The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-08-11
LYONS CAMPAIGN
IN MISSOURI:
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IN MISSOURI!
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This, indeed, meant war, and Jack.
son and Price knew it. Commands
ing special train, these two person.
ages, with Col. Shea, hastened from
81 Louis to Jefferson City as fast as
steam would carry them, burning the
bridge over the Gasconade after cross
Ing lt,so as to impede Lyons advance.
ana arrived at the capital before sun
rise the next morning, June IL. Then
jackson issued a proclamation which
referred to pretended series OF I'M.
provoked and unparalleled outrages
upon the peace and dignity OF this
commonwealth and upon the rights
and liberties of its people, by wicked
and unprincipled men, protesting to
act under the authority of the United
States government which ended by
calling the militia OF the state, to the
number of $4,000, into active service
Oh the state, for the purpose of repell-
ing said invasion, and for the protec-
ton OF the lives, liberty and property
OF the citizens of this state"
With his usual promptness and de-
cision Lyon moved against the enemy.
Sending small bodies of troops by the
only railway then in existence In Mis-
souri, to points where Jackson's Sc
cessionfst militia were to assemble.
and with orders to disprese or capture
them, Lyon himself with his staff.
small body Of regulars and larger
body of volunteers. to the number of
about $500 In the aggregate, boarded
two steamboats, In st. Louis June 13
and started for Jefferson City, reach
expected Jackson, Price and their Sc
cess1on1sts guards had fled from the
city. and Lyon quickly learned that
they We're to make stand at Boon
Vile, point on the Missouri of con-
siderable natural strength. Price, then
u fNIfYsoIif . SuIufireTs Ill Jrie me4IJan
war, who had afterward been governor
of the state, and who was alert and
personally popular, selected Boonville
as strategic point at which he de-
termined to make fight. If he could
hold Boonville he believed he could
make 1t rallying point for suf-
ficient number of volunteers to en-
able him to drive Lyon back to st.
Louis, and eventually expel him from
the state or capture him. Price or
dered all his division commanders In
that portion of the state to rally at
Boonville, and those farther west and
northwest were to assemble at Lex
ington.
Lyon. however, disarranged these
plans. Pushing northwestward on
the river by boat with the main body
of his forces, about 1000 men, he
struck Boonville on June II, when
Col. John S. Marmadul1e, a graduate
of West Point in the class of 1857,
who resigned from the army in 1861.
attempted to hold the place, but was
quickly beaten, and most of his force
was dispersed, but he was enabled to
escape with most of his cavalry. All
of his camp equipage and most of his
reserve were captured. Colonel Blair s
regiment, with nine companies of that
of Borenstein, under command OF
Lieutenant Colonel Schaeffer, with
Totten's battery of regulars, compris-
ed Lyons command at Boonville. It
was the first of long series of battles
on Missouri soil, and through the
number of the participants was com
paratively small, the national victory
| had a powerful moral effect through
out the state. Thus, June II, 1851
was an important date mark in Mis-
souris fight for the union.
Lexington, the next most important
of Prices strategic points, two-thirds
of the distance between Boonville an
\ Kansas City, was panic-stricken wher
it heard of Lyons quick advance and
capture of Jefferson City AMI Roon
vile, and by Prices orders, the rebels
| fled and mustered south OF the Usage
picking up recruits on the way, ex
4 pecting reenforcements for Arkansas
which they eventually received.
Price abandoned Lexington for sew
eral reasons. He feared tina. Igor
would defeat him, as he had al7ead,
defeated Marmaduke. He feared tina
Sturgis, who, under orders from Ly
on, was approaching from Fort Leav
enwoth, would attack him from thu
west while Lyon was approaching
from the east. He was alarmed, too
at the advance of Curtis from tn
north, also under orders from Lyon
These converging columns meant cap
ture for Price, as he feared and henc
his swift retreat, toward the southwes
ern part of the state.
Thus Lyon gained control of tn
Missouri river throughout it's entir
length Governor Jackson was a fug
tive, and he remained such to tn
end of his days Deposed by the COZ
, yention in Jefferson City in 1851, h
~ =, So ~ wit