Today in the Civil War. (commander, constitutional, document, strategic)

[Grandstander]

June 14th, 1861:

Swinging back to Missouri, Governor Jackson had fled to Boonville and called for 50,000 volunteers to rally to the cause of a Confederate Missouri. While waiting for them to appear, he had ordered the bridges between Boonville and Jefferson City to be burned.

However, that seemed to serve as no impediment to the hyper active Nathaniel Lyon who 150 years ago today, began his advance on Boonville. Since the 50,000 volunteers had not managed to arrive just yet, Jackson was once more forced to take to his heels. His new capitol was being evacuated just two days after it was established.

In the Eastern Theater, an early morning explosion jolted awake the citizens living near Harper's Ferry. The sound was the destruction of the covered bridge which serviced both railroad and horse/foot traffic. It was destroyed on the orders of General Johnston who decided quite correctly that Harper's Ferry's position in a valley overlooked on three sides by heights, was not a proper place for a defense. He decided to move across the Valley to Winchester. Harper's Ferry was to change hands numerous times throughout the war. The bridge which was blown up 150 years ago today was rebuilt, and redestroyed, nine times during the war.

[Grandstander]

June 15th, 1861:

The first Wheeling Convention which had been staged in mid May, was unable to arrive at a plan of action save for agrreing to reconvene in a month. 150 years ago today, the Second Wheeling Convention gathered and began restaging the same arguments which had bogged down the first convention.

However, this time around they did manage to put things in motion. There was a faction which argued that secession from Virginia was A) Treason against Virginia, and B) An endorsement of the secession's legality. Still, their common goal was remaining under the Federal government, so if secession from Virginia wasn't the way, then naturally the solution was to simply declare the secession government illegal, set up their own government with elected officials, and market themselves as the "real" Virginia. The convention also agreed that among their "real" government's powers would be the authority to organize the "real" Virginia into an independent state and petition the Union for admission, should future circumstances suggest that was needed.

These were opening labor pains which would ultimately result in statehood for West Virginia at the end of 1862.

[Grandstander]

On the 17th the action in Missouri will heat up again, but on this day 150 years ago, nothing of great note transpired. I shall utilize this opportunity to write about the personalities involved in the struggle for the state.

In today's army, Nathaniel Lyon would probably have been quietly pulled from command and ordered to see a psychiatrist for impulse control and anger management. Lyon was a short, red bearded soldier with a hyper aggressive nature. Loudly vocal in his beliefs and never hesitant to air them without any concern for the offense he might be giving to audience members, Lyon may safely be described as a fanatic, perhaps even a mentally unbalanced fanatic.

What Lyon believed in so firmly was Republicanism, Union, atheism, and the overthrow of slavery. (though Lyon had no use for blacks and assumed that freed slaves would all be deported to Liberia.) What Lyon loathed with a passion was anything and everything associated with the Southern aristocracy. He saw secession as unforgivable treason and could hardly be restrained in his enthusiasm for fighting the traitors. He was in reality, the propaganda image of Northern aggression which the South was trying to impose on the entire North.

Backing Lyon was Congressman Frank Blair, the President's eyes and ears on the scene. Blair was the brother of Postmaster General Montgomery Blair and kept in continuous telegraph communication with Washington. Hard nosed and ruthless like Lyon, Blair immediately hit it off with the general and the two set about securing Missouri for the Union.

Their chief foe was Governor Claiborne Jackson and this was another aggressive, impulsive, impatient actor on the stage. Though the Missouri legislature had so far given secession no support, Jackson crafted a thinly veiled official position of neutrality for the state, while actually working as hard as he could to pull Missouri into the Confederacy. Jackson had clandestinely brought the state militias together to form the "Minute Men", his private army of pro secessionists. He plotted with them to seize the Federal arsenal in St. Louis, a plan frustrated by Lyon.

When the news of Sumter arrived, Jackson acted quickly. He had the police raid all of the German bars, employing previously unenforced blue laws to round up members of that large Missouri community who were heavily pro Union and anti slavery. He shut down the German opera house. He redirected the funds which supported the German schools , the money now going to support the Minute Men. Public assemblies of blacks, free or slave, were banned, blacks could not even gather to attend church services unless a police officer was present. His response to Lincoln's call for volunteers was to tell the President to stick it. And most secretly, Jackson sent envoys to Jefferson Davis, requesting that the Confederacy begin shipping rifles and artillery to the Missouri guardsmen.

[Grandstander]

June 17th, 1861:

150 years ago today, Missouri was saved for the Union. The ever aggressive Nathaniel Lyon loaded 1400 troops aboard steamboats and headed for Boonville and a showdown with Governor Jackson. General Price, commanding the state guard for Jackson, advised that upon Lyon's approach, Boonville should be evacuated. He began making preparations for that when he was taken ill. He headed for Lexington to rally other troops there, leaving Colonel John Marmaduke in nominal command, but Governor Jackson asserted himself and took actual control.

This was unfortunate. Jackson was a politician, not a general, and he made a poltical decision. Fearing that another evacuation would vanquish the political support which he had, Jackson determined to make a stand in Boonville. He put the 500 state guardsmen into a line on a ridge, and then retired to a point about a mile away where he could watch. Unsurprisingly, this wasn't an effective command structure.

