Daniel Marsh Frost, CSA (Missouri Historical Review 85.4 (July 1991) )

Missouri Historical Review 85.
4 (July 1991)
State Historical Society of Missouri
Daniel Marsh Frost, C.S.A.

BY ROBERT E. MILLER*
Daniel Marsh Frost's military career began with expectations of
great promise. He graduated fourth in his class at West Point and
served with gallantry in the Mexican War. He successfully directed the
Southwest Expedition to Missouri's western border in 1860. He achieved
added distinction as a commanding officer in the Missouri state militia.
In his pre-Civil War career, General Frost demonstrated many neces-
sary qualities for military commandadministrative skill and diligence,
strategic initiative, logistical sense and personal qualities of leadership
and discipline.
When his great chance came in the Civil War, he failed to fulfill
expectations. His performance as a Confederate general officer was
adequate but never outstanding. His opportunities to influence the
course of action were not numerous, and he did not show progress.
Robert E. Miller is a retired chemist. He received the B.A. degree from Hofstra
University, Hempstead, New York; the Ph.D. in chemistry from Fordham University,
New York, New York; and the M.A. in history from the University of Missouri-St.
Louis.
381
382 Missouri Historical Review
Daniel Frost vanishes from the Confederate scene except for a brief
controversy with Jefferson Davis in 1886. He left unanswered the
question whether he would fully realize his potential as a soldier.
Frost's dedication to the Southern cause was not without its price.
His role in the Camp Jackson affair subjected him to suspicion and
hostility by friend and foe alike. An unfounded charge of desertion
cheated him of his reputation. The stigma attached to the fact of his
northern birth excluded him from further service in the Confederate
military.
Frost's English ancestors arrived in New England in 1625. Born in
the village of Mariaville, New York, on August 9, 1823, he began
studies at Albany Academy, Albany, New York, at the age of fourteen.
He entered the United States Military Academy in 1840 and graduated
fourth in the class of 1844. Initially assigned with the 1st Regiment
Artillery stationed at Fort Adams, Newport, Rhode Island, he also
served with the regiment at Fort Kent, Maine, and Forts Brooke and
Pickens, Florida. In July 1846, he transferred to the 1st Regiment
Mounted Rifles at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri.1
Frost served on the staff of General Winfield Scott in the Mexican
War. During the invasion of Vera Cruz he saw action at the siege of
Castle San Juan d'Ulloa and took part in all the campaigns of Scott's
army leading to the fall of Mexico City. Second Lieutenant Frost
received a brevet for gallant conduct at the battle of Cerro Gordo.2
On August 1, 1850, new orders posted Lieutenant Frost to Fort
Vancouver, Oregon Territory, where he was wounded in action against
the Indians. In February of the following year, Colonel Phillip St.
George Cooke ordered Frost back to St. Louis to recruit for the cavalry
service.3 Two months later, he married Eliza (Lily) Brown Graham, the
1
Thomas G. and Edward Frost, The Frost Family in England and America
(Buffalo: Russell Print Company, 1909); Daniel M. Frost, "Memoirs," in Daniel M.
Frost Papers, Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis; Mrs. Dana D. Jansen, ed., "The
Memoirs of Daniel M. Frost," Missouri Historical Society Bulletin 26 (October 1969):
3-23; ibid. (January 1970): 89-117; Joseph Boyce, "General Daniel M. Frost," a paper
read before the Missouri Historical Society, 13 December 1900, Frost Papers; Jefferson
Barracks Papers, Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis.
A second Daniel M. Frost figures prominently in Kansas history in this same
period. Judge D. M. Frost edited the Dodge City Globe between 1878 and 1885. D. M.
Frost to Abraham Hagaman, 10 May, 1 June 1878, 19 April 1879, Hagaman Collection,
Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis; Robert R. Dykstra, The Cattle Towns (New
York: Atheneum, 1978), 215-224, 265-266, 332; Odie B. Faulk, Dodge City (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1977), 98, 127, 157.
2
Frost, "Memoirs"; Howard S. Conard, Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri, 6
vols. (St. Louis: The Southern History Company, 1901), 2: 528-529; Jansen, ed.,
"Memoirs of Frost," Missouri Historical Society Bulletin 26 (April 1970): 205-206.
3
Richard Graham Papers, Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis.
Daniel Marsh Frost, C.S.A. 383
daughter of Major Richard Graham, Thomas Jefferson's Indian agent

