Daniel M. Frost
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Daniel Marsh Frost (August 9, 1823 – October 29, 1900) was an antebellum officer in the United States Army and then a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He was one of a handful of Confederate generals born in the North, and commanded the Missouri militia during the Camp Jackson Affair in May 1861 that fanned civil unrest in St. Louis.
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[edit] Early life and career
Daniel M. Frost was born near Duanesburg in rural Schenectady County, New York. He was appointed from New York to the United States Military Academy in nearby West Point and graduated in 1844, ranking 4th in a class of 24. He was brevetted as a second lieutenant in the infantry and assigned to garrison duty. With the outbreak of the Mexican-American War, he served under Winfield Scott in the Army of Occupation in Mexico and was brevetted for galantry in action at the Battle of Cerro Gordo.
Following the war, he spent part of 1849 as Regimental Quartermaster of an immense supply train sent to the Oregon Territory. He was assigned to Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis in 1850. The following year, he met and married Elizabeth Brown `Lily' Graham, his second wife. They would have eleven children. After a brief assignment in Europe, Frost returned to the United States. He rejoined his regiment on the Texas frontier. In a skirmish with raiding Indians, he was severely wounded and nearly lost an eye. He resigned his commission in 1853 for domestic reasons and partnered in a lumber planing mill. He later established D. M. Frost & Co., a prominent fur-trading company from Kansas to the West Coast.
Politically active, Frost was elected in 1854 to the Missouri state legislature as a senator from Benton County and, over time, became a strong supporter of states' rights. He served until 1858. He stayed involved with the army by serving on the Board of Vistors for West Point, and was appointed as a brigadier general in the Missouri volunteer militia in 1858 by the Governor of Missouri, Claiborne F. Jackson. He was assigned command of the First Military District, which encompassed St. Louis and the surrounding county.
[edit] Civil War
In the early days of the Civil War, General Frost decided to support the secessionist movement endorsed and led by Governor Jackson. He secretly met with Jackson and other other secessionist leaders to organize an encampment of pro-secession militia forces outside of St. Louis. The resulting Camp Jackson was established in May 6, 1861, and placed under Frost's command, along with over 600 "St. Louis Minute Men," which Frost began training in military tactics and drills. He soon became embroiled in Jackson's plans to seize the St. Louis Arsenal and began preparing his men. Although he initially denied involvement when questioned by authorities, Union intelligence later obtained a letter that revealed that Frost was indeed an active participant in the plot.
Union Captain Nathaniel Lyon secretly spied on Frost's men at Camp Jackson and returned with his German Home Guard and Federal troops. After surrounding the camp, they forced Frost and his men to surrender on May 10. When the prisoners were marched through the streets of St. Louis, a riot broke out and 28 people were killed. Frost was paroled and exchanged, returning to his home.
On March 3, 1862, Daniel Frost was commissioned as a brigadier general in the Confederate Army and assigned to duty in Memphis, Tennessee, under Major General Sterling Price. He briefly served as the inspector general in the army of Gen. Braxton Bragg, and then in October was assigned to the Trans-Mississippi Department. Frost led a brigade into action at the Battle of Prairie Grove in the division of Maj. Gen. Thomas C. Hindman. On March 2, 1863, Hindman was relieved of duty and replaced by Frost in Little Rock, Arkansas.
In August 1863, Frost's wife was forced from their home in St. Louis because of the family's ardent Confederate sympathies and had taken the children and moved to Canada for safety and refuge. Frost reacted quickly upon hearing the news. He left the army, without first obtaining any official approval or permission, and travelled to Canada to join his family. In December, the Confederate War Department officially dropped Frost from the muster rolls. Frost stayed in Canada for the rest of the war and did not return to Missouri until late 1865.
Following the war, Frost became a farmer on his land near St. Louis. His second wife died in the early 1870s and Frost later married a third time, this time to a young widow with two children. The couple had two children of their own.
At the age of 77, Daniel M. Frost died at his home in Hazelwood, Missouri, and was buried near there.
[edit] References
- Miller, Robert E., "Daniel Marsh Frost, C.S.A." Missouri Historical Review #85 (July 1991).
- U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1880–1901.
- Frost family geneology
