On the morning of the 5th the regiment moved quarters to within a mile
of town, and pitched their tents in regular camp order. The whole
country for miles around Springfield was now filled with tents, and
soldiers were as thick as ants on an ant hill. The whole army of
Fremont was now here, and was said to number seventy-two thousand--or,
there was said to be seventy-two thousand rations issued. A more noble
looking set of men were never gathered into an army. Filled with
enthusiasm and confidence in their leader, this army could not have
been defeated by any rebel force brought against it. The men were very
anxious for a forward move toward the enemy, and rumor had it that in a
day or two the enemy would be met. But, alas! for human calculations.
No movement was at this time to be made against the foe; but, instead,
an inglorious retreat. Shame, and deathless infamy, attend the
instigators of the retrograde movement of this splendid army.
On the 2d day of November General Fremont received notice of his recall
to St. Louis to answer charges preferred against him, and of his being
superseded in his command by General Hunter. Why was this retrograde
movement to be made? Why was General Fremont removed from the command
at this most auspicious moment? "Not until the secret _political_
history of the rebellion, which unmasks hearts and exhibits motives,
shall be written, can these questions be fully answered."
As soon as the intelligence that General Fremont was superseded by
General Hunter spread through the camp, the wildest excitement
everywhere prevailed. "Officers and men organized themselves into
indignation meetings. Large numbers of officers declared their
determination to resign. Whole companies threw down their arms."
General Fremont consecrated all his personal influence, entreating the
men to remain, like true patriots, at their posts. He sent immediately
to General Hunter the intelligence of his appointment, and, without
delay, issued the following beautiful and effective appeal to the army:
"HEAD-QUARTERS WESTERN DEP'T.,
"SPRINGFIELD, MO., Nov. 2d, 1861.
"SOLDIERS OF THE MISSISSIPPI ARMY:--Agreeably to orders this day
received I take leave of you. Although our army has been of sudden
growth, we have grown up together, and I have become familiar with
the brave and generous spirits which you bring to the defense of
your country, and which makes me anticipate for you a brilliant
career. Continue as you have begun, and give to my successor the
same cordial and enthusiastic support with which you have
encouraged me. Emulate the splendid example which you have already
before you, and let me remain, as I am, proud of the noble army
which I had thus far labored to bring together. Soldiers, I regret
to leave you. Most sincerely I thank you for the regard and
confidence you have invariably shown to me. I deeply regret that I
shall not have the honor to lead you to the victory which you are
just about to win; but I shall claim to share with you in the joy
of every triumph, and trust always to be fraternally remembered by
my companions in arms.
"J. C. FREMONT,
"Major-General U.S.A."
In the evening, one hundred and ten officers, including every
brigadier-general in the army, visited General Fremont in a body. They
presented him a written address, full of sympathy and respect, and
earnestly urged him to lead them against the enemy. General Fremont
replied to the address, that, if General Hunter did not arrive before
morning, he would comply with their request. At eight o'clock in the
evening he accordingly issued the order of battle. The enemy occupied
the same ground as that which they had occupied in the battle of
Wilson's Creek. General Lyon's plan of attack was to be substantially
followed.
The rebels were to be surrounded. Generals Sigel and Lane were to
assail them in the rear, General Ashboth from the east, Generals
McKinstry and Pope in front. The attack was to be simultaneous. Every
camp was astir with the inspiriting news. Every soldier was full of
enthusiasm.
But at midnight General Hunter arrived. General Fremont informed him of
the condition of affairs, advised him of his plans, and surrendered the
command into his hands. The order for battle was forthwith
countermanded, and orders were issued to the army to prepare to turn
their backs upon the foe, and retrace their march to St. Louis. The
next morning General Fremont and his staff left the camp. As he passed
along the soldiers crowded the streets and the roadsides to witness his
departure, and, as they returned to their quarters, each one asked
himself the question: "Why has Fremont been removed?" No ground for his
removal had ever been made known. It was suggested that he was too
extravagant in the financial management of his department. But there
was no more justice in charging him with extravagance than there would
have been any other General in command of a department. "Wherever there
is carrion the vultures flock." Wherever there is an opportunity for
public plunder corrupt men greedily gather. They abounded in
Washington, in New York, in St. Louis; but no definite charges could be
made that General Fremont ever participated in any scheme to defraud
the Government. The mystery lay in the fact that General Fremont was
far in advance of the nation's representatives, either in the field or
cabinet. "He realized that the rebels were in earnest. He realized that
all attempts at pacification by timidity and concessions to traitors
were unavailing, and would but add fuel to the flame. He realized that
the only way to stop rebellion was to chastise rebels with the rod of
justice." And, realizing these things, he issued the following
proclamation, which gave great offense to the more timid officials:
"HEAD-QUARTERS WESTERN DEP'T.
"ST. LOUIS, MO., August 31st, 1861.
