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Note: President Lincoln and The Magoffin Brothers
by William B. Claycomb
When the American Civil War began in April, 1861, the governors of the important border
states of Missouri and Kentucky were both in sympathy with the Confederate States of America
although neither man was so radical on the issue of secession as their enemies depicted them.
Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson of Missouri was a Douglas Democrat who believed his state's
interests could not be separated from those of her sister slave states and if war came she must,
therefore, "share the fortunes of the Southern States." 1 He was forced to adopt a pragmatic policy
of neutrality after he was "out-maneuvered and out-fought" by a "handful of St. Louis Republicans"2
in the spring of 1861.
Missouri decided to remain in the Union, but the decision had not really been hers. An
uncompromising United States Army presented the compliant State Convention with a fait accompli.
Still, Missouri had the distinction of having two, arguably, legitimate governments during the
war-the provisional one installed in Jefferson City by the State Convention and supported by the
U. S. Army, and the other the rather hapless floating government-in-exile of Governors Jackson and,
after his death on December 6, 1862, Thomas C. Reynolds.
In Kentucky the situation was similar. Governor Beriah Magoffin was a southern sympathizer
who, because of circumstances beyond his ability to control, advocated a public policy of strict
armed neutrality in the conflict. He emphatically refused to supply four regiments to the United States
when demanded to do so by President Lincoln. He also declined a request to furnish a regiment to
the Confederacy. Magoffin consistently called for a policy to "preserve the Union through
compromise and conciliation instead of by force of arms."3 He forbid either side to set foot on
Kentucky soil but could not force their evacuation when they did in September of 1861. Prior to the
state's invasion by both sides he had quietly looked the other way for months while Confederate
recruiters worked the state. For that reason and others most politicians in Washington and
Richmond believed Governor Magoffin's middle-of-the-road rhetoric a smokescreen to cover "some
sort of secret plot to lead Kentucky out of the Union. . . ."4 Like Jackson of Missouri, Magoffin at
first found his state divided and confused on the issue of secession. The majority of citizens were
moderates who were willing to let the South go its way unmolested by the North, but who were not
themselves ready to sever Kentucky's tie to the Union. They approved of Magoffin's declaration of
neutrality. Gradually a pro-North consensus emerged in Kentucky, and led by the pro-Union
legislature the state remained in the Union. While he was not evicted from the state capital and
subsequently deposed as governor as was Claiborne Jackson, Magoffin did resign in the summer of
1862 when his position became "untenable."5 In the first year of the war, however, Kentucky's
intentions were less apparent to President Lincoln and he went out of his way to appease Governor
Magoffin, hoping, no doubt, that the state would at least remain neutral (Magoffin's professed desire)
if Magoffin were handled discreetly. Lincoln probably did not expect to receive any cooperation
from Kentucky as long as Magoffin was governor, but in 1861-62 Lincoln's objective was simply to
keep his native state from seceding until he could consolidate his military and political positions in the
border states. At the time Lincoln was criticized for his kid-glove handling of Magoffin. For instance,
the President ignored a public charge by Magoffin that he (Lincoln) was guilty of usurpation. In the
end, however, the President's policy of patience proved wise. He eventually got rid of Governor
Magoffin without having to forcibly remove him from office. An interesting and unknown footnote to
Lincoln's relationship with Beriah Magoffin is the Ebenezer Magoffin affair of 1861-62 in Missouri.
