the battle of Belmont

Kentucky, with a Confederate governor but a Union legislature, declares itself neutral at the beginning of the war. This neutrality is first violated on September 3, 1861, when Confederate Maj. Gen. Leonidas Polk occupies Columbus, a key position on the Mississippi River. Two days later Union General Ulysses S. Grant moves from Cairo, Illinois, and takes Paducah, in Kentucky. Grant commands the district of Southeast Missouri and requests to attack Columbus overland. No such orders are forthcoming from theater commander General John C. Fremont and little happens in this corner of the war.

Fremont learns from a spy that the Confederates are reinforcing their forces in Arkansas. On November 1, Grant is ordered to feint toward Columbus to tie down the Confederate garrison. At first, he sends 3000 men under Col. Richard Oglesby into southeast Missouri. hearing that Confederate reinforcements are moving into Missouri toward Oglesby, Grant sends more men south and also orders General Charles F. Smith to move overland from Paducah to further pressure the Confederate position in Kentucky.

Grant chooses to attack Belmont in Missouri, a ferry landing on the Mississippi across from Columbus. Grant embarks 2 brigades of over 3000 men under General John A. McClernand and Colonel Henry Dougherty, 2 cavalry companies, and an artillery battery.

On November 6, 6 transports and 2 gunboats (the Tyler and Lexington) sail downstream from Cairo.

Polk has 5000 troops in Columbus. When he learns of Grant's expedition he surmises that Grant is feinting toward Belmont and Columbus is the true objective. General Gideon J. Pillow and 2700 men cross to Belmont and the rest remain in Kentucky.

At Belmont Grant finds a small Confederate picket camp, named Camp Johnston, and an artillery battery. He attacks in order to prevent reinforcement of the nearby Confederate troops Generals Sterling Price and M. Jeff Thompson of the Missouri State Guard, and to protect Oglesby's exposed left flank.

At 8:30 in the morning on November 7, Grant's force disembarks 3 miles north of Belmont, just out of range of Confederate batteries mounting large guns across the river in Columbus. They march south on the lone road into town, clearing obstructions of fallen timber and abatis. A mile from town, they form a line of battle in a corn field. The troops, arrayed from north to south, are the 22nd Illinois, 7th Iowa, 31st Illinois, 30th Illinois, and 27th Illinois, with a single cavalry company intermixed. On the low ridge northwest of the Belmont camp, the Confederate battle line is, from north to south, the 12th Tennessee, 13th Arkansas , 22nd Tennessee, 21st Tennessee, and 13th Tennessee.

Grant's attack pushes back the Confederate skirmish line and for the remainder of the morning, both armies, mostly green recruits, advance and retreat, over and over. At 2 p.m., Pillow's line collapses and he withdraws toward Camp Johnston. An orderly retreat turns to panic and four Federal guns join to bombard the retreating soldiers. A singular volley from the 31st Illinois, kills dozens of Confederates, the Union soldiers attack from three sides and surge into the camp. Grant is at the front, his horse is shot but ne mounts an aide’s and continues to lead.

The Confederates abandon guns and colors and run to the river and their 2 transports.

Grant's inexperienced soldiers are, in his words, "demoralized from their victory." McClernand moves to the camp’s center, now flying the Stars and Stripes, calls for three cheers and begins a victory speech. The men begin looting the camp and Grant struggles to regain control. He orders the camp burned and the men to return to the transports.

In the meantime, the Confederates ferry fresh troops over the river to cut off Grant’s line of withdrawal. These new men are the 15th Tennessee and 11th Louisiana under Pillow and Colonel Benjamin F. Cheatham. The Union troops exchange fire with the Confederate reinforcements, a Confederate gunboat fires into their ranks, Confederate guns fire across the river and the Union gunboats return fire in an increasingly confused battle. Grant tells an aide, "Well, we must cut our way out as we cut our way in."

At the landing, one Union regiment is unaccounted for, separated by the terrain. Grant gallops back to look for it, but finds only a mass of Confederate soldiers. He reverses course and rides for the river, finding that the transport captains have cast off lines. Grant later writes, "The captain of the boat that had just pushed out recognized me and ordered the engineer not to start the engine: he then had a plank run out for me. My horse seemed to take in the situation. He put his fore feet over the bank without hesitation or urging, and, with his hind feet well under him, slid down the bank and trotted on board."