Lyon landed his men about eight miles downriver and marched on Boonville. Encountering the Confederate defensive line, Lyon made short work of it. He used his artillery to drive back the enemy pickets, sharpshooters and skirmishers, brought his men forward in a line and fired several volleys at the rebel line. The militiamen withstood it for twenty minutes, but then began to fall back. When the steamer Augustus McDowell moved downriver and pounded the rebels with cannon fire from the flank, it became a rout. About half went on with Jackson to the SW corner of the state, while half simply vanished...went home one supposes.

The Confederates experienced about 50 casualties, most of them prisoners, while Lyon's force suffered 30.

After this battle, the Union controlled St. Louis, the capitol Jefferson City, and the Mississippi and Missouri waterways. Jackson controlled a tiny area just over the Arkansas line. Though there was more fighting to come, the Confederates never seriously threatened to gain control of the state. Missouri was to go on to endure the ravages of partisan warfare with little distinction between soldiers from civillians. Homicidal lawlessness, more so than military battles, was to characterize the bloody chaos over the next four years.

[Grandstander]

June 19th, 1861:

Missouri Governor Jackson and his state guardsmen army had so far been roughly handled by Nathaniel Lyon's Federals, forced to retreat from St. Louis, chased out of Jefferson City, routed from Boonville, the Confederate cause needed a morale booster in the form of some sort of victory, and 150 years ago today, it got it.

As they passed through Benton County on their way to the SW corner of Missouri, Captain Abel H.W. Cook turned out the Benton County Home Guard which he commanded, local militia with no battle experience of any sort. 900 men had assembled for the adventure, but 450 of them had to be sent home when it was discovered that they had no weapons of any nature.
While waiting for Jackson's force to arrive, the Home Guard camped out over two farms, setting no pickets and not apprehending any immediate danger.

But Benton County also had its Southern sympathizers and they had organized their own militia of 250 infantry and 100 cavalry with Captain Walter S. O' Kane in command. They were called together and immediately set off to attack what was being called Camp Cole. They were spotted by a Union leaning citizen who rushed to Camp Cole with the news. Despite this warning, Cook took no added precautions. A party atmosphere prevailed and many got drunk, a condition from which they had not recovered in the early hours of the next morning when O' Kane's infantry struck the camp from one direction, while the cavalry smashed into it from another. The Union militia was instantly routed, only a few making any sort of a stand before taking to their heels. Among those fleeing was Cook, who claimed that he was rushing to consult with another officer, but none of the men who watched this rush seemed to believe that version of the event.

This was a heavy duty battle casualty wise for the Unionists, 35 dead, 60 wounded and 25 captured. The Confederates lost just seven killed and twenty five wounded. The result of the battle was to clear the road for Jackson's retreating government show.

Also on this day in western Virginia, the Union loyalists who had decided not to secede from Virginia but to claim to be the legitimate government of Virginia, took a step in constructing that by naming a provisional governor, Francis Harrison Pierpont, who now was the chief executive of what they were calling "Federal Virginia."

[Grandstander]

June 24th, 1861:

I had previously mentioned that President Lincoln was an enthusiast for new weapons and military gadgets, and was having inventors come to the White House to make their sales pitches to the commander in chief directly.

150 years ago today, Lincoln personally took a turn firing what was then called the Agar Gun, but when the president said that it resembeld a coffee mill, it came to be known as the coffee mill gun.

It was an early machine gun featuring a single barrel and an attached hopper for holding the ammunition supply which was then fed into the gun by turning a crank. 120 .58 caliber rounds a minute could be fired by an industrious gunner.

Lincoln was impressed and immediately ordered the purchase of 12 of the weapons. Another 42 were purchased throughout the course of the war. It turned out to be an unpopular weapon due to its tendencies to overheat and jam at inconvenient times, and reloading the hopper was time consuming after the first rounds had been fired.

There was another inventor who examined the Agar gun and determined that the single barrel design would never work because the rate of fire caused rapid overheating. It struck him that a multi barrel weapon would address this shortcoming. This was Richard Gatling and it was his hand cranked machine gun which was to become the first widely used automatic weapon...but not in the Civil War, the Army ordinance department obstructed their development and distribution throughout the war.

[Grandstander]

JUne 28th, 1861:

In an item published 150 years ago today in the Daily Virginian, Southern outrage over Yankee conduct was expressed. A certain Mr. Whiting who lived near the place where the Battle of Big Bethel was fought, had grabbed his rifle and gone to join the Confederates defending his home. He was captured and marched off as a prisoner to Fortress Monroe. All of this was bad for Mr. Whiting, but what made his treatment especially unendurable to the Southern mind was that..

He was marched in at the points of bayonets of nine negroes as a guard under command of a white man.

June 28, 1861: 'A Cruel Indignity to a Southern Citizen' | The News & Advance (http://www2.newsadvance.com/news/2011/jun/28/june-28-1861-cruel-indignity-southern-citizen-ar-1129003/ - broken link)

[Grandstander]

June 29th, 1861:

President Lincoln's military experience was composed of a few weeks of service in a local militia unit during the Blackhawk War. His company saw no combat of any sort.

