The Secessionists were in the meanwhile hardly making the headway in
the Legislature that they had anticipated, in spite of the stimulating
events in the extreme Southern States.
A curious situation developed in the Legislature leading to the arrest
for a while of Lieut.-Gov. Reynolds's plans for organizing the State
for rebellion. The term of Senator James S. Green expired on the 3d
of March, and he was desirous of being his own successor. The first
consideration was whether Missouri was likely to stay in the Union and
have a Senator. At the moment this seemed probable enough to warrant
going on and electing a Senator, and the Pro-Slavery men made strenuous
efforts to re-elect Mr. Green, but it was significant that he was deemed
too ultra a Secessionist, and Waldo P. Johnson was elected in his stead.
Among the many things in the war which turned out surprisingly different
from what men had confidently expected was that Mr. Green took the
selfish politician's view of the "ingratitude" of those who refused to
re-elect him, sullenly retired to private life, and did not raise his
hand nor his voice for the South during the war, while Mr. Johnson, who
was elected because he was a better Union man, soon resigned his seat
in the United States Senate, entered the Confederate army, became
Lieutenant-Colonel of the 4th Mo. (Confederate), and fought till the
close of the war.
48
Jan. 18, after a prolonged debate, both Houses passed a bill to call a
Convention "to consider the relations of Missouri to the United States."
This was the successful device which had been used in carrying other
States out of the Union, and despite the conservatism of the language
of the act it was hoped that it would be successful in this instance. In
the Senate there were only 26 votes against it, and in the House but 18,
of whom 11 were from St. Louis. The Southern Rights men regarded this as
a great triumph, however, and made much jubilation throughout the State.
The election for members to the Convention was fixed for Feb. 18, and
the Convention was to meet on the last day of the month. This act was
followed by the adoption of a joint resolution which expressed profound
regret that the States of New York and Ohio had tendered men and money
to the President for "the avowed purpose of coercing certain sovereign
States of the South into obedience to the Federal Government," and
declaring that the people of Missouri would rally to the side of their
Southern brethren to "resist the invaders and to the last extremity."
Only 14 votes were cast against this resolution.
The main interest now centered upon the election of delegates to the
Convention. New political lines ran among the people, dividing them into
Secessionists, "Conditional Union" men and "Unconditional Union" men.
49
Blair's leadership was able to efface the Republican Party for the time
being, and carry all of the members over to the Unconditional Unionists.
The result of the election was a blow to the Secessionists, not one of
whose candidates was elected.
In St. Louis the Unconditional Union candidates were elected by over
5,000 majority.
The bitterly-disappointed Secessionists denounced the majority as
"Submissionists," and threatened all manner of things.
The election occurred on the same day that Jefferson Davis was
inaugurated President of the Southern Confederacy.
When the State Convention met at Jefferson City, it was found that of
its 99 members 53 were natives of either Virginia of Kentucky, and all
but 17 had been born in Slave States. Only 13 were natives of the North,
three were Germans, and one an Irishman. A struggle at once ensued for
the organization of the Convention, which resulted in a victory for the
Union men, ex-Gov. Sterling Price being elected President by 75 votes,
to 15 cast for Nathaniel W. Watkins, a half-brother of Henry Clay, and
a strenuous advocate of Southern Rights. As soon as the Convention
completed its organization it adjourned to St. Louis, to avoid the
badgering of the pronounced Secessionists, who constituted the State
Government, and the clamorous bullying of the crowd assembled in the
State Capital to influence its action.
50
On assembling at St. Louis the Convention immediately addressed itself
to the duty for which it had assembled. Judge Hamilton R. Gamble,
a Virginian, leader of the Unconditional Union men, and afterwards
Governor of the State, as Chairman of the Committee on Federal
Relations, made a long report, in which it was denied that the
grievances complained of were sufficient to involve Missouri in
rebellion; that in a military sense Missouri's union with the Southern
Confederacy meant annihilation; that the true position of the State
was to try to bring back her seceding sisters, and to this effect a
Convention of all the States was recommended, to adopt the Crittenden
Proposition. An attempt to amend this report by the declaration that
if the Northern States refused to assent to the Crittenden Compromise
Missouri would then side with her sister States of the South received
only 23 votes, but among them was that of Sterling Price, who had begun
to drift southward.