The Confederates claim victory at Belmont. Grant’s demonstration is beaten off but his poor judgment gains invaluable experience. The Union losses are 120 dead, 383 wounded, and 104 captured or missing. The Confederate lose 105 killed, 419 wounded, 106 captured, and 11 missing.

Ulysses S. Grant, Missourian

Ulysses S. Grant graduates from West Point in 1843 as a second lieutenant and is assigned to the Fourth Infantry Regiment stationed at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, MO. He meets Julia Dent, the sister of a West Point classmate. They court, are engaged but the threat of war with Mexico delays the wedding.

In 1844, the Fourth leaves St. Louis for Louisiana and eventually, Texas when the Mexican War begins in 1846. After action in the battles at Cerro Gordo and Chapultepec, Grant returns to St. Louis in 1848. On August 22, 1848, Julia and Grant marry at the White Haven mansion which still stands today on Gravois Rd. near Grant’s Farm.

Grant remains in the army but is confronted by his commanding officer over excessive drinking. He resigns in 1855 and returns to St. Louis, living a life of successive failures. His father-in-law, Frederick Dent, gives the couple an 80 acre farm and Grant builds a cabin which he names “Hardscrabble”. The family lives on the farm from 1855 to 1858. Grant likes farming, but the poor quality of the land and Grant’s lack of expertise harvests nothing but failure. To make ends meet, he sells cord wood in St. Louis.

In 1859, Grant sells the farm and moves into St. Louis, taking a job as a rent collector in a relative’s real estate office. Failing there, he takes, and loses, a job in the U.S. Customs office. At the same time, Grant’s 2 younger brothers open a leather goods store up the Mississippi River in Galena, Illinois. In 1860, at their father’s insistence, they offer Grant a clerk’s job at $50 per month. He accepts, and moves to Galena. but shows little interest in the store or the trade.

The Civil War begins in 1861, President Lincoln calls for volunteers and Grant drills a local company, the ‘Jo Daviess Guards’, in Galena. He travels to Springfield, works for the Illinois adjutant general and applies for a commission, which is either lost or ignored, from the federal government. Eventually, Governor Richard Yates appoints Grant Colonel of the 21st Illinois Infantry. Grant leads these men across the Mississippi at Quincy to protect the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. The Union army has cleared most of the state of organized Confederate forces leaving a vacuum into which are drawn local guerillas and bushwhackers. During an operation toward the hamlet of Florida, Grant writes this compelling snippet in his memoirs:

“As we approached the brow of the hill from which it was expected we could see Harris’ [the southern commander] camp, and possibly find his men ready formed to meet us, my heart kept getting higher and higher until it felt to me as though it was in my throat. I would have given anything then to have been back in Illinois, but I had not the moral courage to halt and consider what to do; I kept right on. When we reached a point from which the valley below was in full view I halted. The place where Harris had been encamped a few days before was still there and the marks of a recent encampment were plainly visible, but the troops were gone. My heart resumed its place. It occurred to me at once that Harris had been as much afraid of me as I had been of him. This was a view of the question I had never taken before; but it was one I never forgot afterwards. From that event to the close of the war, I never experienced trepidation upon confronting an enemy, though I always felt more or less anxiety. I never forgot that he had as much reason to fear my forces as I had his. The lesson was valuable.”

From northeast Missouri, Grant is assigned to Ironton in the southeast, where he receives his commission of Brigadier General on July 31, to Jefferson City, then to Cape Girardeau in the bootheel and finally Cairo, Illinois at the juncture of the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers on September 4th. In the former places, he plans and begins operations but is re-assigned before they bear fruit.

After Kentucky's fragile neutrality falls apart on September 3, 1861, , Grant moves quickly to capture Paducah, Kentucky, on the Tennessee River and to neutralize Columbus on the Mississippi. The battle at Belmont, Missouri, teeters from early success to virtual fiasco. After that battle , the direction of Grant’s career is eastward during the Civil War and eventually to the Presidency.

Endnotes: 1) the town of Florida, Mark Twain’s birthplace, is now almost totally surrounded by Mark Twain reservoir.

2) Grant’s memoirs are online at http://www.bartleby.com/1011/ and http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/historiography/grant.html among others...

