2nd Missouri Infantry Regiment (3 months, 1861)

The 2nd Missouri Infantry Regiment evolved from one of several unofficial pro-Unionist militia units formed semi-secretly in St. Louis in the early months of 1861 by Congressman Francis Preston Blair, Jr. and other Unionist activists. The organization that would become the Second Missouri was largely composed of ethnic Germans, who were generally opposed to slavery and strongly supportive of the Unionist cause. Although initially without any official standing, beginning on April 22, 1861, four militia regiments Blair helped organize were sworn into Federal service at the St. Louis Arsenal by Captain John Schofield acting on the authority of President Lincoln.[1][2]

2nd Missouri Infantry Regiment
ActiveApril 22, 1861, to August 31, 1861
CountryUnited States
AllegianceUnion
BranchInfantry
EngagementsCamp Jackson Affair
Battle of Boonville
Expedition to Mexico, Missouri
Battle of Wilson's Creek

The 2nd Missouri Infantry Regiment included a significant number of members with military experience from service in Europe. Many had also participated in drill and marksmanship competitions in St. Louis's many Turnverein societies. The Second Missouri was an unusually large regiment, having two dedicated "Rifle Companies" in addition to its ten companies of infantry. Upon entry into Federal service the members of the new Second Missouri elected Henry Boernstein colonel of the regiment.[3] The new Missouri Volunteer regiments, subsequently elected (then) Captain Nathaniel Lyon as the brigadier general of the new brigade of Missouri volunteers. President Lincoln would later confirm Lyon's promotion from Captain to Brigadier general.

Military Service

On May 10, 1861, the 2nd Missouri Infantry participated in the arrest of the Missouri Volunteer Militia drilling at Camp Jackson at Lindell Grove on the western border of St. Louis City. As the Missouri militiamen were being march under guard back to the Arsenal near the riverfront, angry crowds confronted the Federal forces and the confused situation soon devolved into rioting and gunfire. Over 27 people were killed and the Camp Jackson Affair helped to polarize the state and send Missouri down the road to its own internal civil war.

On June 15, 1861, the 2nd Missouri Infantry participated in the unopposed occupation of the Missouri state capitol at Jefferson City, Missouri, by Federal troops. Nine companies of the Second Missouri remained as the garrison at Jefferson City, under Colonel Boerstein who acted as interim military commandant of the city.

Company "B" and Rifle Companies "A" and "B" continued up river in pursuit of fugitive Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson and the Missouri State Guard. At Boonville the three company battalion of the Second Missouri, fighting under the command of Captain Peter J. Osterhaus[3] helped defeat the newly organized Missouri State Guard on June 17 in the short, one-sided Battle of Boonville.[4] While the Battle of Boonville was small by later war standards, it had major strategic consequences, driving the pro-secessionist forces into the southern part of the state and securing the Missouri River valley and communications across the state for the Federal government.

The Second Missouri garrison at Jefferson City made a number of expeditions and "scouts" into the counties near the state capital and the central Missouri River valley. A Second Missouri detachment from Jefferson City fought a small engagement with guerrillas at Mexico Missouri, on July 15, 1861.

Osterhaus' small battalion continued to campaign with Lyon, marching southwest to Springfield, eventually confronting a united Confederate and Missouri State Guard force near Springfield. The resulting Battle of Wilson's Creek fought ten miles south of the city on August 10, 1861, was a bloody affair, and the second costliest in American History up to that time. Osterhaus, by that time promoted to Major, led his men in the fighting as part of Lyon's detachment of the Federal force on Bloody Hill. Isolated and outnumbered after a second Federal element under Colonel Franz Sigel was routed, the Federals on Bloody hill fought the Confederate forces to a stalemate.[5] The battle ended only after General Lyon was killed leading the 1st Iowa Infantry against the Confederate right. As the senior U.S. Army regular officer present, command devolved to Major Samuel D. Sturgis. Concerned about his force's ammunition supply, Sturgis decided to withdraw towards Springfield.[6]

Osterhaus' men withdrew with the battered Federal force to Springfield, then to Rolla, continuing on to St. Louis.

The regiment was mustered out of Federal service on August 31, and the members were reorganized as the Second Missouri Volunteers (3 Years Service) on September 10, 1861, under Colonel Friedrich Schaefer.[3]

Notes
  1. Gerteis, Louis S. (2001). Civil War St. Louis. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press. p. 94. ISBN 0-7006-1124-X.
  2. The official designation of the first four regiments organized at the St. Louis Arsenal were the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Missouri Volunteers (3 Months Service).
  3. Rombaur, Robert Julius, The Union Cause in St. Louis in 1861, St. Louis, St. Louis Municipal Centennial Year, 1909, p367
  4. Report of Battle of Boonville, BG Nathaniel Lyon, Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Ser 1, Vol III, p13
  5. Report of Battle of Wilson's Creek, Major S.D. Sturgis, Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Ser 1, Vol III, p68
  6. Piston, William Garrett; Hatcher, Richard W. III (2000). Wilson's Creek. Capel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. p. 283. ISBN 0-8078-2515-8.

References
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