Missouri pacification?

On Nov. 20, 1863, General Orders No. 20 was signed for Brigadier General Thomas Ewing Jr. and issued at the Headquarters of the Union "District of the Border" in Kansas City, Missouri. General Ewing is to this day considered by many Missourians to have been a "Demon" and the "Devil Incarnate" because he was the Union officer who signed and issued the infamous Order No. 11 that resulted in the devastation and creation of a "No Man's Land" of the border counties of Western Missouri on Aug. 25, 1863.

General Orders No. 20 authorized the re-settlement of the vacated counties only by citizens who had signed an oath that indicated that they were loyal to the United States! In reality, this order was a Union attempt at the pacification of the No Man's Land it created.

Accordingly, Mr. Webster's definition of the word, pacification, is to "reduce, a rebellious district" (which almost all of Missouri certainly was!) to peaceful submission. Did it work? Of course it didn't! However, the offer was initiated in good faith to alleviate the suffering of loyal Missourians of whom there was a considerable number throughout the entire Civil War! General Orders No. 20 is edited as follows:

"I. Loyal persons, formerly resident in that part of the district from which the inhabitants were required to remove by General Orders No. 11, may obtain permits to return and safeguards for persons and property in the manner and on the terms herein prescribed. Applications for such permits and safeguards will be made to the officer commanding at one of the following stations nearest the applicant's place of residence, to wit, Westport, Independence, Hickman Mills, Pleasant Hill, Harrisonville, Trading Post, (Kan.) and must be accompanied with satisfactory proof of the uniform loyal conduct and reputation of the applicants. Each adult of a family will make separate proofs and receive a separate permit and safeguard. Save in exceptional circumstances, such permits will not be given at present to any person owning no land or crops or having no sufficient means of support nor to any persons having near relative or connections in the rebel service.

II. When any person holding such safeguard or permit shall willfully violate any one of the conditions on which it is given, such person shall be arrested and sent here by the nearest station commander for trial and punishment. In case the person so offending is a woman and the head of a family, she shall be ordered out of the district and failing to go, will be sent here with her family for removal.

III. If any person or persons shall settle in the district named without such permission in writing being first regularly obtained, such person or persons will be notified by the nearest station commander to leave the district and on failure to do so will be arrested and sent here for removal.

IV. Commanders of stations named above will cause all men who are allowed to return to be organized, as far as practicable, in companies in the several neighborhoods. Each company will consist of not less than 30 men, living within convenient distances of the place of rendezvous and arms (weapons), clothing and rations will be issued to them. They will be received by proper authorities as militia of the state in active service. They must return to their farms, not as non-combatants, but thoroughly armed and organized. It is chiefly by such neighborhood organization that they can hope to save themselves and their property, keep out the guerillas and ensure a permanent and prosperous resettlement of the border.

By order of Brigadier General Thomas Ewing Jr." How well did "General Orders No. 20" work in Bates and Vernon counties, Mo.?

The following report indicates that there was only limited success.

Headquarters Troops on the Border, Trading Post, Kan., Dec. 5, 1863.

Sir, I have the honor to report I have just returned from a scout (military mission) in Bates County, Missouri, having been absent for 7 days. I found a small gang of bushwhackers on the Osage River below Papinsville in number about 28. They are the old gang of Marchbank's Company. It is their intention to winter in Bates County, if possible. They scatter when approached, but I think they can be trapped. I start another scout after them tomorrow.

I find quite a number of families living in Bates, on the eastern line (boundary), who have returned (illegally) from Henry County on written and verbal permits from the militia of Henry County.

I have ordered them all out of the district again, but think some of them will have to be hauled out before they go. In regard to the resettlement of Bates and Vernon counties, I think two settlements can be made on the eastern side, one on Deep Waters and one on Panther Creek. I have some doubts, however, about 30 men at each place being able to prove their loyalty and comply with General Orders No. 20. I find also several men gathering up hogs in the eastern part of Bates County, who have passes from the commanding officer at Clinton, by authority of the general commanding the District of the Border.

The country is very much devastated by prairie fires, many good farms being destroyed and the loss seems to have fallen heavier on the loyal than the disloyal.

I saw and conversed with some of the best and most reliable Union men (now in Henry County), formerly of Bates, who intend to avail themselves of the privileges of Orders No. 20, as soon as they find that enough will attempt to make it safe.

There have been no applications here for permits to settle on the western side of Bates and Vernon counties.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

E. Lynde,

Colonel, 9th Kansas Vol. Cavalry Comdg."

Implementing and enforcing Orders No. 20 was very difficult and impossible in the majority of the "District of the Border".

This was a form of occupational duty that is always fraught with danger and difficulty which is perfectly obvious today, if one watches the nightly news from Iraq!