USA > Missouri > Centennial history of Missouri (the center state) one hundred years in the Union, 1820-1921, Volume I > Part 86
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Problem of the Freedmen.
"In addition to its work of ministering to the sick and wounded of the western armies and navy and of promoting the health of soldiers in the field, the Western Sani- tary Commission felt itself called upon to devote a portion of its labors to the relief of the 40,000 freedmen along the banks of the Mississippi river from Columbus to Natchez. They were in a country stripped by the ravages of war, with no demand for labor except- ing in a few localities and without means of providing for food, clothing and shelter. In December, 1863, Mr. Yeatman returned from a special trip down the river to ascertain and report the actual conditions. He stopped at Island No. 10, Memphis, Helena, Good- rich's Landing, Milliken's Bend, Young's Point, the plantations of Jeff and Joe Davis and at Natchez. As an illustration, he found at Helena between 3,000 and 4,000 men, women and children, part of them living in a place back of the town called 'Camp Ethiopia,' in cast- off tents, caves, shelters of brush. Others were in the poorer houses of the town, sixteen to twenty persons in a room, and in huts on the outskirts. The able-bodied men were com- pelled to work on the fortifications, in unloading coal and freight from steamboats, teamsters and all manner of fatigue duty, for which they received no compensation, through neglect of officers to place them on the pay roll and general indifference of military commanders as to their condition. At one time an order was issued forbidding their payment on the ground that their former masters would have a claim against the government for their services.
"The terrible destitution and sufferings of these helpless people and the injustice to which they were subjected so moved the sympathetic heart of Mr. Yeatman that he went to Washington and presented the subject to the government and made 'suggestions of a plan of organization for freed labor, and the leasing of plantations along the Mississippi river.' The high character of Mr. Yeatman was so well known that his suggestions were re- ceived with favor, and he was authorized to accompany an agent of the treasury depart- ment to Vicksburg to mature and carry them into effect. This trust he accepted, declining an official position which was offered him. About 600 plantations were leased, wise and humane regulations for the compensation of labor were enforced, schools established, and incalculable benefits were derived by the colored people, who were encouraged in habits of self reliance and saving. Large quantities of sanitary stores were distributed among those in dire extremity. From the efforts of Mr. Yeatman in this direction National Freedmen Relief associations were organized all over the northern states.
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The White Refugees.
"Assistance was also rendered to white refugees from the South, who came by thou- sands, many of them women with small children, often barefooted and wholly destitute, brought by steamers and landed. Their husbands had been killed in the war by guerrillas, or conscripted into the rebel army. One poor blind woman with six children walked all the way from Arkansas to Rolla, her little children leading her by the hand all the way over those hundreds of weary miles. From Rolla she was brought here by rail as a charity. Her youngest children she had never seen as they had been born since she became blind. Her children were adopted by Dr. Eliot and placed in a mission school on Eighth street, and the mother was sent to a hospital, where Dr. Pope performed an operation; the cataracts were removed from her eyes and her sight restored. Her children were then returned to hier. In consequence of the invasion of Missouri by Price in the fall of 1864 thousands of Union refugees, wholly destitute, came to St. Louis.
"The military authorities authorized a charity ration and shelter, but all other ex- penses, clothing, hospital treatment, teachers for the children, were borne by the Sanitary Commission. Its area of beneficence extended over the vast territory from St. Louis to the Gulf of Mexico, and westward to the Rocky Mountains. Wherever troops were the commission forwarded supplies. Every call for help from friend or foe was instantly responded to."
Mr. Yeatman and the Freedmen's Bureau.
