month, and presented the question before the people in a masterly and
able manner. The rebel Lieutenant-Governor, Thomas C. Reynolds, found
refuge under the protection of General Pillow, at New Madrid, and on the
same day, in the absence of Governor Jackson, issued a treasonable
proclamation to the people of the State.
While these events were transpiring in other parts of the State, General
Lyon had concentrated his forces at Springfield. Although he had perfect
confidence in the bravery and discipline of his troops, he yet felt his
inability to cope successfully with the superior numbers that he was
warned were marching against him, and appealed to General Fremont to
reinforce him. This General Fremont declined to do, alleging as a reason
that his best regiments had been withdrawn to Washington and Cairo—to
important points in the vicinity of St. Louis and the district under
General Pope, that required to be guarded; and General Lyon and his
little handful of brave men were left to meet, as best they might, the
fast accumulating forces of the enemy who were bent on their
destruction.
BATTLE OF DUG SPRINGS.
AUGUST 2, 1861.
General Lyon being thus compelled to act, and relying upon the
steadiness and efficiency of his army and superior artillery, decided to
meet the advancing foe with his small force, rather than retreat and
leave a large district of country exposed to secession ravages. In order
to meet the enemy on an open field he led his army as far south as Crane
Creek, 10 miles below Springfield. The march commenced at 5 o’clock, on
the afternoon of August 1st. The weather was intensely hot—the baggage
wagons were scattered over a distance of three miles—the march slow, and
one of great fatigue; and it was not until 10 o’clock that the camping
ground was reached and the march ended, only to be resumed on the
following morning, under a burning sun and with but a very scanty supply
of water. Slight skirmishes occurred during the day, but the shells of
Captain Totten’s battery caused a hasty retreat on the part of the
rebels. On the arrival at Dug Springs the advance continued on, while
the skirmishers maintained a brisk fire with the retreating pickets of
the enemy; Captain Steele’s regular infantry taking the lead to the
left, supported by a company of cavalry, the rest of the column being
some distance in the rear. A body of rebel infantry were now seen
approaching from the woods with the design of cutting off the Union
forces. Captain Stanley drew up his cavalry, and opened upon them with
Sharp’s carbines. It was a desperate undertaking to keep the rebels in
check—scarce one hundred Union cavalry against more than five times that
number of the enemy. The rebel infantry kept up the firing for some
minutes, when an enthusiastic lieutenant, giving the order to “charge,”
some twenty-five of the gallant regulars rushed forward upon the enemy’s
lines, and, dashing aside the threatening bayonets of the sturdy rebels,
hewed down the ranks with fearful slaughter. Captain Stanley, who was
amazed at the temerity of the little band, was obliged to sustain the
order, but before he could reach his company they had broken the ranks
of the enemy, who outnumbered them as twenty to one. Some of the rebels
who were wounded asked, in utter astonishment, “whether these were men
or devils—they fight so?”
The ground was left in possession of the Unionists, strewed with arms,
and the men were seizing the horses and mules that had been left, when a
large force of the enemy’s cavalry were seen approaching—some three
hundred or more. At the instant when they had formed, in an angle,
Captain Totten, who had mounted a six and twelve-pounder upon the
overlooking hill, sent a shell directly over them; in another minute,
the second, a twelve-pound shell, landed at their feet, exploding, and
scattering the whole body in disorder. The third, fourth, fifth and
sixth were sent into their midst. The horsemen could not control their
horses, and in a minute not an enemy was to be seen anywhere.
The Union loss was four killed and five wounded, one of whom
subsequently died, while that of the enemy was very heavy, fully forty
killed and an hundred wounded.
Having routed the enemy, General Lyon continued his march until he
arrived at Curran, in Stone county, twenty-six miles from Springfield,
where he encamped in order to avail himself of a choice of position.
Here, from information that had been obtained of the opposing force and
movements, a consultation was held with Generals Sweeney and Sigel, and
Majors Schofield, Shepherd, Conant and Sturgis, and Captains Totten and
Schaeffer, when it was determined to retire towards Springfield. The
enemy was threatening a flank movement, and the necessity of keeping a
communication open with Springfield was apparent to all the officers,
and induced General Lyon to return to that point. An important
consideration was, their provisions had to be transported one hundred
miles—the depot being at Rolla—and the men were exhausted with the
excessive heat, labors and privations of the campaign.
