A Call to Arms
"....a call came from President Lincoln for volunteers to release the slaves and here goes her two oldest sons to Army. She left her country for the sake of her children, and right here they went into it."
Katie Wolff History
The political and military situation in Missouri when President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers on April 15, 1861 was fantastically complicated. The border states were the slave states that lay between the North and the deep South. Both the Union and the Confederacy made strong efforts to gain their support. Kentucky and Missouri assumed positions of neutrality, and what Kentucky would finally do would probably depend upon what Missouri did.
Missouri's ultimate decision regarding secession would be most heavily influenced by a captain of regular infantry named Nathaniel Lyon. Nathaniel Lyon, forty-two years old, was born in Connecticut, graduated from West Point in 1841, and was wounded in the Mexican War. He served in Kansas during the bloody years of 1854-56, when Missouri State Senator Claiborne Jackson and other Missouri slaveowners led thousands of Border Ruffians from western Missouri into Kansas to stuff ballot boxes, and ensure the election of a pro-slavery Territorial Legislature. Lyon was a Lincoln supporter, and a strong Unionist, eagerly seeking an opportunity to make a contribution to the preservation of the Union.
Nathaniel Lyon was transferred from Kansas to St. Louis with his company of infantry in February of 1861, to reinforce the St. Louis Arsenal garrison. But, as an infantry Captain, Lyon would never have had the leverage needed to play a key role in the drama that was to soon unfold had he not met Francis P. Blair, Jr. Blair was a member of a very influential Maryland family. Blair's brother was a member of Lincoln's cabinet, and Francis Blair, Jr. also had tremendous influence in Washington. As a principal organizer of the Republican party in Missouri, Blair had worked closely with the anti-slavery, pro-Unionist German population in St. Louis, and had set up a committee of public safety. The committee, while entirely unofficial, was viewed by Lincoln as a potential action arm in case matters came to a showdown. Blair and Lyon were both convinced that the country was in revolution, and that it was not a time to be hindered by legal constraints.
On the other hand, Claiborne Jackson, the Governor of Missouri, was a strong secessionist. Having been thwarted by a Unionist majority in his attempt to take Missouri out of the Union at the special state convention, Jackson was quietly waiting for another opportunity. Frank Blair and Governor Jackson both had their eyes on the St. Louis Arsenal. Governor Jackson had been too timid in January of that year, when the prior commandant of the Arsenal had been willing to recognize the authority of the State, and to turn the Arsenal over to Jackson. The Missouri State Militia was not well-armed, and that weakness was a deterrent to those Missourians who favored secession. With its thousands of guns, vast stores of ammunition, and tons of gunpowder, capture of the Arsenal by the Missouri State Militia would allow Governor Jackson to equip a whole army, and to control the entire state. Several Southern states had seized and raided well-stocked Federal arsenals. There was little to prevent such a seizure in Missouri--little, that is, except for Frank Blair and Captain Nathaniel Lyon.
On April 17, two days after President Lincoln's call for 75,000 men, the Secretary of War issued a telegram to all of the loyal and doubtful states, requesting each of them to provide from the militia of the state a certain number of men, as infantry or riflemen, for a period of three months. Missouri's quota was fixed at four regiments, which Governor Jackson was requested to furnish. In his reply, Governor Jackson angrily stated that:
"Your requisition, in my judgement, is illegal, unconstitutional and revolutionary in it's objects, inhuman and diabolical, and cannot be complied with..."
That same evening, Frank Blair returned to St. Louis from Washington, and met with Captain Lyon. Blair knew that Governor Jackson would not supply the four regiments requested of Missouri, and brought with him a War Department order authorizing issuance of 5,000 stands of arms from the Arsenal to St. Louis residents who enlisted in the Home Guards. The weapons were to be placed in the hands of patriotic Union men who were ready to defend the city and their homes in case of a secessionist uprising.
But Lyon knew that his superior officer would not permit the enrolling of Home Guards. The top Federal commander at St. Louis was Brigadier General W. S. Harney, a tough old Indian-fighter who was thoroughly loyal to the Union, but who could not believe that Governor Jackson actually meant any harm. Harney felt that if the state government should call on him to surrender the arsenal, he would be compelled to comply. And even if Harney should permit the enrolling of Home Guards, Lyon felt that secessionists in St. Louis would surround the Arsenal and prevent entry of Union men.
Blair immediately sent a wire to the Secretary of War, suggesting that Captain Lyon be ordered to muster independent companies and regiments, and a second wire to his brother recommending the removal of Brigadier General Harney. The next day, on April 18, news arrived in St. Louis of the capture by secessionists of the other Federal arsenal in Missouri, located at Liberty, near Kansas City. The following morning, Lyon began fortifying the St. Louis Arsenal, and sent a strongly worded message to Harney, asking for permission to enroll volunteers. On April 21, Harney rejected Lyon's request.
In April of 1861, St. Louis was divided into two camps. On one side were some 700 arrogant and aggressive pro-Southern Minute Men. They were divided into companies, and most of them were armed. The Northern element, at least so far as organization was concerned, consisted of the Union Guards. Most of them were German immigrants, or sons of German immigrants, who opposed slavery. For years, these Germans had been unified into Turner Societies, or Turnvereins. These German clubs had the leadership necessary to turn them into militant patriotic groups. But, unlike the Minute Men, the Union Guards had few weapons.
