 In the early days of the gold rush in California, a group of pomo Indians hired two men to kill a cow for them. The Indians were starving. Like many of California's Native Americans at the time, white migrants took advantage of their superior weaponry and forced the Indians into slavery, first to work ranches and then to mine gold. This particular group of pomo Indians lived in the Clear Lake region of California, and they had been forced into slavery by Charles Stone and Andrew Kelsey. Indian slaves in the West sold for only a fraction the price of African slaves in the Antebellum South, and because of the abundance of available victims, Indian slaves were treated as being more disposable than their African counterparts. Stone and Kelsey were notoriously cruel. Stone and Kelsey, along with other Western settlers, including Kelsey's two brothers, set up ranches on land that had yet to be claimed by US citizens. Following Mexican custom, which resembled European feudalism, the ranchers considered the native people to be part of the land, like serfs. Thus, instead of displacing the natives, they simply took them as property. They forced the Indians to build a large fence around their own village, basically making them build their own prison, and if any one of them was caught outside the fence after sunset, they were punished. Stone and Kelsey would tie their hands and feet, have them whipped, and then they would often hang the workers by their thumbs so their feet were unable to touch the ground, and they'd be left there for two or three days with nothing to eat. They also routinely raped the girls in the tribe to cite one testimony, quote. When a father or mother of a young girl was asked to bring the girl to his house by Stone or Kelsey, if this order was not obeyed, he or her would be whipped or hung by the hands. Such punishment occurred two or three times a week, and many of the old men and women died from fear and starvation, end quote. The raping of young Indian girls was hardly an unheard of practice, especially in the California gold rush, which was highly disproportionately populated by young hormonal men. Several months ago, I did an episode about California statehood, and I talked about John Sutter, who owned Sutter's Fort, where the gold was first discovered, and he was accused of keeping Indian girls as young as 10 years old in a room where he could rape them at his convenience, though in Sutter's case, the veracity of the testimony is at least questionable. But the rape of Indian girls, like the raping of slaves, was not unheard of in a culture that considered them property, and there seems to be little doubt that Stone and Kelsey engaged in the practice. But because the cost of taking new slaves was low, the punishments for infractions of the rules were more likely to be lethal than we find in the antebellum south, where slaves commanded a much higher price. One testimony reported that a young Indian committed the crime of taking some wheat to his sickly mother, and he was shot and killed for it. The enslaved Indians were given nearly nothing to eat, and they were so undernourished that the winters routinely saw older members of the tribe die of starvation. So in December of 1849, they hired two Indians, named Shook and Zasis, if I'm pronouncing the names correctly, who were not confined to the village prison to take one of Stone or Kelsey's horses, kill a cow to supplement their meager winter rations, and then return the horse before it was noticed to be missing. But while Shook was riding the horse, he tried to lasso a cow, and throwing himself off balance, he fell off the horse, which then ran off. They returned to the village and spoke with the tribe, informing them that in a few hours, Stone and Kelsey would wake up to find their horse missing. Even in cases in which a horse went missing for other reasons, it was common for white settlers to blame the Indians in exact punishment. So the village held a midnight meeting to discuss what should be done. There was talk of having Shook and Zasis come clean and offer to pay for the horse, but this was quickly shot down. Stone and Kelsey weren't exactly known for their forgiveness, and they'd killed for far more minor infractions than horse theft. Plus, these Indians had been suffering under the tyrannical thumbs of these two settlers. They'd seen their loved ones murdered, their daughters raped, and had been tortured and starved while being forced to labor at gunpoint. Even though they knew they'd be risking severe retribution from other white settlers, they decided that they had to kill Stone and Kelsey. If they were going to die, which was a likely punishment, they may as well take Stone and Kelsey with them. So they snuck out of their fenced-in village. The children in the village were sent to, quote, carry out all the guns, bows, and arrows, knives, and everything like weapons. Said the two white men was helpless in defense, end quote. The women poured water on the stored gunpowder to render it useless. The men gathered at the small adobe house where they were fed their daily meal of boiled wheat. And there they waited for Stone to show up at dawn. When Stone finally did show up, Shook froze momentarily. But one of the tribe's leaders spoke up. I thought you men came to kill this man. He said, give me these arrows and bow. Then, according to the testimony given later, the man named Kranas, quote. Jerk the bow and arrows away from Shook and drew