On the 5th of August they encamped at and near Springfield, and awaited
the expected encounter with firm hearts, resolute bearing, and a
determination to do or die.
SKIRMISH AT ATHENS, MISSOURI.
AUGUST 5, 1861.
While General Lyon and his noble associates were preparing to repel the
anticipated attack of the forces of McCullough and Price, another event
occurred that demands attention, and we turn to the town of Athens,
situated on the Des Moines river, twenty-five or thirty miles from
Keokuk, Iowa.
For three or four weeks that portion of Missouri had been in a state of
anarchy. There had been no security for life or property, nor any
effectual efforts made to enforce the laws and restore order. Actual
force had not as yet been resorted to, but the secessionists,
determining to drive the Unionists out of the country, had visited their
houses in squads—insulted the women, and threatened death, both by the
rifle and rope, unless their orders to leave the country were complied
with. Union men and their families, thus kept in a state of perpetual
alarm, in many instances abandoned their homes and possessions, and
obeying the cruel command, left the State. Some determined men, however,
resolved not to be trampled to the earth without resistance, and formed
companies of “Home Guards;” but they were powerless to protect
themselves or friends from assassination, and being scattered far apart,
were almost useless in a sudden emergency. Day by day the rebels became
more bold, until finally the Unionists went into camp, at the town of
Cahokia, eighteen miles from the Mississippi, in Clarke county, about
six hundred strong, with a brave commander who had seen service in
Mexico. They soon received two hundred and forty stand of arms from St.
Louis, and thus became, in a measure, prepared to protect themselves and
sustain their country’s honor.
In the mean time, the rebels had formed a camp at Monticello, the county
seat of Lewis county, about thirty miles south of Cahokia, under Martin
Green, a brother of the ex-Senator.
A few days subsequently the Unionists received word that Green was about
to attack them with eight hundred men, and sent to Keokuk and Warsaw for
assistance. Keokuk did not respond, but the Warsaw Grays, Captain
Coster, fifty in number, went over to the Union camp, though with the
intention of acting only on the defensive; but no enemy appearing,
Colonel Moore determined to rout the prowling bands of secessionists who
were hovering around him, and for three days his men searched in vain to
find an enemy to give them battle. Numerous secessionists were arrested,
but liberated on taking the required oath, and Moore finally marched his
command to Athens. A peace in the vicinity was proposed by the enemy,
with the object of lulling the suspicions of the Union men, and inducing
them to disperse; and through these influences the Colonel soon found
his forces dwindled down to one-half their original number.
But Green had not been idle. Constant recruiting had increased his force
to nearly fifteen hundred men, and he visited Scotland and Knox
counties, driving out the loyal citizens, insulting and abusing their
families, and committing fearful depredations upon them. At length it
was evident that he was about to attack the Unionists at Athens, and
again they sent to Keokuk for assistance. Seventy of the militia from
that place went up to Croton, a small town on the Iowa side of the Des
Moines river, opposite Athens, but refused to cross. Moore, however,
received reinforcements until his command reached four hundred, and
encamped in the town, awaiting the moment of action, with his main force
stationed on a street parallel to, and his right and left wings
extending to the river.
There and in this order the Federalists were attacked by a force of from
twelve to fifteen hundred men, with no chance of retreat, except by
fording a stream fully three hundred yards in width, and exposed to a
murderous fire. They were without artillery, while the enemy had an
eight-pounder, which was placed on the brow of the hill, in a position
to rake the principal street, while two imitation guns were placed in
sight, intended to inspire a fear, which few men of that little band
were capable of experiencing. The attack opened between five and six
o’clock in the morning. At its very commencement, Lieutenant-Colonel
Callahan, who commanded a company of cavalry in the rebel ranks, retired
across the river and continued his flight until he reached the
Mississippi river at Montrose.
