Finding Missouri Governor and Union Brigadier General Thomas C. Fletcher in Hillsboro

This post was originally published on Emerging Civil War by Kristen M. Pawlak on December 26, 2020.

For many history buffs and road trippers, rural Jefferson County, Missouri is usually not very high – or maybe not at all – on the Civil War bucket list of sites to see. Sitting due south of St. Louis is the county seat, Hillsboro, where one of Missouri’s most influential Civil War and Reconstruction governors had his antebellum home.

Located in Hillsboro, Missouri is the 1850s home of Missouri Governor and Civil War veteran Thomas C. Fletcher. Courtesy of the author.

Bvt. Brigadier General and Missouri Governor Thomas C. Fletcher was actually born in Jefferson County, specifically the town of Herculaneum. The first county seat of Jefferson County (until the 1830s), Herculaneum was known for its lead mining and production, as well as its proximity to St. Louis, which is what most likely drew Fletcher’s parents to immigrate there from Maryland prior to his birth in 1827.[1] His family was well-off financially, having owned several slaves, and allowed him to receive an education and pursue a career in law.

Fletcher was quite politically active early in his adult life and career. At the age of 22, he became Circuit Clerk in Jefferson County; and after seven years of clerk service, Fletcher was admitted to the bar. It was while he served as the Circuit Clerk in Jefferson County’s seat of Hillsboro that he lived in this quaint home. Unlike his parents and upbringing in a slave-owning household, he became a Republican and abolitionist in the mid-1850s. Fletcher’s loyalty to the Republican Party and county greatly shaped the rest of his career and life.

A portrait of Col. Thomas C. Fletcher in his Federal uniform. Courtesy of Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield.

A love of Union, freedom, and equality, as well as having a distinguished political career, led Fletcher to become a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1860. When the Civil War broke out, two of his brothers – Perry and Charles – both enlisted in the 6th Missouri Infantry. In an accident at the St. Louis Arsenal in June 1861, Sgt. Perry Fletcher died. Two years later in October 1862, Fletcher enlisted and became Colonel of the 31st Missouri Infantry.  At the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou during the Vicksburg Campaign, he was captured by Confederate forces and imprisoned at the infamous Libby Prison until the spring of 1863. Though he was able to command troops in the field with the Army of the Tennessee, Fletcher was forced to return to Jefferson County in early 1864 due to lingering illness.

By the early fall of 1864, as Maj. Gen. Sterling Price’s Army of Missouri advanced into Missouri, a recovered Fletcher organized the 47th Missouri Infantry. Part of the Union garrison at Fort Davidson, Fletcher and the 47th Missouri were heavily involved in the Battle of Pilot Knob on September 27, 1864. Though forced to withdraw from Fort Davidson after repeated Confederate attacks, the battle itself was a major factor into why Price did not attack the vital Union city of St. Louis. Additionally, the political aspirations of Fletcher and the garrison’s overall commander Thomas Ewing contributed to the Federals’ decision to stay at Fort Davidson and fight it out against Price. Fletcher’s involvement in the battle, which certainly contributed to Union victory in the overall campaign, led to his promotion to brevet brigadier general.

Just two months after commanding troops in the field at Pilot Knob, Fletcher won a decisive victory over Democrat Thomas Price in the Missouri gubernatorial election of 1864. A border state, Missouri was immune to the Emancipation Proclamation, allowing slavery in her borders due to her loyalty to the Union. With his strong abolitionist beliefs, Fletcher was determined to end slavery.

On January 11, 1865, he helped lead Missouri and the General Assembly to formally abolish slavery in the state. That day at the Missouri State Capitol, Fletcher addressed the state with a public endorsement of abolition: “In the lightning’s chirography the fact is written ere this over the whole land – Missouri is Free! … Forever be this day celebrated by our people.”[2] Just twenty days later, Congress passed the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery nationwide. Fletcher holds a special legacy in Missouri as helping lead the charge to end slavery in this divided border state.

Serving from 1865 to 1869, Fletcher oversaw Missouri’s tumultuous post-war era. Unlike the states in the former Confederate South, Missouri was not under Congressional Reconstruction. However, it faced fierce division between Republican wings and what a post-war Missouri would look like. Fletcher’s administration addressed issues regarding state railroad debt, education reform, post-war violence, Native American rights and the Constitutionality of test oaths.[3]

After his governorship, Fletcher returned to the practice of law, first in St. Louis then in Washington, DC. He ran for U.S. Congress in 1880, but lost. He passed away at the age of 72 in Washington, DC and was interred at St. Louis’ famous Bellefontaine Cemetery.

