From Fort Henry to Corinth. M. F. Force
as he chased about with forces alternately advancing and fleeing, undertook, by his separate act, to detach Missouri from the Union and annex it to the Confederacy.
This clash of action stimulated and intensified a real division of feeling, which existed in every county. A sputtering warfare broke out all over the State. Armed predatory parties, rebel and national, calling themselves squadrons, battalions, regiments, springing up as if from the ground, whirled into conflict and vanished. When a band of men without uniform, wearing their ordinary dress and carrying their own arms, dispersed over the country, the separate members could not be distinguished from other farmers or villagers; and a train, being merely a collection of country wagons, if scattered among the stables and barn-yards of the adjoining territory, wholly disappeared. But all through this eruptive discord flowed a continuous stream of more regular contests, which constitute the connected beginning of the military operations of the Mississippi Valley.
Under countenance of Governor Jackson's proclamation, General D.M. Frost organized a force and established Camp Jackson, near St. Louis, the site being now covered by a well-built portion of the city. Jackson had refused to call out troops in response to President Lincoln's requisition, but Frank P. Blair had promptly raised one regiment and stimulated the formation of four others in St. Louis. On May 10, 1861, Captain Nathaniel Lyon, of the regular army, who commanded at the arsenal at St. Louis, and had there a garrison of several hundred regulars, marched with Colonel Blair and the volunteers and a battery to Camp Jackson, surrounded it, and demanded a surrender. Resistance was useless. General Frost surrendered his men and stores, including twenty cannon. St. Louis, and with it Missouri, was thus preserved. Lyon was made brigadier-general of volunteers.
Jackson and Price left Jefferson City—Jackson stopping, on June 18th, at Booneville, one rendezvous for his forces, while Price continued up the river to Lexington, another rendezvous. General Lyon, leaving St. Louis on June 13th with an expeditionary force on boats, reached Booneville almost as soon as Jackson. The unorganized and partially armed gathering of several thousand men made an impotent attempt at resistance when Lyon landed, but was quickly routed. Jackson fled, with his mounted men and such of the infantry as he could hold together, to the southwest part of the State, gathering accretions of men as he marched. Lyon set out in pursuit, and Price, abandoning Lexington, hastened with the force assembled there to join Jackson. Colonel Franz Sigel had proceeded from St. Louis to Rolla by rail, and marched thence in pursuit of Jackson to strike him before he could be reinforced. Sigel, with 1,500 men, encountered Jackson with more than double that number, on July 5th, near Carthage, in Jasper County. Sigel's superiority in artillery gave him an advantage in a desultory combat of some hours. Jackson, greatly outnumbering him in cavalry, proceeded to envelop his rear, and Sigel was forced to withdraw. Sigel retreated in perfect order, and managed his artillery so well that the pursuing cavalry were kept at a distance, while he marched with his train through Carthage, and fifteen miles beyond, before halting. That night and next morning Jackson was heavily reinforced by Price, who brought from the south several thousand Arkansas and Texas troops, under General Ben. McCulloch and General Pearce. Sigel continued his retreat to Springfield, where he was joined by General Lyon on July 10th.
The Field of Operations in Missouri and Northern Arkansas.
Price and McCulloch being continually reinforced, largely with cavalry, overran Southwestern Missouri. Lyon waited in vain for reinforcements, and, having but little cavalry, kept closely to the vicinity of Springfield. Learning that the enemy were marching upon him in two strong columns, one from the south and one from the west, he moved out from Springfield with all his force on August 1st, and early next morning encountered at Dug Springs a portion of the column advancing from the south under McCulloch. This detachment was shattered and dispersed, and McCulloch recoiled and moved to the west, to join Price commanding the other column. Price advanced slowly with the combined force and went into camp on Wilson Creek, ten miles south of Springfield, on August 7th.