A portion of Moore’s infantry were also seized with a momentary panic,
and fled across the river; but on seeing their companions stand firm,
many returned and took part in the action. About three hundred only of
the Unionists bore the brunt, and firm as regulars, delivered their fire
with coolness and precision.
The fight, regular and irregular, lasted about an hour and a half, and
then Colonel Moore led his centre to a charge, which routed the enemy,
and left him and his brave associates undisputed masters of the field.
The loss of the Unionists was ten killed and the same number wounded,
and that of the rebels fourteen killed and forty wounded.
BATTLE OF WILSON’S CREEK.
AUGUST 10, 1861.
General Lyon having returned to Springfield after his expedition to
Curran, found himself greatly embarrassed by his position, and was
forced by circumstances to determine the question whether he should,
with his inferior force, give battle to the enemy now pressing upon him,
or attempt a retreat to Rolla, encumbered with an immense train, and
exposed to the probability of being compelled to defend himself at any
point on the route where they might see fit to attack him. Their cavalry
force was large, and with this they could by their celerity of movement
cut off his communication and flank him whenever disposed. His appeals
for reinforcements had not been granted, yet he was daily indulging the
hope that he would soon be furnished a sufficient force to enable him to
meet the enemy with a reasonable prospect of success. The days were
passing on, the enemy was drawing nearer, and General Lyon was compelled
to make his decision. The alternative was before him, either to retreat
and leave the finest section of the State open to the ravages of the
enemy, or make the attempt to expel the foe, even though he might
sacrifice his own army in the effort. On the afternoon of the ninth of
August, he held a consultation with his officers, when after a full
discussion of the question, it was deemed advisable to attack the enemy
in his camp at Wilson’s Creek, nine miles south of Springfield. The
attack was to be made simultaneously by two columns, at daylight on the
following morning, Saturday the 10th; the first under command of General
Lyon and the second under General Sigel.
The rebel leaders were Generals Sterling Price, Ben McCulloch and
Brigadier-General John B. Clark. Somewhat singularly, both parties had
planned an attack at the same hour, but the darkness of the night
induced the rebels to postpone their movement. Their tents were pitched
on either side of Wilson’s Creek, extending a mile east and south of the
road, crossing to two miles west and north of the same, the creek
running nearly in the shape of a horizontal ᔕ. At the crossing of the
Fayette road the hills on each side of the stream are from two to three
hundred feet high, sloping gently on the north, and abrupt to the south
side. The valley is about half a mile wide.
While on the verge of this, his last engagement, General Lyon was
impressed with a sad presentiment—not regarding his own fate—but a fear
for his brave command. A terrible responsibility rested upon him. With
no adequate strength with which to cope with the enemy, hemmed in and
growing weaker every day, his position was both perilous and painful.
Unsupported, with his cry for help passed over, he saw nothing before
him but the barren satisfaction of dying, bravely performing his duty,
and protecting to the last the little army that he felt to be doomed.
With these feelings—sadly bitter they must have been—this glorious man
entered upon his last battle field.
The following day was one of remarkable quiet, and enlistments in the
Springfield regiment went on rapidly. During the afternoon, Captain
Woods’ Kansas cavalry, with one or two companies of regulars, drove five
hundred rebel rangers from the prairie west of the town, capturing eight
and killing two men, without loss on their part.
At eight o’clock in the evening, General Sigel, with six pieces of
artillery and part of Colonel Salomon’s command, moved southward,
marching until near two o’clock, and passing around the extreme camp of
the enemy, where he halted, ready to press forward as soon as he should
be apprised by the roar of General Lyon’s artillery that the attack had
begun. The main body, under General Lyon, had moved at the same time,
and halted about five miles west of the city, from whence, after
resting, they proceeded again about four miles in a south-westerly
direction, and slept until 4 A. M. on Saturday, the day of battle.
At five o’clock the pickets of the enemy were driven in, and the
northern end of the valley, with its thousands of tents and camp-fires,
became visible, and this most destructive battle, when the numbers
engaged are considered, commenced. The roar of the artillery was
terrible,—the rattling of the musketballs was like a storm of great
hailstones, and the clash of steel like hammers ringing on countless
anvils.
