Pre war Missouri encampment.

Robert Gray

Sergeant Major
Joined
Jul 24, 2012
Camp Lewis, St. Louis Fair Grounds, 1860.
Colonel A.R. Easton and members of the 1st Regiment, Missouri State Guards.

Missouri History Museum, Photographs and Prints Collections.

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Colonel A.R. Easton and members of the 1st Regiment, Missouri State Guards
This was actually the Missouri Volunteer Militia - the prewar state militia. After the Camp Jackson Affair it was basically reorganized as the Missouri State Guard. The MSG was not the exact same organization, however, but many of the former MVM went on to serve in it.

Here's a larger version
Missouri Volunteer Militia.jpg
 
Camp Lewis, St. Louis Fair Grounds, 1860.
Colonel A.R. Easton and members of the 1st Regiment, Missouri State Guards.

Missouri History Museum, Photographs and Prints Collections.

View attachment 223594
Missouri State Guard (MSG) was a war time term used after the St Louis Massacre and the Planter House incident,the pre-war Militia was the Missouri State Militia sometimes referred to as the Missouri Volunteer Militia (MVM) to differ it from the war time Missouri State Militia (MSM).
 
The State Militia was deployed before the War to the Counties on the western border adjacent to Kansas in order to interdict jayhawking raids already happening. Many future MSG members gained experience fighting invaders a few years before Lincoln Federalized these invaders. From the Missouri Sec. of State website:

Southwest Expedition (Kansas-Missouri Border Troubles), 1860

During the antebellum period, many Missourians advocated for the organization of the territory west of the state's border. The land, home to many Native American tribes, was fertile and undeveloped. More importantly to Missouri, as a slave state, was the possibility of sharing a border with a territory that allowed slaves, thus protecting and defending their own interests in that institution.


President Franklin Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act on May 31, 1854. The act organized the land west of Missouri into two territories, Kansas and Nebraska, with the provision that popular sovereignty would determine if the territories were slave or free.


That act set the stage for a decade of border warfare. Missourians from the western counties began by raiding Kansas's territorial elections, attempting to establish a pro-slavery government through illegal voting and violence. Finally, in October 1857, with federal troop protection, a legal free-territory government was established; in January 1861, Kansas was admitted as a free state.


From the spring of 1858 through December of 1860, western Missourians suffered many depredations from Kansas invaders, referred to as "jayhawkers." The attacks were in retaliation for offenses inflicted on Kansans by aggressive bands of "border ruffians" from Missouri. Vehemently opposed to slavery, the jayhawkers engaged in acts ranging from looting to murder.


In February 1859, the Missouri state legislature appropriated $30,000 to suppress the troubles in western Missouri and bring the jayhawkers to justice. That April, Governor Robert Stewart instructed the state's attorney general to organize militia companies in Bates and Cass counties. There was a brief cessation of hostility during the spring and summer of 1859; James Montgomery, the Kansas guerrilla leader, and his forces were scattered.


Governor Stewart received calls for aid and protection along the border during 1860, as sporadic violence continued. The hostility only heightened with the election of President Abraham Lincoln. In late November, Stewart sent a body of troops from St. Louis and Jefferson City to Vernon County to suppress Montgomery's increased activities. The force was known as the Southwest Expedition, commanded by Brigadier-General Daniel M. Frost. Order was somewhat restored by December, but the border turmoil continued throughout the Civil War.
 
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It would appear that the colonel of the pictured unit, Col. Alton R. Easton, remained loyal to the federal government. In 1861 his name appears as the Inspector General of the MO State Militia.

Real nice picture though. In addition to drummer boys with lace collars, the flag bearer has a bouquet of flowers in his hand. Maybe it's a good thing Col. Easton stayed with he MSM. Perhaps he made it a "kinder, more gental militia."

Adjutant General's Report
of
Missouri State Militia
For the year 1861


His Excellency H.R. Gamble, Commander in Chief
Major Gen'l H.W. Halleck, Major Gen'l Command'g.
Brig. Gen'l JNO. M. Schofield, Brig., Gen'l Comm'g.

Governor's Staff
Colonel Chester Harding, Jr., Adjutant General.
Colonel Alton R. Easton, Inspector General
 
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