Catholic in his conception of the commission's purposes, this southern born man, once a slave-holder, recognized the necessities of the freedmen. Great numbers of these ex-slaves had drifted away from the plantations and into communities. The commission sent physicians and nurses and then teachers. Mr. Yeatman suggested the plan of the Freedmen's Bureau. He recommended the leasing of abandoned plantations to negroes, to encourage them to become self-supporting. These views were indorsed as offering an "absolute solution of the cotton and negro questions." They appealed so to President Lincoln that he sent for Mr. Yeatman and offered him the commissionership of the Freed- men's Bureau. Four years previously Mr. Yeatman, accompanying Hamilton R. Gamble, had called upon Mr. Lincoln. He was a Union man. His step- father, John Bell, had headed the Union ticket as the Presidential nominee the year before. Mr. Yeatman and Mr. Gamble believed that a pacificatory policy, such as General Harney was pursuing in St. Louis, was wiser than the more radical course advocated by Francis P. Blair, who wanted Harney superseded. Mr. Lincoln rejected the advice of his visitors. Mr. Gamble and Mr. Yeatman came back to St. Louis, Mr. Gamble to become the provisional governor of Mis- souri and to hold it in the Union at the cost of his life; Mr. Yeatman to devote himself unsparingly to the mitigation of the horrors of war.
The Great Sanitary Fair.
The Western Sanitary Commission faced a depleted treasury at the beginning of 1864. ` The sources of revenue seemed exhausted. A great fair was planned. On the Ist of February the organization was formed. On the 17th of May the fair opened. The magnitude and success of that fair are worthy of place in history. That a city so stricken as St. Louis had been could plan. and carry through such a movement is the wonderful fact. The building constructed for the fair was 500 feet long. It extended along Twelfth street from St. Charles to
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Olive, with wings 100 feet long on Locust street. In the center was a great rotunda seventy-five feet across and fifty feet high. In this central space were decorative features-flags and evergreens and flowers and battle trophies. Gifts of articles to be sold for the benefit of the commission came from as far east as Maine and as far west as Nevada. But Missourians gave in numberless ways and in marvelous generosity. Every element in the population was represented among the givers. The contributions were classified and put on sale in depart- ments. There were agricultural implements and works of art. Such entertain- ment features as the curiosity shop, the skating park and the gallery of fine arts were provided. The Holland kitchen and the New England kitchen catered to the crowds. A theater presented dramas. Military bands gave concerts. Guard duty was performed by colored soldiers.
The fair put into the treasury of the Western Sanitary Commission $554,591. That was at the rate of $3.50 for every man, woman and child in St. Louis. The fair enabled the commission to go on with its work to the end of the war, and to give the Ladies Union Aid Society $50,000 for hospital service and for the assistance of soldiers' families. The sum of $1,000 a month was devoted to making the freed slaves self-sustaining and $40,000 was expended in the maintenance of a home for soldiers' orphans at Webster Groves. One who was especially active in the planning and conduct of the fair has commented upon it : "But the fair was a blessing not only to refugees and freedmen, to the sick and wounded in hospitals, to the widows and orphans of our slain heroes, but was also a measureless boon to St. Louis. It was one more mighty agency for curing us of our selfishness. For a time at least it broke upon our commercialism, and led us to think of others and to do something for their welfare."
The Assessment of Southern Sympathizers.
In the summer of 1862 there issued from the general commanding at St. Louis an order "to assess and collect without unnecessary delay the sum of five hundred thousand dollars from the secessionists and southern sympathizers" of the city and county of St. Louis. The order stated that the money was to be "used in subsisting, clothing and arming the enrolled militia while in active service, and in providing for the support of the families of such militiamen and United States volunteers as may be destitute." It was extended to other parts of the state.
The unpleasant duty of making and collecting the assessment was imposed upon half a dozen of the best known citizens of St. Louis. The assessment was begun. Collections were enforced by the military. Suddenly the board having the matter in charge suspended the work. The order countermanding the assessment came from Washington. It was terse: "As there seems to be no present military necessity for the enforcement of this assessment, all pro- ceedings under the order will be suspended."
Two weeks before General Halleck directed discontinuance, a letter was sent to Washington saying "that the 'assessment' now in progress, to be levied upon southern sympathizers and secessionists, is working evil in this community and doing great harm to the Union cause. Among our citizens are all shades of opinion, from that kind of neutrality which is hatred in disguise, through all
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the grades of lukewarmness, 'sympathy' and hesitating zeal up to the full loyalty which your memorialists claim to possess. To assort and classify them, so as to indicate the dividing line of loyalty and disloyalty, and to establish the rates of payment by those falling below it is a task of great difficulty."