As Missouri’s first Republican and first native-born son to serve as Missouri Governor, Fletcher is a remarkable figure in Missouri, Civil War, and Reconstruction history. Leading the fight for abolition in Missouri and leading the state through some of its most chaotic years, he should be remembered more often. Next time you are in the St. Louis area, make sure a visit to Fletcher’s modest, unassuming, but beautifully-preserved home in Hillsboro is on the list.

Sources:

1. History of Franklin, Jefferson, Washington, Crawford, & Gasconade Counties, Missouri (Cape Girardeau, MO: Ramfire Press, 1958), 427.
2. Thomas C. Fletcher, Missouri’s Jubilee (Jefferson City, MO: W.A. Curry, 1865), 4.
3. “Reconstruction in Missouri,” Community & Conflict: The Impact of the Civil War in the Ozarks, accessed December 23, 2020, https://ozarkscivilwar.org/themes/reconstruction.

A Microhistory of Missouri’s Civil War – A Study of Lawrence County

During just four years of brutal military and political conflict, a divided Lawrence County, Missouri was “whipsawed” by the Civil War, “inflicting severe hardships, death, and destruction.” While Lawrence County was similar to other Missouri counties in that it was divided during the war, its location in the southwestern portion of the state made its citizens under constant threat of guerrilla violence and the occupation of Federal and Confederate/Pro-Secessionist armies. Lawrence County was front and center to much of the violence in southwestern Missouri, which took a major toll on its communities.

Faugh a Ballagh: The Gateway City’s Irish Soldiers

By the outbreak of the war, St. Louis – the Gateway to the West – was a thriving and diverse, yet divided border town. Unlike many cities in the slave states, St. Louis was home to a growing community of European immigrants. By 1860, over half of the city was foreign born, most from the German Confederation or Ireland. The Germans were, by far, the most populous and influential ethic group in St. Louis. With 50,000 in St. Louis alone and united over the divisive issues of slavery and secession, they made a tremendous impact on the Union war effort in the city and their new home state. Just second to the Germans were the Irish, who accounted for nearly 30,000 (or 20%) of the city’s 161,000 residents. Missouri’s Irish – totally over 43,000 – was the highest population of Irishmen in any state in the South.[1] Typically overlooked compared to the Germans, the Irish were more-so divided over the tense issues encapsulating their community. Their impact on the Civil War in St. Louis deserves more attention and further study.

A St. Louis-style St. Patrick’s Day in 1874 shows the gathering of  the Irish immigrant community. Courtesy of the Missouri History Museum.

When Nathaniel Lyon Court Martialed the Second Cousin of Robert E. Lee

In the years prior to the outbreak of the Civil War, well over two-hundred future field commanders in the war were stationed in Missouri. These soldiers included Robert E. Lee, Ulysses Grant, James Longstreet, William T. Sherman, Braxton Bragg, and many others. They were trained and drilled on the parade ground of Jefferson Barracks Military Post located only a few miles south of St. Louis along the Mississippi River.

Willie Lee is shown on the far left with a war-time image of Jefferson Barracks and Nathaniel Lyon on the right. Courtesy of the Reeves Family, Civil War Scholars, Missouri Civil War Museum, and The State Historical Society of Missouri.

Though many – like Ulysses Grant and J.E.B. Stuart – largely had positive experiences serving near one of the largest cities in the United States, some soldiers’ services at Jefferson Barracks were blotted with challenges. One of these soldiers was Lieutenant William “Willie” Fitzhugh Lee.

The Farewell Letter of a Victim of the Palmyra Massacre

There is no doubt that this letter is one of the most heartbreaking ones I have ever read from the Civil War era. On October 17 and 18, 1862, from the cells of the Palmyra Prison, Captain Thomas A. Sidner of the First Northeast Missouri Cavalry penned a letter to his friends and family, notifying them of his pending execution. In command of the District of Northeast Missouri, Col. John McNeil sentenced to death ten random Confederate prisoners from the Palmyra Prison in retaliation for the supposed murder of a local Union sympathizer. With no ties to the murder, Sidner was told that he was to be executed the next day for a crime he was not guilty of. Later known as the Palmyra Massacre, this act became one of the most infamous war crimes of the entire Civil War.

Col. John McNeil is on the left, with the District of Northeast Missouri’s Provost Marshal Office in the center and Col. Joseph Porter on the right. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Restoration Movement, and FindaGrave.

Who Is This Benton Barracks Soldier?

