected his powerful right wing, which had gone to
      pieces, as there was no one left to take the place of McCulloch and
      Mcintosh. He hoped, though, with the aid of 3,000 men whom Greer was
      bringing to him, to complete his victory in the morning.
    </p>
    <p>
      There was much to depress Curtis's men in their tireless bivouac south of
      Elkhorn Tavern. Dodge's and Vandever's Brigades had been very roughly
      handled in the long struggle. Rebel bullets had made sad havoc in their
      ranks. They had lost two guns and over a quarter of their force in killed
      and wounded. Osterhaus's and Davis's Divisions, in the center, had had
      costly encounters with the enemy, and had lost five pieces of artillery.
      They did not then know that in reality the victory was theirs, but
      believed that most of the enemy had merely left their front to augment the
      mass which was formed across their line of retreat They therefore looked
      forward to the morrow with well-grounded apprehension. They had no rations
      in their haversacks, and their animals had been without forage for two or
      three days. Unless the enemy could be driven from their "cracker line" the
      very next day, starvation for man and beast stared them in the face.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link332" id="link332"></a><span class="pn">{332}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019">
       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
    </p>
    <div style="height: 4em;">
      <br /><br /><br /><br />
    </div>
    <h2>
      CHAPTER XIX. THE VICTORY IS WON.
    </h2>
    <p>
      Gen. Curtis's army was far from realizing as the night closed down on that
      exciting March 7 how completely it had whipped the overwhelming numbers of
      Van Dorn, Price, McCulloch, Mcintosh and Pike. Those of Jeff C. Davis's
      and Osterhaus's Divisions, who had done the heavy fighting on the Leetown
      front, knew that they had driven away the mass of the enemy in their front
      until there was no longer any show of opposition. They of Carr's Division,
      on the extreme right, the brigades of Dodge and Vandever, realized that
      they had had a terrible fight, in which they had generally defeated the
      enemy, inflicting great slaughter, though they had suffered heavily
      themselves. Still, the enemy had gained a little ground. The men of Carr's
      Division felt that now, since the rest of the army was coming to their
      help, they would undoubtedly win a victory in the morning, and clear the
      rebels from the road leading back to Springfield. This confidence was
      shared by the men of Jeff C. Davis's and Osterhaus's Divisions, who had
      come to their assistance, and they all felt more hopeful than did Sigel
      and Asboth's Division, which had taken little or no part in the fighting.
      The following remarkable letter from Gen. Asboth to Gen. Curtis, written
      at 2 o'clock in the morning of March 8, reveals the general belief of that
      portion of the army that the condition was desperate and it would require
      extraordinary efforts to release the army from a very hazardous situation:
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link333" id="link333"></a><span class="pn">{333}</span>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     Headquarters Second Division, Camp Near Sugar Creek, Ark.,

     March 8, 1862; 2 a. m. General: As Oen. Sigel, under whose
     command you have placed me, with my division, has not yet
     returned to our camp, I beg to address you, General,
     directly, reporting that all the troops of the Second
     Division were yesterday, as well as now, in the night,
     entirely without forage; and as we are cut off from all
     supplies by the enemy, outnumbering our forces several
     times, and as one more day without forage will make our
     horses unserviceable, consequently the cavalry and artillery
     as well as the teams, of no use at all, I would respectfully
     solicit a decided concentrated movement, with the view of
     cutting our way through the enemy where you may deem it more
     advisable, and save by this, if not the whole, at least the
     larger part of our surrounded army.
</pre>
    <p>
      Gen. Curtis seems to have realized quite early in the afternoon the
      condition of affairs on his left in front of Leetown, and that the fight
      there was over. He therefore directed the cavalry under Col. Bussey to
      take up the best positions, holding the ground. All the infantry and
      artillery were ordered over toward the Springfield road to form a new line
      of battle, substantially a prolongation of that established at the close
      of the fighting by the stubborn resistance of Dodge's and Vandever's
      Brigades, which had so decisively repulsed the last attacks upon them the
      previous evening.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link334" id="link334"></a><span class="pn">{334}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Sigel, who had a remarkable faculty for incurring criticism in every
      battle, had not made use of Gen. Asboth's Division at any time to relieve
      the pressure upon Davis and Osterhaus, so that it had hardly fired a shot.
      He now had trouble about getting his troops into line, and it was 8
      o'clock in the morning before he finally took his place on the left,
      notwithstanding the fact that he was ordered to have his divisions in line
      before daylight. Curtis had now all his artillery up, and though it was
      not so numerous as that opposed to him, it was better equipped and
      drilled, and promptly opened the battle with a fire to which the
      Confederate guns could make no adequate reply. The whole line then moved
      forward with blazing rifles, sweeping unchecked up the hillsides, straight
      for the enemy's front. In a few minutes the Confederate line parted in the
      center and disappeared. Most of the Missourians fell back toward
      Keetsville, directly north. Greer and his remnants ran around our left
      toward Bentonville, pursued by Col. Bussey's cavalry. Van Dorn and Price
      with another remnant broke around our right, going through an obscure
      hollow and taking the road to Huntsville. Like most men of impetuous
      initiative, Van Dorn when he was whipped was badly whipped. He sent riders
      post haste to order his trains burned, but Gen. Green, who commanded the
      train guard, was of cooler mettle, and succeeded in getting the trains
      away safely.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Sigel pursued the central portion through Keetsville, seven miles to
      the north, capturing nearly 200 prisoners and a great quantity of arms and
      stores. He believed Curtis would retreat, and was well on his way to
      Springfield when ordered back by Curtis to make his camp on the
      battlefield with the rest. Gen. Curtis officially reported his loss as
      follows:
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link335" id="link335"></a><span class="pn">{335}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      UNION LOSSES.
    </p>
    <p>
      Command.
    </p>
    <p>
      Killed.
    </p>
    <p>
      Wounded
    </p>
    <p>
      It will be noticed by the above figures that Davis's Division lost four
      officers and 42 men killed, 18 officers and 256 men wounded, while Sigel's
      two divisions lost only three officers and 28 men killed, seven officers
      and 149 men wounded.
    </p>
    <p>
      The heaviest loss fell upon the 9th Iowa, which had 39 killed, 176 wounded
      and four missing. The next heaviest was upon the 4th Iowa, which had 18
      killed, 139 wounded and three missing.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Van Dorn estimated his loss at 1,000 killed and wounded and 300
      missing. This is known to be inaccurate, because more Confederate than
      Union dead were buried on the battlefield, and Gen. Curtis sent 500
      prisoners to the rear.
    </p>
    <p>
      The question naturally occurs: Why did Van Dorn relinquish such a supreme
      effort with such a small loss?
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link336" id="link336"></a><span class="pn">{336}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Our amusing acquaintance, Gen. Pike, does not conceal the fact that he and
      those around him were very badly whipped. After joining Van Dorn he
      resumed his old habit of standing around "observing the enemy." He reports
      that he did this for two hours at a stretch when Curtis was delivering the
      final crushing blows upon Van Dorn. He then moved with much promptness
      toward the rear, for an officer came up with the stunning intelligence,
      "You are not safe here, for the enemy's cavalry are within 150 yards of
      you." This seemed to have escaped his "observation" up to that time. He
      rode on, and his pace was accelerated by hearing another officer cry out
      "Close up; close up; or you will all be cut to pieces."
    </p>
    <p>
      He halted presently, but had to start again, for a shell was sent by the
      enemy up the road from the point of the hill around which he had just
      passed. The cry of "The cavalry are coming was raised, and everything
      became confusion." He escaped the "enemy's cavalry by rapid riding," but
      was unable to get ahead of his fastgoing troops and stop them, until they
      reached Elm Spring, many miles away. He came to this sage conclusion:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     The enemy, I learn, had been encamped at Pea Vine Ridge for
     three weeks, and Sigel's advance was but a ruse to induce
     our forces to march northward and give them battle in
     positions selected by themselves.
</pre>
    <p>
      There were others who shared his feelings; for he says:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     Just before night, Saturday afternoon, I had met Col. Rector
     in the hills, who told me he had about 500 men with him;
     that they were in such condition that they could not go more
     than six or eight miles a day, and that he thought he would
     take them into the mountains, hide their arms in a secure
     place, and, as he could not keep them together and feed
     them, let them disperse. He asked my opinion as to this, and
     I told him that no one knew where the rest of the army was;
     that Gens. Van Dorn and Price were supposed to be captured
     and the train taken; that if his men dispersed with their
     arms they would throw them away, and that I thought the
     course he proposed was the wisest one under the
     circumstances. The enemy were pursuing on all the roads, and
     as it was almost impossible for even a dozen men in a body
     to procure food, I still do not see what better he could
     have done.
