EVENTS IN MISSOURI.

147

CHAPTER XII.

INCREASED ENERGY OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT-EVENTS IN MISSOURI-IMPORTANT BATTLE AT CARTHAGE-RETROGRADE MOVEMENT OF GENERAL LYON TO SPRINGFIELD -PURSUIT OF THE REBELS UNDER GENERALS MCCULLOCH AND PRICE-CONDITION OF THEIR ARMY-REASONS WHY GENERAL LYON ENGAGED THE ENEMY-THE GREAT BATTLE OF WILSON'S CREEK-DISPOSITION OF THE FEDERAL FORCES-TEMPORARY SUCCESS OF THE REBELS-INCIDENTS OF THE CONTEST-HEROISM OF GENERAL LYON-HIS LAST EFFORT AGAINST THE ENEMY-ITS SUCCESS-GENERAL LYON'S DEATH-DISCOMFITURE OF COLONEL SIGEL-RESULTS OF THE BATTLE-SKETCH OF GENERAL LYON-HIS RARE MERITS GENERAL FREMONT MADE COMMANDANT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF MISSOURI-HIS POLICY AND MEASURES-HIS ANTI-SLAVERY PROCLAMATION-IT IS MODIFIED BY PRESIDENT

LINCOLN THE WAR AGAINST SECESSION NOT A WAR AGAINST SLAVERY.

IMMEDIATELY after the battle of Manassas, the Federal Government was busily employed in making every possible preparation to defend Washington against an apprehended attack from the Rebel forces. The loyal States were called upon to send large masses of troops without delay to the Federal capital. This requisition was speedily and heartily complied with; and in the course of a few weeks, as we have stated, several hundred thousand armed men rallied around the seat of government. At the same time, various other measures, required by the peculiar exigencies of the occasion, were adopted. General McClellan was summoned from Western Virginia to Washington; other officers of merit, including Fremont, Wool, Banks and Lyon, were promoted to positions of importance; and soon the administration of Mr. Lincoln, which seemed by one deadly blow to have been brought to the very verge of ruin, presented to the enemy a front much more formidable and defiant than that which it had exhibited before the battle of Manassas. No military operations of any importance were destined to occur in that vicinity for several months but; hostilities were carried on with great vigor in the southwestern department of the Republic.

We have already described the process by which the State of Missouri became the scene of conflict between two hostile parties which had arisen within its borders; and how its inhabitants had become much divided on the subject of their allegiance to the Union. The first important conflict, which occurred between them, took place at Carthage, on the 5th of July, 1861, where eight thousand Missouri Rebels, commanded by the pseudoGovernor Jackson, attacked two thousand Federal troops, under Colonel Sigel. The battle was a desperate one. Notwithstanding the immense advantage of numbers on the Rebel side, their loss was very heavy, and the general issue of the day was adverse to them. This result was chiefly due to the superior skill with which Colonel Sigel served and directed his

artillery. General Lyon, who commanded another Federal force in the State, was ninety miles distant from Carthage at the period of the battle, and was therefore unable to effect a junction with Sigel, Nowhere, in any portion of the Union, had the ruinous effects of civil war been as terrible as within the limits of Missouri; for at this time, throughout a large portion of the State, especially to the south of the Missouri river, solitude and desolation reigned throughout the country. Nearly all the houses and plantations had been deserted by their inhabitants. Wheat, corn, and the various products of the earth, rotted unharvested. In other portions of the State the dominion of terror prevailed and there was no protection for life or property to the citizen or the stranger.

As soon as General Lyon received the details of the battle of Carthage, he fell back with the troops under his command to Springfield. He had been informed that a powerful Rebel force under McCulloch and Price were advancing upon him by several different routes. He expected an immediate attack, inasmuch as he was assured that their commissariat was in a miserable condition, and they would be compelled at once literally either to fight or to starve. General Lyon was well aware of the critical nature of his position. The Rebel force had swelled to an immense multitude of desperate, disorderly, and sanguinary adventurers, twenty thousand in number, whose attack, though irregular, would still be energetic and destructive. His own troops did not then exceed five thousand men; but they were well fed and clothed, and provided with a powerful battery of artillery. His army had been increased to that number by the junction of the force under Colonel Sigel; and he made every preparation which an able and skillful commander could possibly employ, to confront and overpower the danger which impended over him. The battle of Wilson's Creek, which soon ensued, was one of the most bloody and desperate which had occurred during the progress of the war; and the conduct of General Lyon, on this occasion, covered his name and his memory with enduring renown.

It was on the seventh of August that the Rebel force under McCulloch and Price reached a position twelve miles distant from Springfield. The inhabitants of that town at once became panic-stricken at the proximity of the foe: and earnest appeals were made to General Lyon to induce him to withdraw his troops from the place, and not to subject it, by his presence, to the horrors of an attack. Many of his officers, discouraged by the immense superiority in numbers which the enemy possessed, regarded the risking of a battle as the height of imprudence; and asserted that it would lead to inevitable defeat. A council of war was called, and a majority were in favor of retreating at once toward Rolla. But General Sweeney earnestly opposed the measure, and General Lyon coincided with his bolder counsel. The considerations which induced the commander to risk a battle were the following: