USA > Missouri > Centennial history of Missouri (the center state) one hundred years in the Union, 1820-1921, Volume I > Part 82
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One of the organizers of the Missouri State Guard in 1861. Served under Price in Confederate Army.
Courtesy Missouri Historical Society
THE BERTHOLD MANSION, BROADWAY AND PINE STREETS, ST. LOUIS Headquarters of the Minute Men in 1861
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evacuate the seat of government, not to escape a foreign enemy but the authority of the national government of which it was a part.
To all parts of the state the proclamation of the governor was sent out on Wednesday. It set forth the irreconcilable differences of the Planters' House conference, which meant war. Nothing was said about slavery. Asserting that the state authorities had "labored faithfully to keep the agreement" with Harney, Governor Jackson continued :
"We had an interview on the 11th inst. with General Lyon and Colonel F. P. Blair, Jr., at which I submitted to them this proposition: That I would disband the State Guard and break up its organization; that I would disarm all the companies which had been armed by the state; that I would pledge myself not to attempt to organize the militia under the military bill; that no arms or other munitions of war should be brought into the state; that I would protect all citizens equally in all their rights, regardless of their political opinions; that I would suppress all insurrectionary movements within the state; that I would repel all attempts to invade it from whatever quarter and by whomsoever made; and that I would thus maintain a strict neutrality in the present unhappy contest, and preserve the peace of the state. And I further proposed that I would, if necessary, invoke the assistance of the United States. troops to carry out these pledges. All this I proposed to do upon condition that the Federal government would undertake to disarm the Home Guards, which it has illegally organized and armed throughout the state, and pledge itself not to occupy with its troops any locality not occupied by them at this time.
"Nothing but the most earnest desire to avert the horrors of civil war from our state could have tempted me to propose these humiliating terms. They were rejected by the Federal officers. They 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 for the protection of the 'loyal subjects' of the Federal government, or 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 General Lyon himself, to 'the exact condition of Maryland.'
"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 would have precipitated the very conflict that it has been my aim to prevent. We refused to accede to them and the conference was broken up."
Rallying the State Guard.
Governor Jackson concluded by "calling the militia of the state to the num- ber of 50,000 into the active service of the state, for the purpose of repelling said invasion, and for the protection of the lives, liberties, 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 homes and firesides, and for the defense of their most sacred rights and dearest privileges."
Before Wednesday night the proclamation was on the way to all parts of the state, but not as it would have been distributed in this later day. When Missourians went to war with Missourians conditions were far different. It is well that this be borne in mind. The rapid succession of strange and startling events of those June days of 1861 can then be better understood. No railroad reached Kansas City. The Missouri Pacific stopped at Sedalia. The Wabash as it is now called, then the North Missouri, had been built only half way Vol. 1-48
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across the state. The Frisco, then the Southwest Branch, had its terminus at Rolla. The Iron Mountain ended at Ironton. Missouri's railroad development was in the first decade of its development. The telegraphic facilities were meagre. Jackson's proclamation was carried to many communities by couriers. But before Thursday night men were riding away from their homes to Boonville, to Lexington, to other rallying places.
With the governor's proclamation went orders from General Price to the commander in each military district, telling him to assemble all of the available State Guard and get them ready for service. There was one exception. Gen. John B. Clark was ordered to Boonville and was told to get his men there as quickly as possible. The war council had decided that Jefferson City must be abandoned; that the first stand against Federals would be made at Boonville. Germans were too numerous in Cole county; they favored the Federal side of the issue. Boonville was the center of strong state sovereignty sentiment.
Lyon Takes the Field.
