POPE IN MISSOURI.-PRICE'S APPEAL. 181 freedom. That it was a mistake, subsequent experience fully demonstrated; for throughout the war the negro, whether bond or free, was uniformly the friend and helper of the National cause. General Halleck had been misinformed, and upon that misinformation he acted with the best intentions, one of which was to prevent the betrayal of the secret of his camps, and another that he might keep clear of the questions relating to masters and slaves,' in which Fremont had been entangled, to his hurt. In the order of the 4th of December, concerning the treatment of avowed secessionists, Halleck further directed that all rebels found within his lines in the disguise of pretended loyalty, or other false pretenses, or found giving information to the insurgents, should be " arrested, tried, and, if condemned, shot as spies." This and all other orders, concerning the disloyalists by whom he was surrounded, were enforced; and he directed that any one attempting to resist the execution of them should be arrested and imprisoned, to be tried by a military commission. Many offenders being women, it was declared that "the laws of war make no distinction of sex." To enforce these laws, it was necessary to use military power, especially in the suppression of the bands of marauders who were then sweeping over the country. He accordingly sent General John Pope, who, as we have already observed, had been active in that Department, to disperse the encampments of these guerrillas in Western Missouri. Pope had been acting with vigor during the latter part of summer and the early autumn. The people of a district where outrages were committed had been held responsible for them. He had quartered his troops on such inhabitants, and required from them contributions of horses, mules, provisions, and other necessaries. He had organized Committees of Safety, on which were placed prominent secessionists, charged to preserve the peace; and in a short time comparative good order was restored. Now Pope was charged with similar duties. On the 7th of December, he was assigned to the command of all the National troops between the Missouri and Osage Rivers, which included a considerable portion of Fremont's army that fell back from Springfield. Price was advancing. He had made a most stirring appeal by proclamation to the Missourians to come and help him, and so help themselves to freedom and independence. The Governor (Jackson), he said, had called for fifty thousand men, but only five thousand had responded. "Where are those fifty thousand men ?” he asked. "Are Missourians no longer true to themselves? Are they a timid, time-serving race, fit only for subjugation to a despot? Awake! my countrymen," he cried, "to a sense of what constitutes the dignity of the true greatness of a people. Come to us, brave sons of the Missouri Valley! Rally to our standard! I must have the fifty thousand men. Do you stay at home for protection? More men have been murdered at home than I have lost in five successive battles. Do you stay at home to secure terms with the enemy? Then I warn you the day soon may come when you will be surrendered to the mercies of that enemy, and your substance given to the Hessians and the Jayhawkers.' Leave Letter of General Halleck to General Asboth, December 20, 1861. * A name given to certain rangers or guerrilla bands of Kansas and especially those under Colonel Jennison, who was active against the insurgents. 182 BATTLE ON THE BLACK WATER. your property to take care of itself. Come to the Army of Missouri, not for a week or a month, but to free your country. Strike till each armed foe expires! Strike for the green graves of your sires, Be yours the office to choose between the glory of a free country and a just government, or the bondage of your children. I, at least, will never see the chains fastened upon my country. I will ask for six and a half feet of Missouri soil in which to repose, for I will not live to see my people enslaved." This appeal aroused the disaffected Missourians, and at the time when Pope was ordered to his new field of operations, about five thousand recruits, it was said, were marching from the Missouri River and beyond to join Price. To prevent this combination was Pope's chief desire. He encamped thirty or forty miles southwest from Booneville, at the middle of December, and after sending out some of the First Missouri cavalry, under Major Hubbard, to watch Price, who was then at Osceola with about eight thousand men, and to prevent a reconnoissance of the main column of the Nationals, he moved his whole body" westward and took position in the country between Clinton and Warrensburg, in Henry and Johnson counties. There were two thousand Confederates then near his lines, and against these Lieutenant-Colonel Brown, of the Seventh Missouri, was sent with a considerable cavalry force that scattered them. Having accomplished this, Brown returned to the main army,' ¿ Dec. 18. which was moving on Warrensburg. a Dec. 16, 1861 Informed that a Confederate force was on the Blackwater, at or near Milford, North of him, Pope sent Colonel Jefferson C. Davis and Major Merrill to flank them, while the main body should be in a position to give immediate aid, if necessary. Davis found them in a wooded bottom on the west side of the Blackwater, opposite the mouth of Clear Creek. His forces were on the east side, and a bridge that spanned the Blackwater between them was strongly guarded. This was carried by assault, by two companies of the Fourth Regular Cavalry, under Lieutenants Gordon and Amory, supported by five companies of the First Iowa cavalry. Gordon led the charge in person, and received several balls through his cap. The Confederates were driven, the bridge was crossed, and a pursuit was pressed. Unable to escape, the fugitives, commanded by Colonels Robinson, Alexander, and Magoffin (the latter a brother of the Governor of Kentucky), surrendered. The captives were one thousand three hundred in number, infantry and cavalry; and with them the Nationals gained as spoils about eight hundred horses and mules, a thousand stand of arms, and over seventy wagons loaded with tents, baggage, ammunition, and supplies of every kind. At about midnight the prisoners and spoils were taken into Pope's camp, and the next day the victors and the vanquished moved back in the direction of Sedalia, Pope's starting-place. In the space of five days the infantry had marched more than one hundred miles, and the cavalry double that distance. During that time they had captured nearly fifteen hundred prisoners, with the arms and supplies just mentioned. They had swept the PRICE DRIVEN OUT OF MISSOURI. 