Ebenezer Magoffin, younger brother of Beriah Magoffin, was born at Harrodsburg, Mercer
County, Kentucky, probably in 1817,6 the son of Beriah Magoffin, a native of County Down,
Ireland, and Jane McAfee Magoffin, daughter of Samuel McAfee, a Kentucky pioneer.7 Among his
nine brothers and sisters were James Wiley Magoffin (1799-1868), a well-known United States
agent and consul in Mexico in the 1820s and '30s who helped to open the Mexican overland trade
and who later was responsible for the U. S. Army's gaining jurisdiction over New Mexico without
bloodshed during the Mexican War;8 Samuel Magoffin, another pioneer Santa Fe trader, who
married Susan Shelby, granddaughter of Governor Isaac Shelby (1750-1826) of Kentucky, who
wrote a published diary (Down the Santa Fe Trail) of her experiences on the Santa Fe Trail; and
the aforementioned Beriah Magoffin (1815-1885), politician and statesman, governor of Kentucky
from 1859 to 1862, and one of Kentucky's wealthiest men. Magoffin County, Kentucky, was
named in his honor. Beriah also married a granddaughter of Governor Shelby, Kentucky's first
governor. Ebenezer married Margaret Ann Hutchison (1820-1861), daughter of Elijah and Isabella
Hutchison.9 Their children included Elijah H., John R., Beriah, Mary B., Jennie, and Emma.10
Ebenezer Magoffin went to Boone County, Missouri, from his home in Mercer County,
Kentucky, in 1856.11 On February 19, 1856, he purchased 2,160 acres in a body in north central
Pettis County, Missouri, from Nimrod and Mary J. Dewees of Morgan County, Illinois, for
$16,000.12 Mr. Magoffin moved to the new farm with his family and slaves either later in 1856 or in
1857. He named his farm "Prairie Lea.''13 It was located on the headwaters of Heaths Creek in a
gently rolling and productive area of Pettis County. The present village of Hughesville is located in
what was the southeast corner of Prairie Lea. The post office serving the community went by the
name of Magoffin P. O. The 1860 census values Magoffin's real estate at $47,200 (which seems
very high) and his personal property at $6,580. Many of the Magoffins' neighbors were fellow
Kentuckians who had immigrated to northern Pettis County in the mid-1850's. Most were large land
and slave owners; a few were young professional men such as George Graham Vest who had come
to Pettis County to practice law. Nothing else of Magoffin's pre-war life can be documented.14
Beginning with the spring of 1861 and for the next fifteen months, however, Magoffin's life can
be documented in considerable detail. In May, 1861, prior to Governor Claiborne F. Jackson's call
on June 13 for 50,000 volunteers to protect Missouri from invasion and capture by the United
States Army under the military leadership of Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon and the political
leadership of Colonel Frank Blair, Magoffin went to Jefferson City to offer his services to his
adopted state. Governor Jackson instructed him to return home and raise a regiment of cavalry to
act as scouts in the West Central Missouri area. He and a Major Thomas E. Staples of
Georgetown, Pettis County, proceeded to organize an impromptu regiment that in June was ordered
to Boonville, now the makeshift capital of the state, to help defend it from General Lyon's troops
advancing from Jefferson City. The regiment departed under the sole command of Major Staples
when Mrs. Magoffin suddenly became ill and Magoffin remained at home with her.15 Governor
Jackson's ill-trained and under-armed Missouri State Guard, under the field command of his nephew
Colonel (later General) John S. Marmaduke, was defeated by Lyon on June 17, 1861, and the
Governor retreated to Southwest Missouri where he set up another temporary Missouri State
Government-in-exile at Neosho until General Sterling Price could recapture control of the western
Missouri River Valley and Jefferson City for him. Magoffin rejoined the regiment shortly after the
Battle of Boonville and at the Battle of Carthage (Missouri) on July 5, 1861, he received prisoners
and acted as aide to Governor Jackson. After that battle, in which Jackson's State Guard was
victorious, Magoffin, still without official rank, was ordered by the Governor to return to Central
Missouri to recruit troops and procure supplies for General Price's army. He returned to Pettis
County without written orders and raised a regiment from Pettis, Cooper, and Saline counties. He
also did some recruiting north of the Missouri River. When the new regiment numbered less than
300 men Magoffin was elected major and as it increased in size, he was to claim later, elected
colonel. While he was organizing the regiment Magoffin quartered it on his farm, presumably at his
expense. Magoffin was supposed to leave with his regiment to join the main army in Southwest
Missouri, but as before Boonville he was unable to do so. In August, 1861, he was summoned to
Fort Leavenworth to serve as a witness for a John J. Jones. He returned to Pettis County late in
August and found that all but twelve of his men (part of a Captain White's company) had already
departed with Colonel Edwin Price, son of General Price. On or about August 29th (there is some
confusion among the principals about the exact date), Colonel Magoffin took his twelve men to
Georgetown, the Pettis County seat, to purchase some shoes and/or clothes for them.16
Meanwhile on August 24th Lieutenant Colonel Henry M. Day of the First Illinois Cavalry,
stationed at Jefferson City, had been ordered to Lexington by the recently promoted Brigadier
General U. S. Grant. Colonel Day was armed with a list of names of rebels and secessionists whom
he was to arrest on the way to Lexington should he find them. Colonel Magoffin was not on his list
but only because he was so well known it was thought unnecessary to include his name. On August
29th Colonel Day approached Georgetown from the east on the Otterville Road with Company C,
First Regiment Illinois Cavalry, composed of about 95 regular soldiers and 125 Home Guards. He
divided his command as was his habit so as to surround the town and prevent the escape of any
rebels who happened to be in town. He then rode toward Georgetown with nine regular soldiers and
sixty Home Guards. A half mile from the courthouse Colonel Day's orderly, Sergeant George W.