</pre>
    <p>
      <a name="link337" id="link337"></a><span class="pn">{337}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      Curtis's cavalry found these guns and brought them into camp; also, all
      the artillery that was captured the day before from Davis's and Carr's
      Divisions.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Van Dorn made several reports which are strangely inconsistent with
      one another, and seem the natural efforts of a man to find the best
      excuses that will present themselves from day to day for his failure in a
      great effort. His first report, which was to Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston
      and the Confederate War Department, and sent two days after the battle,
      reads as follows:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     Headquarters Trans-Mississippi District, March 9, via Hog
     Eye; March 10, 1862.

     Fought the enemy, about 20,000 strong, 7th and 8th, at
     Elkhorn, Ark. Battle first day from 10 a. m. until after
     dark; loss heavy on both sides. Gens. McCulloch and Mcintosh
     and Col. Hebert were killed; Gens. Price and Slack were
     wounded (Gen. Price flesh wound in the arm); the others
     badly wounded, if not mortally; many officers killed and
     wounded; but as there are some doubts in regard to several I
     cannot yet report their names. Slept on the battlefield
     first night, having driven the enemy from their position.
     The death of Gens. McCulloch and Mcintosh and Col. Hebert
     early in the action threw the troops on the right under
     their commands in confusion. The enemy took a second and
     strong position. Being without provisions and the right wing
     somewhat disorganized, determined to give battle on the
     right on their front for the purpose only of getting off the
     field without the danger of a panic, which I did with
     success, but with some losses.

     I am now encamped with my whole army 14 miles west of
     Fayetteville, having gone entirely around the enemy. I am
     separated from my train, but think it safe on the Elm
     Springs road to Boston Mountains. The reason why I
     determined to give battle at once upon my arrival to assume
     command of the army I will give in report at an early day.
</pre>
    <p>
      <a name="link338" id="link338"></a><span class="pn">{338}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      In this it will be seen that he disclaimed any intention on the second day
      of making more than a fight to cover his retreat. This is clearly an
      afterthought to excuse the poor battle that he put up. There is no doubt
      that he had still hoped to whip Curtis's army, and that he had men enough
      to do it, if they had been handled properly and had fought with the same
      determination and aggressiveness that the Union troops did. For some weeks
      he continued to send in reports, explanatory and partially contradictory
      of his first.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Sterling Price's report, made March 22, gives no idea that the
      retreat was determined on after the events of the first day, but says with
      relation to the close of the struggle on the evening of March 7:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     The fiercest struggle of the day now ensued; but the
     impetuosity of my troops was Irresistible, and the enemy was
     driven back and completely routed. My right had engaged the
     enemy's center at the same time with equal daring and equal
     success, and had already driven them from their position at
     Elkhorn Tavern. Night alone prevented us from achieving a
     complete victory of which we had already gathered some of
     the fruits, having taken two pieces of artillery and a
     quantity of stores.

     My troops bivouacked upon the ground which they had so nobly
     won, almost exhausted and without food, but fearlessly and
     anxiously awaiting the renewal of the battle in the morning.

     The morning disclosed the enemy strengthened in position and
     numbers and encouraged by the reverses which had unhappily
     befallen the other wing of the army when the brave Texan
     chieftain, Ben McCulloch, and his gallant comrade, Gen.
     Mcintosh, had fallen, fearlessly and triumphantly lead-. ing
     their devoted soldiers against the Invaders of their native
     land. They knew, too, that Hebert&mdash;the accomplished leader
     of that veteran regiment, the Louisiana Third, which won so
     many laurels on the bloody field of the Oak Hills, and which
     then as well as now sustained the proud reputation of
     Louisiana&mdash;was a prisoner in their hands. They were not slow
     to renew the attack; they opened upon us vigorously, but my
     trusty men faltered not. They held their position unmoved
     until (after several of the batteries not under my command
     had left the field) they were ordered to retire. My troops
     obeyed it unwillingly, with faces turned defiantly against
     the foe.
</pre>
    <p>
      <a name="link339" id="link339"></a><span class="pn">{339}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      It will be noticed that Price is not as frank as usual in giving reasons
      for his rapid retirement at the moment when, he claims, he was in the full
      flush of victory. "The retirement of several batteries not under my
      command" is a conspicuously inadequate excuse.
    </p>
    <p>
      In the course of a month or so Van Dorn managed to gather himself together
      again so as to begin voluminous communications with Richmond, explaining
      that "I was not defeated, but only foiled in my intentions."
    </p>
    <p>
      He proposed to return to his old Pocahontas plan, "relieve Gen. Beauregard
      by marching my army upon the Federals at New Madrid or Cape Girardeau, and
      thence on to St. Louis." He would turn his cavalry loose on Gen. Curtis's
      long line of communications, and send Gen. Pike with his Indians to harry
      southwestern Missouri and Kansas.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Confederate War Department did not think highly of this, but shortly
      transferred him and his troops east of the Mississippi.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Price was also transferred east of the Mississippi, with the Missouri
      troops he had taken into the Confederate army, and his farewell to the
      Missouri State troops is worth reproducing as a specimen of the heated
      rhetoric customary in those days:
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     Headquarters Missouri State Guard,

     Des Arc, Ark., April 8, 1862. (General Orders No. 79.)

     Soldiers of the State Guard: I command you no longer. I have
     this day resigned the commission which your patient
     endurance, your devoted patriotism and your dauntless
     bravery have made so honorable. I have done this that I may
     the better serve you, our State and our country&mdash;that I may
     the sooner lead you back to the fertile prairies, the rich
     woodlands and majestic streams of our beloved Missouri&mdash;that
     I may the more certainly restore you to your once happy
     homes and to the loved ones there.

     Five thousand of those who have fought side by side with us
     under the Grizzly Bears of Missouri have followed me into
     the Confederate camp. They appeal to you, as I do, by all
     the tender memories of the past, not to leave us now, but to
     go with us wherever the path of duty may lead, till we shall
     have conquered a peace and won our independence by brilliant
     deeds upon new fields of battle.
</pre>
    <p>
      <a name="link340" id="link340"></a><span class="pn">{340}</span>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     Soldiers of the State Guards!    Veterans of six pitched
     battles and nearly 20 skirmishes! Conquerors in them all!
     Tour country, with Its "ruined hearths and shrines," calls
     upon you to rally once more In her defense, and rescue her
     forever from the terrible thraldom which threatens her. I
     know that she will not call In vain. The Insolent and
     barbarous hordes which have dared to Invade our soil and to
     desecrate our homes have Just met with a signal overthrow
     beyond the Mississippi Now Is the time to end this unhappy
     war. If every man will but do his duty, his own roof will
     shelter him In peace from the storms of the coming; Winter.

     Let not history record that the men who bore with patience
     the privations of Cowskln Prairie, who endured
     uncomplainingly the burning heat of a Missouri Summer and
     the frosts and snows of a Missouri Winter; that the men who
     met the enemy at Carthage, at Oak Hills, at Fort Scott, at
     Lexington and on numberless lesser battlefields In Missouri,
     and met them but to conquer them; that the men who fought so
     bravely and so well at Blkhorn; that the unpaid soldiery of
     Missouri were, after so many victories and after so much
     suffering, unequal to the great task of achieving the
     Independence of their magnificent State.

     Soldiers, I go but to mark a pathway to our homes. Follow
     me!
</pre>
    <p>
      Very few but those who had already been cajoled into the Confederate
      service followed.
    </p>
    <p>
      A great deal of bitterness was developed from the discovery upon the
      battlefield of a number of Union dead who had been scalped by Pike's
      Indians. Many of these belonged to the 3d Iowa Cav., and the investigation
      of the matter was conducted by order of Col. Bussey, by his Adjutant, John
      W. Noble, afterwards Secretary of the Interior. Col. Bussey became
      Assistant Secretary of the Interior.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link341" id="link341"></a><span class="pn">{341}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The bodies of at least eight of the 3d Iowa Cav. were exhumed and found to
      have been scalped and the bodies otherwise maltreated after their deaths
      by the scalping knives and tomahawks of merciless Indians. The matter was
      made subject of a strong communication from Gen. Curtis to Gen. Van Dorn,
      and the latter's Adjutant-General, Dabney H. Maury, replied, cordially
      condemning any such deeds, but claiming that, on the other hand, many
      prisoners of war had been killed in cold blood by Curtis's men, who were
      alleged to be Germans. The letter said:
    </p>
    <p>
      The General commanding feels sure that you will do your part as he will in
      preventing such atrocities in the future, and that the perpetrators of
      them will be brought to justice, whether Germans or Choctaws.