for the Louisiana Territory, and the granddaughter of John Mullanphy,
a wealthy St. Louis businessman.4 The marriage provided Frost with
economic security and social position in the community.
In the summer of 1851, General Scott recommended Frost for an
assignment in Europe to study cavalry tactics. He rejoined his regiment
in September 1852 and served at Fort Ewell, Texas, until the summer of
1853. On May 31, 1853, First Lieutenant Frost resigned his commission
in the United States Army. He returned to the family estate at "Hazel-
wood" in Florissant, St. Louis County, where he pursued interests in
the fur trade and a lumber mill.5
At the time of his appointment to the board of visitors to the
Military Academy at West Point in 1853, Frost engaged in the practice
of law.6 That same year, Father Pierre DeSmet baptized him into the
Roman Catholic church. This event marked the beginning of a long
relationship between the Frost family and the Catholic church.7
In 1854, Frost successfully campaigned as a Benton Democrat for
a senate seat in the 18th Missouri General Assembly. In his single term,
he authored a bill to regulate and discipline the militia forces of the
state.8 In 1855, Frost served as a second for B. Gratz Brown in a duel
with Thomas C. Reynolds, who would later become one of his staunch-
est defenders in a controversy related to his service in the Confederate
army.9
4
Jansen, ed., "Memoirs of Frost," 3-4.
5
Frost to wife, 30 January, 29 August, 30 December 1852, Kennett Family Papers,
Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis; S. Cooper to D. M. Frost, 21 May 1853, Graham
Papers; George W. McCullum, Biographical Register of Officers and Graduates of the
United States Military Academy (New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1868), 2: 101, #1209.
"Hazelwood," the first brick house constructed west of the Mississippi River, was
built by David Musick in 1807 and sold to Major Graham after the War of 1812. Frost
employed forty-one slaves on the "Hazelwood" farm. Joseph G. Knapp, S.J., Presence
of the Past (St. Louis: St. Louis University Press, 1979), 1, 20, 25, 33. General Frost's
daughter, Harriet (Mrs. Samuel Fordyce), donated the mansion to St. Louis University
in 1952. The mansion was torn down in 1964. St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 11 March 1933,
25 July 1963.
6
Charles van Ravenswaay, "Years of Turmoil, Years of Growth: St. Louis in the
1850's," Missouri Historical Society Bulletin 23 (July 1967): 323; Mark M. Boatner, The
Civil War Dictionary (New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1959), 318. There is no
record of Frost's formal training as a lawyer. On August 7 and 19, 1886, he also was
described as an attorney. Fordyce Family Papers, Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis.
7
Knapp, Presence of the Past, 10, 13, 35. In January 1952, Mrs. Fordyce
contributed a gift of $1.05 million to refurbish the Frost campus of St. Louis University.
8
Joseph A. Mudd, "The Cabell Descendants in Missouri," Missouri Historical
Review 9 (January 1915): 84; Journal of the Missouri Legislature, 21st General As-
sembly, 1860-1861, House, Appendix, 10-13.
9
Glimpses of the Past 10 (January-June 1943): 30; McCune Gill, "St. Louis Duels,"
Duels Collection, Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis. Frost engaged in a duel with
Edward Sayers in 1860.
The next year, "Captain" Frost traveled to South Dakota to

conduct an oversight of the family investments in the Indian trade. By
this time, he had accumulated considerable real estate holdings in
Yankton, Dakota Territory, and Sioux City, Iowa.10
Following the organization of the state militia in 1858, Governor
Robert M. Stewart appointed Frost brigadier general in command of
the First (St. Louis) Military District.11 In the winter of 1860, Kansas
Jayhawkers under the leadership of James Montgomery and Dr. Charles
Jennison threatened to invade southwestern Missouri and eliminate all
vestiges of slavery in the state. When officials of Bates and Vernon
counties demanded protection, Governor Stewart ordered Frost to
proceed to the border with the Missouri Volunteer Militia and restore
the peace. The St. Louis detachment entrained on the Pacific Railroad
on November 25, and the troops debarked at the rail terminus at
Smithton and marched via Clinton to Fort Scott, Kansas. On Decem-
ber 4, Frost met with General William S. Harney in command of the
regulars at the fort, and Harney and Frost agreed to unite their forces if
the marauders showed any inclination to give battle. The joint show of
force induced the Jayhawkers to disperse.12
Frost believed it was no longer necessary to retain his entire force
on the border. Instead, he recommended that the citizens of Bates and
Vernon counties raise a force to patrol the area. This Southwestern
Battalion served under the command of Colonel John S. Bowen. The
remainder of Frost's command returned to St. Louis, where they were
discharged from active service on December 15, I860.13 In his inaugural
address, the new governor of Missouri, Claiborne Fox Jackson, praised
10
Lily Frost to Captain Frost, 1856; D. M. Frost to wife, 13 February, 14 June
1856; Col. A. D. Stewart to D. M. Frost, 14 February 1856; Henry Cabot to Captain D.
M. Frost, 17 April 1856, Fordyce Family Papers.
The reference to a captaincy appears to be derived from Frost's appointment as a
captain of the Washington Guards, a St. Louis militia unit. S. Price to D. M. Frost, 12
December 1853, Fordyce Family Papers. McCullum, Register of U. S. Military
Academy, gives Frost's highest rank as brevet first lieutenant. There is no record of his
commission as a captain or of military service at Forts Pierre or Lookout, South
Dakota.
11
R. M. Stewart to D. M. Frost, 23 August 1858, Fordyce Family Papers.
12
Brig. Gen. D. M. Frost to Governor Stewart, 27 November and 5 December 1860,
reproduced in "Documents Illustrating the Troubles on the Border, 1860: The Southwest
Expedition," Missouri Historical Review 2 (October 1907): 62-64, 69-72; Governor
Robert M. Stewart, House Journal, 21st General Assembly, 1st session, 3 January 1861,
27.
13
Brig. Gen. D. M. Frost to Governor Stewart, 8 December 1860, in "Documents . . .
Southwest Expedition," 71-72; Hildegard R. Herklotz, "Jayhawkers in Missouri, 1858-
1863," Missouri Historical Review 17 (July 1923): 505-510; J. B. Brown, ed., The
History of Vernon County (Chicago: Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1911), 244-254.
Gen. William S. Harney
the St. Louis contingent for its prompt and efficient service in the
border campaign.14
In the charged atmosphere of the late 1850s, the slavery issue
polarized politics in St. Louis. The activities of the pro-Southerners in
the city caused concern among Union men. Southern adherents estab-
lished a headquarters in the Berthold mansion in the heart of the city
on March 4, 1861, and flew the rebel flag. Basil Duke, later to achieve
fame as one of Morgan's raiders, organized a quasi-military group, the
Minute Men, who marched openly in the city streets.
The Minute Men had their eyes on the federal arsenal located in
the southern part of the city on the banks of the Mississippi River. This
arsenal, commanded by Major William H. Bell, a native of North
Carolina, contained ammunition stores and sixty thousand rifles. As
late as November 1860, John B. Floyd, the secretary of war, ordered
14
Claiborne Fox Jackson's Inaugural Address, 3 January 1861, House Journal, 21st
General Assembly, 1st session, 51.
Major Bell to "issue to Gen'l Frost such ammunition as he may apply