Glasgow, reported that he saw what appeared to be soldiers in Georgetown. At first they were
believed to be Union soldiers but when they turned and ran they were assumed to be rebels. Colonel
Day and his men then charged up the hill and down the main street of Georgetown in pursuit of the
men now on horseback. According to witnesses the Federal troops fired first on the rebels, who
were in fact Magoffin's men. In the ensuing skirmish Sergeant Glasgow was shot to death by a man
with a double-barreled shotgun who was later identified by eyewitnesses as Colonel Magoffin.
Word soon reached Colonel Day that the notorious Colonel Magoffin was believed to be in town.
Magoffin was located in the attic of the Kidd Hotel, armed with a pistol and shotgun. He was
induced to surrender and after supposedly denying any connection with the Missouri State Guard or
the Confederate Army, he was arrested on the charge of murdering a soldier of the United States
Army. He was threatened with summary execution by the angry Home Guards, many of whom
personally knew him, and some of the regular troops; but he was safely transferred to headquarters
at Sedalia three miles south and jailed. During an interview that evening Colonel Day admonished his
prisoner: "Magoffin, I am astounded that a man possessed of as much intelligence as you appear to
be should take the course that you have in assassinating Federal troops." Colonel Day then
expressed the hope to Magoffin that he would be shot or "hung up" by the neck and that he would
like to be the man to do it.17
Magoffin was not executed but was taken by his captors to Lexington as a prisoner. After a
siege that started September 13, Union forces were defeated September 20, 1861, in the celebrated
Battle of Lexington by General Price. The tables were turned. Magoffin was released in exchange
for former Missouri Governor Austin A. King and former Missouri Supreme Court Judge John F.
Ryland, prisoners of Magoffin's son, Captain Elijah Magoffin.18 Ironically, Lieutenant Colonel Day,
who was severely injured in the battle, found himself the prisoner of Colonel Magoffin. (Colonel Day
was later to grudgingly admit that he had been kindly treated by Magoffin while he was his prisoner.
Those who knew Colonel Magoffin, including Federal officers, described him as a "perfect
gentleman, high-toned and honorable.") Meanwhile, Magoffin was immediately and officially
commissioned a colonel of infantry by General Sterling Price and instructed to recruit yet another
regiment of infantry.19
Colonel Magoffin campaigned with the Missouri State Guard throughout the fall of 1861, but
on December 7, 1861, he received word indirectly from his family that his wife was dying. He tried
to return home that night but was fired upon by soldiers reported to have been posted in every room
of his home except Mrs. Magoffin's bedroom as well as outside the house. (The sentinels had
obviously been alerted to Colonel Magoffin's possible arrival.) Magoffin escaped that evening but
left his horse behind. On December 9th Magoffin sent word to Colonel (later General) Frederick
Steele, commanding officer of the 5th Division, Army of the West, stationed at Sedalia, that he
wished to see his wife before she died and, through the efforts of some of Magoffin's Union friends
who evidently believed and implied to Colonel Steele that Magoffin might be ready to swear
allegiance to the United States, Magoffin was granted a pass on December 10th to Prairie Lea to be
with her. Accompanied by Lieutenant Colonel (later General) E. B. Brown, Colonel Steele's
aide-de-camp, an exhausted and distressed Magoffin returned home just before Mrs. Magoffin's
death.20
The pass, or safeguard, ran from December 10 to December 20. (Although the pass
guaranteed the safety of Colonel Magoffin, his family, and his property for ten days, Magoffin's hogs,
chickens, and turkeys were shot by passing Union soldiers. One group of soldiers even demanded
breakfast of the bereaved family but left after finally recognizing the authority of the safeguard.) After
the funeral Colonel Steele sent Magoffin a "parole" dated December 14th in which by its acceptance
Magoffin promised that he would not "in any manner by word or deed, aid, assist or give
countenance to the enemies of the United States Government." If he accepted these conditions
Colonel Magoffin was to be permitted to remain at home "in the quiet unmolested pursuit of his usual
peaceful occupations." On December 16th Colonel Magoffin wrote his good friend and family
physician Doctor (sometimes referred to as Colonel) James R. Hughes, who had been instrumental