Slowly Bleeding Kansas

After the sack of Lawrence, John Brown, four of his sons and a few others go to Pottawatomie Creek. On May 24, 1856 they drag five proslavery settlers from their homes and hack them to death with broadswords and pikes.

This massacre unleashes a season of confrontation and mayhem. Missourians cross the border and join forces to strike at Brown. 50 US dragoons from Fort Leavenworth lead by Col. E.V. Sumner arrive and disperse both sides. The pro-slavery faction moves out of site and through Osawatomie, pillage the town and capture 3 prisoners including 2 of John Brown’s sons.

On June 2, Brown confronts a party of Border Ruffians lead by Henry Pate at Black Jack and they battle for 3 hours before Pate and his men surrender. They are exchanged for Brown’s sons and the other Osawatomie prisoners.

The violence escalates and it’s nexus moves into southeast Kansas to Fort Scott, a predominantly pro-slavery area. The military abandoned the fort in 1853 and sold the buildings which now serve as the nucleus of a growing town. Two of the buildings are hotels: one is the ‘Free-State Hotel’ and the other the pro-slavery ‘Western’. Trouble begins there in the summer of 1856 as a group of 30 pro-slavery settlers from South Carolina arrive under the auspices of the Southern Emigrant Aid Society. They terrorize free-state locals and attempt to drive them from Kansas. Free-state men reciprocate with their own brand of terrorism.

On August 30, Osawatomie is again attacked, looted and burned by 250 border ruffians and local pro-slavery men. Five anti-slavery men are killed included Fredrick Brown, John’s son. The pro-slavery leader, John Reid, wishes to move on Topeka and Lawrence with the same medicine, but this battle dissuades him.

In September 1856, a new territorial governor, John W. Geary, arrives in Kansas hoping to restore order. He’ll last until March 1857, to be followed by Robert Walker and then James W. Denver in December 1857.

Radical elements from both sides are drawn to southeast Kansas. James Montgomery leads the free state forces, now known as ‘Jayhawkers’, in a number of violent attacks. In April, he fights US troops at Paint Creek and his men kill one soldier. In May, they drive pro-slavery men from Linn County.

In retaliation, on May 19, 1858, a pro-slavery group of 30 men lead by Georgian Charles Hamilton, kidnap and shoot 11 free-staters, killing 5 and wounding 5, in what becomes known as the ‘Marais des Cynges massacre’.

Montgomery attempts to burn Fort Scott’s Western Hotel but fails. Geary arrives on a peace-keeping mission at the Western. After a brief riot, an uneasy truce is arranged that ends in December when Montgomery’s raiders rescue a free-state man jailed at Fort Scott on murder charges and kill the former Deputy Marshall John Little. Little’s fiancé, writes Montgomery, saying:

Montgomery:

Listen to me. Today I heard that you said in a speech a few days ago that you were not sorry you had killed John Little. That he was not killed too soon. Can you before God say so? Oh, the anguish you have caused.

He was one of the noblest men ever created, brave and true to his country and to his word. You can't prove that he ever injured an innocent person. A few days more and we were to have been married, then go south to trouble you no more.

But through your influence, he was killed. He was sent to another world without even time to pray or to say goodbye to his friends. But thanks to God, though you did kill his body, you can't touch his soul. No. No, it is in the spirit land. Now the cry of "the Osages are coming!" can awaken him no more. He quietly sleeps in our little graveyard.

But remember this. I am a girl, but I can fire a pistol. And if ever the time comes, I will send some of you to the place where there is "weeping and gnashing of teeth". You, a minister of God? You mean a minister of the devil, and a very superior one too. I have no more to say to you and your imps. Please accept the sincere regards of your future repentance.

Gene Campbell

John Brown, now planning his later foray in Virginia, returns to Kansas. Others hope to make Kansas a free state, Brown aims a blow at the slave power everywhere. During his last residence, he crosses into Missouri, destroys considerable property, frees 11 slaves and murders a slave-owner.

Several attempts are made to draft a constitution with which Kansas can apply for statehood. Some versions are proslavery, others free state. Finally, a fourth convention meets at Wyandotte in July 1859, and adopts a free state constitution. Kansas applies for admittance to the Union. However, the proslavery forces in the Senate are still able to oppose its free state status, and again stall admission. Only in 1861, after the eleven slave states secede, does the constitution gain approval and Kansas become a state.


