John McElroy

“ Thus, in a few, swift weeks after the inauguration of President Lincoln, Blair and Lyon, bold even to temerity, and even more sagacious than bold, had snatched away from the sanguine Secessionists the great Arsenal, with its momentous contents, which were placed at the service of the Union.
More than 10,000 loyal men of Missouri were standing, arms in hand, on her soil to confront their enemies. ”

“ There are very many Americans—every little community has at least one—who, given a regiment, where every man is within reach of his eye and voice, will discipline it, provide for it, rule it, and fight it in the very best fashion. Give him some piece of work to do, of which he can see the beginning and the end, and he will make the regiment do every pound of which it is capable. But put in command of a brigade, anything beyond voice and eye, set to a task outreaching his visual horizon, he becomes obviously unequal to the higher range of duty. ”

“ Aside from the military reasons for holding Springfield there were others which appealed to Lyon's mind with equal power. His heart had bled over the outrages committed by the Secessionists upon the Union people in that section of the State. The presence of his army was the only security that the loyal people had that their farms would not be robbed and themselves murdered. Hundreds of them had gone into Springfield to be under his protection. How they could be ever gotten back to a place of safety in retreat was the gravest of problems. ”

“ 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 ”

“ Jackson and Sterling Price concentrated many more men than he had, but a still stronger column composed of Arkansans and Texans under the noted Gen. Ben. McCulloch was near at hand and pushing forward with all speed.
Benjamin McCulloch, a tall, bony, sinewy man of iron will and dauntless courage, was easily a leader and master of the bold, aggressive spirits who had wrested Texas away from Mexico and erected her into a great State. ”

“ We can whip Lyon, and we will whip him and drive the enemy out of Missouri, and all the honor and all the glory shall be yours, All that we want is to regain our homes and to establish the independence of Missouri and the South. ”

“ Force rules this world; it always has; it always will. Not merely physical force, but that incomparably higher type—intellectual force—Power of Will. It seemed that in nearly all the States of the South the Slaveowners by sheer audacity and force of will succeeded in dominating the great majority which favored the Union, and by one device or another committing them hopelessly to the rebellion. This was notably the case in Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia, where the majority repeatedly expressed itself in favor of the Union, but was dragooned into Secession. ”

“ Of that moral force which frequently overleaps mere physical limitation he seems to have had little, nor could he understand it in others.
There was in him none of the fiery zeal of Lyon, or the relentless pugnacity of Grant; apparently these qualities were so absent in him that he did not know how to deal with them in others. He never put himself at the head of his troops to lead them in battle. ”

“ 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. ”

“ You must be aware, General, that no orders of yours can save from punishment spies, marauders, robbers, incendiaries, guerrilla bands, etc., who violate the laws of war. You cannot give immunity to crime. But let us fully understand each other on this point. If you send armed forces wearing the garb of soldiers and duly organized and enrolled as legitimate belligerents to destroy railroads, bridges, etc., as a military act, we shall kill them, if possible, in open warfare, or, if we capture them, we shall treat them as prisoners of war. ”

“ But it is well understood that you have sent numbers of your adherents in the garb of peaceful citizens, and under false pretenses, through our lines into northern Missouri, to rob and destroy the property of Union men and to burn and destroy railroad bridges, thus endangering the lives of thousands, and this, too, without any military necessity or possible military advantage. Moreover, peaceful citizens of Missouri, quietly working on their farms, have been instigated by your emissaries to take up arms as insurgents, to rob and plunder and to commit arson and murder. ”

“ The battle of Carthage produced a great sensation over the country, the Confederates rejoicing that they had cut through the Union line and forced it to retreat, while Sigel received unstinted praise for his skillful retreat and the masterly handling of his artillery. While one battery would hold the enemy in check, another would be placed at the most advantageous position in the rear, where it would withdraw behind it to repeat the manuver. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The White Trash, always impatient of the restrains of law and organization, did not enter so largely into these forces, but remained outside, to form bands of bushwhackers and guerrillas, to harry Union men and curse the State with their depredations, in which the Secessionists were scarcely more favored than the Union men. ”

“ Swarms of Missourians crowded the ravines in the bluffs, behind trees, stones, the walls, fences and chimneys of the houses, and whatever else would afford adequate protection, and kept up an incessant fusillade upon the garrison safely ensconced behind thick banks of earth. When a squad occupying a secure shelter grew tired, or had fired away all its ammunition, it would go back to camp for dinner, when their places would be taken by others eager to share in the noise and excitement and have a story to take back home of the number of Yankees who had fallen under their deadly aim. ”

