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,' 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

« 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 sur rounded 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.

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

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

* Autograph letter of General Pillow, dated, "Head-quarters Ariny 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,"

B

B

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 31st 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:STEAMBOAT OBSTRUCTIONS.-A A, rafts anchored between the shore and the channel. B B, batteries

STEAMBOAT OBSTRUC

TIONS.

SPEAR'S TORPEDO.

62

THE CONFEDERATES ALARMED

strength at Randolph and Fort Pillow, on the Tennessee side of the Mississippi. He had prohibited all steamboats from going above New Madrid, had pressed into the service several Cincinnati pilots, and had ordered up two gunboats from New Orleans, to operate between New Madrid and Cairo.'

a

Fremont returned to St. Louis on the 4th of August, having accomplished the immediate objects of his undertaking. He had spread great alarm among the Confederates immediately confronting him, who were somewhat distracted by divided commanders. Polk was chief; and from his August 7, head-quarters at Memphis he ordered Pillow to evacuate New 1861. Madrid, and, with his men and heavy guns, hasten to Randolph and Fort Pillow, on the Tennessee shore. The ink of that dispatch was scarcely dry, when he countermanded the order, for he had heard glad tidings from McCulloch, in front of Lyon. Again, on the 15th, he was so alarmed by rumors from above, that he again ordered Pillow to abandon New Madrid, and cross to Tennessee with his troops and armament immediately. The ambitious Pillow, evidently anxious to win renown by seizing Cape Girardeau, and with that victory to gain possession of Bird's Point and Cairo, was tardy in his obedience, and the result was, that he kept his headquarters at New Madrid until early in September, as we shall hereafter observe.3

on the shore. C, raft with heavy battery in the channel. D, floating boom to allow friendly vessels to pass

through. E, steamer descending the river Such rafts were constructed at several places on the Mississippi, in the form seen in the annexed engraving, being held by chains, attached to anchors, passing over them lengthwise. They were inefficient, and were soon abandoned.

SPEAR'S TORPEDO.-A, bow of torpedo vessel. B, torpedo. CC, tube filled with gunpowder, supported by a strong framework, to which the torpedo is attached. D, end of tube to which the match is applied.

1 Autograph letter of Leonidas Polk to Gideon J Pillow, dated at Memphis, August 5th, 1861. 2 General Polk, as we have observed, was Bishop of the Diocese of Louisiana, of the Protestant Episcopal Church, when the war broke out. A correspondent of the New Orleans Picayune, writing from Richmond on the day of Polk's appointment as major-general in the Confederate service, related the secret history of his laying aside the crook of the bishop for the sword of the soldier. He had been urged to take the appointment, his military education at the West Point Academy being thought sufficient to promise a successful career in the field. He finally visited Bishop Meade, of Virginia, the senior bishop of the church in the United States, to consult with him about it. The result was in his case, as in that of General Joseph E. Johnston (who also consulted Bishop Meade as to what was his duty in a similar emergency); he received the approval of the prelate, and joined the army. It seems that Polk had satisfied himself that he ought to accept the commission, before he visited Bishop Meade; for the writer says, that when the latter suggested that the Diocesan of Louisiand was already holding a commission in a very different army, to which he owed allegiance, the great slaveholding bishop replied: "I know that very well, and I do not intend to resign it. On the contrary, I shall only prove the more faithful to it by doing all that in me lies to bring this unhallowed and unnatural war to a speedy and happy close. We, of the Confederate States, are the last bulwarks of civil and religious liberty; we fight for our hearthstones and our altars; above all, we fight for a race that has been, by Divine Providence, intrusted to our most sacred keeping. When I accept a commission in the Confederate Army, therefore, I not only perform the duties of a good citizen, but contend for the principles which lie at the foundation of our social, political, and religious polity."

