USA > Indiana > The soldier of Indiana in the war for the union, Vol. I > Part 13
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"Shortly after the arsenal was fully established, it was brought to the attention of the War Department, and the ammunition having been thoroughly tested, the Government agreed to pay for what had already been issued, and to receive and pay for what should be prepared thereafter, at prices which were mutually satisfactory. These prices were gen- erally below what the Government paid for ammunition, but such as it was believed would fairly indemnify the State for all costs and expenses incurred on that account. Every effort was made to conduct the operations of the arsenal with great economy, while paying a fair price to the many operatives employed. Persons have been employed, sometimes to the number of five hundred, and profitable occupation has thus been furnished to many who otherwise would have wanted the means of support. My direction to Colonel Sturm was to give the preference to those whose relatives and supporters were in the field. Up to the first day of January, 1862, there have beenprepared at the arsenal ninety-two thousand rounds of artillery ammunition, and twenty-one million, nine hun- dred and fifteen thousand five hundred rounds of ammunition for small arms."
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Although Governor Morton used every exertion to fill up our regiments, and to provide the troops with ammunition and arms, he did not regard the men in the ranks as mere fighting material. Their needs and pains and grievances were real to him. Perhaps his efforts to relieve the sufferings of the soldiers, and to lessen their hardships, are more remarka- ble than his exertions in any other direction. One more passage must be extracted from his message, which is simply a report to his employers, i. e., the people of the State, for the sake of showing an outline of his course for the relief of suf- fering. Here, as everywhere, he was ably and warmly seconded by all the Christian and patriotic community.
"Shortly after the war began, it became apparent that our sick and wounded soldiers, when all had been done for them that could be by regimental and hospital surgeous, under the regulations, must, in very many cases, suffer greatly from want of attention, and necessary supplies. Accordingly, I very early adopted the plan of sending agents to look after the condition, and as far as possible supply the wants, of the Indiana troops. These agents had their instructions to follow the track of our armies, to pick up the sick and the wounded who had fallen by the wayside, visit the hospitals, report the names of the sick, wounded and dead, afford relief whenever it could be afforded, inform the State authorities what kind of supplies were needed and where, visit the troops in the field and ascertain their wants and condition, and aid in having their requisitions for supplies promptly filled. These agents have generally performed their duty well, and, I believe, have been the instruments of saving the lives of hundreds of our gallant soldiers, and of relieving a vast amount of suffering and destitution. Many of their reports are descriptive of sufferings, sorrows and death that would melt the stoutest heart, and show better than can be learned in any other way the dreadful horrors of war. The labors of these agents were not confined to any particular duties, but extended to every kind of relief that soldiers might need. They aided in pro- curing furloughs for the sick and wounded, discharges for such as would not be able to serve again, in furnishing trans- portation at the expense of the State for such as had not the
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REGIMENTS FORMING.
means of travel, and getting home; receiving the soldiers' money and distributing it to their families; hunting up de- scriptive rolls for such as had been long confined in hospitals, but for want of their rolls could not be paid or discharged; visiting the battle-fields, bringing home the wounded, and distributing sanitary stores. In some cases I directed the chartering of steamboats for the transportation of the sick and wounded, and, in general, instructed my agents to incur such expenses as were absolutely necessary to enable them to execute their missions. But, notwithstanding all that has been done, I have to lament that the efforts have come far short of the mighty demand; that much suffering has gone unrelieved, and that many of our brave sons have languished and died among strangers, in destitution and neglect, with no friend present to soothe their last hours, or mark the spot where their ashes sleep.
"I have employed and sent to the field many additional assistant surgeons, to remain until the emergency they were sent to relieve had passed. After severe battles the regimental surgeons, worn down by fatigue and exposure, were found to be inadequate to the care of the wounded, and additional aid became indispensable.
" Many times all the surgeons of a regiment were either sick or absent on detached duty, and their places had to be supplied by temporary appointments. They have generally discharged their duty with ability, and to the satisfaction of those to whom they were sent, and for the promptitude with which they left their business and responded to the sudden calls, are entitled to the thanks of the State."
