John Milton Binckley to Charlotte Stocker Binckley, November 10, 1862

[John Milton Binckley at Washington City to Charlotte Stocker Binckley, November 10, 1862. Extra paragraph breaks added for easier reading.

[Many thanks to William Myers, Mary Davy, Sally Young and Sue Davis for their ongoing research collaboration; specifically to William for providing a scan of the original document, and in turn many thanks to Peter Johnston Binckley and Patricia D'Arcy "Trish" Binckley (1951-2007), at the source.]

                                                                    Wash DC 10 Nov 62

My dear Mother

I have your letter of the 31 and answer it in bed. I am a little better of about 11 days' illness complicated with some serious derangements of which jaundice is the last shape the thig has taken and I am deeply salivated now I have not for five days & nights partaken of so much nourishment as is contained in a cup of coffee -- not more than a spoonful of which I can take at once. So you see I can fast as well as eat.

I am in no danger but that of losing my patience & breaking down my poor wife.

I would certainly not write now but when I saw the pile of letters & business which have accumulated before me, I am afraid to put off anything.

We were greatly surprised at what you say of naming the newcomer. Knowing your lifelong detestation of what is the dearest name on Earth to me, Charlotte, as well as Sister's equal dislike, it never entered my mind that you would desire it. We did indeed think of giving you the naming of the child according to your fancy, but I was determined that Mary should have her fancy -- not mine, & not anybody's.

I knew she had some name she would prefer, and after my standing and solitary condition, to wit = that it should be a single name & short; I would not permit her to consult about it. 

At last it came out, Rosalie -- and a very pretty name with Binckley, I think, too.  Now she has one child after her fancy. I, one after mine (Ellen). Father's name was almost a devotion, & Allen's naming his John Henry was almost the act of the whole family.

If 40 boys were born in the family, I would be for naming the fortieth John if all the others should die.  

It seems ridiculous to ask why George don't write.  If he will just say he gets my letters, I'll write on.

Poor George! If I could only continue some way for him to live here!

As to your PH -- I deeply deplore the settled gloom which seems to envelop him, & from but which I no more hear  his solemnly melting words.

By this time I suppose you are at Allen's from what you wrote. Tell me in your next all about PH and Allen's children.

If we do not look out better, we will have families grown up about us before they learn each other's names.

Adieu my dear Mother and I will go to my pillow
                                   Milton  

[Mary = Mary Louisa Michel Binckley (1838-1930).
John Milton Binckley (1831-1878).
Mother = Charlotte Stocker Binckley (1788-1877).
Rosalie Binckley (October 1862-June 15, 1864).
Ellen = Ellen/Nellie/Nella Fontaine Binckley (1860-1951).
George = George Michael Binckley (1828-1885).
PH = Philander H. [Henry?] Binckley (1826-1898).
Allen = Allen Otho Binckley (1826-1876).
John Henry = John Henry Binckley (1861-1948), named after John Henry Binckley (1788-1849).]

Mary Louisa Michel Binckley to Charlotte Stocker Binckley, December 14, 1862

[Mary Louisa/Louise Mitchell/Michel Binckley at Washington [City] to Charlotte Stocker Binckley at [Burlington(?), Iowa], December 14, 1862.  Paragraph breaks added for easier reading.

Many thanks to William Myers, Mary Davy, Sally Young and Sue Davis for their ongoing research collaboration; specifically to William for providing scans of the original document, and in turn many thanks to Peter Johnston Binckley and Patricia D'Arcy "Trish" Binckley (1951-2007), at the source.]

                                                           Washington Dec. 14th 1862

My dear mother Binckley

Your most welcome letter was duly received, and the only regret it caused was that you should [not] have thought for an instant that I would allow myself to be hurt by your seeming neglect. No, I know too well how difficult it is for you to write now, and am thankful that you can, and do have the patience to accomplish even an occasional letter. So do not I beg of you, allow that idea to trouble you again, but just write when you feel like it, and be assured I will wait patiently, and receive any thing from your pen gladly.  

