sition of the
Blairs to Fremont--Affair at Fredericktown.

When it became probable that military force would be required by
the government to maintain its authority in the Southern States,
I informed the War Department of my readiness to return to duty
whenever my services might be required, and was instructed to await
orders in St. Louis. Upon President Lincoln's first call for
volunteers, I was detailed to muster in the troops required of the
State of Missouri. With the order of detail was furnished a copy
of the old instructions for mustering into service, etc., which
required me to call upon the governor of Missouri for the regiments
to be mustered, and to accept only fully organized regiments. It
was well and publicly known that the executive of Missouri was
disloyal to the United States, and that compliance with the
President's demand for volunteers was not to be expected from the
State government; yet my instructions authorized me to take no
action which could be effective under such circumstances, and the
then department commander, Brigadier-General William S. Harney,
would not consent that any such action be taken without orders from
Washington. I called upon Governor Jackson for his regiments, but
received no reply.

RETURN TO DUTY

In my visit to General Harney after the attack on Fort Sumter, I
urged the necessity of prompt measures to protect the St. Louis
Arsenal, with its large stores of arms and ammunition, then of
priceless value, and called his attention of a rumor of an intended
attack upon the arsenal by the secessionists then encamped near
the city under the guise of State militia. In reply, the general
denounced in his usual vigorous language the proposed attempt upon
the arsenal; and, as if to clinch his characterization of such a
"---- outrage," said: "Why, the State has not yet passed an
ordinance of secession; she has not gone out of the Union." That
did not indicate to me that General Harney's Union principles were
quite up to the standard required by the situation, and I shared
with many others a feeling of great relief when he was soon after
relieved, and Captain Nathaniel Lyons succeeded to the command of
the department. Yet I have no doubt General Harney was, from his
own point of view, thoroughly loyal to the Union, though much imbued
with the Southern doctrines which brought on secession and civil
war. His appropr