Lyon was even more prompt in action than Jackson and Price. Tuesday night, following the conference, he issued orders for an expedition into South- west Missouri. The regiments of Sigel, Salomon and B. Gratz Brown, composed of St. Louis Germans, were ordered to proceed to Springfield, Missouri. They formed part of the second brigade which Blair and Lyon had organized. Their commander was Thomas W. Sweeny, the one-armed captain of regulars who had prepared to make bloody defense of the arsenal. With Sweeny's St. Louis Germans went two batteries of guns under Major Backoff. This force began moving on Thursday. There was railroad transportation to Rolla. Beyond ' that was an overland march. Lyon had a double purpose in sending out this expedition. Ben. McCulloch, with Arkansas and Louisiana troops, was approach- ing the southwestern corner of Missouri. Lyon intended to drive Jackson and the State Guard south from the Missouri river. He intended to have Sweeny pre- vent McCulloch from coming to the help of Price. He also expected to trap the state forces between Sweeny and his own command. While one of these bri- gades was getting away to the southwest, Lyon was marching part of the other on board steamboats to go up the Missouri. Blair's regiment, nine companies of Boernstein's, two companies of regulars and Totten's battery, about 2,000 men, were marched on board the boats Thursday. In the afternoon of that same day there was another embarkation at Jefferson City. Jackson and the other state officers, with Kelly's St. Louis company of the State Guard went on board the River Queen and steamed up the river to Boonville. The militia men who had come to Jefferson City in response to the governor's proclamation were hastily organized by General Monroe M. Parsons. When the state officers left by river, Parsons took his force by land to Tipton and awaited orders.
Lyon reached Jefferson City at two o'clock Saturday afternoon. He left Boernstein and three companies for a garrison. Sunday, Lyon started for Boon- ville. Price had not counted on such rapid advance. His plan was to assemble an army at Lexington and hold the Missouri river permanently at that point. He meant to make as good a fight as possible at Boonville, holding Lyon there, if he could not defeat him, until Lexington could be fortified and a strong force
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THE STATE THE STAKE
could be organized and equipped. Price depended upon the rich and populous counties of Central Missouri for his army. Two or three weeks before Lyon issued his declaration of war, the quartermaster general of the state had moved to Boonville and had put his ordnance shop in operation.
The Battle of Boonville.
Clark had several hundred men at Boonville when Price and the state officers got there Thursday night. Friday and Saturday more militiamen came in. The regiment which John S. Marmaduke had organized in May mustered in good force. The companies, however, had had little drilling. They had been sent home from Jefferson City shortly after being organized, when Harney and Price en- tered into their agreement. In addition to the men who had been recruited, Mis- sourians who wanted to fight flocked by squads to Boonville, many of them riding their own horses, and bringing shot guns and rifles. Not since the "Lex- ington Alarm" had America known such an assembling for war, without waiting for organization or equipment.
Saturday brought news which tested the courage of these Missourians. There was some fighting between state troops and Federal cavalry near Independence. Kansas regiments and the dragoons were preparing to advance on Lexington from the west. Lyon and the St. Louis Germans were at Jefferson City. Sunday morning Price hurried to Lexington to take personal command. He ordered John B. Clark to hold Boonville as long as possible and then join his force with Parsons. The state forces were without artillery. Price realized that the aban- donment of his plan to hold the river was certain if Lyon forced the fighting. And Lyon, as usual, lost no time. Sunday he left Jefferson City. At daylight Monday morning he was eight miles below Boonville. His troops landed and moved up the river road. One company of Blair's regiment and a howitzer were left on the boats and started up the river to deceive the state troops. After Price left, Governor Jackson issued the orders. As soon as he learned that Lyon had left Jefferson City he sent word to Parsons, who was twenty miles away, to come to Boonville. He told Marmaduke he must take his regiment out to meet Lyon and try to hold him until Parsons could arrive. Marmaduke was a relative of Governor Jackson's wife. He protested that the movement was useless and advised that the proper course was to withdraw to the Osage river in the vicinity of Warsaw and concentrate there. But the governor insisted it would never do to give up Boonville without a fight. Against better judgment, Marma- duke marched eastward from Boonville until he met Lyon. He had about 500 men, one-fourth as many as Lyon. The country Missourians put up a fight against the city Missourians. Lyon brought up his battery and Marmaduke fell back to another position. "The Battle of Boonville" was soon over. On the Union side two were killed and nine wounded. Of the state troops two were killed and half-a-dozen were wounded. General Clark and General Parsons joined their forces and escorting the state government marched southward to the Osage. At Lexington, Price heard of the fall of Boonville. He had found Brigadier-Generals Rains and Slack there with several thousand men, but many of them were unarmed. Lexington was evacuated, Rains and Slack moved with their unorganized army southwestwardly toward Lamar in Barton county. Price
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with a small escort rode as rapidly as possible across the state to Arkansas to find McCulloch.
