PILLOW AND JEFF. THOMPSON.

57.

and enforce such civil police regulations as he may deem necessary for the security of his forces, the preservation of order and discipline in his camp, and the protection of the lives and property of the citizens;" in other words, martial law was established within indefinite limits by this avowed usurper of the rights of the people. He clothed M. Jeff. Thompson,' one of Jackson's Missouri brigadiers, with the same power; and he and Pillow, and W. J. Hardee (who had abandoned his flag, joined the insurgents, and was commissioned a brigadier in the Confederate Army), now held military possession of the southeastern districts of the Commonwealth, and made vigorous preparations to co-operate with Price and his associates in "expelling the enemy from the State." Pillow assumed the pompous title of “Liberator of Missouri," and his orders and dispatches were commenced, "Head-Quarters Army of Liberation.”

Governor Jackson, who had been to Richmond to make arrangements for

on the following day he wrote to the Governor, saying: "I think it exceedingly unfortunate that you have suspended the movements forward against Bird's Point and Cairo for the relief of Missouri. The main body of the force at these two points has been withdrawn, in consequence of the pressure in the East and the rising up of Missouri, and the work of taking these points would now be of comparatively easy accomplishment. If my movements are to be suspended until East Tennessee ceases to sulk and becomes loyal, it will defer my action to a period when I cannot assume the offensive state. In my judgment, two, three, or four regiments is a force sufficient for any probable contingency in view of the position of East Tennessee. Without aid from the forces of Middle Tennessee I have not the means of advancing, nor will I attempt it. In ten days the enemy will, in all probability, increase his force at Cairo, and will have his three gunboats, mounting 30 guns, at Cairo, and then it would be madness to attempt a dislodgment.”

Then, and for some time afterward, the great want of the Army of Tennessee was arms. In July, Pillow issued an order directing the gathering up of all the rifles in private hands in Western Tennessee, for the purpose of having them made of uniform bore and devoted to the public use.

In his appeal to the people, he said: "Seventy thousand additional troops must be raised to protect the country. These troops can be armed only by the country rifles being procured, and thus converted. . . These rifles will give you no protection when scattered over the country in your houses. Nothing will save the country from being overrun and devastated by a more than savage foe, but arms in the hands of organized and drilled troops." Workshops for the purpose of changing these arms were employed at Memphis, under Captain Hunt. Agents were appointed to collect the rifles, who were autnorized to give certificates of purchase, the weapons to be afterwards paid for by the Confederate government.-Pillow's MS. Order Book.

Among a mass of autograph letters before me is one from General S. R. Anderson to General Pillow, dated May 18th, 1861, in which he makes an important disclosure concerning evident preparations for revolt having been made by the authorities of Tennessee, several months before the election of Mr. Lincoln. He says: "I am using every effort to collect together the arms of the State issued to volunteer companies, raised for political purposes and otherwise, and now disbanded; and in looking over the bonds given for arms, as found in the Secretary of State's office, I find that on the 4th of July last [1860], there was issued to W. J. Hendricks, J. E. Crowder, R. E. Moody, and R. Winslow, of Lagrange, West Tenn., the following arms: 64 swords and 128 pistols. These arms are worth looking after, and I would respectfully suggest to you to have them looked after and gathered up, if not in the hands of such men as are going to take the field."

1 Thompson, who became a notorious guerrilla chief, like Pillow, seemed fond of issuing proclamations and writing letters, in both of which he indulged much in hyperbole. Many of the latter, written at the period we are now considering, are before me. The day after Reynolds issued his proclamation, Thompson sent forth the following manifesto to the people of Missouri, which is a fair specimen of his style:

"Come, now, strike while the iron is hot! Our enemies are whipped in Virginia. They have been whipped in Missouri. General Hardee advances in the center, General Pillow on the right, and General McCulloch on the left, with 20,000 brave Southern hearts, to our aid. So leave your plows in the furrow, and your oxen in the yoke, and rush like a tornado upon our invaders and foes, to sweep them from the face of the earth, or force them from the soil of our State! Brave sons of the Ninth District, come and join us! We have plenty of ammunition, and the cattle on ten thousand hills are ours. We have forty thousand Belgian muskets coming; but bring your guns and muskets with you, if you have them; if not, come without them. We will strike your foes like a Southern thunderbolt, and soon our camp-fires will illuminate the Merrimac and Missouri. Come, turn out. "JEFF. THOMPSON, Brig.-General Comdg."

