Marching In The Seminole Wars

 Marching from Jefferson Barracks, Missouri; near Shawneetown, Illinois; Kentucky, Tennessee; Georgia and Florida:

Source

From Island Ten

New Madrid, Missouri

Rebel lit

"braive Suthren frend,

from iland 10,..."

Three Murderers Discharged

Fort Massac In Illinois

Proofs of the Corruption of Gen. James Wilkinson..., By Daniel Clark:

"The other three [murderers of General James Wilkinson's messenger, Mr. Owens]...".

Early Saint Louis

Source

"At the time that a settlement was made upon the site of St. Louis, nearly the whole of the great Mississippi Valley was a wild, with the exception of the immediate neighborhoods of New Orleans, Natchez, Fort do Chartres, St. Genevieve, Kaskaskia, Cahokia and a few more military posts."

"In the year 1788...Manuel Perez became commandant-general of the post of St. Louis, of the west Illinois country. It was during this time that the friendly relations, subsisting since the Revolution, between the east and west sides of the Mississippi were materially interrupted, by the Spanish government laying claim to the exclusive right of the navigation of the river."

Where Lyon Fell

Marker Where General Lyon Fell - Battle Of Wilson's Creek

Source

General Nathaniel Lyon died August 10, 1861.

Also see: War Correspondent Junius Henri Brown

George Rogers Clark Contacted Spanish Officials

Portrait - Fort Massac, Illinois, Museum

"Because of the vulnerability of the westernmost part of the United States, George Rogers Clark had also contacted Spanish officials, offering to bring settlers into Spanish territory in return for land."

Sign In New Madrid, Missouri

"Gradually Kentuckians began to cross into Spanish Missouri, quite unaware of the dark and devious schemes that had helped to clear the way."

Daniel Boone's Grave In Frankfort, Kentucky
"...emigrated to Missouri 1799..."

"The confluence of events, including land title disputes...the lure of Missouri (not only [General James] Wilkinson's "whisper" campaign, but the personal attention that the Spanish gave to persuading the Boone family to move there for the prestige of having an American icon in their midst) and the "push" of New Englanders and others crowding Kentucky spaces found members of Daniel Boone's family, including Daniel himself, moving to Missouri." (From Daniel Boone by John Bakeless, 1939).

Old Kentucky

Source

"All of Kentucky history is not confined within the geographical limits of the State In a large measure, Missouri character in the early days was but an outgrowth of Kentucky character, for Missouri is a part of Kentucky as Kentucky is a part of Virginia. The three States stand in the relation of mother daughter and granddaughter."

Young Clemens Returned To Hannibal

Souce

"Young Clemens [Mark Twain] at the age of twenty-four years, returned to Hannibal, and enlisted as a three months' volunteer in the Confederate army under General Price."

Source

Lewis And Clark's Early Course With A Map

William Clark - From The St. Louis Arch Museum

Original journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804-1806: Journals and ...,  By Meriwether Lewis, William Clark:

Long's Expedition Stopped At Fort Osage

Photo Taken At Fort Osage

James's Account of S. H. Long's expedition, 1819-1820, Volume 17,  By Stephen Harriman Long, Thomas Say:

On the voyage up the Missouri, a party was detached from the steam-boat at Fort Osage, with instructions to proceed across the country by land, to the Konzas village, and thence to the villages of the Pawnees, on the river Platte, and to return on board again at the Council Bluffs.

Biography Of Mark Twain

Mark Twain:

A letter from the Preface:

Hartford, Jan. 16, 1881

"My Dear Boy:

How can I advise another man wisely, out of such a capital as a life filled with mistakes? Advise him how to avoid the like? No for opportunities to make the same mistakes do not happen to any two men. Your own experiences may possibly teach you, but another man's can't. I do not know anything
for a person to do but just peg along, doing the things that offer, and regretting them the next day. It is my way and everybody's.

Truly yours,

S. L. Clemens."

Pike's Expedition In The Newly Acquired Territory

From The Expeditions of Zebulon Montgomery Pike, Volume I (of 3) To Headwaters of the Mississippi River Through Louisiana Territory, and in New Spain, During the Years 1805-6-7:

"Pike's expeditions were the first military and the second governmental explorations which were pushed to any considerable extent in our then newly acquired territory of Louisiana. The name and fame of the brilliant young soldier who impersonated the authority of the United States over all the ground between British and Spanish possessions are thus inseparably linked with those of Lewis and Clark in the beginning of our history of the Great West... ."

Jim's Photo Of A Map Entitled, "The French In The Upper Mississippi Valley"

"In July, 1805, Pike was ordered by General Wilkinson to explore and report upon the Mississippi river from St. Louis to its source, select sites for military posts, treat with the Indians, make peace if possible between the Sioux and Ojibways, and find out what he could about the British traders who still occupied posts in our newly acquired territory."

Guerilla Warfare In Missouri

Jim's Photo (Ozark County, MO, General Vicinity)

From The Blue and The Gray:


Guerrilla Warfare in Missouri: This account of guerrilla warfare comes from Colonel [William] Monks and describes conditions in Ozark County, on the Arkansas border, in 1862.

The Ozarks History blog also mentioned Colonel Monks.

More information here from the Ozarks Civil War website about guerrilla warfare in the area.

