By Pauline Masson –
In 1860 there were 1,572 slaves in Franklin County, according to Herman Gottlieb Kiel. In his 1925 Centennial Biographical Directory of Franklin County, Mr. Kiel named every Franklin County slave owner counted in the 1860 census and listed the number of slaves each owned.
Since 1820 the Missouri Compromise, that allowed Missouri to be admitted to the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state, slavery had been legal in Missouri
With many citizens openly opposing slavery, Missouri grew as a frontier state where slave holders and anti-slavery citizens dwelt in close proximity.
Our immediate area was no different. Residents north of the Meramec River were largely anti-slavery and wanted the Union to remain in tact. Missouri Home Guard then Union Troops were stationed in Pacific City throughout the War.
The State of Missouri was caught in the middle, as they say, with Northern loyalists and Southern sympathizers each struggling to hold onto their dream of eventual vindication. Our area of Eastern Franklin County was a microcosm of that wary coexistence.
Missouri saw more than 1,200 distinct engagements during the War. Nearly 110,000 Missourians had served in the Union Army and at least 40,000 in the Confederate Army.
The City of Pacific was the site of three known Union Army camps, Camp Heron on East Osage, a temporary enlistment camp adjacent to present day Resurrection Hill Cemetery and a lengthy encampment at the conjunction of Brush Creek and the railroad at present day Creamer’s vegetable garden, as well as an Army headquarters and a military hospital.
In the area south of the Meramec citizens were largely pro-slavery and in favor of the Confederacy. Many Catawissa residents joined the Confederate Army and found themselves fighting battles against former neighbors in Shiloh, Tennessee, and, Iuka Mississippi.
Some 150 years later, descendants of Union and Confederate soldiers took to the Pacific High School auditorium stage and one by one recounted the stories carried down in their families of the conflict. The program, produced by the Meramec Valley Genealogical Society, was recorded and is available on CD at the Pacific History Museum in the Red Cedar Inn building.
A romantic story – that has been retold and believed – about this accepted yet acquiescent rivalry has become part of local lore.
While guarding the railroad bridge over the Meramec River, some Union soldiers with time on their hands were hired to work on Catawissa farms. Later in the war, two of those Union soldiers were captured by Confederate troops and sentenced to death. When the Confederate soldier assigned as executioner walked them into the woods to be shot, he asked the prisoners if they wanted him to contact their parents. One soldier took a small gold token from his pocket and asked that it be sent to his parents. “Where did you get this?” the executioner asked. “At a Lynch family wedding at St. Patrick’s church in Catawissa, Missouri,” the condemed boy answered. “I was at that wedding,” the executioner said. He fired shots in the air and allowed the two soldiers to escape to tell the story.
Two distinct acts added to this confusion and conflict faced by citizens of the frontier state of Missouri.
In August 1861, General John C. Fremont, commander of the Union Army of the West, ordered Martial law in Missouri, that establishd the military, not civilian courts, as the power to administer justice.
Two years into the War, in January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed the first Emanciapation Proclamations that freed slaves in states that were in open rebellion. But he did not free the slaves in border states like Missouri. The slaves of Missouri continued to be slaves.
Once southern slaves were freed Misouri slaves were emboldened in a veritable stampede to escape and make their way to Arkansas, where they were free.
Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania launched a House Divided program to track down every record of a runaway slave or slaves, including whether or not the escape was successful..
In the Spring of 1862 an unnamed slave listed in the Dickinson College online database, escaped on horseback from the W. B. Perkins farm in Boles Township. Mr. Perkins advertised a $100 reward for his return. Union Army troops stationed at Pacific were ordered to capture the runaway and return him to his owner.
Colonel William P. Robinson, commander of the 23rd Missouri Regiment Company D, saw it differently. He had been sent to Pacific to guard the railroad and bridges not hunt down runaway slaves.
Colonel Robinson refused to retrieve the runaway slave. He was charged with disobeyng a military order and ordered to stand at a military court martial in the Union Army headquarters in the Ehreiser Building south of the railroad tracks.
We do not have a written record of the trial, but correspondence of one of his troops survived.
Pfc. John T. Hayes in his regiment wrote home from Pacific that the Colonel Robinson was served breakfast during the trial and was comfortable. In the letter Pfc. Hayes promised to send his family more details when the trial was over.
The House Divided project listed the outcome of Mr. Perkins runaway slave’s escape as “unknown.”
We do know that Colonel Robinson prevailed in the trial, not by found records, but because he was still commander of the Missouri 23rd in September 1864 when the regiment fought in Kentucky and Mississippi, and when the 23rd Missouri Infantry was mustered out July 18, 1865 following the Battle of Atlanta after completing three-year enlistments.
Colonel Robinson was not unique in his response to runaway slaves. The Dickinson College House Divided projet reported 300 slave escapes in Missouri during the War, 20 in Franklin County. Many involved intervention by the Union army.
When the family of Archer Alexander escaped from Naylor’s Station in St. Charles in 1863, they made their way to a Union Army post where they were protected and eventually freed. In an even more dramatic listing, 30 enslaved men who escaped in Ray County, Missouri, made their way to the U.S. Recruiting Office and enlisted in the U.S. Colored Troops.
Colonel Robinson’s reaction to runaway slaves could be foretold by his background. He was a son of Kentucky, a southern border state that, like Missouri, was rife with supporters of both the Union and the Confedercy. And, like Missouri, had both Union and Confederate troops active within its borders throughout the war. But, the colonel was always loyal to the U.S.
Born in Nicholas County, Kentuky, he enlisted for the Mexican War in1847, where he served as a sergeant in Co. E, 3rd Kentucky Volunteer Infantry. He fought in General Winfield Scott’s Mexico City campaign. He was 35 when he was mustered and elected captain of Co. D Missouri 23rd on September 22, 1861. On June 7, 1862, he was appointed colonel and commanding officer of the regiment.
Following the War, Colonel Robinson lived out his life as a man of Civil War fame. He was a member of the GAR, and was the first Commander of the Lieutenant T. D. Neal Post No. 124, at Bethany Missouri. He was a Master Mason, member of the IOOF and a Knight’s Templar being a charter member of Bethany Commandery No. 42. A twice-married, father of ten children, Colonel Robinson retired Bethany, Missouri. He died in 1904 at the age of 78 and is buried in Miriam Cemetery in Bethany, Missouri.
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General Fremont, having accepted command of the Department of the West at St. Louis in August 1861, placed the area under martial law, and immediately freed all slaves being held Confederate sympathizers in the state. Lincoln countermanded the order, saying Fremont could only free slaves held by Union owners or who were themselves engaged in Pro-Union activities. Fremont refused to do so, and was immediately relieved of Union command. Fremont was married to Jessie Benton, daughter of early 30 year Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton the great uncle of the 20th century Missouri artist.