3 Pillow had always been restive under the restraints imposed by the transfer of the Tennessee Army to the service of the Confederate authorities, and he never obeyed the commands of General Polk with alacrity. Thompson was under the command of Governor Jackson; and Hardee, who was at Greenville, some distance in the interior of Missouri, early in August was operating with independence, in a measure, of both Pillow and Polk. Pillow and Thompson had set their hearts on the seizure of Cape Girardeau and Bird's Point, whilst Hardee was aiming at a similar result in a different way. Polk, at Memphis, alarmed by rumor of an immense ar:na

THE SECESSIONISTS IN MISSOURI

63

1861.

News of the Battle of Wilson's Creek,' and the death of Lyon, reached Fremont on the 13th of August. The secessionists in St. Louis were made jubilant and bold by it. This disposition was promptly met by the Commander-in-Chief. Martial law was declared, and General McKinstry was appointed Provost-Marshal. Some of the most a August 14, active secessionists were arrested, and the publication of newspapers charged with disloyalty was suspended. So tight was held the curb of restraint in the city that an outbreak was prevented. More free to act in the rural districts, the armed secessionists began again to distress the loyal people. In bands they moved over the country, plundering and destroying. Almost daily, collisions between them and the Home Guards occurred. One of the most severe of these conflicts took place at Charleston, west of Bird's Point, on the 19th, when three hundred Illinois Volunteers, under Colonel Dougherty, put twelve hundred Confederates to flight. Two days afterward, a battery planted by Thompson, at Commerce, was captured by National troops sent out from Cape Girardeau; and everywhere the loyalists were successful in this sort of warfare. But the condition of public affairs in Missouri was becoming daily more alarming. The provisional government was almost powerless, and Governor Gamble, by a mistaken policy, seriously injured the public service at that critical time by refusing to commission military officers appointed by Fremont. The Presi dent commissioned them himself, and the work of organizing a force for the

& August.

© Angust 7, 1861.

ment about to descend the Mississippi and attack that place, was anxious to strengthen it and the supporting posts above it on the Tennessee shore, and hence his order for Pillowe to evacuate New Madrid and hasten with his troops and heavy guns to Randolph and Fort Pillow. Pillow demurred, and charged Polk, by implication, with keeping back re-enforcements, and thwarting his well-laid plans for the liberation of Missouri. Polk retorted, and intimated that Pillows neglecting to fortily New Madrid, as he had been ordered to do, before the Nationals were ready for an offensive movement, was a blunder that now made the evacuation of that post a necessity. In his dispatch revoking the order for the evacuation of New Madrid, Polk directed Pillow to break up his base there, send his heavy cannon to Randolph and Fort Pillow, and, marching by the way of Pleasanton, join his forces with those of Hardee at Greenville. This was also distasteful to the Tennessee commander. He reported that he had tried the path and had been compelled to fall back to New Madrid on account of unsafe bridges; also, that he intended to move on Cape Girardeau by the river road. Polk, was annoyed, and wrote him a long letter on the 16th of August, in its tone deprecatory of Pillow's course; whilst the restless Thompson, who was now with Hardee, and now with Pillow, was eagerly urging a forward movement "I would like very much," he wrote on the 16th of August, "to have your permission to advance, as I am sure that I can take Cape Girardeau without firing a gun, by marching these moonlight nights and taking them by surprise. Every one gives me the credit of at least 7,000 men, and I have them frightened nearly to death." The following day he wrote to Pillow, saying, "If you wish a legal excuse for advancing, withdraw your control over me for a few hours, and then come to my rescue. We must not lose the moon; the weather may change, and the swamps become impassable."

