April 22, 1865. |
April 15. |
 |
| Daniel M. Frost. |
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Jackson followed up this revolutionary movement by calling
the Legislature to assemble in extraordinary session at Jefferson City on the 2d day of May, “for the purpose,” he said, “of enacting such laws and adopting such measures as may be deemed necessary and proper for the more perfect organization and equipment of the militia of this State, and to raise the money and such other means as may be required to place the State in a proper attitude for defense.”
The Governor was acting under.
the inspiration of a disloyal graduate of the Military Academy at West Point, named Daniel M. Frost, a native of New York, who was then bearing the commission of a brigadier-general of the Missouri militia, and was commander of the St. Louis District.
So early as the 24th of January preceding, we find Frost giving the Governor assurances, in writing, of his treasonable purposes, and of the complicity with him of Major William Henry Bell, a native of North Carolina, who was then commander of the United States military post at St. Louis, and having in charge the Arsenal there.1 On the day when the President called
for troops, Frost hastened to remind the Governor that it was time to take active measures for securing the co-operation of Missouri in the disunion scheme.
He suggested that the holding of St. Louis by the National Government would restrain the secession movement in the
State; and he recommended the calling of the Legislature together; the sending of an agent to Baton Rouge to obtain mortars and siege-guns; to see that the Arsenal at Liberty should not be held by Government troops; to
1 General Frost informed the Governor that he had just visited the Arsenal, and said:--“I found Major Bell every thing that you or I could desire. He assured me that he considered that Missouri had, whenever the time came, a right to claim it [the Arsenal], as being upon her soil. . . . He informed me, upon the honor of a gentleman, that he would not suffer any arms to be removed from the place, without first giving me timely information, and I, in turn, promised him that I would use all the force at my command to prevent him being annoyed by irresponsible persons. I, at the same time, gave him notice that if affairs assumed so threatening a character as to render it unsafe to leave the place in its comparatively unprotected condition, that I might come down and quarter a proper force there to protect it from the assaults of any persons whatsoever, to which he assented. In a word, the Major is with us, where he ought to be, for all his worldly wealth lies here in St. Louis (and it is very large); and then, again, his sympathies are with us.”
Frost then proceeded to inform the Governor that he should keep a sharp eye upon “the sensationists,” that is, the Unionists; that he should be “thoroughly prepared, with proper force, to act as emergency may require,” and that he would use force, if any attempt at “shipment or removal of the arms” should be attempted, “The Major informs me,” he said, “that he has arms for forty thousand men, with all the appliances to manufacture munitions of every kind.” He continued:--“This Arsenal, if properly looked after, will be every thing to our State. and I intend to look after it, very quietly, however.” Then again, referring to Major Bell, he said:--“He desired that I would not divulge his peculiar views, which I promised not to do, except to yourself. I beg, therefore, that you will say nothing that might compromise him eventually with the General Government, for thereby I would be placed in an awkward position, whilst he would probably be removed, which would be unpleasant to our interests.” --Letter of D. Ma. Frost to C. F. Jackson, Governor of Missouri, January 24, 1861. See Appendix to the “Journal of the Senate, Extra Session of the Rebel Legislature,” called together by a proclamation of Governor Jackson, and held at Neosho, Missouri, in October, 1861. It was published by order of the House of Representatives of the General Assembly of Missouri, in 1865. This Journal, in Ms., was captured by the Forty-ninth Missouri Volunteers, in the State of Alabama.
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