The Lost Army, Page 3

  CHAPTER III. SECESSION IDEAS OF NEUTRALITY.

  |For some days it was rumored in Dubuque that the Iowa troops would soonbe ordered to march into the neighboring state of Missouri.

  There was great excitement when, on the morning of the eleventh ofMay, the particulars of occurrences of the day before in St. Louis werepublished. Jack read about it in the morning paper and then hurried toHarry’s house as fast as his young feet could carry him.

  “This means business,” said Jack, as he quickly narrated to Harry whathe had read.

  “So it does,” was the response; “we ‘ll surely be off before many days.Let’s go to camp.”

  Away they went, and found, as they expected, that everybody expected tomove to the front very shortly.

  “We are pretty nearly ready for orders,” said the quartermaster, “andyou’d better come here twice a day, if not oftener, to make surethat you don’t get left. Watch the newspapers and see what happens inMissouri for the next few days, as it will have a good deal to do withour movements.”

  The boys did as they were directed, and, what was more, they went to atailor and bought suits resembling those worn by the soldiers. They werenot entitled to receive uniforms from the quartermaster, as they had notbeen enlisted or regularly employed, and, therefore, their outfits werepaid for out of their own pockets. But the clothes they wanted were notcostly, and therefore their outfits did not cost them much.

  There was more news of importance the next day, and if the excitementwas great in Dubuque, it was nothing to that in St. Louis.

  According to the histories of the time, it occurred in this wise:

  A regiment of the Home Guards was marching from the arsenal to itsbarracks, which lay at the other side of the city, and while on its wayit encountered a dense multitude which blocked the street. The crowdbeing almost wholly composed of secessionists, many of whom were armedwith pistols, a pistol-shot was fired at the soldiers, whereupon thelatter opened fire, killing eight men and wounding several others. Thenthe regiment continued to its barracks and was not further molested.

  A rumor went around among the secessionists that the Germans hadthreatened to kill everybody who did not agree with them, and a generalmassacre was seriously feared. The police commissioners and the mayorasked to have the Home Guards sent away from the city, and thoughGeneral Harney, the commander of the department, promised to comply withtheir request, he was soon convinced by Blair and Lyon that it couldnot be done without giving the city into the hands of the secessionists.Then came a rumor that the Home Guards had refused to obey the orders ofGeneral Harney, and were about to begin the destruction of the city andthe murder of its inhabitants.

  A panic followed, and on the twelfth and thirteenth of May thousandsof women and children were sent out of the city; the ferry-boats werecrowded to their utmost capacity, and extra steamboats were pressed intoservice to convey the people to places of safety. Quiet was not restoreduntil two companies of regular soldiers were brought into the city andGeneral Harney had issued a proclamation in which he pledged his faithas a soldier to preserve order and protect all unoffending citizens.This brought back nearly all the fugitives, but there were some whonever returned, as they feared the terrible “Dutch blackguards” wouldrevolt against their officers and deluge the streets of St. Louis withblood.

  Jack and Harry read with great interest the account of these happeningsin the neighboring state, and wondered how they would all end. They alsoread the editorial comments of the newspapers, but could not understandall they found there.

  So they strolled down to camp and questioned one of the soldiers, anintelligent printer from one of the newspaper offices.

  “One thing we want to know,” said Jack, “is what is meant by‘states-rights’?”

  “That ‘s what the South is going to war about,” was the reply; “or atany rate that is the pretext of the leaders, though I’ve no doubt it ishonestly believed by the great mass of the southern people.”

  “What is it, anyway?”

  “Well, it is the idea that the general government of the United Stateshas no power to coerce or control a state against the latter’s will.”

  “Does that mean,” said Harry, “that if a state wants to go out of theUnion she has a perfect right to do so, and there’s no power or right inthe general government to stop her?”

  “Yes, that’s what it means,” was the reply. “The states-rights argumentis that the states that were dissatisfied with the election of PresidentLincoln had a perfect right to secede or step out of the Union, and theUnion had no right to force them to stay in or come back.”

  “Thank you,” said Harry; “I think I understand it now. And how is itwith the border states, like Missouri, and the state sovereignty they‘re talking about?”