for under a requisition of the Gov't of Missouri."15
Frost had no doubts about Major Bell's loyalty. On January 24,
1861, he wrote to Governor Jackson: "I found the Major everything
that you or I could desire. . . . [He] is with us." Bell assured Frost that
he recognized the right of Missouri to seize the arsenal "as being on her
soil." He told Frost that he would not attempt any defense of the
arsenal against the proper state authorities.16
Events moved rapidly. Unconditional Unionists in the city, led by
Frank Blair, worked to keep the arsenal out of secessionist control.
Blair used his considerable political influence to insure that affairs at
the arsenal came firmly under the control of officers of Unionist
persuasion. The arrival of Company D, 2nd United States Infantry,
under the command of Captain Nathaniel Lyon, strengthened the
Union hand in St. Louis. In the middle of March, Harney, command-
ing officer of the Department of the West, assigned defense of the
arsenal to Lyon. The overzealous Lyon exceeded his authority by
stationing troops in the city streets adjacent to the arsenal. When the
Board of Police Commissioners, who were loyal to Governor Jackson,
protested the action as a violation of city ordinances, Harney ordered
Lyon to remove the troops.17
The situation in St. Louis remained extremely volatile. Frost
sought to gain the advantage through an aggressive plan of action. On
April 15, his memorandum to Governor Jackson pointed out the
strategic importance of St. Louis to the Southern cause. "I fully
appreciate the very delicate position occupied by your Excellency, and
do not expect you to take any action, or do anything that is not legal or
proper." Nevertheless, Frost suggested that Jackson convene the state
assembly at once, that an agent be sent to the South to procure mortars
and siege guns and that additional Federal troops be prevented from
garrisoning the arsenal. He urged the governor to warn the people of
Missouri to "prepare themselves to maintain their rights as citizens" of
the state. Frost concluded with the suggestion that he be ordered to
"form a military camp of instruction at or near the city of St. Louis . . .
15
John B. Floyd to Col. Drinkard, 25 November 1860, Civil War Papers,
Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis; Thomas L. Snead, The Fight for Missouri (New
York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1886), 108-111; Harold E. Iverson, "The History of the
St. Louis Arsenal" (Master's thesis, Washington University, St. Louis, 1963), 362-369.
16
D. M. Frost to C. F. Jackson, 24 January 1861, Civil War Papers; Snead, Fight
for Mo., 115.
17
Snead, Fight for Mo., 124, 155-157; James W. Covington, "The Camp Jackson
Affair, 1861," Missouri Historical Review 55 (April 1961): 200-208.
to do all things necessary and proper . . . to maintain peace, dignity,

and the sovereignty of the State."18
Jackson valued Frost as an accomplished soldier, organizer and
officer true to the interests of Missouri. He acted promptly on Frost's
proposal to place Missouri on the side of the South. On April 18, he
sent Captains Colton Greene and Basil Duke and Judge William M.
Cooke to Virginia with a request for weapons. Five days later, Presi-
dent Jefferson Davis approved the transfer of four artillery pieces to aid
the Missourians.19
On May 2, Governor Jackson summoned the general assembly to
meet in special session at Jefferson City "for the purpose of enacting
such measures as might be deemed necessary and proper for the more
perfect organization and equipment of the militia." He also ordered the
commanding officers of each of the state's military districts to assemble
their respective commands for a six-day period of drill. This order
authorized Frost to establish the camp of the First Military District at
any point within the city or county limits. At the same time, the order
directed Colonel Bowen to disband the Southwest Battalion and report
to Frost with all of the officers and men from the St. Louis district.20
18
Frank Moore, Rebellion Record (New York: G. P. Putnam, 1861), 2: 494;
"Oration of Charles Drake," 11 May 1863, in Drake "Autobiography," Western His-
torical Manuscript Collection, University of Missouri-Columbia.
19
Snead, Fight for Mo., 167-168.
20
Ibid., 152, 172-173.
The Arsenal at St. Louis, 1861
Thomas L. Snead claimed that Frost also mustered five companies

