There were a few anxious minutes following this, but it must be said to Frost's credit as a soldier that he promptly recognized the situation and acted upon it. Soon a horseman rode out from the camp, and approaching Lyon handed him the following note: {77} Camp Jackson, Mo., May 10, 1861. Capt. N. Lyon, Commanding U. S. Troops.
Sir: I, never for a moment having conceived the Idea that so illegal and unconstitutional a demand as I have just received from you would be made by an officer of the United States Army, am wholly unprepared to defend my command from this unwarranted attack, and shall therefore be forced to comply with your demand.
I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
D. M. FROST, Brigadier-General, Commanding Camp Jackson, Missouri Volunteer Militia.
Lyon read it, turned to his second in command and remarked: "Sweeny, they surrender."
Sweeny turned to his men with the order to replace their cartridge-boxes, which they did with an air of disappointment. There had been so much talk during the weeks and months of preparation about fighting and such irritating threatenings, that the Union troops were anxious to "take a fall" out of their opponents, and see what would be the result. Lyon dismounted, and unfortunately the fractious horse of one of his Aids at that instant kicked him in the stomach, knocking him senseless. While in this condition, Wm. D. Wood, Frost's Adjutant-General, rode up and inquired for Gen. Lyon. Gen. Sweeny, desiring to conceal Lyon's condition from the enemy, replied that he would receive any message intended for the General. Col. Wood then said: "Gen. Frost sends his compliments to Gen. Lyon, and wishes to know if the officers will be allowed to retain their side-arms, what disposition shall be made of Government property, and if a guard will be sent to relieve his men now on post, and take possession of everything when the camp shall be evacuated?"
{78} Sweeny replied affirmatively, when Wood rode off and Sweeney returned to Lyon, to find him slowly recovering. Lyon approved of Sweeny's answer, and directed Sweeny to take possession of the camp with two companies of Regulars. Frost's men stacked arms and marched off through a lane formed by the 1st Mo., which faced inward. Up to this time everything had gone on peacefully. The surrendered Militia, without any special protest or demonstration, took their places quietly under guard. Not so with the immense mob which had gathered, expecting to see the Militia make sanguinary havoc of their assailants. These were deeply chagrined at the tame issue of the affair, and after exhausting all the vile epithets at their command, began throwing stones, brickbats, and other missiles, which the soldiers received as patiently as they did the contumely, when the bolder of the mob began firing with revolvers. Presently one of Co. F, 3d Mo., commanded by Capt. C. Blandowski, was shot dead, several severely wounded, and the Captain himself fell with a bullet through his leg. As he fell he ordered his men to fire, which resulted in about 20 of the rioters dropping under a volley from the soldiers' muskets. The mob fled in dismay, and Gen. Lyon ordered his troops to cease firing.
One of the leaders of the mob had deliberately fired three times at Capt. Saxton, of the Regulars, and had laid his revolver across his arm for a fourth more deliberate shot, when one of Capt. Saxton's men bayoneted while another shot him. When the smoke cleared away, it was found that 15 had been killed. Three of these were prisoners from Camp Jackson, and two were women whose morbid curiosity, or worse, had led them to mingle with the mob, One was a child.
Capt. Blandowski died of his wounds the next day.
{79} At 6 o'clock the troops and prisoners marched back to the Arsenal, leaving Gen. Sweeny with his Regulars in charge of Camp Jackson. On the way rioters thronged the line of march and vilely abused the soldiers, but Lyon was vigilant in restraining his men, and prevented their making any return by firing upon their assailants.
During the night and the next day the prisoners were all released, the privates taking an oath not to serve in any capacity against the Government during the war, and the officers giving a parole not to serve in any military capacity against the United States. It was provided that the parole should be returned upon anyone surrendering himself as a prisoner of war, and was accompanied with a protest against the justice of executing it. One exception, Capt. Emmett MacDonald, who had been efficient in bringing the Irishmen into opposition to the "Dutch," refused to accept the parole on the ground taken by all the others that they had done nothing wrong, and finally secured his release through a writ of habeas corpus.