The Convention adopted Gamble's report, and a few days afterward
adjourned subject to call of the committee.
The Secessionists were greatly discouraged by the result, and the
Legislature also adjourned. Then came another fluctuation in public
opinion. The great majority wanted peace. The attitude of the Governor
and his faction, who seemed to look toward peace by putting Missouri in
a state of defense to prevent the new Republican President from making
war, appealed to many, and in the Spring elections the Unconditional
Union men were defeated by a small majority, and St. Louis passed from
their official control to that of the Conditional Union Men.
51
While these events were occupying public attention there occurred
another, little noted at the time, but which was soon to be of
controlling importance. Feb. 6 there marched up from the steamboat
landing to the Arsenal a company of 80 Regular soldiers of the 2d U.
S., from Fort Riley, Kan., at the head of which was a Captain, under the
average hight, and a well knit but rather slender frame. He had a long,
narrow face, with full, high forehead, keen, deep-set blue eyes, and
hair and whiskers almost red. His face was thoughtful but determined,
his manner quick and nervous. He bore himself towards his men as an
exact and rigid disciplinarian, mingled with thoughtful kindness for all
who did their duty and tried their best This was Capt. Nathaniel Lyon,
born in Connecticut, descended from old Puritan stock, with the blood of
Cromwell's Ironsides flowing in his veins. He was then 42 years old, and
before another birthday was to fill the country with his fame, and fall
in battle-face to the front. He had graduated from West Point in 1841,
the 11th in his class. That his intellectual abilities were of high
order is shown by his standing in that class, of which Zealous B. Tower,
an eminent engineer, and brevet Major-General, U. S. A., was the head,
and Horatio G. Wright, who commanded the Sixth Corps during the last and
greatest year of its history, was the second.
[Illustration: 010-General Lyon]
Gen. John F. Reynolds, the superb commander of the First Corps and of
the Right Wing of the Army of the Potomac, with which he brought on the
battle of Gettysburg, where he was killed, graduated 26th in the class,
and Gen. Don Carlos Buell, who organized and commanded the Army of the
Ohio, graduated 32d. Gen. Robert Garnett, the first Confederate General
officer to fall in the struggle,--killed July 13, 1861, at Carrick's
Ford,--was the 27th in the class. Julius P. Garesche, who graduated 16th
in the class, became Chief of Staff to Gen. Rosecrans, and was killed at
Stone River.
52
Besides being thoroughly versed in all that related to his profession
of arms, Capt. Lyon was well informed in history and general literature;
was a devoted student of the Bible and Shakspere, and wrote well and
forcibly. What was very rare among the officers of the old Army, he was
a radical Abolitionist, and believer in the National Sovereignty. He was
so outspoken in these views as to render his position quite unpleasant,
where nearly every one was so antagonistic. A weaker-willed man would
have been forced either out of the Army or into tacit acquiescence with
the prevailing sentiment.
Upon graduation he had been assigned to the 2d U. S., and sent to get
his first lessons in actual war fighting the Florida Indians. There his
superiors found occasion to remark that his zeal sometimes outran
his discretion--not an infrequent fault of earnest young men. He had
distinguished himself and received a brevet in the Mexican War for
gallantry at Contreras and Churubusco, and had then been sent to
California. With a slender force he was charged with the duty of keeping
a long frontier in order against turbulent Indians. He accomplished this
by making the Indians more afraid of him than the whites could possibly
be of them. No quick retreat, no impregnable fastness, could shelter
them from his inexorable pursuit. On one occasion he carried boats on
wagons over a mountain range to cross a river and strike an Indian lair
where the marauders were resting in the fullest sense of security.
His company had next been transferred to Kansas in the midst of the
political troubles there, where, while doing his official duty with
strict impartiality, his sympathies were actively with the Free State
settlers.
53
For 42 years he had been growing and fitting himself for a great
Opportunity.
