HISTORICAL REVIEW APRIL 1963 Fred Geary's "The Steamboat Idlewild' Published Quarterly By The State Historical Society of Missouri COLUMBIA, MISSOURI THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI The State Historical Society of Missouri, heretofore organized under the laws of this State, shall be the trustee of this State—Laws of Missouri, 1899, R. S. of Mo., 1949, Chapter 183. OFFICERS 1962-65 ROY D. WILLIAMS, Boonville, President L. E. MEADOR, Springfield, First Vice President LEO J. ROZIER, Perryville, Second Vice President WILLIAM L. BRADSHAW, Columbia, Third Vice President RUSSELL V. DYE, Liberty, Fourth Vice President WILLIAM C TUCKER, Warrensburg, Fifth Vice President JOHN A. WINKLER, Hannibal, Sixth Vice President R. B. PRICE, Columbia, Treasurer FLOYD C SHOEMAKER, Columbia, Sacretary Emeritus and Consultant RICHARD S. BROWNLEE, Columbia, Director, Secretary, and Librarian TRUSTEES Permanent Trustees, Former Presidents of the Society E. L. DALE, Carthage E. E. SWAIN, Kirksville RUSH H. LIMBAUGH, Cape Girardeau L. M. WHITE, Mexico GEORGE A. ROZIER, Jefferson City Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1963 RALPH P. BIEBER, St. Louis LEO J. ROZIER, Perryville BARTLETT BODER, St. Joseph W. WALLACE SMITH, Independence L. E. MEADOR, Springfield JACK STAPLETON, Stanberry JOSEPH H. MOORE, Charleston HENRY C THOMPSON, Bonne Terre Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1964 WILLIAM R. DENSLOW, Trenton FRANK LUTHER MOTT, Columbia ALFRED O. FUERBRINGER, St. Louis GEORGE H. SCRUTON, Sedalia GEORGE FULLER GREEN, Kansas City JAMES TODD, Moberly ROBERT S. GREEN, Mexico T. BALLARD WATTERS, Marshfield Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1965 FRANK C BARNHILL, Marshall W. C HEWITT, Shelbyville FRANK P. BRIGGS, Macon ROBERT NAGEL JONES, St. Louis HENRY A. BUNDSCHU, Independence GEORGE W. SOMERVILLE, Chillicothe R. I. COLBORN, Paris WILLIAM C TUCKER, Warrensburg EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE The twenty-nine Trustees, the President and the Secretary of the Society, the Governor, Secretary of State, State Treasurer, and President of the University of Missouri constitute the Executive Committee. FINANCE COMMITTEE Five members of the Executive Committee appointed by the President of the Society at each annual meeting of the Executive Committee constitute the Finance Committee. L. M. WHITE, Mexico, Chairman ELMER ELLIS, Columbia GEORGE A. ROZIER, Jefferson City W. C HEWITT, Shelbyville T. BALLARD WATTERS, Marshfield Missouri Historical Review RICHARD S. BROWNLEE JAMES E. MOSS Editor Assistant Editor Published Quarterly by THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI COLUMBIA, MISSOURI VOL. LVII APRIL 1963 No. 3 The Missouri Ilistorin.il Review is published quarterly at 119 S. Elson Street, Kirksville, -Missouri. Send communications and change of address to The State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri. Set-oncl class postage? is paid at Kirksville, Missouri. The Review is sent free to all members of The State Historical Society of Missouri. Membership dues in the Society are Sl-00 a year or $21) for an individual life membership. The Society assumes no responsibility for statements made by contributors to the magazine. CONTENTS Page MARMADUKE'S CAPE GIRARDEAU EXPEDITION, 1863. By Stephen B. Oates. .237 A STUDY OF CONFUSION: MISSOURI'S IMMIGRATION PROGRAM, 1865-1916. By Norman L. Crockett 248 HO! FOR THE GOLD MINES OF MONTANA. UP THE MISSOURI IN 1865. THE JOURNAL OF WILLIAM H. GALLAHER. Edited by James E. Moss. .261 MISSOURI'S 268 CONGRESSMEN, 1821-1960. By Paul 0. Selby 285 A LETTER FROM THE ST. LOUIS ARSENAL: 1849 291 HISTORICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS Those Active in Increasing the Society's Membership 294 New Members in the Historical Society 297 Missouri News 304 Local Historical Societies 309 Anniversaries 314 Monuments and Memorials 314 Notes 314 Obituaries 317 Historical Publications 319 MISSOURI HISTORY NOT FOUND IN TEXTBOOKS 324 LAFAYETTE COUNTY COURTHOUSE Verso Back Cover MARTIN E. GREEN Back Cover THE COVER: While the steamboat was common to all America, it was on the Wrestern rivers that its practicability, once demonstrated, was best evidenced. Its importance in the changing political, social and economic status of the entire West during the mid-nineteenth century as well as its significance in the develop­ ment of Missouri has been demonstrated frequently by serious scholars. The more imaginative writers of romances, too, have paid tribute to the "Fairy structures of oriental gorgeousness and splendor." "Steam navigation colonized the West!" exaggerated one observer. Another believed steamboats "among the most essential agents of social life," and added that "if it were possible to imagine them wiped out for a time, the rising civilization of [the Mississippi Valley] would dis­ appear with them." A more valid interpretation, however, is that of Louis C. Hunter who writes that "without the steamboat the advance of the frontier, the rise of cities, the growth of