It has been so long since I wrote, and I have so many things to talk of, I scarcely know where to begin. Mother had been gone only two weeks and I was just beginning to get the house straight, and myself a little used to housekeeper's harness, when poor little Rosalie made her appearance, at least a month sooner than I had expected. I was alarmed at first, thinking that the unusual exertions I had made after mother went had injured me, but the Doctor assured me every thing was right, and Milton was so glad it was all safely over, that I was glad myself finally.

Of my troubles during the last two months it is useless to speak now. I think they are pretty much over now and I do hope brighter days are in store for us. Milton has recovered entirely from the severe spell he had when baby was about a month old.

Baby herself is not so cross, does no cry so continually, and I myself am pretty well now. The violent cold and cough I had when I first left my room has left me entirely, with neuralgia to be sure, but that you know one gets used to. 

I have got the house straight at last for the winter do begin to feel as if I could draw a fine breath. Our winter had begin unusually soon -- we have had two snows already and one very cold spell the last week in November. I am sorry for it not only because I dislike cold weather, but fuel is so high this season that fire is a heavy items of expense. 

This is a hard winter for us, but when I think of our family still entirely in the midst of this terrible war which is making so many widows and orphans I must confess that our trials are comparatively easy to bear. Lately especially I have had peculiar cause for thankfulness. The house where mother and Sue were boarding, a fine old-fashioned place, took fire Thanksgiving night and burnt to the ground, and Sue and mother both made narrow escapes. 

Sue had not gone to sleep as early as usual and as the fire broke out just over her room, she would have been surrounded by flames and suffocated if she had gone to bed at the usual time. Poor Susie! Mother says she did behave so well, showed the self possession and energy of a woman and managed to save nearly all their clothes, besides many things belonging to the family. Mother was trying to save things upstairs when the stairway caught, and she just did escape. 

It fills me with horror to think of that night. Poor mother lost a chest packed with all her old relics, mementoes of the past -- old books, drawings, letters, in short every thing of that kind that she valued on earth, and I know what a trial it has been to her by the grief it has caused me. 

They are living now in an old uninhabited house in the neighborhood, but it is cold and comfortless and [they] hope soon to be able to fix up the old house father bought and go with that. I expect mother will write to you soon, when she feels a little more settled, and can get together some writing materials. Every thing of that kind was burnt.

Father is going down to see them for a few days Christmas principally to take down various things which they are in need of. I will have to spend at least two days this week shopping for the Moores and mother, for you know some things are more trouble to get large ones.

I was so disappointed last week. Mr. Field had been trying to get leave of absence to make a visit to his family in Burlington, and for some days thought he could. I was going down [the] street to take my Christmas treat in fixing up a little box to send you by him, when he announced he had been refused leave. Saturday evening he did get leave, but too late for me to do anything, and I had to let him go without one thing for you, knowing too that my only chance was gone for we cannot afford the expenses this year.

[D]ear mother, will you accept from me as the only substitute I can offer, the first money I earned by working a pair of shoulder-straps? I consecrated it to you as I worked, and hope you will get with it some little thing for your own personal use or gratification. I only wish it could be multiplied a thousand times, so that we could transport you to our own fireside.

If we could have you and brother George here it would be Christmas indeed -- my own family have all left me, I cannot have my husband with me, and the social season will be lonely and saddened.

I heard from Willie not long ago through a lady who had just come on -- he was doing well and in better health than he had been for years. All our relations, as far as we can hear are well.

As for news here, I can give you but little; I have not visited, or gone out except on business for months.

Katy Ridgely came by in the carriage 3 months ago to show me her baby -- a fine boy, some six weeks old then. She herself looked badly, had lost her hair and was evidently worsted.

Susie[?] and Mary are well but much occupied -- Mary by constant company, and Susie[?] by nursing first Mary, who had hooping-cough badly in the fall, and now old Mrs. Cromwell who is sick constantly. Emma's bad health makes her of little service.

I suppose Milton wrote to you that we had heard of Erskine Stuart's folks. They had come into possession of the property left Mrs. Stuart* and were in Richmond living in style, and Fannie to be married soon. All were well. I haven't heard from the Alexandria Stuarts. 

