[ Audio Transcript ]
Panel 8 - Two State Governments
- Missouri's Government in Exile, Missouri's Provisional Government -
All the tensions in Missouri society came to a head in the summer of 1861 with the arrest of over 600 pro-Southern militia and the deaths of over twenty people in the Camp Jackson affair at St. Louis. A June meeting between pro-Union leaders Frank Blair and Captain Nathaniel Lyon and the pro-Southern Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson and State Guard leader Sterling Price failed to result in a pact between the militia and Lyon's federal troops, Governor Jackson and his supporters in the General Assembly fled the state capitol, which Lyon and his troops took possession of. Subsequently, Lyon and Jackson's forces clashed at Booneville and Carthage before meeting at the decisive battle of Wilson's Creek.
Jackson called his government-in-exile into session first at Neosho and later at Cassville. The self-described "Rebel Legislature" passed an article of secession, shown here, and a provisional constitution, and on November 28, 1861 the state of Missouri was admitted to the Confederacy.
In July 1861, the delegates of the state convention met again in response to Governor Jackson's flight from the capitol and declared all statewide offices vacant. Hamilton Gamble, a former Missouri Supreme Court Judge, was elected provisional Governor by the convention. The image shown here is Governor Gamble's inaugural address, in which he stressed the need to avoid involvement in the rapidly escalating national conflict.
Unfortunately, Governor Gamble's warning had no effect and the war expanded to adversely affect every Missouri family.
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