within her borders. What interest could Missouri, then, have with the cotton States, or a confederacy founded on slavery and its extension? The protection of her slave property, if nothing else, admonishes her to never give up the Union. Other interests of vast magnitude can only be preserved by a steadfast adherence and support of the United States Government. All hope of a Pacific Railroad, so deeply interesting to St. Louis and the whole State, must vanish with the Federal Government. Great manufacturing and commercial interests with which the cotton States can have no sympathy, must perish in case of secession, and from her present proud condition of a powerful, thriving State, rapidly developing every element of wealth and social prosperity, Missouri would dwindle to a mere appendage and convenience for the military aristocracy established in the cotton States." Immediately on his return to his post at St. Louis, General Harney strove with unquestioned sincerity, but uncerMay tain vigor, to allay the civil strife 12. in Missouri. In his first proclamation he assumed a highly conciliatory tone: "I most anxiously desire," he proclaimed, "to discharge the delicate and onerous duties devolved upon me so as to preserve the public peace. I shall carefully abstain from the exercise of any unnecessary powers, and from all interference with the proper functions of the public officers of the State and city. I therefore call upon the public authorities and the people to aid me in preserving the public peace. "The military force stationed in this department by the authority of the Government, and now under my command, will only be used in the last resort to preserve peace. I trust I may be spared the necessity of resorting to martial law, but the public peace must be preserved, and the lives and property of the people protected. Upon a careful review of my instructions, I find I have no authority to change the location of the Home Guards. "To avoid all cases of irritation and excitement, if called upon to aid the local authorities in preserving the public peace, I shall, in preference, make use of the regular army." In the mean time, the Legislature, still in session at Jefferson City, passed a "military bill," the object of which was apparently to resist the Federal authority. The Governor was authorized to call out the militia, and a large sum was appropriated to arm and equip them. At the same time extraordinary powers were given to the Governor, by which he might control the State troops to his own purposes, which no one could doubt were in accordance with the interests of secession. No sooner had the "military bill" passed, than the Governor began to avail himself of the privileges it conferred, by mustering a military force, and ordering the telegraph and railroad bridges which communicated with St. Louis to be destroyed, in order to prevent the loyal troops of that city from marching to the rescue of the HARNEY ATTEMPTS CONCILIATION. 253 State from the grasp of its secession persed from the arsenal at Liberty, and conspirators. General Harney now issued a second May proclamation, to the gentle plead17. ings of which in behalf of loyalty he added a not very undecided declaration of the rebellious character of the "military bill." "It is with regret," he said, "that I feel it my duty to call your attention to the recent act of the General Assembly of Missouri, known as the military bill,' which is the result, no doubt, of the temporary excitement that now pervades the public mind. This bill cannot be regarded in any other light than an indirect secession ordinance, ignoring even the forms resorted to by other States. Manifestly its most material provisions are in conflict with the Constitution and laws of the United States. To this extent it is a nullity, and cannot and ought not to be upheld or regarded by the good citizens of Missouri. There are obligations and duties resting upon the people of Missouri under the Constitution and laws of the United States which are paramount, and which I trust you will carefully consider and weigh well before you will allow yourselves to be carried out of the Union, under the form of yielding obedience to this 'military bill,' which is clearly in violation of your duties as citizens of the United States." soon after the Federal arms met with other success. Some Union men having been driven from Potosi, in Washington County, Captain Lyon sent a small force, consisting of a hundred and fifty volunteers under the command of May Captain Coles, to their relief. Ar- 13. riving at Potosi before daylight, Cap-. tain Coles posted a chain of sentinels around the town, and stationed guards at the houses of the prominent secessionists. As the day broke, some hundred and fifty men found themselves thus imprisoned without hope of escape. Most of them were released on giving their parole and taking the oath not to take up arms against the United