Washington, D.C., May 6 – An estimated 17,000 troops arrived here this past week to strengthen the capital garrison. Regiments from New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and as far away as Vermont have streamed into the city since Monday.
There is still a great lack of organization but the immediate threat to the capital has been removed. If nothing else, the presence of these three-month volunteers has eased the tension in the city. The fear of a Rebel army moving into the District of Columbia no longer sows on the face of every city resident.
But if all is going well in Washington, the Union was receiving some hard blows in other quarters this week. The governor of Missouri, Claiborne Jackson, in a letter to his state legislature denounced Lincoln in no uncertain terms. Jackson declared the President’s call for troops “an unconstitutional and illegal act.” He said Missouri’s interests were identical with those of the other slave holding states, and that at the “proper time” it was the state’s duty to follow the secessionists’ example.
This is a stinging political defeat for the Federal government whose leaders have hoped to keep Missouri neutral in this sectional fight. The words of the Missouri governor have torn to shreds the famous David Wilmot paper, the Missouri Compromise.
Although it had been expected hourly, the wire to the White House yesterday from Nashville, Tenn., another hard body-blow to the Lincoln government. The Tennessee legislature has passed an ordinance of secession and is now allied with the Confederacy. A White House spokesman said the wire was “particular cutting” to the President. It referred to the ordinance as a “Declaration of Independence.”
Troops Fire on Mob in St. Louis
St. Louis, MO May 19 – It has been a tragic week in the great river city. Months of bitterness burst into a bloody riot last Friday evening that took the lives of 28 persons.
Union troops under the command of Capt. Nathaniel Lyon fired into a mob of Rebel sympathizers when the latter stoned the marching column. The soldiers, mostly recruits from the German section of St. Louis drew the mob’s wrath when they marched on Confederate Camp Jackson west of town earlier in the day. Lyon surprised Gen. D. M. Frost and his rebel troops, about 800 in number, when he surrounded the camp about non and demanded their surrender.
Frost reluctantly ordered his men to lay down their arms. it was during the return to the city with their prisoners that the marchers were stoned, and fights broke out with the rioters. As the mob broke through the ranks of the column with clubs and stones scattered shots were fired. Then one platoon poured a volley into the attackers and the riot was broken.
Blood stains of the dead and wounded can still be seen today, a week later, on St. Louis’ cobblestones. “A grim reminder of the terrible conflict that is ahead” said one bystander, a Mr. Ulysses S. Grant, who witnessed the bloody riot.
Student Faces Teacher
Cincinnati, Ohio, May 19 – Gen. George B. McClellan has been given command of the Federal force moving into western Virginia to hold these pro-union counties from the Confederates. Reports from Richmond indicate that the young McClellan will be met by troops under his old commander, Gen. Robert E. Lee.
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