As early as Jan. 8 he visited the Arsenal, and had an interview with its commandant, which he reported to the Governor as entirely satisfactory. Maj. Bell was wholly in sympathy with the South, and regarded the Arsenal as being virtually Missouri's property when she should choose to demand it. His honor as a soldier would compel him to resist any attack from an irresponsible mob, but a summons from the sovereign State of Missouri would meet with the respectful obedience to which it was entitled. It was therefore decided that this was the best shape in which to leave matters. Maj. Bell would hold the Arsenal in trust against both the radical St. Louis Germans and over-zealous Secessionists, who wanted to seize it and arm their particular followers. When Gen. Frost had organized the Missouri Militia to his satisfaction, he would march into the Arsenal, and under the plea of protecting it from mobs, use its contents to thoroughly arm and equip his Militia, which would thus be put in very much better shape than the troops of any other State.
Meanwhile, Gen. Frost recommended that as little as possible be said about the Arsenal, in order to avoid attracting attention to it.
All the same, the Arsenal was intently watched by both sides, and for the next four months it was the great stake for which they played, since its possession would go far toward giving possession of the State. There were but 150,000 stands of arms in the rest of the South, while here were 60,000.
Even before South Carolina seceded the ardent young Secessionists of St. Louis had begun the organization of "Minute Men" to "protect the State." Naturally, their first step in protecting the State would be to seize the Arsenal, to prevent its arms being used to "coerce the people." Their headquarters were in the Berthold House, a fine residence at the corner of Fifth and Pine streets, over which floated the Secession flag.
Into these companies went numbers of young men from the best families of the South, who had come to St. Louis to take advantage of business opportunities, and young Irishmen, of whom there were many thousands in the city, and who; having in their blood an antipathy to "the Dutch" dating from William of Orange's days, were skillfully wrought upon by the assertion that the "infidel, Sabbath-breaking, beer-drinking Dutch who had invaded St. Louis" were of the same breed as those who harried Ireland and inflicted innumerable persecutions in 1689. Very effective in this was one Brock Champion, a big-hearted, big-bodied young Irishman, of much influence among his countrymen, who played little part, however, in the war which ensued. More conspicuous later was Basil Wilson Duke, a bright Kentucky lawyer, 25 years old, who was Captain of one of the companies, and afterwards became the second in command and an inspiration to John H. Morgan, the great raider. The Captain of another company was Colton Greene, a South Carolinian, a year or two younger than Duke, a merchant, a man of delicate physique and cultivated mind, but of great courage and constancy of purpose.