in obtaining the first pass for him and who had been with Magoffin the night his wife died, that he
could not accept the proffered parole received by him on December 15th because he had word
from reliable sources that there was "a conspiracy . . . to assassinate me in my home. Reluctantly I
am compelled to leave it again ... [and to leave my] young and helpless family to the mercy of my
enemies."21 The army officers at Sedalia, however, were under the mistaken impression that
Colonel Magoffin had accepted the parole. Magoffin was subsequently captured by a large Union
force on December 19, 1861, at Milford, Johnson County, Missouri, with 684 rebel troops under
Col. F. S. Robertson. He was camped with the Confederates (on their way to join General Price) at the mouth of Clear Creek on the Blackwater River, approximately 17 miles west of Prairie Lea.
Magoffin was apparently unarmed and not in command of any of the rebels but was with them solely
for his protection from Pettis Countians whom he believed were going to kill him. His sons, Captain
(later Colonel) Elijah H. Magoffin, 24, and Beriah Magoffin, 19, were probably captured at the
same time.22
After his capture Colonel Magoffin was taken under guard to St. Louis at the personal request
of Major General Henry W. Halleck, commanding the Department of Missouri, and eventually tried
on dual charges by a panel of four Union officers called a "military commission." He was charged
with murdering Sergeant Glasgow in Georgetown on or about August 29, 1861, and of violating his
alleged parole not to resume arms against the United States by leaving his home on or about
December 16 to rejoin a Confederate force. The trial commenced on February 6, 1862, and
continued to February 20, 1862. Fifteen military and civilian witnesses were called to testify for the
prosecution and the defense, including a number of Pettis Countians who had been in Georgetown
the day it was raided by Colonel Day. The Pettis Countians summoned to St. Louis to testify
included Mentor Thomson, a prominent farmer and son of General David Thomson, and George
and Samuel Brown, sons of the famous Pettis County pioneer freighter, the late James Brown. The
official record of the trial is unclear if Colonel Magoffin had the benefit of counsel or if he defended
himself against the government's dubious charges. Regardless, his defense arguments (all in the first
person) were eloquent and thoughtful. Because his questions to witnesses and prepared statements
to the commission reflect considerable knowledge of the law and legal precedent, they may have
been asked and written by a defense attorney. The verdict, however, was probably a foregone
conclusion and the trial but a formality. On February 20, 1862, Colonel Magoffin was found not
guilty of the charge of murdering Sergeant Glasgow (the commission was forced by the
preponderance of evidence to reluctantly agree that the Colonel was a legitimate belligerent in
August, 1861, and had killed the sergeant in self-defense), but guilty of the charge of violating his
parole on December 19th. He was sentenced to be taken to the prison at Alton, Illinois, and shot to
death "at such time and place as the commanding officer of this department [Major General Halleck]
may direct." Halleck subsequently approved the findings of the commission and its sentence. At the
time, General Halleck was routinely approving the executions of many Missouri men and boys found
guilty by his "military commissions" of burning bridges, destroying telegraph lines, and other alleged
crimes against the government of the United States, all despite the fact as Colonel Magoffin correctly
argued, that the so-called commissions had no jurisdiction in such cases. Even the Judge-Advocate,
John F. Lee, in reviewing Magoffin's case, wrote that "Military commissions are not a tribunal known
to our laws, and military commanders have no power to inflict death except by sentence of
courts-martial."23
Colonel Magoffin was not immediately executed, however. On March 24, 1862, his brother
Beriah Magoffin sent a telegram to Kentucky's venerable statesman John J. Crittenden in
Washington asking his help in obtaining a suspension of his brother's sentence until "I can get it fairly
before them (Lincoln and Stanton). I think I can prove . . . he is innocent." The telegram was
delivered to President Lincoln and he wrote the following endorsement on the back of the telegram:
To John F. Lee [Judge-Advocate]
I wish to grant the suspension within requested. Will the Judge Advocate
please carry it into effect.
