Missouri State Guard

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This article is about the military force cooperating with Confederate troops. For the defense force founded in 1982, see Missouri State Defense Force.

Missouri State Guard
The Confederate State flag (1861–1865)
Active1861–1865
DisbandedMay 11, 1865[a]
Country Confederate States
AllegianceMissouri
TypeState Guard
Size23,000–28,000 (1861)
EngagementsAmerican Civil War
Commanders
Commander in Chief1861–1862  Claiborne F. Jackson
1862–1865  Thomas C. Reynolds
Major-GeneralMaj. Gen. Sterling Price
Adjutant-GeneralBrig. Gen. Warwick Hough

The Missouri State Guard (MSG) was a military force established by the Missouri General Assembly on May 11, 1861. While not a formation of the Confederate States Army, the Missouri State Guard fought alongside Confederate troops and, at various times, served under Confederate officers.[1]

Background

The Missouri General Assembly passed the "Military Bill" on May 11, 1861, in direct response to the

Militia Act of 1792. The law did allow for formation of new local Home Guards under the auspices of the MSG, but these were limited to 14–17 and 45+ year olds. It also specified that the language of all spoken commands was to be English,[2]
a specification intended to exclude ethnic Germans, who were predominantly Unionist in their political orientation. The act divided the state into nine Military Districts based on the Federal Congressional Districts and made men ages 18 to 45 years of age eligible for MSG service unless exempted due to occupation, office or other reasons. While the act termed each district a "division", they were organized along brigade lines. The actual forces of a district consisted of all the regiments, not of brigades of these regiments. Each district's division was to be commanded by a brigadier general who was a resident of the district, and elected by the commissioned officers of the district. An act was passed on May 15 for the appointment of a major general to act as field commander; the first to be commissioned Major General was Sterling Price, the popular former governor and one of the most influential men in Missouri.[3]

History

Recruits for the Missouri State Guard began to quickly assemble in

Jefferson City in mid-May. However, after an agreement, the Price–Harney Truce on May 20 between Price and the Federal department commander William S. Harney, the movement of Guardsmen to the state capitol was halted. The State Guard continued to be mobilized in their home districts. On May 30, Harney was relieved and Nathaniel Lyon
took command of the department. On June 11, a meeting to resolve some disagreements resulted in the collapse of the truce. Price and Jackson fled St. Louis for Jefferson City. The next day Governor Jackson called for 50,000 volunteers to defend Missouri from the Union army; thousands of additional men answered the proclamation and enlisted in their respective districts/divisions.

The embryonic Missouri State Guard suffered a serious initial setback in a skirmish at

Battle of Carthage bought time for Price to begin training and organizing his raw recruits, many of whom had reported for military duty carrying only farm implements or antiquated hunting weapons. MSG organization and training was conducted at Cowskin Prairie, a former livestock auction site in southwest Missouri. A key figure in efforts to impose order on the embryonic organization was Adjutant General Lewis Henry Little, a native of Maryland and career Army officer.[4]

Price, along with Confederate regulars and members of the Arkansas State Troops, defeated a smaller Union force under Nathaniel Lyon at

Senator James Lane at Big Dry Wood Creek on September 1–2, and then besieged and captured 3,600 Federal troops in the First Battle of Lexington (Battle of the Hemp Bales) in mid-month. As Frémont's Union army finally advanced toward Springfield, the Guard withdrew. A bold dash by Major Charles Zagonyi's mounted vanguard routed local MSG troops waiting in ambush on October 25, 1861, at the First Battle of Springfield
. Fremont's offensive was subsequently recalled before engaging the main southern force when Fremont was relieved from command by order of President Lincoln.

Shortly afterwards, a session of exiled elements of the Missouri legislature convened in the southwest Missouri town of Neosho and claimed to have passed an Ordinance of Secession on October 30, with the Governor-in-Exile Jackson signing on October 31, 1861. While the vote was not endorsed by a statewide plebiscite, the Confederate Congress officially admitted Missouri at the 12th Confederate State on November 28, 1861.

While in winter camp, Price began enrolling many of his men into the regular Confederate service. Two brigades of the MSG participated in the Battle of Pea Ridge (Elkhorn Tavern), where Brig. Gen. William Y. Slack, the former commander of the 4th Division, was mortally wounded.

On March 17, 1862, Price merged the Missouri State Guard into the Confederate

Mosby M. Parsons and James S. Rains
.

