Nathaniel Lyon

When the Civil War began, Siegel raised the 3rd Missouri Infantry from the St. Louis Germans.

In May 1861, the local U.S. Army commander in St. Louis, Captain Nathaniel Lyon, learned that a secessionist militia was planning to seize the federal arsenal.

The only forces he had at hand were the Germans.

So the German regiments, Siegel's regiment among them, marched out and disarmed the secessionist militia.

Tens of thousands of Germans put on Union blue because they saw Sigel wearing it.

Military competence aside, that mattered.

Sigel was vital to the Union war effort as a recruiter, not as a field commander.

It's best to keep him far away from field command.

Claiborne Jackson, the governor, with a union mask on, was stealing troops and arms for secession.

Francis Blair and Nathaniel Lyon, two most competent patriots, watched him through his mask.

At the right moment they captured his entire camp.

A rebel flag which had been flying in St. Louis then came down to stay down.

the wrecking business was full of life and action here and there up and down the river and into its branches wherever a boat was wrecked or burned or run aground the submarine hurried off to reach the spot before other wreckers under their belt the divers got at the engines boilers and freight while the pumps worked from above cleared away the sand and sometimes by means of great chains and derricks the very hull itself would be lifted and towed ashore but on that huge river which at times would suddenly rise three feet in a single night and whose strong current played such giant pranks as turning over a wreck in the chains that were raising it there was need of eternal vigilance and agility however eads was more on his own ground on the river than on the shore and his business so increased that he was soon running four diving-bell boats in eighteen forty nine twenty nine boats were burned at the levee in st louis in one big fire and most of their remains were removed by him winter as well as summer the work went on and the task of cutting out a vessel wrecked on an ice gorge or of raising one from beneath the ice must have been as trying as walking the river bottom in search of a wreck eads himself years later thus describes one of his many experiences five miles below cairo i searched the river bottom for the wreck of the neptune for more than sixty days and in a distance of three miles my boat was held by a long anchor line and was swung from side to side of the channel over a distance of five hundred feet by side anchor lines while i walked on the river bottom under the bell across the channel the boat was then dropped twenty feet farther down stream and i then walked back again as she was hauled towards the other shore in this way i walked on the bottom four hours at least every day sundays excepted during that time for a day's work the city of st louis gave him eighty dollars out of which he paid his own workmen he was so prosperous that as he wrote to his wife there was no need for him to join the rush to california to get gold and his success caused much envy among his rivals he began to clear the channel of the mississippi from some of its obstructions and to improve the harbor of st louis in eighteen fifty six he knew his work so well that he went to washington and proposed to congress to remove all the snags and wrecks from the western rivers the mississippi the missouri the arkansas and the ohio and to keep their channels open for a term of years a bill to that purpose passed the house but in the senate it was defeated by jefferson davis and others the next year on account of poor health eads retired from business but he carried with him a fortune he had not succeeded in his purpose at washington but his name was known there and remembered meanwhile his wife had died and two years later he had married the widow of a first cousin with his second wife he made his first trip to europe the first of very many he was destined to make in eighteen fifty seven being thirty-seven years old he retired as i have said from business his youthful hopes the ordinary ambitions of men were realized he had been a poor boy at only thirty-seven he was rich very rich for the times and for the place from his proposals to the government we may imagine that he now had broader dreams of usefulness but his first proposition toward river improvement had been checked he had bought a large house and grounds he made for himself a rose arbor and for four years he was as much unoccupied as his lively mind permitted he was at any rate what is called a man of leisure then four years being past he received from washington from his friend attorney-general bates a letter written three days after the surrender of fort sumter which said be not surprised if you are called here suddenly by telegram if called come instantly in a certain contingency it will be necessary to have the aid of the most thorough knowledge of our western rivers and the use of steam on them and in that event i advised that you should be consulted the government was thinking of placing gunboats to occupy and to defend the western waters.

