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50 ARMY ■ August 2011 Library of Congress Above, from left to right, an 1861 map of Missouri based on Land Office Department surveys. Claiborne Fox Jackson, governor of Missouri when Fort Sumter, S.C., fell in 1861, was a Southern sympathizer in a slaveholding state already divided over the slavery issue. BG Nathaniel Lyon, then a captain in the 2nd U.S. Infantry, commanded the U.S. Arsenal in St. Louis and strengthened its defenses to keep it from the South. Suspecting Confederate gun smuggling to take the arsenal, CPT Lyon gathered a force and captured Missouri militia men outside St. Louis. Right, a sketch depicts a mob attacking Federal troops escorting militia members to the arsenal for holding in May 1861. CPT Lyon’s operation soured the citizenry on the Union and ignited pro-South sympathy. Far right, three months later Northern and Southern troops clashed in the Battle of Wilson’s Creek (Oak Hills), the bloodiest battle yet fought in the West, which gave the Confederacy control of southwestern Missouri. National Park Service Library of Congress Library of Congress ★★ A State with Two Stars: Missouri’s War Within a War M By Dennis Steele U.S. Government Senior Staff Writer issouri was divided long before the Civil War began. Admitted to the Union in 1821 under the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which allowed its entry as a slaveholding state, Missouri remained internally fractured over the issue of slavery. Governorship of the state had swung between pro-North and pro-South officeholders; at the time of the fall of Fort Sumter, S.C., the governor, Claiborne Fox Jackson, was decidedly pro-South. Gov. Jackson, at most, tried to maintain a thin façade of neutrality at the war’s outset as his immediate predecessor had set Missouri on a policy course of “armed neutrality”—with the state declaring that it would defend itself from aggression from any quarter. Nevertheless, a state convention held in March 1861 overwhelmingly voted that it was in Missouri’s best interest to stay in the Union. As governor, Jackson was bound by the convention’s decision, but he believed that public opinion in Missouri inevitably would shift toward secession. He leaned toward instigating that shift by means other than political, if necessary. When Sumter fell and President Lincoln called for Missouri to provide four regiments to the Union cause, Jackson refused and continued a push for the U.S. Arsenal in St. Louis to be peacefully transferred to state control. ThenCPT Nathaniel Lyon had recently taken command of the arsenal, however, and on the night of April 26 most of the arsenal’s arms had been sent across the Mississippi River to Illinois for safety. CPT Lyon was clearly not inclined to give the keys to the governor, and he strengthened the arsenal’s defenses. (Lyon, commanding Company D of the 2nd U.S. Infantry, is said to have wrangled his way into command of the arsenal through political connections.) In the meantime, Jackson arranged a secret arms deal through emissaries with Confederate President Jefferson Davis to give him the heavy guns necessary to take the arsenal and make it “Missouri’s Sumter.” The Confederate weapons, captured from the Baton Rouge (La.) Arsenal, were to go to a pro-South faction within the Missouri Volunteer State Militia—which was not a wholesale secessionist group—and be delivered during the militia group’s traditional annual muster held just outside the St. Louis city limits. In early May 1861, the militia units came together, and the gathering place was renamed Camp Jackson in honor of the governor. CPT Lyon announced that he had received intelligence about the Confederate arms smuggling, assembled a force largely composed of Home Guard volunteers (about four regiments in strength) and took it upon himself to order a move on Camp Jackson to extinguish the threat posed by the Missouri militia against the arsenal. It was not sanctioned by his higher command. On May 10, 1861, Lyon’s force surrounded Camp Jackson, and more than 800 members of the Missouri militia August 2011 ■ ARMY 51 Library of Congress Library of Congress Clockwise from above left: MG Sterling Price commanded the Missouri State Guard in 1861, whose mission was to resist a Union invasion. MG William Selby Harney, when still a brigadier general, tried to reestablish Missouri’s neutrality until relieved of command. MG Franz Sigel was a colonel when he led a Union force that captured the city of Springfield, Mo. Library of Congress eventually stacked arms and surrendered. A civilian mob—some armed, some drunk and armed—stood in the way as the prisoners were marched out of camp. Shots were fired from the crowd, killing two Federal troops and three volunteers. The soldiers fired back, volleying into the crowd and killing as many as 28 people—including one militia prisoner and a baby in its mother’s arms, according to a newspaper account—while wounding more than 100 people. The captured militia were then held in the arsenal until they took the oath of allegiance, at which point they were released. L yon made a mistake in staging a “parade” to show off his victory, but he was right about the arms transfer. The steamboat J.C. Swan had landed at St. Louis, offloading several plank crates that were marked as containing a certain type of marble to account for their weight. The crates, which did contain some ordnance, were transferred to Camp Jackson under the cover of darkness. Lyon’s move against the militia was vindicated, but it stoked a fire under Missouri’s pro-South movement and unleashed general anti-Union sentiment, especially antiLyon sentiment. The day after the Camp Jackson incident, the until-then pro-Union Missouri state legislature responded angrily. Within days, it authorized Gov. Jackson to disband the Missouri State Volunteer Militia and reform it under the name of the Missouri State Guard with the mission of resisting a Union invasion and putting down “rebellion” by Missourians who joined Union forces. Command was given to Sterling Price, a former governor who had served as a brigadier general during the Mexican-American War. He was appointed to the rank of major general in the Guard. 