Connecticut man is first U.S. General killed in Civil War

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Local Hero: Eastford Man First Union General To Die In Civil War

Nathaniel Lyon Of Eastford Was 1st Union General To Die In The Fighting Between The States

By DAVID DRURY, Special to The Courant
The Hartford Courant
9:13 PM EDT, September 17, 2011

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Gen. Nathaniel Lyon died at the right time.

Raised in eastern Connecticut, the 43-year-old West Point graduate was killed while commanding the Union forces at the Battle of Wilson's Creek near Springfield, Mo., on Aug. 10, 1861.

He became the first Union general to die in the Civil War, a heroic martyr for a North still reeling from its disastrous setback in July at Bull Run.

Lyon's body, recovered several days after the battle, was brought home by train, the coffin displayed at major cities along the route where thousands of citizens paid homage.

After lying in state in the Senate Room of the Old State House in Hartford, the remains traveled by rail to Willimantic. There, a cortege of carriages formed for the final 16-mile trek to the general's hometown of Eastford, where a staggering crowd of 10,000 to 15,000, including the governors of Connecticut and Rhode Island and the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, gathered Sept. 5, 1861, for services on the green outside the Congregational Church.

It was a public catharsis.

"At the moment when the Union's expectations had been crushed — this romantic notion of taking Richmond in 30 days — the death of Lyon provided an antidote for the shame, a ready-made hero who took the sting out of Bull Run,'' said Connecticut State Historian Walter Woodward, who recently published an account of the Lyon funeral.

In 1862, Lyon was the subject of a laudatory biography, and his sacrifice was noted in Stephen Foster's patriotic song, "Better Times Are Coming." But as the war dragged on, and the carnage mounted, the national profile of the man dubbed "The Savior of Missouri" began to fade.

Today, Nathaniel Lyon's name remains largely unknown — even in Connecticut — outside of his hometown of Eastford, where he is buried beneath the obelisk that dominates the small General Lyon Cemetery on General Lyon Road.

"We have the General Lyon Inn, which is now apartments, in the center of town. There is the General Lyon Road, the General Lyon birthplace. It's the Lyon cemetery. He's the big local hero," said Kathy Healey, chairwoman of the Eastford Historical Society.

A Soldier's Life

On the last night of his life, Nathaniel Lyon was bedding down in a rocky hollow, catching a few hours of sleep before the next day's battle. A subordinate asked him how he was feeling. "I'm quite all right,'' the general replied. "Back in Connecticut, where I come from, I was born and bred among rocks."

Lyon was born July 14, 1818, on a family farm in the rocky hills near the Natchaug River in what was then part of the town of Ashford. His parents, Amasa Lyon and Kezia Knowlton Lyon, were children of Revolutionary War veterans. His mother's uncle, Thomas Knowlton, whose statue stands outside the state Capitol, was one of Connecticut's greatest heroes of the War of Independence.

After attending local schools, Lyon secured an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy. The discipline of military life suited him. He graduated in June 1841, 11th in a class of 53, then began what proved a lifelong career in the U.S. Army, one characterized by bravura success and tempestuous, often self-inflicted controversy.

Postings in Florida and upstate New York were followed by service in the Mexican War, and Lyon saw extensive action in the campaign to capture Mexico City, where he was wounded and decorated for bravery.

Following that war, he was posted to California and led a bloody, punitive expedition against American Indians in the region of Clear Lake. An attack on native villages became a massacre, killing 200 and 400, mostly women and children.

A tough, aggressive officer, short of stature with fiery red hair and a volcanic temper, Lyon was at his best whenever decisive action was warranted. At other times, his quarrelsome bent, short fuse and intolerance provoked antagonism and run-ins with his superiors. A harsh disciplinarian and exacting drill master, he had acquired a reputation as "the most tyrannical officer in the Army,'' according to his most recent biographer, Christopher Phillips.

Lyon hated slavery, and his views toward slaveholders and the society they represented hardened during his service in "Bleeding Kansas" during the 1850s. By February 1861, then Capt. Lyon was fully prepared to take on the secessionists when he left Fort Leavenworth, Kan., with eight companies of infantry to buttress the defenses of the important federal arsenal in St. Louis.

"I shall not hesitate to rejoice at the triumph of my principles, though this triumph may involve an issue in which I certainly expect to expose and very likely lose my life. We shall rejoice, though in martyrdom, if need be,'' Lyon wrote on the eve of his departure.

The attack on Fort Sumter, April 12, 1861, touched off a political powder keg in Missouri, a critical border state that the Lincoln administration was determined to keep from falling into the hands of the Confederacy.

Although a slaveholding state, Missouri was sharply divided between pro-Union and pro-Confederate sympathizers. A state convention in March 1861 had voted to reject secession, a decision the governor, Claiborne Fox Jackson, was determined to reverse. Jackson publicly rejected Lincoln's post-Sumter appeal for Missouri volunteers to put down the Southern rebellion. Instead, he ordered out the state militia and began plotting in secret with Confederate President Jefferson Davis to seize the St. Louis Arsenal.