For once Opportunity and the Man equal to it met.
Immediately after settling his company in the Arsenal, Capt. Lyon went
to the city to meet Frank P. Blair. The two strong men recognized each
the other's strength, and at once came into harmonious cooperation.
The fate of the Arsenal, of the City of St. Louis, and of the State of
Missouri, was settled.
Before Capt. Lyon arrived, the Committee of Safety had had an alarm
about the Arsenal, and rallied a strong force of their Home Guards in
waiting to go to the assistance of Capt. Sweeny and his 40 men, should
the Minute Men attack him. But the Secessionist leaders had such
confidence in Maj. Hagner that they dissuaded the impatient Basil Duke,
Colton Greene, Brock Champion and other eager young Captains from making
the attack.
Capt. Lyon was soon reinforced. Lieut. Warren L. Lothrop, of the 4th U.
S. Art., a Maine man, who had risen from the ranks, came in with 40 men.
He was afterwards to succeed Frank P. Blair, jr., as Colonel of the 1st
Mo. Light Art. Next came Capt. Rufus Saxton, also of the 4th Art., a
Massachusetts man, later to rise to brevet Major-General of Volunteers,
and to play an important part in caring for the freedmen of the South
Carolina coast.
54
Still later came Capt. James Totten, of the 2d U. S. Art., with his
company. He had been born in Pennsylvania, but was appointed to West
Point from Virginia, and was in command of the Arsenal at Little Rock
until he evacuated his post, Feb. 8, before a large force of rebels,
and retired with his command to the Indian Territory, by virtue of
the agreement with the Governor of the State. While Lothrop and Saxton
appear to have been taken at once into the councils of Capt. Lyon, Capt.
Totten does not, probably because the uncompromising Lyon did not like
his methods in Arkansas. He was, however, true to his loyalty, and rose
eventually to the rank of Brigadier-General.
There were now in the Arsenal nine officers and 484 men. Hagner and Lyon
at once came into collision. Though Hagner belonged to the Ordnance,
and not therefore regarded as eligible to command troops, he secured
an order assigning himself to command according to his brevet rank
of Major, which made him superior to Lyon. Hagner had been five years
longer in the service than Lyon, but his commission as Captain was 20
days junior to Lyon's. Lyon energetically protested against Hagner's
assignment in a letter to Blair, who was then in Washington, D. C,
looking out for matters at that end of the line, in which he said:
55
It is obvious that the fine stone wall inclosing our grounds
affords us an excellent defense against attack, if we will
take advantage of it; and for this purpose platforms should
be erected for our men to stand on and fire over; and that
artillery should be ready at the gates, to be run out and
sweep down a hostile force; and sand-bags should be prepared
and at hand to throw up a parapet to protect the parties at
these pieces of artillery; inside pieces should be placed to
rake the whole length, and sweep down each side a party that
should get over the walls, traverses being erected to
protect parties at these pieces. A pretty strong field
work, with three heavy pieces, should be erected on the side
toward the river, to oppose either a floating battery or one
that might be established on the island; and, finally,
besides our houses, every building should be mined, with a
train arranged so as to blow them up successively, as
occupied by the enemy. Maj. Hagner refuses, as I mentioned
to you, to do any of these things, and has given his orders
not to fly to the walls to repel an approach, but to let the
enemy have all the advantages of the wall to lodge himself
behind it, and get possession of all outside buildings
overlooking us, and to get inside and under shelter of our
outbuildings, which we are not to occupy before we make
resistance. This is either imbecility or d----d
villainy, and in contemplating the risks we run and the
sacrifices we must make in case of an attack in contrast to
the vigorous and effective defense we are capable of, and
which, in view of the cause of our country and humanity, the
disgrace and degradation to which the Government has been
subject by pusillanimity and treachery, we are now called
upon to make, I get myself into a most unhappy state of
solicitude and irritability. With even less force and proper
disposition, I am confident we can resist any force which
can be brought against us; by which I mean such force as
would not be overcome by our sympathizing friends outside.
