USA > Missouri > Centennial history of Missouri (the center state) one hundred years in the Union, 1820-1921, Volume I > Part 83
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114
1
760
CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF MISSOURI
ing behind the fences and houses of Carthage and marching until three o'clock the next morning. Snead, the Confederate historian, gave Sigel this credit: "As the engagement took place about nine miles north of Carthage, Sigel had on the 5th of July marched under a blazing sun more than ten miles, had met and fought on the same day an army four times as numerous as his own and had then withdrawn his men in good order, first to Carthage, nine miles from the field, and then to Sarcoxie, fifteen miles further, without halting either to eat or sleep."
The Forced March to Springfield.
Lyon was far away when Jackson and Sigel met. He had about a hundred miles to march. On the evening of the 7th of July he reached Grand river south of Clinton. There he overtook Sturgis and the Kansans who had been- waiting for him to come up. On the afternoon of the 9th Lyon was at the Osage, nine miles above Osceola, and there the news reached him that the state troops had defeated Sigel and that Price and McCulloch had formed the junc- tion he had planned to prevent. Under the impression that the state troops were pursuing Sigel, Lyon ferried his army over the Osage, working day and night. There had been heavy rains. The rivers were bank full. On the morning of the JIth Lyon started on another eighty mile march toward Springfield. He made twenty-seven miles without a stop. A halt for food and rest was made in the afternoon. At sunset the forced march was resumed. At three o'clock in the morning Lyon was within thirty miles of Springfield when he learned that Price had not followed Sigel; that the latter had made a safe retreat, and that Price was at Cowskin prairie. The night of the 12th Lyon camped within twelve miles of Springfield and the next morning he rode into Springfield with his "body-guard of ten stalwart troopers enlisted from among the German butchers of St. Louis for that special duty."
Price joined Jackson and the other state troops immediately after the Carthage affair. On his journey to Arkansas for help he had recruited 1,200 men for the State Guard. He had obtained 650 muskets from the Arkansas people and he had induced McCulloch and his well organized and uniformed men to come into Mis- souri. Price had done quick work for word had reached him that Lyon and Sturgis and Sigel were marching against Governor Jackson. But the retreat of Sigel had averted the great danger. The coming of McCulloch although not needed created great enthusiasm among the Missourians. McCulloch marched back to the Arkansas line. Price took command of all of the State Guard and conducted them to Cowskin prairie in the extreme southwestern corner of Mis- souri. Lyon modified his plan and joined Sigel at Springfield. The Union Mis- sourians and the State Missourians now began to prepare for real battle. Both sides wanted a fight to a finish. Governor Jackson went to Memphis to urge Gen- eral Polk to send a Confederate army into Southeast Missouri. Price urged Mc- Culloch to bring his troops into Missouri and join him in an attack upon Lyon at Springfield.
There were strong reasons for pushing the campaign those July days. The state convention which had declared against secession and had given the southern rights wing in Missouri such bitter disappointment in March had been called to
REAR VIEW OF THE LOG HOUSE BUILT BY GEN. U. S. GRANT
GENERAL FREDERICK DENT GRANT
In front of the log house in which he was born. The house was built by Gen. U. S. Grant on his Missouri farm. It is preserved as a historic relic by August A. Busch
763
THE STATE THE STAKE
meet in Jefferson City on the 22nd of July. The action of that convention, if the Union men still held the state, was foreseen. The officers who had been driven to a corner of the state would be declared out of office. A new, provisional state gov- ernment would be organized. Missouri would remain in the Union. As a state it would be permanently against the South. Response to the appeals of the Mis- sourians was delayed. At Richmond the proposition to invade Missouri was still treated coldly. It was not until the 3Ist of July that McCulloch and the Arkansas troops, making with the Missourians an army of 15,000, got under way for Springfield.
The Army of Liberation.
