Organization of the 1st and 2d North Missouri Regiments, June and
July, 1861.--Campaigning in North Missouri During the Summer of
1861.--Order Consolidating the 1st and 2d North Missouri Regiments,
Thereafter Known as the 21st Regiment, Missouri Infantry Vols.
After the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 many political
disturbances and difficulties arose and he was inaugurated during a
time of overwhelming excitement. The government of Missouri at that
time was in the hands of those who were clamoring for secession from
the Union of States. Claiborne F. Jackson, who had been trained in the
political school of “States Rights,” was elected Governor. Early in the
spring of 1861 Camp Jackson was established in St. Louis and troops for
State service were mustered at that point.
The Southern states, one after another, withdrew from the Union and on
April the 11th, 1861, Fort Sumter was fired on by the Confederates.
This was the bugle call to arms, and President Lincoln’s proclamation
for 75,000 men to serve for ninety days followed. Frank P. Blair,
afterwards Major General, received authority from the general
government to organize and muster into service troops for the
prosecution of the war for the preservation of the Union.
The muster of troops for the state was very irregular and was the cause
afterwards of considerable confusion. Some men were enlisted for the
war, some for one year, then for three years; some to serve in the
state only, while others were enlisted for service in the northern part
of the state and others for the southern part. The army thus organized
was one of questionable authority. The Governor maintained that the
general government had no right to invade the state, and the latter
hesitated in regard to sending troops into a state not in open revolt
against the government.
During this period of hesitation and confusion Col. D. Moore was
commissioned Colonel and received authority to enlist and organize the
1st North Missouri Volunteers; and Col. H. M. Woodyard was given like
authority to organize the 2d North Missouri Volunteers. In the summer
and fall of 1861 these troops, acting separately, held North Missouri
against the Confederates under Cols. Porter and Green. The anomalous
conditions then existing in the state are explained by the position of
the Confederates, who claimed that they were resisting armed invasion
of the State by the Federal Government.