Missouri Strife – The Border Years

Missouri: A Bone of Contention, by Lucien Carr, 1888:

With Kansas in a state of anarchy, it was impossible that the people in the adjoining counties of Missouri should not suffer. Compared with their neighbors on the other side of the border, they were old settlers, and as they had accumulated more or less property they of course had something to lose, which is more than can be truthfully said of most of the new-comers. This fact the “jayhawkers” were not slow to learn, and as they cared as little for state lines as they did for law, the soon began freebooting inroads into the more thinly populated counties south of the Missouri, taking whatever they could conveniently carry off. Memorials from thirty-five citizens of Bates and Vernon counties were sent to the General Assembly in January 1859, in which they gave accounts of crimes that had been perpetrated in their neighborhoods by organized bands of robbers from Kansas, and asked that a sufficient force be sent to the border to defend “peaceable and law-abiding citizens from insult, outrage and lawless violence.” A bill was prepared and introduced to the Senate, but was rejected by the committee on federal relations, who stated, “We have evidence of the most satisfactory character that outrages, almost without a parallel in America, have been perpetrated upon the persons and property of unoffending citizens of Bates and Vernon counties – their houses plundered and then burned, citizens wounded and murdered in cold blood, - which evils demand at our hands the best remedy the wisdom of the legislature can apply. They advised that rewards should be offered for the arrest of the jayhawking leaders, and that circuit judges should hold special terms in the disturbed districts for the purpose of investigating grievances and adopting measures for the arrest of all offenders. A bill was passed accordingly; the governor was authorized to use his discretion in the adoption of such measures as he might deem necessary for their protection.

For some time after this, comparative peace was established on the frontier. In November 1860 a band of “jayhawkers” under the lead of Montgomery, murdered three grand jurors during session of for the third Kansas district. One of the jurors was Russell Hinds, a citizen of Missouri. Judge Williams of the United States District Court, stated, “The citizens of Missouri on the Osage, Marmaton, and in Bates and Vernon counties are flying from their homes into the interior.”

When the report of these proceedings reached Jefferson City, General Stewart ordered Brigadier-General D.M. Frost to proceed at once to the border with men enough to end the difficulty. This order reached St. Louis on November 23, 1860, and in less than twenty-four hours a force of six hundred and thirty men were on their way to the scene of the outbreak. Upon reaching the frontier in early December, Frost discovered that the regular army had already reached Fort Scott. Montgomery, threatened by both federal and state troops, fled the county. In the report submitted, General Frost states “The deserted and charred remains of once happy homes, combined with the general terror that prevailed amongst the citizens who still clung to their possessions, gave but too certain proof of the persecution to which they had all been subjected, and which they would again have to endure, with renewed violence, so soon as armed protection should be withdrawn.” A battalion of volunteers, consisting of three companies of rangers, and one of artillery, was enlisted, with Lieutenant-Colonel John S. Bowen chosen to command. With the organization of this force, “jayhawking” as such, came to an end; though the thing itself, for the first two or three years, and as long as there was anything worth taking on the Missouri side of the border, flourished more vigorously than ever. The old jayhawking leaders now came with United States commissions in their pocket and at the head of regularly enlisted troops, in which guise they carried on a system of robbery and murder that left a good portion of the frontier south of the Missouri River as perfect a waste as Germany was at the end of the Thirty Years’ War.

South of the Osage River, once considered almost worthless, had demonstrated a soil and climate wonderfully adapted to the grape and other valuable fruits. All the grains, grasses, fruits and vegetables, to say nothing of tobacco, hemp and cotton, were cultivated to advantage; countless herds and droves of domestic animals found abundant food and shelter. Such was the condition of southern Missouri in December 1860. Governor Robert M. Stewart stated at the General Assembly, “Missouri has the right to speak because she has suffered. Bounded on three sides by free territory, her border counties have been the frequent scene of kidnapping and violence. At this moment, several of the western counties are desolated, and almost depopulated, from fear of a bandit horde who have been committing depredation – arson, theft and foul murder – upon her adjacent border. Missouri will hold herself in readiness at any moment to defend her soil from pollution and her property from plunder by fanatics and marauders, come from what quarter they may. I here record as governor of Missouri, my solemn protest against unwise and hasty action, and my unalterable devotion to the Union, so long as it can be made the protector of equal rights.” Governor Jackson was sworn into office shortly after. He stated, “In view of the marauding forays which continue to harass or borders, as well as of the general unsettled condition of our political relations, the militia of the State should be thoroughly organized.” The times were revolutionary.

