On April 3, 1860, the Pony Express began from St. Joseph, whose position as the western terminus of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad made it a vital link between East and West as the nation moved toward civil war. After South Carolina seceded, Missouri and St. Joseph were deeply divided, with almost 2,000 men from Buchanan County fighting for the Union and roughly the same number joining the Confederates. Early wartime tensions erupted in the Flag Incident of May 22, 1861, when postmaster John L. Bittinger raised the U.S. flag over the post office, former mayor M. Jeff Thompson led a mob that tore down the flag and pole, and later a confrontation at Turner Hall ended with Robert Bradshaw saluting and lowering another flag under threat from the crowd while Alonzo Slayback defended him. The city council then banned the flying of flags until after Union occupation. In June, U.S. Dragoons from Fort Leavenworth and the 2nd Iowa Infantry under Col. Samuel R. Curtis occupied St. Joseph to protect the railroad, but after most Union troops were reassigned and the rest sent away in August, Confederate militia entered town, captured the last two Union recruiting officers, looted stores, and raided the countryside for two weeks before withdrawing when Union troops returned; Confederates never controlled St. Joseph again. In September 1861, the 16th Illinois Infantry under Col. Robert Smith imposed martial law, camped on Prospect Hill, and built Fort Smith, an oblong ring of earthworks overlooking the river and city, while troops also occupied other buildings around town and damaged many of them; although recovery began near the war's end, St. Joseph did not regain its former prosperity for almost 20 years. In 1863, a local militia nicknamed the Paw Paws helped restore law and order in St. Joseph and the surrounding area. The Pony Express itself had been created to speed communication to California, where mail had once taken a month or more overland and three months or longer by boat, and its riders carried news including Abraham Lincoln's 1860 election victory and the firing on Fort Sumter. During the critical early days of the Civil War, that rapid communication helped keep California in the Union. After only 19 months, telegraph lines and railroads ended the Pony Express, but many of its riders later served on both sides of the war.
