The Camp Jackson affair, also known as the Camp Jackson massacre, occurred during the American Civil War on May 10, 1861, when a volunteer Union Army regiment captured a unit of secessionists at Camp Jackson, outside the city of St. Louis, in the divided slave state of Missouri.

On April 23, Jackson refused to meet President Lincoln’s call for troops. Instead, he ordered the Missouri Volunteer Militia to muster all across the state. In answer to Gov. Jackson’s call, close to 1,000 men made camp in St. Louis’s Lindell Grove.

The first instance of bloodshed in Missouri during the Civil War occurred in St Louis on May 10, 1861, less than a month after the war’s first shots were fired at Fort Sumter. The event in St. Louis came to be known in history as the Camp Jackson affair.

The Camp Jackson Affair, also known as the Camp Jackson Massacre, occurred on May 10, 1861, during the Civil War. Less than a month after the war’s first shots were fired at Fort Sumter , South Carolina , the first instance of bloodshed in Missouri occurred when a volunteer Union Army regiment captured a unit of secessionists at Camp Jackson ...

In the chaos, Lyon's unseasoned volunteers fire into the crowd, killing some 28 onlookers and wounding nearly 100 more. The incident becomes known as the "Camp Jackson Affair," but Lyon later receives a promotion to brigadier general on July 2, 1861.

In response, General Lyon mobilized thousands of local soldiers, mostly ethnic German volunteers, to march against the camp on May 10, 1861. After a short but intense standoff, the camp surrendered. Jackson's militia, now prisoners, were marched through the streets of St. Louis to the Arsenal.

Located in Columbus, Ohio, Camp Jackson was a Northern military training base during the American Civil War. With the Civil War’s outbreak, both the North and the South were ill prepared for the conflict.

At this location there occurred on May 10, 1861 an incident that has become known as the Camp Jackson Affair. On that day an encampment of the First Brigade of the Missouri state militia was surrounded and captured by volunteers in the service of the federal government.

On May 10, during the temporary absence of the federal commander in St. Louis, William S. Harney, Lyon and Blair marched some 6,500 troops from the St. Louis Arsenal to Camp Jackson, a militia encampment on the western edge of St Louis, forcing the surrender of those 669 militia (of 891 in camp) who had not managed to escape the converging ...

Though Governor Jackson defied President Lincoln's call for troops to defend the Union, he gathered pro-Southern militia groups in St. Louis for training. This militia muster dubbed its encampment Camp Jackson.