I will have to stop . . . baby is crying for me, and I have to keep Nellie in my sight continually or she is in some mischief -- her last exploit was to get the scissors, hide under the table and cut all the hair off one side of her head! [I]t curled so prettily too. I took a good cry.  Good bye
                                                                                             In haste
                                                                                                Lou

[John Milton Binckley (circa 1831-1878).

Mary Louisa Mitchell/Michel Binckley (1838-1930).  Children up to that time:  Ellen / Nellie / Nella (Fontaine) Binckley (1860-1951), Rosalie Binckley (October 1862-June 1864). 
Mother Binckley = Charlotte Stocker Binckley (1788-1877).
Mother = Jane Mary Wood Johnston Mitchell/Michel (1811-1892).
Father = Harvey Mitchell/Michel (1799-1866).
Sue = Sue Henry Mitchell/Michel (1845-1940).
Willie = William Manning Mitchell/Michel (1839-1908).
George = George Michael Binckley (1828-1885). 

*Frances "Fannie" Elizabeth Glenn Stewart (1825-1913) – wife of James Erskine Stewart (1814-1890), who served as law clerk with the US Department of the Interior, 1852-1861; Frances “Fannie” Stewart (ca. 1845-?) was their daughter.]

"Arrest of Mrs. Edward W. Johns[t]on -- Her Husband Follows Her to Prison" (1862)

["Arrest of Mrs. Edward W. Johns[t]on -- Her Husband Follows Her to Prison." Columbus, Ohio. The Crisis. August 27, 1862. Volume II, Number 31, page 248. From the St. Louis Democrat.]

[From the St. Louis Democrat.]*

 Arrest of Mrs. Edward W. Johns[t]on -- Her Husband Follows Her to Prison. 

Mrs. Edward W. Johns[t]on, wife of the former librarian at Mercantile Hall, having been arrested at Eureka, in St. Louis County, twelve miles from the City, on the line of the Pacific Railroad, was on Saturday [August 16, 1862] committed to the Gratiot street prison. The allegation against her is substantially as follows:

"In the performance of his assigned duty, a United States officer called at her residence to search for arms; and, though his deportment and language were as courteous as consistent with the task, he was assailed by her in terms of violent abuse. She defiantly avowed the rankest hostility to the national Government, bitterly stigmatized the soldiers of the Union, and took pains to make her remarks personally offensive to the officer."

On his report of the case to his superior, her arrest was at once ordered. Her husband appeared at the offices of the District Provost Marshal General and the Provost Marshal of the division, and demanded to be allowed to visit her. He was informed that the prison rules forbade it, on which he announced his intention, unless permitted  to see her, to do something by which he also would be sent to the prison. He was thereupon duly committed as a prisoner and escorted to Eighth and Gratiot streets. Edward W. Johns[t]on is a brother of General Joseph Johns[t]on of Virginia.  

[*These brackets in original.]

[Edward William Johnston (1799-1867)
Margaret A. (Jewett?) Wooley/Woolley Johnston (1821-1867)
Joseph Eggleston Johnston (1807-1891)]

[Many thanks to William Myers, Mary Davy, Sally Young and Sue Davis for their ongoing research collaboration.]

"Edward William Johnston, Roving Scholar" by Clarence E. Miller (1952): Part 2

Portrait of Edward William Johnston by Sarah Miriam Peale (circa 1858-1860). Original at University of Missouri - St. Louis / Mercantile Library.  

[Excerpts from Clarence E. Miller, "Edward William Johnston, Roving Scholar,” Missouri Historical Society Bulletin, Volume 9, Number 1. (October 1952), pages [81]–87. A few extra paragraph breaks added for easier reading and emphasis.]

'The catalogue [for the St. Louis Mercantile Library] was really a noteworthy work in the field. There were supplementary bibliographical notes interspersed that revealed the scholarly qualities of Johnston and showed him as well qualified for the position of librarian, to which post he was elected in April, 1859. At last it seemed he might have reached the harbor of serenity. For two years he carried on the multiple and often incongruous activities of a librarian in an understaffed library: buying books, classifying and cataloguing them, supervising the reading of the membership at the issue-desk, providing reference material for the studious, serving everybody in one way or another and happy in the task' (pages 84-85). 