at the beginning of the civil war the state of missouri and the city of st louis were in a very confused condition a border slave state missouri contained a great many persons of southern birth and southern sympathies and besides a good many strong northern men st louis had also a considerable german population all staunch unionists but excepting the germans and one or two dauntless clear-seeing men who read the future few persons in either party wished to fight if fighting could possibly be avoided the governor a southern man while hesitating at actual secession wished and tried to control the power of the state so that at need it might help the south and while professing loyalty he did all he could to prove his disloyalty to the union the legislature however would not pass a bill to arm the state thereby says an historian causing the south to sustain a defeat more disastrous to its independence than any which thereafter befell its arms down to the fall of vicksburg in response to lincoln's call for troops the governor refused to send any from missouri an extraordinary state convention called in this crisis voted against secession seeing that the governor notwithstanding this was covertly aiming at throwing himself and the state so far as he could in with the confederacy young frank blair and general nathaniel lyon carrying things with a high hand seized and dispersed the state militia encamped in st louis got control of almost all the federal arms in the state and with outside aid and help from the regular army chased the governor from the capitol and held him at bay long enough for the convention to depose him and the general assembly and to establish a state government loyal to the union during all these lively events st louis was in confusion there were many minds in the town secessionists conditional and unconditional unionists submissionists some who wanted war some who wanted only to preserve peace so that they might keep their homes and fortunes safe even on condition of abandoning slavery james b eads did not own a slave nor did he approve of slavery but among his friends and associates there were many who did own them and many secessionists it is curious to observe how little a difference of opinion on these points that had become so vital was able to put personal enmity among men who were true friends of course among mere acquaintances there were many instances of bitterness and taunting through it all eads with his rare tact and his exquisite manners steered without collision offending none of those who were not on his side and yet we are presently to see what a deep interest his side had for him and how much he was able and willing to do for it between the election and the inauguration of lincoln eads and three other prominent citizens of st louis wrote a letter to him expressing their fears that an attempt at secession would be made and urging the policy of having a secretary of state from one of the slave states and they recommended for purity of character stern integrity exalted patriotism and enlightened statesmanship edward bates born in virginia married into a south carolina family and long resident in missouri a first draft of this letter is in eads's handwriting when the new cabinet was formed bates a personal friend of lincoln's as well as of eads's was given a position in it that of attorney-general it was he who three days after sumter was fired on wrote the letter already quoted telling eads to expect a telegram calling him to washington for consultation on the best method of defending and occupying the western rivers eads himself was by this time no believer in a defensive policy for the government after sumter he had already written to bates advocating determined and vigorous measures so when the telegram soon followed the letter he was glad to hasten to washington in order to be of use there he was introduced to the secretary and to the assistant secretary of the navy the importance of controlling the mississippi river was well seen by the great strategist lincoln who called it the backbone of the rebellion the key to the whole situation if it could be held by the government the confederacy could neither move its troops up and down it nor thus cut in half could it bring over from texas and arkansas the many men and the quantities of food greatly needed by its armies east of the river realizing this the confederacy was already beginning to fortify the mississippi and the ohio with its branches to dislodge the rebels bates proposed a fleet of gunboats the secretary of war however thinking this idea of gunboats either useless or impracticable showed at first no interest in the plan but at the request of the secretary of the navy who realized the importance of the subject eads prepared a statement of his views embodying bates's project in it he also suggested besides the best kind of boats for the service batteries to be erected at several points commodore paulding on reading this statement at once reported in favor of it suddenly the secretary of war when he saw that the scheme was coming to something claimed jurisdiction over the whole matter but finally he agreed to order the same officer already appointed for the purpose by the navy to go west with eads and purchase vessels to be armed all necessary approvals having been made the two went to cairo where they examined the benton one of the former snagboat fleet afterwards eads proposed the strong and swift missouri river steamboats but neither of these suited his colleague who at last went to