Parsons went from senator to general

By the spring of 1861 a great many people were heady with the intoxicating ambrosia of approaching war.

The previous January, Missouri state Sen. Mosby Monroe Parsons called for his adopted state to secede from the Union and side with the Confederacy. The Charlottesville native was an ardent supporter of states’ rights.

But Missouri was a border state, and for every person wanting to secede from the Union there were at least two who wanted to stay put.

When Fort Sumter fell to the Confederacy on April 14, 1861, the nation began its tragic, irreversible slide into the voracious maw of war.

Less than a week later a pro-Rebel mob took control of a Union arsenal in Liberty, Mo., and carried off about a 1,000 small arms. Then Missouri Gov. Claiborne Jackson made a decision that had tragic consequences.

Itchy trigger fingers

The governor officially was neutral on the question of whether or not the state should remain in the Union or join the rebellion. Still, it was widely known that he favored the Confederacy.

So it’s understandable that Union backers got a little jumpy when, around May 1, the governor called out the Missouri Militia for what he termed “maneuvers.” The rallying point for the troops was a place called Lindell’s Grove just outside St. Louis.

Nearly 700 men answered the call and dubbed the makeshift tent city Camp Jackson. From the Union’s perspective this massing of troops spelled danger for the St. Louis Arsenal, which was less than 5 miles away.

To ensure that the 40,000 rifles in it didn’t fall into Rebel hands, Union Capt. Nathaniel Lyon took his own force of men to the camp. The Yankee officer ultimately took into custody 669 men who refused to take the oath of allegiance to the federal government.

Lyon then made the decision to march his prisoners under guard back to the arsenal. Once inside its protective walls he planned to parole the men with the understanding they wouldn’t reassemble.

Taunting turns tragic

Trouble started when large numbers of jeering civilians began crowding the march route. It wasn’t long before taunts escalated to rock throwing. What actually set off what became known as the Camp Jackson Affair remains unclear.

One of the most widely accepted accounts says an inebriated man reeled out of the mob, leveled a pistol in the direction of the guards and fired. A fatally wounded Union soldier crumpled to the ground, setting off a fusillade of retaliatory gunfire.

Within seconds the blood of men, women and children was mingling on the street. At least 20 civilians were dead and as many as 100 wounded.

As soon as the Missouri legislature received word of the massacre, it passed the bill introduced by Parsons. In no time the man from Virginia had exchanged his civilian clothes for a military uniform of gray, bedecked with the single stars of a brigadier general.

It took Parsons a little time to set aside his legislative duties and take command of the Sixth Division of the Missouri State Guard. He first saw action at the Battle of Carthage on July 5, 1861.

Parsons went on to distinguish himself at the battles of Wilson’s Creek, Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove.

In April 1864, Gen. Kirby Smith promoted him to major general, but the war ended before the Confederate Congress made it official.

When the din and roar of the Civil War finally fell silent in the spring of 1865, Parsons couldn’t bring himself to accept defeat. He was not alone.

Like many Rebels who still had plenty of fight left in them, Parsons opted to cross into Mexico. What exactly he had in mind by making this move is not clear.

Perhaps his plan was to join other likeminded soldiers in Mexico and somehow continue the fight from there. He simply might not have wanted to stay in a country led by people he had been fighting against for four brutal years.

Whatever Parsons’ reasoning, it appears he joined up with Mexican forces under the command of Emperor Maximilian.

Maximilian’s ill-fated attempt to unite Mexico didn’t go any better than the South’s attempt to leave the Union.

It’s widely believed that in August 1865, Parsons was killed by forces opposing Maximilian.If Parsons’ grave ever were marked, all traces of it were quickly swept away. Sometime after his death a memorial stone bearing his name was placed in Charlottesville’s Maplewood Cemetery.

The marker is often mistaken for a tombstone. But those who know understand it’s simply a tribute to a Charlottesville son who never stopped believing in what turned out to be a lost cause.