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
CHAPTER XII.
MISSOURI.
NEXT to Virginia, Missouri was dragged into the war. Her Legislature would not vote for Secession, and the Con- vention elected by her people voted decidedly against it. The Governor of the State, a violent and servile adherent of the South, was able to promote revolutionary measures only by the most high-handed assumption of authority.
To the Confederacy, it was a matter of special pride to gain and hold a State which had been snatched from liberty, almost with battle, on her entrance into a political existence; it was also the plainest wisdom, not simply because of the value of territory and numbers, but on account of the natural endowments of the State. Her rolling prairies, of unsurpassed depth and richness of soil; her dense forests; her mountains burdened with ore; her rivers, many and broad, gave rich and rare promise; and her population, mingled German and American, insured, the one by its bold and ready ingenuity, the other by its faithful industry, the development, or the application of all this power. Moreover, the acquisition of Missouri would involve the destinies of the Indian Nation, Arizona, New Mexico, and even Kansas, all, indeed, of the vast territory to the West and South- West.
But Missouri was not Southern. In geographical position, and in all material interests, she was more nearly allied with the North than with the South; and she was so fortified, with slave-hating Kansas for her western bulwark, and loyal and liberal St. Louis on her eastern border, that she could not, without a mortal struggle, be drawn into Secession ; neither could she, without Secession, be long retained in the bonds of Slavery.
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BOMBAST.
The loyalty of St. Louis was due to the extraordinarily mixed character of her population. In the shops and offices of the city lives another New England. In the streets walks all Europe, from the stubbed Hebridean to the tall Tyrolese, to whom their native rock, denying everything else, gives most bountifully of loyalty, the one luxuriant mountain growth.
A large majority of the population of the State, at the beginning of the Secession movement, spoke out in favor of continuing the old relations. All the Germans, of whom there were many thousands in the agricultural districts, and the most of the intelligent native Americans were patriotic. -
Slavery formed a strong bond to the South ; stronger to the rich slaveholders, whose farms lay along the Missouri River, than the ties of trade, friendship, family or religion. Moreover, not only the Governor, but all the chief executive officers, in 1860 and 1861, were Secessionists, and were unscrupulous in the choice of means for the furthering of their ends. They schemed at home and with each other: and they had personal and epestolary correspondence with the leaders of the Cotton States, who exerted all their not insignificant powers of diplomacy to win so valuable a territory.
While other States, in the same latitude, roused with enthusiasm at the call of the President for seventy-five thousand troops, Missouri replied to the demand in the following terms : "The requisition is illegal, unconstitutional, revolutionary, inhuman, diabolical, and cannot be complied with. Missouri won't furnish a single man for such an unholy crusade."
In the name of Missouri the reply was given, but the voice was Jackson's voice.
It is not unwise to observe the contrast in the tone of the Confederate authorities, and of the Colonial Representatives at the beginning of the Revolutionary struggle. The one grave, dignified and self-respecting, as became men who honored authority, and regarded the interests of the people ; the other fiery, spiteful, piping, the voice of mutinous, ill-bred children.
-
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The struggle which a man makes for independence that he may control himself, and the struggle which a man makes for independence that he may control others, differ not only morally, as De Tocqueville says, but rhetorically.
The Missouri Legislature was too cowardly to come out plainly in favor of Secession, but it was decidedly in the interest of the slave-holding aristocracy; and was easily cajoled into investing the Governor with despotic power, and into presenting him for military purposes an immense fund, which was obtained by appropriating the income of educational and benevolent institutions. The same assembly showed an appreciation of the sort of struggle which would ensue, and of the sort of force which would be required if once the domineering party should be arrayed against the General Government, by passing a bill for cultivating friendly relations with the Indian tribes.
The Unionists of Missouri were watchful and zealous. At their entreaty the General Government promptly inter- fered. Had it been otherwise, the State, bound hand and foot, would have been given over to the Southern Confed- eracy; and the contest which succeeded, and which was bitter enough and long enough, would have been intensified and prolonged. Several gentlemen in St. Louis hastily consulted with each other, and promised the President, on their own responsibility, the four regiments required of the State. The Secretary of War, accordingly, sent orders to Captain Lyon, who was at the time in command of the United States Arsenal in the city, to enrol the regiments in the United States service as soon as they were raised.