The majority of delegates in office cast their votes for the North. Governor Jackson knew, however, that Missouri’s place was with the South, and that this was the sentiment of most of her citizens. He gave Frost authority to seize arsenal whenever his judgment deemed necessary, and was instructed to assist in protecting it against mob violation of any kind or from any source. Missouri, a Southern state still in the Union, was invaded by troops from Iowa and Kansas before the invasion of the Confederates. Regarded simply as “outrages”, the one invasion was as bad as the other. Governor Jackson was driven into exile, and the State left without a legal official head. In a state of emergency, the convention stepped forward and organized a provisional government. Thus, the Provost Marshal came into effect.

The war was in earnest by this time. Senator General James H. Lane and his brigade of freebooters, who had already begun that career of robbery, arson, and murder which converted Lawrence, Kansas into a mere fence-house for stolen property, and led, in August 1863, to the sack of that town, and the massacre of 183 of its inhabitants by Quantrell’s band of guerrillas. General Price crossed the Osage and set up headquarters in the southwestern part of the state. An act was passed which purported to dissolve the ties between Missouri and the United States of America. On the 28^th of November 1863 Missouri was formally admitted into the Confederacy, though it was now too late to make the fight for her with any prospect of success. Price, with his half-clothed, half-fed Missourians availed themselves of ease. Their quarters were comfortable, forage was abundant, food was plentiful. Money - state script and Confederate notes – circulated freely and without fear of its future value. With the admission of Missouri into the Confederacy and the transfer of so many of her troops to that service, the organization of the state guard virtually came to an end.

The Union troops far outnumbered the Confederates, and though these men were always ready for a raid into the State, they were never able to re-establish themselves upon her soil; yet such was their activity that they succeeded in keeping much of the region south of the Missouri River in a constant state of turmoil and excitement. According to official records, between April 20, 1861 and November 20, 1862, a period of nineteen months, over three hundred battles and skirmishes were fought within the limits of the state. Of the number for the last two years it is not possible to give an accurate number, but it is probable there were half as many more, and it may be said that they were relatively more destructive of life, as by this time the contest had degenerated into a disgraceful internecine struggle.

In 1862 the order was put forth, enrolling the entire fighting population of the State, and authorizing General Schofield to call such portion into it as deemed necessary to put down all marauders and preserve the peace. The order was somewhat indefinite; it was supposed to be preliminary to a draft and was looked upon by Southern sympathizers as the state and federal authorities to force them into the army and make them fight against their friends and relatives in the South. They also regarded it as a violation by the State of the bargain they had entered into when they were disarmed and obliged, under penalty and arrest and imprisonment, to take an oath not to bear arms against United States or the provisional government of Missouri, and to give a bond for the faithful observance of the oath. They held, and with some measure of justice, that in exacting this bond, as had been generally done throughout the State, the government had recognized them as non-combatants; and they resolved that if they must take a part in the war, they would chose the side upon which they were to fight. Hence, this measure caused every rebel who could possess himself a weapon to spring to arms, whilst thousands of others ran to the brush to avoid the required enrollment. Another influence in molding public opinion was the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863.

Potent as this measure may have been in separating men of conservative views from sympathy with the national administration, its influence was but slight when compared with that exerted by the constant interference of the military with unoffending citizens, especially with those who were suspected of rebel tendencies. Even after leaving out those cases that affected the entire community, and confining ourselves to those that involved crimes against a class or individual, they will be found to run the entire gamut – ranging from the arbitrary arrest and imprisonment of men and women for mere opinion’s sake, to the murder of prisoners; from the illegal requisition for unnecessary supplies by irresponsible parties, to robbery, pillage and arson. To a great extent these lawless proceedings were in violation of orders, and were the acts of subordinates. Instead o discharging the delicate duties of their office in such a way as to give as little offense as possible, they acted as if it were the policy to exasperate the people among whom they were stationed, and drive them into the rebel army, or worse still, into some wild and predatory band of guerillas. In this, unfortunately for the peace of the State, they were too often successful. The outrages on the western frontier of the State – those perpetrated by Union troops and Kansas Red-Legs upon Missourians, as well as those committed by guerrillas and outlawed Missourians upon the people of Kansas – and, either as sins of omission or commission, they can be traced directly to mismanagement on the part of the Federal authorities.