The excitement that night in St. Louis was fearful, with the Secessionists raging. It is to the credit, however, of James McDonough, whom Governor Jackson's Secessionist Police Commissioners had appointed Chief of Police, that, whatever his sympathies, he did not allow them to interfere with his official duties, and exerted himself to the utmost to preserve the municipal peace. The violent Secessionists started to mob the offices of the Republican papers, and to attack the residences of Union leaders, but were everywhere met by squads of police backed up by an armed force of Home Guards, which, with the appeals of the conservative men of influence on both sides, managed to stay the storm.
{80} McDonough could not, however, prevent a number of outrages, and several of the Home Guards caught alone were killed by the rowdies that night and the next day-Saturday. This incensed the Germans terribly, and stories reached the Secession parts of the city that they contemplated fearful revenge, which they could wreak, having arms in their own hands, while the "natural protectors" of the people-Frost's military companies-were prisoners of war and disarmed.
The Mayor issued a proclamation to quiet the people, and requested all keepers of drinking places to at once close and remain closed during the excitement. All minors were ordered to remain in doors for three days, and all good citizens were requested to remain in doors after nightfall and to avoid gatherings and meetings.
As was usual, a good many people who meant no evil obeyed this proclamation, while the mobites, who meant a great deal of harm, paid no attention to it. Saturday afternoon, the 5th Regiment of United States Reserves, under the command of Lieut-Col. Robert White, attempted to go to their barracks, when they were assailed by a mob with stones, brickbats and pistol shots. The patience of the soldiers finally gave way, and they fired into the crowd, killing several persons-and wounding many others.
{81}
Sunday the Secessionists were in a panic, and began a wild flight from the city. Every vehicle that could be obtained was employed at exorbitant prices to carry men, women and children, baggage and personal effects, to the depots and wharves, where the railroads and steamboats were ready to receive them. The Mayor attempted to stay the stampede by a speech at the Planters' House, in which he assured the people that the Home Guards were entirely under the control of their officers, and would only be used to preserve the peace and protect property.
What was more effective was the news that Gen. Harney, hurrying back from Washington, had arrived the preceding evening and resumed command. Harney had reached the city on Saturday evening, May 11, and Sunday morning called at the Arsenal on Col. Blair, not Gen. Lyon, whom he informed of his intentions to remove the Home Guards from the Arsenal and disband them. Blair succeeded in convincing him that this was beyond his authority, and did not hesitate to say that his attempt to do so would be resisted. Being convinced, Harney sent a messenger to the Board of Police Commissioners, who were anxiously awaiting the result of his visit, to the effect that he had "no control over the Home Guards," which was intended to mean that he could not remove or disband them, but which the Commissioners and the people understood to mean that he had lost control over them.
{82} The panic at once resumed its former proportions, and Gen. Harney found it necessary to issue a proclamation, in which he said that the public peace must and would be preserved, and the lives and property of the people protected, but he trusted that he would not be compelled to resort to martial law. He would avoid all cause of irritation and excitement whenever called upon to aid the local authorities by using in preference the Regular troops. Therefore he began by restricting the Home Guards to the German parts of the city, while he moved about 250 Regulars, under the command of Capts. Totten and Sweeny and Lieuts. Saxton and Lothrop, with four pieces of artillery, into a central position, where they went into quarters, to the great relief of everybody.
It will be perceived that a remarkable change had come over the people since a few weeks before, when the arrival of a little squad of Regulars at the Sub-Treasury to protect its gold had thrown the city in the wildest excitement over "the attempt to overawe and cow the people of Missouri."
Confidence was restored, and quiet ensued. Gen. Frost lodged a protest with Gen. Harney, in which he recited the circumstances of Lyon's attack upon him, claimed that every officer and soldier in his command had taken, with uplifted hand, the following oath: You, each and every one of you, do solemnly swear that you will honestly and faithfully serve the State of Missouri against her enemies, and that you will do your utmost to sustain the Constitution and laws of the United States and of this State against all violence, of whatsoever kind or description, and you do further swear that you will well and truly execute and obey the legal orders of all officers properly placed over you whilst on duty; so help you God.
A casual inspection shows how cunningly this was framed. It will be perceived that every one solemnly swore to "serve the State of Missouri against all her enemies," and to "obey the orders of the officers" placed over him, while he was merely enjoined to do his utmost to sustain the Constitution and laws of the United States and this State against all violence.
