The storm-clouds gathered with cyclonic swiftness. South Carolina
seceded Dec. 20, 1860, and sent a Commission to Washington to negotiate
for the delivery of all the forts, arsenals, magazines, lighthouses,
and other National property within her boundaries, organizing in the
meanwhile to seize them. Her Senators and Representatives formally
withdrew from Congress; the Judges and other Federal officials solemnly
resigned their places; and Maj. Robert Anderson, recognizing the
impossibility of defending the decrepit Fort Moultrie against assault,
transferred his garrison to Fort Sumter.
President Buchanan announced the fatal doctrine that while no State had
the right to secede, the Constitution gave no power to coerce a State
which had withdrawn, or was attempting to withdraw from the Union.
Mississippi seceded Jan. 9, 1861; Florida, Jan. 10; Alabama, Jan. 11;
Georgia, Jan. 19; Louisiana, Jan. 26; and Texas, Feb. 1;--all the Cotton
States precipitately following South Carolina's example.
24
Each made haste--before or after Secession--to seize all the United
States forts and property within her borders.
In the midst of this political cataclysm the Legislature of Missouri met
on the last day of 1860.
The Senate consisted of 25 Democrats, seven Unionists, and one
Republican; the House of 85 Democrats, 35 Unionists, and 12 Republicans.
The retiring Governor--Robert M. Stewart--sent in his final message
Jan. 3, and the same day his successor--Claiborne F. Jackson--was
inaugurated, and delivered his address. Gov. Stewart was a typical
Northern Democrat, born in New York, but long a resident of Missouri. He
was a strong Douglas man, and believed that the Southern people had the
Constitutional right to take their slaves into the Territories and hold
them there, and that this right ought to be assured them. He had
never pretended to be in love with Slavery, but he believed that the
Constitution and laws granted full protection to the Institution. He
denied the right of Secession, particularly as to Missouri, which had
been bought with the money of the whole country. In his final message
he did not hesitate to clearly set this forth, and to denounce South
Carolina as having acted with consummate folly. He recognized the Union
as the source of innumerable blessings, and would preserve it to the
last. He said:
As matters are at present Missouri will stand by her lot, and hold to
the Union as long as it is worth an effort to preserve it. So long as
there is hope of success she will seek for justice within the Union.
She cannot be frightened from her propriety by the past unfriendly
legislation of the North, nor be dragooned into secession by the extreme
South. If those who should be our friends and allies undertake to render
our property worthless by a system of prohibitory laws, or by reopening
the slave trade in opposition to the moral sense of the civilized world,
and at the same time reduce us to the position of an humble sentinel to
watch over and protect their interests, receiving all the blows and none
of the benefits, Missouri will hesitate long before sanctioning such an
arrangement She will rather take the high position of armed neutrality.
She is able to take care of herself, and will be neither forced nor
flattered, driven nor coaxed, into a course of action that must end in
her own destruction.
25
The inaugural address of the new Governor was, under a thin vail of
professed love for the Union, a bitter Secession appeal. He said that
the destiny of the Slaveholding States was one and the same; that what
injured one necessarily hurt all; that separate action meant certain
defeat by the insolent North, which was alone and wholly responsible for
the present deplorable conditions. He applauded the "gallantry" of South
Carolina, urged that she be not condemned for "precipitancy," and said
significantly: "If South Carolina has acted hastily, let not her error
lead to the more fatal one--an attempt at coercion."
With reference to the Republican Party and the future policy of
Missouri, he said:
The prominent characteristic of this party * * * is that it is purely
sectional in its locality and its principles. The only principle
inscribed upon its banner is Hostility to Slavery;--its object not
merely to confine Slavery within its present limits; not merely to
exclude it from the Territories, and prevent the formation and admission
of any Slaveholding States; not merely to abolish it in the District of
Columbia, and interdict its passage from one State to another; but to
strike down its existence everywhere; to sap its foundation in public
sentiment; to annoy and harass, and gradually destroy its vitality,
by every means, direct or indirect, physical and moral, which human
ingenuity can devise. The triumph of such an organization is not the
victory of a political party, but the domination of a Section. It
proclaims in significant tones the destruction of that equality among
the States which is the vital cement for our Federal Union. It places 15
of the 33 States in the position of humble recipients of the bounty,
or sullen submissionists to the power of a Government which they had no
voice in creating, and in whose councils they do not participate.