'In my early days at the library I talked to many who remembered Johnston at this period. They all remembered him distinctly and intimately, as ordinary men who have been dead nearly forty years are not recalled. To them he was a brilliant, warm and eager personality, a man rich in shrewd and humorous comment on the celebrities of his day, all of whom he seemed to have known. A communicative and friendly man, but nevertheless something of an enigma . . .' (page 85).

'The opening of 1862 found poor Johnston at the very center of civil strife. A struggle between the Northern and Southern members of the library for control of the board of direction focused the attention of the military authorities on the library, and so on January 26 General Henry W. Halleck issues [issued] Special Order No. 80, requiring the board members and employees of the library to take the oath of allegiance at noon on January 29. . . on January 28 he [Johnston] submitted his resignation to the directors, explaining that he was engaged in the composition of an historical work that would occupy his entire time. A few weeks later we find him employed in cataloguing the library's recently acquired coin collection. For this work he was paid $400' (page 85).

'But the erstwhile genial and tolerant man was growing embittered and given to caustic argument with readers, so he was persuaded to retire to a quiet cottage on the Meramec River near Glencoe, where he could write his historical work undisturbed. A temporary and surreptitious pension of $40 a month was given him by keeping him on the payroll under the thin disguise of "Edward Johnson."'

'On August 18, 1862, Johnston's wife was arrested at Eureka, Missouri, for voicing Southern sentiments. She was brought to Gratiot Street Prison, in St. Louis, but was released the next day. She died sometime within the next few years, a shadowy lady about whom I should like to know more' (page 85).

'Johnston, now a lonely, emaciated old gentleman, returned to St. Louis and taught for a while at the Academy of the Christian Brothers. He joined the Catholic Church, and married his housekeeper, probably in 1866. In the spring of 1867 he became very ill with cancer of the throat, and on December 9, 1867, after protracted agony, he died. His second wife, Margaret, who was tubercular, survived him but a few hours, and both were buried in Calvary Cemetery on December 11, 1867. General Joseph E. Johnston was the only member of the family mentioned as being in attendance, and he arrived in the city too late to see his brother alive. Johnston's literary papers were willed to another brother, according to the obituary in the St. Louis Times, but no will was recorded . . .' (pages 85-86).

'. . . One other postscript or visual memory of Johnston is the portrait hanging on the library wall. The portrait was painted in 1858 by Sarah Peale, member of the distinguished family of artists, and it is vibrant with quick intelligence, humorous appreciation, and nervous drive. The round head, shaped like that of his brother, the general, is bald on top, but somehow vigorously so; the hazel eyes twinkle in puckish enjoyment of life's paradoxes, of which he had seen his full share. The nose and mouth are firm of line.'

'The long white beard is in startling and patriarchal contrast to the comparatively youthful face. Miss Peale evidently lapsed into a spinster's panic when she sighted it, merely draping it on like a stage property or ceremonial appendage. As a symbol of the strange and hearltess pranks life can play on man it might pass, but as a growth from flesh and blood it is quite incredible' (page 87).

'How inadequately the incidents in a man's life reveal his character and motives. I wonder what manner of man that Edward William Johnston really was . . .' (page 85).

[Edward William Johnston (1799-1867)
Clarence E. Miller (1881-1964) was librarian at the St. Louis Mercantile Library from 1941 to 1958; he worked at the library for more than fifty years.
Henry Wager Halleck (1815-1872)
The Academy of the Christian Brothers was a college level Catholic school located in St. Louis. It is now, in a different location, the Christian Brothers College High School. 
"His second wife Margaret" was the same wife who was sent to Gratiot Street Prison, not a different person. She also had a daughter from a previous marriage, Margaret Jewett, who lived with them until their near-simultaneous deaths.   
Joseph Eggleston Johnston (1807-1891)
Sarah Miriam Peale (1800-1885) also did portrait paintings of the Marquis de Lafayette (1757-1834).
$400 in 1862 = about $9,000 in early 2017; $40 pension = about $900/month.] 

[Many thanks to William Myers, Mary Davy, Sally Young and Sue Davis for their ongoing research collaboration.]

John Milton Binckley: Legal Advertisements, 1862

John Milton Binckley: Legal Advertisement. 

