General Lyon Biography

 

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Civil War Harper's Weekly, July 13, 1861

This newspaper features some really nice portraits of General Winfield Scott, and has pictures and a story on the Battle of Boonville. It also has a great picture of Abraham Lincoln's cabinet at the start of the war.

(Scroll Down to see entire newspaper page, or Newspaper Thumbnails below will take you to a specific page of interest)

 

The Battle of Boonville

The Battle of Boonville

General Lyon Biography

Texas

Texas Union Movement

Fort McHenry

Fort McHenry

General Winfield Scott

General Scott

Portrait of General Scott

Lincoln Cabinet

Abraham Lincoln's Cabinet

Colorado

Civil War Ship "Colorado"

Philadelphia Volunteers

Philadelphia Volunteers

Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati, Ohio

Slave Auction

Slave Auction

John C. Fremont

General John Fremont

White Springs

White Springs, Virginia

Description of a Slave Auction

Acne

Acne Treatment

 

 

HARPER'S WEEKLY.

[JULY 13, 1861.

434

BRIG.-GENERAL LYON, U.S.A.

ON page 433 the reader will find a portrait of BRIGADIER-GENERAL LYON, commanding the United States forces in Missouri. The following brief sketch of General Lyon's career will show that he stands right upon the record :

General Nathaniel Lyon is the son of a substantial farmer of Ashford, Connecticut, and is the descendant, paternally and maternally, of families who were distinguished for intellect and integrity of character. His mother was of the Knowlton family, which produced two of the distinguished officers of the Revolution—one, the famous Colonel Knowlton, who, as Major, commanded the Connecticut boys at the Old Rail Fence, on the left wing of the American army, at Bunker's Hill, and was afterward killed at the battle of Harlem Heights, New York.

General Lyon was educated at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated with distinction in 1841, and has remained in the army ever since, having risen to the rank of captain in the Second Infantry ; and by the recent choice of the Missouri volunteers has become their Brigadier-General. He is now in the prime of life as a military commander, being forty-two years of age. He has had great experience in his profession, especially in the rougher duties, which fit him so especially for his present position. His service has been principally upon the frontiers—in the Florida, Texas, California, Oregon, Kansas, and other Indian and border wars. He was with General Scott's division during the Mexican campaign, and was breveted August 20, 1847, " for gallant and meritorious conduct in the battles of Contreras and Churubusco;" and was wounded at the Belen Gate of the city of Mexico, September 13, 1847.

General Lyon is the right man in the right place. He has a strong physical constitution, a high order of intellect, and an energy which knows no bounds.

THE LATE CAPT. WARD, U.S.N.

WE publish on page 433 a portrait of the late CAPTAIN WARD, who was unfortunately killed in a reconnoissance at Mathias Point on 27th. Captain Ward's record is as follows:

He was born in the year 1806, in the city of Hartford, Connecticut. On the 4th of March, 1823, he first entered the United States service, sailing as midshipman, under Commodore M'Donough, in the frigate Constitution. After serving faithfully for four years, under the above Commodore, he was promoted to the position of a lieutenant, and was for some time attached to the Mediterranean squadron. Many years of his life were spent on the coast of Africa. He served also in the Gulf as commander of the United States steamer Vixen; indeed, nearly all of his naval life was spent on the ocean: he had served some sixteen years at sea and only nine years on shore. He held for a time a very responsible professorship in the Naval School at Annapolis, and still later was placed in command of the receiving ship North Carolina, lying at the Navy-yard. This position he held for nearly four years, and while in it made many friends. At last the troubled state of the country demanded the service and experience of such officers as Captain Ward, and he placed himself at the command of the Government. Appreciating his abilities, they placed him in command of the steam flotilla at that time fitting out. It was placed in commission on the 16th of May. He had hardly arrived in Chesapeake Bay when he made an attack on a rebel battery, silencing it and driving the soldiers away. Since that time he has proved himself to be one of the most able and energetic officers that we had, fearing no danger, and placing those under him in none that he would not gladly lead them through.