26
It cannot, then, be a matter of surprise to any--victors or
vanquished--that these 16 States, with a pecuniary interest at stake
reaching the enormous sum of $3,600,000,000 should be aroused and
excited at the advent of such a party to power.
Would it not rather be an instance of unprecedented blindness and
fatuity, if the people and Governments of these 16 Slaveholding States
were, under such circumstances, to manifest quiet indifference, and to
make no effort to avoid the destruction which awaited them?
The meeting of the Legislature naturally brought to the State Capital at
Jefferson City all of the powerful coterie which was self-charged with
the work of taking Missouri into the road whither South Carolina was
leading the Cotton States. This coterie included the Judges of the
Supreme Court and all the State officials, and the United States
Senators and Representatives. Ever since the Anti-Benton faction had
accomplished the great Senator's defeat, the shibboleth for admission
into the higher circles of Missouri Democracy had been "Southern
Rights." As the mass of the Middle Class Democrats favored Senator
Douglas's plan of letting the settlers in each Territory decide for
themselves whether they would have Slavery, it was highly politic for
every candidate to claim that he was a Douglas Democrat. It must be
known to the inner ring, however, that he was at heart fully in accord
with the views of the extreme Pro-Slavery men, and ready at the word to
join the Secessionists. So thorough was this preliminary organization,
that while in Missouri tens of thousands of professed Union men went
over to Secession when the stress came, there was no instance of an
avowed Pro-Slavery man cleaving to the side of the Union.
27
Next to Gov. Jackson,--surpassing him in intellectual acuteness and
fertile energy,--was Lieut.-Gov. Thos. C. Reynolds, then in his 40th
year, a short, full-bodied man, with jet-black hair and eyes shaded by
gold-rimmed glasses. He boasted of being born of Virginia parents in
South Carolina, but some of the Germans claimed to know that his right
name was Reinhold, and that he was a Jew born in Prague, the Capital of
Bohemia, and brought to this country when a child. He was a man of more
than ordinary ability, and had accomplishments quite unusual in that
day.
He spoke French, German and Spanish fluently, wrote profusely and with
considerable force, and prided himself on being a diplomat. He had seen
some service as Secretary of Legation and Charge d' Affaires at
Madrid. He had been elected as a Douglas Democrat, but was an outspoken
Secessionist, and as he was ex-officio President of the Senate, he had
much power in forming committees and shaping legislation. He clung to
the wrecked rebel ship of state to the last, went with Gov. Jackson
and the rest when they were driven out of the State, assumed the
Governorship when Jackson--worn out by the terrible strains and
vicissitudes--died at Little Rock, Ark., in December, 1862--and was last
heard from near the end of the war, with the shattered and melancholy
remnants of the Missouri State Government and troops, on the banks of
the Rio Grande, writing furious diatribes against Gen. Sterling Price,
the admired leader of the Missouri Confederates.
28
Another man of great influence in the State was United States Senator
James S. Green, a Virginian by birth, but who had been a resident of
Missouri for about a quarter of a century. He was a lawyer of fine
talents, and in the Senate ranked as a debater with Douglas, Seward,
Chase, Toombs, Wigfall, Fessenden, Wade, and others of that class. In
Missouri he was one of the leaders of the Ultra-Slavery "Softs" against
Thos. H. Benton; had been Minister to New Granada, and Representative
in Congress, and in the Senate belonged to the Jefferson
Davis-Toombs-Wigfall cabal, which was planning the disruption of the
Union. His term expiring March 3, 1861, he was now in Jefferson City for
the rather irreconcilable purposes of securing his re-election to the
United States Senate and of fulfilling his pledge to his Secessionist
colleagues to carry Missouri out of the Union.
