Rendezvous at Carthage
Crossroad of Destiny: Union or Disunion
The year of 1861 was one of crisis and decision making for Missouri. Throughout her history, Missouri had stood at many crossroads, for virtually all the major routes leading from East to West intersected one another in this state. But in 1861, Missouri stood at a different kind of crossroad. As the nation was splitting apart and drifting rapidly toward Civil War, no state struggled more than Missouri with the epic question of Union or Secession. The Battle of Carthage was one of a series of events of that fateful year in which Missourians confronted one another, first in the halls of politics and then on the field of battle. These men were struggling with nothing less than the momentous question of whether Missouri would opt for Union or Secession.
Governor Jackson: Missouri Should Stand by the South
On the side of Secession was Missouri's newly elected governor, Claiborne Fox Jackson. Governor Jackson, who at the Battle of Carthage, would be the only sitting governor of any state to take active command of an army in the field during the Civil War, had been inaugurated only four months before. In his inaugural address, he spoke for many Missourians when he proclaimed: "the destiny of slave-holding states of the union is one and the same. So long as a state maintained slaves within her limits it is impossible to separate her fate from that of her sister states… Missouri will not be found to shrink from the duty which her position on the border imposes; her honor, her interests, and her sympathies point alike in one direction, and determine her to stand by the South…" Jackson believed that disunion was inevitable and that Missouri should leave the Union and join the Confederacy at the first opportunity.
While most Missourians were of Southern origin, and sympathized to some degree with the South's desire to be free of Northern domination, only a small minority shared Governor Jackson's Secessionists outlook. Only one Missouri family in eight actually owned slaves, and during the decade of the 1850s slavery was declining in proportion to the total population. Still, slavery was important to Missouri's agricultural economy, particularly in the hemp and tobacco growing regions, and many of the state's political leaders were, like Governor Jackson, slave holders.
The Case for Unionism: Border State Ties to the North
While strong ties of sentiment to the South did exist, Missouri was a border state, surrounded on three sides by free states, with many links to the North. Railroads built during the 1850s tied Missouri's agricultural economy to Northern markets, while Yankee capital was financing the expanding number of industries concentrated in St. Louis. This rapidly growing industrial and trading hub had one of the largest foreign born populations in the nation, including 60,000 German-Americans, almost all of whom were staunch Unionists.
With Missouri's economic future clearly pointing northward, it was difficult for most Missourians to be fired by the same secessionist passion that engulfed Deep South. At the same time, the thought that the North, under the leadership of Abraham Lincoln (who received few Missouri votes in the 1860 presidential election) could force seceded Southern states back into the Union was equally repugnant notion.
Conditional Unionism: The Politics of Ambivalence
Torn in two directions, most Missourians held a political position known as "Conditional Unionism". They desired to remain in the Union, could not join in a war to prevent Southern states from seceding. This conditional Unionist position prevailed in the convention that met February 28 to March 22 to decide how Missouri would stand on the question of secession. The convention, chaired by ex-governor and Mexican War hero, Sterling Price, met and voted overwhelmingly to remain in the Union, but at the same time express the state's determination to remain neutral and not entered any war against her sister states of the South.
St. Louis: Missouri's Union Stronghold
The outcome of the states convention provided a setback to the plans of Governor Jackson and his supporters to bring Missouri into the Confederacy. He also had to contend with the opposition of a small but politically powerful group, centered in St. Louis, that were firmly behind Lincoln and determined to keep Missouri in the Union at all costs. The leader of this contingent was Congressman Frank P. Blair, Jr., assisted by Captain Nathaniel Lyon, a fiery Connecticut-born West Pointer. The backbone, of the Unionist cause was provided by the large German-American communities that existed in St. Louis at that time. These new citizens were firmly committed to the principles of republicanism and emancipation. Organized by Blair into a militant Unionist watchdog organization known as the Wide Awakes, many of these ardent unionists had been drilling since the beginning of the year. By the beginning of May, ten volunteer regiments, totaling 10,000 men, 80% of them German-Americans, had been enlisted in the U.S. Army. This was the core of the force used by Lyon and Blair to prevent St. Louis in the state government from falling under the Secessionists sway.
St. Louis Arsenal: Key to Control of Missouri
In the meantime, a secessionist organization, called the "Minute Men", was also being formed in St. Louis. These men were soon sworn into service as members of the First Brigade of Volunteer Militia, under the command of General Daniel M. Frost.
The target for both the Unionists and the Southern Rights groups was the St. Louis arsenal; it 60,000 stand of arms in abundant supplies of munitions could equip an army capable of controlling Missouri's destiny.
Collision Course: Camp Jackson
The collision between the federal volunteers and the state pro-Southern militia was not long in coming. On May 10, Nathaniel Lyon, with the aid of Franz Siegel and 6000 German-American troops, surrounded Camp Jackson where the 892 men of the First Brigade of the Volunteer Militia had gone to encampment for what Lyon and Blair strongly suspected was the purpose of seizing the arsenal. After the hopelessly outnumbered militia had surrendered and were being marched away as prisoners, a mob gathered and shots were exchanged that left one Union soldier and 28 civilians dead at the end of what became known as the "Camp Jackson Affair". This event had an electrifying effect on the state. Many of the former conditional Unionists came over to the secessionists cause. The state legislature immediately authorize the raising of a state guard to resist Federal invasion. At this time, Sterling Price abandoned in his own conditional Unionist position and accepted command of the state guard forces as a major general.
The Planters' House Meeting: End of Missouri Neutrality
An uneasy truce existed for a month before matters came to a head in a meeting at the Planters House in St. Louis. Here, after a four hour meeting involving Blair, Lyon, Price and Jackson, Lyon ended the meeting by announcing: "rather than to concede to the state of Missouri for one single instant right to dictate to my government in any matter… I would… see you and every man, woman, and child in the state dead and buried." Then turning to Governor Jackson, he declared: "This means war." Jackson and Price hurriedly departed St. Louis, burning the railroad bridges over the Gasconade and Osage Rivers behind them to discourage Union pursuit. At Jefferson City, Governor Jackson issued a call for 50,000 militia and then prepared to evacuate the capital.
The "Great Steeplechase" Lyon Pursues Jackson
Lyon, meanwhile, was making plans to pursue Jackson. He sent Sigel to southwest Missouri to prevent any link-up between Arkansas Confederates and Missouri Secessionists while he prepared to advance on the state capitol at Jefferson City. On June 15, he took control of the state capitol, which had already been evacuated by Governor Jackson and many members of the General Assembly. They had fled to Boonville where on June 17, a hastily assembled state guard force was scattered by Lyon's army. These actions came to be known as the "great steeplechase."
The next rendezvous for Jackson and his 6000 recruits came on July 5, when he faced Franz Sigel and his 1100 German-Americans on the plains northwest of Carthage.
Two Governments: One Provisional, the Other Exiled
Three weeks after the Battle of Carthage, the State Convention assembled again. After declaring the chief offices of the state to be vacant, the convention went on to establish a provisional Unionist government under the leadership of Governor Hamilton Gamble. This provisional government administered the state for the duration of the war. Meanwhile, deposed Governor Jackson convened a government in exile, at first Neosho and then Cassville in southwest Missouri. Here in late October, the rump legislature passed an Ordinance of Secession establishing Missouri as the twelfth Confederate State. Governor Jackson died in December, 1862 in Little Rock, Arkansas. His Lieutenant Governor, Thomas C. Reynolds, declared himself Jackson's successor. But the exiled government he headed never exercised any control over the affairs of the state and was shifted from place to place during the war before finally coming to rest in Marshall, Texas in late 1863.