Lyon thwarted the governor's designs. Working behind the back of the arsenal's commander, a man he mistrusted, Lyon formed an alliance with a local power broker, Republican Congressman Frank Blair, the brother of Lincoln's postmaster general. Together, they enrolled and began training thousands of local volunteers for the arsenal's defense. Lyon then succeeded in smuggling the bulk of stores across the Mississippi River to Illinois, keeping enough guns and ammunition to arm 10,000 loyalists.

He was elected brigadier general of the state volunteers and promoted by the War Department to command its Western Military Department.

Immediately, be began formulating plans to put down the growing encampment of the state militia, sympathetic to the Southern cause, which had formed in St. Louis. After personally scouting the camp, while riding in a carriage disguised as a woman, Lyon led a force of Army regulars, volunteers and federalized Union Guards and compelled its surrender. As his prisoners were being marched through the city streets, a riot erupted. Four soldiers and dozens of citizens died in the chaos.

The violent outbreak severely dampened chances of reaching a peaceful solution to the crisis. Talks between Gov. Jackson, his State Guard commander, Lyon and Union officials collapsed, and by the end of May the state was engulfed in its own civil war.

Throughout June and July 1861, Lyon's forces won a series of small victories and succeeded in pushing the pro-secession militia forces to the west and southwest. There, the militia was reinforced by Confederate troops from neighboring Arkansas and Louisiana. His 7,000-man force was now outnumbered nearly 2-to-1, but Lyon decided to attack, launching a two-pronged assault along Wilson's Creek at dawn on Aug. 10.

The battle raged for several hours, see-sawing back and forth. At its center, on a rise that would be known as Bloody Hill, flowed a series of attacks and counter-attacks. Late in the morning, already wounded in the leg and the side of his head, Lyon saw a gap forming in the enemy's line and ordered another advance, Climbing upon an orderly's horse, waving his hat in his right hand, he turned to yell to his men: "Come on, my brave boys. I will lead you! Forward!"

Shot through the chest, he died moments later.

The fighting lasted another hour. Following another failed assault, the Confederates fell back to regroup, giving the outgunned Union forces time to retreat. The Union lost 1,317 troops killed, wounded and missing in the six-hour battle; Southern losses were 1,222. The first phase in what would ultimately prove a successful campaign to keep Missouri in the Union had ended.

Martyr To The Cause

The funeral cortege arrived in Eastford shortly after sunset, Sept. 4, 1861.

A military honor guard from Missouri, the Hartford City Guards and the Colt Firearms Brass Band accompanied the plumed hearse drawn by four black horses. The throng of mourners followed in its wake.

Lyon's body lay overnight in the Congregational Church. At 10 a.m. the following day, thousands gathered outside for the service, which included an hourlong eulogy by U.S. House Speaker Galusha A. Grow, a Pennsylvania congressman and Eastford native.

"It was a great day and will long be remembered,'' wrote local resident Laura Adams in a letter three days later to her son George, who was serving in the Army.

"The corpse was not seen, but thousands passed through the church to see the coffin which was draped in our National Colors, and covered with wreaths of evergreens and flowers. His cap and sword were also laid on the coffin and one of the guard stood at the head with his picture so that all might see how he look [sic] in health.

"The people made a great effort to accommodate the guests and things were done up in good shape. We had about thirty to tea and some friends stopped over night."

Lyon's reputation peaked in 1862 when his first biographer, Ashbel Woodward, tellingly compared his accomplishments in Missouri with the ignominious performance that spring of McClellan's army outside of Richmond.

"Our victories in Missouri, aside from local importance, were of great moral value in relieving the depression consequent on the unfortunate issue of our efforts elsewhere," Woodward wrote.

Recent historians are divided over Lyon's legacy. In his review of Phillips' 1990 biography, James M. McPherson wrote that "Lyon's strategy of vigorous pursuit and aggressive offense, as subsequent Civil War experience proved, was precisely the strategy necessary to win the war." The review took issue with some of the biographer's conclusions. No fan of Lyon, Phillips blamed his dogmatism and fanatical personality for plunging Missouri into a four-year hell, a civil war within the Civil War, in which notorious cutthroats like William Quantrill, "Bloody Bill'' Anderson and James Lane terrorized the countryside. "And more than any other single individual, Nathaniel Lyon bore responsibility for this fratricidal tragedy,'' Phillips wrote.

Lyon's fame within Connecticut persisted for several decades. A prominent Grand Army of the Republic post was named after him, and in 1907 the Connecticut General Assembly appropriated $500 to help maintain and improve the small family cemetery where he was buried.

A re-enactment of Lyon's lying in state at the Old State House is being planned as one of the several activities on Sept. 17 to mark the 125th anniversary of the dedication of the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch in Bushnell Park.


http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-civil-war-general-lyon-0828-20110827,0,2101588.story
 
First Confederate Casualty of the Civil War : Private Henry Lawson Wyatt Company A 1st North Carolina Infantry ( later to become the 11th Infantry and forever be known as the " Bethel Regiment " Killed at Big Bethel Virginia. The fight at Big Bethel June 10,1861, is considered by some to be the first major land battle of the war as opposed to 1st Bull Run or Manassas.
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Headstone for Pvt. Henry Lawson Wyatt.jpg
First Confederate Casualty HENRY LAWSON WYATT.jpg
 
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