Hardee, on the contrary, who desired, as a preliminary movement against Cape Girardeau, to seize the post at Ironton, the then terminus of the railway running southward from St. Louis, did not seem disposed to aid Pillow in his designs; whilst Polk, according to a letter from Lewis G. De Russey, his aid-de-camp, dated at Fort Pillow on the 17th of August, was anxious for Pillow and Hardee to join their forces at Benton, and march upon St. Louis. In this undecided state, the question concerning offensive movements in Missouri remained until the close of August, when the National forces at Ironton, the Cape, and Bird's Point, had been so increased, that any forward movement of the Confederates would have been extremely perilous. "We can take the Cape, but what would we do with it?" Pillow asked significantly on the 29th Hardee, an old and experienced officer, had positively refused to go forward, and Pillow and Polk would not risk such a movement without his The conduct of the ambitions Pillow in this connnection became so insubordinate, that General Polk submitted a statement of it to the War Department," at Richmond, on the 20th of August. "Considering you have usurped an authority not properly your own," wrote De Russey, in behalf of Polk, "by which you have thwarted and embarrassed his arrangements and operations for the general defense, he feels it his duty to submit to the War Department the position you have thought proper to assume." Events during the few succeeding days changed all plans.-Autograph Letters of Polk, Hardee, Pillow, Thompson, and others, from the close of July to the close of August, 1861.

Concurrence.

The Confederates, as we have observed, call it the Battle of Oak Hill.
Morning Herald, Evening Missourian, and War Bulletin.

64

FREMONT'S STARTLING PROCLAMATION.

purpose of sweeping the insurgents out of the State, and clearing the banks of the Mississippi of all blockading obstructions to free navigation from St. Louis to New Orleans, went steadily on.

Satisfied that nothing but martial law and the most stringent measures toward the secessionists would secure peace and quiet to Missouri, and safety to the cause, Fremont took the administration of public affairs there into his own hands, and on the 31st of August he issued a proclamation, in which he declared that martial law was thereby established throughout Missouri, and that the lines of the Army of Occupation in that State extended, for the present, from Leavenworth, in Kansas, by way of the posts of Jefferson City, Rolla, and Ironton, to Cape Girardeau on the Mississippi River. He declared that all persons within those lines taken with arms in their hands should be tried by court-martial, and, if found guilty, should be shot;' that the property, real and personal, of all persons in Missouri, who should be proven to have taken an active part with the enemies of the Government, in the field, should be confiscated to the public use, and their slaves, if they had any, should be thereafter free men; and that all persons engaged in the destruction of bridges, railway tracks, and telegraphs, should suffer the extreme penalty of the law. All persons who, by speech or correspondence, should be found guilty of giving aid to the insurgents in any way, were warned of ill consequences to themselves; and all who had been seduced from their allegiance to the National Government were required to return to their homes forthwith. The declared object of the proclamation was to place in the hands of the military authorities the power to give instantaneous effect to existing laws, while ordinary civil authority would not be suspended, where the law should be administered in the usual manner.

General Fremont acted promptly in accordance with his proclamation, and the greatest consternation began to prevail among the insurgents of Missouri, when his hand was stayed. He was most bitterly assailed by the enemies of the Administration, especially because of that portion of his proclamation which related to emancipation and confiscation. In the border Slave-labor States there arose a storm of indignation which alarmed the Government; and the President, anxious to placate the rebellious spirit in those States, requested Fremont to modify his proclamation concerning the confiscation of property and the liberation of the slaves, so as to strictly conform to an act of Congress passed on the 6th of August. Fremont declined to do so, and asked the President to openly direct him to make that modification, for his judgment and self-respect would not

1 M. Jeff. Thompson, already mentioned, and who became the terror of all law-abiding citizens in Missouri, issued a proclamation on the 2d of September, declaring that he was intrusted by Acting Governor Beynolds not only with the commission of brigadier-general, but also with "certain police powers," and said: “I do most solemnly promise that, for every member of the Missouri State Guard or soldier of our allies, the armies of the Confederate States, who shall be put to death in pursuance of the said order of General Fremont, I will hang, draw, and quarter a minion of said Abraham Lincoln.”

2 Fremont specified, as reasons for his assuming the administrative powers of the State, the fact that its disorganized condition, the helplessness of the civil authority, the total insecurity of life, and the devastation of property by bands of murderers and marauders," who infested nearly every county in the State, and availed themselves of the public misfortunes and the vicinity of a hostile force, to gratify private and neighborhood vengeance, and who found an enemy wherever they found plunder, demanded the severest measures to suppress these disorders, to maintain the public peace, and “to give security and protection to the persons and property of loyal citizens."

3 See page 29.