of the Minute Men into state service on February 13, 1861.21 Frost,
however, denied this assertion. "No such organization, in whole or part,
was ever mustered into the State service by me or by any order or
assent, nor did any such organization ever enter Camp Jackson."22
The pace quickened when Lyon assumed charge of the department
on the recall of Harney to Washington. On the night of April 26, Lyon
seized the arsenal and ordered the arms and ammunition stored there to
be moved to Illinois. This transfer frustrated Governor Jackson's plans
to hold the encampment of Frost's troops on the hills within easy range
of the arsenal. Frost therefore selected a wooded valley near the
intersection of Grand and Olive Avenues in the western part of the city.
Here, at Lindell Grove (now the site of St. Louis University), he
assembled seven hundred men on May 6.23
Frost's activity did not escape the attention of Blair and Lyon.
Acting on a directive from Secretary of War Simon Cameron, Lyon
promptly mustered five well-equipped regiments of infantry into Fed-
eral service and reinforced the arsenal with artillery. When, on May 8,
he became aware that arms and ammunition had arrived at Camp
Jackson from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Lyon believed that he had
sufficient cause for immediate action. In his view, these materials
rightfully belonged to the Federal government. He proposed "to capture
the camp, and the men in it." On May 10, Lyon demanded the
immediate surrender of Frost's militia command, claiming that it
consisted of "secessionists who . . . have been plotting the seizure of
[government] property and the overthrow of its authority."24
Frost issued a prompt protest: "What could justify you in attacking
citizens of the United States who are in the lawful performance of their
duties . . . in organizing and instructing the militia of the State in
obedience to her laws?" The next day, Frost assured General Harney
that he had assembled the state militia "for the purpose of instructing
[it] in accordance with the laws of the United States and of this
State. "2*
21
Ibid., 110-111. At that time, Thomas L. Snead served as Acting Adjutant General
of the Missouri State Guard.
22
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 1 June 1882.
23
Snead, Fight for Mo., 157, 163; D. M. Frost, General Orders #4, 1st Military
District, 8 January 1861, Civil War Papers.
24
Snead, Fight for Mo., 165, 169-170; U. S. War Department, War of the Re-
bellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies 4
ser. 128 vols. (Washington, D.C: Government Printing Office, 1880-1900), 3: 6-7.
Hereafter cited as O. R.; unless specified all references are to series 1.
25
O. R., 3: 5-7; ibid., ser. 2, vol. 1: 109, 113.
Outnumbered at least ten to one, Frost's command was not strong

enough to resist "this unwarranted attack." Surrender appeared the
only alternative. The Southern militiamen turned in their arms and
marched down Olive Street for internment in the arsenal. Federal
officials released the prisoners that night on condition they not bear
arms against the United States. Frost, however, did not receive his
parole until October 26, 1861, when he was exchanged for Colonel
James Mulligan, the Union commander at the siege of Lexington,
Missouri.26
In the aftermath of Camp Jackson, Frost returned to "Hazel-
wood." As a paroled prisoner of war, his life became unpleasant. "The
suspicion and hostility that exist against me on the part of spying
neighbors and zealous homeguards cause a great uneasiness and con-
cern."27 In addition, Daniel Frost was one of those assessed when
General Henry W. Halleck, the new commander of the Department of
the West, ordered rebel sympathizers to provide funds for Southern
refugees crowding into the city.28
Frost now determined to offer his services to the Confederacy.
Leaving Lily and the children at "Hazelwood," he traveled to Pitman's
Ferry, Arkansas, in the late summer of 1861. There he had a lengthy
exchange of views with General William J. Hardee concerning Con-
federate affairs west of the Mississippi. Hardee had become concerned
that the number of independent commands subject to remote authority
made unified action in the trans-Mississippi impossible. He desired to
26
Ibid., ser. 2, vol. 1: 553-554; Snead, Fight for Mo., 171-172. Several historians
have questioned General Frost's plan of action at Camp Jackson. Bruce Catton, The
Coming Fury (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1961), 377, and John
C. Moore, "Missouri," Confederate Military History (Atlanta, Ga.: Confederate Publish-
ing Company, 1899), 9: 33, have suggested Frost might have attacked and fortified the
arsenal before the Union prepared to fight, fortified Camp Jackson or retreated either
across the Meramec River or to St. Charles, Missouri. In view of the overwhelming
Federal strength eventually developed in the region (General John C. Fremont com-
manded 40,000 Union troops in July 1861), these alternatives appear to constitute a
"death wish."
Catton points out that Frost became entangled in legalistic issues"it was not legal
for the United States army to attack state militia." Yet, as Catton notes, Frost then
prepared "to do an extra-legal thingseize a United States arsenal by force of arms
and he relied for protection on the very legalities that were being disregarded."
General Frost erred by relying on a narrow interpretation of the legal principles and
by failing to estimate the results of "a worst case" scenarioa Union attack on Camp
Jackson. Frost had drilled the Missouri State Militia in July 1860 on the fairgrounds at
Grand Avenue and Walnut Street without incident. See Missouri Historical Society
Bulletin 12 (October 1955): 48.
27
Harriet L. C. Hardaway, "The Adventures of General Frost and His Wife Lily
During the Civil War," Florissant Valley Historical Society Quarterly 14 (July 1972): 3.
28
James Neal Primm, Lion of the Valley (Boulder, Colo.: Pruett Publishing Com-
pany, 1981), 261.
move into Missouri to assist General Sterling Price, but had no

