The Captain General: Nathaniel Lyon, Part VI

Lyon and his company had been transferred to St. Louis in order to bolster the defenses of the federal arsenal, located along the Mississippi River. At the time of their arrival the arsenal was under the command of Brevet Major Peter V. Hagner.

Lyon had wasted little time upon his arrival in seeking out and joining forces with Frank Blair and a pro-Union organization known as the Committee of Safety. Both Blair and Lyon began to suspect Hagner of disloyalty. They feared the Union officer would allow the arsenal to fall into pro-Confederate hands, and perhaps even aid in the transfer. They harbored similar concerns about the loyalty of the commander of the Department of the West, Brigadier General William S. Harney.

Appointed to command only a short time prior to Lyon's arrival, Hagner was apparently guilty of nothing more than wanting to keep the peace. Which was also true of the well-respected Harney. But Lyon and Blair were soon convinced that the arsenal would be much better off under someone else's command. Someone like, say, Nathaniel Lyon.

Harney had met Lyon while both were serving in Kansas, and to say the least neither had made a favorable impression on the other. Far from pleased with Lyon on the scene in St. Louis, Harney began pulling strings to have the tempestuous captain sent back to Kansas. Meanwhile, Frank Blair began pulling strings to have Lyon placed in command of the arsenal.

The result was a bizarre sort of compromise, with Hagner placed in charge of the arsenal's weapons while Lyon was responsible for defending the complex. This strange arrangement satisfied no one, but remained in place for the time being.

Tensions in St. Louis had continued to escalate during the secession crisis, and only grew worse following Fort Sumter. Rumors of a pending assault on the arsenal crisscrossed the city like an electric current. Lyon wanted desperately to swear into service and arm several thousand enthusiastic volunteers from the city's large and strongly pro-Union German faction. But Harney rejected the request on the grounds that Governor Jackson had refused Lincoln's call for volunteers.

The department commander feared that any such action might spark a violent response. For their part, Lyon and Blair feared the lack of such action would do the same.

It would not have made any of them feel better had they known that Governor Jackson had secretly contacted the Confederate government, asking for help in capturing the arsenal. (At a time when extraordinary events were the order of the day, few were as extraordinary as this - the governor of a state still loyal to the Union asking a foreign government for assistance in capturing arms and ammunition belonging to his own country.)

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