{83} It is easy to see how such an obligation would be construed.
Gen. Frost recited again that he had offered to help Gen. Lyon protect the United States property with his whole force, and if necessary with that of Missouri, and appealed to Gen. Harney not to require the indignity of a parole, but to order the restoration of all the officers and men to liberty, and of all the property of the State and of private individuals. The language of this protest did as little to enhance the reputation of Gen. Frost as his letter to Gen. Lyon.
It was an intense disappointment to the Secessionists everywhere that he made no show of a fight before surrendering. It would have been the greatest satisfaction to all of them had he chosen to make Camp Jackson a Thermopylae or an Alamo. Such a sacrifice would have been of priceless worth in firing the Southern heart, and placing him high among the world's heroes. Somehow the idea of martyrdom did not appeal to him, as it has not to millions of other men placed in critical positions. The wonder to the calm student of history is that, having made such a bold bluff at Lyon, he did not "fill his hand" better, to use a sporting phrase, and prevent Lyon from "calling" him so effectually. The frost which was in his name settled on this "young Napoleon" thereafter-the country was filled with young Napoleons at that time-and though he commanded a brigade in the Confederate army for some two years or more, his name is only "mentioned" afterward in the Rebellion Records.
{84} Lyon's decisive act did not meet with the unanimous approval of the Union men of the State. There began then that unhappy division between the "Conservative Union men" and the "Radicals" which led to so many collisions, and sorely distracted President Lincoln. The "Radicals" who fell under the lead of F. P. Blair, and had their representative in the Cabinet at Washington in the shape of Montgomery Blair, the Postmaster-General, dubbed their opponents "Claybanks," while the latter, whose representative in the Cabinet was Edward Bates, the Attorney-General, tainted with the name of "Charcoals" their opponents. The "Conservatives," who represented a very large portion of the wealth and education of the State, had for leaders such men as Hamilton R. Gamble, Robert Campbell, James E. Yeatman, H. S. Turner, Washington King, N. J. Eaton, and James H. Lucas. They at once sent a delegation to Washington to represent to Mr. Lincoln that Lyon, while undoubtedly "a loyal and brave soldier," was "rash," "imprudent," and "indiscreet." This representation carried great weight, for they were all men of the highest character and standing, and at their instance Gen. Harney was pushed further to the front again.
The "Old Dragoon" now asserted itself in Harney, as it was likely to when there was the smell of gunpowder in the air. Lyon's course was, in spite of the intense influence of Harney's Secession convives, very much to the taste of the old fighter. He wrote to Gen. Scott that he approved Lyon's action, and replied to the Judge in the habeas corpus writ of Capt. McDonald, that the man had been properly arrested. May 14 he issued a proclamation in which he said: {85} It is with regret that I feel it my duty to call your attention to the recent act of the General Assembly of Missouri, known as the "Military Bill," which is the result, no doubt, of the temporary excitement that now pervades the public mind. This bill cannot be regarded in any other light than an indirect Secession ordinance, Ignoring even the form resorted to by other States. Manifestly, its most material provisions are in conflict with the Constitution and laws of the United States. To this extent it is a nullity, and cannot and ought not to be upheld or regarded by the good citizens of Missouri. There are obligations and duties resting upon the people of Missouri under the Constitution and laws of the United States which are paramount, and which I trust you will carefully consider and weigh well before you will allow yourselves to be carried out of the Union under the form of yielding obedience to this military bill, which is clearly in violation of your duties as citizens of the United States.
It must be apparent to every one who has taken a proper and unbiased view of the subject that, whatever may be the termination of the unfortunate condition of things in respect to the so-called Cotton States, Missouri must share the destiny of the Union. Her geographical position, her soil, productions, and, in short, all her material interests, point to this result. We cannot shut our eyes against this controlling fact. It is seen and its force is felt throughout the Nation. So important is this regarded to the great interests of the country, that I venture to express the opinion that the whole power of the Government of the United States, if necessary, will be exerted to maintain Missouri in her present position in the Union. I express to you, in all frankness and sincerity, my own deliberate convictions, without assuming to speak for the Government of the United States, whose authority here and elsewhere I shall at all times and under all circumstances endeavor faithfully to uphold. I desire above all things most earnestly to invite my fellow-citizens dispassionately to consider their true interests as well as their true relations to the Government under which we live and to which we owe so much.
