Long Description:
Text of marker:
Camp
Jackson
At this location there occurred on May 10, 1861 an incident
that has become known as the Camp Jackson Affair. On that day
an encampment of the First Brigade of the Missouri state militia
was surrounded and captured by volunteers in the service of the
federal government. As the captured militia members were
being marched away a clash took place between the federal
volunteers and an angry mob that left a number of spectators either
dead or wounded. This incident greatly inflamed feelings in
St. Louis and throughout the state and galvanized many previously
wavering Missourians to choose one side or the other in the
impending civil war.
The extraordinary set of circumstances that led troops in
service of the federal government to take the extreme measure of
capturing a seemingly legal encampment of the state militia can
only be understood within the larger context of Missouri's relation
to the Union during the tension-filled early months of 1861.
Most Missourians in 1861 adopted a stance of "conditional
unionism." Such men dominated the state convention that met
in February and March and decided against secession and in favor of
a stance of neutrality.
The powerful secessionist minority was led by the newly
elected governor, Claiborne Jackson. Leading the opposition
was the unconditional unionist, Frank Blair, a Republican member of
Congress from St. Louis.
During the early months of 1861, paramilitary organizations
were created in St. Louis by both sides; unionists were formed as
Wide Awakes, while the secessionists styled themselves Minute
Men. Both groups kept their eyes on the St. Louis
Arsenal. This federal armory contained a store of 38,000
muskets, 45 tons of powder, and 11 cannon. In the arsenal
were weapons aplenty to equip a large army and seize control of the
state.
In February, the Union cause was boosted by the arrival of
Capt. Nathaniel Lyon, a Connecticut-born West Pointer who
vehemently hated secessionists. During the next two months,
Lyon energetically set about to strengthen the defenses of the
arsenal and organize and train the Wide Awakes, who were being
transformed into home guard companies. The Minute Men were
not idle either; Lyon and Blair constantly heard rumors of plots by
the secessionists to seize the arsenal.
In the tense weeks following the firing on Fort Sumter on
April 12, after Governor Jackson defiantly refused Lincoln's call
for troops, Lyon and Blair stepped forward to fill this void.
Soon some 10,000 men, mostly German Americans, were mustered into
federal service. As a further precaution, Lyons
arranged in late April to transfer most of the arms in the
arsenal to Illinois.
In the face of the aggressive actions by the St. Louis
unionists, the secessionists also stepped up their efforts.
On April 20, they seized the small arsenal at Liberty,
Missouri. At the same time, Jackson secretly wrote to
Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, requesting siege
guns with which to reduce the stout walls that ringed the St. Louis
arsenal. He also issued orders for the pro-southern militia
organizations in the state to muster for their six-day annual
encampments. The main objective of the muster was to counter the
buildup of union troops in St. Louis. It was with this in
mind that Camp Jackson came into being.
Camp Jackson was located in a large parklike area known as
Lindell's Grove, situated on what was then the western edge of the
city. On May 6, 898 men of the first brigade, including 300
Minute Men, assembled for the encampment. Two days later, the
siege guns, which had been seized from the federal arsenal at Baton
Rouge, La., arrived in St. Louis aboard a steamboat and were
immediately hauled to Camp Jackson. Lyon's spies quickly
informed him of this clandestine delivery.
The following day, May 9, Lyon decided to scout the
camp. Disguised as Frank Blair's mother-in-law, he was driven
around the camp where he observed the crated guns and noted streets
named in honor of the prominent Confederates Davis and
Beauregard. Armed with this evidence, Lyon was able to
convince the unionist Committee of Safety that it was essential to
capture the camp and eliminate the threat that an organized body of
secessionist troops could pose to St. Louis.
On May 10, Lyon's force of 6,000 volunteers was assembled at
the arsenal. He divided this force into three detachments and
ordered them to proceed by different routes to Camp Jackson.
By 3:30 p.m. the camp was completely surrounded. Lyon
immediately sent a note to the commanding officer of the camp. Gen.
Daniel M. Frost, demanding the surrender of his forces. As
General Frost was outnumbered eight to one, he had little choice
but to accede to Lyon's demand.
Some time was consumed organizing the captured militia for
the march back to the arsenal. During this delay, word of the
capture of Camp Jackson spread rapidly through the city and a large
crowd began to gather at Lindell's Grove. In the crowd were
numerous southern sympathizers. As the crowd magnified in
size it became increasingly belligerent. They first hurled
epithets at the "damned dutch," then clods of dirt, stones, and
brickbats. Soon after the column of troops and their
prisoners began to march down Olive Street, shots rang out and
Capt. Constantin Blandovski fellmortally wounded. In
response, the volunteers began to fire volleys into the crowd,
which stampeded in panic, leaving 28 mostly innocent spectators
dead and numerous others wounded.
Finally, at around 6 p.m., it was finally possible to resume
marching back to the arsenal; the next day most of them were
paroled.
The news of Camp Jackson electrified the entire state.
The state legislature, amidst rumors of an imminent attack upon
Jefferson City by Lyon and Blair, met in an extraordinary all-night
session; they gave Governor Jackson the absolute powers he long
sought to create and equip a state guard capable of resisting
federal invasion. Many wavering unionists now flocked to the
secessionist camp. Foremost among these was Sterling Price,
the popular former governor and Mexican War hero who had recently
served as president of the convention that voted to keep Missouri
in the Union. Jackson immediately placed him in charge of the
newly created state guard with the rank of major general.
As for the overall significance of the Camp Jackson Affair,
Bruce Catton, the eminent Civil War historian, has offered a good
summary:
"Blair and Lyon had won the civil war in St. Louis before it
really got started, which was just what they set out to do, but as
far as the rest of the state was concerned, they had won nothing;
they had simply made more civil war inevitable. The fighting
in St. Louis was clear warning that the middle of the road was no
path for Missourians. No longer would carefree militiamen
lounge picturesquely in a picnic-ground camp... Now they would
fight, and other men would fight against them, and no part of the
United States would know greater bitterness or misery."