These needful dispositions, with proper industry, can be
made in 24 hours. There cannot be, as you know, a more
important occasion nor a better opportunity to strike an
effective blow at this arrogant and domineering infatuation
of Secessionism than here; and must this all be lost, by
either false notions of duty or covert disloyalty? As I have
said, Maj. Hagner has no right to the command, and, under
the 62d Article of War, can only have it by a special
assignment of the President, which I do not believe has been
made; but that the announcement of Gen. Scott that the
command belongs to Maj. Hagner is his own decision, and done
in his usual sordid spirit of partisanship and favoritism to
pets, and personal associates, and toadies; nor can he, even
in the present straits of the country, rise above this, in
earnest devotion to justice and the wants of his country.
Lyon went to Gen. Harney to urge his right to command, from seniority
of commission; but Harney sustained Hagner, who was in some things much
more Harney's style than Lyon. Lyon thereupon appealed to President
Buchanan, which meant to Gen. Scott, who, of course, sustained Hagner.
Lyon was, therefore, forced to submit until Lincoln was inaugurated.
56
There was no vanity or self-seeking in this urgency of Lyon's. In the
Army he was distinguished for his readiness to subordinate himself to
carry out any plans which commended themselves to him. He had repeatedly
offered to subordinate himself to Hagner if the latter would take
what Lyon thought only the most necessary steps at that crisis for the
defense of the position and stores of priceless importance.
What Lyon dreaded above all things was something akin to that which had
freshly occurred at Little Rock, where Capt. Totten had withdrawn from
the Little Rock Arsenal with his company in the face of a large mob of
Secessionists, upon a receipt by the Governor for the arms and stores,
and the promise that he would account for them to the United States
Government. Lyon was determined to bury himself and his men in the
ruins of the Arsenal before it should pass into the hands of the
Secessionists.
Basil Duke, Colton Greene, and the other chafing young Captains had
matured a plot with the connivance of Gen. Frost, of the Militia,
probably somewhat at his instigation, which would brush aside the
network of intrigue which Claiborne Jackson and others were spinning,
bring matters to a focus, and in one blow crush Union sentiment, overawe
the timid, fasten the wavering, seize the Arsenal and launch Missouri
upon the tide of Secession with the Cotton States.
67
The police powers of the city of St. Louis had been taken away from
the Mayor, Frost had his Militia in readiness, the Irish were
properly worked up to a state of exasperation against the "infidel,
Sabbath-breaking Dutch," and hosts of Americans were in the same net
when on the day of Lincoln's inauguration the Secession flag was boldly
hoisted from the roof of the Berthold Mansion, in the most prominent
part of the city. At once excitement burned to fever heat. Incensed by
the wanton insult, the Germans and other Unconditional Union men raged
that the flag should be torn down, and crowds gathered around the
Berthold Mansion for that purpose. The house had, however, been
converted into an arsenal, with all the arms and ammunition that could
at that time be gathered, and filled with determined men under the
leadership of Duke, Greene and others, eager to precipitate a riot,
under the cover of which the Irish and Americans could be hurled against
the Germans, and the Arsenal seized.
Blair and the Committee of Safety saw the danger of this. Their
followers were not so ready for battle as the enemy was, and in
conjunction with the more conservative leaders of the other side they
succeeded in restraining their indignant friends from opening up a day
of blood which would have been forever memorable in the history of St.
Louis. Blair at once hastened back to Washington, and a few days
after the Inauguration secured from the new Secretary of War an order
assigning Capt. Lyon to the command of the Arsenal. This had to come
through Gen. Harney's hands, and in transmitting it he informed Capt.
Lyon:
You shall not exercise any control over the operations of the Ordnance
Department. The arrangements heretofore made for the accommodation of
the troops at the Arsenal and for the defense of the place will not be
disturbed without the sanction of the Commanding General.
58
This was to save Hagner's pride, as well as propitiate Gen. Harney's
Secession friends in St. Louis, who were becoming very uneasy at the way
the "Yankee Abolitionist" was taking hold.
The dilemma into which Gen. Harney was becoming daily more involved was
far more perplexing than any he had encountered in his fighting days.
