USA > Missouri > Centennial history of Missouri (the center state) one hundred years in the Union, 1820-1921, Volume I > Part 84
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THE STATE THE STAKE
three enlisted men and that they had successfully concealed themselves in the hills of Salt river.
Harris' opportunity came with the six days' fighting at Lexington. In his official report General Harris told how, he took 132 bales of hemp and rolled them up the hill, sheltering his men behind them. He said, "I directed the bales to be wet in the river to protect them against the casualties of fire of our troops and the enemy, and soon discovered that the wetting was so materially increas- ing 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."
Mulligan hoisted the white flag when he saw the 132 bales of hemp steadily approaching his trenches and within 150 feet of them. "Tom" Harris' movable breastworks became famous. There was some controversy about the credit for the suggestion. Friends of Colonel Thomas Hinkle, of Wellington, near Lex- ington, and in the hemp growing region of Missouri, claimed that he first pro- posed the use of the hemp bales.
Price and Fremont.
Price held Lexington until the Ist of October while Fremont was organ- izing the Army of the West with elaborate preparations to crush him. No other army of the Civil war was outfitted as was Fremont's in the fall of 1861. Among the supplies, which the quartermasters purchased in great quantity, were half barrels for water, although Fremont was about to traverse the Ozarks, a region abounding in springs and running streams. Mules in droves were bought. About the middle of October, Fremont started his divisions from several points to fol- low Price. He reached the Osage nine days after Price had crossed. Price moved at the rate of about fifteen miles a day. He was at times one hundred miles ahead of Fremont. When he arrived at Neosho he stopped long enough for the state government to set up a temporary capital and for members of the legislature who were traveling with the army to hold a two weeks' session. The principal business was the passage of an ordinance of secession declaring Mis- souri out of the Union. This paved the way for the election of senators and representatives to the Confederate Congress at Richmond. Price moved still nearer the Arkansas line and made his headquarters at Pineville. Fremont stopped at Springfield and began to prepare for battle. Price was fifty miles away. Instead of a battle a "solemn agreement" was entered into by Price and Fremont. It was dated the Ist of November. The stipulations signed by the two generals were:
"I. 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 pro- ceedings 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 assur- Vol. I-49
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF MISSOURI
ances 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 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."
Fremont signed this agreement at Springfield on the Ist .of November and Price signed it at Cassville on the 5th. But on the 2nd of November a mes- senger arrived at Springfield with an order trom Winfield Scott telling Fremont to turn his command over to General Hunter and report to general headquarters. Fremont issued an address of farewell to the "Soldiers of the Mississippi Army" and left Springfield for St. Louis. In this address he said: "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."
Fremont was the hope of the anti-slavery people. Not long after he took command at St. Louis he proclaimed the freedom of the slaves owned by Mis- sourians who had joined the Confederates. John G. Whittier made this incident the subject of stirring lines which were copied throughout the country :
"Thy error, Fremont, simply was to act A brave man's part, without the statesman's tact, And, taking counsel but of common sense, To strike at cause as well as consequence. Oh, never yet since Roland wound his horn, At Roncesvalles, has a blast been blown
Far-heard, wide-echoed, startling as thine own, Heard from the van of freedom's hope forlorn."
Fremont's Three Months in Missouri.
On the first day of July, 1861, John C. Fremont came home from France. On the third day of July he was appointed a major general and the western department, with headquarters at St. Louis, was created for him. Fremont reached St. Louis on the 25th of July. Then followed in quick succession the disastrous battle of Wilson's creek and Lyon's death and Fremont's proclama- tion. Fremont declared martial law throughout Missouri. He ordered that "all persons who shall be taken with arms in their hands within these lines shall be tried by court-martial and if found guilty shall be shot."
Jeff Thompson came back with a proclamation counter to that of Fremont. He proclaimed, "that for every member of the Missouri State Guards, or. soldier of our allies, the armies of the Confederate states, who shall be put to death in pursuance of the said order of General Fremont, I will hang, draw and quarter a minion of said Abraham Lincoln. If this rule is to be adopted (and it must first be done by our enemies) I intend to exceed General Fremont in his ex- cesses, and will make all tories that come within my reach rue the day that a different policy was adopted by their leaders."
Courtesy Missouri Historical Society THE BRANT RESIDENCE ON CHOUTEAU AVENUE Headquarters of Fremont in 1861
MRS. JESSIE BENTON FREMONT Daughter of Senator Thomas H. Benton
GENERAL JOHN C. FREMONT ('alled "the Woolly Horse" in the cam- paign of 1856 because of his full beard
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THE STATE THE STAKE
Fremont's Trouble-making Proclamation.
In his proclamation, Fremont further declared the property of all persons 111 the State of Missouri who shall take up arms against the United States or who shall be directly proven to have taken an active part with their enemies in the field, "to be confiscated." And "their slaves, if any they have, are hereby declared freemen."
