The Wide Awakes fight a Civil War skirmish
Missouri’s German Wide Awakes compete in dueling parades with rival clubs of Democrat John Bell’s “Bell-Ringers”, and Douglass’ “Chloroformers” and “Minute Men.” The antagonism builds in intensity from the summertime parades trading insults, to ostentatious tit-for-tat public displays of firearms, to shots fired. On Lincoln’s inauguration day, the anti-Wide Awake Minute Men sneak atop the Federal courthouse roof and cut down the American flag…which the Wide Awakes then fight to replace. However, after South Carolina attacks Fort Sumter, a cabal of anti-Lincoln officers of the Missouri State Guard escalate the conflict by capturing a Federal Armory with members of the Minute Men club. Jefferson Davis smuggles cannon to the Missouri rebels to hold the Fort. A pro-Union Congressman secretly arms The German Wide Awakes and they retake the fort. Twenty-eight people are killed in the ensuing gun battle through city streets between the Wide Awakes and Minute Men. This guerrilla warfare engulfs Missouri for the next three years.