When Grant and His Troops Camped in Mexico – Mexico, Missouri, That Is …

On a recent trip to Missouri, I had the opportunity to spend a couple nights in Mexico, a city of about 11,500 people located in the central part of the state. It’s also where Col. Ulysses S. Grant camped with his men in July and August of 1861, and where he learned he had been promoted to brigadier general. 

So, why was Grant here? Why was this rather remote location about 120 miles northwest of St. Louis seen as a strategic location for the stationing of Union troops? And, why did I make this a stop on my recent trip to Missouri?

I’ll start with the second question. As explained on a city sign about Mexico: “This area was of vital strategic importance to both sides, politically and militarily, during the War. Politically, Southern sympathies ran deep in this area, the heart of a region known as ‘Little Dixie,’ due to the Southern origins of most of the region’s residents. The local population provided support for the Missouri State guard, and later for the Confederate Army, through the substantial numbers of recruits and other resources, which the area supplied to the Southern cause.

“Militarily, Mexico was important primarily because of the railroad. Railroads were vital methods of transportation for manpower and material during the War. The North Missouri Railroad ran from St. Charles to Mexico, and on up to Macon. There, it joined the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, the only rail line that crossed the entire breadth of the State. Both sides thus recognized the strategic benefits of controlling this part of northeast Missouri.” [1]

Now, for the first question. Because of its strategic importance, early in the war several Union Army units were sent to Northeastern Missouri to help secure Missouri for the Union. One of those units was led by Maj. Gen. John Pope, who was ordered to Missouri following attacks on north Missouri railroads in mid-July 186l. There, he established the headquarters of the Army’s Department of North Missouri in Mexico, serving as its commander from July 24 to August 7, 1861.

Other units were sent from Illinois, with one of those being the 21st Illinois Infantry, which Grant commanded. As explained on the sign, “Grant and his men camped here in Mexico, protecting the town and the rail line from pro-Confederate forces, from about July 20 to August 7, 1861. Grant made his headquarters in west Mexico in an area known as ‘the commons,’ west of Missouri Avenue…. Grant was stationed here when he learned that he would receive a Brigadier General’s star. While here, he visited Graceland Mansion, which was built on this site in 1857.” [2]

Today, the Graceland Mansion houses the Audrain County Historical Society, along with the Graceland Museum, Saddlebred Horse Museum, Country Church and School, Fire Brick Museum, and other museum collections. My husband and I were fortunate to arrive just as a tour was beginning, so we got to hear a lot about the mansion, its various owners, and its Civil War history, including its connections to Grant. 

While in Mexico, Grant befriended the owner of Graceland Mansion, John P. Clark. A native Virginian, Clark first moved to North Missouri in 1843. He chose to settle in Mexico, a town that was “only just beginning to evolve from the frontier stage,” but was “a county seat with a bright future” [3]. Three years later, in 1846, he married Mary Muldrow, whose parents were the original owners of the property on which the Graceland mansion was eventually built. 

In Mexico, Clark opened a successful school, entered politics, dealt in real estate, and eventually was elected to the County Court. By 1856, with his business prospering, he decided “he was ready to construct a residence worthy of his means and social standing.” After purchasing the property from his mother-in-law, he had an “imposing mansion … built to rival if not eclipse all others in Audrain County.” [4]

Three years after the mansion’s completion, the Civil War broke out, and Clark soon found himself in the company of Ulysses S. Grant, who “was dispatched to take charge of the laxly disciplined Union soldiers stationed [in Mexico], and to afford a measure of protection to the surrounding area from the depredations of roving guerrilla bands. When Grant grew weary of camp life, he would often repair to the residence of Judge Clark for diversion and relaxation.” [5]

In his book Grant Moves South, Bruce Catton had this to say about Grant’s stay in Mexico: “The 21st put in the rest of the month (July, 1861) in and about a town called Mexico not far from Hannibal, in the angle between the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. There was nothing in particular to do. Union troops here just now were actually a sort of glorified constabulary, keeping the peace, defending the loyalists as much by their presence as by any actual feats of arms, and during the next few weeks Grant had time to carry forward the discipline of his recruits and to reflect on the lights and shadows of a civil war.” [6]

In his personal memoirs, Grant reflected on his time in Mexico and recalled the good news he received while he was there:

“In a short time after our return to Salt River bridge I was ordered with my regiment to the town of Mexico. General Pope was then commanding the district embracing all of the State of Missouri between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, with his headquarters in the village of Mexico. I was assigned to the command of a sub-district embracing the troops in the immediate neighborhood, some three regiments of infantry and a section of artillery.