This brief reference to Fremont's three months in Missouri is necessary to the understanding of Mr. Lincoln's intimate relations with this state. Fremont was appointed a major general and given the command in Missouri on the "earnest solicitation" of the Blairs. This President Lincoln stated afterwards in conversation, which John Hay, his secretary, wrote in his diary. Mr. Lincoln said that he "thought well of Fremont" at the time but afterwards concluded that the general had "absolutely no military capacity."
The Blairs reached this conclusion before Mr. Lincoln did. Frank Blair went to St. Louis to help Fremont get well started.
"At last," said Mr. Lincoln, "the tone of Frank's letters changed. It was a change from confidence to doubt and uncertainty. They were pervaded with a tone of sincere sorrow and of fear that Fremont would fail. Montgomery showed them to me, and we were both grieved at the prospect. Soon came the news that Fremont had issued his emancipation order, and had set up a bureau of abolition, giving free papers, and occupying his time apparently with little else."
Immediately after seeing Fremont's emancipation order Mr. Lincoln wrote him :
"Two points in your proclamation of August 20 give me some anxiety :
"First. Should you shoot a man, according to the proclamation the Confederates would very certainly shoot our best men in their hands in retaliation; and so, man for man, indefinitely. It is, therefore, my order that you allow no man to be shot under the proclamation, without first having my approbation and consent.
"Second. I think there is great danger that the closing paragraph, in relation to the confiscation of property and the liberating slaves of traitorous owners, will alarm our southern Union friends and turn them against us; perhaps ruin our rather fair prospect for Kentucky. Allow me, therefore, to ask that you will, as of your own motion, modify that paragraph so as to conform to the first and fourth sections of the act of Congress entitled, 'An act to confiscate property used for insurrectionary purposes,' approved August 6, 1861, and a copy of which act I herewith send you.
"This letter is written in a spirit of caution, and not of censure. I send it by spe- cial messenger, in order that it may certainly and speedily reach you."
Mrs. Fremont's Midnight Call.
Frank Blair had become so convinced that Fremont was doing the Union cause great injury in Missouri that he criticised him in a newspaper article. Fremont placed Blair under arrest. Blair then sent to Washington charges against Fremont. Montgomery Blair, the brother. on the suggestion of Mr. Lincoln, came on to St. Louis to make a personal investigation. On the way he passed Mrs. Fremont, the daughter of Thomas H. Benton, taking to Wash- ington the answer of her husband to the President's letter asking that the procla- mation be modified. Mrs. Fremont arrived at a late hour, went to the White
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House about midnight and insisted upon a personal interview with the Presi- dent. The President, describing to friends the experience, said she "taxed me so violently with many things that I had to exercise all the awkward tact I have to avoid quarreling with her. She surprised me by asking why their enemy, Montgomery Blair, had been sent to Missouri. She more than once intimated that if General Fremont should decide to try conclusions with me, he could set up for himself."
Fremont declined to be guided by the President's friendly suggestion. He defended his action in regard to slaves. He insisted that an official order be issued directing him to change his proclamation if it must be done. The order was sent. It drew upon Mr. Lincoln harsh criticism from anti-slavery people in the North. It intensified the factional differences in Missouri. In a few weeks Fremont was relieved.
The Browning Letter.
The President regarded Fremont's proclamation more seriously than his friendly letter might indicate. He wrote another letter, much longer, to O. H. Browning of Illinois showing that Fremont's action was a dangerous menace to the border states policy. This letter he marked "Private and Confidential." Mr Browning made the letter public before the Illinois Bar Association in 1882
"Executive Mansion, Washington, Sept. 22, 1861 "Hon. O. H. Browning.
"My Dear Sir: Yours of the 17th is just received, and coming from you, I confess it astonishes me. That you should object to my adhering to a law, which you had assisted in making, and presenting to me, less than a month before, is odd enough. But this is a very small part. General Fremont's proclamation, as to confiscation of property, and the liberation of slaves, is purely political and not within the range of military law or necessity. If a commanding general finds a necessity to seize a farm of a private owner, for a pasture, an encampment, or a fortification, he has the right to do so, and to so hold it, as long as the necessity lasts; and this is within military law, because within military necessity. But to say the farm shall no longer belong to the owner, or his heirs forever, and this, as well when the farm is not needed for military purposes as when it is, is pure- ly political, without the savor of military law about it. And the same is true of slaves. If the general needs them he can seize them and use them, but when the need is past, it is not for him to fix their permanent future condition. That must be settled according to laws made by lawmakers, and not by military proclamations. The proclamation in the point in question is simply 'dictatorship.' It assumes that the general may do anything he pleases-confiscate the lands and free the slaves of loyal people, as well as of disloyal ones. And going the whole figure, I have no doubt, would be more popular, with some thoughtless people, than that which has been done! But I cannot assume this reckless position, nor allow others to assume it on my responsibility.