"CONTESTED LAND CASES on Appeal, or otherwise, requiring argument or investigation. Suspended land claims of States, corporations or individuals. Suspended entries, etc. The under-signed, lately in charge of the preemption bureau, may be consulted at No. 424 Pennsylvania avenue. Refer to officials of the Land Department.  dec 9-1m*  JOHN M. BINCKLEY."

The National Republican (Washington City): January 07, 1862, page 4. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress. Link here.

John Milton Binckley: Legal Advertisement.

AGENCY FOR THE COLLECTION OF MILITARY CLAIMS, BACK PAY, BOUNTY MONEY, PENSIONS, &C. &C., FOR SOLDIERS, WIDOWS AND HEIRS. BINCKLEY & CLARKE. JOHN M. BINCKLEY, Esq., Washington City, E. M. CLARKE, Esq., Lancaster, Ohio Have established an office in Lancaster for the special accommodation of the people of Fairfield county. OFFICE - Tallmadge Block, Main Street, Lancaster, Ohio. 

The Weekly Lancaster Gazette. September 11, 1862, page 2. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress. Link here. 

[John Milton Binckley (1821-1878)]

John Mitchell to Dear Cousin (probably Louisa Smith Bowen Johnston), April 1, 1862

[John Mitchell at Mt. Jackson [Virginia] to Dear Cousin [probably Louisa Smith Bowen Johnston -- "Louise Johnston" penciled in], April 1, 1862, Box 2, John Warfield Johnston Papers, 1778-1890, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University. Paragraph breaks are suggested in the original letter, which is faded, by extra spacing].

I reached this camp Sunday morning after riding in the rain all day Saturday. I wrote to you while in Staunton.  We had a very pleasant trip except the last day as we had to ride on top of the coach.

Have you had a nice time with the fifty-six [56th Virginia Infantry Regiment?] since I left[?]  [T]here are a quantity of them sick in Abingdon now I heard this morning. 

Our regiment suffered a great deal in the fight the other day [First Battle of Kernstown, March 23, 1862], the killed, wounded and missing amounted to 113. In our company 18 were lost, but James Henry [possibly Henry Wright] was the only one that was killed I believe. Poor fellow, they say he was in better spirits that morning than he had ever been before and even on the field singing (Dixie) the last words he was heard to say was that he was glad that he belonged to the Washington Independents and the 37th regiment. His body was never recovered.

Lt. Haggy [Pleasant Smith Hagy (1834-1920)] was killed [he was wounded, captured and later exchanged, resurfacing in the First Texas Cavalry and is now buried in Gainesville, Texas]  about the same time and some of his men were carrying him off he told them to lay him down and make their escape & to tell his wife that he died at his post. [S]he said in the beginning that she would rather be a widow of a brave man than the wife of a coward. I suppose she is gratified now.

If I send you a present will you accept it[?] [I]t is not very pretty but I suppose it will do.

I have not broken the wish you put on my ring but think I will as I think about it every time I look at it. Has Charlie McCartney come back yet[?] [H]is father made him get off at the seven mile ford. Charlie told me that he was coming on in a few days. 

Tell me who it was that you thought I got a letter from the other day.

When is Rees [probably Rees Tate Bowen, Jr. (1845-1917)] going back to his company[?] 

Do you know who Major Williams [Titus Vespasian Williams (1835-1908)] claims as his sweetheart in Tazewell as I would like to know as he is always after me but who it is that he is courting.

We have plenty of drilling to do . . . duty to perform . . . must stop writing as it is getting dark. Give my love to all of the family and write soon to 

Your cousin
John Mitchell

P.s. direct your letter to Mt. Jackson Va. care of Lt. John A. Preston 37th Regt Va Vols.

Our pickets & the enemies [enemy's] are fighting with cannon 

[John D. Mitchell (1843-1922), buried in Cleburne, Texas. Son of John Davis Mitchell (1799-1859) and Eliza Frances Smith Mitchell (1821-1905)
Louisa Smith Bowen Johnston (1800-1873)
John A. Preston (1840-1914). Son of Robert Robinson Preston (1793-1836) and Elizabeth McDonald Preston (1808-1885)]

For their help and assistance, many thanks to the staff of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. For more information about the John Warfield Johnston Papers, here's a link to the guide.   