authority to do so. Hardee urged Frost to proceed to Richmond and
apprise the president of the state of affairs in the region. In particular,
Hardee proposed the appointment of one general to command all
Confederate troops west of the river.29
Frost journeyed to Memphis, where he furnished Colonel E. C.
Cabell, Missouri's commissioner to Richmond, a complete assessment
of Federal strength in St. Louis.30 When he learned that General Albert
Sidney Johnston had just been appointed to command the Western
Department, with full powers to manage "everything confederate west
of the Alleghany mountains," Frost proceeded to Columbus, Kentucky,
to meet with him.
At the first meeting, Frost stated the views given to him by Hardee.
He then turned to the subject of Missouri and urged the immediate
concentration of Confederate troops under Hardee and General Ben
McCulloch at Sedalia, Missouri. Frost contended that Price, far from
his support in the southwestern part of the state, would be unable to
hold on at Lexington. Johnston showed "marked resistance" to this
proposal.31
A second interview continued to develop the same theme. Johnston
held that since Missouri had not yet seceded, it was not entitled to the
aid of Confederate troops. Frost reminded Johnston that Missouri and
the Confederacy were both fighting a common enemy and "the success
of the one was necessarily equally beneficial to the other." Johnston felt
bound, however, to respect government policy; any hope of Confed-
erate troops being ordered into Missouri would have to wait until the
state seceded.
The question of Missouri's role in the conflict was not a new one.
Speaking before the Southern Convention in Washington on February
4, 1861, William A. Hall of Missouri cautioned the delegates: "The
geographical position of Missouri makes her essential to the North, and
. . . it will never consent to the secession of Missouri."32 On September
27, 1861, General Braxton Bragg wrote to General Albert Sidney
Johnston calling for an aggressive defense in Missouri and Kentucky.33
Three months later, Confederate Secretary of War Judah Benjamin
29
Daniel M. Frost, "That State Secret," St. Louis Missouri Republican, 19 March
1886.
30
O. R., 8: 706.
31
Frost, "That State Secret."
32
Snead, Fight for Mo., 62-63.
33
St. Louis Missouri Republican, 19 March 1886.
Gen. A. Sidney Johnston
warned: "Obtaining possession of the latter state [Missouri] is of

supreme importance. . . . Missouri must not be lost to us."34
At a third conference with Johnston, Frost raised questions about
Confederate policy toward Kentucky, particularly to the strategic ports
of Paducah and Columbus. At this early stage of the war, both the
Union and the Confederacy announced intentions to respect the state's
neutrality, despite the great strategic importance of her geographical
position. However, in September 1861, the Confederates had prepared
a fortified position at Columbus to blockade the Mississippi. And a
small Union force had camped at Paducah to deny the Confederates
control of the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers.
Federal control of the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers would
pose formidable problems for the South. Only the poorly situated and
defended Forts Henry and Donelson blockaded these two great arteries,
which led into the very heart of the Confederacy. These waterways
provided an excellent route for the movement of men and supplies and
unmasked Nashville, the major industrial city in Confederate Depart-
ment Number Two. In the event of a Federal advance into the Tennes-
see Valley, Union superiority in gunboats and transports would facili-
tate the attempt to drive a wedge between the Confederate positions at
Bowling Green and Columbus.
34
J. P. Benjamin to Braxton Bragg, 27 December 1861, Civil War Papers.
Moreover, an extensive railroad network provided an alternative

logistical system connecting Kentucky and Tennessee with the lower
South. President Lincoln recognized another considerable strategic
aspect of the region. He wrote to a friend in September 1861: "Ken-
tucky gone, we cannot hold Missouri." 35
Frost therefore proposed to Johnston that a force under General
Leonidas Polk be sent to occupy and fortify Paducah. Again Johnston
demurred: "We must respect the neutrality of Kentucky." General Frost
pointed out that the neutrality of Kentucky had already been violated
by the Confederate occupation of Columbus and the Union encamp-
ment at Paducah. At this point, General Polk, who was present at the
interview, said: "General Johnston, I must say that I think we ought to
make the movement suggested by Gen. Frost." However, the movement
never occurred. Frost apparently impressed Polk; on December 7, 1861,
he nominated Frost for an appointment as a brigadier general in the
Confederate army. 36
Although the Camp Jackson affair dominated Frost's Civil War
military career, he also served with the Southern forces in Arkansas in
1862-1863. Unfortunately, the lack of substantive detail obscures the
elements of personal spirit and character of his performance as a
Confederate general officer. An appreciation of his soldierly qualities
suffers from his failure to file action reports. Only a bare outline of his
Confederate military career survives.
In February 1862, Frost assumed command of the 7th division of
the Missouri State Guard stationed near Pocahontas, Arkansas. 37 He
led this division in the battle of Pea Ridge on March 6-8.38 On March
17, General Earl Van Dorn selected Frost as commanding officer of the
artillery brigade, 1st Division, Army of the West. When the army
moved east of the river to Corinth, Mississippi, Frost acted for a short
time as Inspector General of the Army of the Mississippi. 39 In the
summer of that year, Union reports placed Frost's brigade back in
Arkansas in the vicinity of Salem. 40
35
A. Lincoln to Orville H. Browning, 22 September 1861, in Roy P. Basler, ed., The
Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press,
1953-1955), 4:532.
36
O. R.,1: 741.
37
Ibid., 8: 553, 755, 714. A Missouri State Guard division did not indicate the size
of the unit. Rather, it meant a force consisting of men recruited from one of the state's
military districts.
38
Ibid., 8: 323.
39
Ibid., 10, pt. 2: 503, 547-548; ibid., 8: 788; ibid., 53: 796.
40
Ibid., 13:481.
On October 11, 1862, Frost received orders to report to Little