it. And as he did, Stone rose quickly and turned to Kranas and said, what are you trying to do? And as Stone said it, the Indian cut loose. The arrow struck the victim, pith of the stomach. The victim immediately pulled the arrow out and ran for the house, fighting his way. He broke one man's arm with the pot he had and succeeded in getting in the house and locked the door after him, end quote. Kelsey then stepped out and tried to negotiate with the Indians. Speaking in poor Spanish, which the natives had absorbed during the years of Mexican occupation before the Mexican-American War, Kelsey said, don't kill Kelsey. Kelsey, good man for you. But his pleas would fall on deaf ears. Kranas replied, quote. Yes, you are such a good man that you have killed many of us, end quote. With that, he let loose an arrow, hidden Kelsey, and two more Indians charged forward and stabbed him. But he wasn't dead yet, and he broke loose and took off with his killers close behind him. As he ran, he took another arrow to the back. He crossed a creek, only to find two other Indian men waiting for him who went by the Anglican names Big Jim and Joe. Big Jim's wife, Dapitow, was there as well. When Big Jim and Joe grabbed Kelsey, Jim said to his wife, quote, this is a man who killed our son. Take this spear, now you have the chance to take revenge, end quote. With that, the woman stabbed Kelsey in the chest, finishing him off. Stone, meanwhile, had ran up the stairs of his home. And when the Indians broke in, they followed the trail of blood up the stairs where they found his body in the loft. He was dead. They threw him out of a nearby window. With the killings complete, the Indians took as much food as they could carry and went into hiding, knowing that once the bodies were discovered, retribution would be sought. They were not wrong. Word of the killings reached members of the US military on Christmas day, and a handful of Indian massacres followed as retribution for the stone and Kelsey killings. The various militia companies and non-military vigilantes that participated in the massacres made no effort to establish guilt or distinguish between the various tribes of Indians in the region. There were at least three different tribes with their own unique languages, but the logic at least among some of them in carrying out the massacre was that extreme and indiscriminate retribution would send a message to all Native Americans in California. But the most infamous of the massacres was carried out several months after the stone and Kelsey killings took place. In May of 1850, brevet captain Nathaniel Lyon was instructed to officially investigate the killings. Ian and his men took off on a seven-day journey to Clear Lake where they surrounded a group of Pomo Indians on the 15th. These were not the same Pomo as the ones who killed stone and Kelsey, but Lyon was hardly concerned with such details. Lyon had been given orders not to negotiate with the Indians, and by all accounts, it's doubtful that he would have wanted to anyway. Lyon had taken two Indians to guide him to Clear Lake, and before he carried out the orders given to him, he killed his guides, shooting one and hanging the other. Then on the morning of the 15th, he and his men attacked. The Indians did try to plead for their lives, according to the testimonies of one of the few survivors, but Lyon wouldn't have known what they were saying or cared if they did. Defenseless, the Pomo were slaughtered. A small group of the Pomo men offered some resistance, apparently to try to buy time for the women and children to run, but they were severely outnumbered and outgunned. They were armed with slings and bows so they could not delay the attackers for very long. According to Lyon's own testimony of the event, the fleeing Indians dove into the water to try to get away. Apparently, one six-year-old girl did survive the attack this way, successfully hiding underwater and breathing through a reed, but most of the Pomo would not be so fortunate. According to the report published in a California newspaper two weeks later, the soldiers quote, poured in a destructive fire indiscriminately upon men, women, and children. They fell, says our informant, as grasped before the sweep of the scythe. Little or no resistance was encountered, and the work of butchery was of short duration. The shrieks of the slaughtered victims died away, the roar of muskets ceased and stretched lifeless upon the sod of their native valley with the bleeding bodies of these Indians, nor sex nor age was spared. It was the order of extermination fearfully obeyed. End quote. According to another testimony by one of the survivors, the soldiers were carrying the bodies of slaughtered children on the ends of the bayonets to dump them in the creek nearby. Other soldiers came upon a mother holding her infant, the mother having been shot in the shoulder, but still alive, and the soldiers stabbed the woman in her infant child to death and dumped the bodies in the river as well. Accounts like this in history are often exaggerated intentionally or not, but Lyon did not deny his actions, nor should he have, since he was doing what he was ordered to do. After the event, he said that he had achieved quote unquote most gratifying results and reported quote, the number killed, I confidently report at not less than 60 and doubt little that it extended to a hundred and upwards, end quote. Other reports vary with one officer, Major Edwin Allen