Lyon's entire force was, upon the rolls, 5,868. This number included sick, wounded, and detached on special duty. General Price turned over his Missouri troops and relinquished command to McCulloch. According to Price's official report, his Missourians engaged in the battle of the 10th were 5,221. According to the official report of McCulloch, his entire effective force was 5,300 infantry, 15 pieces of artillery, 6,000 horsemen armed with flintlock muskets, rifles, and shotguns, and a number of unarmed horsemen.
General Lyon, not having sufficient force to retreat across the open country to supports, resolved to strike a sharp blow that would cripple his opponent, and thus secure an unmolested retreat. He marched out from Springfield at five o'clock P.M., on August 9th, leaving 250 men and one gun as a guard. Colonel Sigel, with 1,200 men and a battery of six pieces, moved to the left, to get into the rear of McCulloch's right flank; Lyon, with 3,700 men, including two batteries, Totten's with six guns, and Dubois with four, and also including two battalions of regular infantry, inclined to the right so as to come upon the centre of the enemy's front. The columns came in sight of McCulloch's camp-fires after midnight, and rested in place till day. At six o'clock on the morning of the 10th, attack was made almost simultaneously by the two columns at the points designated. Sigel advanced to the attack with great gallantry, but soon suffered a disastrous repulse; five of his six guns were taken and his command scattered.
McCulloch's entire force, with artillery increased by the five pieces taken from Sigel, turned upon Lyon's little command. Lyon's men were well posted and fought with extraordinary steadiness. Infantry and artillery face to face fired at each other, with occasional intermissions, nearly six hours. General Lyon, after being twice wounded, was killed. The opposing lines at times came almost in contact. Each side at times recoiled. When the conflict reached the hottest, and McCulloch pushed his men, about eleven o'clock, up almost to the muzzles of the national line, Captain Granger rushed to the rear, brought up the supports of Dubois' battery, eight companies in all, being portions of the First Kansas, First Missouri, and the First Iowa, fell suddenly upon McCulloch's right flank, and opened a fire that shot away a portion of McCulloch's line. This cross-fire cleared that portion of the field; McCulloch's whole line gave way and retired out of view. It was now for the first time safe for Major Sturgis, who had assumed command on the death of Lyon, to retreat. Sturgis withdrew in order and fell back to Springfield unmolested. The entire national loss, according to the official report, was 223 killed, 721 wounded, and 292 missing. The missing were nearly all from Sigel's column. Two regiments in General Lyon's column, the First Missouri and the First Kansas, lost together 153 killed and 395 wounded. General Price reported the loss of his Missouri troops, 156 killed, 517 wounded, and 30 missing. General McCulloch reported his entire loss as 265 killed, 800 wounded, and 30 missing. The death of General Lyon was a severe loss. He was zealous in the national cause and enterprising in maintaining it; he was ready to assume responsibility, and prompt in taking initiative; sagacious in comprehending his antagonist, quick in decision, fertile in resource, and was as cool as he was bold. On the night of the 10th, the army stores in Springfield were put into the wagons, and next morning the national force set out for Rolla, the end of the railroad, where it arrived in good order on the 15th. Meanwhile, Price and McCulloch, having some disagreement, withdrew to the Arkansas border.
General John C. Fremont was, July 9, 1861, assigned to the command of the Western District, comprising the States of Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, and Kansas, and territories west, and arrived in St. Louis from the East on July 25th. Before arriving he appointed Brigadier-General John Pope to command the district of Northern Missouri, being that part of Missouri north of the Missouri River. Pope arrived at St. Charles, Mo., with three infantry regiments and part of one cavalry regiment of Illinois volunteers, on July 17th, and assumed command. On July 21st, General Pope published an order making all property within five miles of a railway responsible for malicious injury done to such railway. On July 31st he published another order, making the property of each county responsible for damage done by, and the cost of suppressing, predatory outbreaks in such county. For a month the effect of these orders was to allay disturbance in the district, and secure the administration of affairs by the ordinary machinery of civil government; but in about a month the orders were set aside, and in their place martial law was declared throughout the State.