On this date in 1861, military leader John Charles Frémont declared martial law in Missouri and issued a variety of proclamations, including a declaration that aimed to free enslaved people held by Missouri’s Confederate sympathizers. President Abraham Lincoln, seeking to keep a tenuous peace with Missouri as a neutral state, later removed Frémont from his position, according to the Kansas City Public Library’s Civil War on the Western Border website.
Photo credit: John C. Fremont / Lith. by Crehan after Saintin. , ca. 1856. New York: publd. by W. Schaus ; Boston: print ed by J.H. Bufford. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/93503777/.
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Missouri Governor Claiborne Jackson makes the final decision to have state militia assemble at Camp Jackson near St. Louis. Jackson had told President Lincoln that he would not assemble troops to fight against the South.
July 5, 1861
The Battle of Carthage was fought and the Confederates had their first victory.
March 13, 1861
Nathaniel Lyon took command of the St. Louis Arsenal on this day.