Colonel Nathaniel Lyon, now a fanatical abolitionist, is transferred in February 1861 to St. Louis in Missouri, a state sharply divided between a pro-Confederate governor, Claiborne F. Jackson, and a pro-Union legislature, with a valuable arsenal in St. Louis as the prize for the victor.

Lyon and his company are assigned to bolster the weak defenses of the arsenal, which contains 60,000 muskets, 90,000 pounds of powder, 1.5 million ball cartridges, 40 field pieces and the machinery for manufacture of arms.

Also located downtown is the Federal Sub-Treasury which houses over a million dollars in gold and silver.

As both facilities are severely under guarded, Lyon is ordered to fortify the compounds.

Arming twenty-five hundred volunteers loyal to the Union, he inducts them into Federal service as per his instructions from Washington.

The Missouri Volunteers elect Lyon general of their regiment by general consensus.