Frost had heard frequently during the two days preceding the attack that it was to be made, and received positive information on the morning of the 10th that it would be made that day. On the strength of this information he wrote Lyon a letter, in which he assured him that neither he nor any part of his command had any hostile intention toward the United States government, its property or its representatives, and in conclusion said: ‘I trust, after this explicit statement, we may be able, by fully understanding each other, to keep far from our borders the misfortunes which unhappily afflict our common country.’ Col. John S. Bowen was the bearer of the letter, but Lyon refused to receive it. He did not want to come to an understanding in regard to the property of his government, which it was his professed desire to reclaim. He at once put his troops in motion and marched direct to the camp. Arriving there he surrounded it on every side with his infantry to prevent the escape of the officers and men, and put his artillery in position to drive them out of it. Then he sent a staff officer to General Frost and demanded the immediate and unconditional surrender of his command. Promptly and without parley Frost surrendered. A great crowd of citizens, many of them women and children, had collected about the camp, and when the soldiers stacked their arms and marched out on their way to prison, the crowd began to jeer and mock at their captors, who resented the indignity by firing volley after volley into the crowd, the firing extending in regular succession down the line of troops. Twenty-eight persons were killed or