March 25, 1862
A. Lincoln 24
That same day, March 25, 1862, Lorenzo Thomas, Adjutant-General, telegrammed General
Halleck in St. Louis the message that Magoffin's sentence was suspended pending his review of the
case and ordered the record of his trial transmitted to the Adjutant-General's office at the War
Department. Judge- Advocate Lee simultaneously sent a telegram to Governor Magoffin at
Frankfort, Kentucky, informing him that his brother's sentence of death had been suspended as
requested.
Two weeks later President Lincoln sent the following telegram [it is not known what precipitated it]:
Major General Halleck
Executive Mansion
Washington
Saint Louis, Mo.:
April 9, 1862
If the rigor of the confinement of Magoffin at Alton is endangering his life, or
materially impairing his health, I wish it mitigated so far as it can be consistently
with his safe detention.
A. Lincoln
John Hay endorsed the telegram, "Please send above, by order of President."25
The record indicates no further action or concern by either the President or Halleck, although
Judge-Advocate Lee recommended in April that Magoffin's death sentence be lifted and even
suggested that he be released on parole. Colonel Magoffin languished at Alton until the night of July
24-25, 1862, when he escaped from the prison with his sons Elijah and Beriah and 33 other
prisoners. Much to the astonishment and even admiration of the Federal soldiers guarding them,
Colonel Magoffin and the other escapees had dug a 60-foot-long tunnel, 18 inches in diameter, from
inside an unused outdoor brick oven three feet into the ground, through the three-foot-thick solid
limestone prison wall, and outside to freedom. Years later Elijah Magoffin reported that the tunnel
required 20 days to dig.26
On August 26, 1862, President Lincoln personally ordered a court of inquiry to "inquire into
the circumstances of the escape of thirty-six prisoners of war from the military prison at Alton. . . ."
The court met on September 3 and after interviewing six officers and one private ruled that the
escape of prisoners ". . . was due to dereliction of duty, but to whom the court is unable to say. . . ."
No one received an official reprimand.27
After the escape from Alton the record becomes vague and contradictory. Magoffin and his
sons rejoined the Confederate Army and supposedly served under General JO Shelby in Arkansas.
One source reports that Colonel Magoffin survived until just before the end of the war. Another
source reports he was killed soon after his escape from Alton. Both sources agree that he was
stabbed to death by a man named Cordle, probably in Arkansas. One of Magoffin's friends and
Cordle were fighting in a tavern and when the Colonel intervened to break up the fight, Cordle
stabbed him. Elijah Magoffin pursued his father's killer 600 miles into Texas where he finally caught
up with him and hanged the killer himself, thereby avenging his father's death.28
Regardless what happened to Ebenezer Magoffin later in the war, three weeks after his escape
from the Alton prison there was in Kentucky on August 16, 1862, a "sudden and extraordinary
change in State policy. . . ." Governor Beriah Magoffin resigned on that date effective August 18,
and Speaker of the Senate James F. Robinson, a man "in perfect sympathy with the Union cause,"
became governor of the State of Kentucky.29 Magoffin, after fighting an increasingly hostile
Legislature for over a year and helplessly watching as his vetoes of pro-Union bills were regularly
overridden by it, finally found himself frustrated, powerless, and threatened with impeachment,
arrest, and possibly even assassination.
With his professed policy of armed neutrality a charade and shambles, Governor Magoffin
retired to his estate in Mercer County to pursue business matters undisturbed by the North. Except
for one term in the Legislature from 1867 to 1869, he avoided politics, although not issues, the rest
of his life. Contrary to his radical image, he supported Kentucky's ratification of the Thirteenth
Amendment and the granting of civil rights to Negroes, a position that cost him many friends among
his fellow Democrats.30 A pro-Magoffin biographical sketch claims that "He was not a Secessionist,
but a patriot, who loved his native land, and under Scriptural interpretation felt that he must first care
for the people of his own ilk and household. Therefore, for them he was willing to be ostracized [sic]
from the high seat to which he had been elected.''31 That judgment is probably correct except that
he did believe in secession as a right; he was, however, "opposed to the piecemeal process of
leaving the Union."32
In peacetime Beriah Magoffin would have more than likely enjoyed a successful administration
because of his popularity, experience, and family and professional connections. He had the
misfortune of being elected governor at a time and in a place that doomed a man of his personality
and political convictions. Despite its possible advantage to Kentucky, a middle-of-the-road
non-involvement approach was impossible for a man caught between the grinding momentums of
two nations committing themselves to total war. Had Magoffin been willing to accommodate the
North instead of half-heartedly collaborating with the South he might have finished his term of office.