States, while the prominent leaders were held captive. Various munitions of war and other supplies intended for the secessionists were at the same time seized. On their way back from Potosi, the Union troops put to flight at De Soto a company of secession cavalry, captured a score or more of their horses, and their flag, secreted within the hoops of a lady of the place. The service of the surgeon of the United States volunteers was very appropriately put into requisition on the occasion. On entering, "the doctor thought he observed the lady of the house sitting in rather an uneasy position, and he very politely asked her to rise. At first the lady hesitated, but finding the doctor's persuasive suavity more than she could withstand, she slow To this proclamation succeeded an energetic movement toward repressing the secession demonstrations in variously rose, when the bright folds of the rebel parts of the State of Missouri. Two ensign appeared around the lady's feet. hundred armed secessionists were dis- The doctor, bowing a graceful 'beg par don, madam,' stooped, and quietly catching hold of the gaudy color, found in his possession a secession flag thirty feet long and nine feet wide." Having apparently checked the rising spirit of rebellion by judicious military movements, General Harney sought, by a quasi league with the leader of the so-called State troops, to establish a permanent truce with the seditiously disposed citizens of Missouri. He accordingly held a personal interview with Sterling Price, appointed by the Governor a major-general of the Missouri militia, and who, like him, was doubtless in league with the Southern leaders of rebellion. General Harney, persuaded by the artful plausibilities of the shrewd May Price, was cajoled into an agree21. ment, by which he pledged the Federal authority to withhold its power, and to leave the seditious Governor and his confederates to pursue their own designs, under the pretext of preserving order in the State. In a joint declaration, signed by General Harney and the major-general of the so-styled State Guard, it was announced that "General Price, having by commission full authority over the militia of the State of Missouri, undertakes, with the sanction of the Governor of the State already St. Louis Democrat, May 17. declared, to direct the whole power of the State officers to maintain order within. the State among the people thereof; and General Harney publicly declares that this object being thus assured, he can have no occasion, as he has no wish, to make military movements which might otherwise create excitements and jealousies which he most earnestly desires to avoid.” Although the immediate effect of this compact was to tranquilize the public sentiment of Missouri, it soon became evident that the Governor and his confederates had been using General Harney to further their own seditious purposes. They continued to muster their military forces, and were evidently bent upon hostility to the Union men of the State. The Government at Washington becoming conscious of the impolitic action of General Harney, withdrew him from the Western Department. Lyon, who May had been lately promoted to the 17. rank of brigadier-general of volunteers, succeeded to the command of the Federal forces in Missouri. This energetic officer at once proceeded to assert the authority of the Union by the most decisive action. decisive action. We shall soon have occasion to say more of him and his spirited achievements. LOYALTY OF THE WEST. 255 CHAPTER XXII. Spirit of Loyalty of the Free States of the West.-Attachment to the Union.-Interests in the Struggle.-The danger of being cut off from the Mississippi.—The Position of Illinois.-Her interest in the preservation of Communication.— Spirited Action. Military Possession of Cairo.-Situation of Cairo.-The Key to the Northwest.-The motive for founding the City. - Marshy Site.-Artificial Dykes.-Great Size and enormous Expense.-Illinois Central Railroad. -Population of Cairo.-Its Docks.-A Reservoir of Water.-Artificial Remedies.-Future Prospects.-Neighborhood of Cairo described.-Cairo as a Military Post.-Bird's Point.-Its Position.-Description of the place.-Its Importance.-Danger of its Seizure.-Secured to the United States by General Lyon.-Communications with Cairo. -Columbus.-Paducah. -Military Possession of Cairo a blow to the Enemy.-Their Opinion. -Increased Military Energy of the United States.-Move across the Potomac.-The vote on Secession in Virginia.-Scruples of Government. The crossing of the Potomac.-Arlington Heights occupied.--Entrenchments.-Opposition anticipated at Alexandria.-The animosity of the City.-Secession Flags.-Expedition against Alexandria.-The plan. -Movement of the Michigan Regiment.-Embarkation of the New York Fire Zouaves.-The Steamer Pawnee.-Indiscrect haste of the Zouaves.-Landing at Alexandria.-Death of Colonel Ellsworth.-The Michigan Regiment disappointed. — Escape of Virginia Troops.