Camp Jackson Affair

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The Camp Jackson Affair was an incident in the American Civil War on May 10, 1861, when Union military forces clashed with civilians on the streets of St. Louis, Missouri, resulting in the deaths of at least 28 people and injuries to another 100. The affair polarized the border state of Missouri, leading some citizens to advocate secession and most to support the Union, thus setting the stage for sustained violence between the opposing factions.

1 Background
2 Affair
3 Aftermath
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Background

In March 1861 the Missouri Constitutional Convention of 1861 voted 98 to 1 to stay in the Union but not supply weapons or men to either side if war broke out. The security of such a large munitions depot became an immediate flash point.

On April 20, 1861, eight days after the start of the war at Fort Sumter, a pro-Confederate mob at Liberty, Missouri, seized the Liberty Arsenal and made off with about 1,000 rifles and muskets.

This set the stage for fears that Confederates would also seize the much larger St. Louis Arsenal, which had nearly 40,000 rifles and muskets—the most of any slave state.

Union Colonel Nathaniel Lyon hastily raised a militia, seized the arsenal (which was under the command of Peter V. Hagner), and started sending all but 10,000 rifles and muskets to Illinois. Lyon's militia had been hastily recruited from German immigrants and members of the Wide Awakes political organization. The Germans in particular were unpopular with native-born Missourians, who deeply resented their anti-slavery and anti-secessionist political views.

Around May 1, Missouri Governor Claiborne Jackson, who had favored the South but had stuck the neutrality posture, called out the Missouri Militia for "maneuvers" about 4.5 miles northwest of the arsenal at Lindell's Grove (the current campus St. Louis University on Lindell Boulevard) then outside the city of St. Louis in what has been called "Camp Jackson."

Lyon was to ascertain whether Jefferson Davis had sent artillery (allegedly from the Baton Rouge, Louisiana arsenal) to the camp. According to legend, Lyon had visited the camp disguised as a woman.

[edit] Affair

On May 10, Lyon arrested Gen. Daniel M. Frost and 669 "St. Louis Minute Men" without serious incident, although the men refused to take the oath of allegiance to the Federal government. However, Lyon decided to march his prisoners through downtown St. Louis before providing them with a parole and ordering them to disperse. This lengthy march was widely viewed as a public humiliation for the state forces, and immediately angered citizens who had gathered to watch the commotion. To add to the insult, Lyon placed the captured militiamen between two lines of armed German Home Guards.

Tensions quickly mounted on the streets as civilians hurled fruit, rocks, paving stones, and insults at Lyon's troops (particularly his German Home Guards), and some of the soldiers returned the favor. Exactly what provoked the shooting remains unclear, but the most common explanation is that a drunkard stumbled into the path of the marching soldiers, sparking a loud altercation. Weapons were drawn by soldiers and civilians alike and shots rang out, killing three militiamen. Some of the soldiers formed a line and fired into the nearby crowd of bystanders, injuring or killing a large number of men, women, and children. Lyon initially dismissed the German guards and sent them home, but mobs rioted throughout the city, and a number of buildings were burned, causing Lyon to recall the Home Guards. Violence continued for the next two days, resulting in the death of at least seven more civilians who were shot by Federal troops patrolling the streets.

An eye-witness account of the episode appears in "The Civil War Memoir of Philip Dangerfield Stephenson, D.D.; Private, Company K, 13th Arkansas Volunteer Infantry [and, later, an artillery] Loader, Piece No. 4, 5th Company, Washington [Louisiana] Artillery, Army of Tennessee, CSA."

[edit] Aftermath

Racism, mistrust of the Federal government, slavery, and states rights issues all played roles in provoking the incident. The Affair polarized the state between Union and Confederate supporters. Previously most Missourians had been moderate Unionists who were opposed to secession and war. Some former Unionists, including former Governor Sterling Price, now advocated secession. Price soon transformed the militia in the Missouri State Guard and enter it into Confederate service, and became a leading general in the Confederate States Army. Lyon was promoted to brigadier general and assigned command of all the Union forces in Missouri.

On May 11, the Missouri General Assembly approved a measure to create the Missouri State Guard to resist the Union invasion with Sterling Price as its major general.

On May 12, Price and William S. Harney signed the Price-Harney Truce maintaining the earlier agreement to stay in the Union.

On May 30, Harney was relieved of command by Abraham Lincoln for failing to deliver Missouri soldiers to the Union cause.

On June 11, Lyon and Jackson failed to reach an agreement to deliver the troops which was to result in Lyon pursuing Jackson and the elected government across the state until evicting Jackson and installing a new governor. In the process Lyon was to be killed in the Battle of Wilson's Creek.

[edit] References

Adams, James T., "Camp Jackson Affair", Dictionary of American History, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940. pp. 279-80.
Covington, James W., "The Camp Jackson Affair, 1861," Missouri Historical Review April 1961 (Vol. 55, No. 3)
Parrish, William E. Parrish, A History of Missouri: Volume III, 1860 to 1875 (2001) ISBN 0-8262-0148-2.