Rock, Arkansas, for duty in the Trans-Mississippi Department under
General Theophilus H. Holmes. Holmes assigned Frost to General
Thomas C. Hindman's division, noting: "He is, I think, a good dis-
ciplinarian."41 Hindman cited Frost for his performance at the battle of
Prairie Grove, December 7, 1862. Following the Confederate defeat in
this action, Frost's brigade wintered near Van Buren and Lewisburg,
Arkansas.42 On March 2, 1863, Frost assumed temporary command of
Hindman's division when that officer was relieved from duty in the
trans-Mississippi.43
Frost's last field command came during the Confederate defense of
Little Rock. In September 1863, he commanded Southern forces en-
trenched north of the Arkansas River opposite the city. When he
supported Price's decision to abandon the defense, he incurred the
displeasure of General Mosby M. Parsons and other officers in Price's
army.44 For the remainder of the year, Frost's troops concentrated at
Woodlawn and Pine Bluff, Arkansas.45
41
Ibid., 887, 913.
42
Ibid., 22, pt. 1: 141-143, 170, 172. Frost did not file an action report of the Prairie
Grove battle.
43
Ibid., pt. 2: 808.
44
Ibid., 468, 969, 1027; ibid., pt. 1: 472, 544; Leo E. Huff, "The Union Expedition
Against Little Rock, August-September 1863," Arkansas Historical Quarterly 12 (Fall
1963): 215-222; Thomas C. Reynolds, "Sterling Price and the Confederacy," 128, in
Thomas C. Reynolds Papers, Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis.
45
O. R., 22, pt. 1: 520-521, 776; ibid., pt. 2: 1051.
Frost led the 7th division of Missouri State Guard in the battle of Pea
Ridge, March 1862.
*.>.:,i*f
>
ff^^|3
MM
While Frost served in Arkansas, his wife remained in St. Louis.

Union officials in the city subjected her to constant harassment. They
detained her, along with the wives of Missouri secessionists Trusten
Polk, Dr. John S. McPheeters and William M. Cooke, in the McClure
mansion on Chestnut Street. Lily Frost often used the celebrated mail
runner, Absalom Grimes, to transmit her letters. The St. Louis Daily
Union published one of her letters, found on Grimes at the time of his
imprisonment in Gratiot Street prison.46
Lieutenant Colonel F. A. Dick, the Union provost marshal of St.
Louis, became aware of "the business of collecting and distributing
rebel letters," but he lacked sufficient evidence to convict the women of
spying. He requested permission to send these "disloyal, avowed and
abusive enemies of the Govt." through the lines to join their Southern
friends.47 On April 23, 1863, an order from the secretary of war
banished Mrs. Frost from the city. Eleven women and eight men left St.
Louis for Memphis aboard the steamer Belle Memphis on May 13.
From that city, they went by rail to Okalona, Mississippi. Mrs. Frost
and Mrs. Trusten Polk pushed on to Arkadelphia, Arkansas, where
Lily Frost rejoined her husband. The experience had severely damaged
her health.48
Frost now interrupted his military duties to care for his wife. On
September 24, 1863, he requested a sixty-day leave of absence, which
Price approved in Special Orders #159 on October 9. Holmes, now
commanding the District of Arkansas, protested. He revoked Frost's
orders and "ordered me to return at once to my brigade." When Frost
did not return at the end of his leave, the War Department published
his name as a deserter. "You know [I was] stung to the quick by this
outrageous treatment, and declared to you my determination never to
serve another day under such an officer."49 Mosby M. Parsons, known
for his unfriendly feeling toward Frost, reportedly had his name read
out as a deserter following the battle of Mansfield, Louisiana, in April
1864.50
After Frost moved his family to Matamoros, Mexico, he resigned
from the army on November 30, 1863. It had become apparent the term
46
Hardaway, "Adventures of Frost," 3. Grimes does not mention this incident in his
autobiography. M. M. Quaife, ed., Absalom Grimes. Confederate Mail Runner (New
Haven: Yale University Press, 1926).
47
O. R., ser. 2, vol. 5: 320; Hardaway, "Adventures of Frost," 4.
48
Ibid., 5-6; Knapp, Presence of the Past, 8.
49
Daniel M. Frost, A Letter to General Sterling Price (St. Louis: privately printed,
1979), 6-10. Neither Holmes's revocation order nor the publication of Frost's name as a
deserter was found in O. R.
50
Thomas C. Reynolds to D. M. Frost, 11 January 1882, Graham Papers.
Confederate President
Jefferson Davis
of his leave would force him to abandon his wife to uncertain condi-
tions in that country. The family secured passage from Bagdad, Texas,
to Havana, Cuba, arriving there in the latter part of January 1864. The
general and his family then made their way to Montreal via New York
City and St. Johns, New Brunswick.51
With his family safely in Montreal, Frost attempted to secure a
post in the eastern theater of war, where he hoped "to find less
prejudice against me in the army on account of my northern birth." He
said: "I could no longer serve under that officer [General Holmes]. . . . I
was persuaded I could never do . . . much benefit in the Trans-
Mississippi Department, because of the hatred and distrust existing in
the minds of the community against officers of Northern birth; that I
had been stigmatized as a traitor all through the Department at the
outset of the war, for not beating [General Lyon] at Camp Jackson."52
While Frost's surrender at Camp Jackson may have biased Con-
federate officials against him, his northern birth became a greater
impediment in his search for a new command. He learned that the
51
D. M. Frost to Col. S. S. Anderson, 30 November 1863, Graham Papers; Frost,
A tetter to Price, 9-10.
52
Ibid., 6-7; D. M. Frost to A. M. McLean, 30 November 1863, Graham Papers.
troops in General Joseph E. Johnston's department were "very hostile