General Polk, the militant Methodist bishop, on the 23rd of July had ordered Pillow to take 6,000 and join Jeff Thompson and the Missourians who had come together in Southeast Missouri. Polk called this "the Army of Liberation." Pil- low entered Missouri on the 28th of July and occupied New Madrid. He had great expectations. The Battle of Bull Run had given the Confederates con- fidence. Those in the West were anxious to show that they, too, were irresistible. In his plan of campaign for the Army of Liberation, General Pillow declared that his army was in Missouri, at the request of Governor Jackson, to aid as allies in "placing our downtrodden sister on her feet." On the Ist of August Jeff Thomp- son at Bloomfield, issued this appeal "to the people of Missouri."
"Having been elected to command the gallant sons of the first military district of Missouri in the second war for independence, I appeal to all whose hearts are with us, immediately to take the field. By a speedy and simultaneous assault on our foes, we can, like a hurricane, scatter them to the winds, while tardy action, like the gentle south wind, will only meet with northern frosts, and advance and recede, and like the seasons will be the history of the war, and will last forever. Come now! Strike while the iron is hot! Our enemies are whipped in Virginia. They have been whipped in Missouri. General Hardee advances in the center, General Pillow on the right, and General McCulloch on the left, with twenty thousand brave southern hearts to our aid. So, leave your plows in the furrow, your ox to the yoke, and rush like a tornado upon our invaders and foes, to sweep them from the face of the earth, or force them from the soil of our state! Brave sons of the first district, come and join us! We have plenty of ammunition, and the cat- tle on 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 our foes like a southern thunderbolt, and soon our camp-fires will illumi- nate the Meramec and Missouri. Come, turn out!"
According to the War Records, General Thompson, not long after the issue of his appeal, sent out a scouting party for fresh meat. The only cow of a widow was taken. The widow came into camp and called upon the commander. "Why, General," she protested, "is it possible you intend to rob a widow of the only cow she has in the world, when, as you have said in your proclamation, the cattle on ten thousand hills are yours?" The general grinned and ordered the cow returned to the widow.
Wilson's Creek and the Corn Fields.
Some fields of ripening corn determined the location of the Battle of Wilson's creek. On the way to Springfield Price and McCulloch camped on the banks of
764
CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF MISSOURI
the creek near the fields. They expected to live on that corn while waiting for their trains to come up. And there they were attacked by the man they expected to attack in Springfield. Wilson's creek has its beginning in the suburbs of Spring- field. It flows in a westerly direction several miles, bends southward and follows that course about ten miles to its junction with the James.
At Springfield Lyon found himself with between 7,000 and 8,000 men, nearly all of them Missourians. He had 3,000 men who had been enlisted for three months and their terms would be out the middle of August. He had no idea of giving up the advantage gained and began to prepare for battle, sending urgent messages to Fremont in St. Louis for reinforcements. "Governor Jackson will soon have in this vicinity not less than 30,000 men. I must have at once an addi- tional force of 10,000 men or abandon my position," he wrote. He didn't get his reinforcements and he didn't abandon his position. Blair was in Washington. He carried Lyon's appeals to the Cabinet. Orders were sent to Fremont. Far- rar, Cavender and John S. Phelps, afterwards governor, went as a delegation to Fremont and urged that help be sent to Lyon at Springfield. Fremont prom- ised 5,000 men. It was not until the 4th of August, too late, that two regiments were ordered to go to Lyon, Stevenson's from Boonville and Montgomery's from Leavenworth. Finally Lyon sent defiantly to Fremont that he would fight any- way. And he did.
Lyon learned on the Ist of August that Price and McCulloch had started toward Springfield. He marched out to meet them, hoping to be able with his smaller force to attack them separately. A skirmish occurred at Dug Springs in which the Union troops had the best of it. Price urged McCulloch to join him in attacking Lyon. The commander of the Arkansas troops was reluctant. He referred to the instructions he had about going into Missouri. Snead said this was not McCulloch's real reason for holding back. "He had in truth no confidence in the Missouri troops, and none in General Price, or in any of his officers except Colonel Weightman." Up to this time McCulloch had com- manded the Arkansas troops and Price the Missourians. Price saw that McCul- loch had "determined not to advance another mile except in chief command of the entire force." On Sunday morning Price took Snead with him and went to McCulloch's headquarters to make a final effort. According to Snead Gen- eral Price said :
"I am an older man than you, General McCulloch, and I am not only your senior in rank, 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, General Mc- Culloch, 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 that Missouri be abandoned without a struggle. You must either fight beside us or look on at a safe distance, and see us fight alone the army which you dare not attack even with our aid. I must have your answer before dark, for I expect to attack Lyon to-morrow."