Many Missourians who had fled from the State, late in May and early in June, had entered the Tennessee Army. It was desirable to have these and other exiled citizens of that State organized for home duty, and Thompson was sent to Memphis for that purpose. There, on the 14th of June, a meeting of Missourians was held, and in a series of resolutions they asked Pillow for quarters and subsistence, and the release from service in the Tennessee Army, such Missourians as had been enlisted. The autograph letter to Pillow inclosing these resolutions is before me, and is signed by M. Jeff. Thompson, B. Newton Hart, Thomas P. Hoy, N. J. McArthur, James George, and Lewis H. Kennerly.

58

.Aug. 5,

1861.

ADMISSION OF MISSOURI INTO THE CONFEDERACY.

military aid, and the annexation of Missouri to the Confederacy, had just returned, and from New Madrid he also issued a proclamation." It was in the form of a provisional declaration of the independence of the State, in which he gave reasons which, he said, "justified" a separation from the Union. These "reasons" consisted of the usual misrepresentations concerning the National Government, in forms already familiar to the

reader, and were followed by a formal declaration that Missouri was "a sovereign, free, and independent republic." On the 20th of the same month, the Confederate "Congress" at Richmond passed an act to "aid the State of Missouri in repelling invasion by the United States, and to authorize the admission of said State as a member of the Confederate States of America." Jefferson Davis was authorized to "muster into the service of the Confederate States" such Missouri troops as might volunteer to serve in the Confederate Army; the officers to be commissioned by Davis, who was also empowered to appoint all field officers for the same. Missouri was to be admitted into the Confederacy on an equal footing with the other States, when the Constitution of the "Confederate States" should be "adopted and ratified by the properly and legally constituted authorities of said State;" in other words, when the disloyal fugitive Governor, Jackson, and his friends, and not the people of Missouri, should so adopt and ratify that unholy league.

By the same act the government of Missouri, of which Jackson was recognized as the chief magistrate, was declared to be "the legally elected and constituted government of the people and State of Missouri." Measures were speedily adopted for the consummation of the alliance, and, during a greater portion of the war, men claiming to represent the people of Missouri occupied seats in the Confederate "Congress" at Richmond.'

At this critical juncture of public affairs in Missouri, John C. Fremont, who had been brought prominently before the American people in 1856, as

1 See Acts and Resolutions of the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States, Third Session, No. 225.

2 By proclamation, in September, Jackson called a session of the disloyal members of the General Assembly of Missouri, at Neosho, on the 21st of October. In his message to that body, on the 28th of October, he recommended, 1st, the passage of an ordinance of secession; 2d, of an "act of provisional union with the Confederate States;" 3d, the appointment of "three commissioners to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States;" 4th, the passage of a law empowering the Governor to cause an election to be held for Senators and Representatives to the "Confederate States Congress" as soon as practicable after Missouri should become a member of the league; and, 5th, the passage of an act empowering the Governor to issue bonds of the State of Missouri. The pliant instruments of the Governor responded cheerfully to his recommendations. An Ordinance of Secession was passed the same day (October 28th, 1861), and an "Act to provide for the defense of the State of Missouri" was adopted on the 1st of November. It authorized the issue of what were termed "Defense Bonds," to the amount of $10,000,000, all of which, of the denomination of $5 and upwards, should bear interest at the rate of ten per cent. per annum. They were to be issued in denominations not less than $1, and not greater than $500, payable in three, five, and seven years. They were made a legal tender for all dues. Such was the currency offered to the people of Missouri as members of the Confederacy. See Journals of the Senate, &c., noticed at the close of note L page 464, volume I.

FREMONT IN MISSOURI.