In this connection I desire to direct attention to one subject which, no doubt, will be made the pretext for more or less popular excitement. I allude to the recent transactions at Camp Jackson, near St. Louis. It is not proper for me to comment upon the official conduct of my predecessor in command of this Department, but it is right and proper for the people of Missouri to know that the main avenue of Camp Jackson, recently under the command of Gen.
Frost, had the name of Davis; and a principal street of the same camp that of Beauregard, and that a body of men had been received into that camp by its commander which had been notoriously organized in the interests of the Secessionists, the men openly wearing the dress and badge distinguishing the Army of the so-called Southern Confederacy. It is also a notorious fact that a quantity of arms had been received into the camp which were unlawfully taken from the United States Arsenal at Baton Rouge, and surreptitiously passed up the river in boxes marked "Marble."
{86} Upon facts like these, and having in view what occurred at Liberty, the people can draw their own inferences, and it cannot be difficult for any one to arrive at a correct conclusion as to the character and ultimate purpose of that encampment. No Government in the world would be entitled to respect that would tolerate for a moment such openly treasonable preparations. It is but simple justice, however, that I should state the fact that there were many good and loyal men in the camp who were in no manner responsible for its treasonable character. Disclaiming as I do all desire or intention to interfere in any way with the prerogatives of the State of Missouri or with the functions of its executive or other authorities, yet I regard it as my plain path of duty to express to the people, In respectful but at the same time decided language, that within the field and scope of my command and authority the "supreme law" of the land must and shall be maintained, and no subterfuges, whether in the forms of legislative acts or otherwise, can be permitted to harass or oppress the good and law-abiding people of Missouri. I shall exert my authority to protect their persons and property from violations of every kind, and shall deem it my duty to suppress all unlawful combinations of men, whether formed under pretext of military organizations or otherwise.
WM. S. HARNEY. Brigadier-General, United States Army, Commanding.
These were certainly "brave words, my masters," and had great influence upon the people of Missouri. Unhappily there was reason to think afterwards that Gen. Harney was not quite living up to them.
When the account of stock of the capture of Camp Jackson came to be taken, the invoice was as follows: Three 32-pounders.
Three mortar-beds.
A large quantity of balls and bombs in ale barrels.
Artillery pieces, in boxes of heavy plank, the boxes marked "Marble," "Tamaroa, care of Greeley & Gale, St Louis-Iron Mountain Railroad."
Twelve hundred rifles, of late model, United States manufacture.
Tents and camp equipage.
Six brass field pieces.
Twenty-five kegs of powder.
Ninety-six 10-Inch bombshells.
Three hundred six-inch bombshells. ..
{87} Six brass mortars, six inches diameter.
One iron mortar, 10 inches.
Three iron cannon, six inches.
Five boxes of canister shot.
Fifty artillery swords.
Two hundred and twenty-seven spades.
Thirty-eight hatchets.
Eleven mallets.
One hundred and ninety-one axes.
Forty horses.
Several boxes of new muskets.
A very large number of musket stocks and musket barrels; together with lots of bayonets, bayonet scabbards, etc.
One thousand one hundred and ten enlisted men were taken prisoners, besides from 50 to 75 officers.
Nothing legislates so firmly and finally as a successful sword-blow for the right. Gen. Lyon's capture of Camp Jackson was an epoch-making incident. In spite of the protests of the wealthy and respectable Messrs. Gamble, Yeatman, and others, it was the right thing, done at the right time, to stay the surging sweep of the waves of Secession. It destroyed the captivating aggressiveness of the "Disunionists," and threw their leaders upon the defensive. Other people than they had wants and desires which must be listened to, or the Loyalists would find a way to compel attention. The Secessionists must now plead at their bar; not they in the court of those who would destroy the Government.