Congressional Documents Relating to Harvey Mitchell, 1861-1862

Relating to the loyalty of US government employees during the American Civil War. Harvey Mitchell (1799-1866) is included in two items from House Documents, Volume 173. US House of Representatives (Second Session of the Thirty-Seventh Congress, 1861-'62), January 1, 1862. Washington: US Government Printing Office. The first regarding Harvey is dated October 9, 1861.

The second item includes a statement about Harvey from a neighbor:

'The witness, C. F. Hamilton, states that "he (Mitchell) has talked sometimes favorable to the south, then again in favor of the Union." The witness further swears that the wife of Mitchell [Jane Wood Johnston Mitchell/Michel] is a sister under General Johnson [General Joseph E. Johnston]; that his son [William M. Mitchell/Michel, 1839-1908] is in the rebel army under Johnson; and that all his family went south except himself and a son-in-law [John Milton Binckley].'  

Special Correspondent: Letter from St. Louis, August 25, 1862

I came across this article, which dovetails nicely with previously posted US Provost Marshal records, and sets their context. Below the specific section about Margaret A. Johnston and Edward William Johnston (of Eureka and St. Louis at the time). 

LETTER FROM ST. LOUIS

Sacramento Daily Union, Vol. 23, No. 3577, 15 September 1862. 

[Link to digitized electronic copy here.]

{FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT}

Important Arrests. 

These discoveries [Confederate guerilla activities in the outskirts of St. Louis County] have led to the most searching investigations as to the accessories of the rebels in this city, and some interesting evidence implicating several parties has been obtained. 

In the course of the investigation it was deemed expedient by General [John] Schofield to order every house in the suburbs, whether its inmates were loyal or disloyal, to be searched for arms. 

This order led to the arrest, of a brother of the celebrated rebel Joe Johnston, of Virginia, and his wife, the rebel General's sister-in-law. The woman was arrested first for abusive and highly insulting language toward the Provost Guard, who visited her dwelling. 

After she had been arrested, Edward William Johnston, formerly editor of the Richmond Whig, and recently Librarian of the Mercantile Library, called at the Provost Marshal's office for a permit to visit his wife. He was informed that, all visits to military prisons were prohibited. 

Whereupon, Edward William, who is of an exceedingly excitable nervous temperament, became furious, and speedily subjected himself to arrest likewise. He had gone to keep his wife company. 

Johnston is fifty years of age [he was sixty-three at the time], of cultivated taste and extensive literary knowledge. He is an undoubted rebel at heart, but has had sufficient sense to keep quiet of late, and excepting for the unfortunate temper of his wife, would have avoided imprisonment as long as he lived in this city. 

Meanwhile, loyalty tests were being administered in Missouri. Here's an example from the same issue of the newspaper listed above, dated August 23, 1862. 

U.S. Provost Marshal Records, St. Louis, Missouri: Edward William Johnston and Margaret A. Johnston, 1862

Head Quarters 4^th Mo. Vol.

Pacific [Missouri] August 15^th 1862

Capt. George Leighton

Provost marshal General St. Louis Division

Sir:

I send down in charge of Lieut. J. E. Bauer, Adj. of my Regiment, the following prisoners.

Mrs. Johnston, living in the neighborhood of Eureka, was arrested this morning by Lieut. George Hussmann, in obedience to your Order, for disloyalty. You will please find enclosed charges against her, made out by Lieut. George Hussmann.

Patrick Reynolds lives in the neighborhood of Eureka, refused to be enrolled in the Militia, says if he has to fight at all, he will fight for the South.

Very respectfully your obedt Servant

Robert Hundausen

Col. 4^th Regt. Mo. Vol.

==================================================

Office of Provost Marshal General

ST. LOUIS DIVISION

St. Louis, Mo. August 16, 1862

Special Order No. 156

Edward William Jons[t]on is ordered  to be confined in Gratiot street prison on charge of avowed disloyalty to the Government of the United States. This order is written at Mr. Johns[t]on’s  own request.

By order of Brig. Gen. [John] Davidson [1825-1881].

