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Welcome to the Missouri Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans'
Website. It is
our goal to present an historically accurate portrayal of the Southern patriotism
exhibited by Missourians during the War for Southern Independence. It would be
proper, first of all, to present a few facts of history that modern, politically correct,
"historians" conveniently leave out.
In late October 1861, the Missouri State legislature met in Neosho to determine their
relationship to the federal union. As a result, Missouri withdrew her membership in
this voluntary alliance of sovereign states, known as "the union", on October
31st 1861, and was accepted as the 12th state of the newly formed Confederate States of
America on November 5th of that year (see the Ordinance of Secession).
This watershed event was preceded by one of the darkest periods in American history.
It was during this time that the winds of change were moving our Constitutional
Republic, toward the creation of an Empire. Power was being taken from the
electorate, and given to a chosen few in the central government. It was a time when
the traditional values and constitutional
principles, that Missourians held near and dear, were in peril. And, it was a time
when the honorable men of the South, because of the outrages being perpetrated against
their citizens, felt that they had no recourse but to secede, and form their own separate
and independent nation.
On the 10th of May in 1861, one of the most flagrant violations of civil rights ever
perpetrated against the citizens of Missouri, occurred in St. Louis. On that date
more than 8,000 immigrant troops, under the guise of being "federal volunteers",
captured a small contingent of "Missouri Volunteer Militia". When a group
of outraged citizens protested this highly illegal action, the mercenaries fired volley
after volley into the crowd, killing 28 men, women, and children, and wounding 100 more.
Among those killed were a 14 year old girl, and a young mother with a child in her
arms. The result of this shocking, tyrannical outrage spurred the Missouri legislature
into action, and within hours, a military bill that had been pending for months was
passed, creating the "Missouri State Guard". The
"Guard" was created to defend Missouri from invaders from either section...North
or South.
The federal invaders were relentless in their pursuit of conquest, however, and in June
1861 expelled the legally elected State Government from Jefferson City. The newly
formed State Guard made a valiant but ineffective stand at Boonville, Missouri on June 17th 1861, and then executed a strategic
withdrawal toward the Southwestern portion of the state. On July 5th 1861, the
Missouri State Guard, commanded by Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson, faced a federal assault
at Carthage, Missouri, and defeated them soundly.
On the 10th of August the "Guard" met and defeated the Northern
invaders again at the Battle of Oak Hills (near Springfield,
Missouri), and on September 20th the "Missouri State Guard" captured the entire
federal garrison at Lexington, Missouri.
Victory after victory cheered the patriotic defenders of Missouri, until finally on
March 8th 1862, the
combined forces of Missourians and Confederate regulars under General Van Dorn were
defeated at Elk Horn Tavern, Arkansas. These brave Missourians then went on to blaze
a trail of heroism unparallel in the annals of military history. They fought in
every theater of the war, leading the charge, and defending the retreat across many
Southern battlefields. No
braver fighting men ever existed.