End note – John Brown's adopted home of Osawatomie is the site of Kansas’ oldest state psychiatric hospital.

The crime against Kansas

In January 1856, Kansas free-staters hold a plebiscite affirming their illegal Topeka government. They elect a free-state legislature and a governor, Charles Robinson. Interestingly, the legislators are all Democrats and Robinson is a Republican. During the election, 2 men, one free-stater and one pro-slavery, are killed in a skirmish at Easton.

Though the election is fraudulent, the general population accepts it. This places President Franklin Pierce in quite a bind. He must continue to back the previously elected pro-slavery, squatter government under Shannon in order to keep the support of the southern wing of the Democratic Party. In case of ‘trouble’, Pierce offers Shannon the use of the army troops at Fort Leavenworth to keep the peace and enforce the laws of the legally elected Lecompton government.

On March 4th, the Topeka legislation seeks admission to the Union as a free state. Jim Lane and ‘Governor’ Robinson travel to Washington. Lane works with the old-line Democrats and Robinson with the anti-Nebraska Republicans in both the House of Representatives and then the Senate.

The House accepts the free state constitution and admission papers rather easily. The Senate, controlled by the Pierce administration, and with the debate run by Senators Lewis Cass and Stephen Douglas, do not. Douglas advances the logical proposition that Kansas has not enough population for statehood and the illogical one that the admission papers and constitution are Lane forgeries. The Pierce Democrats delay and deny Kansas’ admission to the Union.

The House sends a committee west to investigate events in the cauldron of Kansas. They arrive coincident with contingents of emigrants sponsored by Southern emigrant societies. With Kansas statehood now on the back burner, Judge Lecompte issues subpoenas to Robinson, Reeder, Lane and others for ‘treason against the state’. Robinson flees as far as Missouri, is arrested and returned to Lecompton. Reeder heads east in disguise and most other leaders disperse into hiding. Many are served, some resist and others are locked up. In attempting one arrest, the sheriff is wounded and the local US Marshall calls out the militia. Missourians respond to the call, stream across the border and again camp at Wakarusa under the direction of former Senator David Rice Atchison. Missourians again threaten the, mostly leaderless, free state stronghold of Lawrence.

In Washington on May 19, Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts gives a speech on the ‘crime against Kansas’, avowing that liberty and freedom are denied, rather than advanced, by the government’s actions and inactions. Sumner especially ridicules President Pierce and Senators Douglas of Illinois and A.P. Butler of South Carolina. Two days later, Sumner is caned into senselessness on the Senate floor by Butler’s nephew, Congressman Preston Brooks.

Meanwhile, the border ruffians camped on the Wakarusa demand the sidearms of Lawrence residents. Rebuffed, they ride into town to confiscate all they can. Unlimbering cannon in front of the Free State hotel, the hotel is burned, two newspaper offices destroyed, the library ransacked and then the town is looted. Their work done, the Missouri forces return to their homes.

the Wakarusa War

The legislators at Pawnee seat all the first election’s chosen men and exclude those recently elected in the disputed district’s second elections. The only free-state legislator resigns in protest and the entire body votes to adjourn to the Shawnee Mission, on the Missouri border and closer to their benefactors, supporters and voters. Reeder vetoes the act, which then passes over his veto.

In Shawnee Mission, armed with a brace of pistols, Governor Reeder presides over the 2nd meeting of legislature, which pretty much ignores his presence. President Pierce dismisses Reeder in order to appease his southern backers and in hopes of uniting the 2 wings of the Democrats together he appoints Wilson Shannon in his place, a loyal Democrat who had voted for the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Before Shannon’s arrival, the legislature passes a strict slave code and requires all voters to swear to uphold the law. The legislature wishes to establish a permanent capital and name it ‘Douglas’, but soon changes the name to ‘Lecompton’ – appealing to the vanity of US district Judge Samuel D. Lecompte.

Further west, free-staters convene at Big Springs on September 5, 1855, hoping to draft a competing free-state constitution and legislature. Overwhelming majorities in attendance are Democrats but Republicans watch closely for both direction and opportunity. The free-stares are well aware that the President, governor, judges, recognized legislature and, perhaps soon the army, are opposed to them. Former Governor Reeder attends and in a keynote speech urges them to protect their rights with a ‘steady aim and sure eye’ – a call to action!