As it was he was unwilling or unable to either cooperate or collaborate successfully and resigned by
popular request rather than betray (in his viewpoint) his beloved state.
As we have seen, however, Magoffin's gubernatorial career may have been cut short (or
prolonged) by personal as well as political pressures. Lincoln was said to have remarked that while
he hoped to have God on his side, he must have Kentucky.33 He wrote:
I think to lose Kentucky is nearly . . . to lose the whole game. Kentucky gone, we
cannot hold Missouri, nor, as I think, Maryland. These all against us, and the job on
our hands is too large for us. We would as well consent to separation at once, including
the surrender of this capital.34
Jefferson Davis coveted the strategically located Kentucky as well. Assuming that both men
early in the war believed Governor Magoffin's influence real and his support crucial, Lincoln had one
advantage in 1862 that President Davis did not have. He held Ebenezer Magoffin at Alton under
sentence of death. Shooting Colonel Magoffin obviously would not have helped persuade Governor
Magoffin to continue even his superficial advocacy of neutrality. Whether or not he actually had the
power to align Kentucky to Richmond's orbit in 1861 is debatable. But Magoffin did have
considerable personal prestige as well as that of his office. And he had many friends and supporters.
Unfortunately for the governor, however, his friends in the Kentucky Legislature had been ousted or
barred from seeking reelection. Moreover, by July of 1862 many of Magoffin's fellow Democrats
and Southern sympathizers had been jailed by the United States government acting through the
army.35 Prior to the summer of 1862, however, Magoffin and his large minority of
secession-minded Breckinridge Democrats (or "obstructionists" as the administration in Washington
called them) could have made the North's political/military campaign for Kentucky much more
difficult than it was, thereby delaying the invasion of the South proper. But while Lincoln may have
felt that he needed Magoffin, Magoffin needed Lincoln as well because only the President could
grant his brother a reprieve or pardon. We can assume that the governor did not want to see his
younger brother shot. He obviously would have been willing to make some kind of sacrifice in
exchange for his brother's life if given the opportunity or a choice.36 The record does not reveal a
quid Pro quo option, but it does imply President Lincoln and Governor Magoffin were in a stalemate
in the summer of 1862. Beriah Magoffin was the last major obstacle to Lincoln's total political
control of Kentucky, yet he could not be removed from office without an unseemly and
embarrassing spectacle. And Magoffin was depending on Lincoln's mercy to save his brother's life.
As long as he held on to the governor's office he still had some leverage; as a private citizen he
would have none.
Ebenezer Magoffin's daring escape from Alton may have resolved the men's dilemma for them
by allowing them at last to act freely, unhindered by circumstances not really germane to their mutual
problem and objectives. The direct or indirect role that Ebenezer Magoffin played in the
Lincoln-Magoffin-Magoffin triangle cannot be determined from the public record; certainly there is
no evidence of a "deal." But the sequence of events and the resolution of the affair in August, 1862,
does suggest that Colonel Ebenezer Magoffin of Missouri had at least the appearance of being a
pawn who evolved into the chief obstructionist in the maneuvers for control of Kentucky.
FOOTNOTES
1.Howard L. Conrad, Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri, III (New York 1901), 397.
2.William H. Lyon, "Claiborne Fox Jackson and the Secession Crisis in Missouri" Missouri
Historical Review Volume LVIII, No. 4. (Columbia, Mo., July, 1964), 441.
3.William H. Lyon, "The pro-Secessionist Governor of Kentucky" Register of the Kentucky
Historical Society (?), 222.
4.Ibid.
5.Louisville (Kentucky) Courier-Journal, Oct. 25, 1934.
6.Dumas Malone, ed., Dictionary of American Biography, XII (New Y
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