765
THE STATE THE STAKE
McCulloch accepted the offer of command about sunset. He explained that he had been awaiting dispatches ; that having learned Pillow was advancing into Missouri from New Madrid, he felt justified in attacking Lyon.
The Fight for Missouri.
McCulloch had decided to move from Wilson's creek the night of August 9th to attack Lyon in Springfield. Just before the hour set for the advance of the Confederates, rain began to fall. The order was countermanded. The rea- son for postponement was another of the extraordinary conditions of this early fighting for Missouri. Most of Price's men had no cartridge boxes. They were carrying their ammunition in their pockets. The rain would have wet the pow- der and put three-fourths of the Missourians on the Confederate side out of the fighting.
But Lyon, impatient to force the issue, didn't wait for McCulloch to attack. He left Springfield on the afternoon of the 9th, intending to surprise the Con- federates by an early morning attack. The Union force was divided. Lyon marched by a route to take him around the left of the Confederates. He sent Sigel by a more southerly route to pass around the right of the enemy. Both Lyon and Sigel passed the opposite wings of the Confederates and were ready at daylight to attack in the rear. The Confederate report shows that so well was this movement carried out that at six o'clock the morning of the 10th neither Price nor McCulloch knew that Lyon had left Springfield and they were expect- ing to make the attack there.
Of the Missourians who fought five hours under Price on Bloody Hill, one who was in the thickest of it, Thomas L. Snead, said: "Many of them had not even enlisted, but had only come out to fight ; thousands of them had not been organized into regiments; many of them were unarmed; none of them were uniformed; very few of them had been drilled. Their arms were mostly shot- guns and rifles, and they had no other equipments of any kind; no tents at all ; no supplies of any sort, and no depots from which to draw subsistence, or cloth- ing, or ammunition, or anything. They had no muster rolls and they made no morning reports. They bivouacked in the open air, they subsisted on the ripen- -ing corn, and they foraged their horses on the prairie-grass."
So many of the higher officers on the Union side fell with Lyon, that the sol- diers, when the battle closed were under command of a major. The First Mis- souri went into the fighting with 800 men and came out with 505. The First Kansas lost 284. Of Steele's battalion of regulars, sixty-one, out of 275 were killed or wounded. Price had 4,200 men when the fighting begun. He was wounded as were many of his officers. He lost on Bloody Hill 988 in killed and wounded. "Never before," said Snead, "considering the numbers engaged, had so bloody a battle been fought upon American soil; seldom has a bloodier one been fought on any modern field. The lines would approach again and again within less than fifty yards of each other, and then, after delivering a deadly fire, each would fall back a few paces to reform and reload, only to advance again, and again renew this strange battle in the woods. Peculiar in all its - aspects, the most remarkable of all its characteristics was the deep silence which now and then fell upon the smoking field, while the two armies, unseen of each
766
CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF MISSOURI
other, lay but a few yards apart, gathering strength to grapple again in the death struggle for Missouri."
Two newspaper men wrote histories of the Civil war in Missouri. Both had been connected with St. Louis papers. Both served in the war. They knew from personal observation the local situation which had no counterpart in any other state. One of these soldier historians was in the southern army. The other served with the North. Thomas L. Snead, the Confederate, called his book "The Fight for Missouri." And from his point of view the fight ended with the battle of Wilson's creek, in August, 1861. John McElroy, who gave the northern view, carried "The Struggle for Missouri," as he called his book, down to the battle of Pea Ridge in March, 1862.
