CIVIL WAR, MISSOURI'S INABILITY TO PAY ITS TROOPS
 
 
1864
MISSOURI'S INABILITY TO PAY THE PROVISIONAL ENROLLED MISSOURI MILITIA

Letter from Brigadier General John B. Sanborn, Commanding the District of Southwest Missouri, to S. H. Boyd, Congressman from Southwest Missouri

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF SOUTHWEST MISSOURI,
Springfield, February 27, 1864.

Hon. S. H. BOYD,
Washington, D. C.:

DEAR SIR:  Your wife informed me a few evenings since that you had written to me before she left Washington.  I have not received any letter from you since you left; hence I do not know what you wrote about, and of course cannot answer.  I received from you a copy of General McClellan�s report, for which you will accept my thanks.  There are one or two items of public interest to this State, and particularly to your district, to which I desire to call your attention.  You are probably aware that no troops are now serving in Southwest Missouri except Missouri troops, viz, the Sixth and Eighth Missouri State Militia Cavalry and the Sixth and Seventh Enrolled Missouri Militia Provisional Cavalry, and that while the Missouri State Militia troops are provided for and paid by the U. S. Government, the Enrolled Missouri Militia troops, which perform an equal amount of service, and equally hard service, and with whose services the Government cannot at present dispense, are not paid at all, and are poorly provided for, except in those articles which are furnished by the United States, viz, subsistence and camp and garrison equipage.

The State has paid most of the enlisted men of these regiments up to the 1st of October last but many, and I think nearly all, the officers have not been paid at all, although having served, many of them, for some eighteen or twenty months, and the State has exhausted all its appropriations made in this behalf, and officers have not been paid and the men have no hope.  Having been in the army, you know better than I could describe the condition that troops are in who are thus treated.  It is impossible to keep up the morale of the troops; depredations are committed that would not be if the troops were paid or had the hope of pay.  Their duties are not performed with that alacrity and zeal that the exigencies of the service require; and in addition to all this we are kept in the constant fear that the troops will abandon all organization and go home; and what is worse, their homes having been destroyed by the enemy and their property exhausted in the service, themselves turn into the very bushwhackers and robbers that they have been destroying.

I have now reduced all the squadrons of the Enrolled Missouri Militia Cavalry in active service in my district to 50 men each, retiring those who had homes and were living at such places as would enable them to cultivate their farms.  The troops of this class retained in service, as well as those retired, should be paid and provided for while in service, in the same manner as U. S. troops.  The interest of the General Government as well as the State requires this, and this must be done or this class of troops retired and some regiments of volunteers sent here, or this section again overrun by guerrillas.  Feeling that this matter demands the immediate and candid consideration of the officers of the State and of the General Government, I communicate the facts and condition to you.  Peace and order have prevailed in the Missouri portion of the district for the past ten weeks.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN B. SANBORN,
Brigadier-General, Commanding.

SOURCE: OR, Series I, Volume 34 (Part II), pages 438-439.


Letter from Major General W. S. Rosecrans, Commanding the Department of the Missouri, to the War Department

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI
ST. LOUIS, May 8, 1864

COLONEL E. D. TOWNSEND
A. A. General, Washington, D. C.

COLONEL:  At the request of the department commander, the Governor of Missouri ordered into active service some of the Enrolled Militia, of which thirty-five companies are still in service.

They are picked men; have been on the same duty as other troops in the United States volunteer service within this State, and clothed and subsisted by the United States but paid by the State up to October 31st, 1863, since which time they have had no pay.  Their families were left unprovided because their term of service was uncertain, and they hoped soon to be disbanded and return home.  But up to the time of assuming command it was not thought prudent to dispense with their services.  Upon examination and consideration of the possible eventualities of the coming campaign, I deemed it prudent to concur in the opinion of the district commanders that they ought to be continued in service.

The poor fellows themselves have submitted to the necessity and performed duty in the most praiseworthy manner, but their hardships are really great, and in the present aspect of affairs in Southwest Missouri their services should unquestionably be retained.

I, therefore, respectfully and urgently request authority to muster them into the service for one year from the first day of November last, in order that we may be able to pay them for their past services, and retain them until the close of the campaign.

General Sanborn and General Holland represent the case of urgency and prompt action.  I concur in that representation, and hope an early decision will be given.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. S. ROSECRANS,
Major General

SOURCE:

SOURCE: OR, Series I, Volume 34 (Part III), page 509.  Also reproduced in the Annual Report of the Adjutant General of Missouri for 1864, pages 50-51.


