THREE MONTHS' MILITIA, 1861. On April 15, 1861, the President issued his proclamation calling for 75,000 militia for the purpose of suppressing insurrection and “to ' cause the laws to be duly executed." This proclamation was in terms as follows: Whereas, the laws of the United States have been for some time past and now are opposed and the execution thereof obstructed in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings or by the powers vested in the marshals by law: Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, in virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution and the laws, have thought fit to call forth, and hereby do call forth, the militia of the several States of the Union, to the aggregate number of 75,000, in order to suppress said combinations and to cause the laws to be duly executed. The details of this object will be immediately communicated to the State authorities through the War Department. I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our national Union and the perpetuity of popular government, and to redress wrongs already long enough endured. I deem it proper to say that the first service assigned to the forces hereby called forth will probably be to repossess the forts, places, and property which have been seized from the Union, and in every event the utmost care will be observed consistently with the objects aforesaid to avoid any devastation, any destruction of or interference with property, or any disturbance of peaceful citizens in any part of the country. And I hereby command the persons composing the combinations aforesaid to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes within twenty days from date. Deeming that the present condition of public affairs presents an extraordinary occasion, I do hereby, in virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution, convene both Houses of Congress. Senators and Representatives are therefore summoned to assemble at their respective Chambers at 12 o'clock noon on Thursday, the 4th day of July next, then and there to consider and determine such measures as in their wisdom the public safety and interest may seem to demand. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington this 15th day of April, in the year of our Lord 1861, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-fifth. By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. [Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series III, Vol. 1, pp. 67, 68.] On the date of this proclamation the Secretary of War addressed letters to the governors of twenty-four States, including one to the governor of Missouri of which the following is a copy: WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, April 15, 1861. SIR: Under the act of Congress "for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, repel invasions," etc., approved February 28, 1795, I have the honor to request your excellency to cause to be immediately detached from the militia of your State the quota designated in the table below, to serve as infantry or riflemen for the period of three months, unless sooner discharged. Your excellency will please communicate to me the time at or about which your quota will be expected at its rendezvous, as it will be met as soon as practicable by an officer or officers to muster it into the service and pay of the United States. At the same time the oath of fidelity to the United States will be administered to every officer and man. The mustering officer will be instructed to receive no man under the rank of commissioned officer who is in years apparently over 45 or under 18, or who is not in physical strength and vigor. The quota of the State of Missouri, designated in the table which accompanied this letter, was four regiments of infantry, being an aggregate of 3,123 officers and enlisted men, including one brigadiergeneral. On the same date, also, April 15, 1861, an order was issued from the War Department detailing officers of the Regular Army to muster the troops into the military service of the United States, the order for the State of Missouri being as follows: SPECIAL ORDERS, No. 106. WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, The officers named below are detailed to muster into the service of the United States, for the States, and at the stations set opposite their names, respectively, the troops called out by the President's proclamation of this date. They will acknowledge the receipt of this order, repair to the rendezvous designated, and report their arrival to the Adjutant-General of the Army and the governors of the respective States, and will execute the duties assigned them with as little delay as practicable, reporting the progress and completion of their labors to the Adjutant-General of the Army direct. In addition to these duties, the mustering officers will perform such staff duties as may be assigned them by the chiefs of the supply departments of the Army. Missouri, St. Louis. First Lieut. J. M. Schofield, First Artillery, and First Lieut. George B. Cosby, Second Cavalry. The governor of the State emphatically declined to honor the requisition of the President, advising the Secretary of War, in a telegram dated April 17, 1861, as follows: EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Jefferson City, Mo., April 17, 1861. SIR: Your dispatch of the 15th instant, making a call on Missouri for four regiments of men for immediate service, has been received. There can be, I apprehend, no doubt but the men are intended to form a part of the President's army to make war upon the people of the seceded States. Your requisition, in my judgment, is illegal, unconstitutional, and revolutionary in its object, inhuman and diabolical, and can not be complied with. Not one man will the State of Missouri furnish