Sherman, reporting that quote, Captain Lyon was rather too modest in his report. There was not less than 400 warriors killed and drowned at Clear Lake and as many more of squaws and children who plunged into the lake and drowned through fear committing suicide. So in all, about 800 Indians found a watery grave in Clear Lake, end quote. If this estimate is true, the Nathaniel Lyons massacre would be the single bloodiest mass killing in US history, surpassing even the massacre at Wounded Knee. The slaying became known as the Bloody Island Massacre. Satisfied with the punishment, he'd inflicted at Clear Lake. Lyon moved to Northwest where he believed other guilty Indian tribes lived. He found another group of Pomo Indians called the Yokea and he ambushed them. According to a survivor testimony here, the Yokea tried to surrender but quote, the soldiers went in the camp and shoot them down as though if they were dogs, end quote. When giving his report of this massacre, Lyon said quote, their position being entirely surrounded, they were attacked under most embarrassing circumstances, but as they could not escape, the island soon became a perfect slaughter pin, end quote. Most of the young men were away from the village hunting at the time so the victims were primarily women and children. One man later gave a testimony as to how he survived the massacre related by an interview or quote, he was a boy at the time. He said the soldiers shoot his mother, she fell to the ground with her baby in her arms. He said his mother told him to climb high up in the tree so he did and from there he said he could see the soldiers running about the camp and shooting the men and women and stabbing the boys and girls. He said mother was not dead and was telling him to keep quiet. Two of the soldiers heard her talking and ran up to her and stabbed her in child, end quote. Others escaped by hiding in the creek but Lyon was satisfied with his work again. Afterwards they took two young boys to replace the guides they killed before Bloody Island and they forced them to march barefoot on rough terrain until their feet began to bleed. With their feet bleeding, according to the testimony of one of the two boys, the soldiers took a handful of salt and rubbed it in the open wounds on the boy's feet before bandaging the wounds. According to the same testimony given later in life, referring to his companion, the boy said quote, the tears were rolling down his cheeks, end quote and he and the other boy quote, rolled and twisted for about two hours. All the soldiers came and stood around laughing, end quote. A couple of days later, the quote unquote chief soldier, probably Lyon, but they didn't know his name, told his men to let them return to their village where they would be able to be an example to the other Indians as to what could happen if they dared to step out of line. The two boys bound their feet and made the painful trek back to their village where one would live to give his testimony. The details in these accounts are hard to corroborate, of course, but the massacres most certainly took place as Nathaniel Lyon, as well as many other soldiers who participated in what was essentially a genocide against the California Indians over the course of the mid 19th century, saw no need to deny it. In fact, for his service and taking revenge for the killing of Stone and Kelsey, Nathaniel Lyon was promoted to full captain. Over the next 11 years in the military, Lyon would earn the reputation for cruelty against his own men as well. He was known to beat insubordinate soldiers with the flat of his sword until he drew blood and then have them bound and gagged. At one point, he was suspended for this behavior, but this was only temporary and his harsh punishments earned him the reputation according to his biographer Christopher Phillips as quote the most tyrannical officer in the army possessing a nearly psychopathic appetite for inflicting pain, end quote. Other historians, William Garrett Piston and Richard W. Hatcher III refer to Lyon as a sadist. I've yet to find any history of the man that treats him generously to be completely frank. But 11 years after the bloody island massacre at the start of the Civil War, Nathaniel Lyon was still an officer in the Union military and his assignment would be Missouri, where he would bring his reputation against a state that was on the brink of secession. I'm Chris Calton and this is the Mises Institute podcast Historical Controversies. In the story of the second wave of secession, we've talked about the often neglected stories of the upper South States that did not secede but were host to some of the early battlegrounds or riots that led to declarations of martial law to prevent the possibility of secession that Lincoln feared. We just recently finished the story of the Bull Run campaign and now we are going to turn to Missouri to look at the second major battle of the Civil War, the battle of Wilson's Creek. But this means that we have to back up a bit and look at what was going on in Missouri in the months prior to Bull Run. Before we move on, by the way, let me remind everybody that if you missed it, you can watch or listen to the live Q and A we did this past Monday on YouTube or at Mises.org. I appreciate everybody who's sent in questions and I hope we can do another event like that next year. It was a lot of fun. Today's episode marks the one year point for the podcast. This is the 53rd episode that I have been able