The Trick at Lexington.
Fifteen years after the close of the Civil war came the explanation of the rapid evacuation of Lexington when it had been expected and planned that a stand would be made there. The story was told by an old resident :
"A young fellow named Brown, who was a printer in the Lexington Expositor office, suggested a plan to have some fun, but the affair was never known only to Pirner, Brown, James Curry and a young telegraph operator whose name I cannot now recall. The telegraph operator had a pocket instrument of his own. The telegraph at that time went eastward by Waverly. Pirner and the operator went out a little way east of Old Town, after it was quite dark and quiet for the night, and managed to reach a telegraph wire and hitch on the pocket instrument. The Lexington office was informed: 'The Federals have left Marshall for Lexington; may arrive any minute.' The young wags then went back to the city to watch the effect; and sure enough by the time they got up to Main street, in the vicinity of Laurel street, there were horsemen riding rapidly to and fro, between the college grounds and different parts of the city. The jokers didn't dare ask any questions .for fear of some suspicion arising, which would have been sure death. But in the early morning the state troops were gone. Several war histories speak of the sudden and rapid retreat from Lexington, but until 1880 no one had given the secret of its mysterious suddenness."
Just one week from the Planters' House conference had passed. The state capital had been abandoned. The first battle had been fought. The Missouri river was in the possession of the Union forces. What did it mean? Snead, who was there and the right-hand man of Jackson and Price, said :
"Insignificant as was this engagement in a military aspect, it was in fact a stunning blow to the southern rights people of the state and one which did incalculable and unending injury to the Confederates. It was indeed the consummation of Blair's statesmanlike scheme to make it impossible for Missouri to secede or out of her great resources to contribute abundantly of men and material to the southern cause, as she would surely have done had her people been left free to do as they pleased.
"It was also the crowning achievement of Lyon's well-conceived campaign. The cap- ture of Camp Jackson had disarmed the state and compelled the loyalty of St. Louis and . all the adjacent counties. The advance upon Jefferson City had put the state government to flight and taken away from it that prestige which gives force to established authority. The dispersion of the volunteers who had rushed to Boonville to fight under . Price for Missouri and the South extended Lyon's conquest over all that country lying between the Missouri river and the state line of Iowa, closed all the avenues by which the southern men of that part of Missouri could make their way to Price, made the Missouri an unob- structed highway from its source to its month, and rendered it impossible for Price to hold the rich, populous and friendly counties in the vicinity of Lexington. Price had indeed no alternative now but to retreat in all haste to the southwestern corner of the state, there to organize his army under the protection of the force which the Confederate government was mustering in Northwestern Arkansas under General McCulloch for the protection of that state and the Indian Territory."
Price found McCulloch but received very little encouragement at first. Mc- Culloch had been instructed quite positively from Richmond to confine himself to defense of Arkansas and the Indian Territory against attacks from Kansas. On the 4th of July, the Confederate secretary of war further cautioned General
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McCulloch that "the position of Missouri, as a southern state still in the Union, requires, as you will readily perceive, much prudence and circumspection, and it . should only be when necessity and propriety unite that active and direct assistance should be afforded by crossing the boundary and entering the state."
Organizing an Army Under Difficulties.
As Rains and Slack with their thousands of volunteers marched southward from Lexington, the state officers, with Generals Parsons and Clark, moved westward. The two bodies came together the 3rd of July on Spring river, three miles north of Lamar. Snead was with the state officers. He said the column of troops was followed by a "long, motley train of vehicles of every description laden not only with supplies for an army, but chiefly with household goods and utensils of every sort, conspicuous among which were featherbeds and frying- pans." High water in the numerous streams added to hardships of the march.
