Chasing History: Exploring My Ancestral Roots - Post #9
by Tonya Graham McQuade
As described in the letters written by my great-great-great grandfather James Calaway Hale, he spent about ten months with the 33rd Regiment, Missouri Volunteers, Company H – marching around southern Missouri, Kentucky, and Arkansas – before landing in the General Hospital at Benton Barracks in St. Louis in late June 1863. As it turned out, other than the couple times he returned home on furlough, he would remain there in St. Louis through the end of the war, his rheumatism and other health issues keeping him from returning to his regiment – and possibly saving his life - but unable to get a discharge so he could return home.
Benton Barracks was also where James first reported when he joined up with the Regiment, having volunteered his service to the Union army. He left behind his wife Elizabeth and children Amanda (14), McDonald (12), and Eliza (6), as well as his recently married oldest daughter Mary Ann and her husband Bailis Petree, in Nodaway Township, Andrew County, just south of Savannah. There the family had to work hard to maintain the farm and livestock during his absence.
James was amazed at his first sight of Benton Barracks. As I explain early on in my book A State Divided: The Civil War Letters of James Calaway Hale and Benjamin Petree:
“When James arrived in St. Louis to join up with the 33rd Regiment, he was amazed at the sight of the big city and even more impressed by Benton Barracks. As he wrote in later letters, he thought it was the most beautiful place his eyes had ever beheld, and he wished his wife and children could see it. The Barracks, also known as Camp Benton, had been built the previous year on the old fairgrounds in St. Louis, where they had held the Agricultural and Mechanical Association fairs beginning in 1855. Now, the site was being used as a training camp and military hospital.”
Well, Benton Barracks no longer exists. Once the war was over, the buildings were dismantled, and the site returned to being a fairgrounds and racetrack. However, Jefferson Barracks – which was located south of St. Louis on the Mississippi River in Lemay, Missouri – still stands, and one of the buildings now houses the Missouri Civil War Museum. That museum marked my final stop on my recent visit to Missouri – but it was certainly one of the most anticipated. I had by that time read all of the letters from both James C. Hale and Benjamin Petree (see Post #1) and had spent quite a bit of time researching the Civil War in Missouri, but I knew there was much more to learn.
As I approached the museum entrance, the first thing I saw was the statue of President Abraham Lincoln signing the Emancipation Proclamation. As a slave-holding state, this proclamation was certainly of interest to Missouri; but since its recognized government had remained faithful to the Union, the proclamation did not actually free Missouri’s slaves (though many by this time had already escaped on their own or been stolen away by anti-slavery forces).
The next sign described Ulysses S. Grant’s relationship with St. Louis, Grant having first arrived at Jefferson Barracks in September 1843 as a new officer fresh out of West Point. He married a woman from St. Louis, Julia Dent, and after resigning from the U.S. army in 1854, he lived in St. Louis for four years. Grant first worked as a farmer, then later in real estate, before moving to Illinois to work in a harness shop until the Civil War sucked him back into army life – and eventually to the presidency.
The sign also explained Grant’s connection to Samuel Langhorne Clemens – aka. Mark Twain – who later encouraged Grant to write his memoirs. As the sign states: “Twain, who owned a publishing company, encouraged Grant to write his memoirs. He offered to publish the work on terms favorable to the ex-President. Grant’s Memoirs, released just after Grant’s death in 1885, proved to be the best-selling work of non-fiction to that point in American history. The proceeds supported Julia Grant for the rest of her life.”
Jefferson Barracks itself was first established as a U.S. army installation in 1826, long before Benton Barracks, and continued serving in that role through 1946. Today it is used as a base for the Army and Air National Guard, and also houses a Veterans Affairs healthcare service. It was named after Thomas Jefferson, who died the same year it was established.
During the Civil War, Jefferson Barracks – just as Benton Barracks – served as a hospital for both sides, as well as a recruitment depot for the North. By the end of the war, over 18,000 patients had been treated there. In 2002, the 1905 Post Exchange and Gymnasium Building began to be restored and transformed into the Missouri Civil War Museum, which officially opened in 2013.
As I walked through the doors, I actually felt a thrill of excitement. I had devoted MANY hours over the prior couple of months to studying Missouri Civil War history, and I was anxious to see what I had missed and what more I could learn. I started with the brief video, which gave an overview of some of the issues Missouri faced as a state heading into the war, and they were many. Some argue that the Civil War actually started on the Kansas-Missouri border, where pro-and anti-slavery supporters sparked a lot of violence in the “Bleeding Kansas” years.
Those many issues are the reason I decided to title the non-fiction book I am writing A State Divided: The Civil War Letters of James Calaway Hale and Benjamin Petree. The non-fiction book was not part of my original plan. My focus had been on writing a historical fiction novel that incorporates the letters but also adds “at home” chapters which imagine (based on the letters and extensive research) what the Hale and Petree families might have been doing back in Andrew County. However, after learning that the Civil War Museum Gift Shop and many other Civil War sites only carry non-fiction books, I thought I’d better write TWO versions of this family tale.
Be sure to check back soon for my next post, which will include an excerpt from A State Divided that helps to explain the Missouri events that lead up to the Civil War.
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