to officers of northern birth." Johnston told President Davis on June 9,
1863, that the appointment of officers of northern birth for duty in his
department "would weaken the army." "It is important to avoid any
cause for further discontent," he said.53
Thirty-five men of northern birth, eighteen of whom had graduated
from West Point, became general officers in the Confederate army.
Samuel Cooper, adjutant general, and Josiah Gorgas, chief of ordnance,
achieved prominence as administrators. However, Northern-born field
commanders had not gained notable success. John C. Pemberton,
Franklin Gardner and Mansfield Lovell surrendered strategic posts at
Vicksburg, Baton Rouge and New Orleans, respectively. Albert Pike
and William Steele demonstrated ineffective leadership of Confederate
forces in Indian Territory. And seven divisional commanders born in
the North fashioned undistinguished combat records.54
When Frost realized the depth of negative attitudes toward officers
of northern birth serving in high places in the Confederate army, he
advised the adjutant general on March 28, 1864, that his return to
military duty would be unwise. "I was constantly harassed by hearing
the President censured by prominent men for putting 'Northern traitors'
in the army."55 Ex-governor Reynolds approved Frost's decision not to
return to the army since "among ignorant or prejudiced people, . . .
there existed in the South, a blind unreasoning distrust of Confederate
officers of Northern birth, . . . and as the war progressed, this prejudice
. . . extended quickly up to persons better informed and ordinarily
impartial."56
Frost remained in Montreal until the close of the war. In Quebec
on August 7, 1865, he took an oath of allegiance to support the
Constitution of the United States. The next day, he asked Father Pierre
DeSmet to use his influence with President Andrew Johnson to allow
his return to the states. General U. S. Grant also interceded with the
president to permit Frost to return home.57 Frost received a pardon
53
O. R., 24, pt. 1: 195; Samuel G. French, Two Wars. An Autobiography (Nash-
ville: Confederate Veteran, 1901), 180-182.
54
Ezra Warner, Generals in Gray (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press,
1959), xxiii; Charles C. Cummings, Yankee Quaker, Confederate General (Rutherford,
N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1971), 9-10. However, see Herman Hattaway
and Archer Jones, How the North Won (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1933),
20-21 n. 7.
55
Frost, A Letter to Price, 8. The Confederate War Department apparently never
received this correspondence.
56
Reynolds to Frost, ibid.
57
Fordyce Family Papers; Knapp, Presence of the Past, 10-11; DeSmetiania, Roll
2828, Jesuit Library, St. Louis University; D. M. Frost to Father DeSmet, 8 August
1865, Father Pierre Jean DeSmet Papers, Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis.
from President Johnson on October 23, 1865, and moved his family
back to St. Louis.58
In the 1870s, Frost purchased an imposing home in St. Louis at
1711 Wash Street (formerly Carr Place). Following Lily's death in 1874,
he married Harriet M. Chenie LaMotte, the widow of a Mullanphy
grandson. When the second Mrs. Frost passed away in 1878, he
married a Mullanphy granddaughter, the widow Catherine Jane Clem-
ens Cates.59
Now active in civic and political affairs, in 1876 he endorsed the
candidacy of Democrat Don C. Buell for president. Buell, however,
chose not to run.60 The following year, Governor John Phelps ap-
58
Fordyce Family Papers.
59
Jansen, ed., "Memoirs of Frost," 3-4; J. S. Ankeney, "A Century of Missouri
Art," Missouri Historical Review 16 (July 1922): 499. Built in 1858 by C. B. Carr, the
house was torn down in 1933.
60
Between 1879 and 1886, Frost occupied an office in St. Louis at 513 North 6th
Street. He moved his office to 1111 Chestnut Street in 1893. St. Louis Directory (St.
Louis: Southern Publishing Company, 1879-1893).
Don C. Buell to D. M. Frost, 26 March 1876; Frost to General William Preston, 25
April 1876, Graham Papers.
After the war, Frost purchased this imposing

home on Wash Street in St. Louis.
pointed Frost captain of the Carr Place Guards, a local militia unit.61
Frost's interest in veterans affairs culminated in the establishment of the
Confederate Veterans Home at Higginsville, Missouri.62 In 1888, Gov-
ernor A. P. Morehouse appointed Frost to the committee on the
Centennial Celebration of the Inauguration of George Washington as
President of the United States.63
Frost never had been granted an official government inquiry into
the charges of desertion, and he wanted to clear his name. In November
1865, he had summarized the facts in a privately printed letter to
Sterling Price. He observed that the necessity for providing care for his
wife's failing health precipitated his resignation from the army. He
recalled a conversation with Price at his Arkadelphia, Arkansas, head-
quarters in which he presented the alternativesunconditional resigna-
tion or a leave of absence. He noted that Price advised him to seek a
sixty-day leave of absence. When General E. Kirby Smith, the com-
mander of the Trans-Mississippi Department, arrived at Price's head-
quarters, Frost asked whether "it would be better for the cause as well
as myself to accept my resignation." Kirby Smith concurred with Price
and suggested the leave of absence.64
In the 1880s, Frost's continuing efforts to clear his name received
support from several former officers and officials of the Confederacy.
Kirby Smith exonerated Frost of any guilt. On December 9, 1881, he
expressed the opinion that "had you been brought before a competent
tribunal you would have been fully exonerated." General John S.
Marmaduke and Waldo P. Johnson also offered expressions of sup-
port.65 Colonel R. H. Musser, in a speech before the Ex-Confederates
Association of Missouri, reported he had "no knowledge of anyone
who censured him [Frost]" for leaving the army because of his wife's
health.66
On January 11, 1882, Governor Reynolds wrote Frost a long letter
carefully assessing the facts of the case. "I am decidedly inclined to
conclude that no such charges [desertion] was ever made at all, either
by Gen. E. K. Smith, or by that Department." He added: "General E.
Kirby Smith never issued any order, or other official paper, characteriz-
61
20 December 1877, Fordyce Family Papers.
62
Boyce, "General Daniel M. Frost."
63
A. P. Morehouse to D. M. Frost, 4 December 1888, Fordyce Family Papers.
64
Frost, A Letter to Price, 7-9.
65
Thomas C. Reynolds to E. Kirby Smith, 18 November 1881; J. S. Marmaduke to
E. K. Smith, 15 November 1881; Waldo P. Johnson to E. K. Smith, 30 November 1881;
E. K. Smith to D. M. Frost, 9 December 1881, Graham Papers.
66
W. P. Barlow to D. M. Frost, 12 December 1890, ibid.
Gen. E. Kirby Smith
^i%|
ing you as a deserter."67 However, eight years later, Musser recalled