to release weekly so far. So if you have not yet subscribed to the show, please do so. You can find it on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play and SoundCloud and it helps us out a great deal if you leave a positive review. You can also support the show financially at Mises.org slash supportHC. All of this helps the show continue and grow and the feedback I've gotten over the past year has been fantastic. So anything you can do to support us is greatly appreciated. On January 3rd, 1861, the governor's seat in Missouri changed hands. The outgoing governor, Robert Stewart, was a moderate. In his farewell speech, he criticized both the Northern abolitionists and the lower South States for the conflict that the entire country was anticipating. Governor Stewart, like most of the politicians of the upper South States, advocated armed neutrality. He wanted no part in the war, should there be one. The incoming governor, Claybourne Fox Jackson, was a secessionist. He ran as a Douglas Democrat, advertising his neutrality on secession, but after the election was over, he dropped the veil of neutrality. In his eyes, the interests of Missouri lay with the deep South States. Shortly after taking office, he called for the state legislature to do two things. First, they should consider the state of their relationship with the Union government. He wanted a secession convention. And keep in mind, this is still during the early part of the first wave of secession. Second, Governor Jackson wanted the legislature to reorganize the state militia to better prepare the state for home defense in the event of war. Missouri's largest city, St. Louis, was easily the greatest stronghold for pro-Union sentiment in the entire state, but this is not to say that the population of the city wasn't divided. There were only a little more than 4,000 slaves in the city, which is pretty low in proportion to the population of St. Louis, but roughly 200,000 St. Louis residents felt greater loyalty to the South. Nonetheless, they were outnumbered by the St. Louis Unionists. The legislature was dominated by moderates and St. Louis had a Unionist majority. The radical Unionists in the city were led by Frank Blair, the younger brother of Montgomery Blair, who would be appointed as Lincoln's postmaster general. Blair worked to organize the Unionists in the city against the possibility of secession. We know, of course, that Missouri rejected secession during the first wave, but there are other significant events that helped lay the groundworks for Missouri's situation at the onset of the war. St. Louis was the home of a sizable federal arsenal, holding roughly 60,000 muskets, 90,000 pounds of gunpowder, and a million and a half cartridges, in addition to a few dozen artillery guns and machines for the manufacturing of arms. This was the single largest federal arsenal in the South. The secessionists in St. Louis may have been a minority faction, but they were a strong minority, and many of the secessionists were poor citizens who were worried that if slavery was abolished, and remember that despite Lincoln's assurances that this would not happen, many Southerners believed that the Republican Party was an abolitionist party. They believed that the free blacks would flood into the state and take jobs from the wage-earning white workers. This was the source of much of the pro-South support in Missouri. So these pro-South Missourians organized as well, and many of them talked openly about seizing the St. Louis arsenal. The commander of the arsenal was Major William Bell, and he was worried. He said that he had, quote, only one man to walk the grounds at night to keep out intruders, end quote. The arsenal was woefully vulnerable to an organized attack. There was also a federal sub-treasurer in St. Louis that held more than $1 million in gold and silver. If the secessionists successfully seized both, this would be a major blow to the Union and a boon to the South. But the assistant US treasurer in St. Louis, Isaac Sturgeon, learned of Major Bell's predicament, and he telegraphed President James Buchanan in early January to tell him about the vulnerability of the two federal facilities. Buchanan passed the word along to General Winfield Scott, and Scott sent a 40-man detachment to St. Louis under the command of Lieutenant William Robinson. The presence of Union troops in Missouri in January was not a welcome sight. It was actually the uproar over this that compelled the legislature to heed Governor Jackson's call for a secession convention. So even though they rejected secession, they may not have even discussed it, had it not been for outrage over the presence of the national military. The General Assembly approved a resolution that called the presence of the troops, quote, insulting to the dignity and patriotism of the state and calculated to arouse suspicion and distrust on the part of the people toward the federal government, end quote. But Frank Blair was upset that there weren't more troops sent to protect the federal holdings in the city. 40 men was hardly enough to stop the powerful Southern minority in the city, which was already organizing itself into militia groups and referring to themselves as minutemen in reference to the revolutionary militias. And they were talking quite openly about seizing the arsenal, but the attack didn't come. Instead, Governor Jackson sent an envoy, Daniel Frost, to speak with Major Bell at the arsenal. The meeting