He was married in the year 1832 to Miss Whittemore, of this city, daughter of Samuel Whittemore, Esq. From this union has sprung four children, three of whom, a daughter and two sons, are with their mother in Germany.

THE BATTLE OF BOONVILLE.

ON page 433 we publish a picture of the BATTLE, OF BOONVILLE, from a sketch by an attentive artist-correspondent. The following account of the fight is from the Herald correspondence:

At just three minutes before seven A.M., on June 17, the order was given to move. The morning was cloudy, with occasionally a few drops of rain, but before the battle was over the sun shone out clear and bright as ever. As the column ascended the bluff the pickets of the enemy were seen and driven in. After an advance of three-fourths of a mile one of the advanced guard rode hastily back to the head of the column and informed General Lyon that the whole body of the State troops was drawn up a few hundred yards in front. General Lyon at once ordered the regulars under Sergeant Griffin to the left, and Captain Schultez's riflemen to the right. Captain Totten's battery was ordered to the front to occupy the road.

The enemy were drawn up about three hundred yards in advance, on the crest of a hill, or rather a long swell or ridge, over which the road passed at the highest point. The road was occupied by Colonel Marmaduke, with a small body of horsemen and a battalion of infantry. Immediately on his left was a brick house filled with rebel troops, and back of this, toward the river, was a narrow lane, where his left wing was posted. To their rear was a wheat field, and this was miscellaneously scattered small crowds of men, apparently without order or regularity. To his right was another wheat field, separated from an adjacent corn field by a "worm fence," and behind this fence his right wing was posted. Soon as our men were in position Captain Totten unlimbered a twelve-pounder and a six-pounder, and sent a shell from the former into the midst of the men occupying the road. A puff of smoke rising from among them showed that the gunner's aim had been true. The next shell was directed upon the squads of men in the wheat field and caused them to make a hasty retreat. The fire now became general along the whole line, the regulars on the right, and the German troops on the left, advancing in good order. Our line was formed on a ridge similar to that occupied by the enemy and parallel to it, separated from the latter by a valley with a gentle descent on either side. To our left was a corn field and on our right a copse or grove of scattered oaks. The regulars advanced in the corn field, to the crest of the ridge, creeping up the latter and firing when opportunity occurred, taking for their motto that of an Irishman at Donnybrook Fair, "Whenever you see a head hit it." The hollow between the ridges was full of scattered oaks, and these served as a cover to our men.

Captains Stone, Cole, and Cavender were sent to support the right of the regulars, and in this way they all advanced to the fence where the enemy were at first posted. The battalion from the Second, supported by Captains Maurice's, Burke's, and Yates's companies, were at the same time doing good work on the right; and in twenty minutes from the time Captain Totten fired the first shell the rebels were in full retreat, and our men occupying the line first held by the enemy. The house on the right had been completely riddled by the last shots front the battery, and one shell burst in the very centre of the building, at a time when it was full of soldiers. Several dead bodies of the rebels were found in the wheat field near the lane, showing that our fire had been effective. In fact, at the first volley from the right wing several saddles were emptied of their riders, and two horses galloped over to our lines. The correspondents of the New York Herald and St. Louis Democrat entered the battle on foot, by the side of the battery, but were very soon mounted, having succeeded in capturing these runaway steeds.

The number of killed and wounded on the part of the rebels has not and probably will not be accurately ascertained. Out of one company (Captain McCulloch's Cooper County Rifles) thirteen are known to be killed and several wounded. The number of dead already brought into Boonville or taken to friends in the country can not fall much short of fifty, and the wounded now heard of are as

many more. On the side of the Union troop, there were three killed, ten wounded, and one missing.

We took eighty prisoners, nineteen of whom have been released, and the remaining sixty-one put on board the Louisiana.

 

HARPER'S WEEKLY.

SATURDAY, JULY 13, 1861.
THE LEADERS OF THE NATION.

WE devote an unusual proportion of our space this week to PORTRAITS OF THE MEN on whom the eyes of the people are at present fixed.