After drafting a free constitution, the ‘Topeka Movement’ adjourns on November 11. Their organization quickly creates civil chaos as petty criminals dodge among the two factions seeking protection, especially over land claims. The murder of Charles Dow, a free- state squatter by proslavery Franklin Coleman brings the problem to a head. Over a hundred men congregate at the scene of the crime, 10 miles south of Lawrence. Pro-slavery men flea to Missouri and their houses are torched. The sheriff, with Coleman as guide, rides to arrest one of Dow’s friends. The posse is met, threatened and retreats to Shawnee Mission vowing vengeance on Kansas in general and Lawrence in particular.

Sheriff Jones appeals to Governor Shannon for 3000 militia to counteract the flouting of his authority. Only a handful responds to the call. Shannon calls on the US Army at Fort Leavenworth headed by Colonel Edwin Sumner, an anti-slavery man, who refuses to send troops unless ordered by the President. However, some 1500 Missourians with 7 cannon from the Liberty arsenal are also en route and soon make camp in Wakarusa, 3 miles from Lawrence. Jim Lane organizes the citizens of Lawrence, drills them and erects blockhouses and fortifications. Among the Kansas forces are seven large men from Osawatomie named Brown, armed with short swords and long pikes.

For the first time armies from Kansas and Missouri face off, beginning a war that will last until 1865. However this time, cold December weather dampens the men’s ardor. A pair of messengers from Lawrence are allowed to pass through Wakarusa with a message for the governor in Shawnee Mission. Reeder insists that the free-staters obey the laws and give up their weapons. The messengers are astounded and remind him that no laws had been broken and of their right to bear arm. Shannon rides west, noting that the men in the pro-slavery Wakarusa camp are Missourians. He arrives in Lawrence and sees the body recently murdered man. Finally convinced that war is being forced upon Kansas by the Border ruffians, Shannon returns to powwow with the Missourians and signs a ‘treaty’ convincing them to return home.

However, Jim Lane has a trick up his sleeve. He sends word from his camp to the governor back that the Missourians are not dispersing and are, in fact, moving on the town. Would the governor authorize him, in writing, to resist with arms? The governor does, discovers that no attack is truly forthcoming and that the order is now widely distributed stating that Kansans are now authorized to resist attacks on their state by Missourians.

So the Wakarusa War ends, with one man killed, the others going home and with a new determination, however achieved, on the part of free-state residents to defend themselves from Missouri border ruffians. On December 15, 1855 a large majority ratifies the Topeka Constitution showing the true free will of the Kansas populace.

Opening gambit in Kansas

Kansas’ first territorial governor, Andrew H. Reeder, of Pennsylvania, arrives in October 1854 and tours the state searching for a capital site. Many Missourians stake land claims in Kansas and return to their native state, intent on recrossing the border when needed to vote - the law is unclear as to voters residency requirements.

Reeder announced the election for congressional delegate. Missouri Senator Atchison leads a legion of Missourians across the border and to the polls. Ballot stuffing is an American tradition and the result is accepted when pro-slavery J.W. Whitfield is elected. One man is killed during the voting.

Elsewhere during the fall elections, many congressman that voted for the Kansas-Nebraska Act are ousted and their places taken by ‘anti-Nebraska’ men. The temper of the Congress will be different than before.

Reeder chooses Shawnee mission as the temporary capital, calls for the election of the territorial legislature on March 30, 1855 and takes a census. The census counts 8501 free whites, 242 slaves and 151 freemen living in Kansas.

New England emigrants begin steaming up the Missouri River to settle in Kansas, principally Lawrence. Missourians delay and harass them at the river towns. As the day of the legislative election draws nigh, Missouri border counties organize contingents to vote in Kansas. Steamboats offer special rates to these groups.

Lawrence is the focal point of Kansas realpolitik. A thousand border ruffians, several cannon and Claiborne Fox Jackson gather east of town to ‘help’ with the vote. Jackson explains the vague Kansas residency requirements for voting and disperses the men to vote in the neighboring precincts. Lawrence counts 781 pro-slavery and 253 free-soil ballots. Later investigations reveal 232 legal votes.

In Leavenworth an attorney questioning the balloting is tarred and feathered. An abolitionist newspaper press is destroyed.

