The Governor and the secessionists of St. Louis were unsuspicious, or at least uninformed, of the removal of so many arms from the Arsenal, and, under orders for the establishment of camps of instruction, they prepared to seize it with its valuable contents. The Governor's zealous adviser, General Frost, formed a camp in Lindell's Grove,1 in the suburbs of St. Louis, on the designated day,
May 3, 1861. |
Captain Lyon, in the mean time, had been very watchful. Under the orders of the President, of the 30th of April, he enrolled a large number of volunteers. These occupied the Arsenal grounds, and some of them, for want of room thereon, were quartered outside of them. The latter movement brought the metropolitan police into action, and they demanded the return of the troops to the Government grounds, because they were “Federal soldiers violating the rights of the Sovereign State of Missouri,” which had “exclusive jurisdiction over her whole territory.” Lyon saw no force in their argument, and paid little attention to their folly, but continued his preparations to defend and hold the Arsenal. To make his little force appear stronger than it really was, he sent out squads of soldiers in disguise during the hours of night, while the secessionists slept, with orders to rendezvous at a distant point, and march back to the Arsenal the next morning in uniform, with drums beating and flags flying.2
On the morning of the 19th, word came to Captain Lyon that heavy cannon and mortars in boxes, marked “Marble,” 3 and shot and shell in barrels, had been landed at St. Louis from the steamer J. C. Swan, and taken to Camp Jackson on drays. Reports concerning the matter were contradictory, and the commander resolved to make a personal reconnoissance of the secession camp. Disguised as a woman closely veiled, he rode in a carriage up to and around the camp unsuspected,4 and was convinced that the time for vigorous action had arrived. Frost had become uneasy, and on the morning of the 10th he wrote to Lyon, saying that he was constantly in receipt of information that an attack on his camp was contemplated, because of the impression that had gone abroad that he was about to attack the Arsenal. Then, with the most adroit hypocrisy, he solemnly declared that he had no hostile designs against the property of the United States or its representatives, and that the idea of such hostility had never been entertained by him nor by any one else in the State. He was acting, he said, only in accordance with his constitutional duties. In support of his assertion he pointed to the fact, that he had offered the services of the troops under his command for
