The police powers of the city of St. Louis had been taken away from the Mayor, Frost had his Militia in readiness, the Irish were properly worked up to a state of exasperation against the "infidel, Sabbath-breaking Dutch," and hosts of Americans were in the same net when on the day of Lincoln's inauguration the Secession flag was boldly hoisted from the roof of the Berthold Mansion, in the most prominent part of the city. At once excitement burned to fever heat. Incensed by the wanton insult, the Germans and other Unconditional Union men raged that the flag should be torn down, and crowds gathered around the Berthold Mansion for that purpose. The house had, however, been converted into an arsenal, with all the arms and ammunition that could at that time be gathered, and filled with determined men under the leadership of Duke, Greene and others, eager to precipitate a riot, under the cover of which the Irish and Americans could be hurled against the Germans, and the Arsenal seized.
Blair and the Committee of Safety saw the danger of this. Their followers were not so ready for battle as the enemy was, and in conjunction with the more conservative leaders of the other side they succeeded in restraining their indignant friends from opening up a day of blood which would have been forever memorable in the history of St. Louis. Blair at once hastened back to Washington, and a few days after the Inauguration secured from the new Secretary of War an order assigning Capt. Lyon to the command of the Arsenal. This had to come through Gen. Harney's hands, and in transmitting it he informed Capt. Lyon:
You shall not exercise any control over the operations of the Ordnance Department. The arrangements heretofore made for the accommodation of the troops at the Arsenal and for the defense of the place will not be disturbed without the sanction of the Commanding General.
This was to save Hagner's pride, as well as propitiate Gen. Harney's Secession friends in St. Louis, who were becoming very uneasy at the way the "Yankee Abolitionist" was taking hold.
The dilemma into which Gen. Harney was becoming daily more involved was far more perplexing than any he had encountered in his fighting days. A question that could be settled sword in hand never had troubled him much. Alas! this could not be—not then. On the one side were the lifelong associations and habits of thought of the plain old soldier. All of his friends were Southerners and Slaveholders, as he himself was. Nearly all of the public men he knew, the officials of the State of Louisiana, which he called his home; of Missouri, which was almost equally his home, had either gone over irrevocably to Secession, or were preparing to do so. In his real home, the Army, it was almost as bad. The next Brigadier-General above him, Daniel E. Twiggs, had just surrendered all the men and property under his command to the State of Texas. The men who controlled the War Department,—Secretary Floyd, Adjutant-General Samuel Cooper, Quartermaster-General Joe E. Johnston, Assistant Adjutants-General John Withers and George Deas, had gone into the Confederate army. Robert E. Lee, Gen. Scott's prime favorite, was preparing to do so.
On the other hand were the deep, ineradicable instincts of soldierly loyalty to the Flag under which he had fought for 40 years. The man who had hanged 60 men at one time in Mexico for deserting the Flag was likely to have a severe struggle before he could bring himself to do the same. He was deeply incensed at the "Black Republicans" for irritating the Southerners so that they felt compelled to secede, but did not believe that the latter should have seceded. At least, until Missouri seceded he was going to maintain, as best he could, the National authority in his Department.
A flashlight is thrown on his mental attitude by his reply to Lieut, (afterwards General) Schofield, when informed by him of the above-mentioned preparations for seizing the Arsenal under the cover of a riot. "A ———— outrage," he exclaimed in his usual explosive way. "Why, the State has not yet passed the Ordinance of Secession. Missouri has not gone out of the United States."