was peaceful, but Major Bell, whose loyalty was torn between the national government and his home state, agreed not to defend the fort if state authorities, meaning not the minutemen, but militia organized on behalf of the state, came to seize the fort. Bell also promised not to remove any supplies from the arsenal without first notifying the state officials. Two days before this meeting, Bell had refused to meet with envoys, so Frank Blair was not happy about the meeting that now took place. Blair sent word to his brother, Montgomery, and it's all still taking place in late January before Lincoln was in office. Frank Blair urged his brother to push for the removal of Major Bell, and Montgomery Blair came through for his younger brother. Bell received orders that he was going to be transferred, but instead of accepting the transfer, Major Bell resigned his post in the army. He was replaced by Brevet Major Peter Hagner. But the fact that Bell resigned rather than accepting a transfer was only more indication that the state was in danger of falling into the hands of secessionists. By February, Frank Blair was organizing so-called committees of safety among trusted unionists and urging them to arm themselves. Among these unionists, by the way, were slaveholders. So there were slaveholding unionists in Missouri as well as non-slaveholding secessionists, though the non-slaveholding secessionists were still predominantly driven by their worries about the abolition of slavery and the fact it would have on their jobs. But the point is that there was no cookie cutter description of secessionists or unionists in the state. But while Frank Blair was working to organize the union forces in the state, Montgomery Blair was working to see more national forces sent to help out as well, and he would be successful in getting President Buchanan to send more troops to St. Louis under the command of General Nathaniel Lyon. After the bombardment of Fort Sumter and the second wave of secession, General Lyon would be in a position to do what he could to prevent a secessionist takeover in St. Louis and therefore, Missouri. To quickly summarize the unionist dynamic in St. Louis prior to Fort Sumter, the commander of the arsenal was now Brevet Major Pete Hagner, and Captain Nathaniel Lyon was sent to the detachment of United States soldiers to help defend the federal arsenal and sub-treasuring in St. Louis. Frank Blair had taken leadership of the city's unionists and organized them into militia units called Committees of Safety to serve essentially as the counter to the militia units organized by the secessionist minority who called themselves Minutemen. Frank Blair and Nathaniel Lyon hit it off right away, but Lyon and Hagner did not, largely due to Lyon's personal ego. Hagner was a Brevet Major General, though some sources refer to him as a Brigadier General. This distinction is important to understand Lyon's ego clash with Hagner that would play a significant role in the story of St. Louis. The title of Brevet basically indicated that you received the promotion without the corresponding increase in pay. It was basically an honorary promotion to recognize good service, but the increase in authority was not always recognized. So technically, a Major General outranked a captain by several degrees, but because Hagner was a Brevet Major General, Nathaniel Lyon asked Hagner when he had received the promotion to captain, the rank that Lyon had held until 1851. Hagner had received the rank of captain roughly a month after Lyon earned his commission, and because of the Brevet ranking of Hagner, Lyon refused to recognize that Hagner legitimately outranked him and therefore refused to act as Hagner's subordinate in St. Louis. Lyon had previously served under the department commander General William Harney at Fort Scott, and he contested the issue of Hagner's ranking with General Harney. Harney backed up Hagner's ranking as a legitimate Major General and refused to give Lyon command over the arsenal. Lyon then took his grievance to Washington through a telegram to the War Department. But since Lyon and Frank Blair struck up a friendship so easily, once Lyon learned about Blair's influence, he saw this as a potential avenue to gain command of the arsenal. Lyon convinced himself that both Hagner and Harney were Southern sympathizers. Over the next few weeks, as Lyon waited on word from Washington about who outranked whom, he voiced his ideas about Hagner's questionable loyalty to every federal official that visited the city. Finally, on February 21st, General Winfield Scott himself reaffirmed Lyon's subordinate position to a Brevet Major General. But Lyon still refused to accept this answer. After all, Winfield Scott was a Virginian. Clearly, he was just another Southern sympathizer protecting the disloyal General Harney and Brevet Major General Hagner. Lyon would simply try to move up the chain of command again, and for this, he turned to Frank Blair. Blair agreed with Lyon's suspicions about the loyalty of Hagner. The Minutemen were drilling in the streets of St. Louis, and even though Hagner had demonstrated his willingness to cooperate with the advice of Lyon regarding where to station troops, the very fact that Hagner was allowing secessionists to go unpunished in the city was proof in Lyon's eyes that he was a traitor. Blair agreed. So days before Lincoln's inauguration, Blair decided to travel to Washington where his brother Montgomery would