    </p>
    <p>
      Gen. Curtis was promoted to Major-General for his victory, and well
      deserved that honor, in spite of some bitter critics. Sigd was also made a
      Major-General, with much less reason. Asboth had his withheld
      Brigadier-Generalcy confirmed to him. Cols. Carr, Davis and Dodge were
      made Brigadier-Generals, but Cols. Osterhaus, White and Bussey, who had
      done conspicuous fighting, had to wait some months for their promotion,
      and Cols. Greusel and Pattison never received it.
    </p>
    <p>
      Among those who received praise for their gallantry that day was Maj. John
      Charles Black, of the 37th Ill., later a Colonel and Brigadier-General,
      Commissioner of Pensions under President Cleveland,
      Representative-at-large from Illinois, Commander-in-Chief of the Grand
      Army of the Republic, and now President of the United States Civil Service
      Commission. Maj. Black was severely wounded in the sword arm in the fight,
      but refused to leave the field until Gen. White ordered him to do so.
    </p>
    <p>
      Another was Maj. Phillip Sidney Post, of the 59th Ill. He later became
      Colonel and Brigadier-General; was left for dead on the field at
      Nashville, but recovered, to be Consul-General at Vienna and represent
      Illinois for many years in Congress. He was also wounded in the sword arm,
      and also refused to leave the field until he was peremptorily ordered to
      do so.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link342" id="link342"></a><span class="pn">{342}</span>
    </p>
    <p>
      The moral effect of the victory was prodigious and far-reaching. High
      expectations had been raised by Van Dora, McCulloch, Mcintosh, Price and
      Albert Pike, which were abjectly prostrated. The mass of fugitives, white
      and red, who scattered over Missouri, Arkansas and the Indian Territory,
      each with his tale of awful slaughter and disheartened defeat, had a
      blighting effect upon the Secessionists, and greatly strengthened the
      Union sentiment.
    </p>
    <p>
      It was a desperate two-days' wrestle between the very best that the
      Southern Confederacy could produce west of the Mississippi River&mdash;the
      ablest commanders and the finest troops&mdash;and a small Union army. It
      was breaking, test, under the fairest conditions, of the fighting
      qualities of the two combatants.
    </p>
    <p>
      Though bitter, merciless, sanguinary fighting was to perturb the State for
      three years longer, it was no longer war, but guerilla raiding and
      bandittism, robbery and murder under a pretext of war. Price, indeed, made
      an invasion of the State two years later, but it was a hurried raid,
      without hope of permanent results.
    </p>
    <p>
      At the conclusion of the battle Missouri was as firmly anchored to the
      Union as her neighbors, Illinois, Iowa and Kansas.
    </p>
    <p>
      The battle for Missouri had been fought and won.
    </p>
    <p>
      <br /> <br />
    </p>
    <hr />
    <p>
      <br /><a name="linkindex" id="linkindex"></a> <br />
    </p>
    <h2>
      INDEX.
    </h2>
    <p>
      <br /><br />A <br /><br />Abolitionists, <a href="#link17"> {17}</a>, <a
      href="#link29"> {29}</a>, <a href="#link32"> {32}</a>. <br /><br />Anderson,
      Robert, Maj., moves to Fort Sumter, <a href="#link23"> {23}</a>. <br /><br />Andrews,
      G. L., at Wilson's Creek, <a href="#link165"> {165}</a>. <br /><br />Arsenals,
      St. Louis,<a href="#link35"> {35}</a> et seq., <a href="#link37"> {37}</a>,<a
      href="#link44"> {44}</a>; Liberty,<a href="#link35"> {35}</a>. <br /><br />Asboth,
      Alexander, Gen., sketch of ; <a href="#link222"> {222}</a> et seq. ;
      arrives at Lebanon, <a href="#link304"> {304}</a>; at Pea Ridge, <a
      href="#link325"> {325}</a>; writes Curtis, <a href="#link333"> {333}</a>;
      promoted, ail. <br /><br />Atchison, D. R., defeats Col. Scott, <a
      href="#link209"> {209}</a>. <br /><br />B <br /><br />Bates, Edward, Attorney-
      General, helps to restore Harney,<a href="#link96"> {96}</a>. <br /><br />Bell,
      John,<a href="#link21"> {21}</a>. <br /><br />Bell, Wm. Haywood, Maj., in
      command at arsenal,<a href="#link36"> {36}</a>; understanding with Frost,
      <a href="#link37"> {37}</a>; relieved from com- mand,<a href="#link40">
      {40}</a>. <br /><br />Belmont, battle of, <a href="#link264"> {264}</a> et
      seq. <br /><br />Benton, Thos. H., sketch of,<a href="#link20"> {20}</a>.
      <br /><br />Bingham, Geo. A., elected Treasurer of State, <a href="#link136">
      {136}</a>. <br /><br />Black, John Charles, receives praise for gallantry at
      Pea Ridge, <a href="#link341"> {341}</a>. <br /><br />Blair, Chas. W., at
      Wilson's Creek, <a href="#link165"> {165}</a>. <br /><br />Blair, Frank P.,
      sketch of, <a href="#link19"> {19}</a> et seq. ; thwartx Frost's plans,<a
      href="#link39"> {39}</a> et seq.; activity of,<a href="#link43"> {43}</a>;
      secures Lyon's as- signment to command,<a href="#link57"> {57}</a>;
      procures arms from War Department, <a href="#link64"> {64}</a> ; marches
      to Camp Jackson,<a href="#link75"> {75}</a>; dis- trusts Harney's
      agreement with Price,<a href="#link98"> {98}</a>,<a href="#link99"> {99}</a>;
      pres- ent at interview at Plant- er's House, <a href="#link109"> {109}</a>
      et seq. <br /><br />Blair, Montgomery,<a href="#link40"> {40}</a>. <br /><br />Blandowski,
      C, mortally wounded by rioters,<a href="#link78"> {78}</a>. <br /><br />Bowen,
      John S.,<a href="#link62"> {62}</a> et seq. <br /><br />Boonville, Mo., <a
      href="#link121"> {121}</a>; skirmish at, <a href="#link124"> {124}</a> et
      seq. <br /><br />Breckinridge, John C,<a href="#link21"> {21}</a>. <br /><br />Brown,
      Gratz B., Col.,<a href="#link65"> {65}</a>. <br /><br />Buchanan, President,
      on seces- sion,<a href="#link23"> {23}</a>. <br /><br />Buell, Don Carlos,
      in command of Department of the Ohio, <a href="#link298"> {298}</a>. <br /><br />Bussey,
      Cyrus, Col., at Pea Ridge, <a href="#link325"> {325}</a> et seq.; takes
      cavalry to Leetown Road, <a href="#link333"> {333}</a>; Assistant
      Secretary of the Interior, <a href="#link340"> {340}</a>. <br /><br />C
      <br /><br />Campbell, Robert,<a href="#link33"> {33}</a>. <br /><br />Carlin,
      W. P., Col.,<a href="#link33"> {33}</a>d <a href="#link111"> {111}</a>.,
      <a href="#link245"> {245}</a>; at Big River Bridge, <a href="#link247">
      {247}</a>; insists upon com- mand, <a href="#link249"> {249}</a> ;
      Frederick- town, <a href="#link250"> {250}</a> et seq.. <br /><br />Carr, E.