Lyon had not fallen in vain. "By capturing the state militia at Camp Jack- son," said Snead, "and driving the governor from the capital and all his troops into the uttermost corner of the state, and by holding Price and McCulloch at bay, he had given the Union men of Missouri time, opportunity, and courage to bring their state convention together again, and had given the convention an excuse and the power to depose Governor Jackson and Lieutenant-Governor Reynolds, to vacate the seats of the members of the general assembly, and to establish a state government which was loyal to the Union and which would use the whole organized power of the state-its treasury, its credit, its militia, and all its great resources-to sustain the Union and crush the South."
Fremont's Failure to Support Lyon.
Of Fremont's failure to support Lyon, General B. G. Farrar made this state- . ment revealing a chapter of the inside history of the war in Missouri:
"At Springfield, Lyon was kept busy receiving delegations of loyal citizens, issuing authority for the raising of regiments, and actively supervising his little army. One night a deserter from Price's army was brought to headquarters. He gave Lyon full details of Price's army, the number of brigades and the names of their commanders, the number of cannon, the class of arms, the amount of transportation of the several divisions, and after a two hours' talk, summed up by saying that Price's army numbered not less than 16,000 men. So soon as the deserter had left, General Lyon turned to me and said : 'Major Farrar, I want you to go at once to St. Louis as bearer of a letter to General Fremont. In this letter I' will mention the fact that you have heard all that the deserter has said, and I have requested General Fremont to see you and hear your statement.'
"I left that morning at four o'clock, reached the Gasconade at night; finding the river full to its banks, I swam the river, reaching Rolla that evening. By daylight I was off on an engine and tender, and at four o'clock reported at Fremont's headquarters. Colonel Kelton, his adjutant general, received my letter, took it to Fremont, and after a long delay returned, saying that the general would see me in the morning. When the morning - came the word was sent down that the general was much occupied and would I be pleased to call in the afternoon. So it went on for three days. Finally I was admitted to his presence, and found him walking up and down the great parlors, absolutely alone. He appeared but,little interested in what I said, spoke of the great need of troops at Cairo and Southeast Missouri; said he could give me no definite answer at present, but to call in a day or two. I called many times, and, finally, becoming disheartened, took the train back to Rolla. That evening I was at the quarters of Colonel Wyman of the Thirteenth Illinois, and telling him of my ill success, when a countryman was brought in who at once stated that Lyon had given battle to Price; that he had been killed and his army de- feated, and that what remained of it was in retreat on that place."
767
THE STATE THE STAKE
The Part Performed by Grant.
On the day that Lyon marched out of Springfield to attack Price, at Wilson's creek, Grant, sitting under an oak tree at Ironton, received his commission as brigadier-general. The sequel to the issue of that commission was a change in the plans of Albert Sidney Johnston, Polk and Pillow. The Army of Liberation did not make the intended advance into Missouri to capture St. Louis. Cairo very quickly became the new storm center. Jeff Thompson with 2,000 Mis- sourians started from Columbus, Kentucky, early in October. He made a rapid march up through Southeast Missouri intending to show the Confederate gen- erals what was possible. The Swamp Fox gave the Illinois colonels in the vicinity of Ironton quite a scare and did some good fighting. Thompson and his men were entirely at home in the valleys and mountains of that picturesque region. The Illinois troops were more accustomed to prairies. Jeff Thompson made his way as far north as Big river bridge, forty miles from St. Louis. Fre- mont was busy with Price in the western part of the state. Jeff Thompson sent back word of his success to Albert Sidney Johnston. He expected Pillow to come on rapidly with an army and take St. Louis. All went well with the Swamp Fox until the battle of Fredericktown. There he was attacked by 3,500 troops, chiefly Illinoisans under Colonel Plummer and Colonel Carlin. Grant planned and ordered the attack. Thompson made a strong stand but found he was out- numbered. His men retreated. The infantry followed him ten miles and the cavalry pursued him twelve miles farther breaking up and scattering his force. Thompson reported from New Madrid that his command was "very much demoralized." This ended the proposed movement to take St. Louis. Grant moved over to Cairo and started an expedition to Paducah and elsewhere. It was Grant's activity in Southeast Missouri and Western Kentucky that prompted Lincoln's approving comment that the new brigadier seemed to be a man who "kept things moving."
