The Mayor issued a proclamation to quiet the people, and requested all keepers of drinking places to at once close and remain closed during the excitement. All minors were ordered to remain in doors for three days, and all good citizens were requested to remain in doors after nightfall and to avoid gatherings and meetings.
As was usual, a good many people who meant no evil obeyed this proclamation, while the mobites, who meant a great deal of harm, paid no attention to it. Saturday afternoon, the 5th Regiment of United States Reserves, under the command of Lieut-Col. Robert White, attempted to go to their barracks, when they were assailed by a mob with stones, brickbats and pistol shots. The patience of the soldiers finally gave way, and they fired into the crowd, killing several persons—and wounding many others.
Sunday the Secessionists were in a panic, and began a wild flight from the city. Every vehicle that could be obtained was employed at exorbitant prices to carry men, women and children, baggage and personal effects, to the depots and wharves, where the railroads and steamboats were ready to receive them. The Mayor attempted to stay the stampede by a speech at the Planters' House, in which he assured the people that the Home Guards were entirely under the control of their officers, and would only be used to preserve the peace and protect property.
What was more effective was the news that Gen. Harney, hurrying back from Washington, had arrived the preceding evening and resumed command. Harney had reached the city on Saturday evening, May 11, and Sunday morning called at the Arsenal on Col. Blair, not Gen. Lyon, whom he informed of his intentions to remove the Home Guards from the Arsenal and disband them. Blair succeeded in convincing him that this was beyond his authority, and did not hesitate to say that his attempt to do so would be resisted. Being convinced, Harney sent a messenger to the Board of Police Commissioners, who were anxiously awaiting the result of his visit, to the effect that he had "no control over the Home Guards," which was intended to mean that he could not remove or disband them, but which the Commissioners and the people understood to mean that he had lost control over them.
The panic at once resumed its former proportions, and Gen. Harney found it necessary to issue a proclamation, in which he said that the public peace must and would be preserved, and the lives and property of the people protected, but he trusted that he would not be compelled to resort to martial law. He would avoid all cause of irritation and excitement whenever called upon to aid the local authorities by using in preference the Regular troops. Therefore he began by restricting the Home Guards to the German parts of the city, while he moved about 250 Regulars, under the command of Capts. Totten and Sweeny and Lieuts. Saxton and Lothrop, with four pieces of artillery, into a central position, where they went into quarters, to the great relief of everybody.
It will be perceived that a remarkable change had come over the people since a few weeks before, when the arrival of a little squad of Regulars at the Sub-Treasury to protect its gold had thrown the city in the wildest excitement over "the attempt to overawe and cow the people of Missouri."