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To: Leaders of the City of Jefferson and Interested Citizens From: Jay Barnes Re: The Marker on Moreau Drive Date: August 20, 2020 Jefferson City in the Civil War Missouri was a divided state in the Civil War. But Jefferson City was different. From near the very beginning to finish, it was a Union town – occupied and controlled by the Union Army with support from a large group recent anti-slavery, pro-union immigrants from Germany. Of course, things were not simple. Our community was Union enough that the Union Army could take control without a fight – indeed Harper’s Weekly wrote about a warm welcome by local residents. But there were enough Confederate sympathizers in the area that Union commanders were worried the entire time they were here about the potential for an uprising. Historian Gary Kremer tells stories of the Civil War in Jefferson City in his essay “We Are Living in Very Stirring Times.”1 On April 26, 1861 – just two weeks after Fort Sumter, German immigrant Henrietta Bruns (wife of Bernard Bruns) wrote relatives in Germany that, from her vantage point on High Street directly across from the State Capitol, she could see “a tremendously large secessionist flag that has been flying,” while “in ironic contrast, a German immigrant church not far from her home proudly displayed the stars and stripes of the Union, which its congregation was pledged to uphold.”2 In January of 1861, incoming Missouri Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson declared that Missouri had a common interest with other slave states and should side with the South in a potential conflict. He recommended a state convention to determine the course. The convention took the side of the Union, voting 98-1 against secession. After Fort Sumter in April, President Abraham Lincoln called for states to activate militias and provide troops to the Union. But Jackson refused, instead creating a Missouri State Guard, appointing Sterling Price as Major General, and ordering the State Guard to resist “invasion” by 1 Gary R. Kremer, “We Are Living in Very Stirring Times”: The Civil War in Jefferson City, Missouri, Missouri Historical Review, Vol. 106, No. 2, January 2012, pp. 61-74. 2 Kremer, Stirring Times at 61. Page 1 of 32 the Union. In effect, Jackson was pushing Missouri into the Confederacy whether the people and its representatives wanted to go there or not. On June 11, 1861, Gov. Jackson met with Union commander Nathanial Lyon in St. Louis. It did not go well for Jackson. General Lyon told Jackson that his action amounted to war with the Union. Gov. Jackson fled St. Louis by train to Jefferson City – and literally burned at least two bridges behind him to slow an expected advance of Union soldiers.3 Once back in Jefferson City, he joined with his cabinet and several legislators and fled to Boonville and eventually Neosho. Jackson’s bridge burnings did not work.4 General Lyon sent troops upriver by steamboat and began arriving at the Missouri State Penitentiary wharf on June 13, 1861 with two thousand soldiers, almost all of whom “were German-speaking immigrants, a fact that no doubt especially galled a majority of the city’s residents.”5 The landing was featured in Harper’s Weekly magazine, which reported: On the morning of the 15th, ten miles below Jefferson City, General Lyon transferred his regulators to the Iatan, and proceeded with that boat, leaving the Swan to follow in his wake. As we approached the city crowds gathered on the levee and saluted us with prolong and oft-repeated cheering. Colonel Thomas L. Price (no relative to the rebel, Sterling Price), a prominent Unionist of Jefferson City, was the first to greet General Lyon as he stopped on shore. A bar was formed at the regular landing, and we were obliged to run out our gang plank below the penitentiary, at a point where the railroad company has placed a large quantity of loose stone, preparatory to forming a landing of its own. The steep, rough bank prevented the debarkation of our artillery, but the infantry scrambled up in fine style. First was the company of regulars formerly commended by General Lyon, but no led by Lieutenant Hare. These were sent to occupy a high hill or bluff near the railroad depot and commanding the town. The went forward in fine style, ascending the steep acclivity at the ‘double-quick step.’ In one minute from the time of reaching the summit they were formed in a hollow square, ready to repel all attacks from foes, whether real or imaginary. Next came the left wing of the First Volunteer regiment under Lieutenant- Colonel Andrews, five hundred strong. These soldiers were formed by sections and marched to the tune of ‘Yankee Doodle’ with the Stars and Stipes conspicuous, through the principal streets to the State House, of which they took possession amidst the cheers of the people of the town. 3 Kremer, Stirring Times at 63. 