Letter from Major General W. S. Rosecrans, Commanding the Department of the Missouri, to Willard P. Hall, Governor of Missouri

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI,
Saint Louis, Mo., June 3, 1864.

Governor WILLARD P. HALL,
Washington, D. C.:

DEAR GOVERNOR:  Inclosed is a copy of my letter of May 8, and copies of the indorsements on some other communications referring to the case of the provisional regiments of Enrolled Militia of the State who have been called into service and have been serving the United States without provision for their payment.  The remedy recommended is to permit them to be mustered into the service of the United States for one year from the 1st day of November last.  It may require legislation to render this legal.  I beg to remind you that the Missouri State Militia, composed of the best material in the State, has been serving with the most imperfect and often worthless arms.  They have all the disadvantages of the elective system for company officers and finding their own horses, and the nature of their duties, scouting in small parties, is adverse to instruction and discipline, so that while they are more expensive to the United States their service is more trying and laborious to the men, and they are far less powerful as a body than they would be with a volunteer organization, good arms, and mounted on Government horses.  To remedy these evils I have requested authority from the War Department to convert them, as far as practicable, into U. S. volunteers, at such time, place, and in such manner as may be most prudent and beneficial to the service.  I beg you will please obtain a decision on this request.  I also spoke to you of the present condition of this department, in reference to the protection of the planting industry, as well as the lives of the loyal citizens over the State.  The condition of our forces is such that should any serious raid be made by the rebel cavalry we should have to sacrifice all these objects to the more pressingly important ones of guarding our depots and railroad bridges.  I think it would be a great pity to abandon the people now, in the midst of their agricultural labors, second in importance only to actual combat against the enemy.  I would recommend as a wise precaution that you obtain authority to raise two regiments of infantry and four of cavalry to serve for at least six months, or as much longer as practicable, on the same condition as the 100-day men of other Western States.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant

W. S. ROSECRANS,
Major-General.

[First indorsement.]

Respectfully referred to Secretary of War, with request that the authority asked for by General Rosecrans be granted.

WILLARD P. HALL,
Governor of Missouri.

[Second indorsement.]

JUNE 9, 1864.

Respectfully returned.

I recommend that these troops be mustered into United States service for the period of twenty months from the 1st of November, 1863, and that they be paid from date of muster, that is, November 1, 1863.

The organization for muster-in must conform to the recruiting regulations for U. S. volunteer service, as that is required by the act approved July 17, 1862.  It is proper for me to call attention to the fact that it will require about $350,000 to pay these men from 1st of last November to 1st of July.  Whether such a demand would embarrass the Pay Department or not, I am unable to state.  On some of these papers, under date of April 7, 1864, the Paymaster-General reports difficulty in getting money to pay the troops already in the U. S. service.

JAMES B. FRY,
Provost-Marshal-General.

[Third indorsement.]

JUNE 9, 1864.

Submitted to Secretary of War, who approves and orders that instructions be prepared accordingly.

JAS. B. FRY.

SOURCE: OR, Series I, Volume 34 (Part IV), pages 194-195.


Letter from the War Department to Major General W. S. Rosecrans

WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE,
WASHINGTON, D. C., June 10, 1864.

MAJOR GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS,
Commanding Department of the Missouri, St. Louis, Mo.

GENERAL:  I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letters of May 8th and June 3d, present year, in reference to the payment of some thirty-five companies of the "Enrolled Militia," called out (through the Governor) and continued in service by proper United States officers, but who have not been paid since October 31, 1863, they having been paid to that date by the State.

In reply, I am directed to communicate the following as the orders of the Secretary of War:

1st. You are authorized to have said troops regularly mustered into the service for twenty months, reckoning from November 1, 1863.

2d. In making the muster in the organization of companies (or regiment, if so organized) must conform to that of the volunteer forces of the United States.  See section 10 of the act of July 17, 1862, page 22, General Orders, No. 91.

3d. The muster in will be made by the Commissary of Musters of the department and his assistants.

Great care must be exercised in preparing the rolls, and the same must be promptly forwarded to this office.  Before being forwarded, each roll must be examined and countersigned by the department commissary of musters.

Under the foregoing, the said forces will receive pay from November 1, 1863, under the prescribed regulations of the Pay Department, and will be holden in service until June 30, 1865.  The period of service fixed must be distinctly understood and made known to all parties concerned.

I am, General, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

E. D. TOWNSEND,
Assistant Adjutant General

SOURCE:

SOURCE: OR, Series I, Volume 34 (Part IV), pages 295-296.  Also reproduced in the Annual Report of the Adjutant General of Missouri for 1864, page 51.

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