Missouri secession
At his inauguration, during the so called Secession Winter Jackson had requested the authorization of a state constitutional convention to consider the relationship between Missouri and the Federal government.
In February, Jackson unsuccessfully argued for Missouri's secession before the State Constitutional Convention convened to debate the issue under the leadership of former governor Sterling Price.
Most of Missouri, like Price, held "conditional Unionist" beliefs at this point, meaning they neither favored secession nor supported the United States warring against the Confederacy.
[citation needed] In early February, United States Army Captain Nathaniel Lyon, was transferred to Missouri and stationed at the St. Louis Arsenal.
Both men were considered moderates on the issues of slavery and sectional conflict by pro-slavery and southern sympathizer President James Buchanan's administration.
The St. Louis Arsenal, containing one of the largest caches of military supplies in the West, was of great strategic importance to any coming conflict in the state.
While Missouri voted not to secede, many in the state were pro-secession and Lyon feared that the Arsenal was too poorly defended to resist an attempt to take it if one was made.
Seeking to increase the number of Union troops who could be called on to defend the Arsenal, in early March of 1861 Lyon began to train and help arm a Pro-Union militia in secret.
After Lincoln called for Union troops in preparation for the Civil War, Lyon recognized an opportunity to strengthen the Arsenal garrison by mustering the pro-Union militia into the Federal army.
Blair promptly did so and, as the Battle of Fort Sumter began almost simultaneously, orders where sent to Harney to organize Federal militia in Missouri.
At the same time, Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson began conspiring with the newly declared Confederacy to have arms and artillery given to pro-Confederate forces in the Missouri State Militia.
This event, known as the Camp Jackson affair sparked a pro-secession riot when the State Militia were marched through town to be held in the Arsenal.
The violence that ensued allowed Governor Jackson to force through a bill that gave him near dictatorial powers, and ordered a new Missouri State Guard under command of Sterling Price.
On May 16, responding to requests from the mayor of St. Louis to have Lyon relieved of his post in Missouri, Attorney General Edward Bates presented two representatives of the city to President Lincoln.
Facing reassignment, Harney pleaded with the Lincoln administration to continue cooperation in good faith with Price and protested the acts of unnamed persons—a likely reference to Blair and Lyon—"who clamored for blood have not ceased to impugn my motives."
"[1]Jackson, Price, and their staff promptly returned to Jefferson City and prepared to face Lyon with the Missouri State Guard long enough for Confederate forces to reach them.
The State government and legislature, fearing for its safety, began an exodus to nearby Boonville, Missouri, which was deemed more defensible from a military perspective.
[2] Knott, the elected Attorney General, was still in Jefferson City but soon found himself under arrest and then deposed for refusing to take an oath to the second state government.
A series of skirmishes and battles between the Missouri State Guard and Union troops dominated the summer as Jackson's government fled to the southwest.
On October 28, the legislature took up a bill for Missouri's secession from the Union, citing various "outrages" committed against the state and the overthrow of its government by Lyon.
The Charleston Mercury of November 25, 1861, reported the session as follows: The meeting of the Missouri State Legislature, which passed the ordinance of secession at Neosho on the 2d inst.
It was dispatched to Richmond by a special messenger to the President, leaving Memphis yesterday morning en route.One of the earliest historical accounts of Missouri's role in the Civil War written by former Confederate Col. John C. Moore, who also states that a quorum was present at the session: In every particular it complied with the forms of law.
