War of 1812 Thoughts

It is hard for most of us today to imagine what life was like living in a fort during the the War of 1812 to 1815. We live in a time of ease when we can heat and cool our homes at a touch of a finger and order anything we desire on line and have it delivered.

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Try to step back in thought to the period of 1810 to 1815, when the early Missouri settlers were living in forts for protection from large bands of Indians who wanted their ancient hunting grounds back, and were being encouraged to believe that the English would get it back for them IF the Indians helped to defeat (eliminate) the Americans.

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Early settlers traveled to central Missouri, at that time Howard County, on the North side of the Missouri River, most likely in covered (Conestoga) wagons. When they arrived, Fort Cooper already contained some single men, a few military and frontiersmen and a few families.

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Imagine that you are part of a family of two adults and five children. You have brought with you only the most basic cooking utensils, quilts and bedding, tools, guns and ammunition, food for the trip and anything else that you can stuff into the wagon. You probably have no money with you, as there is nothing to buy, but you will probably have some barter items.

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You settle into a small cabin in the fort, usually just one room.  You heat the log cabin and cook your food with heat from the fireplace. It is hot in the summer and probably drafty in the winter.

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Some of the problems you will encounter:

1. There are many different personalities in a small enclosure.  Cooperation and harmony must prevail, especially in times of attack. Everyone must perform the duties assigned to them, even when fear and panic set in.

2. When under attack, which could last for a few days or a week or more, all the animals must be kept inside the fort or they would be killed by the Indians.  Feeding the animals for a long period of time, cleaning up after them, and removing their waste is not a pleasant or easy task. Human waste was a problem during times of attack.

3. Other sanitation problems must be considered: how to get clean water for drinking for people and animals, clean water for cooking, cleaning people – especially children, and for cleaning wounds when someone is injured or shot.

4. There would not be a doctor at the fort so someone would hopefully have some knowledge of herbal remedies, and have dried herbs set aside for emergencies, sickness and for tea.  Bandages were often made from rags, old clothing and/or fluff from cattails or even milkweed.

5. Forts were usually in the center of a cleared area so enemies could be easily seen.  Unfortunately, the pioneers could also be easily seen by the Indians.

6. Large forts, sometimes with 200 or more people, require a lot of food.  Wild game normally furnished a majority of their food, but being unable to get out and hunt safely, sometimes meant that the animals inside had to be sacrificed to feed the people.  Wild animals were not accustomed to the noise of constant gun fire and would leave the area if frightened, reducing food sources.  Nuts, dried tree fruit and berries could be gathered, dried and stored during safe times for emergencies.

7. Some grain crops such as corn, wheat and oats were grown, but during peaceful times the deer, birds and other animals would often feast on the almost ripe grain and the Indians could also set fire to it and it would be destroyed. Sometimes, harvesting the grain could be hazardous if an attack might occur.  Corn bread and sourdough bread were probably made, but the choice of what to use for flour could be problematic, although certain types of acorns and nuts could be made edible and used for flour.

8. Even sturdy clothing and shoes tend to wear out. Often men’s and some women’s clothing were made from deer skin, as that was the only material available.  If native flax or nettles were available near the river bank, they could be soaked and pounded into workable fiber and eventually be made into a type of cloth. But, without a loom or spinning wheel, it would be hard to make the fibers into cloth.

9. Elderly, or widowed women with small children, also had a hard time doing their share of work without a husband.

10. In many cases there was no official at a fort who was licensed to marry people, but marriages were still performed.

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Life was a challenge, but those early settlers survived and thrived, and we all owe then a great debt of gratitude for their courage. These hardy pioneers truly were the “salt of the earth.”  

 

Barbara Dahl, Editor

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(1830) The Indian Removal Act of 1830 forced the indigenous nations

to leave Missouri and resettle in Indian Territory.