Strength

In 2007, the foremost authorities on the Missouri State Guard estimated that at least 34,000 and probably close to 40,000 Missourians served in the Guard at one point or another. The Guard's strength peaked at about 23,000 to 28,000 in September 1861 with about 5,000 in Southeast Missouri in M. Jeff Thompson's First Division operating independently of the main body surrounding Price near Lexington.[5]

Divisions

A map of the divisions of the Missouri State Guard, based on modern (2023) county boundaries
1st Regiment of the Missouri State Guard at Camp Lewis, 1860

The Guard's divisions were based on congressional districts and composed of the following counties:[2] (Commanders are listed in parentheses)

  • First District/First Division: St Francois, Ste. Genevieve, Perry, Cape Girardeau, Bollinger, Madison, Iron, Wayne, Stoddard, Scott, Mississippi, New Madrid, Butler, Dunklin, and Pemiscot. (Nathaniel W. Watkins, M. Jeff Thompson)
  • Second District/Second Division: Scotland, Clark, Knox, Lewis, Shelby, Marion, Monroe, Ralls, Pike, Audrain, Callaway, Montgomery, Lincoln, Warren, and St. Charles. (Thomas A. Harris, Martin E. Green)
  • Third District/Third Division: Putnam, Schuyler, Sullivan, Adair, Linn, Macon, Chariton, Randolph, Howard, and Boone. (
    John B. Clark, Sr.
    )
  • Fourth District/Fourth Division: Gentry, Harrison, Mercer, Grundy, De Kalb, Daviess, Livingston, Clinton, Caldwell, Ray, Carroll, and Worth. (William Y. Slack)
  • Fifth District/Fifth Division: Atchison, Nodaway, Holt, Andrew, Buchanan, Platte, and Clay. (Alexander E. Steen, Col. James P. Saunders)
  • Sixth District/Sixth Division: Saline, Pettis, Cooper, Moniteau, Cole, Osage, Gasconade, Maries, Miller, Morgan, Camden, Pulaski, and Phelps. (
    Mosby Parsons
    )
  • Seventh District/Seventh Division: Dallas, Laclede, Texas, Dent, Reynolds, Shannon, Wright, Webster, Greene, Christian, Stone, Taney, Douglas, Ozark, Howell, Oregon, Carter, and Ripley. (James H. McBride)
  • Eighth District/Eighth Division: Jackson, Lafayette, Cass, Johnson, Bates, Henry, Benton, Hickory, Polk, St. Clair, Vernon, Cedar, Dade, Barton, Jasper, Lawrence, Newton, McDonald, and Barry. (James S. Rains)
  • Ninth District/Ninth Division: St. Louis, Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, and Crawford. (Never formally organized following the
    Meriwether Lewis Clark, Sr., Daniel M. Frost
    )

State flag

Missouri did not have an official flag until Major-General Sterling Price, commander of the Missouri State Guard, ordered on June 5, 1861:

Each

Missouri coat-of-arms in gold gilt on each side. Each mounted company will have a guidon, the flag of which will be of white merino, 3 by 2 1/2 feet, with the letters M. S. G. in gilt on each side. The length of the pike for colors and guidons will be nine feet long, including spear and ferule. Each company of infantry will have one drum and one fife. Each company of mounted men will have two bugles or trumpets. If the colors, guidons, drums, fifes, and bugles cannot be procured in the district requisitions will be made on the quartermaster-general of the State.[6]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ On this date, Missouri Brig. Gen. M. Jeff Thompson surrendered the State Guard’s forces in Arkansas to Lieut. Col. Charles W. Davis, assistant provost marshal general for Maj. Gen. Grenville M. Dodge.

References

  1. OL 2715333M
    .
  2. ^
    Jefferson City
    , 1861
  3. ^ Chief of Record and Pension Office of the War Department (1902). Missouri Troops in Service During the Civil War. Washington: Government Printing Office. pp. 255–6.
  4. ^ Snead, Thomas Lowndes (1886). The Fight for Missouri: From the Election of Lincoln to the Death of Lyon. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. (preface) v.
  5. ISBN 978-1-929311-26-2
    .
  6. ^ War Department; Davis, Maj. George W.; Perry, Leslie J.; Kirkley, Joseph William (1898). The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Vol. LIII. Washington: Government Printing Office. pp. 694–695 – via Internet Archive.

Further reading

External links
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