GEN. LYON IN SPRINGFIELD.
When Gen. Lyon returned to Springfield after the Dug Springs expedition, he scattered his forces upon the different roads leading into the city at a distance of from three to five miles. Five miles from town, on the Fayetteville road, was a force of 2,500 under command of Maj. Sturgis. The other roads were well guarded, and all precautions were taken against a surprise or a sudden attack. Gen. Lyon’s private room and personal headquarters were in a house on North Jefferson street, not far from the public square. The building, a small one, was then owned by Mrs. Boren; it is now (1883) the property of Mrs. Timmons. His general headquarters were on the north side of College street, a little west of Main, in a house then owned by John S. Phelps, but which had been recently occupied by Maj. Dorn. In this same house his body lay, after it was borne from the battle field of Wilson’s Creek. The house was burned by Curtis’ Federals in February, 1862, and where it once stood is now (July, 1883) a vacant lot, on which are the remains of an old cellar.
As soon as Lyon reached Springfield he again sent off a courier to Fremont at St. Louis asking for reinforcements. Hon. John S. Phelps, who had started for Washington City to attend the extra session of Congress convened by President Lincoln, had stopped in St. Louis, called upon Gen. Fremont, and urged him to help Lyon and the Union people of Southwest Missouri with men and supplies, both of which were at St. Louis in abundance.[2] But Fremont stated that he did not believe Gen. Lyon was in anything like desperate straits; that McCulloch and Price could have nothing but an inconsiderable force, since the country in Southwestern Missouri was too poor to support a force of any formidable strength; that in his opinion Lyon could take care of himself; and finally that he had no troops to spare him anyhow, as he had received information through Gov. Morton, of Indiana, that a large Confederate force and flotilla of gunboats, under command of Gen. Pillow, were coming up the Mississippi to attack Cairo, Bird’s Point, and if successful in their destruction, would come on and destroy St. Louis, and that he had need of every available man to guard those threatened points.
Gen. Lyon consulted with his officers and with the prominent Union men of Springfield very freely. He knew the situation perfectly. His scouts came in every day from McCulloch’s army and gave him all needed information. He was impatient to fight the force in his front, but he anxiously desired reinforcements to enable him to have a reasonable chance of success. Every day he visited the out-posts and nearly every day sent off messages for help. Sometimes he would lose his temper and curse and swear quite violently. On one occasion he received a message from Fremont that no more troops could or would be sent for the present. Striding back and forth in his room, with the paper in his hand, he suddenly threw it on the table, and smiting his hands together cried out: “G—d d—n General Fremont: He is a worse enemy to me and the Union cause than Price and McCulloch and the whole d—d tribe of rebels in this part of the State!”[3]