The Civil War in the Midwest

The Old Northwest went to the polls in November 1860 enthusiastically voting for Abraham Lincoln.  The ties of commerce to the South were being broken with the coming of the railroads displacing the Mississippi River trade and anti-slavery views growing with the influx of Irish and German immigrants to the Midwest.

In Missouri, the state's pro-southern governor, Claiborne Jackson was backed by rural and small towns as a real threat to the Union.  In and around St. Louis, however, sentiment was overwhelmingly pro-Union.  Union Army captain, Nathaniel Lyon, was a stern abolitionist and had been assigned to defend the federal arsenal in St. Louis against an explosive situation that had developed between rival factions in February 1861. 

Lyon's pro-southern superior, General William S.  Harney, refused to act to defend St. Louis and by early May pro-southern militiamen were camped outside St. Louis.  The threat to the city had grown acute when General Harney was called away and Captain Lyon was left in charge.

On May 10th, Lyon marched on the rebels camped outside the city and took back St. Louis for the Union. Lyon then paraded the prisoners through the streets of St. Louis, enraging the city's secessionist minority.  Rioting and shooting followed the parade and by the end of the day 28 citizens were dead and scores injured.  However, St. Louis remained in Union hands.

Governor Jackson with his pro-southern sympathies, met with Lyon (now promoted to Brigadier General) and proposed that if Lyon would call off the troops, Jackson would declare Missouri a neutral state in the Civil War...

Next time...Lyon responds to Governor Jackson
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On October 26, 1881, the Earp brothers face off against the Clanton-McLaury gang in a legendary shootout at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona."