THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR IN MISSOURI.

265

coveted arms to Blair’s Home Guards and removed the rest to Illinois , andthen occupied with his own troops the hills around the arsenal. Frost con-sequently established Camp Jackson in a grove in the western part ofthe city, remote from the arsenal, and was drilling and disciplining hismen there in conformity to the laws of the State and under the flag of theUnion, when Jefferson Davis ’s gift toMissouri was taken into the camp.

Blair and Lyon, to whom every de-tail of the Governor’s scheme had beenmade known, had been waiting for thisopportunity. They had made up theirminds to capture the camp and to holdthe officers and men as prisoners of war.

Frost went into camp on the 6th ofMay. The arms from the Confederacywere taken thither on the 8th. On Sat-urday, the 11th, the camp was to breakup. Lyon had no time to lose. OnThursday he attired himself in a dressand shawl and other apparel of Blair’smother-in-law, Mrs. Alexander, andhaving completed his disguise by hid-ing his red beard and weather-beatenfeatures under a thickly veiled sun-bonnet, took on his arm a basket, filled,not with eggs, but with loaded revolvers, got into a barouche belonging toBlair’s brother-in-law, Franklin A. Dick, and was driven out to CampJackson and through it. Returning to the city, he called the Union SafetyCommittee together, and informed them that he intended to capture thecamp the next day. Some of the committee objected, but Blair and JamesO. Broadhead sustained him, and he ordered his men to be in readiness tomove in the morning. Just as they were about to march, Colonel JohnS. Bowen came to Lyon with a protest from Frost. Lyon refused toreceive it, and, marching out to the camp with about 7000 men, surroundedit and demanded its surrender. Frost, who had only 635 men, was obligedto comply.

While the surrender was taking place a great crowd of people, amongwhom were U. S. Grant and W. T. Sherman , hurried to the scene. Most ofthe crowd sympathized with the prisoners, and some gave expression to theirindignation. One of Lyon’s German regiments thereupon opened fire uponthem, and twenty-eight men, women, and children were killed. The prisonerswere then marched to the arsenal, and paroled the next day.

The capture of Camp Jackson and the bloody scenes that followed—theshooting down then and the next day of unoffending men, women, andchildren — aroused the State. J The General Assembly, which had reconvenedin extra session, enacted instantly a law for organizing, arming, and equip-

) Lyon officially states that on both days the firing was in response to attacks by mobs.— Editors.

BRIGADIER-GENERAL D. M. FROST, C. S. A.FROM A PHOTOGRAPH.

riWil