Ten days after the reply of Gov. Jackson to the President's requisition, a national force took possession at night of the contents of the Arsenal, and carried them off to Springfield, Illinois. It was a masterly stroke, but Gov. Jackson was prepared for emergencies. A few days later, he received a quantity of arms which had been taken from the United States Arsenal in Baton Rouge, aud sent up the river in boxes marked "marble." These he put into the hands of a force which was called together ostensibly for military instruction. In addition to the arms from Baton Rouge, a
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149
CONFUSION AND DISTRESS.
large supply was obtained by the robbing of an arsenal in Clay County, of a magazine in St. Joseph, and of scattered Union families.
The fact that the Governor favored Secession opened the door to every evil. No exhortation to peace could influence, and no law could control the idle, uneducated, constitu- tionally rebellious sons of rich planters ; and the rowdies and rascals who had everything to gain, nothing to lose by revolution. They seized with a mad eagerness opportunities for lawless roving and robbing, and inflicted untold outrages upon Union families. No farm nor village was safe from their intrusion. Furnished with a commission to "hunt," they pursued a system of horse-stealing and general robbery, and delighted in inspiring the helpless and unprotected with terror. Not satisfied with robbery, and with the terror their oaths and outcries excited, they committed more hideous crimes. "Their hands shed innocent blood; and their feet were swift in running to mischief." They murdered loyal men at midnight on their own thresholds. No day, no hour, no place was secure. St. Louis, crowded with Unionists and Secessionists escaped from the open country or the smaller towns, was daily and nightly threatened with riots. Many fled from the State. It was calculated that at least fifty thousand inoffensive persons fled from Missouri to the Free States, chiefly to Illinois, before the Autumn.
Those who were so bold as to remain in sparsely settled districts tried to provide means for self-defense, and kept ready places for hiding. Volunteer companies for and against the Government were raised in every populous. county. Home guards were formed of such as could not leave their homes. Often in religious meetings, in the- summer of Sixty-one, and in the three following years, the. solemn prayer in the house of God was broken in upon by a loud voice at the door, calling "Every man must report for duty within five minutes! Price is upon us!" or, "The Guerrillas are coming!"
From side to side, and end to end, the State was rocked and tossed in the turmoil of conflicting interests and passions.
11
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
The officers of the regular army in command in Missouri, and the Unionists of the State used every means in their power to preserve peace, and to lighten the wide-spread gloom. Harney, Lyon, Boernstein, Sweeny, Sturgis, Hurl- but, issued proclamations, in which they exhorted the people to peace and loyalty. But their zeal and activity were outdone by the zeal and activity of the opposite party. Jackson, Price, Thompson, McCulloch cried, " War! War to the knife! War to the hilt!" They studiously made use of every expression which could inflame the unthinking and the passionate. Tyrants, despots, invaders, usurpers, minions, mercenary hordes-these, and the like of these, were the terms in which they spoke of soldiers, and of all supporters of the Government.
"Come now, strike while the iron is hot!" exhorted Jeff. Thompson, in a proclamation issued the first of August. "Our enemies are whipped in Virginia. They are whipped in Missouri. Gen. Hardee advances in the centre, Gen. Pillow on the right and Gen. McCulloch on the left, with twenty thousand brave Southern hearts to our aid. So, leave your ploughs in the furrow, and your oxen in the yoke, and rush like a tornado upon your invaders and your foes, to sweep them from the face of the earth, or to force them from the soil of our State! We have plenty of ammunition, and the cattle upon ten thousand hills are ours. We have forty thousand Belgian muskets coming, but bring your guns and muskets with you, if you have them, if not, come without them. We will strike your foes like a Southern thunderbolt, and soon our camp-fires will illumine the Merrimac and Missouri. Come, turn out !"
Such eloquence was irresistible. Jeff Thompson's poetry also stirred the Southern Missouri spirit. One of his productions, entitled "Home Again," shows the same familiarity with sacred things which is noticeable in his proclamation.