(Courtesy of Missouri Bicentennial Timeline)

“The Indian Removal Act of 1830 forced the indigenous people who once inhabited land in Missouri to leave and resettle in Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma, Nebraska and Kansas). The removal process, however, began long before U.S. President Andrew Jackson signed the 1830 removal act. It was a policy introduced by President Thomas Jefferson and was largely carried out by treaties in Missouri supervised by William Clark as superintendent of Indian affairs. About 30 years before the last removal, the Indigenous Nations in the Missouri Territory at the time of the Louisiana Purchase included Sac and Fox, Ioway, Little Osage and Great Osage, Kickapoo, Shawnee, Delaware and Quapaw.

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Skirmishes and fighting ensued as the U.S. government expanded westward and other nations would be pushed from the East to Missouri. The military imprisoned the famous War Chief Black Hawk in St. Louis at the end of the Black Hawk War in 1832. The Trail of Tears, as a result of the 1930 act, forced Eastern indigenous nations to relocate to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). One of the routes traversed the southern part of Missouri, where many lives were lost crossing the Mississippi River in Cape Girardeau County during the harsh winters of 1838 and 1839. An estimated 4,000 Cherokees lost their lives on the Trail of Tears from Tennessee to Oklahoma.”

 

(1839) THE MORMON WAR

 The Mormon war took place in the year 1838. When the Mormons came to Missouri in 1831, they located in Jackson County. The citizens there did not like their customs and became angry at the many crimes they committed because of their religious views. They were soon driven from Jackson County, and they moved to Caldwell County, Missouri.

 

The citizens of Caldwell did not want the Mormons to settle in their town, either. They didn’t have sufficient troops to force them to move, so they asked the governor to send in troops to get rid of the Mormons. Governor Boggs called for 7,000 volunteers.

 

In answer to the call, three companies were formed in Cooper County. One was called the Boonville Guards. The second was a volunteer company raised at Boonville. The third was raised in Palestine township.

 

These companies marched twice towards the Mormon settlement and the place of war. While they were marching, the Mormons surrendered. The companies returned home without having ever met the enemy. Upon their arrival at Boonville, these troops were disbanded.

 

The Mormons, after the end of the war, left the state and went to Nauvoo, Illinois, where they stayed for several years. After having difficulty with the authorities of the state of Illinois, the Mormons left and went to the Great Salt Lake.

 

(1846) THE MEXICAN WAR

In May, 1846, a call was made for one company from Cooper County to join troops already in Mexico. Sixty-one men volunteered. The company was organized and assembled in Boonville, where they were trained in military duty by their Captain, John C. Stephens. They departed May 28, 1846, on the steamer L. F. Linn, for St. Louis, where they were to be armed and equipped. When they arrived in St. Louis, they were ordered to report to Jefferson City. When they got to Jefferson City, they were told to be in readiness and were then allowed to return home. Even though they never saw any battle, the volunteers were welcomed home by large, cheering crowds. The 1865 Missouri Constitution bans the practice of slavery.

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Missouri was still very much a divided state over the issue of slavery at the end of the Civil War. Many citizens, including Radical Republicans led by Charles Drake, fiercely opposed the institution of slavery and pushed for a new constitution. Among the amendments were the emancipation of slaves and determining voting privileges for loyal citizens to the Union. The ordinance introduced at the constitution convention in St. Louis to abolish slavery in the state passed overwhelmingly with only four delegates voting against it. Missouri’s document that made slavery unlawful came three weeks before the U.S. Congress proposed the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which banned slavery in the country. The loyalty oath, which also was adopted by the 1865 Missouri Constitution would exclude all but pro-Unionists from public life, including the fields of teaching, law and politics, also went into effect until the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Missouri’s loyalty oath two years later.

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(1836) MISSOURIANS AT THE ALAMO

On March 6, 1836, about 187 men (or more, according to some researchers) perished inside the adobe walls of a crumbling mission-turned-fort known as the Alamo at what is today San Antonio, Texas.

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Under siege for 13 days, the defenders – who were Anglo settlers, fellow American allies, and ethnic Mexican natives in revolt against the central Mexican government - were finally overwhelmed by a superior Mexican army force and killed to the last man in the early morning hours of March 6. Their bodies were then burned.

