"Unbeknownst" to Lincoln: A Note on Radical Pacification in Missouri during the Civil War

"Unbeknownst" to Lincoln: A Note on Radical Pacification in Missouri during the Civil War Mark E. Neely Jr. The connection between President Abraham Lincoln and the drastic measures of pacification put in place by Federal forces in Missouri in the Civil War has never been clear. General Orders No. 1 1 , ofAugust 25, 1 863, issued in reaction to William Quantrill's murderous raid on Lawrence, Kansas, resulted intheevacuation of most of the residents of four counties in the state. But even before the raid, less well known Order No. 9 provided for confiscating slaves of rebels on Missouri's western border, and Order No. 10 threatened the families of proConfederate guerrillas with resettlement. When informed of Order No. 1 1 after it was issued, Lincoln assented to the deportation of citizens, but his response could hardly be termed enthusiastic. His responsibility has heretofore never been much emphasized because being presented with a fait accompli is a different matter from approving a policy before implementation. Newly uncovered evidence reveals that Lincoln approved in advance the earliest plans of Generals Thomas Ewing, Jr., and John M. Schofield for pacification ofthe troubled counties on the Missouri River bordering Kansas. The story is complicated and the evidence indirect, so it is necessary to begin in early August 1 863 and trace the development of U.S. Army strategy for dealing with guerrillas on Missouri's western border. General Schofield had commanded the Department ofMissouri, with its headquarters in St. Louis, for over two months when he received a proposal for new and drastic measures from General Ewing, who commanded the District of the Border, next to Kansas. Ewing proposed Research for this article was supported by the R. Stanton Avery Research Fellowship at the Huntington Library, San Marino, California. The author expresses his appreciation also to Saint Louis University for granting him an early sabbatical to take advantage of the fellowship. Dan Lewis, Curator ofAmerican Historical Manuscripts at the Huntington, encouraged publication and helped in deciphering handwriting. Sylvia Neely read an early draft of the article and offered important advice. Civil War History, Vol. xliv No. 3 © 1998 by The Kent State University Press "UNBEKNOWNST" TO LINCOLN2I3 that "the families of several hundred of the worst" of the guerrillas from the area on the Missouri River near Kansas be deported, with only their clothes and bedding, to Arkansas. He estimated that two-thirds of the families in the region were kin of the guerrillas and "actively and heartily engaged in feeding, clothing , and sustaining them."1 Ewing also asked Schofield in a separate letter for "permission to give military escort out ofthose counties" in his district sustaining the guerrillas "to such negroes as wish it, and as were slaves of persons engaged in rebellion on or since 17th July, 1862," the date of the Second Confiscation Act. Though it was mid- 1 863 and the president's emancipation proclamation had been in effect for over six months, Lincoln's document did not touch Missouri, which was a loyal state in which slavery was still legal. That same summer, however, a state constitutional convention in Missouri had met and devised a gradual emancipation scheme for the state. Slavery may have been on its last legs in Missouri, but it remained a legal institution in the summer of 1863.2 General Ewing sent his radical proposals to General Schofield on August 3, 1863. Eleven days passed before the department commander replied, but on August 14, Schofield finally assented to both policies in two separate letters. Of the antislavery plan he simply expressed approval, but he cautioned Ewing about the other plan, which involved deporting the guerrillas' families: "On account of the expense and trouble necessarily attendant upon the carrying out of this plan, and also the suffering it may cause to children and other comparatively innocent persons, the number to be transported should be as small as possible, and should be confined to those of the worst character."3 Schofield would not authorize a radical plan with possibly dangerous political and military consequences without receiving authorization from above. In the eleven-day period after Ewing wrote for permission, Schofield asked Gen. Francis P. Blair, Jr...