183 whole country west of Sedalia, in the direction of Kansas, far enough to foil the attempts of recruits to reach Price in any considerable numbers, and to compel him to withdraw, in search of safety and subsistence, toward the borders of Arkansas. Among the captured on the Blackwater, were many wealthy and influential citizens of Missouri. This event dealt a stunning blow to secession in that State for the moment, and Pope's short campaign gave great satisfaction to all loyal people. Halleck complimented him on his "brilliant success," and feeling strengthened there by, he pressed forward with more vigorous measures for the complete suppression of the rebellion in his Department westward of the Mississippi River. On the 23d of December he declared martial law in St. Louis; and by proclamation on the 25th this system of rule was extended to all railroads and their vicinities.' At about the same time General Price, who had found himself relieved from immediate danger, and encouraged by a promise of re-enforcements from Arkansas, under General McIntosh, concentrated about twelve thousand men at Springfield, where he put his army in comfortable huts, with the intention of remaining all winter, and pushed his picket-guards fifteen or twenty miles northward. This demonstration caused Halleck to concentrate his troops at Lebanon, the capital of Laclede County, northeastward of Springfield, early in February, under the chief command of General (late Colonel) S. R. Curtis. These were composed of the troops of Generals Asboth, Sigel, Davis, and Prentiss. In the midst of storms and floods, over heavy roads and swollen streams, the combined forces moved on Springfield" in three columns, the right under General Davis, the center under General Sigel, and the left under Colonel (soon afterward General) Carr. On the same day they met some of Price's advance, and skirmishing ensued; and on the following day about three hundred Confederates attacked Curtis's picket-guards, but were repulsed. This feint of offering battle was made by Price to enable him to effect a retreat. On the night of the 12th and 13th' he fled from Springfield with his whole force. Not a man of them was to be seen when Curtis's vanguard, the Fourth Iowa, entered the town at dawn the next morning. There stood their huts, in capacity sufficient to accommodate ten thousand men. The camp attested a Feb. 11, 1862. ¿February. a hasty departure, for remains of supper and half-dressed sheep and hogs, that had been slain the previous evening, were found. Price retreated to Cassville, closely pursued by Curtis. Still southward he hastened, and was more closely followed, his rear and flanks continually harassed during four days, while making his way across the Arkansas border to Cross Hollows. Having been re-enforced by Ben McCulloch, near a range of hills called Boston Mountains, he made a stand at Sugar Creek, where, in a brief engagement, he was defeated, and was again compelled to fly. He halted at Cove Creek, where, on the 25th, he reported • Feb. 20. 1 The proclamation of the 25th was issued in consequence of the destruction or disability, on the 20th, of about one hundred miles of the Missouri railroad, by some men returned from Price's army, assisted by inhabitants along the line of the road, acting by pre-concert. On the 23d, Halleck issued an order, fixing the penalty of death for that crime, and requiring the towns and counties along the line of any railway thus destroyed, to repair the damages and pay the expenses. 2 During the operations of this forward movement of the National troops, Brigadier-General Price, son of the chief, was captured at Warsaw, together with several officers of the elder Price's staff, and about 500 recruits. 184 HUNTER'S OPERATIONS IN KANSAS. to his wandering chief, Jackson, saying, "Governor, we are confident of the future." General Halleck, quite as confident of the future," was now able to report to his Government that Missouri was effectually cleared of the armed forces of insurgents who had so long infested it, and that the National flag was waving in triumph over the soil of Arkansas. In accomplishing this good work, no less than sixty battles and skirmishes, commencing with Booneville at the middle of June,' and ending at the middle of the succeeding February," had been fought on Missouri soil, resulting in an aggregate loss to both parties, in killed, wounded, and prisoners, of about eleven thousand men.' a 1862. ¿ Dec. 2, 1861. While Halleck was thus purging Missouri, Hunter, with his head-quarters at Fort Leavenworth, was vigorously at work in Kansas, on the west of it." The general plan of his treatment of the rebellion, which was rife on the Missouri border, was set forth in a few words addressed to the Trustees of Platte City," concerning an outlaw named Gordon, who, with a guerrilla band, was committing depredations and outrages of every kind in that region. Hunter said, "Gentlemen, I give you notice, that unless you seize and deliver the said Gordon to me at these head-quarters within ten days from this date, or drive him out of the country, I shall send a force to your city with orders to reduce it to ashes, and to burn the house of every secessionist in your county, and to carry away every negro. Colonel Jennison's regiment will be intrusted with the execution of this order." Jennison, who was the commander of the First Kansas cavalry, was well known to the people as an ardent anti-slavery champion during the civil war in Kansas in 1855, and a man ready to execute any orders of the kind. That letter, the power given to Jennison, and a proclamation issued by the latter a short time before, made the secessionists very circumspect for a while, and "all quiet in Kansas" was a frequent report in the Spring of 1862. Active and armed rebellion was at this time co-extensive with the slavelabor States. Colonel Canby found it ready to meet him even in the remote region of New Mexico, in the shape of invaders from Texas. Like Halleck and Hunter, he attacked the monster quickly and manfully. 