The Camp Jackson Affair was an incident of civil unrest 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 highly publicized affair polarized the border state of Missouri, leading some citizens to advocate secession and others to support the Union, thus setting the stage for sustained violence between the opposing factions.
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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 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.
The January-April 1861 period was a period of furious military organization in Missouri. Pro-secessionists established Minutemen para-military groups, usually with the overt support of state authorities. In February 1861, the St. Louis area Minutemen were enrolled in the Missouri Volunteer Militia by Brigadier General Daniel Frost as companies in a new Second Regiment, MVM. Unionist activists were forced to organize in secret, as a February 1861 Missouri state law banned any militia activity outside the framework of the MVM.
On April 23, 1861, on orders of the War Department, Union Captain Nathaniel Lyon temporarily replaced Brigadier General William S. Harney as (acting) Commander of the U.S. Army's Western Department. Lyon also began enlisting and arming St. Louis Unionist volunteer, an action previously ordered by the Secretary of War, but not acted on by General Harney. The majority of Lyon's early recruit's were German immigrants and members of the Wide Awakes political organization. According to one estimate, 80% of the volunteers in the first Missouri Volunteer regiments were Germans.[1] The Germans in particular were unpopular with many native-born Missourians with Southern backgrounds, who deeply resented their anti-slavery views.
On the orders of the War Department, in the early morning hours of April 26, U.S. Regulars, Illinois state troops, and Missouri volunteers loaded 21,000 of the Arsenal's 39,000 weapons on the steamer City of Alton, which carried them across the river to Illinois.
Around May 1, Missouri Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson, who had been elected on the ticket of the (Unionist) Douglas faction of the Democratic party, but privately supported secession, called out the Missouri Volunteer Militia for "maneuvers" about 4.5 miles northwest of the arsenal at Lindell's Grove (the current campus of St. Louis University on Lindell Boulevard), then outside the city of St. Louis, at an encampment christened "Camp Jackson" by the militiamen
Previously in mid-April 1861, Governor Jackson had sent two pro-secessionist militia officers (Colton Green and Basil Wilson Duke) to Confederate President Jefferson Davis, with a letter asking for heavy artillery with which to attack the St. Louis Arsenal.[2] On May 9, the steamer 'J.C. Swon' delivered the Confederate aid: two 12 pound Howitzers; two 32 pound siege guns; five hundred muskets; and ammunition in crates marked as Tamoroa marble. The munitions had been captured by the Confederates when they seized the Federal arsenal at Baton Rouge. MVM officers met the shipment at the St. Louis riverfront, and transported it to Camp Jackson, six miles inland.[3]
Based on the presence of the "stolen" U.S. artillery, and strong evidence of state militia conspiracy against the U.S. government, on May 10, Lyon marched on Camp Jackson with approximately 6,000 Federally enrolled Missouri Volunteers and U.S. Regulars, and forced the surrender of 669 members of the Missouri Volunteer Militia under General Daniel M. Frost. The militiamen refused to take the oath of allegiance to the Federal government. As a result, Lyon decided to place them under arrest and march the militia to the arsenal 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 angered citizens who had gathered to watch the commotion.
Tensions quickly mounted on the streets as civilians hurled rocks, paving stones, and insults at Lyon's troops. The heavily German Missouri Volunteer units were particularly targeted by the mob and shouts of "Damn the Dutch" were hurled at them from the crowd.[4] Exactly what provoked the shooting remains unclear, but the most common explanation is that a drunkard stumbled into the path of the marching soldiers, and fired a pistol into their ranks, fatally wounding Captain Constantin Blandowski of the Third Missouri Volunteers.[5] The volunteers, in reaction, fired over the heads of...and then into.... the crowd, killing some 28 people, some of whom were women and children, and wounding as many as 50 more.
The incident sparked several days of rioting and anti-German animosity in St. Louis. On May 11, another incident occurring at the intersection of 5th and Walnut streets saw German Volunteers fired at from windows and once again return fire into the mob. Col. Henry Boernstein, publisher of the Anzeiger des Westens a prominent German Language newspaper in St. Louis and commander of the 2nd Regiment of Missouri Volunteers, remarked in his memoirs that he gave several of his men leave to visit their families on the morning of May 11 and that, “Most of them did not return…until it grew dark, with clothing torn, faces beaten bloody, and all the signs of having suffered mistreatment…Two of them never returned and they were never heard of again.”[6]
Rumors spread throughout the city that the Germans were planning to murder the American population of the city which caused many of the wealthy citizens of St. Louis to flee to either Illinois or the Missouri Interior.
Eventually the installation of martial law and the arrival of Federal Regulars to relieve the German volunteers would bring the situation to a conclusion but the impact of the Camp Jackson Affair left its mark on St. Louis permanently.