have access to the new commander-in-chief. There, he could convince Lincoln of the questionable loyalty of both Harney and Hagner and convince the president to put Lyon in charge. But Blair gave a condition to Lyon for his help in getting him a promotion, and even Lyon found it legally questionable. Frank Blair wanted Lyon to secure armaments for his militias that he organized outside of the U.S. military. Lyon knew that this was not legal, and doing so could get him court-martialed. Frank Blair assured him that he had enough influence in Washington to make sure Lyon would not be punished for any irregular behavior while in command of the city. Basically, Blair had just given Lyon assurances that he could act as he thought best regardless of the proper procedures, and this is how Lyon interpreted Blair's promise. He quickly agreed to Blair's terms. Frank Blair was successful in convincing Lincoln to override General Scott, and on March 13th, General Harney received Lincoln's orders to place Lyon in command of the arsenal. Now, despite Lyon's suspicions, General Harney was absolutely loyal to the union. But unlike Lincoln, Harney knew Nathaniel Lyon for a long time and had served as his commanding officer for years. Lyon had a history of insubordination. This behavior wasn't unique to St. Louis in 1861. Harney's decision to put Hagner in charge of the city wasn't, as Lyon believed, a matter of Southern loyalty, but a decision made to maintain peace in St. Louis between the secessionist minority and unionist majority. Now, Lincoln gave an order that Harney knew would upset the fragile peace he had secured for the past two months. So, Harney received Lincoln's message and decided to call Lyon in for an inquiry about potential misconduct by Lyon over a suspicious death of a private in Lyon's company named James Hunter, who had starved to death while Lyon was stationed at Fort Riley in 1860. Another man at the post accused Lyon of negligence that led to the death. Harney also interpreted Lincoln's orders in a way that allowed him to comply with the simple text of the order without giving Lyon an ounce more authority than he had to. Lyon was put in charge of the infantry at the arsenal, but he did not have command over Hagner, and any items taken from the arsenal still had to be approved by Hagner. Lyon would hold that authority until his court date. The court appearance was scheduled for none other than April 15th, the day after Fort Sumter's surrender. Lyon appealed to this order by turning again to his friend, Frank Blair. He wrote to Blair, quote, I am aware that I am indebted to you for changing the command of troops at this post, but with the orders of General Harney, I fear little has been gained. I have no control over the ordinance department, and therefore cannot take a single round of ammunition nor a piece of artillery or any other firearm without the direction of General Harney. I cannot get a hammer, spade, axe, or any needful tool, but upon Major Hagner's concession or by making requisition upon General Harney and getting his orders, I feel embarrassed and would be glad for any relief from this anomaly, end quote. So Blair turned to his brother Montgomery, now Lincoln's postmaster general to try to convince Scott to override Harney's orders. But another event in St. Louis helped Lyon out even more. On April 1st, St. Louis held municipal elections and the voters unseeded a number of Republicans. The message was clear. The people of St. Louis were increasingly seeing Lincoln and his administration as the warmongers. If you haven't listened to the episode I did a few weeks back on the second wave of secession, I talk about how even before Lincoln's call for troops, his refusal to evacuate Fort Sumter was disconcerting to a lot of Southern Unionists. These elections on April 1st demonstrate that this was the case in St. Louis and people said as much. However, the staunch Unionists like Blair interpreted the election results as being an absolute indicator that Missouri was going to fall into the hands of secessionists, which wasn't really the case. The elections rejected Republicans but it wasn't a clear secessionist victory. Nonetheless, that was the fear among the Republicans and they believed that quick action had to be taken to prevent the loss of Missouri to the South. General Harney was included in the group of people who were concerned about the results of the election. Now he was faced with a difficult decision. He was not a fan of the insubordinate lion but he also knew that lion was staunchly Unionist. So on April 4th, Harney held a dinner party for the officers at the arsenal which also included the editor of a St. Louis newspaper, Samuel Churchill. Churchill was not a secessionist but he defended the right to secede and lion continued to argue against him vociferously enough that it made the rest of the party guests as well as Harney extremely uncomfortable. Harney was not happy with lion's behavior but putting his personal opinions aside, he started to view lion as the person who could most be trusted with command of the arsenal. A few days later, he sent word to Washington that lion no longer needed to attend his court inquiry so that he could stay at the arsenal. Harney also allowed lion to begin fortifications of the arsenal and lion worked with impressive speed but Hagner was still present and lion and Blair's committee of safety continued to harbor their suspicions of him. Despite there being