Half way through his second term
as Secretary of State, in June 1861, the Civil War broke out.
Union troops seized the State Capitol at Jefferson City, ousted the
elected State administration, and took over the State. The ousted
Rebel administration promptly took flight into the South.
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The fugitive Rebel
administration, the "Government in Exile" kept their group intact and
prepared to return to Jefferson City to run the State, the moment that
the Rebel army defeated the Union troops. They fled from place to
place all over the South, avoiding capture by the Union troops.
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Among the members of this
fugitive administration was the Governor, the Lt. Governor, the
Adjutant General, the Secretary of State (6.Benjamin Franklin
Massey), and his eldest son, 44.Benjamin Ulpian
Massey, who functioned as his father's Chief Clerk.
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At this point, the B.F. Massey
family was about as patriotically Rebel as could be possible (see Massey Appendix XLI):
B.F. Massey; Secretary of
State.
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B.U. Massey; his father's
Chief Clerk.
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43.Nina Massey Hough; eldest
daughter, a message Courier to the Rebel forces.
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Warwick Hough; her
husband; Adjutant General; later Secretary of State; finally a Captain
in the Confederate army.
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46.Clarence Randolph Massey;
a son; a Confederate soldier.
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From the Autumn of 1861 until
the Autumn of 1862, B.F. Massey functioned part of the time as
Secretary of State and part of the time had to delegate his authority
to his son and Chief Clerk. His health and rheumatism made
continuous service an impossibility.
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By December of 1862, his health
had become so impaired that he resigned as Secretary of State, returned
to the Fayette, Missouri area, rejoined his wife and minor children,
and resumed farming, continuing to farm until 1864.
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