Chapter I: Front Matter

THE
21ST MISSOURI REGIMENT
INFANTRY VETERAN VOLUNTEERS.

HISTORICAL MEMORANDA.

COMPILED BY
N. D. STARR AND T. W. HOLMAN.

JULY, 1899.

ROBERTS & ROBERTS, PRINTERS,
FORT MADISON, IOWA.

EXPLANATORY PREFACE.

At the close of the war and after their discharge the members of the 21st Missouri Regiment scattered over Missouri and other States of the Union. No effort was made to keep the organization alive until 1888, when T. W. Holman, responding to the whisperings of memory for a sight and hand clasp of the old comrades of ’61-’66, on his own responsibility published a call, in August, 1888, for a meeting of the survivors at Arbela, Mo. The result was a large gathering of the veterans and the organization of the 21st Missouri Infantry Veteran Volunteers Association. From that date to the present time annual meetings have been held. At the meeting in 1896, Messrs. T. W. Holman and N. D. Starr were made Regimental Historians, to compile and perpetuate the history of the regiment. At the next meeting, in 1897, these comrades made a partial report, and at the Edina, Mo., meeting in 1898, submitted the result of their labors in manuscript form. A motion was then made and carried that T. W. Holman continue the labor and revise and prepare the manuscript for publication and have it printed for the use of the Association. In accordance with the foregoing instructions the succeeding pages are respectfully submitted.

T. W. HOLMAN.

THE CALL TO ARMS.

Organization of the 1st and 2d North Missouri Regiments, June and
July, 1861.--Campaigning in North Missouri During the Summer of
1861.--Order Consolidating the 1st and 2d North Missouri Regiments,
Thereafter Known as the 21st Regiment, Missouri Infantry Vols.

After the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 many political disturbances and difficulties arose and he was inaugurated during a time of overwhelming excitement. The government of Missouri at that time was in the hands of those who were clamoring for secession from the Union of States. Claiborne F. Jackson, who had been trained in the political school of “States Rights,” was elected Governor. Early in the spring of 1861 Camp Jackson was established in St. Louis and troops for State service were mustered at that point.

The Southern states, one after another, withdrew from the Union and on April the 11th, 1861, Fort Sumter was fired on by the Confederates. This was the bugle call to arms, and President Lincoln’s proclamation for 75,000 men to serve for ninety days followed. Frank P. Blair, afterwards Major General, received authority from the general government to organize and muster into service troops for the prosecution of the war for the preservation of the Union.

The muster of troops for the state was very irregular and was the cause afterwards of considerable confusion. Some men were enlisted for the war, some for one year, then for three years; some to serve in the state only, while others were enlisted for service in the northern part of the state and others for the southern part. The army thus organized was one of questionable authority. The Governor maintained that the general government had no right to invade the state, and the latter hesitated in regard to sending troops into a state not in open revolt against the government.

During this period of hesitation and confusion Col. D. Moore was commissioned Colonel and received authority to enlist and organize the 1st North Missouri Volunteers; and Col. H. M. Woodyard was given like authority to organize the 2d North Missouri Volunteers. In the summer and fall of 1861 these troops, acting separately, held North Missouri against the Confederates under Cols. Porter and Green. The anomalous conditions then existing in the state are explained by the position of the Confederates, who claimed that they were resisting armed invasion of the State by the Federal Government.

THE FIRST NOTE OF DEFIANCE.

About May 30, 1861, Col. Moore received authority from Gen. Lyons to raise a regiment for the Federal service, taking the field at the head of ten men. Clear and ringing as a bugle blast he sounded the following challenge, which was posted in hand bills over Northeast Missouri and Southern Iowa:

The undersigned is authorized to raise a company of volunteers in the
county, for the Union service. All who are willing to fight for their
homes, their country and the flag of the glorious Union, are invited
to join him, bringing with them their arms and ammunition. Until the
Government can aid us we must take care of ourselves. Secessionists
and rebel traitors desiring a fight can be accommodated on demand.