THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR IN MISSOURI.
BY COLONEL THOMAS L. SNEAD.

SOUTH CAROLINA had just seceded and the whole country was nthe wildest excitement when the General Assembly of Missouri met at Jefferson City on the last day of the year 1860. Responding to the recommendations of Governor Jackson and to the manifest will of the people of the State, it forthwith initiated measures for ranging Missouri with the South in the impending conflict. A State Convention was called; bills to organize, arm, and equip the militia were introduced; and the Federal Government was solemnly warned tht if it sent an army into South Carolina, or into any other slaveholding State, in order to coerce it to remain in the Union, or to force its people to obey the laws of the United States, "the people of Missouri would instantly rally on the side of such State to resist the invaders at all hazards and to the last extremity."

The most conspicuous leader of this movement was Claiborne F. Jackson, who had just been inaugurated Governorn. He had for many years been one of the foremost leaders of the Democrats of Missouri, and had been elected Governor in August. In the late canvass he had supported Douglas for President, not because he either liked him or approved his policy on the slavery question, but because Douglas was the choice of the Missouri Democrats, and to have opposed him would have defeated his own election; for in August, 1860, the people of Missouri were sincerely desirous that the questions at issue between the North and the South should be compromised and settled upon some fair basis, and were opposed to the election to the Presidency of any man-whether Lincoln or Breckinridge-whose success might intensify sectional antipathies and imperil the integrity of the Union.

But while loaylly supporting the candidacy of Douglas, Jackson abated none of his devotion to the political principles which had been the constant guide of his life. He was a true son of the South, warmly attached to the land that had given him birth, and to her people, who were his own kindred. He was now nearly fifty-five years of age, tall, erect, and good-looking; kind-hearted, brave, and courteous; a thoughtful, earnest, upright man; a political leader, but not a soldier.

The Government urged the people of Missouri to elect to the Convention men who would place Missouri unequivocally on the side of the South. He was

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* Colonel Snead was at different times aide-de-camp to Governor Jackson, acting Adjutant-General of the Missouri State Guard, Chief-of-Staff of the Army of the West, and member of the Confederate Congress. He was made by General Price the custodian of his private and official papers.-EDITORS.
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A VERY RAW RECRUIT.