"Circumstances, in my judgment, of sufficient urgency, render it
necessary that the Commanding General of this Department should
assume the administrative powers of the State. Its disorganized
condition, the helplessness of the civil authority, the total
insecurity of life, and the devastation of property by bands of
murderers and marauders, who infest nearly every county in the
State, and avail themselves of the public misfortunes and the
vicinity of a hostile force, to gratify private and neighborhood
vengeance, and who find an enemy wherever they find
plunder,--finally demand the severest measures to repress the daily
increasing crimes and outrages, which are driving off the
inhabitants and ruining the State. In this condition, the public
safety and the success of our armies require unity of purpose,
without let or hindrance, to the prompt administration of affairs.
"In order, therefore, to suppress disorder, to maintain, as far as
now practicable, the public peace, and to give security and
protection to the persons and property of loyal citizens, I do
hereby extend, and declare established, martial law throughout the
State of Missouri. The lines of the army of occupation in this
State are, for the present, declared to extend from Leavenworth, by
way of the posts of Jefferson City, Rolla and Ironton, to Cape
Girardeau, on the Mississippi River. All persons who shall be taken
with arms in their hands within these lines shall be tried by court
martial, and, if found guilty, will be shot. The property, real and
personal, of all persons in the State of Missouri who shall take up
arms against the United States, and who shall be directly proven to
have taken active part with their enemies in the field, is declared
to be confiscated to the public use; and their slaves, if any they
have, are hereby declared free men.
"All persons who shall be proven to have destroyed, after the
publication of this order, railroad tracks, bridges or telegraphs,
shall suffer the extreme penalty of the law. All persons engaged in
treasonable correspondence, in giving or procuring aid to the
enemies of the United States, in fomenting tumult, in disturbing
the public tranquility, by creating and circulating false reports
or incendiary documents, are in their own interest warned that they
are exposing themselves to sudden and sure punishment.
"All persons who have been led away from their allegiance are
required to return to their homes forthwith; any such absence
without sufficient cause will be held to be presumptive evidence
against them.
"The object of this declaration is to place in the hands of the
military authorities the power to give instantaneous effect to
existing laws, and to supply such deficiencies as the conditions of
war demand. But it is not intended to suspend the ordinary
tribunals of the country, where the law will be administered by the
civil officers in the usual manner, and with their customary
authority, while the same can be peaceably exercised.
"The Commanding General will labor vigilantly for the public
welfare, and in his efforts for their safety, hopes to obtain not
only the acquiescence but the active support of the loyal people of
the country.
"J. C. FREMONT,
"Major-General Commanding."
"An out-cry from all pro-slavery _partisans_, in all parts of the
country, went up against the man who had first dared to proclaim
liberty to the slaves of rebels." A demand was made for his removal.
Fair means were not alone used for this end. The most strenuous efforts
were secretly made to undermine him in the confidence of the
Administration, and by bitter public attacks through the press to rob
him of the confidence of the people. And success attended those
efforts.
The President, whose duty it was to hold a controlling influence in the
councils of the nation, coincided with this intriguing faction against
his better judgment, and submitted to this great injustice--injustice
both to Fremont and the country. The proclamation of General Fremont
was accordingly modified, and Fremont himself deprived of his command.
On the reception of the President's letter, requesting him to modify
his proclamation, Fremont replied:
"If," said he, "your better judgment decides that I was wrong in the
article respecting the liberation of slaves, I have to ask that you
will openly direct me to make the correction. The implied censure will
be received as a soldier always should receive the reprimand of his
chief. If I were to retract of my own accord it would imply that I
myself thought it wrong, and that I had acted without the reflection
which the gravity of the point demanded. But I did not. I acted with
full deliberation, and with the certain conviction that it was a
measure right and necessary, and I think so still."
General Fremont submitted to the modification, which was to confine the
confiscation and liberation of only such slaves as had been actually
employed by the rebels in military service. If they worked the guns
they were to be free. If they only raised the cotton which enabled the
rebels to buy the guns they were not to be free, but to be returned to
their masters if they should escape to our lines in search of freedom.
But this did not satisfy those who were even more anxious to treat the
rebels with conciliation and have Fremont removed and his influence
destroyed, than to strike the rebellion with heavy blows. Let Fremont
be removed at all hazards. He was removed, and his army was recalled
from Springfield, and in less than six months another army under
General Curtis, pursuing the same plan which General Fremont had
formed, and governed by the very policy recommended in his
proclamation, marched over the same ground, under much more adverse
circumstances, and met the enemy only after a tedious pursuit of one
hundred and twenty miles farther off than the fall before.
On the morning of the 4th of November Abraham C. Coats, of Company C,
was brought into the regimental hospital in an entirely unconscious
condition. He was taken in the night with what was supposed to be a
congestive chill. Every means known to the Surgeon was resorted to to
restore him to consciousness and preserve his life, but all were
unavailing. He never spoke after being brought in, and died about noon
of the next day. A _post mortem_ examination revealed nothing to
indicate the cause of his death.
Several of the boys were taken sick while in camp here, and when the
regiment marched they were loaded into an army wagon to be transported
to wherever the regiment might be destined. One of these died in the
wagon the second night after leaving Springfield and was buried by the
roadside. The others, after eight days' torture, arrived, more dead
than alive, at Syracuse, where they remained in hospital all winter.