The Military Presence in Missouri

For many years, Jefferson Barracks served as the most important military post on the frontier. It was the country’s first Infantry School of Practice. Troops trained or stationed at Jefferson Barracks, which is located in south St. Louis, have taken part in most of America’s military campaigns. In fact one source estimates that 220 Civil War generals served at Jefferson Barracks, including Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, U.S. Grant, William T. Sherman, Philip Sheridan and many more.

Also at Jefferson Barracks, a group of volunteers is working to restore the Post Exchange and Gymnasium building. Erected in 1905, the building housed a barbershop, indoor pistol range and two-lane bowling alley among other amenities for commissioned officers. When the restoration of the building is complete, it will become the new home of the Missouri Civil War Museum. The museum planners hope to open their doors the public in 2008.
The only military action to take place in St. Louis during the war happened at Camp Jackson, now the site of St. Louis University, was the site of the only military action to take place in St. Louis during the war. The camp was actually the yearly drilling of the state’s militia; the “Camp Jackson” tag was added in honor of the state’s governor, Claiborne F. Jackson, who favored secession. Capt. Nathaniel Lyon, the commander of the U.S. arsenal, learned that a shipment of Confederate arms would be delivered to the militia during the drill. He marched U.S. troops and reserve troops on Camp Jackson and demanded surrender. After some correspondence between Capt. Lyon and the militia’s commander, the state troops complied, stacked arms and gave up peacefully. The militiamen were marched away between the ranks of the Union troops.

However, a crowd of citizens had gathered and began heckling and throwing objects. A drunk in the crowd reportedly opened fire and wounded an officer. Union troops fired randomly; a soldier bayoneted a man. After the killing of one soldier and the mortal wounding of an officer, troops began firing into the crowds. Casualties among the 28 dead or dying included men, women and children, including three prisoners from the camp and a baby in its mother’s arms.
Benton Barracks was another encampment for Union troops located north of St. Louis. Now the site of Fairgrounds Park at Grand and Natural Bridge Road, at that time the facility was located on the outskirts of St. Louis and could accommodate 30,000 soldiers.
Because Cape Girardeau sits on the first high ground north of the Ohio River, the onset of war increased the city’s importance as a military post. The general in charge of the Mississippi Valley, John C. Fremont, ordered that the city be fortified so that it could resist any assaults by land and water. This resulted in four forts, built in a semicircle across the front of the city. Many consider Cape Girardeau to have been one of the most fortified cities in the United States.

By war’s end, only one fort remained standing. The most heavily armed, Fort D held 24- and 32-pound cannons that could fire across the river at any Confederate gunboats trying to move north.
An American Legion Post purchased Fort D in 1936 and restored the site but did not adhere to the original configuration. The next year, the Post added a stone building in the center of the fort and dedicated it to the city. The site is now a city park.