Daniel M. Frost
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (February 2015) |
Daniel M. Frost | |
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Commands held | Frost's Division |
Battles/wars | Mexican–American War |
Daniel Marsh Frost (August 9, 1823 – October 29, 1900) was a former
Early and family life
Daniel M. Frost was born near Duanesburg in rural Schenectady County, New York. He was a descendant of the Winthrop family through Elizabeth Fones, and a descendant of John Bowne.[1]
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.[2]
In 1851, Frost met and married Elizabeth Brown "Lily" Graham, his second wife. They would have eleven children.
U.S. Army and Missouri life
Frost was
Frost resigned his commission in 1853 for domestic reasons and became a partner 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
Frost stayed involved with the army by serving on the Board of Visitors for West Point, and was appointed as a brigadier general in the Missouri Volunteer Militia in 1858 by the
American Civil War
In the early days of the American Civil War, General Frost supported the secessionist movement endorsed and led by Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson. In February 1861 Frost enrolled the members of the pro-secession Minutemen para-military organization as Companies in a new Second Regiment, MVM (despite Missouri's "official" policy of neutrality). This allowed the Minutemen to operate and recruit overtly. He secretly met with Jackson and other secessionist leaders to discuss the possibility of attacking the Federal Arsenal in downtown St. Louis. Governor Jackson dispatched two members of the Minutemen to seek siege artillery from the Confederate Government. At the recommendation of General Frost, Governor Jackson ordered the mustering in of the MVM in St. Louis on May 6, a deployment which would allow an attack on the Arsenal when the Confederate artillery arrived.[3]
Confederate President
Although he initially denied involvement in any conspiracy when questioned by authorities, Union intelligence later obtained a letter that revealed that Frost was indeed an active participant in Governor Jackson's plotting.
After being exchanged for a captured Federal officer, Frost traveled south to join the Confederate Army. On March 3, 1862, 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 division into action at the Battle of Prairie Grove in the corps 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 traveled to Canada to join his family. Frost was listed as a deserter by the Confederate Army,[4] and 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.
Later life
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 in 1880, this time to a young widow Catherine Cates (1840–1900) with two children. The couple had two children of their own. In 1875, Frost's daughter Jane Graham married Sir Lewis Molesworth, 11th Baronet.
General Frost spend much of his time in his later years simultaneously explaining: to Unionists that in May 1861 he had not engaged in pro-Confederate plotting, and to ex-Confederates that he had not deserted from the Confederate States Army in 1863. While Frost wrote many post-war articles attempting to explain his contradictory actions during the American Civil War, his memoirs do not address the Civil War period. From 1891 to 1892 he was president of the Aztec Club of 1847.
Death and legacy
At the age of 77, Frost died at Hazelwood, his estate in what is now Berkeley, Missouri (suburban St. Louis).[5] He is interred at Calvary Cemetery, Section 18.[6]
Saint Louis University named its main campus "The Frost Campus"[7] to honor the General after his daughter Mrs. Harriet Frost Fordyce contributed $1,000,000 to the university in 1962. Ironically, part of the Frost Campus covers the former "Camp Jackson" militia encampment site.
See also
References
- ^ Reitwiesner, William Addams. The Ancestors of Senator John Forbes Kerry (b. 1943). Accessed May 19, 2015.
- ^ Thirty-Second Annual Reunion of the Association of the Graduates of the United States Military Academy. West Point, New York, 1901, page 96.
- ^ Miller, Robert E., "Daniel Marsh Frost, C.S.A." Archived August 6, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, Missouri Historical Review, #85 (July 1991), pp. 381–401.
- ^ Banasik, Michael E. Confederate Tales of the War in the Trans-Mississippi. Iowa City, Iowa: Camp Pope Book Shop, 2010, p. 10.
- The St. Louis Republic. October 31, 1900. p. 9. Retrieved February 13, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Tour of Historic Calvary Cemetery
- ^ The Frost campus: Name origins and changes, The University News, April 27, 2017
Further reading
- Banasik, Michael E. (2010). Confederate tales of the war in the trans-Mississippi. Iowa City, Iowa: Press of the Camp Pope Bookshop. OCLC 911269738..
- Eicher, John H., and ISBN 978-0-8047-3641-1.
- Miller, Robert E., "Daniel Marsh Frost, C.S.A." Missouri Historical Review #85 (July 1991).
- Sifakis, Stewart (1988). Who was who in the Civil War. New York: Facts on File. OCLC 10403682..
- U.S. War Department (1880–1901). The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. U.S. Government Printing Office.. See also Official Records of the American Civil War
- OCLC 804845955..
- "Frost family genealogy". Archived from the original on February 13, 2005. Retrieved September 10, 2016.
External links
- "Photo gallery of General Frost". generalsandbrevets.com. Archived from the original on February 8, 2008. Retrieved February 8, 2008.
- "Frost biography". Archived from the original on November 17, 2006. Retrieved September 10, 2016.
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - "Daniel Marsh Frost". Generals of the Confederacy. Alexandria Library, Local History/Special Collections Division. Archived from the original on May 17, 2006. Retrieved September 10, 2016.
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - Daniel M. Frost at Find a Grave