Part 2: Cape Girardeau and prelude to Civil War

Union General Lyon responded to Governor Jackson's pro-secession actions by marching on Jefferson City and driving out the governor and pro-secession members of the State Convention on June 15. The Convention convened a second session, declared state offices vacant, and appointed provisional pro-Union officers. They called for a general election in November.

The stage was set for military action in Missouri, and Cape Girardeau saw early activity. Newspaper articles and an eyewitness account by Charles E. Stokes of one event survive. Stokes was a precocious youngster in 1861 and wrote his memories to the Cape Girardeau County Historical Society in the late 1920s. The account survives in the Oliver Law Firm Collection at the Cape Girardeau Research Center, State Historical Society of Missouri. Charles was the son of a pro-Southern local businessman, John H. Stokes.

On April 28, 1861, the Julius H. Smith, a small stern-wheel steamboat loaded with arms for the Confederate forces, passed the city headed south. As it neared Cairo, Illinois, the boat received a report that a private guard boat, the Swallow, was waiting to detain it. Not willing to chance a conflict or pursuit, the captain headed back upstream and landed at Cape Girardeau's city wharf.

No trees grew at that time on courthouse hill, and the east door served as a rallying point. Supporters of John Bell for President had raised a flagpole just north of the courthouse at the time of the November election.

A fife and drum corps rallied those within earshot once word spread of the steamboat's docking. Others placed a cannon about 2 or 2 1/2 feet long on the hill immediately facing the levee down Themis Street, in fear the Swallow might pursue. Stokes supposed that those active in the defense preparations thought that any pursuing boat attempting to land at the city wharf would do so at its peril. However, the crew unloaded the arms from the steamboat, placed them on wagons, and headed to safer territory at New Madrid. The local Confederate militia, the Marble City Guards, provided an escort.

Union commanders expected that Cape Girardeau would prove to be a point of entry for Confederate supplies, and this event supports that supposition. The great fears were that the city in Confederate hands would at least partially block traffic on the river and would block access inland, since quite a number of roads converged on Cape Girardeau from the south and west at that time. On July 10 the 20th Illinois Infantry Regiment arrived in Cape Girardeau, augmented local pro-Union militia, began layout and construction of the forts, and began the Union occupation of the city for the duration of the war.

Shortly after the steamboat docking, the Stokes family moved to Clarkton in Dunklin County. Stokes also recalled that the Marble City Guards, the local Cape Girardeau Confederate military company, marched through Clarkton. People for miles around assembled along the main street to watch them pass as they headed south to fight for the Confederacy.

Bill Eddleman, Ph.D. Oklahoma State University, is a native of Cape Girardeau County who has conducted genealogical research for over 25 years.