His colleague--Senator Trusten Polk--a strong, kindly, graceful man--was
there to assist him in both purposes. Born in Delaware, he had been a
resident of Missouri since 1835, elected Governor of the State in 1856,
resigned to accept Benton's seat in the Senate, from which he was to be
expelled in 1862 for disloyalty, and to follow the failing fortunes of
the Missouri Confederates to the banks of the Rio Grande.
The problem of absorbing intensity for the Secession leaders--Messrs.
Jackson, Reynolds, Green, Polk and others--was to win over, entrap or
constrain a sufficient number of the 117 "Doubtful" voters out of every
165, to give them a working majority in the State. There was fiery zeal
enough and to spare on the Secession side; what was needed was skillful
management to convince the Union-loving peace-loving majority that the
Northern "Abolitionists," flushed with victory, meant unheard-of wrongs
and insults to the South; that Missouri must put herself in shape
to protect her borders, call a halt on the insolent North, and in
connection with the other Border States be the arbiter between the
contending sections, and in the last resort ally herself with the other
Slave States for mutual protection.
29
A man to be reckoned with in those days was the Commander of the
Department of the West, which included all that immense territory
stretching from the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains, except Texas,
New Mexico, and Utah. This man was the embodiment of the Regular Army
as it was developed after the War of 1812. At this time that Army was
a very small one--two regiments of dragoons, two of cavalry, one of
mounted riflemen, four of artillery, and 10 of infantry, making, with
engineers, ordnance and staff, a total of only 12,698 officers and
men--but its personnel and discipline were unsurpassed in the world.
Among its 1,040 commissioned officers there was no finer soldier than
William Selby Harney. A better Colonel no army ever had. A Colonel, mind
you--not a General; there is a wide difference between the two, as we
found out during the war. There are very many Americans--every little
community has at least one--who, given a regiment, where every man is
within reach of his eye and voice, will discipline it, provide for it,
rule it, and fight it in the very best fashion. Give him some piece of
work to do, of which he can see the beginning and the end, and he will
make the regiment do every pound of which it is capable. But put in
command of a brigade, anything beyond voice and eye, set to a task
outreaching his visual horizon, he becomes obviously unequal to the
higher range of duty.
[Illustration: 029-The Harney Mansion]
30
A form of commanding hight (sp.), physique equal to any test of activity
or endurance, a natural leader of men through superiority of courage
and ability, William Selby Harney had for 43 years made an unsurpassed
record as a commander of soldiers. He had served in the everglades of
Florida, on the boundless plains west of the Mississippi, and in Mexico,
during the brilliantly spectacular war which ended with our "reveling
in the Halls of the Montezumas." He it was, who, eager for his country's
honor and advancement, had, while the diplomats were disputing with
Great Britain, pounced down upon and seized the debatable island of
San Juan in Vancouver waters. For this he was recalled, but the island
remained American territory. He was soon assigned to the Department of
the West, with headquarters at St. Louis.
31
He had been for 12 years the Colonel of the crack 2d U. S. Dragoons, and
for three years one of the three Brigadier-Generals in the Regular Army,
his only seniors being Maj.-Gen. and Brevet Lieut.-Gen. Winfield Scott,
the General-in-Chief; Brig.-Gen. John E. Wool, commanding the Department
of the East; and Brig.-Gen. David E. Twiggs, commanding the Department
of Texas.
Gen. Harney's assignment, while a recognition of his eminent fitness
for ruling the territory over which he had campaigned for more than a
quarter of a century, was highly gratifying to him inasmuch as he
was married to a wealthy St. Louis woman, and in that city he had an
abundance of the luxurious social enjoyment so dear to the heart of the
old warrior. A Southerner by birth and education, a large Slave-owner,
with all his interests in the South, and at all times seemingly in
full sympathy with the Southern spirit that dominated the Army, the
Secessionists sanguinely expected that he would prove as pliant to their
proposals as had Gen. Twiggs, the Commander of the Department of
Texas. We shall see how soldierly instincts and training measurably
disappointed them.