A question that could be settled sword in hand never had troubled
him much. Alas! this could not be--not then. On the one side were the
lifelong associations and habits of thought of the plain old soldier.
All of his friends were Southerners and Slaveholders, as he himself
was. Nearly all of the public men he knew, the officials of the State
of Louisiana, which he called his home; of Missouri, which was almost
equally his home, had either gone over irrevocably to Secession, or were
preparing to do so. In his real home, the Army, it was almost as
bad. The next Brigadier-General above him, Daniel E. Twiggs, had just
surrendered all the men and property under his command to the State
of Texas. The men who controlled the War Department,--Secretary Floyd,
Adjutant-General Samuel Cooper, Quartermaster-General Joe E. Johnston,
Assistant Adjutants-General John Withers and George Deas, had gone into
the Confederate army. Robert E. Lee, Gen. Scott's prime favorite, was
preparing to do so.
On the other hand were the deep, ineradicable instincts of soldierly
loyalty to the Flag under which he had fought for 40 years. The man
who had hanged 60 men at one time in Mexico for deserting the Flag was
likely to have a severe struggle before he could bring himself to do the
same. He was deeply incensed at the "Black Republicans" for irritating
the Southerners so that they felt compelled to secede, but did not
believe that the latter should have seceded. At least, until Missouri
seceded he was going to maintain, as best he could, the National
authority in his Department.
59
A flashlight is thrown on his mental attitude by his reply to
Lieut, (afterwards General) Schofield, when informed by him of the
above-mentioned preparations for seizing the Arsenal under the cover of
a riot. "A -------- outrage," he exclaimed in his usual explosive way.
"Why, the State has not yet passed the Ordinance of Secession. Missouri
has not gone out of the United States."
The limitations placed by Gen. Harney upon Lyon's assignment to command
were aggravating. Hagner commanded the buildings, the arms, ammunition,
and other stores, and the strong walls surrounding the grounds. Lyon
commanded merely the men. He could not draw a musket, a cannon, or a
cartridge for either, not even a hammer, a spade nor an ax, without
a requisition duly approved by Harney. Nor could he change a single
arrangement of the grounds without Harney's approval.
Lyon was almost nightly meeting with the Committee of Safety, and
visiting the drill-rooms of the Home Guards, where he advised,
encouraged and drilled the men. The Secessionists were extremely fearful
that in some way he would manage to get the arms and ammunition, and
besought Harney and Hagner to omit no precaution to prevent this.
When away from his Secessionist environment, Harney's soldierly
instincts asserted themselves. Lyon's vigorous, uncompromising course
was far more to his mind than the dull, shifty Hagner's.
60
One was zealous in the performance of his duty, and the other a red-tape
bureaucrat, whose first thought always seemed to be to clog and hamper
the men in the field. Harney had suffered too much from these "office
fellows" to be especially enamored of them. Therefore he had moods, when
he gave Lyon a free hand, which the latter made the most of until the
General's mood changed.
During one of these Lyon had undermined the walls of the buildings,
placed batteries, built banquettes for the men to fire over the
walls, cut portholes, reinforced the weaker places with sandbags, and
established a vigilant sentry system to prevent surprise.
The Secessionists were equally full of plans, though not of
performances. Minute Men were organizing throughout the State to rush
in at the given day by every train and overwhelm St. Louis, taking the
Arsenal by sheer force of numbers. Many of the Captains of the large
steamboats which carried on the trade between St. Louis and New Orleans
were zealous Secessionists, and mooted plans for assailing the Arsenal
on the river side with cannon mounted on boats, backed up by large
crowds of men. But Gov. Jackson and his coterie still relied mainly upon
inciting some form of riot in the city, which would allow Gen. Frost
to get possession of the Arsenal with his Militia and "protect it from
violence." Once in Gen. Frost's hands--then!
The Secessionists scored a point and carried dismay to the Unionists by
securing an order from Gen. Scott for Capt. Lyon to attend a Court of
Inquiry at Fort Leavenworth. While he was gone they might carry out
their plans with comparative ease and safety. Blair, however, succeeded
in getting Gen. Scott to revoke the order.