-Capture of thirty seven Horsemen.-Occupation of Alexandria.—Sacrifice of a promising life.—Biography of Ellsworth.-Early Career.-Military Tastes.-His Company of Chicago Zouaves. -How shown and admired.-Application for a clerkship in the War Department.-Disappointment.-Made a Lieutenant in the Army.-Resignation.-Recruits the Fire Zouaves at New York, and becomes their Colonel.-Grief at his death. A touching Letter. 1861. THE free States of the West, actuated by a sentiment of loyalty which inspirited them to vindicate the honor and preserve the integrity of a integrity of a Union to which they were fondly attached, exhibited the greatest alertness in coming to the rescue of the Federal Government. Finding, moreover, their interests deeply involved in a struggle, which, with the secession of Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, and the unsettled condition of Missouri and Kentucky, threatened, by obstructing the navigation of the Mississippi River, to cut off that great channel of communication between the Northern lakes and the Gulf of Mexico, they felt, with all the impressiveness of a motive of selfpreservation, the necessity of resisting the rebellion. Illinois, from her geographical position, had been the chief State to profit from that bountiful provision of nature which united Lake Michigan and the Gulf of Mexico, and brought the northern city of Chicago into close relationship with tropical New Orleans. This State, accordingly, alive to the importance of securing a communication which had proved so great a source of inspiration to her enterprise and of the wealth that had crowned its efforts, eagerly strove to further the endeavors of the Federal Government to prevent the disruption of the Union. Her troops responded readily to the call of the Governor, and were soon enabled to hold in force the most important strategic point of the West. This was the city of Cairo, within her own borders. Cairo is situated at the extreme south of Illinois, in Alexandria County, on the delta at the confluence of the Ohio with the Mississippi. On the east the former separates it from Kentucky, and on the west the latter separates it from Missouri. Cairo thus, by its position, commands the navigation of both rivers and the shores of the two neighboring States at this point. It is, as it were, the key to that extensive and important territory familiarly known as the Great Northwest, watered by the upper Mississippi, the Ohio, the Missouri, and their tributary streams. The city was founded with the expectation, from the natural advantages of geographical position, of its becoming a great trading emporium. Immense sums were expended in rendering it habitable. Naturally a swamp, the land was covered with water for the greater part of the year. Large dykes or levees were raised for two miles and a half along the borders of the Mississippi and Ohio, and joined by a transverse embankment, as to close in the site and shut out the constant overflow of those rivers. Several attempts had been made in vain to protect the town from inundation, until finally the present works were constructed at an enormous expense. These now consist of vast dykes, from ten to thirty feet in height, with a breadth, at the top, from twenty to fifty feet, and at the bottom, from eighty to a hundred feet. Much of the structure was built at the expense of the Illinois Central Railroad Company, to which a great portion of the land belonged, and here its extreme southern dépot and works have been established. The inhabitants, amounting to about four thousand, have settled chiefly in the quarter bordered by the Ohio, where they have filled in the marshy site of the town almost to the height of the embankment, which protects it from the tide-waters of the river. The loading and unloading of freight is performed by means of large floating docks or wharfboats, so contrived and moored that they can be adapted to the rise and fall of the tide, and thus always present an even communication with the embanked shore. After a heavy fall of rain, the enclosure within the levees or dykes, which forms a large artificial basin, collects the water. This, however, has been partially remedied by digging a deep canal through the centre of the town to receive the rain-fall. With this are connected drains which open through the dykes into the rivers. When their waters, however, are high, the heavy rains cannot be thus disposed of, and recourse is had to a steam-pump. The only effectual mode which has as yet been. proposed of rendering this admirably situated city entirely free from the danger of inundation, is to fill up the whole basin with earth brought from the hills in the interior. This will undoubtedly be accomplished in the course of a brief time, whenever enterprise shall resume its peaceful progress. The neighborhood of Cairo is thus described by a local observer : "The nearest high land in any di |