Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

[454]

Chapter 19: events in the Mississippi Valley.--the Indians.

• Ohio prepares for War, 454.
-- Indiana makes ready for the conflict, 455. -- Illinois vigilant and active, 456. -- last public services of Senator Douglas, 457. -- Michigan ready -- position of the Kentuckians, 458. -- Buckner and the State Guard -- his treason, 459. -- effects of Conditional Unionism, 460. -- Missouri State Convention, 461. -- the Convention and the Legislature, 463. -- treason of military and civil officers, 464. -- Union organizations in St. Louis, 466. -- an insurgent Camp at St. Louis, 467. -- capture of Camp Jackson, 468. -- General Harney, 469. -- an armistice agreed upon -- Generals Lyon and Price, 470. -- the militia of Missouri called out, 471. -- Cairo fortified and garrisoned -- its importance, 472. -- Secession Convention in Arkansas, 473. -- fraud and violence, 474. -- rebel emissaries among the Indians, 475. -- John Ross -- Indian loyalists overpowered, 476. -- Ross and the secessionists, 477.

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While thousands of the loyal people of New England and of the other Free-labor States eastward of the Alleghanies were hurrying to the field, and pouring out their wealth like water in support of the Government, those of the region westward of these lofty hills and northward of the Ohio River were equally patriotic and demonstrative. They had watched with the deepest interest the development of the conspiracy for the overthrow of the, Republic, and when the President's call for the militia of the country to arrest the treasonable movements reached them, they responded to it with alacrity by thousands and tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands.

The Legislature of Ohio, as we have observed, had spoken out early,¹ and pledged the. resources of the State to the maintenance of the authority of the National Government. This pledge was reiterated, in substance, on the 14th of March, when that body, by vote, declared its high approval of President Lincoln's Inaugural Address. On the day when Fort Sumter was attacked,

April 12, 1861.

an act of the Legislature, providing for the enrollment of the militia of the State, became a law; likewise another, for the regulation of troops to be mustered into the National service. Provision was also made for the defense of the State, whose peace was liable to disturbance by parties from the Slave-labor States of Virginia and Kentucky, between whom and Ohio was only the dividing line of a narrow river. Appropriations for war purposes were made on a liberal scale; and when the twenty days, allowed by the President in his proclamation for the insurgents to lay down their arms,² had expired, a stirring order went out from the Adjutant-General of the State (H. B. Carrington), for the organization of one hundred thousand men as a reserved force; for sagacious observers of the signs of the times, like Governor Dennison, plainly perceived that a great war was impending. The people contributed freely of their means, for fitting out troops and providing for their families. George B. McClellan, who had held the commission of captain by brevet after meritorious services in Mexico, but was now in civil service as superintendent of the Ohio and Mississippi Railway, was commissioned a major-general by the Governor, and appointed commander of all the forces of the State. Camps for rendezvous and instruction were speedily formed, one of the most important of which was Camp Dennison, on the line of the Cincinnati and Columbus Railway, and occupying a position on the pleasant slopes of the hills that skirt