61
To find out precisely what the position of affairs inside the Arsenal
was, and to spy out its defenses, a number of prominent citizens, among
whom was James S. Rains, afterwards Brigadier-General in the Confederate
army, calling themselves Grand Jurors for the United States District
Court, presented themselves at the Arsenal and attempted an entrance.
The Sergeant of the Guard held them awhile till he could communicate
with Capt. Lyon, and they went away in anger.
There were other officers in the Arsenal whom Lyon could trust as little
as he could Maj. Hagner, but Capts. Saxton and Sweeny and Lieut. Lothrop
stood firmly by him in every movement, going so far as to mutually agree
that they would shoot Maj. Hagner before he should be allowed to turn
over the arms to the Secessionists.
The bombardment and surrender of Fort Sumter and the President's call
for troops threw the country into a tumult of excitement, and changed
the political relations everywhere. All over the South the Secessionists
were jubilant, and those in Missouri particularly exultant. Very many
of the waverers at once flocked over to the Secessionists, while others
sided with the Union. To what extent this change took place was as yet
unknown, nor which side had a majority. Public sympathy as voiced by the
leading papers seemed to be that the Union had "been riven asunder by
the mad policy of Mr. Lincoln, and that it was necessary for Missouri to
take a stand with the other Border States to prevent his attempting to
subjugate them."
62
Gen. Frost submitted a memorial to Governor Jackson, in which were the
following recommendations:
1. Convene the General Assembly at once.
2. Send an agent to the South to procure mortars and siege guns.
3. Prevent the garrisoning of the United States Arsenal at Liberty.
4. Warn the people of Missouri "that the President has acted illegally
in calling out troops, thus arrogating to himself the war-making power,
and that they are therefore by no means, bound to give him aid or
comfort in his attempt to subjugate by force of arms a people who are
still free; but, on the contrary, should prepare themselves to maintain
all their rights as citizens of Misouri."
5. Order me (Frost) to form a military camp of instruction at or near
the city of St. Louis; to muster military companies into the service of
the State; and to erect batteries and do all things necessary and proper
to be done in order to maintain the peace, dignity, and sovereignty of
the State.
6. Order Gen. Bowen to report with his command to me (Frost) for duty.
He proposed to form a camp of instruction for the Militia on the river
bluffs near the Arsenal, from which it could be commanded by guns and
mortars to be obtained from the South when Frost with his brigade and
that of Gen. John S. Bowen, who was afterwards to be a Major-General
in the Confederate army and command a division at Vicksburg, with what
volunteers they could obtain, would force Lyon to surrender the Arsenal
and its stores.
While considering these recommendations the Governor received a request
from the Secretary of War for four regiments of infantry, Missouri's
quota of the 75,000 men the President had called for. To this Governor
Jackson replied the next day:
63
Your dispatch of the 13th instant, making a call upon Missouri for four
regiments of men for immediate service, has been received. There can be,
I apprehend, no doubt but these men are intended to form a part of the
President's army to make war upon the people of the seceded States.
Your requisition, in my judgment, is illegal, unconstitutional, and
revolutionary in his objects, inhuman and diabolical, and cannot be
complied with. Not one man will the State of Missouri furnish to carry
on such an unholy crusade.
The same day he sent Capts. Greene and Duke to Montgomery with a letter
to the President of the Confederacy, requesting him to furnish the
siege guns and mortars which Gen. Frost wanted, and another messenger to
Virginia with a similar request. He also called the Legislature to meet
at Jefferson City May 2, to take "measures to perfect the organization
and equipment of the Militia and raise the money to place the State in
a proper attitude for defense." He did not dare order Gen. Frost to
establish his military camp of instruction in St. Louis, but he took
the more prudent and strictly legal course of ordering the commanding
officers of the several Militia Districts of the State to assemble their
respective commands at some convenient place, and go into encampment for
six days for drilling and discipline. This order authorized Gen. Frost
to establish his camp wherever he pleased within the City or County of
St. Louis.