Reviewing the work as far as it had progressed, the writer continued: "The natural consequence has been that many feel themselves deeply aggrieved, not having supposed themselves liable to the suspicion of disloyalty ; many escape assessment who, if any, deserve it; and a general feeling of inequality in the rule and ratio of assessments prevails. This was unavoidable, for no two tribunals could agree upon the details of such an assessment either as to the persons or the amounts to be assessed without more complete knowledge of facts than are to be attained from ex parte testimony and current reports."
The writer appealed for a stay of the assessment proceedings. When the letter was written the intention was to have it signed by a number of loyal citi- zens of St. Louis. But the leading Union men declined to sign. Their feeling against the southern sympathizers was bitter. The war sentiment gripped. Busi- ress had been paralyzed. Sentiment rather sustained a policy which proposed to make sympathizers pay heavily toward the war expense. One man, with a deep sense of justice, stood out alone. He had been among the foremost the year previous in counseling the aggressive measures which made St. Louis a Union city. But now, when the Union elements were all powerful, his appeal for fairness toward the minority got no hearing. He signed his letter and sent it to Governor Gamble who forwarded it at once to Washington. Years after the war this letter was printed in a St. Louis newspaper but without the signature and without mention of the name of Rev. Dr. William G. Eliot.
The character of the assessment proceedings will seem almost incredible to this generation. When the board had organized to make the assessment the president addressed a request to "the unconditional Union men of St. Louis" to send in "such information as they have in their possession which will aid in carrying out the requirements" of the orders. He concluded his request with, "the board wish it to be understood that all communications and evidence will be considered strictly private."
Desperate Nature of the Conflict.
Return I. Holcombe, during the years he passed going from one Missouri county to another, gathering material for local histories, was deeply impressed with the information given about the conditions of the sixties. He wrote for the Globe-Democrat in 1891 :
"Perhaps the desperate nature of the civil war in Missouri will never be correctly understood save by the actual participants. It was bad to begin with, and it grew worse all the way down to the close, two months after Lee surrendered. Family quarrels are al- ways the bitterest, and next to them are neighbors' feuds. This was a war between fellow- citizens and neighbors, and sometimes it was between kinsmen-even brothers. It was not a war of races, nor of classes. Proletarians and patricians were equally divided as to sides. Some of the largest slaveholders were the stanchest Unionists, and fought for the old flag, while innumerable men, who, if a slave were to be sold by the ounce, could not buy his little finger, lost limb and life while fighting for the Confederacy, whose corner- stone was human slavery. Plenty of men of northern birth wore the gray, and the guerrilla
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king, Quantrell, was an Ohio man, born and reared. Some of the best blood of the South was hottest for the Union, and South Carolinians, Virginians and Mississippians fought to save it against Pennsylvanians, Ohioans and Illinois men who tried to destroy it.
"I do not know what made it so desperate. I do not know what instigated men who believed in the Bible to go about robbing, plundering, house-burning and murdering in cold blood, and this is what some men of both sides did. There were all sorts of trans- formations. Sunday school boys, who could repeat the beatitudes without skipping a word, became as fierce and cruel as Comanches, and for years did not see the Deity in the clouds, nor hear him in the wind. I think it is only the truth to say that the pro-Con- federates became the more demoralized of the two parties. Perhaps this was because after Wilson's creek and Lexington, their cause steadily lost, and the prospects for its ultimate success daily waned, and desperation comes oftener than resignation from defeat, and madness, hot as vitriol, frequently succeeds the coldest despair.
When Women Took Sides.
"Women became as bad as their brothers. From the sewing of bandages and the scraping of lint, came the molding of bullets, the smuggling of caps, the making of cart- ridges, and then lying and spying and the luring of men to death. In the country it was hard to find a woman no matter how fair her face and refined her character, who was really a non-combatant, and was not guilty of numerous acts of hostility, covert and overt.
"Riding along from Brunswick to Laclede, in the summer of 1863, Lieutenant William Reeves of Daviess county, a Union' officer of militia, drew bridle at a little cabin east of Compton's ferry in Chariton county. A bright, cheery-faced little woman met him at the door, in one hand a butcher knife, in the other a whetstone, her face. abeam, her eyes aglow. 'Hush !' she said, 'there's a reb in the back room sound asleep. Go in, quick, and kill him. I told him I was a good secesh, too,' she went on, 'and he says he is a bush- whacker and has been two nights without sleep, and so I fed him and coaxed him to go to bed, and he has been snoring for two hours. Hurry in; don't mind the blood on the bed.'