to carry on any such unholy crusade. [Ibid., pp. 82, 83.] C. F. JACKSON, Governor of Missouri. On the same date, April 17, 1861, Mr. Frank P. Blair, jr., telegraphed to the Secretary of War: EAST ST. LOUIS, April 17, 1861. Hon. S. CAMERON, Secretary of War: Our governor will not meet your requisition for volunteers. Will you accept independent companies and regiments from Missouri? If so, please order Captain Lyon to muster them into service. On April 19, 1861, Mr. Blair again telegraphed the Secretary of War, as follows: Hon. SIMON CAMERON: * * * EAST ST. LOUIS, April 19, 1861. Send order by telegraph at once for mustering men into service to Capt. N. Lyon. It will surely then be executed, and we will fill your requisition in two days. Answer immediately. * * [Ibid., Series I, Vol. I, pp. 668, 669.] FRANK P. BLAIR, Jr. On April 21, 1861, Brigadier-General Harney, commanding the Department of the West, denied the request of Captain Lyon, commanding the troops at the St. Louis Arsenal, that he be authorized to accept the services of volunteers for its defense. General Harney's letter on this subject is as follows: Capt. N. LYON, HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE WEST, * * * Second Infantry, Commanding Troops, St. Louis Arsenal, Mo. SIR: Your two communications of this date, one asking for authority to accept the services of volunteers in the defense of the St. Louis Arsenal, have been laid before the commanding general, who deems it inexpedient to approve the recommendations contained in your communications. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, S. WILLIAMS, Assistant Adjutant-General. [Book No. 8, Department of the West, pp. 71, 72.] On the same date Brigadier-General Harney was relieved from his command in an order from the War Department of which the following is a copy: Brig. Gen. W. S. HARNEY, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, Commanding Department of the West, St. Louis, Mo. GENERAL: I am directed by the Secretary of War to say that you are hereby relieved from the command of the Department of the West, which will devolve upon the senior officer in the department, and you will repair to this city and report to the General in Chief. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, L. THOMAS, Adjutant-General. [Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Vol. I, p. 669.] On the same date also, April 21, 1861, Captain Lyon was instructed by the War Department to execute the order previously given to pro S Revoked by Special Orders, No. 128, A. G. O., May 8, 1861. tect the public property and execute the laws, and to "muster four regiments into service." "The telegram conveying these instructions is as follows: Capt. N. LYON, Second Infantry, East St. Louis: ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, April 21, 1861. General Harney has this day been relieved from his command. The Secretary of War directs that you immediately execute the order previously given to arm the loyal citizens, to protect the public property and execute the laws. Muster four regiments into the service. [Ibid., p. 670.] L. THOMAS, Adjutant-General. Further correspondence on the same subject was had between Mr. Frank P. Blair, jr., Capt. Fitz John Porter, assistant adjutant-general (then at Harrisburg, Pa., on a special mission for the War Department), and others. Captain Porter reported: Col. LORENZO THOMAS, HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA, Adjutant-General U. S. Army, Washington, D. C. COLONEL: I respectfully repeat in writing my report substantially made verbally to the General in Chief of my late expedition from Washington to Harrisburg, Pa. Seated in Governor Curtin's telegraph office at the capitol Governor Curtin handed me the following dispatch, suggesting at the time I should reply to it as I had to others already received from the same person: "Governor A. G. CURTIN, Harrisburg, Pa.: "ST. LOUIS, Mo., April 21, 1861. "An officer of the Army here has received an order to muster in Missouri regiments. General Harney refuses to let them remain in the arsenal grounds or permit them to be armed. I wish these facts to be communicated to the Secretary of War by special messenger and instructions sent immediately to Harney to receive the troops at the arsenal and arm them. Our friends distrust Harney very much. He should be superseded immediately by putting another commander in the district. The object of the secessionists is to seize the arsenal with its 70,000 stand of arms, and he refuses the means of defending it. We have plenty of men but no arms. FRANK P. BLAIR, Jr." A previous message had been received asking that Capt. N. Lyon, Second Infantry, should be assigned as mustering officer and to arm and equip the troops and to command them, and I had replied that Lieut. J. M. Schofield, then in St. Louis, had been detailed as mustering officer. Other telegrams came urging Lyon's appointment, so when the above dispatch was handed to me, I felt it was my duty, and that I would be justified to use the name and authority of the Secretary of War and of the General in Chief, and I at once telegraphed: "General HARNEY, Commanding, St. Louis, Mo.: 66 "HARRISBURG, PA., April 21, 1861. "Capt. Nathaniel Lyon, Second Infantry, is detailed to muster in the troops at St. Louis and to use them for the protection of public property. You will see that they are properly armed and equipped. "By order of Lieutenant-General Scott: "Hon. FRANK P. BLAIR, Jr., St. Louis, Mo.: "F. J. PORTER, "Assistant Adjutant-General.” "HARRISBURG, PA., April 21, 1861. "Capt. N. Lyon, Second Infantry, has been detailed to muster in the troops at St. Louis and to use them for the protection of public property. "By order of the Secretary of War: "F. J. PORTER, "Assistant Adjutant-General." |