Battle of the Hemp Bales.
The battle of Lexington lasted eight days, counting from the first skirmish. It was one of the strangest of the Civil war. Price's army had grown like a rolling snowball as he marched north from Springfield to the Missouri river in the early autumn of 1861. That was characteristic of the campaigning in Mis- souri. When Price advanced, recruits flocked to him. As he fell back many of them returned to their homes.
After the battle of Wilson's creek, Price made his headquarters at Spring- field for some days. Hundreds of his unarmed men were equipped with the guns captured on the battlefield. Organization was perfected. The experience of the first battle, the baptism of blood, had told upon the Missourians. The well uni- formed and completely equipped Arkansas and Louisiana men under McCulloch no longer referred to Price's "undisciplined mob." The last week of August Price left Springfield with an army of 10,000 Missourians fit for any issue of war. He made a feint at Fort Scott which alarmed Kansas and then marched for the Missouri river. He reached Lexington on the 12th of September. The usual irregular contingents had joined him on the way, swelling his force to over 30,000. As Price approached, several bodies of Union troops fell back
768
CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF MISSOURI
and concentrated at Lexington. Two of these commands were Mulligan's Twen- ty-third Illinois, an Irish regiment, and Marshall's First Illinois cavalry, both of them recruited largely in Chicago. The Eleventh Missouri under Colonel Everett Peabody, and 500 Home Guards under Colonel White made up the force in Lexington when Price arrived. The Union troops could have taken boats and escaped. But Lexington had been made a depot of supplies and commanded the river. Mulligan, who took command as the senior colonel, felt that he must stay and try to hold the place and protect the government property until rein- forcements reached him. He selected a high hill between what were then known as Old Lexington and New Lexington. Around the grounds and buildings of the Masonic college he threw up heavy earthworks. Into the space of about fifteen acres the 3,500 men, half as many horses and the wagon trains were crowded. At Jefferson City were 5,000 men under General Jeff. C. Davis. Stur- gis had 4,000 men at Mexico and Pope was in Northwest Missouri with 5,000. The expected reinforcements did not arrive. Mulligan fought well. Price's men worked closer and closer. The nights were moonlight. Squads of Mis- sourians crawled up ravines and found cover behind buildings. They kept up a fusillade by night as well as by day. This was great sport for the irregulars who had brought their shotguns and squirrel rifles and had joined Price's army on the way from Springfield. Mulligan's 3,500 ought to have been slaughtered several times over but the total number killed was less than 100. The batteries of Guibor. McDonald and Clark pounded away, making scars in the stone walls of the college and occasionally killing a horse and a mule which added to the discomfort of the besieged. Price finally ordered his men to close in. They did it by rolling bales of hemp up the hill. Mulligan saw this moving fort of hemp bales approach within 150 feet of works. He gave one last searching look for the reinforcements which never came and surrendered. ' Price gave honor- able terms. He always did. The Union troops surrendered their arms, took an oath not to fight any more against Missouri, were ferried to the north side of the river and turned loose. Mulligan was told to keep his sword. He became the guest of General Price until some time afterwards he was sent to St. Louis, escorted by L. D. Kingsland, a young officer on Price's staff, to be exchanged.
Price captured at Lexington 3,000 rifles, five cannon, 750 horses, $100,000 worth of commissary stores, wagons, ammunition. He also dug up the great seal of Missouri which Governor Jackson and the state officers had buried in a cellar when they abandoned the idea of making Lexington the temporary capital and took a hurried departure. State records which had been left behind at that time were recovered by Price.
The men behind the henip bales were from General Harris' command. When the military bill went into operation "Tom" Harris was given the most difficult of the Congressional districts to organize for the State Guard. His district was the northeast corner of the state. When he had recruited a considerable force, several newly mustered Illinois regiments were sent into North Missouri to be broken in. They were put to chasing Harris. One of these regiments was the Twenty-first Illinois, commanded by Colonel U. S. Grant. Harris was followed from place to place until his recruits scattered. The chase was not called off until it was reported that Harris' army was reduced to the general, his staff and
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.