On April 21, Frank Blair received authority to enlist four regiments at the Arsenal. Harney, however, again refused to permit mustering of troops. With an attack on the Arsenal by the Minute Men a growing threat, Lyon decided to enroll volunteers in direct disobedience of Harney's orders. That night, the first 700 volunteers slipped through the back gate of the Arsenal. A telegram from the Adjutant General of the Army arrived at midnight, giving Washington's full blessing to Lyon's efforts to muster four regiments, and relieving General Harney from his command. By the middle of the week, 2,100 volunteers had been received, sworn in, and armed. The First Regiment of Missouri Volunteers, under the command of Colonel Frank Blair, was at full strength. The Second and Third Regiments were approaching full strength, and the Fourth was at better than half-strength. These first units were about eighty per cent German, or of German descent. For the time being, at least, the Arsenal was safe.
The 2,100 volunteers who enlisted during those three days in mid-April included a number of men from Franklin County. The History of Franklin, Jefferson, Washington, Crawford and Gasconade Counties, Missouri, published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1888, describes how some of the Franklin County men reached the arsenal:
"About the middle of April Union men in the county were advised by F. P. Blair, of St. Louis, that the arsenal there was in danger, and he called upon them to send in troops to its defense. In a few hours a company of men, under command of Capt. David Murphy, were on their way to St. Louis. They took the train at Washington, Mo., and, by arrangements with Conductor Charles White, the train was stopped at Twenty-second Street, and the company alighted from the train, unobserved, and virtually stole their way, one by one, until they reached the arsenal, and were the fourth company in the State outside of St. Louis to reach the arsenal. A regiment was immediately formed, under authority of Capt. Lyon, and placed under the command of J. W. Owens."
On April 29, Jefferson Davis issued his Proclamation of War in Montgomery, Alabama. In Harney's absence, Lyon was in command of everything in and around St. Louis. On the same day that Jefferson Davis declared war, Lyon received an extraordinary set of instructions from the War Department. To maintain order and defend national property, Captain Lyon was authorized to enroll up to ten thousand citizens of St. Louis and vicinity in the military service. In addition, Lyon was told that if he, Blair, and Blair's committee of public safety thought it necessary, he could proclaim martial law. Across the bottom of Lyon's instructions, General Winfield Scott scribbled: "It is revolutionary times and therefore, I do not object to the irregularity of this."
Only four days later, on May 3, seven hundred Missouri militia called out by Governor Jackson began their encampment at Camp Jackson, located only six miles west of the Arsenal. The militia commander claimed the encampment was for routine instruction. Captain Lyon and Frank Blair were convinced that their purpose was to seize the Arsenal. On May 6, Lyon received news that Arkansas had joined the Confederacy. The same day, he received word that fifty armed men had broken into the Army storehouse at Kansas City during the night and stolen scores of muskets, carbines, pistols, and sabers as well as 34,000 rounds of ammunition. On May 7, news came that Tennessee had seceded. Lyon felt that the Arsenal was in grave jeopardy, and that it was only a matter of time until they would be attacked by the militia camped at Camp Jackson.
On May 9, Lyon decided to act. His first step was to have a look at the state militia camp. Dressed up in a black bonbazine dress and a bonnet with a thick, black veil (to hide his beard), he was driven through Camp Jackson in a black barouche, with a pair of Colt revolvers under his lap robe. Before ordering his driver to return to town, Captain Lyon spent a half-hour touring the camp, where he saw militiamen dressed in Confederate gray, and company streets named after Jefferson Davis, Beauregard, and other Confederate heroes.
Arriving safely back at the Arsenal, Lyon met with Frank Blair and the committee of public safety. Lyon immediately proposed that he march on Camp Jackson the following day, strengthening his case by stating that some of the Missouri militamen were armed with weapons which had recently been stolen from a government arsenal in Baton Rouge, and which rightfully belonged to the Federal government. Lyon proposed to occupy the camp, hold the militiamen as prisoners of war, and recover all of the stolen government property.
This touched off an argument, with two members of the committee insisting that things ought to be done legally. Blair and Lyon argued that the government had lost a number of arsenals in the past few weeks by clinging to legalities while men with guns in their hands went out and took what they wanted. If the same thing happened in St. Louis, the Union cause was lost in Missouri. To clinch his argument, Lyon revealed that Harney had been reinstated as Commanding General of the Department, and would be back in St. Louis within two days. The result was a committee vote in favor of Lyon's plan to capture Camp Jackson.
If one of Anna Landwehr's reasons for emigrating to America was to avoid conscription of her sons, her sons apparently did not share her aversion to military service. Henry and Philip Landwehr, Anna's two oldest sons, were among the early volunteers to enlist in the service of the Union at the St. Louis Arsenal. Missouri's quota under President Lincoln's first call for 75,000 volunteers on April 15 was satisfied by the first four regiments of volunteers, who slipped into the Arsenal during a period of only a few days commencing April 21. Since Henry and Philip Landwehr were not among those enrolled in the first four regiments of volunteers, it does not appear that they were a part of that first wave of enlistments.
In anticipation that more troops would be accepted, Companies of the Fifth Regiment of Missouri Infantry Volunteers were organized and mustered in when the President's order of April 30 authorized Captain Lyon to enlist up to 10,000 men from St. Louis and vicinity. Henry and Philip were enrolled as Privates in Company F of this Fifth Regiment.
We cannot be certain when they arrived at the Arsenal. The official enlistment records carry an enlistment date of May 18, 1861 for both Philip and Henry. This was the date, however, that enlistment of the Regiment was completed, and Charles E. Solomon was elected as their Colonel. Henry and Philip would have been enlisted on an earlier date. In The Union Cause in St. Louis in 1861, the author states that the first five companies of the Fifth Regiment of Missouri Volunteers were mustered in by the 4th of 000, two more by the 10th, and two more by the 15th of May. If we assume that Company F was the sixth company mustered in, this statement suggests that Henry and Philip were probably mustered in between May 5 and May 10.