no clear indication of Hagner's support of secession, lion bombastically proclaimed that if Hagner gave weapons to the secessionists something that Hagner had made no attempt to do lion would quote, shoot him down like a dog. Finally came the attack on Fort Sumter and Lincoln's subsequent call for troops. St. Louis saw both pro-union and process session flags flying throughout the city. Street fights broke out between the secessionist men and the union guard. On April 17th, Governor Claiborne Jackson gave a response to Lincoln's call for troops writing to Lincoln quote, sir, your requisition in my judgment is illegal, unconstitutional and revolutionary in its object, inhuman and diabolical and cannot be complied with. Not one man will the state of Missouri furnish to carry out such an unholy crusade, end quote. But Nathaniel lion thought that Lincoln wasn't acting strongly enough in response to Fort Sumter. Lion's self-righteous determination about what should be done in St. Louis only increased. He wrote quote, I have felt deeply mortified by the humiliating attitude of my country toward traders who could easily have been put down and can be now under proper measures. I do not see how a war is to be avoided. Yet I have no apprehensions about the final triumph of almighty truth, though at the cost of many unnecessary sacrifices. But let them come. I would rather see the country lighted up with the flames of war than that, the great rights and hopes of the human race expire before the arrogance of secessionists, end quote. Anticipating an attack on the arsenal, lion organized midnight drills for his troops. During a secret one AM meeting with a few of his most trustworthy subordinates, lion gave his plan for the defense of the arsenal. Then he stood up and slammed his fist on the table saying quote, if that man Hagner interferes with you in any way or presumes to give one single order, put him in irons. And if he interferes with me, I'll shoot him in his tracks, end quote. The attack on the arsenal never came, but lion's muteness in subordination was evident and apparently accepted by his loyal unionist subordinates. On April 17th, Frank Blair arrived back in the city carrying with him a note from the war department authorizing the distribution of 5,000 muskets to Blair's unofficial union guard. Harnie, prior to this, refused to accept the enlistment from any members of the union guard claiming that the governor's refusal to provide troops from Missouri precluded his authority to accept volunteers. Lion informed Blair that Harnie would never approve of the distribution of muskets out of fear of provoking these secessionists. Harnie at this point was kind of in a similar position as Major Anderson and Fort Sumter. He was a loyal military man and a unionist, but he wanted to avoid war and his actions were very much calculated to try to maintain the extremely fragile peace in Missouri. Harnie informed lion after learning of Blair's note from the war department that no weapons could be distributed to anyone without Harnie's approval and he moved his own quarters to the arsenal to keep watch over lion. He also sent a request to have an officer of higher rank than lion placed at the arsenal. This act, of course, outraged both lion and Blair threatened to see to Harnie's removal from the post. Harnie knew that Blair had influence in Washington and could likely follow through with this threat. Blair sent a letter to Lincoln's war secretary, Simon Cameron, recommending Harnie be replaced with somebody more in line with the unionist cause. In response, Cameron sent a couple more regiments of troops to St. Louis under Lion's command along with orders for Hagner to provide them with arms. On April 20th, secessionists did seize a smaller federal arsenal in Kansas City, Missouri. Finally, on August 22nd, lion got what he wanted. A telegram came from the war department informing lion that Harnie was officially removed of his command and authorizing lion to carry out the previous order to distribute weapons to the union guard as well as to accept four regiments of volunteers in the national service. Harnie respected the orders and left for Washington the next day and within a week lion had a few thousand troops under his command. The Missouri volunteers elected lion to be their general. Blair actually offered the Brigadier General's ship to William Sherman and only after Sherman turned him down did Blair then offer the rank of Brigadier General to the Nathaniel lion. Lion also sent more than 20,000 muskets as well as 5,000 rifles, 500 revolvers, and 100,000 cartridges to Illinois to arm their volunteers but he had to secretly smuggle weapons out of the city to avoid interference by the Minutemen. Lion did this by circulating false rumors about his plan to move a load of weapons down Fifth Street to the union guards hoping that secessionist spies would carry word to the Minutemen. Lion then sent some empty street cars up the street and successfully brought out secessionist forces to try to take the weapons only to find nothing while lion actually smuggled the weapons on a ship traveling up the Mississippi River. His plan was clever and it worked perfectly. On May 2nd, lion received another dispatch from General Scott and authorized by Abraham Lincoln giving lion the power to quote, take military possession of the city, end quote. Lion now had the authority to impose martial law in the city of St. Louis as well as the rest of