      A., Col., at Cross Hol- lows, <a href="#link316"> {316}</a>; SSkhorn Tav-
      ern, <a href="#link322"> {322}</a>; sends to Curtis for reinforcements, <a
      href="#link324"> {324}</a> ; wounded, <a href="#link325"> {325}</a> ;
      promoted, <a href="#link341"> {341}</a>. <br /><br />Census, <a
      href="#link185"> {185}</a>0,<a href="#link14"> {14}</a>. <br /><br />Champion,
      Brock,<a href="#link38"> {38}</a>. <br /><br />Cherokee Indians, <a
      href="#link280"> {280}</a>. <br /><br />Choctaw Indians, <a href="#link279">
      {279}</a> et seq. <br /><br />Clayton, Powell, at Wilson's Creek, <a
      href="#link165"> {165}</a>. <br /><br />Committee of Safety,<a href="#link43">
      {43}</a> et seq.,<a href="#link53"> {53}</a>; meets Lyon at arsenal,<a
      href="#link72"> {72}</a>. <br /><br />Cole Camp, skirmish, <a href="#link131">
      {131}</a> et seq. <br /><br />Cole, Nelson, at Wilson's Creek, <a
      href="#link165"> {165}</a>. <br /><br />Commissioner from Mississippi» <a
      href="#link34"> {34}</a>. <br /><br />Convention, State, meets at Jefferson
      City, Feb.<a href="#link28"> {28}</a>, <a href="#link49"> {49}</a>; adopts
      Union report and adjourns,<a href="#link50"> {50}</a>. <br /><br />Cook, A.
      H. W., organizes Home Guards, <a href="#link131"> {131}</a> ; cap- tures
      supplies, <a href="#link132"> {132}</a>. <br /><br />Cooper, Douglas H.,
      Col., at- tacks Hopoeitihleyohola, <a href="#link283"> {283}</a>; retreats
      to Fort Gib- son, <a href="#link283"> {283}</a>; joined by Col. James
      Mcintosh, <a href="#link283"> {283}</a>; at- tacks Indians at Shoal Creek,
      <a href="#link284"> {284}</a>. <br /><br />Cotton States, secession of,<a
      href="#link23"> {23}</a>. <br /><br />Crawford, Sam*l J., at Wilson's Creek,
      <a href="#link165"> {165}</a>. <br /><br />Croghan, St. George, visits;
      Sweeny,<a href="#link45"> {45}</a> ; death,<a href="#link46"> {46}</a>.
      <br /><br />Curtis, Sam'l B., sketch of, <a href="#link198"> {198}</a>;
      assigned to command Army of the Southwest, <a href="#link302"> {302}</a>;
      selects Davis and Carr for commands, <a href="#link302"> {302}</a>; base
      at Lebanon, <a href="#link303"> {303}</a> ; marches against Price, <a
      href="#link305"> {305}</a>; captures Springfield, <a href="#link305">
      {305}</a>; forces evacuation of Cross Hollows, <a href="#link308"> {308}</a>;
      es- tablishes himself at Cross Hollows, <a href="#link309"> {309}</a> ;
      Organiza- tion of army, <a href="#link314"> {314}</a>; de- cides to make
      stand at Pea Ridge, <a href="#link316"> {316}</a>; position of army, <a
      href="#link316"> {316}</a>; battle of Pea Ridge, <a href="#link322"> {322}</a>
      et seq.; sends Bussey with cavalry to Leetown Road. <a href="#link333">
      {333}</a> ; re- port of losses, <a href="#link335"> {335}</a> ; pro-
      moted, <a href="#link341"> {341}</a>. <br /><br />D <br /><br />Davis,
      Jeffebson,<a href="#link49"> {49}</a> ; sends ar- tillery for attack on
      arse- nal,<a href="#link70"> {70}</a>; army record, <a href="#link289">
      {289}</a>; dislikes Price, <a href="#link290"> {290}</a> ; the 5th U. S.
      Oav., <a href="#link311"> {311}</a>. <br /><br />Davis, Jeff. C, in the Lex-
      ington campaign, <a href="#link208"> {208}</a> ; forces surrender at Mil-
      ford, <a href="#link291"> {291}</a>; joins Curtis at Lebanon, <a
      href="#link304"> {304}</a>; goes to Os- terhaus's assistance, <a
      href="#link327"> {327}</a> ; promoted, <a href="#link341"> {341}</a>.
      <br /><br />Democrats,<a href="#link14"> {14}</a>,<a href="#link20"> {20}</a>.
      <br /><br />Dietzler, Geo. W., at Wilson's Creek, <a href="#link165"> {165}</a>.
      <br /><br />Dodge, Col., at Pea Ridge, <a href="#link325"> {325}</a>. <br /><br />Doniphan,
      Alex., Gen., stands by the Union,<a href="#link94"> {94}</a>. <br /><br />Douglas,
      Stephan A.,<a href="#link14"> {14}</a>,<a href="#link21"> {21}</a>. <br /><br />Dug
      Springs, engagement at, <a href="#link153"> {153}</a>. <br /><br />Duke,
      Basil Wilson,<a href="#link38"> {38}</a>,<a href="#link42"> {42}</a>;
      matures plot,<a href="#link56"> {56}</a> et seq. ; burns Osage River
      bridge, <a href="#link90"> {90}</a>. <br /><br />F <br /><br />Flags,
      secession,<a href="#link39"> {39}</a>; Union flag torn down,<a
      href="#link39"> {39}</a>. <br /><br />Fredericktown, skirmish at, <a
      href="#link250"> {250}</a> et seq. <br /><br />Freesoilism,<a href="#link57">
      {57}</a>. <br /><br />Fremont, Gen., sketch of, <a href="#link133"> {133}</a>
      et seq. ; comes into colli- * sion with Gen. Kearny, <a href="#link135">
      {135}</a>; nominated for Presi- dent, <a href="#link135"> {135}</a>; takes
      command of Department of the West, <a href="#link136"> {136}</a> ;
      establishes Court at St. Louis, <a href="#link148"> {148}</a>; reinforces
      Cairo, <a href="#link149"> {149}</a>; asks for men and supplies, <a
      href="#link194"> {194}</a> ; testifies with regard to Lyon, <a
      href="#link194"> {194}</a> et seq. r declares martial law, <a
      href="#link197"> {197}</a> et seq.; topples to his fall, <a href="#link216">
      {216}</a>; moves to Jefferson City, <a href="#link220"> {220}</a> et seq.
      ; forms Army of the West, <a href="#link221"> {221}</a> et seq.; pursues
      Price, <a href="#link224"> {224}</a>; Fre- mont body guard, <a
      href="#link227"> {227}</a> et seq.; at Springfield, <a href="#link229">
      {229}</a>; issues joint proclamation with Price, <a href="#link230"> {230}</a>;
      relieved from command, <a href="#link233"> {233}</a>; takes leave of
      troops, <a href="#link234"> {234}</a>; given command of Moun- tain
      Department, <a href="#link235"> {235}</a>; put on retired list, <a
      href="#link236"> {236}</a>. Frost, Daniel M., Maj.-Gen., sketch of,<a
      href="#link36"> {36}</a> et seq. ; is- sues secret circular,<a
      href="#link39"> {39}</a> ; recommendation to Gov. Jackson,<a href="#link62">
      {62}</a> ; establishes Camp Jackson,<a href="#link68"> {68}</a> et seq. ;
      writes to Lyon,<a href="#link73"> {73}</a> et seq. ; surrenders Oamp
      Jackson, <a href="#link76"> {76}</a> et seq. ; protests to Harney against
      Lyon's at- tack,<a href="#link82"> {82}</a> et seq. <br /><br />Gamble,
      Hamilton R.,<a href="#link33"> {33}</a>,49, <a href="#link84"> {84}</a>;
      elected Governor, <a href="#link136"> {136}</a>. <br /><br />Germans dn
      Missouri,<a href="#link14"> {14}</a> et seq.;<a href="#link33"> {33}</a>,<a
      href="#link39"> {39}</a>,<a href="#link44"> {44}</a>,<a href="#link80">
      {80}</a>, <a href="#link142"> {142}</a>; resent Halleck's order, <a
      href="#link259"> {259}</a> et seq. <br /><br />Gilbert, C. C, Oapt., at Wil-
      son's Creek, <a href="#link167"> {167}</a>. <br /><br />Granger, Gordon,
      Capt., record of, <a href="#link164"> {164}</a> ; at Wilson's Creek, <a
      href="#link174"> {174}</a>. <br /><br />Giant, U. S., sketch of, <a
      href="#link198"> {198}</a> et seq. ; commissioned Brig- adier-General, <a
      href="#link244"> {244}</a>; at Cape Girardeau, <a href="#link244"> {244}</a>
      et seq.; orders Carlin and Plummer to attack Thomp- son, <a href="#link247">
      {247}</a>; headquarters at Cairo, <a href="#link262"> {262}</a>; starts
      for Pa- ducah, <a href="#link262"> {262}</a>; activity of, <a
      href="#link263"> {263}</a>; at Belmont, <a href="#link264"> {264}</a> et
      seq. <br /><br />Greeley, Horace, views on co- ercion,<a href="#link33">
      {33}</a>. <br /><br />Greene, Colton, Capt.,<a href="#link38"> {38}</a>.
