Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 1.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[157] thousand, mostly German emigrants, in a corps which the Federal government had recognized, and which ensured the safety of the arsenal. On the 10th of May, Lyon led these troops secretly towards the rebel camp, surrounded it, and captured all that were there without striking a blow. This bold stroke frustrated all the plans of the governor and his accomplices, and caused a great sensation in the city of St. Louis. The soldiers who were escorting the prisoners to the arsenal were assailed by a large crowd; they fired upon it and wounded a considerable number of persons. On the following day the exasperated secessionists returned to the charge, and musket shots were exchanged between them and the troops. But the efforts of the rebels proved fruitless; order was promptly restored in St. Louis, and that great city was wrested for ever from the Confederates. It was three days after this that Butler recaptured Baltimore.

The occupation of these two cities forms an important era in that gloomy period, when it was difficult to say whether the country was at peace or at war, for it finally put a stop to the progress of the rebellion. At the East, Baltimore was the key to Washington. In the West, St. Louis, the third city of the South in population, was second to none in the importance of her military and commercial position. In the hands of the Federals, she opened to them the gates of the Mississippi, which flowed directly through the enemy's territories; in the hands of the Confederates, she would enable them to dispute with their adversaries the possession of the great States of the North-west, watered by the three rivers which meet at St. Louis. The leaders of the secession movement had lost these two important positions for want of promptness and vigor. Being themselves astonished at the success of their rebellion, they had failed to take advantage of that critical moment in all revolutions, when he who has taken the initiative may dare and accomplish everything. They had allowed themselves to be forestalled at St. Louis, and had neglected to make use of the four weeks during which Baltimore was in possession of their friends, to bring that proud city irretrievably to their side, garrison it with troops, and place it in a state of defence. A Massachusetts lawyer, an improvised general, had been more clear-sighted and active than themselves.