There were several encouraging incidents on the retreat from Boonville to Warsaw and Lamar. Cole Camp was one of the loyal centers to which Blair and Lyon had sent guns and ammunition. Home Guards had been organized. A command of State Guards raised in the vicinity of Warsaw by Lieutenant Walter S. O'Kane and Major Thomas H. Murray routed the Home Guards and joined the governor's column with 362 of the muskets which had been sent out from St. Louis for Union men. About the same time John O. Burbridge with a party from Pike county came into the state camp at Warsaw bringing 150 muskets which had been sent to arm Home Guards in their county. Two men from St. Louis trying to get into Jackson's camp were arrested on suspicion of being spies. They were Henry Guibor and William P. Barlow, lieutenants of a bat- tery taken in the capture of Camp Jackson by Lyon on the 10th of May. Guibor and Barlow had concluded that their capture was illegal and that they were not bound by their paroles. They had come out to join the State Guards. As soon as the explanations were made, Guibor and Barlow were not only set free, but the four brass cannon taken from the United States arsenal at Liberty in May were turned over to them. These cannon had been hauled away from Jefferson City by Parsons but were useless because they were without equipment and ammunition. Guibor and Barlow organized a company of artillery, took the bare guns and prepared for service. Lieutenant Barlow has told the wonderful story of that preparation. "One of Sigel's captured wagons furnished a few loose, round shots. Guibor established an arsenal of construction. A turning lathe in Carthage supplied sabots. The owner of a tinshop contributed straps and canisters. Iron rods which a blacksmith gave and cut into small pieces made good slugs for the canisters; and a bolt of flannel, with needles and thread, freely donated by a dry-goods man, provided us with material for our cartridge bags. A bayonet made a good candlestick. At night the men went to work making cartridges, strapping shot to the sabots, and filling the bags from a barrel of powder placed some distance from the candle. My first cartridge resembled a turnip, rather than the trim cylinders from the Federal arsenals, and would not take a gun on any terms. But we soon learned the trick and, at close range, at which our next battle was fought, our home-made ammunition proved as effective as the best." Was it any wonder that with such initiative and deter-
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mination "Guibor's battery" of Missourians became one of the famous organ- izations of the Confederates !
Snead, who was chief of ordnance, said he "did not know the difference be- tween a siege gun and a howitzer, and had never seen a cartridge." General James Harding, the quartermaster general, said: "We did not have any too much to eat, and at one time rations were very scarce, and much grumbling was heard in consequence. How we got along, I don't know; more by luck than manage- ment, probably." .
As primitive and as effective were the ways found to supply ammunition for those of the State Guard so fortunate as to possess shot guns and squirrel rifles. Major Thomas H. Price organized an ordnance force from Missourians who had never seen an arsenal. He obtained lead from the Granby diggings. The ninety barrels of powder which Governor Jackson had bought in St. Louis after the Camp Jackson capture were drawn upon. Trees were cut down and made into molds. Buckshot and bullets by the bushel were turned out. From such raw material the historic buck-and-ball cartridges, terribly effective at short range, were manufactured.
Lyon stopped at Boonville two weeks. He wanted reinforcements. While he waited, he garrisoned Jefferson City, Boonville and Lexington. He put Colonel John D. Stevenson in command of the Missouri river from Kansas City to the mouth. Stevenson was the member of the legislature who had protested when Lieutenant-Governor Reynolds ordered the assembly to honor the secession com- missioner from Mississippi by rising. He was of southern birth but strongly for the Union. Wherever there was encouraging sentiment in the eastern coun- ties Lyon organized Home Guards and supplied muskets and ammunition. From Boonville, he issued a soothing proclamation pledging that any man who had taken up arms would not be subject to penalty if he now returned to his home and was quiet. Price believed that this proclamation kept thousands of Missourians from joining the State Guards.
The Training Camp at Lamar.