      <br /><br />Green, James S., U. S. Sena- tor, sketch of,<a href="#link27">
      {27}</a> et seq.; defeated for Senate,<a href="#link47"> {47}</a>. <br /><br />Hagner,
      Peter B., Maj., suc- ceeds Bell in command of arsenal,<a href="#link41">
      {41}</a> ; comes into col- lision with Lyon,<a href="#link54"> {54}</a>.
      <br /><br />Halderman, John A., record of, <a href="#link164"> {164}</a>.
      <br /><br />Halleck, Henry Wager, suc- ceeds Fremont, <a href="#link253">
      {253}</a> : sketch of, <a href="#link253"> {253}</a> et seq. ; checks se-
      cession insolence, <a href="#link258"> {258}</a> ; slaves debarred from
      camp, <a href="#link259"> {259}</a>; explains order, <a href="#link260">
      {260}</a>; Department of Kansas consolidated with his, <a href="#link297">
      {297}</a>; constructs fleet of gun- boats, <a href="#link297"> {297}</a>;
      institutes mil- itary commission to pun- ish bridge-burners, <a
      href="#link298"> {298}</a> et seq.; writes Price, <a href="#link299">
      {299}</a>; commended by Stanton, <a href="#link300"> {300}</a> ;
      telegraphs Curtis, <a href="#link300"> {300}</a>; plans for crushing
      Price, <a href="#link301"> {301}</a>; forms Army of the Southwest, <a
      href="#link302"> {302}</a>; orders Hunter to reinforce Curtis, <a
      href="#link313"> {313}</a>. <br /><br />Hardee, Gen., asked to join Price
      and McCuIloch, <a href="#link196"> {196}</a>. <br /><br />Harding, Chester,
      Col., <a href="#link104"> {104}</a>, <a href="#link120"> {120}</a>;
      applies to Fremont for supplies for Lyon, <a href="#link148"> {148}</a>.
      <br /><br />Harney, William Selby, sketch of,<a href="#link29"> {29}</a> et
      seq.; sustains Hagner,<a href="#link55"> {55}</a>; attitude to- ward Lyon,<a
      href="#link59"> {59}</a>; removed from command,<a href="#link65"> {65}</a>;
      re- turns to St. Louis and re- sumes command,<a href="#link81"> {81}</a>;
      issues proclamation,<a href="#link81"> {81}</a>; puts re- striction on
      Home Guards, <a href="#link82"> {82}</a> ; approves Lyon's course and
      issues proclamation, <a href="#link84"> {84}</a> et seq. ; telegraphs Ad-
      jutant-General for arms, <a href="#link96"> {96}</a>; enters into
      agreement with Price and Jackson. <a href="#link97"> {97}</a> ; issues
      proclamation, <a href="#link97"> {97}</a>; calls Price's attention to
      secession outrages,<a href="#link98"> {98}</a> et seq. ; relieved from
      com- mand, <a href="#link101"> {101}</a>; writes letter to
      Adjutant-General, <a href="#link101"> {101}</a> et seq. ; death, <a
      href="#link102"> {102}</a>. <br /><br />Herron, Francis J., at Wilson's
      Creek, <a href="#link165"> {165}</a>. <br /><br />Holt, Willard P., elected
      Lieu- tenant-Governor of Mis- souri, <a href="#link136"> {136}</a>. <br /><br />Home
      Guards,<a href="#link59"> {59}</a>,<a href="#link65"> {65}</a>,<a
      href="#link99"> {99}</a>, <a href="#link108"> {108}</a>. <br /><br />Hopoeithieyohola,
      sketch of, <a href="#link282"> {282}</a> et seq. ; defeats Coop- er at
      Chusto-Talasah, <a href="#link283"> {283}</a> ; Shoal Creek, <a
      href="#link284"> {284}</a>; retreats to Kansas, <a href="#link284"> {284}</a>
      ; death, <a href="#link284"> {284}</a>. <br /><br />Hunter, David, Gen.,
      succeeds Fremont, <a href="#link233"> {233}</a>; sketch of, <a
      href="#link237"> {237}</a> et seq.; gives up pur- suit of Price, <a
      href="#link240"> {240}</a> et seq. ; assigned to 'Department of Kansas, <a
      href="#link271"> {271}</a> et seq.; trou- ble with Lane, <a href="#link276">
      {276}</a> et seq. ; assigned to duty in South Carolina, <a href="#link278">
      {278}</a>. <br /><br />I <br /><br />Illinois, forays from,<a href="#link39">
      {39}</a>. <br /><br />Immigration to Missouri,<a href="#link10"> {10}</a>.
      <br /><br />Indian Territory, tribes gath- ered there, <a href="#link279">
      {279}</a>; op- posed to war, <a href="#link280"> {280}</a>; effect of war
      storm on, <a href="#link284"> {284}</a>. <br /><br />Irish in Missouri,<a
      href="#link14"> {14}</a>,<a href="#link38"> {38}</a>,<a href="#link40">
      {40}</a>. <br /><br />J <br /><br />Jackson, Claiborne F., sketch of,<a
      href="#link20"> {20}</a>; Inaugural Address, <a href="#link25"> {25}</a>;
      resents removal of gold,<a href="#link41"> {41}</a>; reply to Presi- dent
      Lincoln's call for troops,<a href="#link62"> {62}</a> et seq.; applies to
      Jefferson Davis for ar- tillery for attack on ar- senal,<a href="#link69">
      {69}</a>; receives letter from Davis,<a href="#link69"> {69}</a> et seq. ;
      is- sues proclamation calling militia into service, <a href="#link119">
      {119}</a> et seq. ; attacks Boonville, <a href="#link121"> {121}</a>;
      establishes capital at Lamar, <a href="#link137"> {137}</a>; hears of Si-
      gel's advance, <a href="#link138"> {138}</a>; joins McCullodh at Neosho,
      <a href="#link141"> {141}</a>; sets up capital at Lexing- ton, <a
      href="#link207"> {207}</a>; calls Legislature at Neosho, <a href="#link225">
      {225}</a>; death,<a href="#link27"> {27}</a>. <br /><br />Jackson, Camp, is
      established, <a href="#link68"> {68}</a> et seq.; visited by Lyon,<a
      href="#link72"> {72}</a>; surrounded by Lyon's troops,<a href="#link75">
      {75}</a> et seq.; surrender,<a href="#link77"> {77}</a>; in charge of
      Sweeny,<a href="#link79"> {79}</a>; account of stock taken,<a
      href="#link86"> {86}</a> et seq. "Jaybawkers," <a href="#link274"> {274}</a>
      et seq. <br /><br />Jefferson City, Capital of Mis- souri,<a href="#link26">
      {26}</a>. <br /><br />Johnson, Waldo P., succeeds Senator Green,<a
      href="#link47"> {47}</a>. <br /><br />Johnston, Albert Sydney, as- signed to
      command Con- federate army in the West, <a href="#link243"> {243}</a>.
      <br /><br />L <br /><br />Lane, James H., recruits Kan- sas regiments, <a
      href="#link201"> {201}</a>; skir- mish at Dry Wood, <a href="#link202">
      {202}</a>; crosses the Osage and throws up fortifications, <a
      href="#link202"> {202}</a>; marches to Osceola, <a href="#link219"> {219}</a>
      et seq.; burns town, <a href="#link219"> {219}</a>; sketch of, <a
      href="#link273"> {273}</a> et seq. ; elected U. S. Senate. <a
      href="#link275"> {275}</a> ; commissioned Briga- dier-General of
      Volunteers, <a href="#link276"> {276}</a>; plans Southern expe- dition, <a
      href="#link276"> {276}</a> et seq.; death, <a href="#link278"> {278}</a>.