Now he was the commander in chief of what was rapidly becoming the largest army and navy the nation had ever seen, and he was under a great deal of pressure from Northern newspapers to put it into action and quickly end the Southern rebellion. Toward that end, 150 years ago today the president convened a meeting with army commander in chief Winfield Scott, and the commander of the forces in the Washington area, General Irvin McDowell. The purpose of the gathering was for the president to learn how quickly the army could be set into motion, and the president was dismayed when both generals said that the soldiers needed more training and were too raw to be considered reliable for organized combat operations. They pointed out that some divisions still existed only in theory, their assigned regiments had never laid eyes on one another much less drilled together as brigades.

Lincoln did not like what he was hearing. At this point still fairly ignorant of military matters, Lincoln used pure reason to convince himself that the politically expedient thing to do, was also the proper military move. He said to Scott and McDowell ""You are green, it is true; but they are green, also; you are green alike."

Lincoln's thinking was that whatever drawbacks his army faced due to inexperience, the Confederate army did as well. Rookies must be able to beat other rookies. What Lincoln did not grasp at the time was that inexperience always favors the side standing on the defensive. The army on the offense must be able to execute maneuvers which are only learned by long hours of drill, the offense must be able to withstand enemy fire before they arrive at a point where they can return it, supporting units have to be able to keep up and maintain contact with one another as they advance. The defensive side is typically on home ground, has its supplies on hand rather than having to convey them to the field, may have prepared defensive positions so that they are less exposed than are the attackers, are generally not required to execute any complicate maneuvers after arriving on the battlefield...the disadvantages of inexperience are a great deal lighter for them.

Over the objections of his military men, Lincoln ordered McDowell to prepare for an advance against the rebel forces in Virginia.

[Grandstander]

June 30th, 1861:

Originally the ship was a 437 ton river screw steamer called the Habana. A Maryland born attorney at law who was a veteran of the US Navy, but now serving the Confederacy in New Orleans, thought he saw possibilities in the Habana. He armed the ship with one eight inch gun amidship, and had four 32 pounders installed as a broadside. The commander was determined to slip past the Union blockade at the mouth of the Mississippi and begin a career as a commerce raider.

150 years ago today, now called The CSS Sumter, it ventured out toward the Gulf of Mexico. Waiting for it was the USS Brooklyn, a sloop of war, which began a pursuit. The Sumter managed to outrun Brooklyn and was loose on the seas. Over the next six months it was to capture eighteen prizes of war. When it put into port in Gibraltar to resupply in January of 1862, a fleet of Union war vessels arrived and stood just outside the harbor, waiting for the Sumter to try and escape. Instead, its commander sold the vessel and made his way to England where he was to receive another ship, one which was to become the most famous raider of the war, and its captain the Confederacy's greatest naval hero.

This was Raphael Semmes and his second ship was the Alabama, a vessel which was to capture 65 prizes of war and destroy one Union warship.

[Grandstander]

July 1st, 1861:

150 years ago today as the Muscogee, Seminole, Choctaw and Chickasaw tribe living in "The Nations" , what is today Oklahoma, signed an "Articles of Confederation" which pledeged mutual support and defense. The Indians tribes reasoned that the break up of the United States overturned existing treaties signed with that nation, and left the tribes as independent nations, free to enter into whatever agreements that they wished. The agreement spelled out specific obligations and the governmental structure which would rule, but it was Article Nine which most interested the warring Americans.

Article 9. It is further agreed and understood, that, for the mutual protection and safety of the Nations or Tribes parties to this Compact the right of way to all forces of the Confederate States of America through our territory is hereby granted.

So, there it was. They were not officially chosing sides or declaring war on the US, but they were going to be cooperative with CSA military needs.

Oddly, in a burst of redundancy, Article 13 more or less repeated Article Nine:

Whereas, it is highly necessary that the right of way and free passage through the several districts or country of the Muscogee, Seminole, Choctaw, and Chickasaw Nations of Indians be granted forthwith to all forces or troops which may desire to make their march through any of the Districts or countries aforesaid, in order to repel the invading forces of Abraham Lincoln, ..

And right after that, the closing paragraph hammers this same point home once more:

Be it resolved by the Commissioners in convention assembled, that the right of way and free passage be and is hereby granted to all forces of the Confederate States of America, as well as to the forces of any Nation or Tribe who may desire to march their forces through to any part of the Indian Territory to repel the invading forces of abolition hands under Abraham Lincoln, whose army is now approaching our position.

Articles of Confederation July 1, 1861 - The Great Law of Peace

I'd love to be able to explain to you why this one point was deemed so critical that it had to be spelled out three times in the same document, but I would just be guessing. I do note that with each mention, a bit more propaganda creeps in. The first time it is just granting the right of passage to the CSA forces. The second time Lincoln is mentioned and characterized as an "invader", and the third time they toss in the idea that this invader is an "abolitionist."

If anyone reading this happens to have the inside story, please share it with us.