32
To return to the Missouri Legislature: Lieut.-Gov. Reynolds could, as a
lieutenant always can, be more outspoken and radical than his chief,
who labored under responsibility. On the day the Legislature met he
published an important letter which thoroughly indicates the feeling
of the Secessionists at that period. He urged the General Assembly to
promptly express the determination of Missouri to resist every attempt
by the Federal Government to coerce any State to remain in the Union, or
to use force in any way to collect revenues or execute the laws in any
seceding State. He denounced President Buchanan's distinction between
"coercing a State" and "compelling the citizens of the State to obey
the laws of the United States" as a "transparent sophistry." "To levy
tribute, molest commerce, or hold fortresses, are as much acts of war as
to bombard a city." He also urged immediate and thorough organization
of the militia and other preparations for "putting the State in complete
condition for defense." If the present controversy could not be adjusted
before March 4, the State of Missouri "should not permit Mr. Lincoln to
exercise any act of Government" within her borders.
This was certainly distinctly defiant, and shrewdly calculated to gather
about the new administration all the wavering men who could be attracted
by inflammatory appeals to their prejudices against the North, to their
State pride, and to their hopes of making Missouri the arbiter in
the dispute. Lieut.--Gov. Reynolds followed up his pronunciamento by
carefully organizing the Senate committees with radical Secessionists at
the head, and the immediate introduction of bills ably contrived to put
the control of the State in the hands of those who favored Secession.
These committees promptly reported several bills.
33
One provided for calling a State Convention, an effective device by
which the other Southern States had been dragged into Secession. Another
provided for the organization of the Militia of the State, which would
be done by officers reliable for Secession, and the third was intended
to extinguish resistance by taking away much of the police power of the
Republican Mayor of St. Louis, who had at his back the radical Germans,
organized into semi-military Wide-Awake Clubs. All these bills seemed to
be heartily approved all over the State, and the Southern Rights leaders
were exultant at their success. Apparently the 117 "Doubtfuls" were
flocking over to them.
It seemed for a few momentous days in the opening of 1861 that Missouri
would be inevitably swept into the tide of Secession, and even in St.
Louis, the stronghold of Republicanism, a monster mass meeting, called
and controlled by such afterwards--strong loyalists as Hamilton R.
Gamble, later the Union Governor of the State, Nathaniel Paschall,
James E. Yeatman, and Robert Campbell, unanimously passed resolutions
declaring slave property to be held as a Constitutional right which the
Government should secure, and if it did not, Missouri "would join with
her sister States and share their duties and dangers," and that the
Government should not attempt to coerce the seceding States. This word
"coerce" had an extraordinarily ugly sound to all ears, and was a potent
enchantment in taking many of the professedly Union men into the ranks
of the rebellion. Even Horace Greeley recoiled from "a Union held
together by bayonets."
34
The bill "to call a Convention to consider the relations of the State of
Missouri to the United States, and to adopt measures for vindicating the
sovereignty of the State, and the protection of her institutions," was
promptly reported back to both Houses on the 9th of January, and as
promptly passed by them, with only two adverse votes in the Senate and
18 in the House. Of the latter 11 were from St. Louis.
The Secessionists proceeded to a joyful celebration of this new triumph.
They hastened at once to another step to ally Missouri with the South.
A Commissioner arrived from the State of Mississippi to ask the
co-operation of Missouri in measures of common defense and safety. The
Governor received him with the distinction accredited an Embassador from
a foreign power, and recommended the Legislature to do likewise. The
serviceable Lieut.-Gov. Reynolds carried out this idea by putting
through a joint resolution to receive the Commissioner in the House
Chamber, with both bodies, the Governor and other chief officers of the
State, and the Judges of the Supreme Court in attendance, and with every
other honor. He dictated that upon the announcement of the entrance of
the Commissioner, the whole body should respectfully rise. The radical
Union men from St. Louis resisted this vehemently, and did not hesitate
to apply the ugly word "traitor" to the Commissioner, and those who were
aiding and abetting him.