      <br /><br />Legislature of Missouri meets Dec.<a href="#link31"> {31}</a>,
      <a href="#link186"> {186}</a>0,<a href="#link24"> {24}</a> ; political
      complexion,<a href="#link24"> {24}</a> ; secession bills introduced,<a
      href="#link32"> {32}</a>; de- clare against coercion,<a href="#link35">
      {35}</a>; calls convention,<a href="#link48"> {48}</a>; panic after Camp
      Jackson,<a href="#link89"> {89}</a>. <br /><br />Lexington, description of,
      <a href="#link206"> {206}</a> et seq. ; Six Days' Battle, <a
      href="#link210"> {210}</a> et seq. ; garrison sur- renders, <a
      href="#link214"> {214}</a>. <br /><br />Liberty, Mo.,<a href="#link35"> {35}</a>;
      arsenal seized,<a href="#link63"> {63}</a>. <br /><br />Lincoln, Abraham,<a
      href="#link17"> {17}</a>,<a href="#link20"> {20}</a>,<a href="#link22">
      {22}</a>; supports Blair's request for removal of Bell,<a href="#link40">
      {40}</a>; call for troops,<a href="#link62"> {62}</a>; writes Blair with
      regard to Harney, <a href="#link100"> {100}</a>; writes to Gen. Curtis, <a
      href="#link233"> {233}</a>; advice to Gen. Hunter, <a href="#link238">
      {238}</a> et seq.; defends Hunter, <a href="#link278"> {278}</a>. <br /><br />Losses,
      Union, Wilson's Creek, <a href="#link176"> {176}</a> et seq.; Lexington,
      <a href="#link216"> {216}</a>; Fredericktown, <a href="#link251"> {251}</a>;
      Belmont, <a href="#link267"> {267}</a>; Pea Ridge, <a href="#link335">
      {335}</a>; Boonville, <a href="#link124"> {124}</a>. <br /><br />Lothrop,
      Warren L., reinforces Lyon at arsenal,<a href="#link53"> {53}</a>. <br /><br />Lyon,
      Nathaniel, Capt., arrives at arsenal,<a href="#link50"> {50}</a> et seq. ;
      pro- tests against Hagner's as- signment,<a href="#link54"> {54}</a> et
      seq. ; pre- pares arsenal for defense, <a href="#link60"> {60}</a>;
      elected Brigadier-Gen- eral of Missouri Militia, <a href="#link65"> {65}</a>;
      transfers stores to Al- ton,<a href="#link66"> {66}</a>; resolves to cap-
      ture Gamp Jackson,<a href="#link70"> {70}</a> et seq.; visits Camp
      Jackson, <a href="#link72"> {72}</a> ; meets Committee of Safety at
      arsenal,<a href="#link72"> {72}</a> et seq. ; demands surrender of camp,<a
      href="#link76"> {76}</a>; appointed Brig- adier-General U. S. V., <a
      href="#link100"> {100}</a> ; in full command, <a href="#link103"> {103}</a>
      ; sends passports to Price and Jackson, <a href="#link109"> {109}</a>;
      inter- view at Planter's House, <a href="#link100"> {100}</a> et seq. ;
      starts for Boonville, <a href="#link121"> {121}</a>; skirmish àt
      Boonville, <a href="#link123"> {123}</a> ; captures supplies, <a
      href="#link124"> {124}</a>; Gov. Jack* son's letter falls into his hands,
      <a href="#link127"> {127}</a>; welcomes Fre- mont, <a href="#link135">
      {135}</a>; command dwin- dles, <a href="#link146"> {146}</a>; applies to
      Fremont for troops and supplies, <a href="#link149"> {149}</a>; makes bold
      move, <a href="#link152"> {152}</a> et seq. ; requests not honored, <a
      href="#link156"> {156}</a>; writes Fremont, <a href="#link157"> {157}</a>;
      learns of juncture of McCulloch's and Price's forces, <a href="#link158">
      {158}</a>; determines to attack, <a href="#link158"> {158}</a>; Wilson's
      Creek, <a href="#link167"> {167}</a> et seq.; wounded, <a href="#link170">
      {170}</a>; death of, <a href="#link171"> {171}</a>; burial, <a
      href="#link186"> {186}</a>; re- mains removed to East- ford, Conn., <a
      href="#link187"> {187}</a>; Lyon's will, <a href="#link187"> {187}</a>;
      Congress passes resolution in recognition of, <a href="#link187"> {187}</a>
      et seq. <br /><br />M <br /><br />MacDonald, Emmet, refuses to accept parole,<a
      href="#link79"> {79}</a>. <br /><br />McCook, Daniel, at Wilson's Creek, <a
      href="#link165"> {165}</a>. <br /><br />McCulloch, Ben, Gen., sketch of, <a
      href="#link144"> {144}</a> et seq. : crosses Missouri line with <a
      href="#link3"> {3}</a>, troops, <a
      href="#link145"> {145}</a>; joins Price at Crane Creek, <a href="#link150">
      {150}</a>; assumes supreme command, <a href="#link152"> {152}</a> ;
      unwilling to attack Lyon, <a href="#link154"> {154}</a> et seq.; orders
      army forward, <a href="#link155"> {155}</a>; attacks Si- gel, <a
      href="#link172"> {172}</a>; (reports as to battle, <a href="#link181">
      {181}</a>; delivers up Lyon's body, <a href="#link186"> {186}</a>; ad-
      vances to Springfield, <a href="#link190"> {190}</a> ; denounces Missouri
      troops, <a href="#link191"> {191}</a> et seq. ; at Cross Hol- low, <a
      href="#link294"> {294}</a>; abandons Cross Hollow, <a href="#link308">
      {308}</a> ; at Pea Ridge, <a href="#link321"> {321}</a> et seq. ; death
      of, <a href="#link327"> {327}</a>. <br /><br />McDonough, James, Chief of
      Police, tries to preserve municipal peace,<a href="#link79"> {79}</a> et
      seq. <br /><br />Mcintosh, James, <a href="#link152"> {152}</a>, <a
      href="#link155"> {155}</a>; trusties 3d La. and 2d Ark. against Plummer,
      <a href="#link169"> {169}</a>; re- fuses to combine with Price, <a
      href="#link296"> {296}</a>; at Pea Ridge, <a href="#link326"> {326}</a> et
      seq. ; death of, <a href="#link327"> {327}</a>. <br /><br />McKinstry,
      Justus, Lyon dis- trusts him,<a href="#link73"> {73}</a>; sketch, <a
      href="#link223"> {223}</a> <br /><br />McNeill,' Gen.,<a href="#link65">
      {65}</a>. <br /><br />Marmaduke, John S., sketch of, <a href="#link122">
      {122}</a> et seq.; troops at Boonville routed, <a href="#link124"> {124}</a>.
      <br /><br />Merrefct, W. H., at Wilson's Creek, <a href="#link165"> {165}</a>.
      <br /><br />Middle Class,<a href="#link12"> {12}</a> et seq.,<a
      href="#link17"> {17}</a>, <a href="#link18"> {18}</a>,<a href="#link26">
      {26}</a>,<a href="#link96"> {96}</a>. <br /><br />Militia, Gen. Frost begins
      or- ganization,<a href="#link37"> {37}</a>; camp of instruction,<a
      href="#link62"> {62}</a>. <br /><br />Military Bill,<a href="#link89"> {89}</a>
      et seq.; di- visions organized under,<a href="#link94"> {94}</a> et seq.,
      <a href="#link108"> {108}</a>. <br /><br />Minute Men organize,<a
      href="#link38"> {38}</a>,<a href="#link60"> {60}</a>. <br /><br />Mississippi
      River, <a href="#link4"> {4}</a>, <a href="#link8"> {8}</a>. <br /><br />Mississippi,
      State,<a href="#link10"> {10}</a>; sends commissioner to Missouri, <a
      href="#link34"> {34}</a>. <br /><br />Missouri River highway, <a
      href="#link5"> {5}</a>. <br /><br />Missouri, formation of the State at
      admission, <a href="#link5"> {5}</a> et seq. ; early struggles be- tween
      slavery and anti- slavery, <a href="#link7"> {7}</a>; slow growth of
      State, <a href="#link8"> {8}</a> ; character of first settlers,<a
      href="#link11"> {11}</a>; German im- migration,<a href="#link14"> {14}</a>;
      party lines, <a href="#link38"> {38}</a>; secession beginnings, <a
      href="#link19"> {19}</a>; policy of,<a href="#link25"> {25}</a>;
      Presidential campaign of <a href="#link186"> {186}</a>0,<a href="#link21">
      {21}</a>; added to Mc- Oellan's command, <a href="#link133"> {133}</a> ;
      convention reconvenes, de- clares offices vacant, and elects new officers,
      <a href="#link136"> {136}</a> et seq. <br /><br />Mitchell, Robert B., at
      Wil- son's Creek, <a href="#link165"> {165}</a>. <br /><br />Mulligan, James
      A., is ordered to Lexington, <a href="#link205"> {205}</a> ; assumes
      command, <a href="#link206"> {206}</a> ; telegraphs Jeff C Davis far help,
      <a href="#link207"> {207}</a> et seq. ; forced to sur- render, <a
      href="#link214"> {214}</a> et seq. <br /><br />O <br /><br />Oglesby, Richard
      J., ordered to take New Madrid, <a href="#link263"> {263}</a>. <br /><br />O'Kane,
      Walter S., attacks Cook's Home Guards, <a href="#link131"> {131}</a>.