When our two young German forebearers stepped up to the enlisting officer that day in early May, Henry described himself as twenty-two years old, five foot four inches in height, with light complexion, brown hair, and blue eyes. When the 2nd Lieutenant asked Henry for his name, he replied that it was Henry Landwehr. Without asking Henry to spell his name, the enrollment officer recorded his name as Henry Lanvert, and that is the name under which Henry served.
Philip was next to enlist. He described himself as nineteen years old, five feet five inches in height, with fair complexion, brown hair, and blue eyes. Because Philip and Henry enlisted together, it is not surprising that Philip's name was recorded on his enlistment papers as John P. Lanvert, rather than Landwehr.
It would appear, then, that Henry and Philip Landwehr may have enlisted at the St. Louis Arsenal just prior to the meeting where Lyon received approval to march on Camp Jackson. Early in the morning of May 10, the morning after the meeting, Lyon summoned the regimental commanders of the Volunteer and Home Guard Infantry to the Arsenal, where he outlined his plan for the encirclement and capture of Camp Jackson.
While Lyon included most of his troops in the plan to capture Camp Jackson, he decided to leave a few troops to garrison the Arsenal. He would not underestimate the commander of the Missouri militia, General Daniel Frost. According to Hans Christian Adamson, in Rebellion in Missouri: 1861:
"In mounting his attack, Lyon had not failed to foresee the possibility that Frost might learn of the Union plans not only in time to move out of Camp Jackson but also to stage a surprise assault on the Arsenal. To forestall the success of such a turnabout, Lyon left his two remaining companies of U. S. Infantry Regulars in command of Captain Saxton on guard at the Arsenal, as well as the half-dozen companies of Colonel Charles E. Salomon's Fifth Regiment Volunteers which, so far, had been mustered in. The Second Battalions of the First and Second U. S. Reserves--under Majors Phillip Brimmer and Julius Rapp, respectively--blocked the streets to the Arsenal with orders to let no one pass. Sharpshooters among the regulars were placed on the roofs of nearby buildings."
If we are correct in assuming that Henry and Philip Landwehr enrolled in Salomon's Fifth Regiment of Volunteers prior to May 10, the above passage indicates that they would have been among those troops who were to remain at the Arsenal, as a rear guard, during the capture of Camp Jackson.
As soon as the Union troops began to gather at the various staging points, Southern supporters rushed the news to Brigadier General Frost. About noon, Lyon received a letter from Frost asking for confirmation of his information that Lyon was preparing to attack the Arsenal, and assuring Lyon that neither he, nor any other State forces, were planning any hostility toward the United States.
Lyon did not reply to Frost's olive branch. At the designated hour, Lyon's troops surrounded Camp Jackson, and demanded surrender. Frost had no choice but to comply. Lyon marched two companies of regulars into camp, disarmed the seven hundred militiamen, seized a number of cannon, twelve hundred muskets, twenty-five kegs of powder, and odds and ends of military equipment, and then prepared to take the prisoners down to the Arsenal where they could be paroled. Everything was going according to plan.
As Lyon prepared to march the prisoners back to the Arsenal, he was knocked down by the kicking and plunging of an unruly horse. He was not badly hurt, but he was stunned and out of action for a few minutes. The half-hour delay caused by Lyon's injury, plus an even longer delay incurred while the militia companies in Camp Jackson fell in and prepared to march to the Arsenal, gave a huge mob of spectators time to gather. It was a passionately secessionist crowd, which waved sticks, threw stones, and cursed the German Home Guards. Some waved revolvers and shotguns at Lyon and his officers. Finally, a drunk tried to force his way through the ranks, damning the Dutch, and was pushed back. As he staggered back, he drew a pistol, and shot a Home Guard officer, Captain Blandowski. Some of the Captain's men returned fire at the crowd.
The firing was quickly stopped, and the Union troops and their prisoners began marching toward the Arsenal. As they did so, the rioters continued to attack them with stones, bricks, and insults. Eventually, some of the crowd fired at the troops, and shots were returned. A chain reaction of shooting was touched off, and spread down the line. By the time the firing stopped a few moments later, twenty-eight civilians had been killed, and ten wounded. Two soldiers were killed, and several wounded.
The first part of the march back to the Arsenal following the riot was quiet, as it proceeded through a part of the city heavily inhabited by the pro-Southern element. Hans Christian Adamson described the scene after the troops reached the Union section of St. Louis, and neared the Arsenal:
"By the time the regiments turned toward the Arsenal on Carondelet Avenue, the sidewalks overflowed and the streets were thronged by cheering, shouting, and singing thousands of people. Houses were decorated with flags and bunting and on the roof of the small Anheuser Brewery, near the Arsenal, a German band was playing Vaterland marching songs. The weary foot soldiers straightened their backs, raised their heads, and put more swing into their strides. They sang, and singing, marched through the tunnel-like portal that led into the Arsenal."
If Henry and Philip Landwehr were among those troops who garrisoned the Arsenal during the capture of Camp Jackson, they surely heard the cheering and singing as the rest of their comrads returned from Camp Jackson.
Lyon had successfully disarmed the Missouri militia, had reclaimed the stolen government property, and had lifted the threat to the security of the Arsenal. Lyon and Blair would have been elated over their success, had the riot and its deadly aftermath not occured. Lyon issued a statement of explanation which lamented the killings, but defended his troops.
