AN INTERNECINE WAR
After the battle of Pea Ridge, the Confederate Government had no regular
organized troops in Missouri. General Sterling Price, with his Missouri
regiments, which had enlisted in the Confederate service, was ordered
east of the Mississippi. But there were thousands of State troops that
had followed Price, and although they refused to enlist in the regular
Confederate service, they were, at heart, as bitter towards the Union as
ever. These men found their way back home, and although thousands of
them took the oath of allegiance to the Federal Government, the majority
of them were not only ready, but eager, to ally themselves with some of
the guerrilla bands which were infesting the State.
The Federal authorities, knowing that Price, with his army, had been
ordered east, thought that the Confederates had given up all hopes of
holding the State, and that the fighting was over, except with small
guerrilla bands, that could easily be kept in check. Therefore, the
great majority of the Federal troops in Missouri were withdrawn to swell
the armies of Buell and Grant.
The Confederates now thought they saw their opportunity. Numbers of the
Confederate officers secretly made their way into the State and
commenced to organize the disloyal forces, co-operating with the
guerrilla bands. Among these officers was Colonel Clay, who appeared in
the first chapter.
This movement was so successful that during the summer of 1862 it is
estimated that there were from thirty to forty thousand of these men
enrolled and officered. Places of rendezvous were designated, where all
were to assemble at a given signal, and, by a coup-de-main, seize all
the important points in the State which were feebly garrisoned. Then
they were to co-operate with an army moving up from Arkansas, and the
State would be redeemed.
It was a well laid plan, but fortunately it was early discovered by
General J. M. Schofield, who was in command of the Department of
Missouri. How General Schofield first received his information will be
told hereafter.
General Schofield frantically appealed to Halleck for aid, and then to
Washington, but he was answered that owing to the great military
movements going on, not a regiment could be spared.
General Schofield, thus left to his own resources, rose grandly to the
occasion. He would use the Confederates' own tactics. So he ordered the
entire militia of the State to be enrolled. Thousands of Confederate
sympathizers fled the State, or took to the bush. During the summer of
1862 between forty and fifty thousand loyal State militia were
organized. Thus the whole State became one vast armed camp, nearly forty
thousand men on a side, arrayed against each other.
It was father against son, brother against brother, neighbor against
neighbor. The only wonder is that owing to the passions of the times
there were not more excesses and murders committed than there were.
During the year 1862 there were at least one hundred and fifty
engagements fought on the soil of Missouri, in which the numbers engaged
varied from forty or fifty to five or six thousand. In these engagements
General Schofield says the Union troops were successful in nine out of
ten, and that at least three thousand guerrillas had been killed,
wounded, or taken prisoners, and that ten thousand had fled the State.
This terrible warfare between neighbors receives scant mention in
history, but in no great battles of the war was greater bravery shown,
greater heroism displayed, than in many of the minor engagements fought
in Missouri.