      <br /><br />Oliver, Mordecai, elected Sec- retary of State, <a
      href="#link336"> {336}</a>. <br /><br />Ordinance of <a href="#link178">
      {178}</a>7, <a href="#link4"> {4}</a>. <br /><br />Osage River, Confederates
      fall behind, <a href="#link126"> {126}</a>; strategic ad- vantage of, <a
      href="#link129"> {129}</a>. <br /><br />Osterhaus, Peter Joseph, Maj.,
      sketch of, <a href="#link162"> {162}</a> et seq.; opens battle of Pea
      Ridge, <a href="#link322"> {322}</a> et seq. <br /><br />Ozark Mountains,
      description of, <a href="#link241"> {241}</a> et seq. <br /><br />P <br /><br />Paschall,
      Nathaniel,<a href="#link33"> {33}</a>. <br /><br />Pea Ridge, battle of, <a
      href="#link322"> {322}</a> et seq. <br /><br />Pike, Albert, Gen., sketch
      of, <a href="#link281"> {281}</a>; commissioned Briga- dier-General, <a
      href="#link282"> {282}</a>: force at Pea Ridge, <a href="#link318"> {318}</a>;
      takes command upon deaths of McCulloch and Mcintosh, <a href="#link328">
      {328}</a> et seq. ; makes for the rear, <a href="#link335"> {335}</a> et
      seq. <br /><br />Pillow, Gideon, advances with <a href="#link12"> {12}</a>, men, <a href="#link152"> {152}</a>; asks Hardee
      for help, <a href="#link203"> {203}</a>; at New Madrid, <a href="#link204">
      {204}</a>; resigns commission, <a href="#link269"> {269}</a> et seq. <br /><br />Plummer,
      Jos. B., Capt., sketch of, <a href="#link161"> {161}</a> et seq.; sends C.
      C. Gilbert forward, <a href="#link167"> {167}</a>; commands<a
      href="#link11"> {11}</a>th Mo., <a href="#link245"> {245}</a>; dispatch to
      Oarlin cap- tured, <a href="#link248"> {248}</a>; skirmish at
      Fredericktown, <a href="#link250"> {250}</a> et seq. <br /><br />Polk,
      Leonidas, Gen., threat- ens Cairo, <a href="#link148"> {148}</a>;
      establishes Gibraltar at Columbus, <a href="#link243"> {243}</a> ;
      Belmont, <a href="#link266"> {266}</a> et seq. <br /><br />Polk, Trusten,
      Senator,<a href="#link28"> {28}</a>. <br /><br />Pope, John, Gen., ordered
      by Fremont to reinforce Mul- ligan, <a href="#link208"> {208}</a>;
      captures Rob- inson's command, <a href="#link257"> {257}</a> ; strikes
      Rains and Steen, <a href="#link291"> {291}</a>. <br /><br />Post, Phillip
      Sydney, gallant conduct at Pea Ridge, <a href="#link341"> {341}</a>. <br /><br />Prentiss,.
      Gen., at Mount Zion Church, <a href="#link256"> {256}</a> et seq. <br /><br />Price,
      Sterling, Gen., mention- ed,<a href="#link27"> {27}</a>; elected President
      of convention,<a href="#link49"> {49}</a>; sketch of,<a href="#link90">
      {90}</a> et seq. ; offers services to secessionists,<a href="#link93">
      {93}</a> et seq. ; made Major-General of forces in Missouri,<a
      href="#link94"> {94}</a>; interview with Lyon at Planter's House, <a
      href="#link109"> {109}</a> et et seq. ; result of interview, <a
      href="#link118"> {118}</a> et seq.; turns over command to McCul- loch, <a
      href="#link151"> {151}</a> et seq.; insists upon attack on Lyon, <a
      href="#link154"> {154}</a>; reinforces Raines, <a href="#link168"> {168}</a>
      ; opens on Union front, <a href="#link174"> {174}</a>; battle of Wilson's
      Creek, <a href="#link174"> {174}</a> et seq.; reports of battle, <a
      href="#link181"> {181}</a> et seq ; sore- ness between him and Mc-
      Culloch, <a href="#link191"> {191}</a> et seq. ; urges McCulloch forward,
      <a href="#link193"> {193}</a>; advances to the Mis- souri, <a
      href="#link202"> {202}</a>; at Lex- ington, <a href="#link207"> {207}</a>
      ; reports as to battle, <a href="#link215"> {215}</a>; crosses Osage, <a
      href="#link224"> {224}</a>; starts for Missouri River, <a href="#link286">
      {286}</a> et seq. ; appeal to the people, <a href="#link287"> {287}</a> et
      seq.; establishes headquarters at Osceola, <a href="#link289"> {289}</a>;
      burns Warsaw, <a href="#link290"> {290}</a>; falls back to Springfield, <a
      href="#link291"> {291}</a>; protests against Halleck's order, <a
      href="#link298"> {298}</a>; evacu- ates Springfield, <a href="#link305">
      {305}</a>; re- ports to Gov. Jackson, <a href="#link307"> {307}</a>;
      strength of force, <a href="#link318"> {318}</a>; at Pea Ridge, <a
      href="#link322"> {322}</a> et seq.; reports of battle, ; farewell to troops, <a href="#link339"> {339}</a> et seq.
      Pro-Slavery doctrine, <a href="#link7"> {7}</a>. <br /><br />R <br /><br />Raines;
      James S., Gen.,<a href="#link61"> {61}</a>; commands Second Division, M.
      S. G., <a href="#link138"> {138}</a>; discovers enemy, <a href="#link166">
      {166}</a>; at Wilson's Creek, <a href="#link168"> {168}</a>. <br /><br />Republican
      Party,<a href="#link17"> {17}</a>,<a href="#link25"> {25}</a>. <br /><br />Reynolds,
      Thos. C, Lieut.-Gov-, sketch of,<a href="#link27"> {27}</a>; letter to
      General Assembly,<a href="#link31"> {31}</a> et seq.; plans for reception
      of Mississippi Commission, <a href="#link34"> {34}</a>,<a href="#link42">
      {42}</a>; assumes guberna- torial powers, <a href="#link201"> {201}</a>;
      estab- lishes military despotism, <a href="#link204"> {204}</a> et seq.
      <br /><br />Ross, Chief John, <a href="#link282"> {282}</a>. <br /><br />S
      <br /><br />St. Louis, monster mass meet- ing called by Gamble and others,<a
      href="#link33"> {33}</a>; archbishop of, <a href="#link40"> {40}</a>; U.
      S. troops pro- tect U. S. Sub-treasury, <a href="#link41"> {41}</a>;
      secession flag hoisted, <a href="#link37"> {37}</a>; riots and panic after
      capture of Camp Jackson, <a href="#link81"> {81}</a> et seq. <br /><br />Saxton,
      Rufus, Gen.,<a href="#link53"> {53}</a>. <br /><br />Schofield, John M.,
      Gen.,<a href="#link65"> {65}</a>; sketch of, <a href="#link104"> {104}</a>
      et seq., <a href="#link106"> {106}</a> ; professor of physics, <a
      href="#link107"> {107}</a>; offers services, <a href="#link107"> {107}</a>;
      Major Home Guards, <a href="#link108"> {108}</a>; at Wilson's Greek, <a
      href="#link164"> {164}</a>, <a href="#link171"> {171}</a>; letter to
      Balleck opposing Sigel's promotion, <a href="#link184"> {184}</a> ct seq.