The Katie Wolff History states that Henry and Philip "were in two hard battles, one at Camp Jackson, and one at St. Gettysburg." It appears that some inaccuracy crept into Katie's history at this point, which is understandable, considering the years that had elapsed since she had heard the information from her grandmother and her father. The "battle of Camp Jackson" is undoubtedly a reference to the capture of Camp Jackson. The reference to St. Gettysburg is apparently a mistaken reference to the Battle of Wilson's Creek, a major Civil War battle that Henry and Philip would be involved in three months later. Katie Wolff's statement that Henry and Philip "were in" the "battle of Camp Jackson" provides further evidence that they reached the Arsenal prior to May 10, even though it appears unlikely that they left the Arsenal that day.
That night, the news that Camp Jackson had been taken spread rapidly through the nation by telegraph. As Northern newspapers printed every detail they could get about the action, they heralded Nathaniel Lyon as the hero of the hour. The grim atmosphere of Washington was considerably brightened by this unexpected stroke of success against the South. Lyon was applauded as the first leader of Union forces to take action against the South, which up to then had held the initiative.
As the news of the seizure of Camp Jackson flashed through every section of St. Louis, the downtown streets and those around the Arsenal literally boiled with swirling masses of Southern sympathizers. Within the Arsenal, extraordinary precautions were taken to protect against overt acts from within by captured militia men, or from without by hot-headed supporters of the Southern cause. Every sentry post along the walls had been doubled. Fully manned guns, ready for firing, faced the weaker portions of the Arsenal, as well as the buildings that housed the prisoners. Only a few days after leaving their homes in Franklin County, Henry and Philip Landwehr found themselves involved in a military action which was the focus of national attention.
News of the Camp Jackson "massacre" reached Governor Jackson in Jefferson City late in the afternoon. At first, Governor Jackson was shocked by the wholly unexpected turn of events. He had been looking forward to receiving news that the Arsenal had fallen, and that General Frost was in full control. But now, with Camp Jackson taken by force, with spectators killed and wounded, with the Missouri militia humiliated, Jackson knew that he could mold the lawmakers to his will.
Jackson immediately went to the Assembly, which was in special session to debate a controversial Military Bill which would make the Governor an absolute dictator. Fifteen minutes after Jackson had delivered the news in a fiery harangue, the Military Bill was passed by both Houses without debate. Jackson signed the measure on the spot.
When Harney got back to St. Louis a couple of days later, he tried to pick up the pieces. He ordered the German troops out of the city, and proposed to Frank Blair that they be disbanded (he apparently didn't realize that they had already been sworn into Federal service). He then tried to work out a truce with the state authorities.
The Commander of Missouri troops was now General Sterling Price, formerly governor of the state, and a Virginia-born Mexican War veteran. Price was a serious-minded man of vast personal popularity. He was raising state troops, apparently for eventual use against United States troops. He was also conferring with General Harney as commander of the United States troops. On May 21, they completed something similar to a cease-fire agreement. Both state and national forces would try to keep order and prevent bloodshed, the defense of the rights and property of all Missourians would be the concern of both sides, and anyone who tried to make trouble would be squelched. They hoped that this agreement would serve to keep the peace in Missouri.
But to Nathaniel Lyon, the keeping of the peace was the last thing that mattered. He felt the truce had been arranged with men who favored secession, and would strike for it the moment they saw a good chance. Captain Lyon received a commission as Brigadier General at this point, and Frank Blair received White House permission to remove General Harney if he saw fit. By the end of May, Harney had been transferred away from Missouri forever, and Lyon formally took his place.
When Lyon took charge of the Department of the West on June 1, his total strength had grown to 10,730 men, including Henry and Philip Landwehr of the Fifth Regiment Volunteers. At roll call that morning, the strength of the Fifth Regiment was 926 men. The nationality of its members was sixty-five percent German.
There was not enough space in the Arsenal to house all of the men in Lyon's expanding command. Some were housed at Jefferson Barracks, south of St. Louis, others in buildings near the Arsenal. As volunteers, Henry and Philip Landwehr were housed in one of the large structures within the Arsenal which had been turned into a barracks.
As Lyon worked to select his senior officers and organize his personal staff, Henry and Philip and the rest of his troops continue to drill. In Rebellion in Missouri: 1861, Adamson described drills:
"Four abreast, the men--sweating under the merciless June sun--would move forward in full field gear: a gun that weighed nine pounds; 40 rounds of ammunition and 50 percussion caps in their respective boxes--four pounds or more; belt, bayonet, and scabbard--two pounds; one day's rations and haversack--three and a half pounds. Blanket roll--three pounds. Add it all up and a soldier--besides the clothes he stood in and the fears and wonders that weighed on his mind--lugged a total of at least 22 1/2 pounds. Not for an hour or two. But all day, day after day. Drill! Drill! Drill!"
Camp life was never easy for the common soldier, even when they were far from combat.
Meanwhile, in Jefferson City, Governor Jackson and Sterling Price were soliciting support from the Confederate Army, in hopes that a Confederate invasion of Missouri could be engineered. It would be to their advantage to keep Lyon in St. Louis as long as possible. But Lyon and Blair called a meeting with Governor Jackson and General Price, to review the truce. At that meeting, held in St. Louis on June 11, the two Missouri officials offered to disband their troops and keep all Confederate armies out of the state if the Federals would disband their Home Guards--the Dutch blackguards, so offensive to southern sympathies--and if the Federals would promise not to occupy any part of Missouri that Federal troops did not already hold. In effect, they were offering at least a temporary neutrality as far as Missouri was concerned.
Lyon turned the offer down contemptuously. The Federal government, he announced, would move its troops where it pleased, asking permission of no one, and it would retain in its service any and all home-guard levies it wished to keep, blackguard Dutch or otherwise; and he personally would see every man, woman, and child in Missouri six feet under the ground before he would admit that this or any other state could impose any conditions at all upon the Federal government. He had, further, one final statement to make to Governor Jackson: "Governor, this means war!".