"I will return, though foes may stand Disputing every rod : My own dear home, my native land, I'll win you yet, by __! "
151
GENERAL PRICE BEGINS HIS CAREER.
In June, Governor Jackson appointed Sterling Price, an unscrupulous and popular man, with some military experience, having been an officer in the Mexican War, major-general of the State forces. The Camp of Instruction which he formed directly after the President's first requisition, was early broken up by Captain Lyon. But the loss of troops was but temporary. Governor Jackson called for fifty thou- sand volunteers, and young men from all parts of the State flocked to his standard. He appointed nine brigadier- generals. The same month, with as much of an army as they could collect in so short a time, Governor Jackson and General Price started west to Jefferson City.
General Lyon lost no time in going in pursuit. Near Booneville, he came up with the Rebel army and routed it. Price gathered his men together again, and moved on toward the South-West, Lyon following.
The retreat and pursuit continued two or three days, when Lyon was so delayed by lack of transportation, that he fell far behind. But just as Jackson and Price were rid of Lyon, Colonel Sigel, who had been sent from St. Louis by a different route, with a Union force of fifteen hundred, appeared in their front, and attacked them with spirit. His number, however, was greatly inferior, and he was forced to fall back by a movement of the enemy threatening to outflank him both right and left. Sigel arranged his cannon so as to keep the Rebel cavalry at a distance, and retreated more than twenty miles, without the loss of a man or a gun, and carrying with him all who were killed and wounded in the battle. General Price's army continued to increase by reinforcements from the South, and by the daily enlistment of Missourians.
General Lyon, on the contrary, although he stopped at Springfield and waited for assistance, received no addition to his numbers, while he suffered such decrease as must result from the ordinary amount of sickness. His entire number, including Sigel's force and the inmates of his hospital, was five thousand three hundred and sixty-eight. He urged the Government to send him men. But the three- months' troops had just been mustered out of service; the
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
battle of Bull-Run had just been fought; Washington was threatened, and the Cabinet had neither eyes nor ears for anything but the dangers and needs of the East. Instead of receiving reinforcements, Lyon received an order to send his regulars to Washington. The order distressed and per- plexed him. He wrote on July 15th, "I must utterly fail if my regulars all go. Troops from the Northern, Middle and Eastern States are available for the support of the army in Virginia, and it seems strange that the West must be stripped of the means of defence."
The causes which affected the East operated with equal force on the West. If any slave-holders in Missouri had hitherto hesitated, after the battle of Bull Run they hesitated no longer to know and declare their sentiments. They threw of all disguise, snatched their rifles and their horses, and joined the Rebel army ; or if debarred by age from the use of arms, they freely gave of their substance, confident that the early establishment of the Confederacy would repay four-fold their losses. If Union citizens were cautious, slow, reticent and timid before, after the battle of Bull Run they were cowed and cowardly.
About the middle of July, John C. Fremont was appointed commander of the Western District, including the States of Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri and Kansas, with the territories west of these.
The new commander was no unknown aspirant for glory. Raising the American flag in California, when her gold was yet undiscovered ; flinging out its folds from the highest peak of the Rocky Mountains, he seemed born to be the herald of freedom. The desert and the mountain gave him a name. Hungary and Poland, and all the oppressed of Europe knew the "Pathfinder." His fame had even reached the slave quarters of the South. It warmed the heart of every intelli- gent black man. It burned in every slave-holder's soul.
It is said that in the summer of the Fremont-and- Buchanan Presidential campaign, ten or more negroes were hung, near Gallatin, Tennessee, for showing an interest in the election of Fremont. In the same state, about the same time, a slave, who suffered death under the tortures of the
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FREMONT'S WORK.
whip, prophesied as each lash fell, "Fremont will come!" "Fremont will come!" and died moaning, "Fremont!"
But, if the helpless bondmen's love was stronger than death, the master's hate was grimmer than the grave. Our good President the slave-holder dared to scorn; but ridicule, the most acrimonious, never lighted up the regards of the South for Fremont.