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Among those who died that day were six native Missourians: William Charles M. Baker, George D. Butler, Charles Henry Clark, George Washington Cottle, Jerry C. Day, and George W. Tumlinson. It is those men in particular that we talk about today.  When we say they were Missourians we mean they were born in the territory that would become the State of Missouri, since we didn't get statehood until 1821. Now that that is clarified, from this point on we will simply say Missouri instead of Missouri Territory. Like many of the Alamo defenders, not a whole lot is really known about most of the Missourians' backgrounds.

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William Charles M. Baker was born in Missouri, though we don't know his age, and he later moved to Mississippi. After the Texas Revolution erupted in October 1835, Baker came to Texas as a volunteer to help in the revolt. He made his way to what was then San Antonio de Bexar and joined a rebel artillery battery that was involved in besieging the town, which at the time was held by national Mexican troops. After the Mexican force eventually surrendered, Baker became part of what I would characterize as a mounted infantry company that was sent elsewhere.

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However, he returned to San Antonio on January 19, 1836 as captain of a detachment of 30 men led by the famous adventurer Jim Bowie. Baker entered the Alamo fort and never left it again.  George D. Butler was born in Missouri in 1813, making him 23 years old when he died on that chilly March 6th morning. He was probably a member of the New Orleans Greys ("grey" spelled the English way), two companies of volunteers that were raised and equipped in New Orleans for the cause of Texas independence. If so, he would have been uniformed in a grey jacket and pants with a round forage cap and armed with either a military rifle or musket. Unlike most of the Alamo defenders, the New Orleans Greys looked like soldiers. Most of them arrived in time to take an active part in the siege of Bexar, mentioned above. The Greys were reorganized after the siege and most went on to serve the cause elsewhere, but 23 men stayed to help with the garrison's defense. All 23 perished at the Alamo on March 6.

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Charles Henry Clark, age unknown, was born in Missouri and was a member of the New Orleans Greys, one of the 23 men of his unit who remained behind at the Alamo. Like many men, he may have been on his way to Texas, by way of New Orleans, anyhow to apply for a land grant from Mexico when he enlisted in the Greys to take part in the uprising that would become a fight for Texas independence. Along the march to San Antonio de Bexar, Clark's company was treated to special dinners held in their honor, including one of roasted bear and champagne.

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Unfortunately for Clark, he would lose his life at the end of the road. George Washington Cottle was born in 1811 in Missouri, though there is a question if he was actually born in Tennessee and came to Missouri as a child. At any rate, since he is listed as a Missourian in some places, we have included him here. His family located to a colony near Gonzales Texas in 1829. When the war broke out, he fought in the Battle of Gonzales early on. He was later one of the ill-fated 32 Gonzales men who rode to the aid of the Alamo defenders just five days before the slaughter on March 6. His wife gave birth to twin boys after his death.

 

Jerry C. Day was 18 years old when he died at the Alamo. He was born in Missouri and came to Texas with his family. They settled at Gonzales. When the revolution started, the Days got involved, with Jerry's father, Jeremiah Day, becoming a wagoner for the Texan army and also a signer of the Goliad Declaration of Independence, a precursor to the official Texas Declaration by 73 days. Young Day fought in the siege of Bexar, was discharged from service, and then rejoined and became a member of the garrison at the Alamo where he died with the rest of his comrades.

 

George W. Tumlinson was born in Missouri in 1814. By the time of the Texas Revolution he was living in Gonzales. He enlisted in the revolutionary forces as an artilleryman and served in the siege of Bexar and then as part of the initial Alamo garrison. He was back in Gonzales, however, when the Alamo was surrounded. He probably felt a personal duty to help his comrades at his former post, and was part of the "Immortal 32" men of Gonzales who rode to the relief of the Alamo defenders, only to join them in their doom.

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So here's to our six fellow Missourians who died in the cause of Texas independence at a now famous place called the Alamo. Hats off, boys!  Although we do not know if any of these men were from Cooper County, They deserve great credit for their bravery.

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Sources: Texas State Historical Association