1 See page 540, volume I. 2 Several of these skirmishes were so light, and so unimportant in their bearings upon the great issues, that the narrative of this general history has not been unduly extended by a record of them. Such record belongs to a strictly statistical and military history of the war. During the last fortnight of the month of December, 1861, the Nationals in Missouri captured 2,500 prisoners, including 70 commissioned officers; 1,200 horses and mules; 1,100 stand of arms; 2 tons of powder; 100 wagons, and a large amount of stores and camp equipage. 3 Preparations had been made for organizing an army in Kansas to go through the Indian Territory and a portion of Southwestern Arkansas and so on to New Orleans, to co-operate with the forces that were to sweep down the Mississippi and along its borders. James H. Lane, then a member of the United States Senate, was to command that army. Owing to some difficulties, arising from misapprehension, the expedition was abandoned, and Lane took his seat in the Senate at Washington. 4 See note 2, page 181. traitors, you must be punished." 5 Jennison had said to the inhabitants of Lafayette, Cass, Johnson, and Pettis Counties, in Missouri: "For four months our armies have marched through your country. Your professed friendship has been a fraud; your oaths of allegiance have been shams and perjurics. You feed the rebel army, you act as spies while claiming to be true to the Union. Neutrality is ended. If you are patriots, you must fight; if you are He told them that the rights and property of Union men would be everywhere respected, but "traitors," he said, “will every where be treated as outlaws-enemies of God and men, too base to hold any description of property, and having no rights which loyal men are bound to respect. The last dollar and the last slave of rebels will be taken and turned over to the General Government. Playing war is played out, and whenever Union troops are fired upon the answer will boom from cannon, and desolation will follow." TREASON IN NEW MEXICO. 185 We have seen the loyal people of Texas bound hand and foot by a civil and military despotism after the treason of General Twiggs. The conspirators and their friends had attempted to play a similar game for attaching New Mexico to the intended Confederacy, and to aid Twiggs in giving over Texas to the rule of the Confederates. So early as 1860, Secretary Floyd sent Colonel W. H. Loring, of North Carolina (who appears to have been an instrument of the traitor), to command the Department of New Mexico, while Colonel George B. Crittenden, an unworthy son of the venerable Kentucky senator, who had been sent out for the same wicked purpose as Loring, was appointed by the latter, commander of an expedition against the Apaches, which was to start from Fort Staunton in the Spring of 1861. It was the business of these men to attempt the corruption of the patriotism of the officers under them, and to induce them to lead their men into Texas and give them to the service of the rebellion. One of these officers (Lieutenant-Colonel B. S. Roberts, of Vermont), who had joined Crittenden at Fort Staunton, perceiving the intentions of his commander, refused to obey any orders that savored of a treasonable purpose, and procuring a furlough, he hastened to Sante Fé, the head-quarters of the Department, and denounced Crittenden to Colonel Loring. He was astonished when, instead of thanks for his patriotic service, he received a reproof for meddling with other people's business, and discovered that Loring was also playing the game of treason. Roberts was ordered back to Fort Staunton, but found an opportunity to warn Captain Hatch, the commander at Albuquerque, and Captain Morris, who held Fort Craig (both on the Rio Grande), as well as other loyal officers, of the treachery of their superiors. The iniquity of Loring and Crittenden soon became known to the little army under them, and they found it necessary to leave suddenly and unattended. Of the twelve hundred regular troops in New Mexico, not one proved treacherous to his country. Loring and Crittenden made their way to Fort Fillmore, not far from El Paso and the Texas border, then commanded by Major Isaac Lynde, of Vermont. They found a greater portion of the officers there ready to engage in the work of treason. Major Lynde professed to be loyal, but, if so, he was too inefficient to be intrusted with command. Late in July, while leading about five hundred of the seven hundred troops under his control toward the village of Mesilla, he fell in with a few Texas insurgents, and, after a slight skirmish, fled back to the fort. He was ordered to evacuate it, and march his command to Albuquerque. Strange to say, the soldiers were allowed to fill their canteens with whisky and drink when they pleased. A large portion of them were drunken before they had marched ten miles, and then, as if by previous arrangement, a Texas force appeared on their flank. The soldiers who were not prostrated by intoxication wished to fight, but, by order of a council of officers, with Lynde at their head, they were directed to lay down their arms as prisoners of war. Lynde's commissary, Captain A. II. Plummer, who held seventeen thousand dollars in Government drafts, which he might have saved, handed them over to Baylor, the commander of the insurgents. For this cowardice or treachery, Lynde was simply dismissed from the army, and Plummer was reprimanded 1 See chapter XI., volume I. a July 27, 1861. |