Journey From Independence

The beginning of an adventure found in a biographical sketch of the life of William B. Ide (also online here):

Cahaba POWS Perished On The Sultana

Cahaba was a Prisoner of War camp where Union prisoners were held.  After being released, the POWs were heading home to the States of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Tennessee, Kentucky, and West Virginia.  They boarded the Sultana to take them home; there were survivors, but many died when the Sultana exploded in the Mississippi River.

River at Cahaba, Alabama  

Cahaba Prison (Castle Morgan)

...the steamer "Sultana"...over 1,700 passengers [perished], mostly exchanged prisoners of war... . ...[there was] a terrific explosion (when the boiler burst)... .

Source (Sultana)

She [the Sultana] was a regular St. Louis and New Orleans packet, and left the latter port on her fatal trip April 21, 1865, arriving at Vicksburg, Miss., with about two hundred passengers and crew on board.

  ...on board [were] 1,965 federal soldiers and 35 officers just released from the rebel prisons at Cahaba, Ala., Macon and Andersonville, Ga.... . Besides these there were two companies of infantry under arms, making a grand total of 2,300 souls on board, besides a number of mules and horses, and over one hundred hogsheads of sugar, the latter being in the hold of the boat and serving as ballast. [Source]

Clotel Was Authored By A Former Slave

Clotel; or, The president's daughter, A Narrative Of Slave Life, by William Wells Brown, published in London in 1853, was written to "...aid in bringing British influence to bear upon American slavery...".

The first several pages contain an account of the author's life:

William Wells Brown, the subject of this narrative, was born a slave in Lexington, Kentucky, not far from the residence of the late Hon Henry Clay.  His mother was a slave of Dr. John Young and his father was a slaveholder.  After the doctor moved to Missouri his slaves were under the control of an overseer named Cook.  When William was 12, the doctor moved to St. Louis; William was sent to work for an innkeeper named Freeland.  After running away, he was captured and returned to the "monster" Freeland.  William was later lent to Elijah P. Lovejoy, an editor of an abolition newspaper who was later murdered at Alton, Illinois, by a gang of slaveholders from Missouri.

William W. Brown then worked on a steamer until he was hired by slave trader James Walker.  "Here subject of our memoir was made superintendent the gangs of slaves that were taken to the Orleans market. In this capacity William had opportunities far greater than most slaves of knowledge of the different phases of the institution."

Eventually William was sold to Captain Enoch Price, owner of the steamboat St. Louis.  He managed to escape again and was helped by a Quaker named Wells Brown; that's how William became William Wells Brown.  William Wells Brown continued on his way to Canada.

William Wells Brown then went to Monroe, Michigan, where he opened a barber shop.  After a few more twists and turns in his life, he became a lecturer.  His wife died in Buffalo, New York, in 1851.

Mr. Brown remarried in 1860; there's a reference to his wife, Anna Elizabeth (Gray) Brown "who later published Brown's work under the imprint A.G. Brown."

A summary of Clotel can be found here.

Stoddard's Triple Play In Louisiana

The Final Challenge, The American Frontier, 1804-1845, by Dale Van Every, reminded us of an historic event that took place in St. Louis, the provincial capital of Upper Louisiana, in March 1804:

"Seldom in the history of international relations has possession of so vast and valuable a territory passed in a single transaction, and certainly never has so great a prize been transferred among three nations in the span of 24 hours."  

"The commissioner of France who accepted title for France on the first day was Captain Amos Stoddard of the Army of the United States.  On the second day French Commissioner Amos Stoddard handed the reins of government to American Governor Amos Stoddard."

The Library of Congress's Thomas Jefferson online exhibit has a couple of items relating to this event.

The Mormons Move To Nauvoo

The Temple In Nauvoo

In April ,1840, large numbers of a religious body known as Latter Day Saints or Mormons, removed from Missouri to Illinois. They had purchased a considerable tract of land located on the east bank of the Mississippi in Hancock County.  ...This land, having been sold to Mormon agents, preparations were immediately made to build here a great city of their faith which was named Nauvoo, signifying either peaceful or pleasant.  [ Historic Illinois]

Keokuk, Iowa, St. Louis, Missouri, And Mark Twain

From the Mark Twain Project:

The entry is a reference to Keokuk, Iowa, a town we visited in September 2010, as well as beautiful St. Louis, now with the addition of the Arch.

[ Daily Packet Service ] to Keokuk. The merchants—envied by all the untraveled town—made trips to the great city (of 30,000 souls).

Mississippi River at Keokuk, Iowa

 St. L papers had pictures of Planters House, and sometimes an engraved letter-head had a picture of the city front, with the boats sardined at the wharf and the modest spire of the little Cath Cathedral showing prominently; and at last when a minor citizen realized the dream of his life and traveled to St. Louis, he was thrilled to the marrow when he recognized the rank of boats and the spire and the Planters, and was amazed at the accuracy of the pictures and at the fact that the things were realities and not inventions of the imagination.

St. Louis

Missouri In The Civil War

From The Blue and The Gray (Volume One) The Nomination of Lincoln To The Eve of Gettysburg, by Henry Steele Commager:

The war in the Trans-Mississippi West has been unjustly neglected by historians. ....yet the fighting in the West profoundly influenced the course of these Eastern campaigns (Gettysburg, the Wilderness, etc.), and some of these campaigns, in turn, were directed to the severance of the Confederacy along the Mississippi River.

It was Missouri that was crucial. Had that state gone with the Confederacy.....