The American Civil War - This Mighty Scourge of War

The fighting 107

strangle the economy. Scott's plan would

require 300,000 well-trained men and would

take two years to complete. Political and

popular pressure to get the war moving,

however, forced Scott to reconsider his

overwhelming invasion plan. Still, using the

waterways to strike at the Confederacy

would ultimately prove to be a great

advantage tor the Union.

Because slavery and states' rights were

central to Southern life, the Confederate war

effort struggled with building a nation

founded on these beliefs while attempting to

fight a war that did not necessarily serve

these interests. To wage a war that did not

deliberately protect slavery and preserve

states' rights would diminish popular

support for the conflict. Confederate political

Camp Jackson Missouri was a suburb of St Louis arid on
10 May 1861 it was the scene of a violent outbreak of
war. After Nathaniel Lyon's troops had forced the
surrender of Camp Jackson and its inhabitants, violence
erupted that resulted in the death of 28 ctizens. They
were mainly bystanders, including women and children.
(Rewew of Reviews Company)

and military leaders therefore sought to wage

a defensive war. Protection of the South and

its institutions from invading armies became

the overall strategy for the war in the west.

The Union occupies Missouri

When Kentucky declared neutrality at the

outbreak of the conflict, both Lincoln and

Davis ordered military commanders to respect

the state's dubious position. This meant that

Northern penetration in the west would have

to skirt Kentucky, and thus Northern

armies would be forced to traverse the

Appalachian Mountains to the east and the

Mississippi River to the west, neither of which

seemed feasible in the spring of 1861.

Southerners feared that a neutral Kentucky

might soon fall prey to the Union. Kentucky

was indeed important. 'I think to lose

Kentucky,' remarked Lincoln with obvious

concern, 'is nearly to lose the whole game,'

'Kentucky gone, we can not hold Missouri,

nor, as I think, Maryland. These all

against us, and the job on our hands is

too large for us.'

Whatever Kentucky's importance, while it

remained neutral, little could be done in the

Bluegrass state. Missouri then became all the

more important for the Confederacy, as its

border was just across the river from

Kentucky. Missourians rejected secession in

March and remained in the Union, but

considering the heavy pro-South contingent

in the southern part of the state and along

the river, war came early to the western state.

After rejecting Lincoln's call for volunteers

in April, the secessionist Governor Claiborne

Jackson, with the support of the pro-

secessionist legislature, attempted to seize

the federal arsenal and federal subtreasury in

St Louis. On 10 May the rival factions came

to blows at Camp Jackson, near St Louis,

where Jackson's militia encamped. Federal

Captain Nathaniel Lyon, a fiery, anti-slavery

veteran of the earlier skirmishes in Kansas,

captured the Confederate force and marched

them through the streets of St Louis back to

the arsenal. An angry pro-South mob