Katie Wolff History
The political and military situation in Missouri when President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers on April 15, 1861 was fantastically complicated. The border states were the slave states that lay between the North and the deep South. Both the Union and the Confederacy made strong efforts to gain their support. Kentucky and Missouri assumed positions of neutrality, and what Kentucky would finally do would probably depend upon what Missouri did.
Missouri's ultimate decision regarding secession would be most heavily influenced by a captain of regular infantry named Nathaniel Lyon. Nathaniel Lyon, forty-two years old, was born in Connecticut, graduated from West Point in 1841, and was wounded in the Mexican War. He served in Kansas during the bloody years of 1854-56, when Missouri State Senator Claiborne Jackson and other Missouri slaveowners led thousands of Border Ruffians from western Missouri into Kansas to stuff ballot boxes, and ensure the election of a pro-slavery Territorial Legislature. Lyon was a Lincoln supporter, and a strong Unionist, eagerly seeking an opportunity to make a contribution to the preservation of the Union.
Nathaniel Lyon was transferred from Kansas to St. Louis with his company of infantry in February of 1861, to reinforce the St. Louis Arsenal garrison. But, as an infantry Captain, Lyon would never have had the leverage needed to play a key role in the drama that was to soon unfold had he not met Francis P. Blair, Jr. Blair was a member of a very influential Maryland family. Blair's brother was a member of Lincoln's cabinet, and Francis Blair, Jr. also had tremendous influence in Washington. As a principal organizer of the Republican party in Missouri, Blair had worked closely with the anti-slavery, pro-Unionist German population in St. Louis, and had set up a committee of public safety. The committee, while entirely unofficial, was viewed by Lincoln as a potential action arm in case matters came to a showdown. Blair and Lyon were both convinced that the country was in revolution, and that it was not a time to be hindered by legal constraints.
On the other hand, Claiborne Jackson, the Governor of Missouri, was a strong secessionist. Having been thwarted by a Unionist majority in his attempt to take Missouri out of the Union at the special state convention, Jackson was quietly waiting for another opportunity. Frank Blair and Governor Jackson both had their eyes on the St. Louis Arsenal. Governor Jackson had been too timid in January of that year, when the prior commandant of the Arsenal had been willing to recognize the authority of the State, and to turn the Arsenal over to Jackson. The Missouri State Militia was not well-armed, and that weakness was a deterrent to those Missourians who favored secession. With its thousands of guns, vast stores of ammunition, and tons of gunpowder, capture of the Arsenal by the Missouri State Militia would allow Governor Jackson to equip a whole army, and to control the entire state. Several Southern states had seized and raided well-stocked Federal arsenals. There was little to prevent such a seizure in Missouri--little, that is, except for Frank Blair and Captain Nathaniel Lyon.
On April 17, two days after President Lincoln's call for 75,000 men, the Secretary of War issued a telegram to all of the loyal and doubtful states, requesting each of them to provide from the militia of the state a certain number of men, as infantry or riflemen, for a period of three months. Missouri's quota was fixed at four regiments, which Governor Jackson was requested to furnish. In his reply, Governor Jackson angrily stated that:
"Your requisition, in my judgement, is illegal, unconstitutional and revolutionary in it's objects, inhuman and diabolical, and cannot be complied with..."
That same evening, Frank Blair returned to St. Louis from Washington, and met with Captain Lyon. Blair knew that Governor Jackson would not supply the four regiments requested of Missouri, and brought with him a War Department order authorizing issuance of 5,000 stands of arms from the Arsenal to St. Louis residents who enlisted in the Home Guards. The weapons were to be placed in the hands of patriotic Union men who were ready to defend the city and their homes in case of a secessionist uprising.
But Lyon knew that his superior officer would not permit the enrolling of Home Guards. The top Federal commander at St. Louis was Brigadier General W. S. Harney, a tough old Indian-fighter who was thoroughly loyal to the Union, but who could not believe that Governor Jackson actually meant any harm. Harney felt that if the state government should call on him to surrender the arsenal, he would be compelled to comply. And even if Harney should permit the enrolling of Home Guards, Lyon felt that secessionists in St. Louis would surround the Arsenal and prevent entry of Union men.
Blair immediately sent a wire to the Secretary of War, suggesting that Captain Lyon be ordered to muster independent companies and regiments, and a second wire to his brother recommending the removal of Brigadier General Harney. The next day, on April 18, news arrived in St. Louis of the capture by secessionists of the other Federal arsenal in Missouri, located at Liberty, near Kansas City. The following morning, Lyon began fortifying the St. Louis Arsenal, and sent a strongly worded message to Harney, asking for permission to enroll volunteers. On April 21, Harney rejected Lyon's request.
In April of 1861, St. Louis was divided into two camps. On one side were some 700 arrogant and aggressive pro-Southern Minute Men. They were divided into companies, and most of them were armed. The Northern element, at least so far as organization was concerned, consisted of the Union Guards. Most of them were German immigrants, or sons of German immigrants, who opposed slavery. For years, these Germans had been unified into Turner Societies, or Turnvereins. These German clubs had the leadership necessary to turn them into militant patriotic groups. But, unlike the Minute Men, the Union Guards had few weapons.