“My arrival in Mexico had been preceded by that of two or three regiments in which proper discipline had not been maintained, and the men had been in the habit of visiting houses without invitation and helping themselves to food and drink, or demanding them from the occupants. I at once published orders prohibiting the soldiers from going into private houses unless invited by the inhabitants, and from appropriating private property to their own or to government uses. The people were no longer molested or made afraid. I received the most marked courtesy from the citizens of Mexico as long as I remained there.” [7]

As for the good news he received: “I had not been in Mexico many weeks when, reading a St. Louis paper, I found the President had asked the Illinois delegation in Congress to recommend some citizens of the state for the position of brigadier-general, and that they had unanimously recommended me as first on a list of seven. I was very much surprised because my acquaintance with the Congressmen was very limited and I did not know of anything I had done to inspire such confidence. The papers of the next day announced that my name, with three others, had been sent to the Senate, and a few days after our confirmation was announced.” [8]

That Grant and Clark formed a friendship while Grant was stationed in Mexico should not be surprising. While it’s true that many in the area supported the Confederacy and guerrilla violence was common in the area, Clark himself was reportedly a Union sympathizer; and “when the people learned [Grant’s] troops respected property, they began to visit the Union camp and became friendly with his troops,” happy for this different approach to patrolling the area. [9] 

Grant’s predecessor in the region, Gen. John Pope, had stated that the entire population must be assumed to be hostile. By contrast, Grant took an approach now called “counterinsurgency” and conjectured, “I am fully convinced that if orderly troops could be marched through this country, and none others, it would create a very different state of feeling from what exists now.” [10]

The Graceland Mansion also features many historical artifacts and quite a library of Civil War-related books. One of its upstairs rooms displays a lot of local Civil War history, primarily of the Confederate variety. I found the description of the flag especially interesting:

“The flag you are looking at is a reproduction of the Audrain County Flag that was made by the ladies of Mexico, Missouri, for their local infantry company when they marched off to fight for Missouri in the Civil War. It first waved in glory at the Battle of Carthage, then again at Wilson’s Creek. It waved on high when on November 3rd Missouri joined the Confederate States of America then moved east of the Mississippi River and became part of the 2nd Missouri Infantry. Then as the Missouri Brigade fought in battles around and including the siege of Vicksburg (largest number of Missouri troops), it was soon regarded as one of the best units in the Confederate Army…. In total the flag was present at some 78 engagements and battles ranging across the former Confederate States of America.” [11]

So now, to get to the third question: Why was I here? As it turns out, I have quite a bit of family history in both Mexico and nearby Centralia. I wrote about my family connections to Centralia in earlier posts on both the Centralia Massacre and the Battle of Centralia. Mexico is about 13 miles east of Centralia, and it is here my great grandfather, William Francis Traughber, set up his medical practice in 1900. He lived in Mexico for about seven years before moving to California, by that time with a wife and child.

So, while I was primarily there to conduct two book talks as part of my mini Book Tour (learn more about that on this KQ2 TV news report from St. Joseph or this ECW podcast if you are interested), I was also there to explore more of my family history and dig around in some of the museum exhibits and books to see what I could find. 

My book A State Divided: The Civil War Letters of James Calaway Hale and Benjamin Petree of Andrew County, Missouri, 1862-1865 includes fifty family letters from two of my ancestors who fought for the Union. Both men were from the Savannah area of Andrew County, in the northwest corner of the state. My ancestors who lived in Centralia, however, fought for the Confederacy, as did most of the residents in this area of Missouri, an area known as “Little Dixie.” 

The marriage of James Calaway Hale’s granddaughter and Benjamin Petree’s niece, Nora Elma Petree, to William Francis Traughber in August 1905 brought these two sides of the family together. Though their parents had supported different sides during the Civil War, they fell in love when W.F. Traughber moved north to Kirksville, Missouri, where Nora then lived, to study at A.T. Still University’s College of Osteopathy. I can only wonder what conversations they might have had about this divergent family history.

In my next post, I will share some stories and photos from our private tour of the Centralia Battlefield led by Centralia’s town historian, Phil, and describe more about what we learned in Centralia.

Endnotes:

1. “Mexico in the Civil War.” Missouri’s Civil War Heritage Foundation, Inc, 2015. Photo by Tonya McQuade, 4 Oct 2024.
2. Ibid.
3. “Ross House/Audrain County Historical Museum.” National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form. United States Department of the Interior – National Park Service. ?https://mostateparks.com/sites/mostateparks/files/Ross%20House.pdf.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Catton, Bruce. Grant Moves South. Castle Books, 2000.
7. Grant, Ulysses S. The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant: The Complete Annotated Edition. Edited by John F. Marszalek, et al., Harvard University Press, 2019.
8. Ibid.
9. Costigan, David. “Gen. Grant recalls his experiences on both sides of the river.” Herald-Whig, 27 Apr 2024, https://www.whig.com/lifestyles/history/gen-grant-recalls-his-experiences-on-both-sides-of-the-river/article_9216a6f6-03fc-11ef-9e9f-b7be19c61c63.html#:~:text=Grant’s%20next%20assignment%20was%20to,the%20remainder%20of%20the%20war.&text=Costigan%2C%20David.,:%20Da%20Capo%20Press%2C%202007.
10. Ibid.
11. “History as Told by the Flag.” Display at Audrain County Historical Museum in Mexico, Missouri. Photo by Tonya McQuade, 4 Oct. 2024.