General Fremont was therefore acceptable to his Depart- ment. With the exception of a few, who bore a personal grudge against him, and who, unfortunately, were influen- tial and prominent men, even his old political opponents generously welcomed him. They expected great things from him, while his friends encouraged impossible hopes.
He did not arrive in St. Louis until the 25th of July, not having left New York, where he was engaged procuring, or attempting to procure arms, until after the battle of Bull Run set everybody in motion. He was to raise his own forces, organize them, arm them and discipline them. Hc was to protect a Department of immense extent, and threat- ened along its whole southern frontier, from invasion; and to suppress in the same immense district, heaving with discontent, any attempts at insurrection. He was to cut the Confederacy in two by clearing the banks of the Mississippi of the enemy, and by going down the river to the Gulf. No instructions and no plans were given him. All was to be done by his own ingenuity, skill and power.
It was a herculean task which was before him. He undertook it thoughtfully, but boldly, trusting in himself and in his countrymen.
The Union troops already assembled for the defence of Missouri were few and in ill condition.
General Prentiss held the little, old, dirty town of Cairo, important from its position, lying as it does on the point of land between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and com- manding the entrance by water into the two States of Illinois and Missouri. He had eight regiments, six of which were three-months' regiments, re-enlisted, but not yet re-or- ganized, and therefore not reliable. A single regiment, with a single battery, held Cape Girardeau. At Ironton, seventy-
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
five miles from St. Louis by railroad, was one regiment. General Pope was in Northern Missouri with a few thousand men. General Lyon was at Springfield with the force already described.
These troops were not clamoring for pay, but they were in need of it, and consequently were dissatisfied.
Within a circle of fifty miles round General Prentiss were twelve thousand Confederate volunteers. At New Madrid General Pillow had a force of fifteen or twenty thousand infantry, also cavalry and artillery. Another force was gathering under Brigadier-General Jeff. Thompson. Hovering near Springfield was General Price, with an army varying in number from ten to twenty thousand, but neither better armed nor disciplined than the National forces.
Anxious to allay or prevent discontent, one of the first subjects to which General Fremont turned his attention was the payment of the troops. But the United States Treasurer in St. Louis, though he had in his possession three hundred thousand dollars, refused to put any part of the sum in the hands of the General. Fremont, in consequence, sent a small force to the Treasury, with orders to seize one hundred thousand dollars. With this amount he directed such pay- ments to be made as he thought the emergency required. In a private letter to President Lincoln, in which he makes a statement of his intention to seize the money, he says: "I will risk everything for the defence of the Department you have confided to me, and I trust to you for support."
General Fremont's first effort was in favor of General Prentiss, as Lyon, if necessary, could save himself by a retreat, which would cost only Springfield, but Prentiss could not abandon Cairo without risking the loss of St. Louis, and the whole North-West, a loss which, after the defeat of Manassas, might have been irretrievable. Cape Girardeau and Ironton were immediately reinforced; and, five days after his arrival at St. Louis, Fremont embarked with a force of three thousand eight hundred men for Cairo. Returning to St. Louis, he sent a pressing appeal to Governor Morton, to which the latter replied, August the fourth: "Can send five regiments, if leave is granted by the Department, as I
"HE KNEW HOW TO DIE, BUT NOT HOW TO SURRENDER." 155
am ordered to send them East as fast as ready." General Fremont immediately prepared to send troops to Lyon from new regiments which were now arriving, though they were all undrilled, without transportation, almost without arms, and as yet there were no arms nor accoutrements in the city. He ordered a regiment which was guarding Booneville, and another which was in Kansas, to go without delay to Springfield.
It was already too late. General Price, well aware of the vigorous character of Fremont, and informed of his present alacrity, delayed not an hour after he heard of orders for the reinforcement of Lyon. A bloody battle was fought on Wilson's Creek, near Springfield, on the tenth day of August. The Federals were defeated by overwhelming numbers. General Lyon, after two wounds, in spite of which he held his place on the field, fell while crying to a regiment which had lost its leaders, " I will lead you, men! Follow me!"
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