Brig. General Nathaniel Lyon

Nathaniel Lyon was born on July 14, 1818, in Ashford, Connecticut. After graduating from West Point 11th in his class of 52 in 1841, he served in the Seminole and Mexican wars.

After the Mexican War, he was promoted to Captain and assigned to a post in Kansas, where he was exposed to the slavery controversy and became an ardent Republican and Unionist.

In 1861, Lyon was transferred to Missouri, a state that was sharply divided between its pro-Confederate Governor Clairborne F. Jackson and a pro-Union legislature.

When Gov. Jackson called out the state militia, allegedly for training purposes, Lyon became suspicious and secured the arsenal at St. Louis, an action that provoked Jackson to openly declare for the Confederacy, and gained, for Lyon, a promotion to Brig. General.

Missouri was ripe with Southern sympathizers, and Confederate troops were moving north from Arkansas. Lyon was frustrated over what he saw as a lack of support from his immediate superior, General Fremont.

Lyon, determined that he would strike first, hit the Confederates at dawn in a surprise attack at Wilson’s Creek, initially driving the far superior Southern forces back.

The effects of surprise having worn off, Lyon was killed trying to rally his troops during the last of three subsequent Confederate attacks, making him the first Union General to die in battle in the Civil War. He had lost the battle but is credited with saving Missouri for the Union.