52 ARMY ■ August 2011 Jackson saw the legislature as having played into his hands by giving him near-dictatorial power to defend the state. Lyon’s commander, BG William S. Harney, was appalled by the bloodshed and frightened by the Missouri government’s reaction. He sought to reestablish Missouri’s previous neutrality and came to an agreement with MG Price to do so. In effect, the agreement confined federal Union forces to St. Louis and put the rest of the state’s defenses under the Missouri State Guard. Incensed by this, a pro-Union congressman sent word by backdoor channels to Abraham Lincoln about the proceedings. Lincoln, too, appeared to be appalled; he relieved BG Harney, brevetted Lyon to brigadier general and gave him temporary command of the Department of the West with orders to keep Missouri in the Union with all means at hand. (Recalled to Washington, D.C., Harney was captured by Confederate forces on the way and was offered a Confederate commission. He declined.) In early June, BG Lyon and Jackson met face to face to settle their personal differences and, perhaps, revise the neutrality agreement; the meeting, however, descended into a yelling match. BG Lyon stormed out, shouting, “This means war.” He declared war on the Missouri state government a few days later (a move retroactively sanctioned by the Lincoln administration) and made plans to “evict” Jackson and his rebel government. Lyon assembled a force and moved by river boat from St. Louis to take the state capital, Jefferson City. Another Union force left St. Louis under COL Franz Sigel, marching toward Springfield, Mo. Lyon captured Jefferson City unopposed on June 13. Jackson and most of his administration had fled the capital to Boonville, Mo., west of Columbia, Mo. A force of the nascent Missouri State Guard assembled there under the personal command of Jackson. Lyon went after Jackson, and the forces traded a few shots, but the Missouri militia, ill-prepared for a fight, retreated. The governor appeared to favor survival more than confrontation. Lyon tarried in Boonville for a couple of weeks, unable to mount a pursuit because of logistics, but a new and decidedly pro-Union state government was installed in the capital to replace Jackson’s administration. On July 22, a special convention composed of Missouri Unionists convened in Jefferson City, voting against secession and declaring the governor’s seat vacant. A provisional governor was appointed rather than elected. (Missouri would not elect another governor until after the Civil War.) 54 ARMY ■ August 2011 O n August 9, 1861, the Confederate Army was nine miles from Springfield, with camps strung out along Wilson’s Creek. Lyon realized that he would have to pull back soon because of the supply situation, but he was certain that he would be pursued by the Confederates and, perhaps, run down and beaten in a disadvantageous fight. He also wanted to strike a blow while he could, even if it was to cover his withdrawal. Both Lyon and McCulloch laid plans to attack the other at dawn the next morning. McCulloch delayed because of rain; Lyon struck. COL Sigel, a German immigrant trained in Europe, convinced Lyon to undertake a daring plan of dividing his inferior force into two wings to attack the Confederate camp on its flanks. It was risky, considering that the Federals were outnumbered at the onset, but Lyon accepted the plan. Lyon left Springfield with approximately 3,600 men and 10 cannons. Sigel had about 1,100 men in his wing and six artillery pieces. Lyon’s force marched cross-country. It was spotted by Southern foragers, who raised the alarm as the Federals approached a spur of what would be known after the battle as Bloody Hill. The main Confederate camp was still nearly three-quarters of a mile away. Confederate cavalry responded to the alarm, and other formations joined to block Lyon’s advance. Lyon sent some infantrymen and a few artillery pieces to engage the blocking force and tried to skirt around it with his main body, moving farther toward the flank when he spotted Confederate units forming on Bloody Hill. He eventually ordered an assault on the hill. Library of Congress Near right, as a brigadier general, Benjamin McCulloch, a former Texas Ranger who commanded Confederate forces in northwest Arkansas, moved into Missouri alongside MG Price. Far right, explorer MG John C. Frémont, who took command of the Department of the West in July 1861, saw the campaign in southwest Missouri as a distraction from his main mission of protecting the Union’s position on the Mississippi River. were also a problem; the men were on short rations. Lyon, however, ignored MG Frémont’s urging to withdraw to Rolla, Mo., the nearest operating railhead, to receive supplies from St. Louis. At the same time, he felt that he was undercut by Frémont, who refused to send reinforcements or replacements. In Lyon’s view, Frémont was ignoring the fight at hand. From Frémont’s perspective, however, eliminating the threat posed by the Missouri State Guard and Confederates in southwest Missouri was a distraction from his primary mission, which was to protect the Union’s position on the Mississippi River and open it for a future strategic campaign into the heart of the Confederate West. Library of Congress Jackson’s force linked up with another militia column under MG Price and combined to number about 6,000, but the men were untrained, disorganized and largely armed with whatever weapons they had brought from home. Two thousand of them had no arms at all. COL Sigel, meanwhile, took Springfield and proceeded west to interdict Jackson. He and his 1,100 