80 percent of the 6200 votes cast are later deemed frauds. One free-state man is elected to the legislature. Reeder decides to certify all the returns except the most fraudulent, appeasing neither side. Dr. Charles Robinson writes influential friends in the East asking for more aid, more emigrants and 200 Sharps rifles. Until the arms can arrive, the citizens of Lawrence build a fine hotel-fort. Made of concrete, with portholes and battlements, the Free-State Hotel is a rallying point for free-soil settlers.

The newly elected legislature meets at the new capital site of Pawnee, adjacent to Fort Riley in western Kansas, where the tall-grass prarie ends and the short-grass begins. Reeder heads east to brief the President, but Atchison has already told a story that Pierce takes to heart. Evidence of proslavery aggression and usurpation of the vote are everywhere, yet Pierce refuses to believe them. The trouble draws newspapermen, journalists and writers, mostly abolitionist, to Kansas and one other man, Jim Lane of Indiana.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act

Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois calculates that the Kansas-Nebraska Act would end the political turmoil over slavery, appease the South and convince the North that a free economy would triumph over slavery in any fair contest. In the meantime the act would reunite the Democratic Party with him at the helm and catapult Douglas into the White House.

Calculus is a difficult subject. Senator Douglas’ grade in this test of political calculus is F.

The bill is simple enough: revoke the Missouri Compromise of 1820, open all territories to any settler and have the ballot decide whether to allow or exclude slavery.

Rather than Douglas’ vision, the bill splits the Democrats, reinvigorates abolitionists, brings attention, tension and bloodshed to Kansas and births the Republican Party,

President Franklin Pierce backs the act, making it a test of party loyalty. Senator David Atchison of Missouri was foremost among its backers. The act would pass along party lines but there was, in effect, no party in opposition to the Democrats. Opposition was almost entirely grass roots and homegrown. Mass meetings, antislavery groups and conventions resolve to oppose the act. Clergymen sign protests. In the north arises a whirlwind of resentment and condemnation. New England emigrant aid societies sent pioneers west for decades; now they focus on sending them to Kansas.

Amazingly, Pierce, Atchison and Douglas are totally surprised and aghast. They expect the entire United States to step aside and allow their constituents to have their way in Kansas. Indeed, the entire South expects the same. Pierce signs the bill on May 30, 1854. With his penstroke, the Civil War begins.

Bleeding Kansas

The first battle of the Civil War is Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. The first shots fired at US forces of the Civil War are at Harper’s Ferry by John Brown’s men on October 16, 1859. John Brown made his reputation in the 1850s ’Bleeding Kansas’. 'Bleeding Kansas’ results from the policy of ‘popular sovereignty’, enabled in the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 and fathered by the tremendously ambitious Stephen A. Douglas.

Douglas wishes to improve his Presidential chances with concessions to the South by repealing the Missouri Compromise and allowing a territory’s inhabitants to determine the slavery question. He grossly underestimates the negative reaction of anti-slavery forces.

Most of the early immigrants to Kansas are Southern and many from Missouri. Naturally, they lean to ensuring Kansas is a slave state. Northern anti-slavery organizations soon organize and send thousands of settlers as well. The eastern Kansas counties tend to be pro-slavery and free-staters settle in western Kansas - Atchison and Leavenworth, in eastern Kansas, are pro-slavery towns; Topeka, Lawrence and Manhattan, farther west, become free-state towns.

[It pays to review a little geography: In an era where 20 miles is a day’s travel, ‘eastern’ Kansas is the tier of counties along the Missouri border; ‘western’ Kansas was the next western tier. Today’s state of Colorado is part of the Kansas territory and present-day Wyoming is part of the Nebraska territory.]

In 1854, with 2900 registered voters, many Missourians cross the border to vote in Kansas’ first territorial vote. 6000 total votes are cast in the election, most by these ‘Border Ruffians’, for a Congressional delegate. This tactic continues in 1855 when the first legislature is elected, ensuring a strongly pro-slavery, pro-Southern legislature which meets and passes pro-slavery laws. This leads to the formation of a free-state shadow government in Topeka and the relatively bloodless ‘Wakarusa War’. President Franklin Pierce opposes the Topeka government and backs the elected pro-slavery government.