On page 440 will be found an admirable portrait of LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SCOTT, from a recent photograph by Brady ; and on the page following an accurate copy of an exceedingly well executed portrait of the same General Scott, made thirty-four years ago, when he was forty-one years of age. The present crisis was essential to the full perfection of General Scott's fame. Had he died a twelvemonth since, history might have classed him as a mere successful soldier. That he will now go down to posterity with no name between his and WASHINGTON'S is certain. His early career was an unexampled success. Though he was bred a lawyer and not a soldier, his first campaign as a captain of volunteer artillery developed the mettle that was in him ; he rose, without patronage, without friends, without money, or favor, from grade to grade, winning each step with his sword on the battle-field, until he was a Major-General in the United States Army at the age of twenty-eight. This was forty-seven years ago-when few who read these lines were born. How honorably and usefully this long stage of forty-seven years has been spent by him in the service of his country, no history fails to recount. And now his long career of greatness is being fitly closed by the noblest and most splendid of his achievements. It must never be forgotten that when the loyal people of the nation were sleeping, in October last, WINFIELD SCOTT foresaw the present war, foretold it to the Buchanan Cabinet, and showed how the rebellion might be crushed in the bud by a few very simple precautions. It was not his fault that the hoary imbecile who then disgraced the Presidential chair nursed discontent into rebellion, and sedition into open war. But Providence orders all for the best, and uses even such vile instruments as Buchanan to ripen Southern treason for the halter, and to crown the last years of Scott with immortal glory.

Let no man doubt him. His intellect is as bright as it was forty years ago, his hand as sure, and his judgment as sound. He has never yet failed as a soldier; let those who carp at his slowness take patience ; what he proposes to do he will do thoroughly, once and forever.

We also publish on page 437 a group of THE PRESIDENT AND HIS CABINET. It may not be impertinent here to say that, while Mr. LINCOLN was not the choice of the proprietors of this journal for President, they conceive it to be the duty of every patriotic citizen at the present juncture to give a cordial support to him and to his Administration. When civil war is raging at our doors, and it is a hanging matter to raise the stars and stripes in one half the country, it is surely no time to cavil at errors of detail which may be committed by the Administration in the discharge of duties more arduous than have devolved upon any government since this Confederacy was first formed. For our part we are free to confess that thus far Mr. LINCOLN seems to us to have been fully equal to the stupendous task which Fate has set before him. We can not thus far detect a single fatal error in his administration of the Government. He appears to be fully conscious of the situation, and to be discharging his duty with a keen perception of his responsibility to God and to the people. We have yet to hear of the first particle of evidence implicating him in the villainous schemes which are afloat for the surrender of the liberties of this nation at the demand of an armed mob. Under these circumstances, we submit that Mr. LINCOLN is entitled to the cordial support of every honest man in the country. Nor can we perceive that any thing can be gained by carping at the real or supposed errors of the members of the Cabinet. It is probable, as they are men, that they have their faults. But there is no evidence any where that they have thus far done any wrong to the country, while, on the contrary, there is abundant evidence that they are working, one and all, heart and soul, for the preservation of our national existence, for the suppression of rebellion, and for the maintenance of law, order, and good government. Is it patriotic, is it decent, under such circumstances, to cavil at this or that Secretary on the basis of idle scandals, or for the gratification of private rancor? By-and-by, when the rebellion is put down, and all that we cherish is secure once more, it will be timely, perhaps, to inquire into the conduct of each department of the public administration with a close and jealous eye. But what is wanted now from the people of the United States is faith in the men they have set over them, a

magnanimous trust in their patriotism, and a generous forbearance far inevitable shortcomings. Without these, we can not expect to survive our present dire peril. The public must never forget that opposition to the Government at the present crisis is aid and comfort to the enemy. The most signal service that could be rendered to Jefferson Davis at the present time would be to create a general distrust, in the North, of Mr. Seward or Mr. Cameron.

