In 1861, Lafayette Park in St. Louis became a federal campsite known as Camp Jessie, named for Jessie Benton Fremont, wife of Major General John C. Fremont and daughter of Senator Thomas Hart Benton. Sarah Hill visited her husband there while he served as an engineer in the federal army and recalled that the park's flower beds and green lawns had been turned into a great military camp of tents and campfires. The 24th Indiana, one of the first volunteer regiments formed in July 1861, reached St. Louis in August, crossed the Mississippi on the steamer Alton City, marched through the city, and camped in Lafayette Park, where the men pitched their first tents and took in the sights of the city. One soldier from Captain Dill's company was poisoned with strychnine after accepting pie from a friendly stranger while on guard duty outside the park gates. Under General Fremont's leadership, defensive forts were built along the western edge of St. Louis early in the war, including Forts No. 3, 4, and 5 near Lafayette Square; though none was attacked, Fort No. 4 was the site of the October 29, 1864, execution by firing squad of six Confederate soldiers taken from Gratiot Prison in retaliation for the execution of seven Union soldiers during Sterling Price's Raid in Missouri, before a crowd of three thousand people. U.S. Army records show that Company G of the 60th U.S. Colored Infantry guarded Forts No. 5 through No. 10 during October, November, and December 1863, and Fort No. 5 stood on the western edge of Lafayette Park between Missouri and Jefferson Avenues, triangular in shape, with sides about 400 feet long and four columbiad guns. The neighborhood also reflected divided loyalties: businessman Edward Bredell of Lafayette Avenue supported the Southern cause, refused the Union loyalty oath, and his wife Angeline Perry Bredell secretly served as a Confederate courier, while their son Edward Jr., a Confederate lieutenant serving under General Mosby, was killed at Berry's Ferry, Virginia, on November 16, 1864, and was first buried in the family garden after a public burial permit was denied. Nearby resident Montgomery Blair, who lived at No. 1 Benton Place before and after the war, had served as co-counsel for Dred Scott before the U.S. Supreme Court and in 1861 was appointed Postmaster General by President Lincoln.