Nativism, 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 advocated neutrality. However the Camp Jackson Affair forced most Missourians to take a side. Some former "Conditional Unionists",[7] including former Governor Sterling Price, now advocated secession. But ultimately the actions of Lyon and the St. Louis German community did much to ensure Missouri's continued loyalty to the Union. And in the years following the war, the Germans would gain a reputation as "saviors of Missouri."
Governor Jackson exploited the Affair to resubmit the stalled "Military Bill" which would put the state on a war footing, create a new state military force, and granted the Governor wide executive powers. On May 11, the Missouri General Assembly approved the measure, which created the Missouri State Guard to resist the Union invasion with Sterling Price as its Major General. Unionists described the bill as a "secession act in all but name". Critics also observed that since it stated that all adult men were to be considered to be reserves of the State Guard, and granted the Governor wide powers as commander of the Guard, it had the effect of making Governor Jackson dictator of the state. The following day, Major General Price and Brigadier General William S. Harney (Commander of the Western District, which included Missouri) signed the Price-Harney Truce leaving the Federal military in charge of St. Louis, and allowing state forces to maintain order in the rest of the state. Many Missouri unionists considered the agreement to be a capitulation to Jackson and the secessionist faction. Unionists outside of St. Louis reported harassment by secessionists, many fleeing to St. Louis for refuge. On May 30, Harney was relieved of command by Congressman/Colonel Francis P. Blair, Jr who had previously been granted the right to do so at his discression by President Lincoln. Lyon was promoted to Brigadier General of Volunteers and assigned command of all the Union forces in Missouri.
On June 11, in a face-to-face meeting at St. Louis' Planter's House hotel Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon and Governor Jackson failed to reach a new agreement. After over four hours of argument (much of it over the powers claimed by Jackson in the Military Bill) Lyon abruptly ending the meeting declaring "This means war. In an hour one of my officers will call on you and conduct you out of my lines.[8]
Jackson retreated to the state capitol at Jefferson City, and then evacuated the city on June 12, joining newly assembled State Guard troops near Boonville. Lyon occupied the capitol without resistance, and pursued Jackson with approximately 1,400 volunteers and U.S. Army regulars. Against the advice of his senior officers, Governor Jackson exercised his authority as Commander-in-Chief and ordered the State Guard to make a stand at Boonville. In the resulting battle on June 17 Lyon's troops routed the State Guard. Jackson, the State Guard, and pro-secessionist members of the General Assembly retreated to southwest Missouri, near the Arkansas border, leaving most of the state under Federal control.
The Missouri Constitutional Convention, elected in February 1861 to amend the state constitution and decide the issue of secession, convened on July 22 and declared the office of Governor of Governor vacant due to Jackson's withdrawal from the state capitol (among other issues).[9] The Convention then voted to appoint former Chief Justice of the Missouri Supreme Court and conservative Unionist Hamilton Rowan Gamble as Governor of the Provisional Government of Missouri. Gamble's government was recognized by the Lincoln administration, and controlled its own military force, the (new) Missouri State Militia in battles against guerrillas and the State Guard.
Brigadier General Lyon, commanding an army of about 6,000 men (U.S. Regulars and volunteer troops from Missouri, Kansas, and Iowa) pursued Jackson and the State Guard as far as Springfield on August 1. By that time the Missouri State Guard had linked up with Arkansas State Troops and a Confederate army under General Ben McCulloch, creating a combined force of over 12,000 men. Lyon, decided to retreat to his rail head at Rolla, but attempted to deliver a preemptive attack to damage the secessionist force and allow his troops to withdraw unto safely. The resulting August 10 Battle of Wilson's Creek, fought ten miles south of Springfield, was a bloody affair, lasting over five hours. The battle ground down to a stalemate, with the outnumbered Federals holding off three charges on their position on Bloody Hill. The battle finally ended when Lyon was killed leading a charge, and his successor in command, Major Samuel Sturgis, concerned about his ammunition supplies ordered a withdrawal. The exhausted Confederates did not immediately pursue.
As a result of the battle, Price and Jackson were left in control of parts of south and southwestern Missouri until the Battle of Pea Ridge on March 6–8, 1862.
In addition, the withdrawal of Federal troops allowed Jackson to establish a "government in exile" in the southwest Missouri town of Neosho. On October 28, 1861 pro-secession elements of the General Assembly met in the town's Masonic Hall and (reportedly) passed an Ordinance of Secession, making Missouri a short lived independent republic. On November 28, 1861 the Confederate Congress accepted the Jackson government's petition and admitted Missouri as the "twelfth Confederate state". The legality of the Neosho secession (even under Confederate law) has been questioned by many historians who: question whether a proper quorum of the General Assembly was present; note that the General Assembly had previously granted the power over secession action to the Constitutional Convention; and note that under Missouri state law an Ordinance of Secession required confirmation by a plebiscite of the state's voters (which never occurred).