Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

[543] before, Colonel Boernstein, who was holding the capital to obedience with a mild but firm hand, had issued a proclamation, addressed to the inhabit. ants of that immediate region, assuring them of protection in the enjoyment of all their rights, and that “slave property” should not be interfered with, nor the slaves encouraged to be unfaithful; at the same time warning all disloyal men that he would not allow the enemies of the Government to work mischief openly. These proclamations quieted the fears of the people, and strengthened the cause of the Government. Assured of military protection, and encouraged by the aspect of affairs favorable to the maintenance of the National authority in the Commonwealth, the State Convention was called to reassemble at Jefferson City on the 22d of July.

General Lyon remained at Booneville about a fortnight, making preparations for a vigorous campaign against gathering insurgents in the southwestern part of the State. He now held military control over the whole region northward of the Missouri River, and east of a line running south from Booneville to the Arkansas border, thus giving to the Government the control of the important points of St. Louis, Hannibal, St. Joseph, and Bird's Point, as bases of operations, with railways and rivers for transportation. On the 1st of July there were at least ten thousand loyal troops in Missouri, and ten thousand more might be thrown into it, in the space of forty-eight hours, from camps in the adjoining State of Illinois. And, at the same time, Colonel Sigel, already mentioned, an energetic and accomplished German liberal, who had commanded the republican troops of his native state (the Grand Duchy of Baden) in the revolution of 1848, was pushing forward with eager soldiers toward the insurgent camps on the borders of Kansas and Arkansas, to open the campaign, in which he won laurels and the commission of a brigadier. That campaign, in which Lyon lost his life, will be considered hereafter.

There was now great commotion all over the land. War had begun in earnest. The drum and fife were heard in every city, village, and hamlet, from the St. Croix to the Rio Grande. Propositions for compromises

Franz Sigel.

and concessions were no longer listened to by the opposing parties. The soothing echoes of the last “Peace Convention,” held at Frankfort, in Kentucky, on the 27th of May,¹ were lost in the din of warlike preparations; and it was evident that the great question before the people could only be settled by the arbitrament of the sword, to which the enemies of the Republic had appealed.

As we look over the theater of events connected with the secession movement at the beginning of July, 1861, we perceive that the Insurrection had then become an organized Rebellion, and was rapidly assuming the dignity and importance of a Civil War. The conspirators had formed a confederacy,