59

he

the candidate of the newly formed Republican party for the Presidency of the United States, assumed the command of the Western Department. He was in Europe when the war broke out, and on the 14th of May, 1861, was commissioned a major-general of Volunteers. On receiving notice of his appointment, he left his private affairs abroad in the hands of others, and hastened home. He arrived at Boston on the 27th of June," bringing with him an assortment of arms for his Government, and on the 6th of July he was appointed to the important command in

JOHN C. FREMONT.

a 1861.

the West just mentioned.' He remained a short time in New York, where he made arrangements for over twenty thousand stand of arms, with munitions of war, to be sent to his Department. On hearing of the disaster at Bull's Run, he left for the West, and arrived at St. Louis on the 26th of July, where Colonel Harding, Lyon's Adjutant-General, was in command. Fremont had already issued orders for General John Pope to proceed from Alton, in Illinois, with troops to suppress the armed Secessionists in Northern Missouri, who, as we have observed, had

commenced the destruction of railways, and depredations upon the Unionists.

Fremont made his head-quarters in

St. Louis at the house of the late Colonel Brant, an elegant and splendid mansion, and proceeded at once with great vigor in the performance of his duties. He found disorder everywhere prevailing. The terms of enlistment of the Home Guards, or three-months men, were expiring; and these, being composed chiefly of working-men, with dependent families, and having been some time without pay, were unwilling to re-enlist-in fact, some yet in the service were in a state of mutiny on that account. Fremont was embarrassed. He had very little money at his disposal to meet the just demands of these soldiers; neither had he arms for new recruits, who were now coming into St. Louis in considerable numbers, and were compelled to remain there in idleness for lack of weapons, when he was anxious to send them to the aid of Lyon, and to points exposed to capture. The guns ordered at New York were detained for the use of the Army of the Potomac. Indeed, the National authorities were so absorbed in

1 The Western Department was created on the 6th of July, and comprised the State of Illinois, and the States and Territories west of the Mississippi and east of the Rocky Mountains, including New Mexico. Head. quarters at St. Louis.

60

AFFAIRS IN FREMONT'S DEPARTMENT.

taking measures for the defense of Washington City, that the care of the Government was little felt in the West, for a time.

Fremont perceived that he could be useful only by assuming grave responsibilities, and he resolved upon that course, with the belief that he would be sustained by his Government. Funds were indispensable, and he applied to the National Sub-Treasurer at St. Louis for a supply. That officer had three hundred thousand dollars in his hands, but he refused to let the General have a dime without an order from the Secretary of the Treasury. So, Fremont prepared to seize one hundred thousand dollars of it by military force, when the custodian yielded.' With these funds he secured the re-enlistment of many of the three-months men.

With vigor and secrecy, Fremont prepared for offensive and defensive action. He strongly fortified St. Louis against external and internal foes, and prepared to place Cairo in a condition of absolute security; for upon the holding of these points rested, in a great degree, the salvation of the Northwest from invasion and desolation. He was compelled to choose between securing the safety of these places, or re-enforcing Lyon; and wisely, it seems, he decided upon the former course. Kentucky, professedly neutral, and with doors closed against Union troops from other States, was giving shelter and welcome to large bodies of Confederate soldiers in its western districts. Already full 12,000 Confederate troops were within a circle of fifty miles around Cairo, in Kentucky and Missouri. Pillow, as we have seen,2 had invaded the latter State at its southeastern extremity with a large number of troops, preparatory to an immediate advance upon Bird's Point and Cairo, while Hardee, with a considerable force, was pushing into the interior to menace Lyon's flank and rear. At the same time Liutenant-Governor Rey

a July 31 1861.

nolds, in his proclamation at New Madrid, taking advantage of the joy of the secessionists, and the depression of the loyalists, on account of the sad news from Virginia, had said, in connection with his announcement of the presence of Pillow with Tennessee troops, "The sun which shone in its full midday splendor at Manassas is about to rise in Missouri." Every thing at that moment seemed to justify the prediction. Lyon, with the only considerable National force in the field, was surrounded with the greatest peril, as we have seen; every county in the Commonwealth was in a state of insurrection, and every post held by the Unionists-even St. Louis itself was menaced with real danger.