cincinnati and buying three boats there armed them himself and very useful boats they were the gunboat scheme had been first proposed in april it was now june and excepting these three wooden boats nothing seemed to have come of it so in july the quartermaster-general advertised for bids for ironclad gunboats in eighteen sixty one ironclads were a rather new thing france and england had a few of them but at the time the merrimac was begun no ironclad had been finished in america on august fifth when the bids were opened that of eads was found not only to be the lowest but to promise the quickest work on august seventh the contract was signed for seven gunboats to be delivered at cairo on october tenth sixty four days later this contract it has been said would under ordinary circumstances have been thought by most men impossible to fulfil but the circumstances then were anything but ordinary it was a time of great financial distress in the border slave states the pursuits of peace were interrupted all was in turmoil and confusion rolling mills machine shops foundries forges and sawmills were all idle and many of the mechanics had gone to the war the timber for the boats was still growing in the forests the iron was not yet manufactured and so short was the time that two or three factories alone no matter how well equipped they might be were not to be depended upon yet eads had undertaken to start up the factories to gather the materials and to build his boats in two months never were the self-reliance and the energy of the man better exhibited but his keen business sense might have hesitated had not his patriotism shown him that the union needed the boats quickly most of the machine shops and foundries of st louis were at once set to work night and day and for hours at a time the telegraph wires to pittsburg and to cincinnati were in use twenty-one steam engines and thirty-five boilers were needed prepared timber was brought from eight different states and the first iron plating used in the war was rolled not only in st louis and cincinnati but in small towns in ohio and kentucky within two weeks four thousand men were at work in places miles apart working by night and seven days a week to the workmen on the hulls who should stick to the task till it was done eads promised a handsome bonus and in this way gratuitously paid out thousands of dollars the building of this little fleet has been called a triumph of sagacity pluck and executive ability unsurpassed by any exploit in the military or civil history of the times to be sure the seven boats were not finished at the time called for that they were all launched within a hundred days of the signing of the contract is amazing enough but if they had been built after designs of eads's own so that he would not have been delayed by sudden changes necessitated when he found weaknesses in the plans furnished him or when the designer changed the specifications and if the government harassed and driven as it was then had been able to pay him according to its part of the contract there is little doubt that he would have had the vessels finished in time according to his agreement even as it was it was legally decided later that he was not at fault when he entered into the contract he was a rich man and as he was not to receive his first payment from the government for twenty days probably only a rich man could have had the credit necessary to put such machinery into motion as it proved subsequently the government was so lax in its payment and demanded work so much more expensive than the specifications called for that before the work was finished eads was in a hard way financially he had been much worried and distracted in obtaining funds after exhausting his own fortune he had sought the aid of patriotic friends and it was principally in order to pay them back that he made his appeal to the government by the terms of his contract he might have delayed the work until his payments were received and might thus have saved himself great distress and worry but as i have said he realized how much the union needed the boats he himself said that it was of the utmost importance that these boats should be made as effective as possible without reference to how i was to be affected by delays and that their completion should be pushed with the utmost energy whether the government failed in its part of the bargain or not their rapid completion then was a proof not only of eads's masterful energy but of his self-sacrificing patriotism as well ultimately he was paid most of the money for the gunboats and as a result of his patriotism won back the fortune he had risked but at the time of course it hampered him intolerably to be without funds he had besides other difficulties to contend with at least one of his sub-contractors or head workmen was a disappointed bidder for the gunboat contract and was on a salary which ran till the boats were finished and while eads would not mention such a suspicion in public he suggested in a private letter that this had been an additional cause of delay after all the seven boats had been launched and were ready to be put into commission by flag-officer foote before he had more than one-third of the necessary crews ready for them these seven the st louis afterwards de kalb the cairo carondelet cincinnati louisville mound city and pittsburg were all alike the st louis as eads wrote to lincoln when he sent him a photograph of her was the first ironclad built in america she was the first armored vessel against which