On April 21, Frank Blair received authority to enlist four regiments at the Arsenal. Harney, however, again refused to permit mustering of troops. With an attack on the Arsenal by the Minute Men a growing threat, Lyon decided to enroll volunteers in direct disobedience of Harney's orders. That night, the first 700 volunteers slipped through the back gate of the Arsenal. A telegram from the Adjutant General of the Army arrived at midnight, giving Washington's full blessing to Lyon's efforts to muster four regiments, and relieving General Harney from his command. By the middle of the week, 2,100 volunteers had been received, sworn in, and armed. The First Regiment of Missouri Volunteers, under the command of Colonel Frank Blair, was at full strength. The Second and Third Regiments were approaching full strength, and the Fourth was at better than half-strength. These first units were about eighty per cent German, or of German descent. For the time being, at least, the Arsenal was safe.
The 2,100 volunteers who enlisted during those three days in mid-April included a number of men from Franklin County. The History of Franklin, Jefferson, Washington, Crawford and Gasconade Counties, Missouri, published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1888, describes how some of the Franklin County men reached the arsenal:
"About the middle of April Union men in the county were advised by F. P. Blair, of St. Louis, that the arsenal there was in danger, and he called upon them to send in troops to its defense. In a few hours a company of men, under command of Capt. David Murphy, were on their way to St. Louis. They took the train at Washington, Mo., and, by arrangements with Conductor Charles White, the train was stopped at Twenty-second Street, and the company alighted from the train, unobserved, and virtually stole their way, one by one, until they reached the arsenal, and were the fourth company in the State outside of St. Louis to reach the arsenal. A regiment was immediately formed, under authority of Capt. Lyon, and placed under the command of J. W. Owens."
On April 29, Jefferson Davis issued his Proclamation of War in Montgomery, Alabama. In Harney's absence, Lyon was in command of everything in and around St. Louis. On the same day that Jefferson Davis declared war, Lyon received an extraordinary set of instructions from the War Department. To maintain order and defend national property, Captain Lyon was authorized to enroll up to ten thousand citizens of St. Louis and vicinity in the military service. In addition, Lyon was told that if he, Blair, and Blair's committee of public safety thought it necessary, he could proclaim martial law. Across the bottom of Lyon's instructions, General Winfield Scott scribbled: "It is revolutionary times and therefore, I do not object to the irregularity of this."
Only four days later, on May 3, seven hundred Missouri militia called out by Governor Jackson began their encampment at Camp Jackson, located only six miles west of the Arsenal. The militia commander claimed the encampment was for routine instruction. Captain Lyon and Frank Blair were convinced that their purpose was to seize the Arsenal. On May 6, Lyon received news that Arkansas had joined the Confederacy. The same day, he received word that fifty armed men had broken into the Army storehouse at Kansas City during the night and stolen scores of muskets, carbines, pistols, and sabers as well as 34,000 rounds of ammunition. On May 7, news came that Tennessee had seceded. Lyon felt that the Arsenal was in grave jeopardy, and that it was only a matter of time until they would be attacked by the militia camped at Camp Jackson.
On May 9, Lyon decided to act. His first step was to have a look at the state militia camp. Dressed up in a black bonbazine dress and a bonnet with a thick, black veil (to hide his beard), he was driven through Camp Jackson in a black barouche, with a pair of Colt revolvers under his lap robe. Before ordering his driver to return to town, Captain Lyon spent a half-hour touring the camp, where he saw militiamen dressed in Confederate gray, and company streets named after Jefferson Davis, Beauregard, and other Confederate heroes.
Arriving safely back at the Arsenal, Lyon met with Frank Blair and the committee of public safety. Lyon immediately proposed that he march on Camp Jackson the following day, strengthening his case by stating that some of the Missouri militamen were armed with weapons which had recently been stolen from a government arsenal in Baton Rouge, and which rightfully belonged to the Federal government. Lyon proposed to occupy the camp, hold the militiamen as prisoners of war, and recover all of the stolen government property.
This touched off an argument, with two members of the committee insisting that things ought to be done legally. Blair and Lyon argued that the government had lost a number of arsenals in the past few weeks by clinging to legalities while men with guns in their hands went out and took what they wanted. If the same thing happened in St. Louis, the Union cause was lost in Missouri. To clinch his argument, Lyon revealed that Harney had been reinstated as Commanding General of the Department, and would be back in St. Louis within two days. The result was a committee vote in favor of Lyon's plan to capture Camp Jackson.
If one of Anna Landwehr's reasons for emigrating to America was to avoid conscription of her sons, her sons apparently did not share her aversion to military service. Henry and Philip Landwehr, Anna's two oldest sons, were among the early volunteers to enlist in the service of the Union at the St. Louis Arsenal. Missouri's quota under President Lincoln's first call for 75,000 volunteers on April 15 was satisfied by the first four regiments of volunteers, who slipped into the Arsenal during a period of only a few days commencing April 21. Since Henry and Philip Landwehr were not among those enrolled in the first four regiments of volunteers, it does not appear that they were a part of that first wave of enlistments.
In anticipation that more troops would be accepted, Companies of the Fifth Regiment of Missouri Infantry Volunteers were organized and mustered in when the President's order of April 30 authorized Captain Lyon to enlist up to 10,000 men from St. Louis and vicinity. Henry and Philip were enrolled as Privates in Company F of this Fifth Regiment.
We cannot be certain when they arrived at the Arsenal. The official enlistment records carry an enlistment date of May 18, 1861 for both Philip and Henry. This was the date, however, that enlistment of the Regiment was completed, and Charles E. Solomon was elected as their Colonel. Henry and Philip would have been enlisted on an earlier date. In The Union Cause in St. Louis in 1861, the author states that the first five companies of the Fifth Regiment of Missouri Volunteers were mustered in by the 4th of 000, two more by the 10th, and two more by the 15th of May. If we assume that Company F was the sixth company mustered in, this statement suggests that Henry and Philip were probably mustered in between May 5 and May 10.