Riding forward in the thick of the fight, his war-horse bearing him more
proudly than usual that fatal day, General Lyon performed the work of a
dozen heroes. A stern sadness was on his face—a resolute fire burned in
the gray depths of his eyes. Twice was he wounded, leading on his men,
and his war-steed fell under him, pierced to the heart with a bullet.
Those who loved him grew anxious for his safety, for there was something
wonderful in the steady courage that made him forget the wounds that
would have driven another man from the field.
A member of his staff approached him as he stood by his dead horse, and
seeing blood upon his forehead, asked if he was hurt.
“I think not seriously,” he answered; and mounting another horse, he
plunged again into the terrible melee.
At one time, when the whirlwind of battle was at its height, General
Lyon desired his men to prepare for a charge, and the Iowans at once
volunteered to go, and asked for a leader. On came the enemy, crushing
in their strength, and there was no time for choice.
“I will lead you,” exclaimed the impetuous and fearless General. “Come
on, brave boys,” said he, as he took his position in the van, while
General Sweeney prepared to lead on a portion of the Kansas troops, and
the serried ranks of glittering deadly steel resistlessly moved on.
In the very act of leading those valiant men, with his hand uplifted in
an effort to cheer them on, and his noble face turned partly to his
command, but not altogether away from the enemy, a bullet pierced him,
and he fell, regretted not only by his devoted little army, but by every
man, woman and child who ever heard how bravely he fought for the flag
they love.
The battle continued from six until eleven o’clock, with but little
cessation; and then the gallant Unionists, overwhelmed by superior
numbers, were forced to retreat. In good order they accomplished it, and
_the enemy made no attempt to follow_, though their combined forces
amounted to about 20,000, while General Lyon’s command did not exceed
one-quarter of that number.
[Illustration:
DEATH OF GENERAL LYON.
]
The Federal loss was 223 killed, 721 wounded and 292 missing; the rebel
loss, (McCulloch’s report,) 265 killed, 800 wounded, 30 missing; Price’s
report of Missouri troops, 156 killed and 517 wounded.
The death of the brave General Lyon was universally deplored. Countless
were the tributes to his memory, and deep the sorrow when his body was
borne homeward, surrounded with military honors. From amid the murky
smoke and fearful glare of battle his soul was called home—the flashing
eye dimmed—the good right hand unnerved, and the fiery spirit, that
scorned danger and hated treason, was quenched forever.
SKETCH OF GENERAL LYON.
Brigadier-General Nathaniel Lyon was born in the State of Connecticut,
in the year 1818, and entered the military academy at West Point in
1837, where he graduated four years afterwards with the rank of
Second-Lieutenant of the Second Infantry. In February, 1847, he was made
First-Lieutenant, and for gallant conduct in the battles of Contreras
and Cherubusco, during the following August, was breveted Captain. On
the 13th of September he was severely wounded in a most desperate
assault, and in June, 1851, was promoted to a captaincy, which rank he
held at the time of the troubles in Kansas. As has been stated, he was
in command of the Missouri Volunteers at the capture of Camp Jackson,
and was for his well-proven bravery and eminent ability, promoted to the
rank which he held at the time of his death. In personal appearance he
was about five feet and eight inches in height, his frame wiry and
muscular. His hair was long and thick, his whiskers sandy and heavy, and
his eyes of a blueish gray. His forehead was high and broad, with a firm
expression of the lips, and a countenance that indicated an intellect of
no ordinary capacity. He was a strict disciplinarian, endeared to his
soldiers, and universally regretted by the whole country which followed
him to the grave with deep and mournful affection. In his will, made
before he started on his last campaign, he left his entire property to
the country for which he gave his life.
RETREAT OF THE UNION ARMY.
The Federal troops remained in Springfield until Monday morning, and
then started on their retreat towards Rolla, unmolested by the rebels.
The enemy entered the town immediately after its evacuation by the
Federal forces, having suffered the loss of a large portion of their
tents, baggage and camp stores by the attack of Sigel.