troops made camp near Carthage, Mo. Jackson hatched plans to attack Sigel’s camp on July 5, 1861. It was a short and generally inconclusive battle, but Jackson and the Missouri State Guard claimed victory. Still, they continued retreating. Lyon received reinforcements and joined Sigel in Springfield to continue pressure against the Missouri State Guard. MG John C. Frémont, the famed explorer, had arrived to take command of the Department of the West, and Lyon was given command of the Army of Southwest Missouri. Lyon’s army pinned the militia in the far corner of southwest Missouri. Jackson and what was left of his administration eventually set up a government-in-exile in Neosho, Mo., and in October 1861 issued an ordinance of secession. The Confederacy recognized the government-in-exile and its secession, making Missouri its 12th state, with Jackson as governor. A star for the state of Missouri appeared on both the Confederate and Union flags throughout the war. (Because Union forces occupied virtually all of Missouri, Jackson eventually took refuge in Arkansas, where he died of stomach cancer in 1862.) MG Price saw that he could not contest, much less recapture, Missouri with the force he had and sought help from the Confederate government. Confederate BG Benjamin McCulloch, a swashbuckling former Texas Ranger, commanded Confederate forces in northwest Arkansas, and he received permission to move into Missouri alongside Price, with McCulloch in command. Other columns of Confederates from nearby states joined McCulloch, bringing the South’s army total to about 12,000 men. The Missouri State Guard and the Confederates did not mesh well, creating conflicts and eventually splitting command. In addition, about 5,000 enlistments in the Confederate regiments were near expiration. Those men were anxious to go home, and the whole army was short on ammunition. Nevertheless, the Confederates launched an offensive into Missouri and headed toward Springfield. Lyon had about 6,000 men under his command, but many of his soldiers had only enlisted for 90 days, and their time, too, was nearly over. Provisions Library of Congress A Kurz and Allison lithograph depicts the death of BG Lyon (on horseback) in the fierce fighting during the Battle of Wilson’s Creek. The South gained victory as the North effected an orderly retreat, but Missouri remained divided throughout the Civil War. M eanwhile, the other Union wing had moved into place, completely undetected. Sigel put his artillery on a dominant hill. Hearing Lyon’s first shots, he opened fire and soon advanced. Overall, the two wings had achieved the surprise planned—at least, surprise enough. As the sun rose, the Federals had the edge. The Confederates organized a belated but determined rally. As Lyon advanced up Bloody Hill, Sigel’s artillery was in position to support the attack, hitting the Confederates from the rear and breaking up their line. But Sigel soon ceased fire in fear of hitting his own men. (As in the previous battle at Manassas, Va., regiments on both sides were wearing a variety of uniforms, and it was difficult to tell one side from the other.) The tide of the battle was about to swing. McCulloch led an attack against Sigel, using low ground as cover to approach and then quickly surprising Sigel in a rush that pushed the Federals back and drove them away. Price was leading the fight against Lyon on Bloody Hill. Lyon increasingly was put on the defensive as more Confederate and Missouri State Guard units joined the fight. Union regiments held the flanks, but the center was giving way. Lyon was slightly wounded in the head and hand, and his horse was shot from under him. Lyon mounted another horse and led reinforcements to shore up the center of his line. The maneuver succeeded in pushing back the Confederates, but at a cost. Lyon, hit again (this time by a cannonball), lay dead. Command passed to MAJ Samuel Sturgis. McCulloch, having dealt with Sigel, joined Price and the Missouri State Guard at Bloody Hill and continued the attack. Price was wounded, leading from the front. The Union force held out for nearly two more hours, but Sturgis de56 ARMY ■ August 2011 cided that Lyon’s intent—to strike a superior force with a spoiling attack to punish the Confederates and cover a withdrawal to Rolla—had been achieved. He organized an overall orderly retreat, subsequently rejoining Sigel in Springfield. The Union Army then pulled back to Rolla without pursuit. The Battle at Wilson’s Creek (Oak Hills) had been the bloodiest battle then fought in the West. Both sides suffered significant casualties. Each side sustained more than 250 men dead and about 1,000 wounded, captured or missing—more than 2,500 casualties in all. Following the Battle of Manassas by mere weeks, the Battle at Wilson’s Creek was further evidence that it would be a long and bloody war. Missouri would continue to be contested and divided, providing sympathy, supplies and volunteers to both sides for battles far away. Within the state, bloodshed would continue throughout the war. The threat to Missouri posed by conventional Confederate forces eventually would be worn down and snuffed out, but the conflict would descend into a brutal partisan/guerrilla bloodletting that would last until the end of the Civil War and appear afterward in different guises. Lyon’s action at Camp Jackson is often blamed for sparking the state’s conflict; given all the factors, however, Missouri was destined to fight its war within a war. Amid the mélee on Bloody Hill, Lyon’s body was forgotten by his men and left behind. Found by the Confederates, he was buried temporarily on a Unionist’s farm near Springfield. Eventually, BG Lyon—noted as the first Union general to die in the Civil War—was returned to his home in Connecticut and interred in his family plot. About 15,000 people attended the funeral, nearly the same number of soldiers who fought at Wilson’s Creek. ✭