Geo. E. Leighton

Provost Marshal General,

ST. LOUIS DIVISION

==================================================

Mrs. Edward Johnston regrets to say . . . To the U.S. officer, who, in obedience to orders, was engaged to make search for arms in her house.

And in future, she will endeavor to use greater prudence upon every occasion.

She also denies . . . the accusation that has been brought against her, of providing some kind of aid to the enemies of the United States.

Margaret A. Johnston

August 18, 1862

==================================================

Office  of Provost Marshal General,

ST. LOUIS DIVISION,

ST. Louis, Mo. Aug 19^th 1862

Special Order No. 180

Edward William Johns[t]on is ordered to be released from arrest. Upon any expressions of hostility to the Government in the future he will be immediately arrested and confined at the Alton prison [Alton Military Prison, Alton, Illinois].

By order of Brig. Genl. [John] Davidson

Geo E Leighton

Provost Marshal General,

ST. LOUIS DIVISION.

==================================================

Margaret A. Wooley/Woolley Johnston (1821-1867) was the second wife of Edward William Johnston (1799-1867). My rough transcription. Originals in Records of the Provost Marshal General's Bureau (Civil War), National Archives.

Image of Alton Military Prison from "Alton  in the Civil War," link here.

U.S. Provost Marshal Charges Against Margaret A. Johnston of Eureka, Missouri, 1862

Headquarters 4^th Reg Mo [Missouri] Vol

Pacific, Mo  Aug 15 1862

Charges against Mrs. Johns[t]on near Eureka St. Louis Co. Mo.

Disloyalty and treasonable language against Government of the United States

In this, that on the 23 day of July 1862, while I was searching the house of the prisoner for arms & ammunition, in accordance with orders received from Col. Robert  Hundausen, commdg 4^th Reg Mo. Vols., she, the said Mrs. Johns[t]on, although treated with all courtesy and leniency, used abusive language against the government, as follows: that she was a true daughter of the South, that is she had ten lives to loose [lose], she would cheerfully loose [lose] them for the success of the Southern Confederacy, that she gloried in the course Jefferson Davis had taken and was still pursuing, that he was all which was great and chivalrous and quite a contrast to the mean blackguard, negro-stealing contemptible abolition president Abraham Lincoln; that her prayers by day and by night and her best . . . was all for the success of the Southern Confederacy; that she gloried in her brave brother in law, Gen. [Joseph Eggleston] Johns[t]on, who had made the Union soldiers feel his heavy hand more than once, and she hoped and prayed he would do so again.

When the search was over, she used insulting language against me and the men of my command, asking us, if we would not enjoy the smokehouse, and appropriate the bacon, as was our custom, and we were half starved by the Government who hired us. All this without any provocation, as the men behaved orderly and quiet throughout.

Upon reporting this to Capt. Leighton [George Eliot Leighton, 1835-1901], Provost Marshal Gen., he ordered me to arrest Mrs. John[s]ton for accordance with the order I proceeded to her house with a squad of men this morning.

Upon arriving at the house, I told Mrs. Johns[t]on what my orders were. She said, she was ready, she was ready and willing to go, she expected it for some time, but that she was still of the same opinion. That she had been born and raised in the South, that all her sympathies were with the South, and all her hopes and prayers by day and by night centered in the success of the Southern cause, and she loved it and its institutions with an undying devotion, and that if she had 100,000 dollars, every dollar of it would be devoted to the Southern cause, and the destruction of the mean, black republican hordes, now fighting against the Southern cause.

While on the way from Eureka to Franklin, though treated with more courtesy than she perhaps deserved, she repeatedly used insulting language against the men, and hurrahed for Jeff. Davis, declaiming that her colors were red, white and red, and that she hoped and knew, that the blue was extinguished forever, and that we would rue the day, we had arrested her, together with many, similar expressions.

George Hussman

Lt. & Quartermaster

4^th Reg. Mo. Vol.

Margaret A. Wooley/Woolley Johnston (1821-1867) was the second wife of Edward William Johnston (1799-1867). My rough transcription. Original in Records of the Provost Marshal General's Bureau (Civil War), National Archives. Pictured at top: Gratiot Street Military Prison, St. Louis. Image can be found here.

There is a searchable Missouri Provost Marshal (1861-1866) database here.