The Declaration of Independence, and July 4, in Missouri

Jul. 3—July 4, 1804

Lewis and Clark had been pushing up the Missouri River for nearly two months, yet July 4, 1804, found them still in what is now the state of Missouri. That day, Clark wrote: "The Plains of this countrey are covered with a Leek Green Grass, well calculated for the sweetest and most norushing hay — interspersed with Cops (copses) of trees, Spreding their lofty branchs over Pools Springs or Brooks of fine water. Groops of Shrubs covered with the most delicious froot is to be seen in every direction, and nature appears to have exerted herself to butify the Senery by the variety of flours raiseing Delicately and highly flavered raised above the Grass, which Strikes & profumes the Sensation, and amuses the mind throws it into Conjecterng the cause of So magnificent a Senerey ... in a Country thus Situated far removed from the Sivilised world to be enjoyed by nothing but the Buffalo Elk Deer & Bear in which it abounds & Savage Indians."

They camped at the mouth of a creek near present-day Atchison, Kansas, and called it "Independence Creek."

"We Close the (day) by a Discharge from our bow piece, an extra Gill of whiskey," he wrote.

While much of what Lewis and Clark witnessed is gone or private property, one of the places in Missouri that is open to the public is Clark's Hill Norton State Historic Site in Cole County. The Lewis and Clark Expedition camped at the site from June 1-3, 1804, where the Osage River at the time ended the journey it began in eastern Kansas and emptied into the Missouri River.

July 4, 1861

Union forces led by Col. Franz Sigel arrived in Carthage that evening, making camp at Carter Spring, along the Sarcoxie Road.

"Even though it was Independence Day, the tempo of the march had left little time for celebrating the nation's birthday," wrote historians David Hinze and Karen Farnham in "The Battle of Carthage." "Once in camp, a few men managed to explode some black powder bombs, but most were too weary from the heat to engage in such activities. ... the soldiers ended their adopted nation's birthday by soothing their blistered feet in cool spring water."

They wrote that Carthage was deserted that night, as locals expected a battle with the Missouri State Guard, camped 18 miles to the north, near Lamar. That evening, some of the soldiers ventured into town, where they encountered teenage girls who displayed an American flag stitched together from curtains. Soldiers gathered around the flag and serenaded the girls. That night, the first shots were exchanged as State Guard troops foraging in the area encountered Sigel's pickets along the Spring River.

The next day, the battle erupted. The New York Times on July 15, 1861, called the Battle of Carthage "the first serious conflict between the United States troops and the rebels." The Encyclopedia of the American Civil War still considers it the "the first large-scale land battle of the Civil War."

"The affair at Carthage hardly rose to the dignity of a respectable skirmish, but it was impressive and grand to us then," Missouri State Guard artillerist Lt. William Barlow wrote later.

Carter Spring is today part of the Battle of Carthage State Historic Site.

'Merciless'

The document that early on notes that "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights" notes near the end: "He (King George III) has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions."

In 1837, the first detachment of Cherokee took what would be called the Northern Route of the Trail of Tears, which came through Southwest Missouri. This is from one diarist with the first of several contingents of Cherokees who came through the area, written as the group slogged on between Springfield and Fayetteville, Arkansas:

—Dec. 17, 1837: "Snowed last night, Buried Eleges wife and Chas. Timberlakes son (Smoker) ... extremely cold weather, sickness prevailing to a considerable extent, all very much fatigued."

—Dec. 18, 1837: "Detained on account of sickness, Doct. Townsend sent back to Springfield for medicines, buried Dreadful Waters this evening."

—Dec. 22, 1837: "Buried Goddards Grand child, Marched at 8 o'c. A. M., halted at McMurtrees." That is a reference to McMurtry Spring, in Barry County, Missouri, visible today along Missouri Highway 37 south of Cassville.

—Dec. 23, 1837: "Buried Rainfrogs daughter (Lucy Redstick's child). Marched at 8 o'c. A. M. halted at Reddix." That is a reference to William Ruddick's, sometimes spelled Reddick's, farm near what is today Pea Ridge, Arkansas.

Pea Ridge National Military Park preserves part of that story, and from Elkhorn Tavern in the park one can imagine the more than 10,000 Cherokees passing by, many of them sick, starving and freezing, many of them having buried loved ones and family along the way.

Deleted words

Originally in the Declaration of Independence, the following phrase was removed from the list of grievances. "He (King George III) has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it's most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. this piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce: and that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, & murdering the people upon whom he also obtruded them; thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another."

On Oct. 27-29, 1862, about 250 Black soldiers of the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry Regiment, a U.S. Army unit, met Confederates in battle in Southwest Missouri, near Butler. It was the first time in the Civil War that a unit made up of Black soldiers engaged the Rebels. Eight Union soldiers were killed and 11 wounded in the battle; Confederate casualties are unknown. Yet, according to Missouri State Parks, "This minor skirmish has national significance."

The battle received national attention and helped pave the way for other Black units in combat. The Chicago Tribune reported: "Their performance is so encouraging that it is useless to talk anymore about Negro courage. The men fought like tigers, each and every one of them."

It also helped pave the way for their freedom. A U.S. Senate report — No. 1214 on the 51st Congress — notes the connection between the fight in western Missouri and the president's decision.

"The discipline acquired and the courage displayed by the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteers in camp and on field during the last months of 1862 influenced the action of President Lincoln in issuing his proclamation of New Year's Day 1863, which ... forecasted the freedom and citizenship of persons of African descent."

Lincoln decided to officially accept black troops in combat roles in the Union Army, with six companies of the 1st Kansas Colored mustering in at Fort Scott on Jan. 13, 1863 — less than two weeks after he issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

Today, the battle site is preserved and open to the public, as the Battle of Island Mound State Historic Site, near Butler.