Hampden Sydney College - Kaleidoscope Yearbook (Hampden Sydney, VA)

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Lincoln sent Governor Jackson a requisition for four regiments from Missouri as her quota of the 75,000 men called for, Jacksoirs answer was, H Your requisition in my opinion, is illegal, unconstitutional, and revolutionary in its objects, in- human and diabolical, and cannot be complied with. What Blair did, with Lyon as the agent, was to spirit away the arsenal supplies up the river to Alton and thence to Springfield, Illinois. Although without authority to arm t-he State, Governor Jackson could as- semble the militia tor their animal manoeuvers. Orders were issued for a camp near St. Louis on May 6. Blair and Lyon were forehauded. They had already in the city a. force of more than tive hundred regulars, and five thousand well- armed volunteers, called German cut-throatsl' by the Southern party. April 30 orders, came from Washington to Captain Lyon of the Department ofthe West to raise ten thousand men, and, if necewary, to proclaim martial law in St. Louis. The papers bore the endorsement: 4' It is revolutionary times and there- foreil dotnot object to the irregularity of this. W. Sf, fWinIield Seottj. Col- onel Snead's trucnlent caption at this point is: tt Frank Blair rebels against the State. May 6 the militia assembled as directed, naming their camp in honor of Governor Jackson. Lyon drove t-hrough Camp Jackson on May 9, disguised as an old woman in a bombazine skirt, and inspected the ammunition ordered up by.President Davis. General Harney, in command of the Depart- ment ofthe West, was due to arrive. Lyon said that nobody knew what Harney Would do, and on May 10 Camp Jackson was forced to Slll'1'Blld61' to Brigadier General Lyon. Sherman, president of a street railway line in St. Louis, and Grant, in the city on business, saw all these things. The Legislature hurriedly passed resolutions condemning Blair and Lyon and authorizing the Governor to repel invasion or to put down rebellion, but unfortunately the Convention was only in recess. ' Best of all for the Southern party, General Price, Uunquestionably the most popular man in the State, tendered his services to Governor Jackson. 4' This is revolution, said General Price, H and I can't fight against the South. H On May 18 Price was appointed Major General of Missouri State Guards, and on May 21 he and General Harney attempted to settle matters on a gentlemanly basis: Price agreed to maintain order if Harney would permit no military movements within the Stale. This was the famous Price-Harney agreement, so offensive to the Radicals. Blair and Lyon at once wrote to President Lincoln that Harney was a dangerous man. A week later Lyon succeeded to the command of the Department of the West, headquarters St. Louis. Lyon had perhaps fifteen thousand men excellently equipped. General Price, at Jefferson City, could muster scarcely one thousand, with very poor equipment. Obviously the agreement was off, and Price an- nounced the fact to his eight brigadiers. On June 12 Governor Jackson issued a proclamation of war. The day before, at a very dramatic conference held in 18