One of the most recognizable African-American soldiers of the Civil War, this young soldier has represented the nearly-200,000 USCTs who served in the Union armies. Standing in front of the famous “Benton Barracks backdrop,” he has also been the face of former Trans-Mississippi slaves who risked their lives to fight for freedom. Around 8,000 of them were from Missouri. Unfortunately, he has remained anonymous to historians for over 150 years.

Beer in Civil War Missouri

Federal soldiers receive a ration of whiskey and quinine, showing the need for alcohol to calm nerves and stay warm during the frigid winter months. Courtesy of the National Library of Medicine.

While in camp at Rolla on March 9, 1865, Private Frederick A. Kullman of the 13^th Missouri Cavalry sat down to write in his pocket diary about how he longed to escort prisoners to St. Louis. For him and much of his comrades, it was not to visit the city or to show their authority to the enemy, but to “try some more of that good old Lager beer.” In 1861, there were over forty independent breweries operating in St. Louis alone, with countless others along the Missouri River.

In the early nineteenth century, the most popular types of alcoholic beverages in the United States were whiskey, cider, gin, bourbon, rum, and wine. They could be manufactured without refrigeration and were drunk throughout the day by Americans. By the mid-nineteenth century, beer consumption exploded; and much of that has to do with the influx of German immigrants, particularly in Missouri.

Sherman’s Visit to the Wilson’s Creek Battlefield in 1885

This article was originally posted on the Emerging Civil War blog on September 5, 2018, written by Kristen M. Pawlak. 

Ever since the guns were silenced in the spring of 1865, veterans and civilians alike trek the battlefields of the Civil War to inspire them and understand the carnage and sacrifice that occurred on those hallowed fields. Learning about what happened at these locations and why it matters is one of the most meaningful ways to honor soldiers of the Civil War – even the veterans themselves said that.

One of those veterans was William T. Sherman, the great, but controversial, commander of the Federal military division that captured Atlanta, marched through Georgia and the Carolinas, and forced the surrender of Johnston’s Army of Tennessee at Bennett Place. After the war, he continued to serve in the United States Army as its Commanding General until 1883.

General William Tecumseh Sherman just three years following his visit to the Wilson’s Creek battlefield. Courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Having lived in Missouri – specifically in St. Louis – in the years before the Civil War, Sherman had a close relationship with Missouri veterans, particularly fellow West Pointers and career soldiers he served with in the Army before, during, and after the Civil War. In 1885, Sherman “desired to visit the battlefield of Wilson’s Creek and the spot where Gen. Lyon fell.” To Sherman, who knew him personally before the war, Lyon “was somewhat careless in dress and manner, but intensely earnest in his ways, thoughts, and expressions … personally brave to a fault, not very social or friendly, yet honest and fearless.” Though Sherman served at another early-war battle, Manassas, he still wished to walk in the footsteps of a fellow Union war hero.

Major Horace A. Conant and the Planter’s House Hotel Meeting

Two illustrations show the Planter’s House Hotel ca. 1860, as well as the fateful meeting on June 11, 1861. Note the image on the right leaves out Snead and Conant – two forgotten individuals at the meeting. There was also no image of Conant to be found. Courtesy of the Missouri Historical Society and the Civil War Muse.

Many of us know the story of the infamous Planter’s House Hotel meeting on June 11, 1861. The six most-influential political and military leaders in the State of Missouri at the start of the American Civil War – Major General Sterling Price, Governor Claiborne Jackson, Thomas Snead, Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon, Colonel Francis P. Blair, and Major Horace Conant – met in St. Louis’ Planter’s House Hotel to prevent the outbreak of war within the state’s borders. Five of the six attendees of the meeting are very well known in Missouri Civil War lexicon. The only one who many are not aware of is Major Horace Conant, Nathaniel Lyon’s aide.

One of Hannibal’s Railroad Men

Many of us know famed Missouri author Mark Twain’s short story, “The Private History of a Campaign That Failed,” which he pokes fun at his two-week-long service in the pro-Confederate Marion Rangers company. Not particularly invested in the greater issues of secession and slavery, Twain joined the unit following the Camp Jackson Affair, saying “our state was invaded by the Union forces.” While many men from Hannibal and Marion County, Missouri identified with the pro-Missouri and pro-Confederate cause, there were still many from that area who felt otherwise and supported the state remaining with the Union.

John Jay and Elizabeth Treat, ca. 1860. Courtesy of Paul Blackham.

Pvt. John Jay Treat (known as “Jay” to his wife) of Hannibal was one of those men, who volunteered to serve in the Home Guard and the Enrolled Missouri Militia throughout the war. His great-great-great grandson kindly sent me John’s information, letters, and photographs to share with all of you on the blog.