CONTENTS THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI. INDEX CHAPTER I. A SALIENT BASTION FOR THE SLAVERY EMPIRE CHAPTER II. THE WAR CLOUDS GATHER CHAPTER III. NATHANIEL LYON'S ENTRANCE ON THE SCENE CHAPTER IV. THE CAPTURE OF CAMP JACKSON CHAPTER V. THE SCOTT-HARNEY AGREEMENT CHAPTER VI. THE LAST WORD BEFORE THE BLOW CHAPTER VII. GEN. LYON BEGINS AN EFFECTIVE CAMPAIGN CHAPTER VIII. STORM GATHERS IN SOUTHWESTERN MISSOURI CHAPTER IX. EVE OF THE BATTLE OF WILSON'S CREEK CHAPTER X. BATTLE OF WILSON'S CREEK CHAPTER XI.

Whatever else may be said of Southern statesmen, of the elder school, they certainly had an imperial breadth of view. They took in the whole continent in a way that their Northern colleagues were slow in doing. It cannot be said just when they began to plan for a separate Government which would have Slavery as its cornerstone, would dominate the Continent and ultimately absorb Cuba, Mexico and Central America as far as the Isthmus of Panama. Undoubtedly it was in the minds of a large number of t

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 def

The Secessionists were in the meanwhile hardly making the headway in the Legislature that they had anticipated, in spite of the stimulating events in the extreme Southern States. A curious situation developed in the Legislature leading to the arrest for a while of Lieut.-Gov. Reynolds's plans for organizing the State for rebellion. The term of Senator James S. Green expired on the 3d of March, and he was desirous of being his own successor. The first consideration was whether Missouri was likely

Up to the time that Gen. Harney was relieved and ordered to Washington, and Capt. Lyon was given a free hand, Gen. D. M. Frost's course and advice were worthy of his reputation as a resolute, far-seeing commander. With the organized military companies of his district and the Minute Men he had a good nucleus for action, and had he made a rush on the Arsenal at any of the several times that he seems to have contemplated, it would have been backed up by several thousand young Irishmen and Americans

The General Assembly of Missouri met at Jefferson City, in obedience to the Governor's call, on the 2d of May, and the Governor, after calling attention of the body to the state of the country, made an out-and-out appeal for Secession, saying that the interests and sympathies of Missouri were identical with those of other Slaveholding States, and she must unquestionably unite her destiny with theirs. She had no desire for war, but she would be faithless as to her honor and recreant as to her dut

Brig.-Gen. Nathaniel Lyon was now in full command, not only of the City of St. Louis and the State of Missouri, but of all the vast territory lying between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains, except Texas, New Mexico, and Utah. His sudden elevation from a simple Captain heading a company to wide command did not for an instant dizzy him as it seemed to McClellan and Fremont, who had made similar leaps in rank. Where McClellan surrounded himself with all the pomp and circumstance of glorious

Gen. Sterling Price was soldier enough to recognize that Gen. Lyon was a different character from the talking men who had been holding the center of the stage for so long. When his trumpet sounded his sword was sure to leap from its scabbard. Blows were to follow so quickly upon words as to tread upon their heels. At the close of the interview of June 11, Gen. Lyon, with Col. Blair and Maj. Conant, returned to the Arsenal, while Gov. Jackson and Gen. Price hurried to the depot of the Pacific Rai

The Osage River enters Missouri from Kansas about 60 miles south of the Missouri River, and flowing a little south of east empties into that river a few miles below Jefferson City. It thus forms a natural line of defense across the State, which Gen. Price's soldierly eye had noted, and he advised the Governor to order his troops to take up their position behind it, gain time for organization, and prepare for battle for possession of the State. Gen. Lyon had also noticed the strategic advantages

Mountainous perplexities and burdens weighed upon Gen. Lyon during the last days of July. The country was hysterical over the safety of the National Capital, and it seemed that the Administration was equally emotional. Every regiment and gun was being rushed to the heights in front of Washington, and all eyes were fixed on the line of the Potomac. The perennial adventurer in Gen. Fremont did not fail to suggest to him that the greatest of opportunities might develop in Washington, and he lingere