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Feb. 18, 1861. On Jan. 21, Kentucky adopted the Tennessee Resolutions, fiat- footed for secession. On Jan. 28, during the canvass for the Convention, the Ten- nessee Resolutions were in the main reaffirmed by the Missouri Assembly. In the canvass tl1e alignment was: Secessionists, Conditional Union Men, and Uncon- ditional Union Men. The machinery of the State was in the hands of the Scees- sionists. Among the Conditional Union 1ne11 were General Price, Hamilton R. Gamble Qborn in Virginiaj, Colonel Doniphan and ex-Governor Stewart, the St. Louis Republican. was the organ of this party. Frank Blair was the leader of the Unconditional Union men All of Blairls skill was needed in forming an alliance between the Conditionals and the Unconditionals. H I don't believe, said a Republican partisan, H in breaking up the Republican party just to please these tender-footed Unionists. I believe in sticking tothe party. Let us have a country first, answered Blair, 4' and then we can talk about parties. The election was a blank surprise to the Secessionists. - By a majority of over eighty thousand the people of Missouri decided against secession. Not a member of that party was returned to the Convention. The German population of St. Louis was large, Frank Blair had worked very hard, and doubtless there were many people in Missouri who were glad to have an opportunity to knife the Bourbons. The Convention met on Feb. 28 at Jefferson City. Of the ninety-nine members, fifty-five were natives either of Virginia or Kentucky. After electing General Price as president lover Nathaniel W. Watkins, ahalf brother of Henry Clayj the Convention adjourned to St. Louis, reassembling on March 4. There had been no deliberations as yet, but the prestige given the Union party by the recent elections was manifest. On March 5 the Southern members of the Legis- lature failed to pass a bill for arming the State. Of this check to the Secession- ists Colonel Snead says, the South sustained a defeat more disastrous than any which thereafter befel its independence down to the fall of Vicksburg. March 19, in the Convention, General Price cast a vote among the twenty-three yeas on an amendment to the Gamble Resolutions. The amendment, in brief, was that Missouri, if coerced, should follow the South. ,The Convention, instead of ad- journing finally, took a recess on March 31. 4' By adopting this course it was constructively still in existence, and so. long as this was the case, the question of the secession of Missouri was within its control, and the General Assembly was powerless to act in the matter. This was shrewd politics. There were still people i11 the State who believed that war might yet be averted, or who foolishly fancied that if war was the event Missouri might re- main neutral. Governor Jackson, Frank Blair and his friend Lyon were not of that number. Jackson did what he could but he was hampered. Blair's policy was thorough, and he found a11 efficient ally in Captain Lyon, commandant of the forces at the St. Louis arsenal, a man who was accustomed to style the Southern Rights men H traitorous slaveholdersl' When, on April 15, President 17

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the old Plantei-'s House in St. Louis between Price, Jackson, and Colonel Snead of the one part, and Blair, Lyon, and an aide-de-camp of the other, Lyon had closed the interview with H This means war. What war meant President Sherman of the Fifth Street railroad could say. Governor Jackson in his proclamation ordered the eight military districts to mobilize, with headquarters at Booneville, up the river between Jeiierson City and Lexington. Hearing of Lyon'sembarkation of troops lor Jeiierson City the Governor and General Price retired first to Booneville, on June 13, and then to Lexington. Price had no artillery and was forced to abandon the line of the Missouri river and withdraw to the south. It was Lyon's purpose to precipi- tate that course. Sweeny was ordered to meet Gen. Ben McCnlloh of the Con- federate army, advancing from northern Arkansas, and Lyon himself hastened to cutoff Price and Jackson with their State troops. On June 17 the battle of Booneville was fought, only a skirmish but a heavy blow to the Southern party. Booneville was the consummation of Blair's plan to make it impossible for Missouri to secede or contribute greatly to the Southern cause. The battle was a triumph for Lyon as well-at Camp Jackson he had disarmed the State, Booneville put the government to flight and made Missouri south of the river far safer. General Price had no part in the battle of Booneville. He had gone to Lexington to prepare the troops at that place for moving to some point near the Arkansas border. After the battle he and his staff returned toward Arkansas and joined McCullol1. St. Louis and the country within one hundred and fifty miles were now thoroughly safe for the Union. Governor Jackson withdrew to the southwest and at Carthage, near the Kansas border, met Sigel on February 5. Sigel was forced to retreat. On the next day Price and McCulloh entered Carthage. The victory, as they termed it, was very encouraging to the combined Confederate and State troops. Apparently, even yet, people could not realize how serious the matter was. McColloh went hack to Arkansas and Price formed an en- campment at Cowskin Prairie in the extreme southwest corner of Missouri. There were difficulties in the organization of such a force and the question of equipment was a staring one--the history of the makeshifts of the Confederacy would be an interesting volume. Lead could be had from the nearby mines. Major Thomas Price knew how to convert trees into monster moulds. Guibor established an arsenal of construction. Their first cartridges were like turnips, but they S0011 learnt. Meantime the Confederate government was slow and silly. The Convention was to re-assemble on July 22, when Jackson would certainly be unseatc-d.ll Decisive action was imperative, if Missouri was not to be finally lost. The administration seemed to place small store by Missouri, H with her 100,000 men and resources greater than all the Cotton States together. ll Hamilton R. Gamble tof Virginiaj and Willard P. Hall were the successors of Jackson and Reynolds. 19