Alonzo William Slayback (July 4, 1838 – October 13, 1882) was an American Confederate military officer and a founder of the Veiled Prophet Parade and Ball in St. Louis, Missouri.
[1][7] During his military service with the Confederate Army in the American Civil War, he was gravely ill with typhoid fever but was nursed back to health by his wife.
[1] At war's end, he joined an expedition to Mexico to avoid surrender after defeat, led by Confederate General Joseph O. Shelby, and spent a year with him.
[1] Upon his flight to Mexico, he became ill in Mérida, but Mexican General Tomás O'Horán Escudero, prefect of the city under Maximilian, invited him to his home to convalesce.
[3]: 27 Soon after the war ended, Slayback was elected regent of a group of paroled Confederate soldiers to begin "an asylum for the orphans of Missouri rebel deceased.
Miller of The Kansas Chief newspaper described Slayback "as much a rebel as ever" who said in an August 1868 speech that only by electing a Democratic presidential ticket headed by Horatio Seymour could "God's chosen people, the noblest men who ever lived, the gallant sons of the South," gain what they had fought for.
[18] Governor Charles Henry Hardin appointed Slayback as Missouri's representative to a May 1875 centennial celebration of the signing of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence in Charlotte, North Carolina.
"[20] In August 1873, the Inland Monthly published Slayback's "The Next National Necessity", setting forth "that gentleman's views of the temper and action of the people of the North and South in their relations with each other.
[3] According to the Daily Missouri Republican, he later "admitted the inherent weakness of the secession idea and the perception of it by the confederate soldiers at an early stage of their struggle.
[3]: 285 [23]The Rolla (Missouri) Weekly Herald noted that the speech "seems to meet with almost universal approval, as expressive of a returning spirit of fraternity, by which alone is the genuine work of reconstruction to be accomplished.
"[24] The Cash-Book of Jackson, Missouri, however, said it spoke for "thousands of ex-Rebs, who utterly deny that Slayback represented the prevailing sentiment of the South at the time of the surrender" and that the speech was "silly twaddle.
"[25] Historian Thomas M. Spencer has credited Slayback with "all of the work" that the latter "had put into creating" the organization[26]: 56 responsible for the St. Louis Veiled Prophet celebrations, beginning in 1878.
He noted in his diary: Today I gave to the printer the descriptive manuscript whereby I have woven a classical story and brought into order and coherency the "Floats" for the Parade, or illuminated nocturnal pageant of the secret society known as the "Veiled Prophets."
"[28] On Friday, October 13, 1882, the editorial page of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch printed the following (quoted only in part):[29] Mr. Alonzo W. Slayback, an individual whose chief claim to distinction rests upon the fact that he is the law partner of Col. James O. Broadhead, rose in a meeting of Democratic ward politicians in this city last night and without personal provocation proceeded to apply a string of vile and virulent epithets to the Post-Dispatch and its conductors, making charges which he knew to be false.
[6][30][31] Five members of the six-man coroner's jury and all witnesses took the oath at the Slayback home in the presence of the body, as was "usual" in homicide cases, and then the inquest adjourned to the Criminal Court chambers.
[32] After testimony of Cockerill and other witnesses, the jurors adopted a verdict that Slayback had died "from the effects of internal hemorrhage, caused by a penetrating gunshot wound in the chest, inflicted with a bullet fired from a revolver in the hand of J.
The cortege "consisted of 142 carriages and about fifty buggies containing members of the family and friends, the Knights of St. Patrick, Legion of Honor, Bar Association, Southern Historical Society and Benevolent order of Elks[, which] proceeded directly to Bellefontain Cemetery.