Finally, we publish on page 444, a portrait of MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN C. FREMONT, in his old trapper costume, with the gallant KIT CARSON and other prairie chiefs beside him. Public fancy points to him as one of the most probable heroes of the campaign now begun. He is known to possess almost unrivaled qualifications for the command he has just obtained. His campaign in California was one of the most brilliant military operations in our history. He is believed to be a thorough soldier, theoretical and practical. His energy, rapidity of combination, and daring, are notorious. He has potent incentives to develop whatever may be in him; for he must vindicate the judgment of the million and more citizens who desired to make him President in 1856. If, as rumor states, he has been appointed to the command of the army which is to advance from Alexandria and Arlington Heights, he will have an opportunity of' satisfying or disappointing public expectation. We are inclined to believe that he will be found the right man in the right place : that he will neither make reconnoissances in railway cars, nor march troops up to masked batteries and then back again, nor yet lie encamped week after week in sight of the enemy while his pickets are shot or captured every dark night. He has been bred in a school in which performances of this character were not popular.

WE have received a letter from W. H. RUSSELL, Esq., LL.D., Correspondent of the London Times, which will appear in our next.

THE LOUNGER

A SHORT FOURTH OF JULY ORATION.

EIGHTY-FIVE years ago to-day, after the most prolonged and solemn debate, continued in many ways for twenty years—after the most patient and respectful appeals to the Government—after the most stringent and conclusive argument against injustice—after the plain and final declaration that the crown of England would govern its colonies simply and only at its pleasure, and without advice or voice from those colonies—after long, and strenuous, and vain protest against a taxation to control which they had no representation, and upon the clearest conviction of the human and political rights of every man in society, the thirteen colonies slowly and sorrowfully took up arms, recited before the world the wrongs they had suffered, and appealed to God and mankind for the justice of their cause.

The tale is familiar and sacred. Today let it be read again. Today let every descendant of the men who fought read the manifest of their war. And then let him contrast with it the manifest of the people in this country who profess to justify themselves by that declaration.

The patriots of '76 declared it to be a self-evident truth that all men are endowed by God with certain inalienable rights.

The rebels of '61 declare that they are not.

The patriots of '76 asserted that to secure those rights governments are instituted among men. The rebels of '61 declare that they are not.

The patriots of '76 proclaimed the right of the people to alter or abolish any government which did not secure those rights.

The rebels of '61 declare that any discontented faction may forcibly overthrow the government which the people have thus established.

The patriots of '76 declared that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes.

The rebels of '61 declare that a government may be overthrown by any number of people who suppose that at some time and in some way it may pursue a policy they do not like.

The patriots of '76 said that when a long train of abuses and usurpations pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, the people may throw off the guilty government and provide a new; and they proceeded to cite the long array of long continued outrages upon their rights by the King of Great Britain which justified their action.

The rebels of '61, by the mouth of their Vice-President Stephens, declared on the 14th of November last, that the Government against which they have now taken up arms, although not perfect, " comes nearer the objects of all good government than any other on the face of the earth."

The success of the patriots of '76 was the earnest of peaceful, progressive, popular government which should secure to every man the permanent security of his inalienable rights.

The success of the rebels of '61 would be the destruction of all constitutional government and the subjection of individual rights to a military despotism.

The leader of the patriots of '76 was the type of their movement. His word was as sacred as truth.

The official word of the leader of the rebels of '61 is a scorn and hissing among the nations. It is a synonym of repudiation.

The patriots of '76 built their house upon the rock of Justice, and the winds and rains have not and shall not prevail against it.

The rebels of '61 build their house upon the sands of injustice; and the rain is descending, the floods are coining, the winds are blowing and heating; upon that house, and great will be the fall of it.

PETITIONS FOR PEACE.

WHY do not the people who wish that the United States Government would surrender to the armed rebellion of Jefferson Davis say so openly? Why do they circulate petitions in the dark, and cajole boys to sign them, without telling them what they are signing? The right of petition is secured to every citizen by the fundamental law. It is competent for any body who chooses, to petition Congress to establish a monarchy and legalize polygamy.