Gen. Bowen, who was in command of a force in the southwest to guard
the State against the marauders from Kansas, was ordered to report with
certain of his troops to Gen. Frost. The Arsenal at Liberty was at once
seized by the Secessionists in that neighborhood, who secured several
hundred muskets, four brass guns, and a large amount of powder. These
proceedings of the Governor disturbed Gen. Harney greatly, and he wrote
at once to Gen. Scott asking him for instructions.
64
Capt. Lyon did not ask or wait for instructions. He wrote at once to
Gov. Dick Yates, of Illinois, to obtain authority to hold in readiness
for service in St. Louis the six regiments which Illinois was called
upon to furnish. Gov. Yates acted promptly, and received authority to
send two or three regiments "to support the garrison of the St. Louis
Arsenal." Lyon received orders to equip these troops, and to issue
10,000 additional stands of arms to the agent of the Governor of
Illinois.
Mr. Blair reached St. Louis from Washington, April 17, and at once began
acting with the boldness and foresight that the situation demanded.
By his advice Col. Pritchard and other Union officers of the Militia
resigned. He procured from the War Department an order placing
5,000 stands of arms at the disposal of Lyon for arming "the loyal
citizens"--the Home Guards--and requested orders by telegraph for Capt.
Lyon to muster men into the service to fill Missouri's requisition, and
to have Hagner removed.
Lyon, determined not to be taken by surprise, had the streets leading to
the Arsenal nightly patrolled and pickets stationed outside the walls.
Gov. Jackson's Police Board complained that this was a violation of
the City ordinances and in direct interference with their duties. They
demanded that he should obey the law, but he refused. When they appealed
to Harney, he at once ordered Lyon to quarter his men in the Arsenal
and forbade him to issue arms to anyone without Harney's sanction.
This brought Blair and Lyon to a parting of the ways with Harney. They
demanded his removal, and April 21 Harney was removed from the command,
and ordered to repair to Washington and report to the General-in-Chief.
65
On the same day Capt. Lyon was instructed to immediately execute the
order previously given to "arm loyal citizens." He was also ordered to
muster into the service four regiments, which the Governor had refused
to furnish. As the men had long been in waiting, Lyon quickly organized
the four regiments, which elected him their Brigadier-General. Some of
the field officers of these regiments were notable men, and were to have
brilliant careers during the war. The Colonel of the 1st Regiment was
F. P. Blair, afterwards to become Major-General commanding a corps; the
Lieutenant-Colonel was George L. Andrews, afterwards to be a Colonel
in the Regular Army; the Major was John M. Schofield, later to be
Major-General commanding the Twenty-third Corps, and still later
Lieutenant-General commanding the Army of the United States. The Colonel
of the 3d Regiment was Franz Sigel, afterwards Major-General commanding
the Eleventh Corps and the Army of the Shenandoah.
The four regiments having been filled to the maximum, there were large
numbers yet demanding muster. From these a fifth regiment of Missouri
Volunteers and five regiments of "United States Reserves" were formed.
The most notable among the field officers of these were John McNeil,
Colonel of the 3d Regiment, who afterwards became a Brigadier-General,
and B. Gratz Brown, Colonel of the 4th U. S. Reserves, afterwards Vice
Presidential nominee on the Greeley ticket. These additional
regiments formed another brigade, and elected Capt. Sweeny their
Brigadier-General. After arming these 10,000 men Lyon secured the
balance of the stores from all danger of treachery or capture by
transferring them to Alton, Ill.., where they would be under the
guardianship of loyal men.
66
Thus, in a few, swift weeks after the inauguration of President Lincoln,
Blair and Lyon, bold even to temerity, and even more sagacious than
bold, had snatched away from the sanguine Secessionists the great
Arsenal, with its momentous contents, which were placed at the service
of the Union.
More than 10,000 loyal men of Missouri were standing, arms in hand, on
her soil to confront their enemies.
Above all, the Government showed that it would no longer tamely submit
to being throttled and stabbed, but would fight, then, there, and
everywhere, for its life.
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