      ; Brigadier-General, <a href="#link261"> {261}</a>; organizes Missouri
      Militia, <a href="#link292"> {292}</a>. <br /><br />Scott, Winfield,
      Lieut-Gen.,<a href="#link31"> {31}</a>, <a href="#link60"> {60}</a>, <a
      href="#link108"> {108}</a>. <br /><br />Secession,<a href="#link18"> {18}</a>
      et seq. ; States secede,<a href="#link23"> {23}</a>. <br /><br />Secessionists,
      U. S. forts, etc., seized,<a href="#link24"> {24}</a>; zeal of,<a
      href="#link38"> {38}</a> et seq.,<a href="#link34"> {34}</a>; Union men
      per- secuted by,<a href="#link39"> {39}</a>; score point,<a href="#link60">
      {60}</a> ; rejoice over sur- render of Sumter,<a href="#link61"> {61}</a>
      ; seize arsenal at Liberty, <a href="#link63"> {63}</a>; lose arsenal at
      St. Louis,<a href="#link66"> {66}</a>; attack officers and residences,<a
      href="#link79"> {79}</a> et seq. ; flee from city,<a href="#link80"> {80}</a>
      et seq. ; enraged at surrender of Camp Jackson,<a href="#link83"> {83}</a>;
      rejoice over Bull Run, <a href="#link146"> {146}</a>; ac- quire
      Southwestern Mis- souri, <a href="#link241"> {241}</a>. <br /><br />Shepard,
      I. F., at Wilson's Creek, <a href="#link164"> {164}</a>. <br /><br />Sheridan,
      Philip H., <a href="#link106"> {106}</a>. <br /><br />Sigel, Franz, Gen.,
      mentioned, <a href="#link65"> {65}</a>; determines to attack Jackson, <a
      href="#link137"> {137}</a> et seq.; bat- tle of Carthage, <a
      href="#link139"> {139}</a> et seq. ; sketch of, <a href="#link142"> {142}</a>
      et seq. ; joins Sweeny at Spring- field, <a href="#link143"> {143}</a>; at
      Wilson's Creek, <a href="#link172"> {172}</a> et seq. ; returns to
      Springfield, <a href="#link175"> {175}</a>; placed in command, <a
      href="#link176"> {176}</a>; reports, <a href="#link183"> {183}</a> ;
      official accusation against, <a href="#link184"> {184}</a> et seq.; made
      Brigadier-General, <a href="#link2"> {2}</a>; reaches Lebanon, <a
      href="#link304"> {304}</a>; at Pea Ridge, <a href="#link319"> {319}</a> et
      seq.; pursues enemy through Keetsville, <a href="#link334"> {334}</a>;
      promoted, <a href="#link341"> {341}</a>. <br /><br />Slaveholders shy, <a
      href="#link8"> {8}</a>. <br /><br />Slavery, plans for a slave em- pire, <a
      href="#link3"> {3}</a> et seq.; slaves in census of <a href="#link186">
      {186}</a>0, <a href="#link9"> {9}</a>; dying or dead, <a href="#link6">
      {6}</a>,<a href="#link26"> {26}</a> ; vote on,<a href="#link21"> {21}</a>.
      <br /><br />Slaves in Missouri, <a href="#link9"> {9}</a>. "Squatter
      Sovereignty,"<a href="#link21"> {21}</a>, <a href="#link26"> {26}</a>.
      <br /><br />Stand Watie, Cherokee leader, <a href="#link282"> {282}</a>.
      <br /><br />Stanley, D. S., attacks Con- federates at Dug Springs, <a
      href="#link153"> {153}</a>. <br /><br />Steele, Frederick, Capt, at- tacks
      rebels at Dug Springs, <a href="#link153"> {153}</a>; at Wilson's Creek,
      <a href="#link164"> {164}</a> ; commission- ed Colonel, <a href="#link199">
      {199}</a>. <br /><br />Stewart, Robert M., last mes- sage as Governor,<a
      href="#link24"> {24}</a>. <br /><br />Sturgeon, Isaac H., Assistant U. S.
      Treasurer, guards gold,<a href="#link41"> {41}</a>. <br /><br />Sturgis, S.
      D., Maj., Tecord of, <a href="#link164"> {164}</a>; takes command on
      Lyon's death, <a href="#link171"> {171}</a>; orders retreat, <a
      href="#link175"> {175}</a>; resumes com- mand, <a href="#link185"> {185}</a>;
      made Briga- dier-Ceneral, <a href="#link199"> {199}</a>; (retreats from
      Lexington, <a href="#link209"> {209}</a>. <br /><br />Sweeny, Thoe. W.,
      Lieut, or- dered to Jefferson Bar- racks,<a href="#link40"> {40}</a>;
      Croghan and Sweeny,<a href="#link45"> {45}</a> et seq. ; made
      Brigadier-General,<a href="#link66"> {66}</a> ; prepares to open on Camp
      Jackson,<a href="#link75"> {75}</a> et seq. ; takes possession of,<a
      href="#link79"> {79}</a>. <br /><br />T <br /><br />Tallmadge "proviso,** <a
      href="#link6"> {6}</a>. <br /><br />Thompson, M. Jeff, descrip- tion of,<a
      href="#link95"> {95}</a>; starts out from Columbus, <a href="#link246">
      {246}</a>; at Big River Bridge, <a href="#link246"> {246}</a> et seq. ;
      engagement at Fred- ericktown, <a href="#link250"> {250}</a> et seq. <br /><br />Totten,
      James, Gen.,<a href="#link54"> {54}</a>,<a href="#link56"> {56}</a> ; at
      Wilson's Creek, <a href="#link163"> {163}</a>; bat- tery opens fire, <a
      href="#link167"> {167}</a>. <br /><br />Twiggs, David B., Brig.-Gen., <a
      href="#link31"> {31}</a>. <br /><br />U <br /><br />Unconditional Union Men,
      <a href="#link39"> {39}</a>,<a href="#link48"> {48}</a> et seq.,<a
      href="#link50"> {50}</a>. <br /><br />V <br /><br />Vandeveb, Col., at Pea
      Ridge, <a href="#link323"> {323}</a> et seq. <br /><br />Van Darn, Earl,
      Gen., sketch of, <a href="#link310"> {310}</a> et seq.; captures "Star of
      «the West," <a href="#link312"> {312}</a>; succeeds Price and McCul- loch
      in command, <a href="#link312"> {312}</a>; as- sembles troops at Jackson-
      port, Ark., <a href="#link312"> {312}</a>; hastens to Boston Mountains, <a
      href="#link313"> {313}</a>; force at Pea Ridge, <a href="#link318"> {318}</a>;
      plan of battle, <a href="#link319"> {319}</a>; Pea Ridge, <a
      href="#link322"> {322}</a> et seq. ; retired, <a href="#link324"> {324}</a>;
      reports, <a href="#link337"> {337}</a>; death, <a href="#link312"> {312}</a>.
      <br /><br />Vest, Geo. Graham, U. S. Sen- ator, resolution introduced by, <a
      href="#link35"> {35}</a>. <br /><br />W <br /><br />Whigs,<a href="#link14">
      {14}</a>,<a href="#link21"> {21}</a>. <br /><br />White, Robert,
      Lieut.-Col., at- tacked by rioters,<a href="#link80"> {80}</a>. "White
      Trash,"<a href="#link10"> {10}</a> et seq.,<a href="#link30"> {30}</a>, <a
      href="#link96"> {96}</a>, <a href="#link241"> {241}</a>. <br /><br />War
      Department, men control- ling it,<a href="#link58"> {58}</a>. <br /><br />Wilson's
      Creek, <a href="#link154"> {154}</a> ; battle of, <a href="#link168">
      {168}</a> et seq.; analysis of, <a href="#link178"> {178}</a> et seq.
      <br /><br />Witzig, J. J., goes with Lyon to visit Camp Jackson,<a
      href="#link71"> {71}</a>. <br /><br />Y <br /><br />Yates, Gov., <a
      href="#link111"> {111}</a>., <a href="#link40"> {40}</a>; sends troops to
      Lyon,<a href="#link64"> {64}</a>. Yeatman, James E.,<a href="#link33">
      {33}</a>,<a href="#link84"> {84}</a>. <br /><br />Z <br /><br />Zagonyi,
      Chas., Maj., men- tioned, <a href="#link227"> {227}</a>; makes gallant
      charge, <a href="#link228"> {228}</a> et seq.
    </p>

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