Jefferson City was the center of Missouri's struggle over secession and control during the Civil War. In the early months of the conflict, elected pro-Southern Governor Clairborne Fox Jackson and his supporters contended with Unionists in a deeply divided state. A specially elected state convention first met in Jefferson City on Feb. 28, 1861, then moved to St. Louis and decided Missouri should remain in the Union while opposing federal coercion of seceding states. After the Camp Jackson affair in St. Louis on May 10, 1861, the legislature quickly approved Jackson's measure creating the Missouri State Guard and gave him emergency powers, with Sterling Price placed in command. Following a meeting in St. Louis between Jackson, Price, Frank Blair, Jr., and Nathaniel Lyon, open conflict followed, and Jackson removed the government to Boonville. On June 13, Jackson and other pro-Southern officials evacuated Jefferson City with official papers and the state seal, and two days later Lyon, Blair, and 2,000 troops arrived by steamboat. Federal troops, aided by the Missouri Home Guard and Enrolled Missouri Militia, held the capital for the rest of the war. Because it was the state capital, Jefferson City remained a major military concern. In late September 1861, John C. Fremont arrived with 15,000 troops and built the first fortifications after Price's victory at Lexington raised fears of an attack, but Price turned south on Sept. 30. In the fall of 1863, Joseph O. Shelby raided into Missouri with the aim of reaching the Capitol, but turned away after approaching as close as Tipton. The gravest danger came in the fall of 1864, when Price entered Missouri with 12,000 men, turned toward Jefferson City after deciding St. Louis was too strongly defended, and advanced to within five miles of the city after crossing the Moreau River on Oct. 7. Yet Jefferson City had been reinforced by 7,000 troops with another 7,000 coming, and its five earthen forts and rifle pits convinced Price to abandon the effort and withdraw on Oct. 8, ending the military threat to the capital. During the war Missouri also had two rival governments. In October 1861, the remnants of Jackson's government met in southwest Missouri, passed an Ordinance of Secession, and claimed Missouri as the 12th Confederate state, though this government remained in exile and later moved to Marshall, Texas. Meanwhile, the reconvened state convention in Jefferson City declared the executive offices and General Assembly vacant on July 30, 1861, and appointed Hamilton R. Gamble governor the next day to head a provisional Unionist government. After Gamble's death, Willard P. Hall replaced him on Jan. 31, 1864, and Thomas P. Fletcher was elected governor in November 1864. The General Assembly elected in November 1862, with voting limited to citizens who swore loyalty to the Union, and the continuing state convention struggled over emancipation and loyalty requirements. In 1865 the General Assembly passed the Drake Constitution, which emancipated slaves and imposed an Iron-Clad Oath, and the oath provision was repealed by popular vote in 1870.
