"The minions of tyranny consume her substance, plunder her citizens and destroy her peace.

“The sacred rights of freemen are struck down and the blood of her children, her maidens and her old men is made to flow, out of mere wantonness and recklessness.

"No whispers of freedom go unpunished, and the very instincts of self-preservation are outlawed.

"The worship of God and the rites of sepulture have been shamefully interrupted, and in many instances the cultivation of the soil is prohibited to her own citizens.

"These facts are attested by many witnesses, and it is but a just tribute to that noble and chivalrous people that, amid barbarities almost unparalleled, they still maintain a proud and defiant spirit towards their enemies.

How true was every word of the latter clause of the Congressional report is too clearly shown by some random extracts from the newspapers of the day.

C. B. Jennison, colonel of the 1st regiment Kansas cavalry, U. S. A., issued a proclamation to the people of Missouri, in November, 1861, in which he says:

"All who shall disregard these propositions (to surrender their arms and sign the deed of forfeiture') shall be treated as traitors and slain wherever found.

"Their property shall be confiscated and their houses burned; and in no case will any one be spared, either in person or property, who refuses to accept these propositions."

The St. Louis Democrat of December 27, 1861, "pleasantly" states that:

"Lieut. Mack, sent out to Vienna with twenty Kansas Rangers, returned yesterday. They bring no prisoners, it being a useless operation about being played out.”

About the same time the Rolla Express contains the following paragraph:

"A scouting party, consisting of a detachment of of, 'Wood's Rangers,' which left this place last week for Maries county, has returned. The boys bring no prisoners home to Rome; it ain't their style."

These are specimens; how much has been left untold?

"The dark atrocities of the Yankee rule in Missouri, enacted, as they were, in a remote country, and to a great extent removed from observation, surpassed all that was known in other parts of the Confederacy of the cruelty and fury of the enemy.

"The developments on this subject are imperfect, but some general facts are known of the inordinate license of the Federals in Missouri, while others of equal horror have escaped the public notice."*

At the commencement of the war the men of the South had not degenerated-they manifested every noble trait that had distinguished their ancestors-they made a record worthy of the best deeds of their sires. If there were any true men in the South, any brave, any noble, they were in the army. If there are good and true men in the South now they would go into the army for a similar cause.

"And to prove that the army demoralized, you must prove that the men who came out of it are the worst in the country to-day. Who will try it?"+

Strange as it may seem, religion flourished in this army. So great was the work of the chaplains that whole volumes. have been written to describe the religious history of the four years of the war. Officers who were ungodly men found themselves restrained alike by the grandeur of the piety of the great chiefs and the earnestness of the humble privates around them. Thousands embraced the gospel and died triumphing over death! Instead of the degradation so dreaded, was the strange ennobling and purifying which made men despise all the things for which they ordinarily strive, and glory in the sternest hardships, the most bitter self-denials, and cruel suffering and death. Love for home, kindred and friends intensified, was denied the gratification of its yearnings, and made the motive for more complete surrender to the stern demands of duty. Discipline, the cold master of our enemies, never caught up with the gallant devotion of our Christian soldiers; and the *See Henry Clay Dean's "Crimes of the Civil War," 1868. +Carleton McCarthy's "Boys in Gray."

science of war quailed before the majesty of an army singing hymns.

Hypocrisy went home to dwell with the able-bodied skulkers, being too closely watched in the army, and too thoroughly known to thrive there long. And so the camp fire often lighted the pages of "The Best Book," while the soldier read the orders of the Captain of his salvation. And often did the songs of Zion ring loud and clear on the cold night air, while the muskets rattled and the guns boomed in the distance, each intensifying the significance of the other, testing the sincerity of the Christian while trying the courage of the soldier.

Stripped of all sensual allurements and offering only selfdenial, patience and endurance, the Gospel took hold of the deepest and purest motives of the soldiers, won them thoroughly, and made the army as famous for its forbearance, temperance, respect for women and children, sobriety, honesty and morality, as it was for energy and invincible courage.