Without stopping to enlarge upon the crimes of Lane and his brigade, to which reference has already been made, it is sufficient to say that in 1861 they burned the town of Osceola, “an enterprise in which large amounts of property and a score of lives were sacrificed”; that they “cleaned out” the villages of Butler and Parkville; and, in a word, that they began in Missouri the work of robbery and murder which resulted in depopulating a large part of the western border. Following in the wake of this brigade of “thieves and marauders”, as Governor Robinson is said to have called them, came the bands of robbers known as Red-Legs, whose custom it was “at intervals to dash into Missouri, seize horses and cattle, not omitting other and worse outrages on occasion, then to repair with their booty to Lawrence, where it was defiantly sold at auction”. These depredations were well known to the authorities. In December 1861, General Halleck, who seems to have been powerless to remedy the evil, wrote to McClellan that “the conduct of our troops during Fremont’s campaign, and especially the course pursued by those under Lane and Jennison, has turned against us many thousands who were formerly Union men”; and on another occasion, when speaking of the rumor that Lane had been made a brigadier-general in the Federal army, he added that such an appointment “is offering a premium for rascality and robbing generally” and that “it will take twenty thousand men to counter affect its effect in the State”. This letter, seen by President Lincoln, did nothing to bring about a different state of affairs on the border, though he signified his regret that Halleck should have entertained such an unfavorable opinion of Lane. The outrages of Lane and the Red-Legs not only sent a number of men into the Southern army, but they also drove others into adopting the lawless mode of life known as “bushwacking”. This result was clearly foreseen by Governor Charles Robinson of Kansas, who in September 1861 warned Fremont that there was a danger that “Lane’s brigade will get up a war by going over the line, committing depredations, and then returning into our State”. Unfortunately for the peace of the border, neither the protests of Robinson or Halleck were of any avail. The Kansas marauders were permitted to continue their depredations without any serious effort on the part of the Federal authorities to put a stop to them, and this course, as has been foretold, led to savage reprisals. In August 1863, a band of outlawed Missourians, maddened by the atrocities that were committed on their people, made a descent upon Lawrence, Kansas, burned the town and slaughtered one hundred and eighty-three of its inhabitants. “Jennison has laid waste our homes,” was the declaration of more than one Missourian on the day of the massacre, “and the Red-Legs have perpetrated unheard of crimes. Houses have been plundered and burned, defenseless men shot down, and women outraged. We are here for revenge – and we have got it.” This savage butchery, indefensible even upon the score of retaliation, aroused the military authorities to a sense of their shortcomings; and on the 25^th of August, only four days after the massacre, General Thomas Ewing issued an order, which may have been intended to put an end to the disgraceful warfare that had grown up in this district, but which, considered as a military measure, was fortunately, without a parallel in Missouri. Instead of obliging the Kansas robbers to stay on their own side of the border, and using troops at his command to drive out or exterminate the “bushwackers”, as there is reason to believe he might have done, and as certainly would have been done by anyone who really desired to give peace to the border, General Ewing issued an order, in the execution of which, those of the inhabitants of Jackson, Bates, Cass and a part of Vernon counties, who were so unfortunate as to live outside of certain limits, were driven from their homes, their dwellings burned, their farms laid waste, and the great bulk of their moveable property handed over, without let or hindrance, to the Kansas “jayhawkers”. It was a brutal order, ruthlessly enforced, and so far form expelling or exterminating the guerrillas, it simply handed this whole district over to them. From this time until the end of the war, no one wearing the Federal uniform dared risk his life within the devastated region. The only people whom the enforcement of the order did injure were some thousands of those whom it was Ewing’s duty to protect. They were ruined. Considered as a military measure the only light in which we are privileged to regard it, this order was, as General Blair truly said an act of imbecility – a confession on the part of the Federal commander that he was unwilling or unable to put down the bushwackers – which should have cost him his command. The order utterly failed to give peace to the district in which it was tried, it was not repeated elsewhere. Soldiers were placed at voting polls to preserve order, and to enforce the ordinance of June 1862. Those who were disfranchised by the ordinance were not allowed to vote.