{88}
CHAPTER V. THE SCOTT-HARNEY AGREEMENT
The General Assembly of Missouri met at Jefferson City, in obedience to the Governor's call, on the 2d of May, and the Governor, after calling attention of the body to the state of the country, made an out-and-out appeal for Secession, saying that the interests and sympathies of Missouri were identical with those of other Slaveholding States, and she must unquestionably unite her destiny with theirs. She had no desire for war, but she would be faithless as to her honor and recreant as to her duty if she hesitated a moment to make complete preparations for the protection of her people, and that therefore the Legislature should "place the State at the earliest practicable moment in a complete state of defense." As this is what the Legislature had expected, and what it had met for, no time was lost in going into secret session to carry out the program.
{89} The first of these was the odious Military Bill, the passage of which was stubbornly resisted, step by step, by the small band of Union men. This, it will be recollected, put every able-bodied man into the Militia of Missouri, under the orders of officers to be appointed by the Governor; compelled him to obey implicitly the orders received from those above him, and prescribed the heinous crime of "treason to the State," which extended even to words spoken in derogation of the Governor or Legislature. Offenses of this kind were to be punished by summary court-martial, which had even the power to inflict death. Other bills perverted the funds for the State charitable institutions into the State military chest, seized the school fund for the same purpose, and authorized a loan from the banks of $1,000,000 and another of $1,000,000 of State bonds, to provide funds by which to carry out the program.
On the evening of Friday, May 10, while these measures were being fought over, the Governor entered the House with a dispatch which he handed to Representative Vest, afterwards United States Senator from Missouri, who sprang upon a chair and thrilled all his hearers by reading that "Frank Blair, Capt. Lyon and the Dutch" had captured Camp Jackson, seized all the property there, and marched the State troops prisoners to the Arsenal. The wild scene that followed is simply indescribable. For many months there had been much talk about "firing the Southern heart," and here was something of immediate and furnace heat.
As soon as the members recovered from the stun of the blow, they went into paroxysms of passion. In a few minutes the Military Bill was rushed through, followed by the others, and a new one to appropriate $10,000 for the purpose of securing an alliance with the Indians on the borders of the State. This done, the members bolted out in search of weapons with which to arm themselves, as there was a rumor that the awful Blair and Lyon with their "mercenaries" were on the march to subject the Legislature to the same treatment that they had Frost's Militia.
{90} Muskets, shotguns, rifles, pistols and pikes were brought out, cleaned up, bullets molded and cartridges made, and the Governor ordered the members of his staff to seize a locomotive and press on as fast as possible towards St. Louis to reconnoiter the advance of the enemy; if necessary, to destroy the bridges over the Gasconade and Osage Rivers to obstruct the march.
No enemy was found, but the zealous Basil Duke, in order not to be guilty of any sin of omission, burnt a part of the Osage bridge. The meeting of the Legislature in the evening was grotesque, as every member came with a more or less liberal supply of arms, usually including a couple of revolvers and a bowie-knife in belt. During the exciting session which followed, rifles stood by the desks or were laid across them, with other arms, and it was good luck more than anything else that no casualty resulted from accidental discharge of fire-arms. The excitement grew over the stirring events in St. Louis of Saturday and Sunday, and the Governor immediately proceeded to the exercise of the extraordinary powers conferred upon him by the Military Bill.
{91} As the star of Gen. D. M. Frost sank ingloriously below the horizon of Camp Jackson, that of Sterling Price rose above it to remain for four years the principal luminary in the Confederate firmament west of the Mississippi.
That does not seem to depend upon intellectual superiority, upon greater courage or devotion, or even upon clearer insight. A man leads his fellows-many of whom are his superiors in most namable qualities-simply because of something unnamable in him that makes him assume the leadership, and they accept it. There was hardly a prominent man in Missouri who was not Price's superior in some quality usually regarded as essential. For example, he was a pleasing and popular speaker, but Missouri abounded in men much more attractive to public assemblages. He was a fair politician, but rarely got more than the second prize. He had distinguished himself in the Mexican War, but Claiborne Jackson made more capital out of his few weeks of inconsequential service in the Black Hawk War than Price did out of the conquest of New Mexico and the capture of Chihuahua.
He served one term in Congress, but had failed to secure a renomination. He had been elected Governor of Missouri while his Mexican laurels were yet green, but when he tried to enter the Senate, he was easily defeated by that able politician and orator, James S. Green.