“ Above all, Lyon saw with a clearer insight than the strict law-abiders the immense moral effect of his contemplated action. Heretofore all the initiativeness, all the aggressiveness, all the audacity, had been on the side of the Secessionists. They were everywhere taking daring steps to the confusion and overthrow of the conservative Unionists, and so dragging with them hosts of the wavering. ”

“ Altho our army has been of sudden growth, we have grown up together, and I have become familiar with the brave and generous spirit which you bring to the defense of your country, and which makes me anticipate for you a brilliant career. ”

“ In the strained and wavering conditions of public opinion, every effort had to be made to prevent any pretext or incentive to take the young men of Missouri into the ranks of Price's army. Gen. Halleck estimated that indignation at the border raids of Lane, Jennison and Montgomery had given Price fully 20,000 men. The years of strife along the borders had arrayed the people in both States against one another. Every Kansan considered every Missourian the enemy of himself and the State, and the feeling was reciprocated by the Missourians. ”

“ If every man will but do his duty, his own roof will shelter him In peace from the storms of the coming; Winter. Let not history record that the men who bore with patience the privations of Cowskln Prairie, who endured uncomplainingly the burning heat of a Missouri Summer and the frosts and snows of a Missouri Winter; that the men who met the enemy at Carthage, at Oak Hills, at Fort Scott, at Lexington and on numberless lesser battlefields In Missouri, and met them but to conquer them ”

“ The triumph of such an organization is not the victory of a political party, but the domination of a Section. It proclaims in significant tones the destruction of that equality among the States which is the vital cement for our Federal Union. ”

“ It was the warlike thing to do to attack at once, which had every chance of success. Success meant as telling a stroke for Secession in the West as Bull Run had been in the East It would be quite as sensational, for there was no refuge or rallying point for the beaten Union army short of Rolla, 120 miles away, and the rough country, cut by innumerable valleys, gorges and streams, would enable the swarming mounted force to get in its wild work, and not permit the escape of a man, a gun or a wagon. ”

“ Missouri should act in concert with Tennessee and Kentucky. They are all bound to go out, and should go together, if possible. My judgment is that North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas will all be out in a few days, and when they go Missouri should follow. Let us, then, prepare to make our exit. We should keep our own counsels. Every man in the State is in favor of arming the State. Then let it be done. All are opposed to furnishing Mr. Lincoln with soldiers. Time will settle the balance. Nothing should be said about the time or the manner in which Missouri should go out. ”

“ The Ordinance of 1787 dedicated to Freedom all of the immense territory which became the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. The wonderful growth of these in population, wealth and political influence alarmed the Slave Power—keenly sensitive, as bad causes always are, to anything which may possibly threaten,—and it proceeded to erect in the State of Missouri a strong barrier to the forward march of the Free Soil idea. ”

“ Lyon at last aroused Gen. Fremont to a fever of energy to do the things that he should have done weeks before. He began a bombardment of Washington with telegrams asking for men, money and supplies, and sent dispatches of the most urgent nature to everybody from whom he could expect the least help. He called on the Governors of the loyal Western States to hurry to him all the troops that they could raise, and asked from Washington Regular troops, artillery, $3,000,000 for the Quartermaster's Department, and other requirements in proportion. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The solemn enactments of your Legislature have been nullified; your volunteer soldiers have been taken prisoners; your commerce with your sister States has been suspended; your trade with your fellow-citizens has been, and is, subjected to the harassing control of an armed soldiery; peaceful citizens have been imprisoned without warrant of law; unoffending and defenseless men, women, and children have been ruthlessly shot down and murdered; and other unbearable indignities have been heaped upon your State and yourselves.... ”

“ Then McCulloch would come up with his Texans, Louisianians and Arkansans, and Albert Pike with his horde of Indians. There would be such an overthrow and annihilation of their enemies as the world had never before seen, followed by a race to get to St. Louis before Polk, Pillow and M. Jeff Thompson could reach her from down the Mississippi.
Sterling Price was eager to fight Fremont among the rough, high lands south of Springfield, and his ardent followers wanted a repetition of the triumph of Lexington; but McCulloch would not come up from his fastness at Cross Hollows. ”

“ The eager young Secessionists were impatient to emulate their brethren farther south, and strike a definite blow—seize something that would wreck the sovereignty of the United States. Forts there were none. In the historic old Jefferson Barracks, below St. Louis, there were only a small squad of raw recruits, and a few officers, mostly of Southern proclivities, whom it would be cruel to turn out of house and home while they were waiting "for their States to go out." ”