the fire of a hostile battery was directed on this continent and so far as i can ascertain she was the first ironclad that ever engaged a naval force in the world in reading the description of them and in reading in the naval histories of their undeniable faults it must be remembered that eads had no part in the modeling of these boats and is therefore relieved of all responsibility as to their imperfections they were one hundred seventy five feet long fifty one and a half feet beam their sides sloped upward and inward at an angle of about thirty five degrees and the front and rear casements corresponded with the sides the stern wheel being entirely covered by the rear casement it was a large paddle-wheel placed forward of the stern so as to be protected the whole thing was like a tremendous uncovered box with its sides sloping up and in and containing the battery the machinery and the paddle-wheel while the smokestacks and the conical pilot-house stuck up out of the top captain mahan says that they looked like gigantic turtles underneath the water they were simply like flat-bottomed scows as they were intended always to fight bows on they were built with that in view in front they were accordingly armored two and a half inches over two feet of solid oak the only other armor they carried was abreast of the boiler and engines the stern therefore and the greater part of the sides were decidedly vulnerable their armament consisted of three guns forward four on each broadside and two at the stern when eads was given a chance to alter a boat from his own designs he made it a much better one than these it was a boat ordered by general fremont in september eighteen sixty one in excess of the government appropriation for the river fleet this was the same snag-boat which three months before had been suggested for alteration by eads and refused by the army's agent in this case as in so many afterwards when eads knew himself to be right he stuck persistently to his own opinion and out of the heavy old boat despised and objected to by so many persons he fashioned the old war-horse the benton which slow as she was spears the naval historian calls the most powerful warship afloat at that date as a snag boat formerly used by eads she had had two hulls so joined and strengthened that she could get the largest kind of a cottonwood tree between them hoist it out of the mud and drag it clear of the channel these hulls were now joined together and while the boat was armored on the same general plan as the seven contract gunboats she was so much more completely ironclad as to avoid the danger that they were exposed to of having their boilers burst and great damage and death caused thereby her tonnage was twice that of the others her size about two hundred by seventy five feet she was entirely ironclad in her gun-deck casement the twenty inches of timber under the plating had its grain running up from the water instead of horizontally by which means wrote eads a ball will strike as it were with the grain and then be more readily deflected on the same principle that a mini ball will penetrate five inches of oak crossing the grain while it will not enter one inch if fired at the end of the timber this detail illustrates the care and interest with which eads built his boats the eight of them captain mahan says formed the backbone of the river fleet throughout the war and may be fairly called the ships of the line of battle on the western waters he speaks also of their very important services this is milder praise than has been given them commander stembel said that he had heard them called equal to five thousand men each boynton the naval historian goes so far as to say that the permanent occupation of the south was rendered possible by the ironclad navy of the western waters though the naval battles in the atlantic were perhaps more brilliant he says none unless that between the merrimac and the monitor had more important results eads has been called as potent as a great general in clearing the upper mississippi he did not to be sure build the entire gunboat fleet but he did build as captain mahan says the backbone of it and that the praises for that fleet which i have quoted are not altogether extravagant is further shown by the comments of mr john fiske he says while it was seldom that they these formidable gunboats could capture fortified places without the aid of a land force at the same time this combination of strength with speed made them an auxiliary without which the greater operations of the war could hardly have been undertaken these eight boats figured in many a fight on the great river and its branches they were ever where danger was a month and more before the merrimac and the monitor were finished the important capture of fort henry was a victory exclusively for the gunboats it was the carondelet that ran the gauntlet past island number ten a feat as full of romance and daring as any that the civil war tells us of and these things were done with vessels still unpaid for and the personal property of their builder their usefulness was a great satisfaction to eads and he rejoiced as he wrote to foote with the prideful pleasure of the poor armorer who forged the sword that in gallant hands struck down the foe When the Benton left her dock for Cairo, Foote requested Eads to see her there in safety.

Eads, who was so deeply interested in his boats that on another occasion he was narrowly prevented from going into action with one of them, gladly agreed.

Before long, the Benton grounded.