"You speak of it as being the only means of saving the Government. On the con- trary, it is itself the surrender of the Government. Can it be pretended that it is any longer the Government of the United States-any government of constitution and laws- wherein a general or a president may make permanent rules of property by proclamation ? I do not say Congress might not with propriety pass a law on the point, just as General Fremont proclaimed. I do not say I might not, as a Member of Congress, vote for it. What I object to is, that I, as President, shall expressly or impliedly seize and exercise
1
the permanent legislative functions of the Government.
"So much as to principle. Now as to policy. No doubt the thing was popular in some quarters, and would have been more so if it had been a general declaration of emancipa- tion.
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THE STATE THE STAKE
"The Kentucky legislature would not budge till that proclamation was modified; and General Anderson telegraphed me that on the news of General Fremont having actually issued deeds of manumission, a whole company of our volunteers threw down their arms and disbanded. I was so assured as to think it probable that the very arms we had fur- nished Kentucky would be turned against us. I think to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game. Kentucky gone, we cannot hold Missouri, nor, as I think, Maryland. These all against us, and the job on our hands is too large for us. We would as well consent to separation at once, including the surrender of the capital. On the con- trary, if you will give up your restlessness for new positions, and back me manfully on the grounds upon which you and other kind friends gave me the election, and have approved in my public documents, we shall go through triumphantly. You must not understand I took my course on the proclamation because of Kentucky. I took the same ground in a private letter to General Fremont before I heard from Kentucky.
"You think I am inconsistent because I did not also forbid General Fremont to shoot men under the proclamation. I understand that to be within military law, but I also think, and so privately wrote General Fremont, that it is impolitic in this, that our adver- saries have the power, and will certainly exercise it, to shoot as many of our men as we shoot of theirs. I did not say this in the public letter, because it is a subject I prefer not to discuss in the hearing of our enemies.
"There has been no thought of removing General Fremont on any ground connected with this proclamation, and if there has been any wish for his removal on any ground, our mutual friend Sam Glover can probably tell you what it is. I hope no real necessity for it exists on any ground.
"Your friend, as ever, "A. LINCOLN." .
Lincoln on the Blairs.
The influence of the Blairs with Mr. Lincoln was strong. Not only was Montgomery Blair an official adviser, not only was the judgment of Francis P. Blair, Jr., in Missouri matters of great weight, but the President listened in regard to his cherished border states policy to the counsel of the elder Francis P. Blair. The relationship was peculiar. The President was not under the influence of the Blairs in the sense that he leaned weakly upon them. But he believed that the maintenance of the Union depended upon the course of Mis- souri and the other border states. In that belief, he recognized the value of the advice and support of the Blairs. Just . how he regarded the Blairs is shown in one of the President's informal talks which John Hay wrote into his diary :
"The Blairs have to an unusual degree the spirit of the clan. Their family is a close corporation. Frank is their hope and pride. They have a way of going with a rush for any thing they undertake, especially have Montgomery and the old gentleman."
When he talked in this way, the President had in mind the Fremont fiasco in Missouri.
The First Iron Clads in Naval History.
Three days after the fall of Fort Sumpter James B. Eads received a con- fidential letter from Attorney General Bates, reading :
"Be not surprised if you are called here suddenly by a telegram. If called, come instantly. In a certain contingency it will be necessary to have the aid of the most thorough knowledge of our western rivers, and the use of steam on them; and in that event I have advised that you should be consulted."
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Here was the intimation of another signal part which Missouri was to have in the preservation of the Union. The telegram followed the letter. Eads went to Washington. He was introduced to President Lincoln and went into pro- longed conference with Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles on the problem of cutting the Confederacy in two by opening the Mississippi river. Eads came back to St. Louis with a contract to build seven iron clad gunboats, the first in the naval architecture of the world. The gunboats were to draw six feet of water, carry thirteen heavy guns each, to be plated with iron two and one-half inches thick, and to run nine miles an hour.
Orders went out by telegraph putting sawmills, rolling mills and machine shops to work on material. So well were the details handled by Eads and his lieutenants that the first of these boats went into the water at the Carondelet ways on the 12th of October, 1861, and the others were launched only a few days later. Carondelet, now a part of St. Louis, was then a separate municipal- ity. At Washington there was confusion. The government officers were slow about vouchers. Perhaps there was the usual scepticism in naval quarters about a civilian proposition. At any rate, to keep up the progress that had been planned, Eads and other Missourians advanced thousands of dollars to meet wages and bills for material. The fleet of iron clads reached Cairo the middle of December, before the river above was closed by ice. In a hundred days this fleet which was to have such an important. part in the Civil war was in service.