Hundreds of the inhabitants of this section were now compelled to leave
their homes, and the exiles were seen every day on the roads leading to
St. Louis, fleeing for refuge beyond the lines of the insurgents,
plundered of everything and destitute, having been forced to abandon
their homes and property to save their lives.
The loyal people who remained were favored with proclamations by
McCulloch and Price, which abounded in abuse and misrepresentation of
the Federal army, and were filled with professions and promises which
strikingly contrasted with their administration and conduct.
This calamity was not merely disastrous by its positive loss, but it
gave a prestige of success to the rebel leaders, and afforded an
opportunity for them to increase the spirit of rebellion among the
people, as well as to nerve themselves to other enterprises. On the
17th, fifteen hundred recruits had assembled in Saline county, and were
preparing to join General Price, or to engage in local operations in the
surrounding counties. On the 18th, about one thousand men from Chariton
county crossed the Missouri at Brunswick, with a large number of horses
and wagons, on their march to join Price’s division.
The rebels were so much elated with the death of General Lyon and the
abandonment of Springfield by the Federal troops, that they became more
reckless than ever in their depredations and persecutions of the loyal
citizens. In St. Louis on the 14th, after the retreat became known, they
became so bold and defiant that General Fremont proclaimed martial law,
and appointed Major J. McKinstry as Provost-Marshal.
On the 20th, a train on the Hannibal and St. Joseph’s railroad was fired
into, and one soldier killed and six wounded. The train was immediately
stopped, and two of the guerrillas were killed and five captured.
Five days afterwards, on the 25th, Governor Gamble issued a proclamation
calling for forty-two thousand volunteers to defend the State, restore
peace and subdue the insurrection; the term of service to be six months,
unless sooner discharged.
KENTUCKY.
Kentucky occupies a central position among the States, and is about four
hundred miles in length, by one hundred and seventy in width at the
widest point, where the State stretches from the boundary of Tennessee
across to Covington, opposite Cincinnati, on the Ohio river. This river,
from the Virginia line, follows a circuitous course along the Kentucky
border, a distance of six hundred and thirty-seven miles, until it flows
into the Mississippi at Cairo. The Cumberland and Tennessee rivers pass
through the western part of the State, as they approach their confluence
with the Ohio. Big Sandy river, two hundred and fifty miles in length,
forms for a considerable distance the boundary between Kentucky and
Virginia. The Kentucky river rises in the Cumberland Mountains and falls
into the Ohio river fifty miles above Louisville. These geographical
facts are necessary to a perfect understanding of the struggles in that
State, and are worthy of remembrance.
When the President of the United States, on the 15th of April, 1861,
issued his proclamation, in which the Governors of the States that had
not already committed themselves to the cause of secession, were called
upon to furnish their quota of seventy-five thousand men for the
national defence, Beriah Magoffin, Governor of Kentucky, replied by
saying, that, “Kentucky will furnish no troops for the wicked purpose of
subduing her sister States.”
This act was looked upon with both sorrow and surprise by the loyal
people of that State, and was hailed with delight by the Confederate
Government at Montgomery. The rebel Secretary of War congratulated
Governor Magoffin on his “patriotic” response, informed him that
Virginia needed aid, and requested him to send forward a regiment of
infantry without delay to Harper’s Ferry. Though sympathizing with the
enemies of the Union, Governor Magoffin was not prepared to set at
defiance the wishes of the people of Kentucky, and commit himself
unqualifiedly to the work of overthrowing the Federal Government.
Many of the prominent men of Kentucky, including a large number of the
wealthy citizens, were zealous in the promotion of the secession
interests. The most indefatigable efforts were made by them to force the
State into the ranks of the revolted States, and thousands of her young
men were induced to enlist, and encamp on the adjoining borders of
Tennessee, waiting for the hour when they could sweep Kentucky with the
rush of armed battalions, and overwhelm her peace and prosperity with
the clash of arms, and the thunders of artillery. The loyal sentiment
was, however, in the ascendant, although it was subdued and overawed to
a considerable extent. Between the two forces, therefore, it was deemed
expedient by her rulers that Kentucky should hold a neutral position,
and not ally herself with either the Federal or the Confederate
interest.