Missouri. In late April, Governor Jackson was doing what he could to secure Missouri's secession during the second wave. Though the state legislature still didn't support secession though they also did not support Lincoln's call for troops. They wanted to remain in the union but as neutrals. But Daniel Frost, a militia commander was working to organize militia forces to counter lion's troops. On May 6th, militia units from all over Missouri convened at Lindell Grove to set up a camp of nearly 900 men. They named their camp after the governor, Camp Jackson. Openly in favor of joining the Confederacy this camp drew plenty of attention and many citizens visited the camp to watch them drill. Nathaniel Lion of course kept close watch on the camp. He had nearly 10 times the number of men as Camp Jackson but he was not confident in the ability of his volunteers. They were almost entirely untrained but the men at Camp Jackson were no more experienced. Despite this knowledge, Nathaniel Lion was worried about the arsenal. He decided to squash the camp. He concocted a plan to infiltrate the camp to see how it was laying out. On May 9th at three in the afternoon a horse-drawn carriage came up to the camp. Its driver was a black man named William Roberts and he had two passengers. One of them was a German named JJ Witzig, a local engineer and a member of the Committee of Safety. Sitting next to him was an old woman wearing a black gown, a thick veil and a large bonnet. The guards stopped the carriage before allowing passage and Witzig said they wanted to tour the camp which wasn't unusual as Camp Jackson drew a lot of local visitors. It was essentially a local curiosity. The old woman, the guards realized it was Frank Blair's mother-in-law who was simply taking her daily carriage ride around the city. She was blind and she posed no threat. The guards did not see that Blair's mother-in-law underneath her gown was wearing military boots. Had they bothered to peek under her veil they might have also noticed Nathaniel Lion's unkempt red beard. Under the gown he was also holding tightly to two Colt revolvers but nobody suspected that he was anything more than a blind old woman and he was successfully able to learn the layout of Camp Jackson without interference. But when Lion returned from his trip to Camp Jackson he learned that Winfield Scott had reinstated General Harney as commander of the department and he would be back in the city on May 11th. This was not welcome news for Lion. With Harney back in command, Lion would lose his opportunity to take Camp Jackson. It was actually delaying his attack until the arrival of more troops but with the news about General Harney Lion decided that he would have to act before the general arrived. On the morning of May 10th, Lion made his move sending numerous regiments to attack the men at Camp Jackson. In total, Lion was leading a force of as many as 7,000 men against less than 900. When the Union forces surrounded the camp many of the men there immediately threw down their weapons and took off. The rest of the camp was left staring down thousands of rifle barrels and quite a few cannons. Lion then gave an ultimatum to the militia command Daniel Frost giving him 10 minutes to surrender or his men would open fire. There were also spectators out to witness the spectacle though some of these outraged at the presence of Union troops also took their own rifles despite not actually having been part of Camp Jackson. Lion was ready for them though as well. Two reserve regiments held them at bay. Frost of course gave Lion his surrender. As he was reveling in his victory though, Lion passed too close to one of his subordinate's horses and took a giant kick to the stomach knocking him unconscious. While Lion's aides were trying to make sure he was still alive, Frost's adjutant, Lieutenant William Wood rode up with another message. So now Lion's subordinate Thomas Sweeney had to head off Lieutenant Wood saying that Lion was busy and that he was authorized to receive the message on his behalf. It was worried that if Wood saw Lion unconscious on the ground, the surrender would be rescinded. But Sweeney was successful and Wood rode off none the wiser. After regaining consciousness, Lion gave the order to arrest any member of Camp Jackson who refused to swear a loyalty oath to the United States. Only 10 of the men agreed and the rest were taken prisoner. When the troops demanded that malicious surrender their swords, many of the men impetuously broke the blade across their knees instead. Now, in a state that had twice opted to remain in the Union, citizens watched as Lion marched hundreds of prisoners through the streets of St. Louis. This display of power was deliberate. Lion wanted to show the citizens of the city what supporting secession would mean. The citizens of St. Louis, a Unionist city, would not react happily at Lion's demonstration of force. And with an act of rebellion, Lion's reputation for brutality would be put on full display in the St. Louis Massacre, which we will cover in the next episode. Historical Controversies is a production of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. If you would like to support the show, please subscribe on iTunes, Google Play or Stitcher and leave a positive review. You can also support the show financially by donating at Mises.org slash Support HC. If you would like to explore the rest of our content, please visit Mises.org. That's M-I-S-E-S dot O-R-G.