The real men and women whose lives shaped the story of John M. Wimer and Civil War era St. Louis.
Protagonist
John M. Wimer
7th Mayor of St. Louis
Born in 1810 in Charlottesville, Virginia, Wimer was the son of blacksmith Jacob Wimer. He journeyed west to St. Louis as a young man, rising from humble origins to become one of the city’s most respected leaders. Elected mayor twice — first in 1843 and again in 1857 — he earned the nickname "The Pride of the City." When the Civil War erupted, he refused the federal loyalty oath, was imprisoned, escaped, and rode south to join the Confederate cause. He was killed at the Battle of Hartville in January 1863.
Confederate
Sterling Price
Former Governor & Confederate General
Once a moderate Unionist and former governor of Missouri, Price was radicalized by the Camp Jackson Affair and the federal crackdown in St. Louis. He became the Confederacy’s most prominent commander in the Trans-Mississippi theater, leading Missouri troops through a series of brutal engagements including Wilson’s Creek and the Missouri campaign of 1864.
John S. Marmaduke
Confederate Cavalry General
A West Point graduate and son of a former Missouri governor, Marmaduke became one of the Confederacy’s most effective cavalry commanders west of the Mississippi. He led raids across Missouri and Arkansas, and was present at the Battle of Hartville where Wimer fell. After the war, he was elected governor of Missouri in 1884.
Emmett MacDonald
Confederate Cavalry Officer
A fiery young officer who commanded a cavalry company of Missouri Confederates. MacDonald was known for his aggressive tactics and personal bravery. He fought alongside Marmaduke in several engagements across the Ozarks and was among the Confederate officers at Hartville.
Joseph O. Shelby
Confederate Cavalry Commander
One of the most celebrated Confederate cavalry leaders in the western theater, Shelby was a wealthy Missouri hemp planter who raised his own cavalry regiment. He was known as the "undefeated Shelby" and famously refused to surrender at war’s end, leading his men into Mexico rather than submit to Union authority.
Claiborne Fox Jackson
Governor of Missouri
A slaveholder and ardent secessionist, Jackson served as Missouri’s governor at the outbreak of the war. He secretly conspired to arm the state militia against the Union and seize the federal arsenal in St. Louis. After the Camp Jackson Affair, he fled the capital and established a Confederate government-in-exile, forcing every Missourian to choose a side.
Union
Nathaniel Lyon
Union Army Captain
The fiery federal officer whose bold seizure of Camp Jackson turned a political crisis into open warfare on the streets of St. Louis. Lyon was a fervent abolitionist who believed decisive action was the only way to hold Missouri for the Union. He became the first Union general killed in the Civil War, falling at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek in August 1861.
Frank Blair Jr.
U.S. Congressman
A powerful Republican congressman and brother of Lincoln’s Postmaster General, Blair organized St. Louis’s Unionist forces and wielded federal authority to suppress Confederate sympathy in the city. He worked closely with Lyon to orchestrate the Camp Jackson Affair and the broader federal takeover of Missouri’s government.
Daniel Marsh Frost
Brigadier General, Missouri State Guard
A West Point graduate who commanded Camp Jackson at the time of its capture. Though a moderate who hoped for compromise, Frost was forced to surrender his militia to Lyon’s federal troops. The humiliation of that surrender — and the massacre of civilians that followed — pushed many moderates, including Frost, toward the Confederacy.
Civilian
Edward Dobyns
St. Louis Civic Leader
A prominent St. Louis citizen and ally of Wimer who navigated the treacherous politics of a border city. Dobyns was among those who tried to maintain order and protect Southern sympathizers from the federal crackdown that followed Camp Jackson.
John Fletcher Darby
Former Mayor of St. Louis
A fellow former mayor of St. Louis and contemporary of Wimer, Darby witnessed the city’s transformation from a frontier trading post to a booming metropolis — and its near-destruction by fire, cholera, and civil war. His memoirs provide crucial firsthand accounts of the era.
Hannah Ward
Sister of John M. Wimer
Wimer’s sister, sentenced to banishment from St. Louis in 1863 for expressing rebel sentiments. In poor health, she petitioned for reprieve while trying to reclaim her son Augustus from the Confederate army. She had earlier urged John to take the loyalty oath at Gratiot Street Prison — without success.
Abigail Shotwell Wise
Wife of John M. Wimer
Wimer married Abigail Shotwell Wise in 1834, and she stood beside him throughout his rise to political prominence. After his imprisonment and escape, she was left to navigate life in an occupied city as the wife of a known Confederate. Her story reflects the heavy toll the war exacted on the families left behind.