The Confederates realized the vital importance of holding the Mississippi. They built heavy works, manned with their largest guns, at Island No. 10, at Fort Pillow which was near Memphis, at Vicksburg, and at other points. At Columbus, Kentucky, General Polk, the fighting bishop, had fortified so well to hold the river that he called his fort "the Gibraltar of the West."
In the capture of Forts Henry and Donelson, in the forcing of Island No. IO and down the river, the fleet of iron clads proved the forecast which Eads had made at Washington. They kept open the rivers after the battles, perform- ing service which wooden boats could not have done. The Missouri iron clads had had their baptism in battle at Henry and Donelson long before Ericsson invented the Monitor to meet the Merrimac in Hampton Roads.
Van Horn and Kansas City.
While Blair and Nathaniel Lyon. were saving Missouri to the Union by their vigorous action in the spring and summer of 1861, there was supplemental action in the western part of the state, second in its importance and far-reaching effects only to that at St. Louis. The Jackson administration at Jefferson City intended to accomplish at Kansas City what was planned for St. Louis. The bill which took out of the hands of the Union mayor at St. Louis the control of the police force and placed it in the hands of commissioners appointed by Governor Jackson applied also to Kansas City. The southern rights people looked forward to possession of Kansas City to be obtained by methods like those put in operation at St. Louis. Robert T. Van Horn, who had been a Douglas democrat but who had followed Douglas in his declaration of loyalty to the Union, had been elected mayor, defeating the secession candidate. Learn-
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THE STATE THE STAKE
ing of the plans of the secessionists to take the police power out of his hands and put the city under control of secession police commissioners. Mayor Van Horn made a hurried trip to St. Louis. He conferred with Blair and Lyon who promised aid. Washington acted promptly. A small force of United States troops came down from Fort Leavenworth, the commander under instructions to take orders only from Mayor Van Horn. The mayor immediately recruited what became known as "Van Horn's battalion of United States Reserve Corps." That was the first Union military force organized in Missouri, outside of St. Louis. It was mustered into service under Mayor Van Horn and established Camp Union at the southwest corner of Tenth and Central streets. By only a few hours Mayor Van Horn anticipated the plan of the secessionists who had organized a force outside for the purpose of taking possession of Kansas City. From that time, the 10th of June, 1861, Kansas City remained in possession of Union forces. Twice Sterling Price planned to get Kansas City, recognizing the strategic value of possession. If he could have succeeded, Fort Leaven- worth would have been open to siege, the war would have been carried into Kansas, control of the Missouri river would have been lost, and the burden of hard campaigning to recover Missouri would have been imposed on the Fed- eral government. In the history of "The State, the Stake" Robert T. Van Horn has a place with Blair.
When Lincoln Discovered Grant.
Grant, Sherman and Sheridan served in Missouri. These three generals, who afterwards were advanced to the highest military positions, saw their earliest war service in this state. President Lincoln came to have the greatest confidence in them. He placed his dependence upon them for ultimate success of the Union armies in the closing year. Who can tell in what measure the recognition of these three generals was in the end due to the intimate and anxious interest with which Mr. Lincoln followed those early developments in Missouri ! The secretary of war was of Pennsylvania. War department influences were eastern. "On to Richmond !" was the cry of the Atlantic seaboard. But Presi- dent Lincoln, with his mind on the situation in Missouri, took a different view. He hardly waited until Price's army had left the state before setting in motion the Mississippi river campaign, starting from Missouri. He wanted to cut the Confederacy in two by way of the river and prevent food supplies from the southwest reaching the cotton states. Montgomery Blair, after the death of Mr. Lincoln, gave this among other reminiscences :
"One day in cabinet meeting, Lincoln turned to the secretary of war and asked, 'Did we not receive a communication sometime last spring from a man named Grant out at Springfield, forwarded by Governor Yates, laying out a plan of campaign down the Mis- sissippi?' The secretary replied that he believed such a paper had been received. - The President requested him to have it looked up, which was done, and it was read in cabinet meeting. It made a strong impression on all its members, Lincoln remarking that at the time it was received it had impressed him favorably, but in the multiplicity of cares it had been forgotten until now, when he had received a communication from Representative Washburne calling attention to General Grant and suggesting that he be sent to Cairo.
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Lincoln then said, 'Mr. Secretary, send an order to General Fremont to put Grant in com- mand of the district of Southeast Missouri.'"
Grant went to this new command, he moved to Cairo, took Paducah, fought the battle of Belmont, captured Fort Donelson. The movement down the Mis- sissippi did not progress as loyal Missourians thought it should. Judge Samuel Treat of the federal court at St. Louis wrote to Judge David Davis, presenting the importance of the Mississippi river campaign as it appeared to him. He - received in reply a letter from President Lincoln, the original of which is pre- served by the Missouri Historical Society :
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