FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151  
152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   >>   >|  
and issued proclamations to the people announcing himself as their deliverer, and that his army "by great gallantry and determined courage" had entirely "routed the enemy with great slaughter." If he expected to be received and feted as a liberator he was sorely disappointed, and in one of his letters he says in connection with his customary uncomplimentary allusions to Gen. Price's army, "and from all I can see we had as well be in Boston as far as the friendly feelings of the inhabitants are concerned." The truth was that the advance of the Confederates had had a blighting effect upon that large portion of the people which had hoped to remain neutral in the struggle. Gen. Lyon, with all his intensity of purpose, had kept uppermost in mind that he was an agent of the law, and his mission was to enforce the law. He had kept his troops under excellent discipline, had permitted no outrages upon citizens, and had either paid for or given vouchers for anything his men needed, and had generally conducted himself in strict obedience of the law. His course was a crushing refutal of the inflammatory proclamations of Gov. Jackson and others about the Union soldiers being robbers, thieves, ravishers and outragers. 191 Quite different was the course of the twenty or more thousand men whom Price and McCulloch led into Springfield. They were under very little discipline of any kind, and were burning with a desire to punish and drive out of the country not merely those who were outspoken Unionists, but all who were not radical Secessionists. They knew that the sentiment in Springfield and the country of which it was the center was in favor of the Union, and they wanted to stamp this out by terror. While this brought to their ranks a great many of the more pliant neutrals, it drove away from them a great number, and put into the ranks of the Union many who had been more or less inclined to the pro-slavery element. The soreness between Price and McCulloch which had been filmed over before the battle by Price subordinating himself and his troops to McCulloch, became more inflamed during the stay at Springfield. In spite of the fact that the Missouri troops had done much better fighting, and suffered severer losses in the battle than McCulloch, he persisted in denouncing them as cowards, stragglers and mobites, without soldierly qualities. The following extracts from a report to J. P. Benjamin, Confederate Secretary
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151  
152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
McCulloch
 

Springfield

 

troops

 
discipline
 

battle

 

country

 

people

 

proclamations

 

deliverer

 

terror


center

 
wanted
 

pliant

 
number
 
announcing
 

neutrals

 

brought

 

desire

 

punish

 

burning


courage

 

determined

 

radical

 

Secessionists

 

inclined

 
Unionists
 

outspoken

 

gallantry

 

sentiment

 

denouncing


cowards

 

stragglers

 
mobites
 

persisted

 

suffered

 

severer

 

losses

 

soldierly

 

Benjamin

 

Confederate


Secretary
 
report
 

qualities

 

extracts

 

fighting

 
issued
 

subordinating

 
filmed
 
slavery
 

element