35
The Commissioner made a long address, in which he said that the
Union had been dissolved, could never be reconstructed; that war was
inevitable, and the people of Mississippi earnestly invited those of
Missouri to unite with their kindred for common defense and safety. A
few days later the Legislature adopted a resolution against coercion,
and another introduced by George Graham Vest, of the Committee on
Federal Relations, afterwards Senator in the Confederate House from
Missouri, and for 24 years representing Missouri in the Senate of the
United States. This resolution declared that so "abhorrent was the
doctrine of coercion, that any attempt at such would result in the
people of Missouri rallying on the side of their Southern brethren to
resist to the last extremity." There was only one vote against this in
the Senate, and but 14 in the House.
The eager young Secessionists were impatient to emulate their brethren
farther south, and strike a definite blow--seize something that would
wreck the sovereignty of the United States. Forts there were none. In
the historic old Jefferson Barracks, below St. Louis, there were only
a small squad of raw recruits, and a few officers, mostly of Southern
proclivities, whom it would be cruel to turn out of house and home while
they were waiting "for their States to go out."
36
There were but two Arsenals in the State; a small affair at Liberty, in
the northwest, near the Missouri River, which contained several hundred
muskets, a dozen cannon, and a considerable quantity of powder. The
other was the great Arsenal at St. Louis, one of the most important in
the country. It covered 56 acres of ground, fronting on the Mississippi
River, was inclosed by a high stone wall on all sides but that of the
river, and had within it four massive stone buildings standing in a
rectangle. In these were stored 60,000 stands of arms, mostly Enfield
and Springfield rifles, 1,500,000 cartridges, 90,000 pounds of powder, a
number of field pieces and siege guns, and a great quantity of munitions
of various kinds. There were also machinery and appliances of great
value. The Arsenal was situated on rather low ground, and was commanded
from hills near by. At the beginning of 1861 the only persons in it were
some staff officers, with their servants and orderlies, and the unarmed
workmen. The officer in command was Maj. Wm. Haywood Bell, a North
Carolinian, graduate of West Point, and Ordnance Officer, but who
had spent nearly the whole of his 40 years' service in Bureau work,
attending meanwhile so providently to his own affairs that he was quite
a wealthy man, with most of his investments in St. Louis.
Gov. Claiborne F. Jackson had as his military adviser and executant
Maj.-Gen. Daniel M. Frost, a New Yorker by birth and a graduate of West
Point. He had served awhile in the Mexican War, where he received a
brevet as First Lieutenant for gallantry at Cerro Gordo, and then became
Quartermaster of his regiment. He had been sent to Europe as a student
of the military art there, but resigned in 1853, to take charge of a
planing mill and carpentry work in St. Louis. He subsequently became
a farmer, was elected to the Missouri Senate, entered the Missouri
Militia, rose to be Brigadier-General, and was sanguinely expected to
become for Missouri what Lee and Jos. E. Johnston were for Virginia,
Beauregard for South Carolina, and Braxton Bragg for Louisiana. He was
really a good deal of a soldier, with foresight and initiative force,
and had the Governor had the courage to follow his bold counsels, the
course of events might have been different.
[Illustration: General Claiborne Jackson]
37
As early as Jan. 8 he visited the Arsenal, and had an interview with its
commandant, which he reported to the Governor as entirely satisfactory.
Maj. Bell was wholly in sympathy with the South, and regarded the
Arsenal as being virtually Missouri's property when she should choose to
demand it. His honor as a soldier would compel him to resist any attack
from an irresponsible mob, but a summons from the sovereign State
of Missouri would meet with the respectful obedience to which it was
entitled. It was therefore decided that this was the best shape in which
to leave matters. Maj. Bell would hold the Arsenal in trust against both
the radical St. Louis Germans and over-zealous Secessionists, who wanted
to seize it and arm their particular followers. When Gen. Frost had
organized the Missouri Militia to his satisfaction, he would march into
the Arsenal, and under the plea of protecting it from mobs, use its
contents to thoroughly arm and equip his Militia, which would thus be
put in very much better shape than the troops of any other State.