So when a faction of armed citizens have seized the property which belongs to all the people, and stand with hands stained with the blood of loyal men defending their Government, it is competent for any body to petition Congress to make peace with the rebels upon their own terms. But if any man honestly wishes to do it he will do it openly. People who sneak about with petitions they are afraid to show, carry petitions they are ashamed of.

And they are ashamed, because they know that they have no fair reason to urge for what they are doing. Their conduct betrays a conscious meanness, not manliness. They say whiningly that they want peace. Very well: who does not? Who has broken the peace? Those who yield quietly to the constitutional operation of the Government, or those who resist it with arms? When the Astor Place riot occurred, every good citizen wanted peace. There was but one way to get it. That way was taken, and peace was secured. What would have been thought of a man who went about at midnight during the riot beseeching signatures to a petition that the city government would make terms with the rioters, because dear peace was so desirable?

Then civil war is so unnatural, they add. Of course it is; and therefore the people who undertake it should be dealt with such manner that neither they nor their posterity will care to try it again.

Every pretense of argument applied to this case is applicable to every other case in which the operation of the law is forcibly resisted. There is no more reason for compounding with armed traitors engaged in war upon the Government than with any other criminals. In both cases the Government can only conquer or be conquered. To compound is to confess defeat.

Happily the case is so clear, that this poor effort to maintain the political ascendency of unprincipled men at the expense of the whole American political system is already lost in ridicule and contempt. The right of every man to petition is unquestioned and unquestionable. But when your petition is one you are afraid to show openly in your office, and frankly to solicit signatures, it is a petition which every honest patriot immediately sees is meant to help treason under the plausible pretense of peace.

KENTUCKY AND HER LOYAL MEN.

A FRIEND in Kentucky, who does not spare the Lounger in his remarks upon a late article, writes as follows. The friend will pardon the Lounger's natural reluctance to print the abuse of himself :

"You are surely aware that we have a traitor Governor, a milk-and-water Legislature, and a strong secession party in the State. We can not therefore put the State, as a State, in her true, loyal, position; for that can only be done through the Governor, and he is a traitor. We can not impeach him, for the Legislature would be strongly disunion were they not afraid of the people.

"The Legislature was elected some two years ago, and the Representatives grossly misrepresent their constituents. As an instance of this, Adair County will give but three disunion votes, two of which are her late Senator and Representative.

"We can not volunteer and go to the assistance of the Government as individuals, for we leave a strong party behind us, who will use every means, be they foul or fair, to drag the State out of the Union. Every Union man taken from Kentucky now increases the chances of her going out.

" Don't you see, Sir, that our position of neutrality is one of necessity, and not of choice ?

"Please set Kentucky right in your next issue. Fiat justitia, ruat coelum.   UNION."

FACT VERSUS PRINCIPLE.

THE second thought of England is what we thought it would be. But when it is said that corporations have no souls, the remark may be extended to nations, and then it has great significance. A soulless body, or a brute (if it be possible that the little dog Tib, asleep beside me, has no soul), obeys simply the instincts of immediate self-preservation, and stakes no sacrifice for principle, nor sees that present suffering may he future triumph. Corporations and States act in the same way. They do not move from moral principle, but from policy in the sense of selfish interest.

An intelligent clergymen in England, American-born, writes to the Lounger: "Motley has been doing the North service by setting before the British public, in the Times, the constitutional merits of its case. He has done it very ably. But revolutions do not follow constitutional prescriptions very closely: and even if his essays be much read, England will decide more by what is actually accomplished in the Cabinet and the field, North and South, than by any thing else."

The tradition of England is constitutional liberty. If a ministry should offer to recognize this rebellion before it has struck a blow, as a successful revolution establishing a new Power, such a ministry would be howled out of office by popular clamor. But if the rebellion maintains itself for a long time, how then ?

The right and wrong will remain quite the same. But England and all other Powers will ask, " How about the fact? Grant that it is a wanton and wicked rebellion, and that it maintains itself. how long do you expect us to wait? How long did you wait in the case of Mexico and Texas ? We (Next Page)

 

 

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