CHAPTER VII. GEN. LYON BEGINS AN EFFECTIVE CAMPAIGN
Gen. Sterling Price was soldier enough to recognize that Gen. Lyon was a different character from the talking men who had been holding the center of the stage for so long. When his trumpet sounded his sword was sure to leap from its scabbard. Blows were to follow so quickly upon words as to tread upon their heels.
At the close of the interview of June 11, Gen. Lyon, with Col. Blair and Maj. Conant, returned to the Arsenal, while Gov. Jackson and Gen. Price hurried to the depot of the Pacific Railroad, where they impressed a locomotive, tender and cars, and urged the railroad men to get up steam in the shortest possible time. Imperative orders cleared the track ahead of them, and they rushed away for the Capital of the State with all speed.
At the crossing of the Gasconade River they stopped long enough to thoroughly burn the bridge to check Lyon's certain advance, and while doing this Sterling Price cut the telegraph wires with his own hands. The train then ran on to the Osage River, where, to give greater assurance against rapid pursuit, they burnt that bridge also.
Arriving at Jefferson City about 2 o'clock in the morning, the rest of the night was spent in anxious preparation of a proclamation by the Governor to the people of Missouri, which was intended to be a trumpet call to bring every man capable of bearing arms at once to the support of the Governor and the furtherance of his plans.
According to the Census of 1860 there were 236,402 men in Missouri capable of bearing arms, and if the matter could be put in such a way that a half or even one-third of these would respond to the Governor's mandate, a host would be mustered which would quickly sweep Lyon and his small band out of the State. The proclamation to effect this which was elaborated by the joint efforts of Gov. Jackson and Col. Snead, the editor of the St. Louis Bulletin, a Secessionist organ, and the Governor's Secretary and Adjutant-General, together with Gen. Price.
Considered as a trumpet call it was entirely too verbose. Col. Snead could not break himself of writing long, ponderous editorials. The more pertinent paragraphs were:
To the People of Missouri:
A series of unprovoked and unparalleled outrages have been
inflicted upon the peace and dignity of this Commonwealth
and upon the rights and liberties of its people, by wicked
and unprincipled men, professing to act under the authority
of the United States Government. The solemn enactments
of your Legislature have been nullified; your volunteer
soldiers have been taken prisoners; your commerce with your
sister States has been suspended; your trade with your
fellow-citizens has been, and is, subjected to the harassing
control of an armed soldiery; peaceful citizens have been
imprisoned without warrant of law; unoffending and
defenseless men, women, and children have been ruthlessly
shot down and murdered; and other unbearable indignities
have been heaped upon your State and yourselves....
They (Blair and Lyon) demanded not only the disorganization
and disarming of the State Militia, and the nullification of
the Military Bill, but they refused to disarm their own Home
Guards, and insisted that the Federal Government should
enjoy an unrestricted right to move and station its troops
throughout the State, whenever and wherever that might, in
the opinion of its officers, be necessary, either for the
protection of the "loyal subjects" of the Federal Government
or for the repelling of invasion; and they plainly announced
that it was the intention of the Administration to take
military occupation, under these pretexts, of the whole
State, and to reduce it, as avowed by Gen. Lyon himself, to
the "exact condition of Maryland."