Civilians Expelled from Northern Missouri

Ewing

After the massacre at Lawrence, Kansas on August 21th, it did not take the Federals long to respond. 150 years ago today General Thomas Ewing issued General Order No. 11, which said:

All persons living in Jackson, Cass, and Bates counties, Missouri ... are hereby ordered to remove from their present places of residence within fifteen days from the date hereof.

Those who within that time establish their loyalty to the satisfaction of the commanding officer of the military station near their present place of residence will receive from him a certificate stating the fact of their loyalty, and the names of the witnesses by whom it can be shown. All who receive such certificates will be permitted to remove to any military station in this district, or to any part of the State of Kansas, except the counties of the eastern border of the State. All others shall remove out of the district. Officers commanding companies and detachments serving in the counties named will see that this paragraph is promptly obeyed.

All grain and hay in the field or under shelter, in the district from which inhabitants are required to remove, within reach of military stations after the 9th day of September next, will be taken to such stations and turned over to the proper officers there …. All grain and hay found in such district after the 9th day of September next, not convenient to such stations, will be destroyed.

Bloody Bill Anderson, Confederate bushwacker

Ewing believed Buskwackers such as Quantrill were able to raid like they did because of the support of the local population. With this order he sought to strike at the root of the problem by forcing the population of Missouri into military stations or out of the area. He was also trying to stop the Union Jayhawkers, lead by Senator James Lane, who wanted to retaliate for Lawrence by destroying a pro-slavery town. But in doing so the Federal troops uprooted families, both southern and northern, destroying their property and leaving the area where they had once lived into “The Burnt District.” The order was also not effective in preventing Confederate guerillas. In fact it made supplies more readily available, as now there was no one to stop them from taking food from the abandoned farms of the settlers. The tragic situation in Kansas and Missouri resulted in great hardships for both sides. A pro-Union artist who was in the area at the time wrote:

It is well-known that men were shot down in the very act of obeying the order, and their wagons and effects seized by their murderers. Large trains of wagons, extending over the prairies for miles in length, and moving Kansasward, were freighted with every description of household furniture and wearing apparel belonging to the exiled inhabitants. Dense columns of smoke arising in every direction marked the conflagrations of dwellings, many of the evidences of which are yet to be seen in the remains of seared and blackened chimneys, standing as melancholy monuments of a ruthless military despotism which spared neither age, sex, character, nor condition. There was neither aid nor protection afforded to the banished inhabitants by the heartless authority which expelled them from their rightful possessions. They crowded by hundreds upon the banks of the Missouri River, and were indebted to the charity of benevolent steamboat conductors for transportation to places of safety where friendly aid could be extended to them without danger to those who ventured to contribute it.

The artist painted this scene of the Burnt District

Burnside Demands Fredericksburg's Surrenders

Burnside's Headquarters

When McClellan was removed from command he was replaced by Ambrose Burnside. Burnside had long been a commander in the Army of the Potomac, and although he was a friend of McClellan and did not want the command, he was eventually persuaded to take it. Rather than following McClellan's example of slow movement, Burnside instead would move very quickly. His plan was to move to Fredericksburg, cross the river, and get around Lee's flank. Burnside was successful in arriving at the river before Lee, but his plan went awry in a critical area – the pontoon bridges to actually cross the river did not arrive. He had to remain there waiting for weeks while Lee could slowly decide where he could place his troops. For a while he had to cover many crossings as he did not know where the Yankees would cross, but by the time Burnside actually did cross at Fredericksburg he would have all his troops in position. The failure of Burnside to insure his pontoons arrived on time, or to move on without them, cost him an easy crossing. He wrote:

Had the pontoon bridge arrived even on the 19th or 20th, the army could have crossed with trifling opposition. But now the opposite side of the river is occupied by a large rebel force under General Longstreet, with batteries ready to be placed in position to operate against the working parties building the bridge and the troops in crossing.

Outskirts of the town

On November 21st, 150 years ago today, Burnside demanded the surrender of the town. Fredericksburg was one of the oldest towns in Virginia, and George Washington had lived just across the river. A bombardment of the town would be a catastrophe, deadly to the non-combatants in the town. This crisis was avoided for the moment when the Yankees relented from their treat upon Lee's assurance that he would not occupy the town. However, the citizens knew the armies would come their way sooner or later, and so the exodus from the town began, long lines of women and children leaving the town, carrying with them what good they could. Lee wrote of their conduct:

History presents no instance of a people exhibiting a purer and more unselfish patriotism or a higher spirit of fortitude and courage than was evinced by the citizens of Fredericksburg. They cheerfully incurred great hardships and privations, and surrendered their homes and property to destruction rather than yield them into the hands of the enemies of their country.