At Camp Lamar the brigadier-generals organized their forces as rapidly as possible. Hundreds of the volunteers up to that time had not been assigned to commands. Rains had nearly 3,000 men. His effective force consisted of 1,200 infantry under Colonel Weightman, 600 mounted men and Bledsoe's battery of three guns. The remainder of Rains' men were without arms. Parsons' brigade consisted of 650 armed men and nearly as many without arms. Kelly had become a colonel and his St. Louis company had become a regiment. Guibor's battery was attached to Parsons' brigade. Under General John B. Clark were 365 armed men commanded by Burbridge. Slack had 500 mounted men under Rives and 700 infantry under Colonel Hughes and Major Thornton. With each of these armed commands were many unarmed men, "waiting to pick up and use the arms of those who might sicken in camp or on the march, or who might fall in battle." Such was Price's army of Missourians in July, 1861. Was there any other like command going to war on either side? Snead said :
"In all their motley array there was hardly a uniform to be seen, and then, and throughout all the brilliant campaign on which they were about to enter there was nothing
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to distinguish their officers, even a general, from the men in the ranks, save a bit of red flannel, or a piece of cotton cloth, fastened to the shoulder, or to the arm, of the former. But for all that they were the truest and best of soldiers. Many of them, when just emerg- ing from boyhood, had fought under Price or Doniphan in Mexico. Many had been across the great plains, and were inured to the dangers and privations of the wilderness; and many had engaged in the hot strife which had ensanguined the prairies of Kansas. Among them there was hardly a man who could not read and write, and who was not more intelligent than the great mass of American citizens; not one who had not volun- tarily abandoned his home with all its tender ties and thrown away all his possessions, and left father and mother, or wife and children, within the enemy's lines, that he might himself stand by the South in her hour of great peril, and help her to defend her fields and her firesides. And among them all there was not a man who had come forth to fight for slavery."
A Battle Won by 2,000 Unarmed Men.
While Governor Jackson was trying to get the State Guard organized at Camp Lamar, waiting for Lyon to make the next move from Boonville, he had no idea of what was going on south of him. According to Snead, Sweeny reached Spring- field on the Ist of July. On the way he added about a thousand Home Guards to his St. Louis regiments. Sigel was in advance of Sweeny. He pushed westward with Salomon's and his own regiment, hoping to cut off Price before the latter could reach McCulloch across the Arkansas border. He went as far as Neosho and Sarcoxie only to learn that Price had passed down to the state line. Sigel then turned northward to hold Governor Jackson and the State Guard until Lyon could arrive and spring the trap. Lyon left Boonville on the 3rd of July with 2,500 men and marched toward Camp Lamar. Sturgis with 900 regulars from Fort Leavenworth and two Kansas regiments was following the trail of Rains. Thus three small Union armies were converging on Jackson and the State Guard at Lamar. But Sigel arrived too soon. On the 4th of July Sigel marched into Carthage and was discovered by a quartermaster's detail which had gone there from Jackson's army to get supplies. On the evening of the 4th of July a man rode furiously up to Parsons' headquarters with the news that the Fed- erals were at Carthage. At daybreak of the 5th, Governor Jackson started with his whole army of 4,000 armed and 2,000 unarmed men to meet the Union force. Sigel had been about as prompt. The two armies of Missourians came together on a prairie near Coon creek. Sigel had 950 infantry and Backoff's battery of seven guns and 125 men. He began the fight. For an hour Backoff on one side and Guibor and Bledsoe on the other pounded away without much damage. Then Governor Jackson ordered an advance of Rains' 600 mounted men at one end of his long front and of Rives at the other end. At the same time the 2,000 unarmed men were sent off to the right into some timber to take shelter and to be out of the way. Sigel saw this movement, but did not know the men were unarmed. He thought the 2,000 men moving for the timber were being sent round to take him in the rear. He retreated and so ended the Battle of Carthage. Sigel lost thirteen killed and thirty-one wounded. The State Guard's loss was ten killed and sixty-four wounded. The Battle of Carthage was famous for two things. The honors were with the 2,000 Missourians who had no guns and were trying to get out of the way. Sigel got away from an armed force outnumbering him four to one and saved his train. He did it by retreating in good order, fight-
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