Never was there an army where feeble old age received such sympathy, consideration and protection; and women, deprived of their natural protectors, fled from the advancing hosts of the enemy and found safe retreat and chivalrous protection and shelter in the lines of the army of Northern Virginia, while children played in the camps and delighted to nestle in the arms of the roughly clad, but tender-hearted soldiers.

Such was the behavior of troops on the campaign in Pennsylvania, that the citizens of Gettysburg expressed wonder and surprise at their perfect immunity from insults, violence, or even intrusion, when their city was occupied by and in complete possession of the "Boys in Gray."* The hosts led by Generals Lee and Stonewall Jackson possessed no exceptional virtues among the armies of the South.

With our Missouri troops, no harder working men were found than the regimental chaplains. In battle, up with the fighting lines, or serving as hospital stewards; in camp, *Carleton McCarthy's "Boys in Gray."

ministering at a divinely simple altar, beneath the stately forest trees, the results of their labors are now found all over Missouri and the Southern States, in the earnest, honest, sterling piety of men whose thoughts they turned towards heaven amid the smoke and carnage of carnal conflict.

CHAPTER III.

THE BEGINNING IN MISSOURI-CAMP JACKSON, MAY 10, 1861

T

STERLING PRICE.

HE politics of Missouri had always been strongly Southern. As early as 1848-9, when the North was evidently intent upon excluding the South from the territory obtained in the Mexican war-acquired principally by the blood of Southern soldiers — the Legislature of Missouri passed resolutions affirming the rights of the States, as interpreted by Calhoun, and pledging Missouri to "co-operate with her sister States in any measure they might adopt" against Northern encroachments. On account of his opposition to these resolutions Mr. Benton was defeated for the United States Senate; and they remained on the statute-book of Missouri unrepealed at the commencement of the war.

In the last Presidential campaign, Missouri, under one of those apparent contradictions or delusions not uncommon in American politics, had given her vote for Douglas. This result was obtained chiefly through the influence of Sterling Price, who had formerly been Governor of the State, had previously represented her in Congress, and was a man of commanding influence. Price and his party were firmly attached to the Union and hoped that it might be perpetuated with safety and honor to the South. Of the Conven

tion called in January, 1861, not a single member was yet

ready to avow the policy of secession; and Price himself, who had been returned as a Union man without opposition, was elected its president.

But the Federal authorities in Missouri did not show that prudence which the occasion called for; they did nothing to conciliate the disposition of the Convention; and, as events marched onward, the designs of the Washington Government were too plainly unmasked to leave any doubt with the people of Missouri of the fate prepared for them. The fall of Fort Sumpter, on the 13th of March, had created a profound sensation throughout the State, but no overt acts had been committed. It was left for the Unionists to take the initiative. Under the militia law an annual encampment was established by the Governor for instruction in military tactics. Camp Jackson, near St. Louis, was the point designated for the drill of 1861. Here for some days several companies of State militia, amounting to about eight hundred men, under command of Brig.-Gen. D. M. Frost, were pursuing their studies as is usual upon such occasions. They presented the least appearance imaginable of an armed camp. No videttes were kept out; no sentry to guard against surprise; every avenue was open to all comers; it was the picnic-ground for the ladies of the city; and the young gentlemen composing the command chiefly occupied their time in airing their uniforms and paying their devoirs to the softer sex.

Without notice, as well as without necessity, General Nathaniel Lyon, a captain in the regular army, and who had been recently sent from a distant post to St. Louis to stand a court-martial on the charge of peculation, but who, as a fanatical Abolitionist, had recommended himself to the Washington authorities,* with an overwhelming force of Federal troops, surrounded this holiday encampment, and demanded its unconditional surrender. No resistance was dreamed of or attempted; and the eight hundred were immured as prisoners in the United States arsenal.

A large crowd of citizens, men, women and children, were gathered around, gazing curiously at these strange *Lost Cause, p. 162.