If the idea of an attack by Gen. Lyon was remote from Gen. McCulloch's thoughts, it was entirely absent from those of Gen. Sterling Price. Gen. Price's mind was concentrated upon the plan to which he had wrung McCulloch's reluctant consent of advancing that morning upon Lyon in four columns, and thereby crushing him, probably capturing his army entire or driving him into a ruinous retreat The first messengers bringing the news of Lyon's close proximity were received with contemptuous disbelief b

An analytical study of the losses in the preceding chapter will aid in a more thoro appreciation of the most bitter battle fought on the American Continent up to that time, and by far the severest which had ever been waged west of the Allegheny Mountains. It will be perceived that the loss in the Union army was almost wholly in Gen. Lyon's column of 4,000 men, or less, which suffered to the extent of almost one-third of its number. In the 1,300 men in Gen. Sigel's command the loss was insignific

The Union commanders were naturally very apprehensive that as soon as Price and Mc-Culloch realized that the field had been abandoned they would precipitate upon them their immense horde of vengeful horsemen. Such was not the case. Nothing tells so eloquently of the severity of the blow which Lyon had dealt his enemies than that it was two whole days before Price and McCulloch were in a frame of mind to move forward 10 miles and occupy Springfield, the goal of their campaign. This delay was gold

Gen. Sterling Price had scored a victory which gave him an enduring hold upon the confidence and esteem of the Missourians. With the least means he had achieved the most success of any Confederate General so far. His conduct at the battle of Wilson's Creek had endeared him to the men he commanded. He exposed himself with utmost indifference to the fiercest firing, showed good judgment as to movements, was not discouraged after repeated repulses, and was everywhere animating and encouraging the m

The partisans of Gen. Fremont bitterly blamed Gen. David Hunter for having intrigued to succeed Fremont, and they rejoiced that his tenure of that office proved to be so short-lived. This was both fallacious and unjust. Gen. David Hunter, while not of the highest type of military ability, was yet far above mediocrity. He was one of the best examples of the Old Regular Army officer—thoroughly devoted to his profession, a master of all its details, incorruptible, inflexible, and intolerant to all

Henry Wager Halleck, who succeeded Gen. Fremont in command of the Department of Missouri, Nov. 9, 1861, had been pointed to as a brilliantly shining example of what West Point could produce. He was born in 1819 near Utica, N. Y., of a very good family, and had graduated July 1, 1839, from West Point, third in a class of which Isaac I. Stevens, afterward to conclude a brilliant career by dying a Major-General on the field of battle, was the head. Other conspicuous members of the class were Maj.-G

Maj.-Gen. David Hunter felt that fortune was not smiling on him according to his deserts. He had graduated from West Point in 1822, and had been in the Army 39 years, or longer than any but few of the officers then in active employment. He was a thorough soldier, devoted to his profession, highly capable, inflexibly upright, strongly loyal, an old-time friend of President Lincoln, and enjoyed his full confidence. He had done a very painful piece of necessary work for the Administration in invest

When he abandoned the strong line of the Osage and took up his position at Springfield, Gen. Sterling Price, like the Russians against Napoleon, relied upon his powerful allies, Gens. January, February and March. At that time the roads in Missouri were merely rough trails, running over hills and deep-soiled valleys of fertile loam, cut every few miles by rapid streams. The storms of Winter quickly converted the hills into icy precipices, the valleys into quagmires, and the streams into raging to

Jefferson Davis carried out his determination to appoint an officer superior in rank to both Gens. McCulloch and Price. After first appointing Gen. Harry Heth, and then offering the appointment to Gen. Braxton Bragg, he selected another of his favorites, Gen. Earl Van Dorn, who had been a fiery partisan among the officers of the Regular Army for States Rights and Secession, was a native of Mississippi, and had graduated from West Point in 1842, 52d in a class of 56. Whatever his intellectual qua

Gen. Curtis's army was far from realizing as the night closed down on that exciting March 7 how completely it had whipped the overwhelming numbers of Van Dorn, Price, McCulloch, Mcintosh and Pike. Those of Jeff C. Davis's and Osterhaus's Divisions, who had done the heavy fighting on the Leetown front, knew that they had driven away the mass of the enemy in their front until there was no longer any show of opposition. They of Carr's Division, on the extreme right, the brigades of Dodge and Vandev