Meanwhile, Gen. Frost recommended that as little as possible be said
about the Arsenal, in order to avoid attracting attention to it.
All the same, the Arsenal was intently watched by both sides, and for
the next four months it was the great stake for which they played, since
its possession would go far toward giving possession of the State. There
were but 150,000 stands of arms in the rest of the South, while here
were 60,000.
38
Even before South Carolina seceded the ardent young Secessionists of St.
Louis had begun the organization of "Minute Men" to "protect the State."
Naturally, their first step in protecting the State would be to seize
the Arsenal, to prevent its arms being used to "coerce the people."
Their headquarters were in the Berthold House, a fine residence at the
corner of Fifth and Pine streets, over which floated the Secession flag.
Into these companies went numbers of young men from the best families
of the South, who had come to St. Louis to take advantage of business
opportunities, and young Irishmen, of whom there were many thousands
in the city, and who; having in their blood an antipathy to "the Dutch"
dating from William of Orange's days, were skillfully wrought upon by
the assertion that the "infidel, Sabbath-breaking, beer-drinking Dutch
who had invaded St. Louis" were of the same breed as those who harried
Ireland and inflicted innumerable persecutions in 1689. Very effective
in this was one Brock Champion, a big-hearted, big-bodied young
Irishman, of much influence among his countrymen, who played little
part, however, in the war which ensued. More conspicuous later was Basil
Wilson Duke, a bright Kentucky lawyer, 25 years old, who was Captain of
one of the companies, and afterwards became the second in command and an
inspiration to John H. Morgan, the great raider. The Captain of another
company was Colton Greene, a South Carolinian, a year or two younger
than Duke, a merchant, a man of delicate physique and cultivated mind,
but of great courage and constancy of purpose.
39
Everywhere in the State began a systematic persecution of the
Unconditional Union men and the bullying of the Conditional Union men.
Secession flags in numbers floated from buildings in St. Louis, Rolla,
Lexington, Jefferson City, Kansas City, and elsewhere. Union meetings
were disturbed and broken up in all the larger towns, the Star Spangled
Banner torn down and trampled upon, and the borders of Kansas and Iowa
were thronged with Union refugees telling how they had been robbed,
maltreated, and threatened with death, their stock killed, their houses
and crops burned by the "White Trash" which the Slave Power had turned
loose upon them.
When Maj. Bell had talked of "irresponsible mobs," he may have thought
of premature young fire-eaters like Duke, Greene, and Champion, eager
for the distinction of capturing the Arsenal, covetous of distributing
its arms to their followers. Most likely, however, he had in mind forays
from Illinois, or by the radical Germans of St. Louis, who were ill
disposed toward seeing their enemies equipped from its stores.
Gen. Frost had the Germans in mind as early as Jan. 8, probably
immediately following his interview with Maj. Bell, for he sent out a
secret circular to his trusted subordinates instructing them that "upon
the bells of the churches sounding a continuous peal, interrupted by
a pause of five minutes, they should assemble with their men in their
armories, and there await further orders." One of these circulars fell
into the hands of a good Union man, who immediately took it to Frank
P. Blair. It was found that it was the Catholic church bells that were
relied upon to do the ringing, implying that the enthusiastic, reckless
Irishmen were to take the initiative.
40
The Archbishop of St. Louis was immediately seen, to prohibit the bells
of the churches being used as a tocsin to light the flames of civil war.
Mr. Blair sent the circular with other information to Gen. Scott, with
an urgent request that an officer of sounder loyalty supersede Maj.
Bell, and that some troops be sent to Jefferson Barracks against an
emergency. Mr. Montgomery Blair, brother of F. P. Blair, Jr., and soon
to be Postmaster-General, Gov. Yates, of Illinois, and President-elect
Lincoln supported this request. A fortnight later Maj. Bell was
relieved, and assigned to duty in the East.
