Letter signed John B. Gray, Adj. Genl. of Mo., St. Louis, to Gov. Gamble. Mr. Greely refuses to pay my clerks and says he doesn’t see why I need so many. It is none of his business. I have in my office the business of more than 120 regiments, etc. Genl. Schofield is sending to Genl. Steele nearly all the infantry in his department. Halleck telegraphs him to do so, and he has called upon us for 2000 men from the Enrolled Missouri Militia of the city. We are organizing 2 Provisional regiments, or 800 enlisted men each for duty for 30 days or longer. 5 more companies have been called out in Crawford’s district, and four companies from the Jefferson Co. military to guard the Illinois Railroad. John Knapp has been recommissioned as Col. of the 8th and is to be detailed to command one of the Provisional regiments. Wolff will command the other. One of these regiments will go to Rolla, the other to New Madrid. Trouble may come from Knapp’s appointment. If so, let it come…the issue may as well be made now as at any other time. Gov. Hall has gone to Jefferson, your son Hamilton, to Springfield. Your bust is completed and stands upon a handsome pedestal in my office. Will we see you before Oct. 1? Gov. Hall says that at the Radical convention it was stated the latest proof of the imbecility of Gov. Gamble was the fact that he could not keep his arms inside the window of a railway car. Individuals mentioned include [Carlos S. Greeley] Greely, Genl. John M. Schofield, Genl. [Frederick] Steele, H.W. Halleck, Crawford, John Knapp, Gov. Willard P. Hall, Hamilton R. Gamble [II]. Subjects mentioned include Enroll Missouri Militia, Illinois Railroad. Places mentioned include Rolla, New Madrid, Jefferson Co. (4 pages), 1863 Sept 9

Item — Box: 10, Folder: 12

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

The Hamilton Rowan Gamble Papers consist of deeds, early land grants, surveys, a St. Louis court docket book (1816-1833), bills of sale, legal papers regarding land ownership and business agreements, letters pertaining to causes of the Civil War, letters regarding the raising of a state militia, correspondence with political and military leaders, account books and receipts. Papers pertaining to land cases include deeds from French and Spanish ownership of this area, such as a deed between Pierre Chouteau and his wife who sold land for $248 to Meriwether Lewis (box 1/folder 2); a land grant to Andrew Bowen from President James Monroe with the presidential seal (box 1/folder 5); notes on Doit Delany’s land between Creve Coeur Lake and the Missouri River, part of a land grant to Antoine Reynal by the Spanish government (box 6/folder 1); a copy of the land paper from May 23, 1772, signed by Laclede Liguest, et al., designating land granted in the name of the king (box 5/folder 3). Papers regarding slave cases in the courts of Missouri include an 1805 freedom suit by Celeste, an Indian woman, versus Madame Chevalier (box 1/folder 2). An 1827 case of Margrite versus Pierre Chouteau, Sr., explains that the plaintiff’s grandmother, an Indian, was taken in war by the French and possibly sold as a slave in 1769 (box 2/folder 5). Subsequent papers in the collection show that the case was dismissed in 1838 for want of jurisdiction (box 6/folder 6). Letters to and from Gamble from the years before and during the Civil War illuminate the issue of slavery and emancipation in a border state. A copy of a letter from Gamble in 1861 states his view of abolitionists (box 9/folder 13). A copy of an address at an 1862 meeting of loyal states in support of President Lincoln and emancipation bears a notation that Governor Gamble refused to sign it as governor of Missouri (box 10/folder 3). The original draft and copy of Gamble’s 1863 message before a party convention concerns emancipation for the state of Missouri (box 10/folder 7). Critical papers and letters between Gamble and President Abraham Lincoln cover such issues as: raising and paying for a state militia (box 9/folder 3); the situation in Missouri at the beginning of the Civil War (box 9/folder 8); and disagreements between Gamble and Union generals over who should be in control of the state militia (box 10). Collection includes several letters signed by President Lincoln (box 9/folder 12, box 10/folder 9). The collection includes official papers with government seals from 1824 when Gamble was appointed secretary of state of Missouri (box 2/folder 2), and from 1849 on a certificate admitting Gamble as an attorney and counselor of the U.S. Supreme Court (box 8/folder 5). Miscellaneous letters consist of one against gambling and playing roulette from “The Friends of Morality” (box 4/folder 6); plans for a 2nd Presbyterian Church on 5th Street, including drawings of the church interior (box 7/folder 1); and a letter soliciting donations to establish Linden Wood Female College (box 8/folder 9). Other letters and journal entries discuss treatments of diseases, e.g., cholera and neuralgia (box 8/folder 5). Receipts and account books show costs of clothing, household items, food, building materials and bills of sale for slaves to and from Gamble (box 2/folder 6; box 3/folder 7; box 5/folder 1, 5; box 7/folder 5; box 8/folders 4, 6, 11; box 9/folder 2). Letters written near the end of the Civil War, shortly before Gamble’s death, discuss the status of the provisional government (box 10/folder 7).