4 Jackson’s efforts to force Missouri into the Confederacy did not work either. A state convention declared the Governor’s office vacated and formed a pro-Union state government. 5 Kremer, Stirring Times at 63. Page 2 of 32 After some delay in finding the keys, which had not been very carefully hid, Lieutenant-Colonel Andrews with a band, color bearer, and guard, ascended to the cupola and displayed the American flag while the band played the Star Spangled Banner and the popular and troops below gave round after round of enthusiastic applause. This was the ‘sacred soil’ of Missouri’s capital invaded by Federal troops, and the bosom of ‘the pride of the Big Muddy’ desecrated by the footprints of the volunteer soldiers of St. Louis. She rather seemed to like it.6 The issue featured two drawings of Jefferson City that are familiar today: The Iatan steamboat is featured on the bottom of the Seal of the City of Jefferson:7 6 The War in Missouri, Harper’s Weekly Magazine, July 6, 1861 7 Picture taken from the blog of former Mayor John Landwehr. Page 3 of 32 Despite the reported warm welcome, not all was easy for Union troops here. Our town was Union enough that Union troops could take it without firing a shot – and hold it for four years. But there were enough Confederate sympathizers in the area to make Union commanders nervous the entire time. Kremer writes, “For the remainder of the summer of 1861, indeed, for the remainder of the war, Jefferson City residents lived with the constant fear of being attacked.”8 And it was not 8 Kremer, Stirring Times at 64. Page 4 of 32 just Confederate troops. “Fear of guerillas and bushwhackers caused Jefferson City residents to curtail their travel, to suspect strangers, and generally to live in a state of constant anxiety.”9 In August 1861, Ulysses S. Grant was sent here to command the troops in anticipation of an attack by General Sterling Price. Grant was underwhelmed by their preparedness. “I found a good many troops in Jefferson City, but in the greatest confusion, and no one person knew where they all were.”10 Grant was relieved on September 26, 1861, by Union General John C. Fremont and 15,000 troops moved to protect our city after a Confederate victory at the Battle of Lexington.11 While Gen. Fremont stayed at the Dulle House located on a hill near the National Guard building today, the 15,000 soldiers camped between the present-day location of the intersection between Highway 50 and Missouri Boulevard – just outside the Capitol Plaza Hotel. With war came political change. Initial settlers in Jefferson City came from Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia. Many held slaves. As a group, the old guard dominated local government. In the 1850s, German immigrants began arriving, “most of whom harbored an intense opposition to slavery, create[ing] a chasm between ‘old’ and ‘new’ residents of the city.”12 On the eve of the Civil War, Jefferson City had 3,000 residents – of which one in five were immigrants – and the old, pro-slavery guard still dominated local government.13 But war brought a new law requiring voters and officeholders to take a loyalty oath before participating in elections or holding office. The old-guard in Jefferson City refused to take the oath, disenfranchising themselves in the process. Thus, in April 1862, pro-Union, anti-slavery, German Catholic immigrant Dr. Bernard Bruns was elected mayor of Jefferson City.14 Another major change was an influx of runaway slaves. With anti-slavery German immigrants and Union soldiers to protect them, Jefferson City stood as a beacon of freedom for slaves in the Missouri River valley. On January 1, 1863, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation 9 Kremer, Stirring Times at 68. 10 Kremer, Stirring Times at 68. 11 Kremer, Stirring Times at 68. 12 Kremer, Stirring Times at 62. 13 Kremer, Stirring Times at 62. 14 Kremer, Stirring Times at 65. Bruns’ son Captain Henry Bruns was the first Jefferson Citian killed in the Civil War, and Dr. Bruns himself died in 1864. Page 5 of 32 and Proclamation and Union officers began enlisting black soldiers in Missouri. Slaveholders and guerillas in Missouri were enraged, and “began a campaign of whipping, beating, and even lynching black men of military age who threatened to leave their masters to join the Union army.”15 But Jefferson City was beyond the reach of the slaveholders and bandits – so slaves fled here. In May 1863, the Jefferson City Missouri State Times reported “a sable stream of contrabands have been flowing into this city and neighborhood, for the last few weeks … principally from Boone and Callaway counties.” Their method of transportation speaks to their desperation and the safety that our community offered; “Saturday and Sunday nights appear to be the most favored time for their travel, and as many as fifty have crossed the Missouri river of a night.”16 Keep in mind the obvious.

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