A gallant one-armed Irish First Lieutenant of the 2d U. S., one Thomas
W. Sweeny, of whom we shall hear more later, was ordered to Jefferson
Barracks, where it was supposed his influence with his countrymen might
offset that of Mr. Champion. A small squad of Regulars was sent him from
Newport Barracks.
Maj. Bell foreseeing that the Army was to be no longer a place for a
quiet gentleman with business tastes, resigned his commission, to remain
with his well-placed investments in St. Louis.
41
All this disturbed the Secessionists. They saw that the Government had
an eye on the important Arsenal, and did not intend to give it up as
tamely as it had other places in the South. The arrival of the Regulars
was made the basis of inflammatory appeals that the Government
was trying to "overawe and coerce the people." Two days later this
"intimidation" became flagrant. Isaac H. Sturgeon, Assistant United
States Treasurer at St. Louis, a Kentuckian and Secessionist, had for
reasons of his own reported to President Buchanan that he was concerned
about the safety of $400,000 in gold in his vaults. The President handed
the letter to Gen. Scott, who sent an order to Jefferson Barracks which
resulted in a Lieutenant with 40 men being sent to the Post Office
Building to protect the removal of the gold. The city was thrown into
the greatest excitement as the troops marched through the streets, the
papers issued extras, and it required all the efforts of the officials
and the leaders on both sides to preserve the peace.
Gov. Claiborne Jackson took advantage of the occasion to send a message
to the Legislature, in which he said that this was an "act insulting to
the dignity and patriotism of the people."
The gold having been removed, Gen. Harney ordered the troops back to the
Arsenal, and quiet was restored.
Maj. Peter B. Hagner, of the District of Columbia, who graduated from
West Point in 1832, and had distinguished himself in the Mexican War,
succeeded Maj. Bell in the command of the Arsenal. His sympathies were
strongly with the South, but not so strongly as to overmaster his desire
to retain his commission and its emoluments. He was willing to go any
length in serving the Secessionists that did not involve his dismissal
from the Army. He had two brothers in the service, and all three held on
to their commissions until forced from their hands by the grim grasp of
death.
42
Meanwhile, Lieut.-Gov. Reynolds was pushing the Legislative work to
carry Missouri out of the Union. The acts which proved so successful
in the other Southern States in binding the people hand and foot and
dragging them over to the rebellion were closely imitated. One of these
was the celebrated "Military Bill" introduced in the Senate, Jan. 5,
1861. This put every man of military age in the State into the Militia,
and at the disposal of the Governor, who was given $150,000 outright
to enable him to carry out his plans. It made everybody owe paramount
allegiance to the State, and prescribed severe penalties, including even
death, to be inflicted by drum-head court martial for "treason" to
the State--for even the utterance of disrespectful words against the
Governor or Legislature. This went a little too far for many of the
members, and by obstinate fighting the passage of the bill was postponed
from time to time and at last defeated.
Another bill was generally understood as one to stamp out Republicanism
in St. Louis, but officially designated as "An Act to amend an act for
the suppression of riot in St. Louis City and County." This took out
of the hands of the Republican Sheriff and Mayor most of their
peace-preserving powers, which were given to a Board to be appointed by
the Governor, thereby to tie their hands when the time came for taking
the Arsenal. One of the Governor's Police Commissioners was Basil Duke,
the leader of the "Minute-Men."
43
Though they had none of the noisy aggressiveness of the Secessionists,
the leaders of the Unionists, during those bitterly intense Winter
days, were no less able, courageous, and earnest. Blair had a masterful
courage and determination not equalled by any man opposed to him. He was
one of those men of mighty purpose who set their faces toward an object
with the calm resolution to die rather than fail. Against the hardened
steel of his relentless will the softer iron of such thrasonic
Secessionists as Gov. Jackson, Lieut.-Gov. Reynolds, United States
Senators James S. Green and Trusten Polk, Gen. Frost and lesser leaders,
clashed without producing a dent.