"'And what were you going to do with that knife?' asked the officer.
"'As soon as I got it sharp enough,' she replied, 'I was going to stick it through his heart.'
"Think of that! And three years . before this little woman, into whom the spirit of Jael seemed to have entered, was a Sunday school teacher, earnestly impressing on chil- dren the divine injunction, 'All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them.'
"The officer secured the bushwhacker's arms, then the bushwhacker himself, and took him to Laclede a prisoner, instead of slaying him where he slept, to the manifest disappoint- ment and sorrow of the little hostess, who petulantly said, 'I have seen rebs after they were dead, but I wanted to see one die.'"
Gleams of Humor.
Civil war in Missouri was not altogether without its humorous incidents. General Ben Prentiss, afterwards "the hero of Shiloh," marched into Paris. the county seat of Monroe, just following a big demonstration of sympathy for the South. He rounded up several scores of the well-to-do citizens and proceeded to levy an assessment after a method all his own. As one after another of the Parisians was brought before him, the general would ask: "Well, Mr. Blank, how do you stand, North or South?" As the general had gathered information in advance, there wasn't much use in prevaricating. In one case the citizen replied : "General, to tell the truth, I lean just a leedle to the South." "Twenty- five dollars, Mr. Blank," the general decided promptly.
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Missourians did not stay out of the Civil war, on one side or the other, for ordinary and in some instances for extraordinary physical defects. One Mis- sourian with a wooden leg went into the war. His name was P. Wells. He was a constituent of Champ Clark who said proudly of him that he was "the only soldier, living or dead, so far as history tells, that ever had a wooden leg shot off in battle, for the reason, perhaps, that he is the only soldier that ever went into battle with a wooden leg. He survived his wound to become a wealthy and enthusiastic Populist."
Secret lodges of the Union League were one form of patriotism in Missouri after the war had been going on some time. Members took an oath "to support the government of the United States against all enemies, sacrificing property and life, if necessary, to preserve the Federal Union of states, to put down this and all other rebellions." Members of different lodges, uncertain as to each other's identification with the order, went through this ritual of recognition :
"Have you seen Sam?"
"I have."
"And will draw Washington's sword?"
"And have drawn Washington's sword."
"Advance and lock arms and one say 'Union,' the other, 'forever.'"
"Crazy Sherman."
From the chaotic conditions of the war in Missouri came the story that Gen- eral William Tecumseh Sherman was insane. On the 23rd of November Sher- man, having been relieved in Kentucky, arrived in St. Louis and reported to Halleck, who had succeeded Fremont. He was sent at once to Western Missouri on an inspection tour, with orders to take command in case there was danger of attack. Within a week Sherman was telegraphing from Sedalia the most alarm- ing reports. He said that Sterling Price's army was approaching in force and that an attack was imminent. He began to concentrate the troops for the expected battle. Pope, who received one of Sherman's orders, sent in a vigorous protest to Halleck. Other generals made reports which did not agree with the representations from Sedalia. Halleck called Sherman back to St. Louis and sent to Washington a letter which remained buried in the files of the War Department nearly thirty years-long after the death of Sherman.
"(Confidential.)
"ST. LOUIS, Mo., December 2, 1861 .- Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, Commander-in- chief, Washington, D. C .: GENERAL-As stated in a former communication, Brig. Gen. W. T. Sherman, on reporting here for duty, was ordered to inspect troops (three divisions) at Sedalia and vicinity, and if, in the absence of Gen. Pope, he deemed there was danger of an immediate attack, he was authorized to assume the command. He did so, and com- menced the movements of the troops in a manner which I did not approve, and counter- manded. I also received information from officers there that Gen. Sherman was com- pletely 'stampeded,' and was 'stampeding' the army. I therefore immediately ordered him to this place, and yesterday gave him a leave of absence for twenty days to visit his family in Ohio.