When our two young German forebearers stepped up to the enlisting officer that day in early May, Henry described himself as twenty-two years old, five foot four inches in height, with light complexion, brown hair, and blue eyes. When the 2nd Lieutenant asked Henry for his name, he replied that it was Henry Landwehr. Without asking Henry to spell his name, the enrollment officer recorded his name as Henry Lanvert, and that is the name under which Henry served.
Philip was next to enlist. He described himself as nineteen years old, five feet five inches in height, with fair complexion, brown hair, and blue eyes. Because Philip and Henry enlisted together, it is not surprising that Philip's name was recorded on his enlistment papers as John P. Lanvert, rather than Landwehr.
It would appear, then, that Henry and Philip Landwehr may have enlisted at the St. Louis Arsenal just prior to the meeting where Lyon received approval to march on Camp Jackson. Early in the morning of May 10, the morning after the meeting, Lyon summoned the regimental commanders of the Volunteer and Home Guard Infantry to the Arsenal, where he outlined his plan for the encirclement and capture of Camp Jackson.
While Lyon included most of his troops in the plan to capture Camp Jackson, he decided to leave a few troops to garrison the Arsenal. He would not underestimate the commander of the Missouri militia, General Daniel Frost. According to Hans Christian Adamson, in Rebellion in Missouri: 1861:
"In mounting his attack, Lyon had not failed to foresee the possibility that Frost might learn of the Union plans not only in time to move out of Camp Jackson but also to stage a surprise assault on the Arsenal. To forestall the success of such a turnabout, Lyon left his two remaining companies of U. S. Infantry Regulars in command of Captain Saxton on guard at the Arsenal, as well as the half-dozen companies of Colonel Charles E. Salomon's Fifth Regiment Volunteers which, so far, had been mustered in. The Second Battalions of the First and Second U. S. Reserves--under Majors Phillip Brimmer and Julius Rapp, respectively--blocked the streets to the Arsenal with orders to let no one pass. Sharpshooters among the regulars were placed on the roofs of nearby buildings."
If we are correct in assuming that Henry and Philip Landwehr enrolled in Salomon's Fifth Regiment of Volunteers prior to May 10, the above passage indicates that they would have been among those troops who were to remain at the Arsenal, as a rear guard, during the capture of Camp Jackson.
As soon as the Union troops began to gather at the various staging points, Southern supporters rushed the news to Brigadier General Frost. About noon, Lyon received a letter from Frost asking for confirmation of his information that Lyon was preparing to attack the Arsenal, and assuring Lyon that neither he, nor any other State forces, were planning any hostility toward the United States.
Lyon did not reply to Frost's olive branch. At the designated hour, Lyon's troops surrounded Camp Jackson, and demanded surrender. Frost had no choice but to comply. Lyon marched two companies of regulars into camp, disarmed the seven hundred militiamen, seized a number of cannon, twelve hundred muskets, twenty-five kegs of powder, and odds and ends of military equipment, and then prepared to take the prisoners down to the Arsenal where they could be paroled. Everything was going according to plan.
As Lyon prepared to march the prisoners back to the Arsenal, he was knocked down by the kicking and plunging of an unruly horse. He was not badly hurt, but he was stunned and out of action for a few minutes. The half-hour delay caused by Lyon's injury, plus an even longer delay incurred while the militia companies in Camp Jackson fell in and prepared to march to the Arsenal, gave a huge mob of spectators time to gather. It was a passionately secessionist crowd, which waved sticks, threw stones, and cursed the German Home Guards. Some waved revolvers and shotguns at Lyon and his officers. Finally, a drunk tried to force his way through the ranks, damning the Dutch, and was pushed back. As he staggered back, he drew a pistol, and shot a Home Guard officer, Captain Blandowski. Some of the Captain's men returned fire at the crowd.
The firing was quickly stopped, and the Union troops and their prisoners began marching toward the Arsenal. As they did so, the rioters continued to attack them with stones, bricks, and insults. Eventually, some of the crowd fired at the troops, and shots were returned. A chain reaction of shooting was touched off, and spread down the line. By the time the firing stopped a few moments later, twenty-eight civilians had been killed, and ten wounded. Two soldiers were killed, and several wounded.
The first part of the march back to the Arsenal following the riot was quiet, as it proceeded through a part of the city heavily inhabited by the pro-Southern element. Hans Christian Adamson described the scene after the troops reached the Union section of St. Louis, and neared the Arsenal:
"By the time the regiments turned toward the Arsenal on Carondelet Avenue, the sidewalks overflowed and the streets were thronged by cheering, shouting, and singing thousands of people. Houses were decorated with flags and bunting and on the roof of the small Anheuser Brewery, near the Arsenal, a German band was playing Vaterland marching songs. The weary foot soldiers straightened their backs, raised their heads, and put more swing into their strides. They sang, and singing, marched through the tunnel-like portal that led into the Arsenal."
If Henry and Philip Landwehr were among those troops who garrisoned the Arsenal during the capture of Camp Jackson, they surely heard the cheering and singing as the rest of their comrads returned from Camp Jackson.
Lyon had successfully disarmed the Missouri militia, had reclaimed the stolen government property, and had lifted the threat to the security of the Arsenal. Lyon and Blair would have been elated over their success, had the riot and its deadly aftermath not occured. Lyon issued a statement of explanation which lamented the killings, but defended his troops.