In May 1856 pro-slavery Border Ruffians attack Lawrence, burn the Free State Hotel, loot stores, ransack homes and demolish 2 print shops. The next day, Senator Charles Sumner is caned by Preston Brooks in the US Capitol for criticizing the South for the violence in Kansas. Days later, John Brown, his sons and some followers, hack 5 pro-slavery men to death in Pottawatomie, Kansas.

The Kansas capital moves to Lecompton and a congressional committee labels the previous elections to be fraudulent. Pierce ignores their finding, continues to recognize the pro-slavery Lecompton legislature and sends troops to disperse the free-state Topeka shadow government. In August 1856, both sides form virtual armies and hostilities rage through October. In all 56 people were killed on both sides. A new (the 3rd) territorial governor, John W. Geary, takes office and manages to broker a fragile peace.

By 1859, the influx of free-staters overwhelms the small number of pro-slavery immigrants and an uneasy peace reigns until the Civil War brings guerilla violence to the border in 1861.

Christmas 2007

Dear Family and Friends,

Greetings! It is this time of year again! The decades just seem to run together. We hope your year was happy, safe and fruitful. Here is our latest news…

Spring break in March took us to Virginia and Hank’s folks. We toured the US Capitol with a staffer from our Congressman, visited Chinatown and became separated half-a-dozen times in the Smithsonian. We managed a romantic getaway (for 2) in mid-week to Strasburg in the Shenandoah Valley.

Rachel is a teenager – turning 13 on June 15. She is in 8th grade at Thomas Jefferson Junior High (interestingly, Jefferson is well-represented in Missouri, not quite as much as Lewis and Clark, though). She stays busy throughout the school year with soccer, band and church youth group. Despite Hank’s tutoring she manages to do well in honors Algebra and shop and make the honor roll. She plays the piano and is playing baritone in the marching band which marched downtown in the MU and local high school homecoming parades and the Christmas parade. She plays in the city’s under-16 soccer league. Hank coached the team this year and Rachel was the leading goal-scorer. Luckily the team had great defense ;)

In July we vacationed at Cape Hatteras on the Outer Banks of North Carolina with Hank’s family. The surfing was good and the food was excellent. We celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary there on July 20th.

Jessica turned 9 on October 1. She is in 3rd grade at Rock Bridge Elementary. Her teacher does a great job with Jessica’s energy and temperament. Jessica played ‘up’ a league in soccer, in the 4th-6th grade league in Upward soccer. The field is longer and the action a bit more intense.

Mary’s father, Richard, celebrated his 80th birthday on October 2nd. Friends and relatives congregated for a shindig at the local winery. He is doing well within the limits of Parkinson’s and a small stroke he had in November and with the help of Mary’s mom, Sue. They are always up on the latest Wisconsin Badger and Green Bay Packer sports news.

Hank’s mom, Elise, broke her kneecap in October. After a month in a brace, she is into physical therapy, which sounds good for all of her, not just the knee ;) Hank’s father, Chuck/Charlie/Charles (depending on whose phoning) gets out on the golf course, into the ledgers and onto the church landscape. He and Hank give each other golf lessons during every visit. Eventually, they’ll improve.

Mary works MWF at the University‘s Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders adding numerous publications to her CV. Hank is working at the University computer department providing e-mail to the students, paychecks to the faculty and football for the alumni (well two out of three anyway).

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!


Mary, Hank, Rachel and Jessica

Springfield re-re-re-taken

After his victory at Lexington, Price leisurely marched his men southward through the mostly pro-Southern tier of Missouri’s western border counties. The march’s lack of resistance gave Union general, and department head, John C. Fremont cause for grief, mostly in the person of his political nemesis, Frank Blair, and the powerful New York newspapers.

Fremont yearned for a smashing military victory. He began moving his 5 divisions of 40,000 men south and west to intercept Price’s 12,000. Hunter’s division went to Versailles; Pope’s to Boonville; Sigel’s to Sedalia; Asboth to Tipton and McKinstry to Syracuse. Senator-General Jim Lane had another 5,000 in western Missouri.

Price had easily pushed Lane’s force aside in his northern movement to Lexington. Since then, Lane had captured supplies, burned Osceola and executed men accused as secessionist traitors while hoping for some measure of revenge to assuage his wounded pride.