Blair had skill and tact equal to his courage. He foresaw every movement
of his antagonists and met it with a prompt countermove. To their
inflammatory rhetoric he opposed clear common sense, loyalty and wise
judgment as to the future. When occasion demanded, he did not hesitate
to publicly express the hope "that every traitor among them would be
made to test the strength of Missouri hemp." He was swift to subordinate
himself and "the Cause," when anything could be gained. There were many
prominent men who wanted to save the Union, but would deny to Frank
Blair the credit of it. He unhesitatingly gave them the highest places,
and took the subordinate one for himself. There were tens of thousands
of Whigs and Democrats who loved the Union, but shuddered at the thought
of becoming Black Republicans. He abolished the Republican Party, that
they might form a Union Party, the sole principle of which should be
support of the Government.
44
Next to Blair was the famous "Committee of Safety," which did such
high work for the Union during those fermenting days. These and their
birthplaces were:
O. D. Filley, New England.
John How, Pennsylvania.
Samuel T. Glover, Kentucky.
James O. Broadhead, Virginia.
J. J. Witzig, Germany.
These self-denying, self-sacrificing patriots worked together with Blair
in perfect harmony and with the utmost skill. They were more than a
match for their Secession opponents in organization and management, and
lost very few points in the great game that was played throughout the
Winter, with the possession of the City, the State, and the Arsenal for
the main prizes.
The Committee of Safety had its Home Guards to offset the Minute Men.
Where there were hundreds of these latter drilling more or less openly,
with much fifing and drumming and flaunting of Secession flags, there
were thousands of Home Guards meeting and training with greatest secresy
in old foundries, breweries, and halls, with pickets out to prevent
surprise, sawdust on the floors to drown the sound of their feet, and
blankets at the windows to arrest the light and the words of command.
The drill hall was only approached at night, and singly or by twos or
threes, to avoid attracting attention. Most of these Home Guards were
Germans, and a large proportion had had military training in Europe. The
great problem with them, as with the Minute Men, was to get arms, and
both sides watched the Arsenal with its 60,000 rifles and 1,500,000
cartridges with sharp covetousness.
45
The Governor of Illinois loaned the Home Guards a few arms, but it was
expected that these would be repaid with interest from the stores of the
Arsenal.
The appointment of Maj. Hagner to the command of the Arsenal was
satisfactory to the Secessionists, but there was naturally a good deal
of interest as to the bias of Capt. Thomas W. Sweeny. One day a man
presented himself at the west gate of the Arsenal and asked to see Capt.
Sweeny. Sweeny went to the gate and recognized an old acquaintance, St.
George Croghan, the son of that Lieut. Croghan who had so brilliantly
defended Fort Stephenson, at Lower Sandusky, in the War of 1812, and
who afterwards was for many years Inspector-General of the United
States Army. Croghan's grandfather had been a gallant officer in the
Revolution. It was a cold day, and Croghan wore a citizen's overcoat.
On their way to the quarters, the guards properly saluted Sweeny as they
passed. Said Croghan, "Sweeny, don't you think those sentinels ought to
salute me--my rank is higher than yours?" at the same time throwing open
his overcoat and revealing the uniform of a rebel field officer.
"Not to such as that, by heavens!" responded Sweeny; and added: "If that
is your business, you can have nothing to do with me. You had better not
let my men see you with that thing on."
Croghan assured him his business in calling was one of sincere
friendship; but he would remark while on the subject, that Sweeny had
better find it convenient to get out of there, and very soon, too.
"Why?" asked Sweeny.
Replied Croghan: "Because we intend to take it."
46
Sweeny in great excitement exclaimed: "Never! As sure as my name is
Sweeny, the property in this place shall never fall into your hands.
I'll blow it to hell first, and you know I am the man to do it."
Nine months later this Croghan was to fall mortally wounded at the
head of a cavalry regiment while attacking the Union troops near
Fayetteville, W. Va., while Sweeny was to do gallant service in the
Union army, rising to the rank of Brigadier-General of Volunteers,
and command of a Division, and being retired in 1870 with the rank of
Brigadier-General.