The Maintenance of Internal Security in Iowa, 1861-1865

THE MAINTENANCE OF INTERNAL SECURITY IN IOWA, 1861-1865 H. H. Wubben Two security problems proved of frequent concern to state officials in Iowa during the Civil War. They feared outbreaks of violence in the southern border counties where secession sympathizers were expected to ally themselves in common cause with "Missouri rebel" marauders . They also believed that Iowa's vocal Copperhead minority stood ready to promote opposition to the Lincoln administration's war policy and to aid the South in its fight for independence. Neither expectation was wholly without foundation, although Iowa's officialdom and its loyalist citizens consistently exaggerated both threats. The presumed danger on the border held priority during the first year of the war. Beginning in December, 1860, and continuing throughout 1861, southern Iowans felt the backlash of violent "secesh"-loyalist clashes in northern Missouri. Some Missourians from both camps moved into Iowa to escape the conflict, only to find that their presence sharpened the antagonism which existed between their Iowa counterparts.1 Republican Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood and the state legislature, in special session after the firing on Fort Sumter, took steps to strengtiien the state militia and the many hastily organized "home guard" units in southern Iowa. In the summer of 1861 rumors of impending raids by Missourians prompted a Kirkwood aide-de-camp, Cyrus Bussey, to commandeer a trainload of one thousand guns destined for Federal troops in the Council Bluffs-Omaha region. Bussey quickly distributed the weapons among military companies in southern border towns. His precipitate action pleased the loyalists in the area and the governor, though not the Federal officer at Council Bluffs for whom the guns had been intended . These weapons were actually put to use in one minor border engagement between Iowans and Missourians in southeast Iowa. That 1 J. H. Harvey et al. to Samuel J. Kirkwood, Jan. 18, 1861, Adjutant General's Correspondent, Disloyal Sentiment File, 1861-1866, Iowa Historical Dept. (IHD), Des Moines. Paradoxically, the first "invasion," occurring in Dec., 1860, was a foray into Iowa's southwestern comer by so-called Union Jayhawkers who harassed suspected secession sympathizers there. 401 402civil war history was the so-called batüe of Athens, in which a Missouri cannon ball did land on Iowa soil.2 For the most part, however, the border citizens lived in a state of tension throughout the rest of the year, their worst fears going unrealized. Elsewhere, feelings ran high between whole-hearted supporters of the war and those who counseled caution and compromise. State officials did not become engaged in any campaign in 1861 to suppress opposition voices. But this did not deter loyalist zealots from embarking upon such activities on their own. In Dubuque, for example, Dennis Mahony, fiery Democratic politician-editor, later to become known as one of the most astute and outspoken anti-war voices in the Midwest, came under attack by political, personal, and business opponents. Dubuque city and county officials aided by a company of soldiers prevented a mob from destroying Mahony's Dubuque Herald in July. Other Herald opponents took an indirect approach. They began to cull materials from Mahony's columns by which they hoped to prove to the governor that the editor was disloyal. Chief among this group was William B. Allison, soon to win election to Congress in a race against Mahony, Allison's first step in a long and successful political career.3 This drive to silence the Dubuque leader was a portent of things to come in succeeding years, although such activity took place only on a limited scale in 1861. Two men who were to figure prominently in security administration in Iowa during the war got their start in 1861. For his adjutant general, Governor Kirkwood selected a member of the state legislature and "War Democrat," Nathaniel B. Baker.4 Baker's duties included directing the organization of the state's active-duty regiments, militia, and home guard units. He gradually became involved also in the state's efforts to clamp down on alleged disloyalists and their activities. The other figure was the United States marshal for Iowa, Herbert M. Hoxie, who had received his post upon Kirkwood's recommendation. To...