that Kirby Smith told him he had received an order which charged
Frost with desertion.68
The question of Confederate aid to Missouri embroiled Frost in a
short controversy with Jefferson Davis in 1886. On February 19, at a
meeting of the Southern Historical Society in St. Louis, he charged that
the government at Richmond failed to support movements in Missouri.
The society invited Frost to present a full discussion of the matter at a
later meeting. On March 19, the Missouri Republican published his
exposition, "That State Secret - The Attitude of the Confederate Gov-
ernment Toward Missouri During the Late War." In this presentation,
Frost charged that General Ben McCulloch's failure to cooperate with
Price after the battle of Wilson's Creek "was very likely due to orders
from the Confederate government." He claimed General Albert Sidney
Johnston had informed him "as a sort of state secret, that it was not the
policy of the confederate government to so complicate itself with the
67
T. C. Reynolds to D. M. Frost, 11 January 1882, ibid.
68
W. P. Barlow to Frost, 12 December 1890, ibid.
affairs of Missouri as to make it a sine qua non that they should survive
or perish together."69
On March 2, Return I. Holcombe, an editor and Civil War his-
torian, apprised Jefferson Davis of the brewing controversy. On March
20, he submitted Davis's reply of March 8 to the paper. "I desired both
Missouri and Kentucky . . . to join us in organizing a separate
government."70 In support of Davis's record, Holcombe cited from
Thomas L. Snead's book, The Fight for Missouri. On April 23, 1861,
the president said: "We look anxiously and hopefully for the day when
the star of Missouri shall be added to the constellation of the con-
federate states of America."71 Holcombe offered the president's letter to
Colonel E. C. Cabell, which expressed "the sympathy I feel for Mis-
souri" and quoted from a letter of the secretary of war, Leroy P.
Walker, which set forth movements to unshackle the state.72 He re-
minded the readers the Confederate government had appropriated one
million dollars on August 1, 1861, for the defense of Missouri.73 And,
69
St. Louis Missouri Republican, 19 February, 19 March 1886.
70
Jefferson Davis to R. I. Holcombe, 8 March 1886, in ibid., 20 March 1886.
71
Ibid.; Snead, Fight for Mo., 1.68.
72
Jefferson Davis to Hon. E. C. Cabell, 8 July 1861, O.R., 3: 605-606; Leroy P.
Walker to C. F. Jackson, 25 May 1861, ibid., 584.
73
Walker to Jackson, 13 August 1861, ibid., 646.
Daniel M. Frost
As He Appeared In LMter Years
he concluded, all these acts had preceded the adoption of the Missouri
ordinance of secession at Neosho on October 28, 1861.
On March 22, Frost sought to correct the false impression Hol-
combe's letter may have created. He sent a copy of his speech to
President Davis. "I thought it proper that you should know just what I
have said, and why I have said it."74 A week later, Davis acknowledged
Frost's letter. He stated that General A. S. Johnston had not been
"trammelled by instructions from Richmond which prevented him from
carrying out, in regard to Missouri, the views which you convinced him
were essential to the welfare of the Confederacy." Nor did the adminis-
tration have a policy "adverse to the union of Missouri with the States
of the Confederacy." The president made it clear the policy of the
Confederate States of America respected the sovereignty of every state.
If the people of Missouri had expressed a desire to unite with their
sister states of the South, the administration would have been willing to
"aid in resisting the effort to coerce her will." Davis added: "I had no
policy, no fear of the future that could have led me to close the gate
against [Missouri's] admission to the Confederacy." The president
reminded Frost that his published correspondence clearly supported
this position.75
In February 1896, the United Confederate Veterans of Fulton,
Missouri, named their post in the general's honor.76 Daniel Frost died
at "Hazelwood" on October 29, 1900, and was buried in Calvary
Cemetery, St. Louis, following a Catholic funeral service.77
74
D. M. Frost to Jefferson Davis, 22 March 1886, in Jefferson Davis, Constitu-
tionalist, ed. Dunbar Rowland (Jackson, Miss.: State Department of Archives and
History, 1923), 9: 409.
75
Ibid., 453-455.
76
H. A. Neuman to W. P. Barlow, 4 February, 1 April 1896, Graham Papers; John
H. Morgan to D. M. Frost, 22 February 1896, Frost Papers.
77
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 30-31 October 1900.
Please Don't Raise My Pay

Canton Press, August 11, 1870.
The ministers in our day rarely object to an increase in salary, but we find in an
exchange a capital story of an old Connecticut pastor, who declined it for very
substantial reasons:
His country parish raised his salary from three to four hundred dollars. The good
old man objected for three reasons: "First," said he, "because you can't afford to pay me
more than three hundred. Second, because my preaching isn't worth more than that.
Third, because I have to collect my salary, which heretofore has been the hardest part of
my labors among you. If I have to collect an additional hundred, it will kill me."

Daniel Marsh Frost, CSA (Missouri Historical Review 85.4 (July 1991) )

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Daniel Marsh Frost, CSA (Missouri Historical Review 85.4 (July 1991) )

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Missouri Historical Review 85.

State Historical Society of Missouri