  “The states-rights men in Missouri claim that the national governmenthas no right or authority to call for troops from Missouri to aid inputting down rebellion in the seceded states; that Governor Jackson didright in refusing such troops when the president called for them; thatthe national government has no right to enlist troops in Missouri totake part in the war, and that it must not be permitted to march itstroops into or across or through any part of the state in order to reachthe states in rebellion against the national authority.”

  “In other words,” said one of the boys, “they want the state of Missourito be entirely neutral in the war--to take no part in it either way?”

  “That ‘s what they say,” replied the printer, with a smile.

  “But look here,” exclaimed Harry; “have n’t I read that thesecessionists in Missouri seized the United States arsenal at Liberty,in the western part of the state, and took possession of all the cannon,small-arms and ammunition they found there?”

  “Yes.”

  “And have n’t I read about how they planned to capture the St. Louisarsenal, and Jeff Davis sent them some artillery and ammunition for thatpurpose, and wrote them a letter saying exactly what the cannon wereto be used for, and how they were to be placed on the hills behind thearsenal in order to batter down the walls?”

  “Yes, you read that, and it’s all true.”

  “That ‘s what they call neutrality, is it? Do they claim that theyhave a perfect right to do anything they please toward destroying thegovernment, but the government does wrong when it lifts a finger for itsown protection?”

  “That’s exactly what they claim and have said over and over again intheir newspapers and through the voices of their speakers, and everysecessionist you talk with says the same thing.”

  “Well,” exclaimed Harry, after a slight pause, “I don’t think much ofsuch neutrality as that. It’s as one-sided as the handle of a jug--asort of ‘heads I win, tails you lose,’ business. You could respect themand believe them sincere if they said ‘hands off from us, and we will keephands off from you,’ and then lived up to what they said.”

  Jack agreed with Harry, and both of them wondered till they were tiredand even then could not make it out how honest and fair-minded men asmany of the southern sympathizers undoubtedly were, could call suchaction as that by the name of neutrality. Doubtless some of the youngpeople who read this story will wonder too, and possibly they may doubtthat such was the case. Their doubts will be dispelled when they consultany of their friends who are familiar with the history of the war of therebellion.

  The events of the tenth and eleventh of May greatly aided GovernorJackson in his efforts to carry the state of Missouri into the war onthe side of the South. The legislature met on the second of May, and thegovernor recommended that the state should be placed in a condition ofdefense, so that she could resist invasion by the national forces. Whileit was discussing the subject and making slow progress the tenth of Maycame, and with it the Camp Jackson affair. In less than fifteen minutesafter the news was received both houses of the legislature had passedthe so-called military bill providing for arming the state, and it wasready to be signed by the governor and become a law.

  Fiv
e days later the legislature adjourned, after passing other actsthrowing the state on the side of secession, appropriating two milliondollars for military purposes, in addition to the school fund and allother money belonging to the state. The greatest alarm prevailed, asthe wildest stories were circulated about the bloodthirstiness of theGermans, who composed the greater part of the Home Guards organized forthe defense of St. Louis. On a rumor that two regiments of them wereapproaching the capital a railway bridge over the Gasconade River waspartially destroyed, and many people fled from the city.

  The president of the United States removed General Harney from thecommand of the department, and appointed Lyon, who had been promoted tobrigadier-general of volunteers in his stead. Troops in Kansas, Iowa andIllinois were ordered to be ready to move into Missouri, and everythingindicated that the government was determined to put a stop to theso-called neutrality of the state. The neutrality was well illustratedby the circumstances that in all parts of the state the Union men werethe victims of outrages at the hands of their secessionist neighbors.

  For no other offense than being in favor of the Union and opposed toSecession men were dragged from their beds at night and ordered to leavethe neighborhood within twenty-four hours, their houses and barnswere burned, their cattle and horses stolen, work in the fields wassuspended, and everything was the reverse of peaceful. By an agreementbetween General Harney on the Union side and General Price on behalfof the state authorities, the operations of the military bill had beensuspended, and the volunteers which it called together were to be sentto their homes. But instead of going there they were gathered intocompanies and battalions in convenient places, where they were drilledand instructed in the duties of soldiers. Evidently the neutrality thatthe Missouri rebels wanted was as one-sided as we have already describedit.