Though he belonged to the dominant Anti-Benton faction of the Missouri Democracy and the Stephen A. Douglas wing, he never was admitted to the select inner council, nor secured any of its higher rewards, except one term as Governor.
At the outbreak of the war he was holding the comparatively unimportant place of Bank Commissioner. For all that, he was to become and remain throughout the struggle the central figure of Secession in the trans-Mississippi country.
{92} Officers of high rank and brilliant reputation like Ben McCulloch, Earl Van Dorn, Richard Taylor and E. Kirby Smith were to be put over him, yet his fame and influence outshone them all.
Unquestionably able soldiers such as Marmaduke, Shelby, Bowen, Jeff Thompson, Parsons, M. L. Clark and Little, were to serve him with unfaltering loyalty as subordinates.
The Secessionist leaders of Missouri, headed by Gov. Reynolds, were to denounce him for drunkenness, crass incapacity, gross blundering, and a most shocking lack of discipline and organization.
Very few commanding officers ever had so many defeats or so few successes. He was continually embarking upon enterprises of the greatest promise and almost as continually having them come to naught; generally through defeats inflicted by Union commanders of no special reputation.
Yet from first to last his was a name to conjure with. No other than his in the South had the spell in it for Missourians and the people west of the Mississippi. They flocked to his standard wherever it was raised, and after three years of failures they followed him with as much eager hope in his last disastrous campaign as in the first, and when he died in St. Louis, two years after the war, his death was regretted as a calamity to the State, and he had the largest funeral of any man in the history of Missouri.
{93} Sterling Price was born in 1809 in Prince Edward County, Va., of a family of no special prominence, and in 1831 settled upon a farm in Chariton County, Mo. He went into politics, was elected to the Legislature, and then to Congress for one term, after which he commanded a Missouri regiment in Doniphan's famous march to the Southwest, where he showed great vigor and ability. He was a man of the finest physique and presence, six feet two inches high, with small hands and feet and unusually large body and limbs; a superb horseman; with a broad, bland, kindly face framed in snow-white hair and beard. His name would indicate Welsh origin, but his face, figure, and mental habits seemed rather Teutonic. He had a voice of much sweetness and strength, and a paternal way of addressing his men, who speedily gave him the sobriquet of "Pap Price." He appeared on the field in a straw hat and linen duster in the Summer, and with a blanket thrown over his shoulders and a tall hat in Winter. These became standards which the Missourians followed into the thick of the fight, as the French did the white plume of Henry of Navarre.
He had been elected as a Union man to the Convention, which at once chose him for President, but his Unionism seemed to be a mere varnish easily scratched off by any act in favor of the Union.
Thus, immediately after the occurrences in St. Louis, he went to the Governor with the remark that "the slaughter of the people of Missouri" in St. Louis had proved too much for him, and his sword was at the service of the State.
{94} It is significant of the way men were swayed in those days, that the murder of the German volunteers patriotically rallying to the defense of the Arsenal, and the murder and outrages upon the Union people throughout the State, did not affect Gen. Price at all, but he was moved to wrath by the shooting down of a few rioters.
His going over was welcomed as a great victory by the Secessionists, offsetting the capture of Camp Jackson. Gov. Jackson promptly availed himself of the offer, and at once appointed Gen. Price Major-General in command of the forces of Missouri to be organized under the Military Bill.
Though even to Gen. Harney's eyes the Military Bill was repugnant and he denounced it as direct Secession, the Governor proceeded with all speed to execute it.
Each Congressional District in the State was made a Military Division. A Brigadier-General was appointed to the command of each, and ordered to immediately proceed to the enrollment of the men in it who were fit for military duty, and to prepare them for active service.
The able and witty Alexander W. Doniphan-"Xenophon" Doniphan of Mexican fame-who had made the astonishing march upon New Mexico and Chihuahua, was appointed to command one of the Divisions, but he was too much of a Union man, and declined. It was significant from the first that all the officers commissioned were more or less open Secessionists, and commissions were refused to some who sought them because they would not swear to make allegiance to Missouri paramount to that of the United States.
{95} As finally arranged the Divisions were commanded as follows: First Division, M. Jeff Thompson.
Second Division, Thos. A. Harris.
Third Division, M. L. Clark.