To avert the perils threatening Bird's Point and Cairo, Fremont secretly and quickly prepared an expedition to strengthen the latter post; for General Prentiss, its commander, had not more than twelve hundred men in

1 Fremont laid a brief statement of the condition of affairs in Missouri, and his needs, before the President, in a letter on the 30th of July. He said: "We have not an hour for delay. There are three courses open for me. One, to let the enemy possess himself of some of the strongest points in the State and threaten St. Louis, which is insurrectionary; second, to force a loan from secession banks here; third, to use the money belonging to the Government which is in the Treasury here. Of course I will not lose the State, nor permit the enemy a foot of advantage. I have infused energy and activity into the Department, and there is a thoroughly good spirit in officers and men. This morning I will order the Treasurer to deliver the money in his possession to General Andrews, and will send a force to the Treasury to take the money, and will direct sub-payments, as the exigency requires." The President made no reply; and this silence, with a dispatch received four days before from a Cabinet minister (Postmaster-General Blair), saying, "You will have to do the best you can, and take all needful responsibility to defend and protect the people over whom you are specially set," justified his course, to his judgment.

2 See page 56.

THE CONFEDERATES DECEIVED.

61

garrison there at the close of July. Mustering about thirty-eight hundred troops on board of eight steamers,' at St. Louis, on the night of the 30th of July, he left that city at noon the next day with the entire squadron, and making a most imposing display. Nobody but himself knew the real strength of the expedition, and the most exaggerated rumors concerning it went abroad. The loyal people and the insurgents believed that these vessels contained at least twelve thousand men. The deception had its desired. effect. Cairo was re-enforced without opposition. Other points were strengthened. Pillow, who had advanced some troops, and, with Thompson, was preparing to seize Cape Girardeau, Bird's Point, and Cairo, and overrun Southern Illinois, fell back, and became very discreet in action; and Hardee, with his independent command, was checked in his movements into the interior of Missouri.

a August 5, 1861.

Pillow, not withstanding he had about twenty thousand troops at his command, alarmed by rumors of an immense National force on his front, sent a dispatch to Hardee, then supposed to be at Greenville, urging the necessity for a junction of their forces, before an attempt might be safely made to march on Commerce and Cape Girardeau. "Having a good deal of work before us," he said, we should be careful not to so cripple our forces as to be unable to go forward. . . . I ought to have your support before engaging the enemy on my front.

66

Without the co-operation of your force, I doubt if I can reach you at Ironton, except in a very critical condition. We ought to unite at Benton." He informed Hardee that General Thompson, Governor Jackson, and Lieutenant-Governor Reynolds were with him, and that they all regarded the union of the two forces as essential. On the same day General Polk wrote to Pillow, urging him to "put his troops in the trenches," and strongly fortify New Madrid, near which it was proposed to stretch a chain, to obstruct the navigation of the Mississippi. Polk was then gathering

3

1 Empress, War Eagle, Jennie Dean, Warsaw, City of Alton, Louisiana, January, and Graham. eral Fremont and Staff were on the City of Alton. The squadron was in charge of Captain B. Able.

B

Gen

2 Autograph letter of General Pillow, dated, “Head-quarters Army of Liberation, August 5th, 1861." * At that time there were various plans proposed for barricading the Mississippi against the "invaders." The stretching of a chain across was a favorite one, and materials for the purpose were sent up from New Orleans to Memphis. An anonymous writer, whose autograph letter is before me, dated "New Orleans, July 3d, 1861," proposed a plan, by which, he said, "steamboats of the enemy could be as effectually prevented from descending the Mississippi, as from steaming across the Alleghany Mountains." The letter contained the annexed illustrative diagram. Thomas J. Spear, of New Orleans, in a letter dated the 81st of July, proposed a species of torpedo for the same purpose, which might also be of use in battle on land. His accompanying diagram, which is annexed, represents the manner of using the torpedo in the river. It was to be attached to the end of a long rod, projecting, under water, from the bow of the vessel, and fixed by a tube filled with gunpowder. These plans were not tried; but other obstructions, in the way of sunken vessels, chevaux de frise of various kinds, and a great variety of torpedoes, were used during the war. Spear proposed to place his torpedoes on land, at "shooting distance in front of a chosen place of battle, or in roads over which the enemy would travel, a few inches underground, with wires attached, so as to explode them by means of electricity." The plan was to fall back as the enemy approached, and when they were above the torpedoes to explode them. The illustrations of this note may be explained as follows:

c

A

STEAMBOAT OBSTRUC

TIONS.

A

SPEAR'S TORPEDO.

STEAMBOAT OBSTRUCTIONS.—A A, rafts anchored between the shore and the channel. B B, batteries