manufacturing, and the emancipation of an agricultural people from the drab confines of a frontier economy would all have taken place, but they would have been slowed to the tempo of keelboat, flatboat, and canal barge and to the tedious advance of stagecoach and wagon train. The growth of the West and the rise of steamboat transportation were inseparable; they were geared together and each was dependent upon the other. The record of the steam­ boat's development reflected the horizontal extension of territorial settlement and the upward climb from a plane of relative self-sufficiency to one of economic interdependence." The front cover illustration, "The Steamboat Idlewild," by Fred Geary, was taken from a woodcut engraving now in the Society's collection of art properties. mm -i» MARMADUKE'S CAPE GIRARDEAU EXPEDITION, 1863 BY STEPHEN B. OATES* Two years of indecisive fighting had elapsed in the trans- Mississippi theater, and the new year, 1863, did not promise to be favorable for the Confederates. In December, 1862, at Prairie Grove, Arkansas, the Union "Army of the Frontier" under Major- General James G. Blunt had turned back a Confederate offensive led by Major-General T. C. Hindman and forced the rebels to fall back south of the Arkansas River. Confederate cavalry then raided Federal Missouri and compelled Blunt temporarily to move out of Arkansas. But in March, 1863, the Army of the Frontier, strength­ ened by new recruits from Kansas and Illinois, again moved south­ ward, its object, the Arkansas state capital at Little Rock.1 Major-General E. Kirby Smith, the new commander of the trans-Mississippi Department, prepared to meet the Federal threat with everything he could muster. His army, though badly scattered, numbered a respectable 26,047 men.2 The I Corps, composed of *Stephen B. Oates is a Teaching Fellow in history at the University, of Texas, Austin, and author of Confederate Cavalry West of the River (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1961) of which a portion deals with the subject of this article. iHenry W. Halleck's report of operations in the Departments of Missouri and of the North- Tfn'r^ZT^fr 25' ^-November 15, 1863 The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (70 vols, in 128; Washington, D.C., 1880-1891) ser I vol. XXII, pt. I, 9-10. Hereafter referred to as Official Records. 2Ibid., ser. IV, vol. II, 530. 238 Missouri Historical Review 8,475 poorly armed infantry, was at or near Lewisburg. Brigadier- General John S. Marmaduke's cavalry division, encamped at Bates- ville, was the only Confederate force in northern Arkansas. Briga­ dier General William Steele had perhaps 4,884 Indian and Texas cavalry west of Ft. Smith.3 The II Corps under Major-General Theophilus Holmes held Little Rock, but a second Federal army led by Brigadier-General Frederick Steele, having captured every­ thing in eastern Arkansas from Batesville to Helena, was now advancing west, and Federal gunboats were operating in the lower Arkansas and White Rivers. Civil government in the state had largely disappeared and Holmes' military rule was weak. Bush­ whacking, burning, assassination, pillage, and violence prevailed in the northern part of the state.4 Even though his army was confronted with two invasionary forces, Kirby Smith with enthusiasm and a soldier's spirit of conquest gazed northward toward Missouri. Perhaps after Con­ federate forces had been consolidated and the enemy driven out of Arkansas, he could send an army of invasion into the state. Smith was not just dreaming. By his request Major-General Sterling Price, fondly called "Old Pap" by Missouri Confederates, had been transferred from Mississippi to the Department and was now in command of Hindman's old corps (I corps). Perhaps this tall, handsome, popular Missourian would be the ideal officer to lead such an invasion.5 Capture and permanent occupation of Missouri, however, were not Kirby Smith's immediate objectives. He must first attempt to push Blunt and Steele out of Arkansas; drive the Federals out of Louisiana; help Pemberton clear the Mississippi of Union forces and keep the River open for southern trade.6 Yet Kirby Smith did not completely rule out a Missouri operation. Marmaduke had proposed a plan which he thought might work—a cavalry diversion into Missouri, similar to the one made in January, 1863. As Marma­ duke pointed out this would draw off the Federals in northern Arkansas and thus relieve some of the pressure on Vicksburg and Little Rock. Confederates might then be able to deal with the disorder and vandalism in northern Arkansas, concentrate on *Ibid„ ser. I, vol. XXII, pt. II, 832-833, 793. 4U. S. Record and Pension Office, Organization and Status of Missouri Troops, Union and Confederate, During the Civil War (Washington, D. C, 1902), 53, 57; David Y. Thomas, Arkansas in War and Reconstruction (Little Rock, 1928), 189-190, 197. 5Special Orders No. 58, February 17, 1863, Official Records, ser. I, vol. XXII, pt. II, 791; T. C. Reynolds to J. A. Seddon, February 5, 1863, ibid., 782-783; Seddon to J.