The converging northern force had plenty of men to confront Price, but except for the foreign generals Sigel and Asboth, all the others were working to cross-purposes of personal ambition.
Moving ever southward, replacing burned bridges along the way, Fremont’s columns finally converged just south of ruined Osceola and moved toward Springfield where the rump rebel legislature was said to be in session.

On October 24th, Fremont sent his elite ‘Jesse Fremont guard’, commanded by Hungarian Major Charles Zagoni, to capture the assembly. Zagoni lead his 350 men west of Springfied and then in toward the town. Meeting resistance just a quarter mile from the town limits, Zagoni formed ad charged ahead. A solid rank of Confederates fired a volley and then gave way. Zagoni’s men galloped into vacated Springfield, raised their banner at the courthouse and found no evidence of the rump legislature after an eighty-five mile ride and five-minute skirmish. On the anniversary of Balaclava, Zagoni declared his men heirs to the Light Brigade. Two days later Fremont’s main force entered Springfield.

Despite Frmont's heroic dispatches announcing Springfield’s capture as a tonic for Bull Run, Wilson’s Creek, Lexington and Ball’s Bluff, President Lincoln was unimpressed. Price had scampered back into Arkansas, ready for further resistance. On November 2d, the aged David Hunter temporarily replaced Fremont. Hunter, feeling overextended 125 miles from the Rolla railhead, ordered a withdrawal to that point and Sedalia.

Volunteer officers proposed the ‘Lane treatment’ – leave a US flag flying in each town and if it came down their town would be burned at the next opportunity. Fortunately, the regular officers could not accept such harsh medicine. For the fourth time in 1861, citizens of southwest Missouri saw their country change hands but the seesaw state of affairs was gaining traction with the upper echelons in both Washington and Richmond.

Sterling Price

Sterling Price was born in Virginia in 1809. He studied law at Hampden-Sydney and moved with his family to Missouri in 1831.

Price prospered as a tobacco planter and served in the legislature from 1836-1838 and for four more years beginning in 1840 as speaker of the general assembly. In 1844 he was elected to the US Congress, served for 2 years and resigned to become colonel of the Second Regiment, Missouri Mounted Volunteer Cavalry in the war with Mexico. He advanced to Brigadier General and was appointed military governor of Chihuahua. Returning to Missouri he was elected governor in 1852.

A conditional Unionist, he was elected presiding officer of the Missouri State Convention which voted against secession. "Old Pap" threw his lot with the South after Fort Sumter and Lincoln's call for troops.

He was given command of the Missouri State Guard and lead them, first in retreat, then to victory at Wilson's Creek and a successful campaign resulting in the capture of a 3300-man federal force at Lexington. Price's force was then mostly incorporated into the Confederate army and saw action east of the Mississippi. From 1862 on, as a Confederate Major General, he suffered defeats as both a subordinate and a commander at Iuka and Corinth in Mississippi and Helena Arkansas.

His raid across Missouri in 1864 left him in retreat in Texas and Arkansas. He expatriated himself for a brief time in Mexico but returned to Missouri where he died in St. Louis in 1867 from chronic dysentery contracted during the Mexican War.

Nathanial Lyon

Nathanial Lyon was born in Ashford Connecticut in 1818 and graduated 11th in his class from West Point in 1841. Assigned to the 2nd Infantry he fought in the Seminole Wars and the Mexican War. After the war, Lyon participated in the controversial ' Clear Lake Massacre' in California and was reassigned to Fort Riley Kansas where he was accused of hounding an enlisted man to death.

'Bleeding Kansas' turned Lyon into a fanatical abolitionist, writing "It is no longer useful to appeal to reason, but to the sword.". Lyon transferred to St. Louis, used his friendship with the powerful Blair family to gain command of the St. Louis arsenal and captured pro-secessionist Missouri troops at camp Jackson outside of the city. Marching the captives back through the city, fighting broke out and over 100 people were killed or wounded.

Promoted to Brigadier General Lyon was given command of all Union troops in Missouri and began pursuing Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson's forces across the state which he defeated at Boonville and chased southwest past Springfield. Meeting a combined force of Missouri State Guard and regular Confederate forces at Wilson's Creek, Lyon was killed on August 10, 1861. Lyon's quick, perhaps rash, action in the early days of the war neutralized Confederate ambitions in Missouri, allowed Union forces to dominate the state and laid the groundwork for the bloody guerilla war for the next 3½ years.