"I am satisfied that Gen. Sherman's physical and mental system is so completely broken by labor and care as to render him for the present entirely unfit for duty. Perhaps a few weeks' rest may restore him. I am satisfied that in his present condition it would be dangerous to give him a command here.
GENERAL A. J. SMITH
GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN
I HUYETT
CHUSSEY-CO ENCS
IRONTON AND THE ARCADIA VALLEY
The Battle of Ironton is known in Civil war history as the Thermopylae of the West. Arcadia Valley, accounted one of the finest natural parks of the United States
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"Can't you send me a Brigadier-General of high rank, capable of commanding a corps d'armee of three or four divisions? Say Heintzelman, F. J. Porter, Franklin or McCall. Those of lower grades would be ranked by others here. Grant can not be taken from Cairo, nor Curtis from this place at present. Sigel is sick and Prentiss operating against insurg- ents in Northern Missouri. I dare not intrust the 'mustangs' with high commands in the face of the enemy. Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
"H. W. HALLECK, Major General."
Sherman Asks an Explanation.
This letter was in Halleck's handwriting. It was not made public but the news that Sherman had broken down physically and mentally got into the news- papers promptly. "Crazy Sherman" was the headline and common expression. Sherman must have suspected or had some intimation of the source, for he wrote only ten days later than the date of Halleck's confidential letter :
"LANCASTER, O., December 12, 1861 .- Maj. Gen. Halleck, St. Louis, Mo .: DEAR SIR-I believe you will be frank enough to answer me if you deem the steps I took at Sedalia as an evidence of want of mind.
"They may have been the result of an excess of caution on my part, but I do think the troops were too much strung out, and should be concentrated, with more men left along to guard the track. The animals, cattle especially, will be much exposed this winter.
"I set a much higher measure of danger on the acts of unfriendly inhabitants than most officers do, because I have lived in Missouri and the South, and know that in their individual characters they will do more acts of hostility than northern farmers or people could bring themselves to perpetrate. In my judgment Price's army in the aggregate is less to be feared than when in scattered bands.
"I write to you because a Cincinnati paper, whose reporter I imprisoned in Louis- ville for visiting our camps after I had forbidden him leave to go, has announced that I am insane, and alleges as a reason that at Sedalia my acts were so mad that sub- ordinate officers refused to obey. I know of no order I gave that was not obeyed, except Gen. Pope's, to advance his division to Sedalia, which order was countermanded by you, and the fact communicated to me.
"These newspapers have us in their power, and can destroy us as they please, and this one can destroy my usefulness by depriving me of the confidence of officers and men.
"I will be in St. Louis next week, and will be guided by your commands and judgment. I am, etc.,
"W. T. SHERMAN, Brigadier General."
An Inconsistent Reply.
Halleck replied at once but in a manner that was not satisfactory to Sherman and not entirely consistent with his letter to Gen. McClellan :
"ST. LOUIS, December 18, 1861 .- Brig. Gen. W. T. Sherman, Lancaster, O .: MY DEAR GENERAL-Yours of the 12th was received a day or two ago, but was mislaid for the moment among private papers, or I should have answered sooner. The newspaper attacks are certainly shameless and scandalous, but I can not agree with you that they have us in their power 'to destroy us as they please.' I certainly get my share of abuse, but it will not disturb me.
"Your movement of the troops was not countermanded by me because I thought it an unwise one in itself, but because I was not then ready for it. I had better information of Price's movements than you had, and I had no apprehension of an attack. I intended to concentrate the forces on that line, but I wished the movement delayed until I could determine on a better position. After receiving Lieut. Col. McPherson's report I made precisely the location you had ordered. I was desirous at the time not to prevent the
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advance of Price by any movement on our part, hoping that he would move on Lexington, but finding that he had determined to remain at Osceola for some time at least, I made the movement you proposed. As you could not know my plans you and others may have misconstrued the reason of my countermanding your orders.
"I deem it my duty, however, to say to you, General, in all frankness and kindness, that remarks made by you, both at Sedalia and in this city (if I am correctly informed), about our defenseless condition, and the probability that the enemy would take this city, have led to unfair and harsh comments by those who did not know. I say this merely to put you on your guard in future.
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