Lyon Leads the Charge

When Pro-South Governor Jackson of Missouri tried to strike a deal with Pro-Union Captain Nathaniel Lyon who defended St. Louis, he didn't get the results he wanted.  Jackson proposed that if Lyon would call off his Union troops, Jackson would declare the state of Missouri neutral in the Civil War.  To that compromise, Lyon replied, "Rather than concede the state of Missouri, the right to dictate to my government, I will see you and every man, woman and child in this state, dead and buried."  As the governor prepared his departure from the meeting, Lyon added, "This means war!"

In early June 1861, Lyon began to secure all Missouri for the Union by pushing up the Missouri River toward the capital of Jefferson City.  After the defenders fled, the city fell without resistance.  On to Boonville where Lyon was joined by troops from Iowa and the state militia was routed.  On August 10, 1861, Lyon and his 5000 troops met up with 10,000 Confederate troops at Wilson's Creek.  Lyon was killed in the battle and his successor, Major Samuel Sturgis ordered a retreat.  Federal reinforcements arrived and kept Missouri officially in Union hands. 

In the spring of 1862 Union forces moved into Indian territory.  The Union hold on much of the Midwest was tenuous.  Outlaw bands  of small detachments roamed the countryside subjecting residents to continuous looting, arson, murder and torture.  Bleeding Kansas on a grander scale.  No man, woman or child was safe whether slave owner or abolitionist until the Civil War was over.

Next time:  Quantrill's Raiders
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On October 30,  1864, the town of Helena, Montana, is founded by four gold miners who struck it rich at the appropriately named “Last Chance Gulch.”

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."