The Katie Wolff History states that Henry and Philip "were in two hard battles, one at Camp Jackson, and one at St. Gettysburg." It appears that some inaccuracy crept into Katie's history at this point, which is understandable, considering the years that had elapsed since she had heard the information from her grandmother and her father. The "battle of Camp Jackson" is undoubtedly a reference to the capture of Camp Jackson. The reference to St. Gettysburg is apparently a mistaken reference to the Battle of Wilson's Creek, a major Civil War battle that Henry and Philip would be involved in three months later. Katie Wolff's statement that Henry and Philip "were in" the "battle of Camp Jackson" provides further evidence that they reached the Arsenal prior to May 10, even though it appears unlikely that they left the Arsenal that day.
That night, the news that Camp Jackson had been taken spread rapidly through the nation by telegraph. As Northern newspapers printed every detail they could get about the action, they heralded Nathaniel Lyon as the hero of the hour. The grim atmosphere of Washington was considerably brightened by this unexpected stroke of success against the South. Lyon was applauded as the first leader of Union forces to take action against the South, which up to then had held the initiative.
As the news of the seizure of Camp Jackson flashed through every section of St. Louis, the downtown streets and those around the Arsenal literally boiled with swirling masses of Southern sympathizers. Within the Arsenal, extraordinary precautions were taken to protect against overt acts from within by captured militia men, or from without by hot-headed supporters of the Southern cause. Every sentry post along the walls had been doubled. Fully manned guns, ready for firing, faced the weaker portions of the Arsenal, as well as the buildings that housed the prisoners. Only a few days after leaving their homes in Franklin County, Henry and Philip Landwehr found themselves involved in a military action which was the focus of national attention.
News of the Camp Jackson "massacre" reached Governor Jackson in Jefferson City late in the afternoon. At first, Governor Jackson was shocked by the wholly unexpected turn of events. He had been looking forward to receiving news that the Arsenal had fallen, and that General Frost was in full control. But now, with Camp Jackson taken by force, with spectators killed and wounded, with the Missouri militia humiliated, Jackson knew that he could mold the lawmakers to his will.
Jackson immediately went to the Assembly, which was in special session to debate a controversial Military Bill which would make the Governor an absolute dictator. Fifteen minutes after Jackson had delivered the news in a fiery harangue, the Military Bill was passed by both Houses without debate. Jackson signed the measure on the spot.
When Harney got back to St. Louis a couple of days later, he tried to pick up the pieces. He ordered the German troops out of the city, and proposed to Frank Blair that they be disbanded (he apparently didn't realize that they had already been sworn into Federal service). He then tried to work out a truce with the state authorities.
The Commander of Missouri troops was now General Sterling Price, formerly governor of the state, and a Virginia-born Mexican War veteran. Price was a serious-minded man of vast personal popularity. He was raising state troops, apparently for eventual use against United States troops. He was also conferring with General Harney as commander of the United States troops. On May 21, they completed something similar to a cease-fire agreement. Both state and national forces would try to keep order and prevent bloodshed, the defense of the rights and property of all Missourians would be the concern of both sides, and anyone who tried to make trouble would be squelched. They hoped that this agreement would serve to keep the peace in Missouri.
But to Nathaniel Lyon, the keeping of the peace was the last thing that mattered. He felt the truce had been arranged with men who favored secession, and would strike for it the moment they saw a good chance. Captain Lyon received a commission as Brigadier General at this point, and Frank Blair received White House permission to remove General Harney if he saw fit. By the end of May, Harney had been transferred away from Missouri forever, and Lyon formally took his place.
When Lyon took charge of the Department of the West on June 1, his total strength had grown to 10,730 men, including Henry and Philip Landwehr of the Fifth Regiment Volunteers. At roll call that morning, the strength of the Fifth Regiment was 926 men. The nationality of its members was sixty-five percent German.
There was not enough space in the Arsenal to house all of the men in Lyon's expanding command. Some were housed at Jefferson Barracks, south of St. Louis, others in buildings near the Arsenal. As volunteers, Henry and Philip Landwehr were housed in one of the large structures within the Arsenal which had been turned into a barracks.
As Lyon worked to select his senior officers and organize his personal staff, Henry and Philip and the rest of his troops continue to drill. In Rebellion in Missouri: 1861, Adamson described drills:
"Four abreast, the men--sweating under the merciless June sun--would move forward in full field gear: a gun that weighed nine pounds; 40 rounds of ammunition and 50 percussion caps in their respective boxes--four pounds or more; belt, bayonet, and scabbard--two pounds; one day's rations and haversack--three and a half pounds. Blanket roll--three pounds. Add it all up and a soldier--besides the clothes he stood in and the fears and wonders that weighed on his mind--lugged a total of at least 22 1/2 pounds. Not for an hour or two. But all day, day after day. Drill! Drill! Drill!"
Camp life was never easy for the common soldier, even when they were far from combat.
Meanwhile, in Jefferson City, Governor Jackson and Sterling Price were soliciting support from the Confederate Army, in hopes that a Confederate invasion of Missouri could be engineered. It would be to their advantage to keep Lyon in St. Louis as long as possible. But Lyon and Blair called a meeting with Governor Jackson and General Price, to review the truce. At that meeting, held in St. Louis on June 11, the two Missouri officials offered to disband their troops and keep all Confederate armies out of the state if the Federals would disband their Home Guards--the Dutch blackguards, so offensive to southern sympathies--and if the Federals would promise not to occupy any part of Missouri that Federal troops did not already hold. In effect, they were offering at least a temporary neutrality as far as Missouri was concerned.
Lyon turned the offer down contemptuously. The Federal government, he announced, would move its troops where it pleased, asking permission of no one, and it would retain in its service any and all home-guard levies it wished to keep, blackguard Dutch or otherwise; and he personally would see every man, woman, and child in Missouri six feet under the ground before he would admit that this or any other state could impose any conditions at all upon the Federal government. He had, further, one final statement to make to Governor Jackson: "Governor, this means war!".