A soldier shares his thoughts on General Nathaniel Lyon

SWMODave

Sergeant Major
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Courtesy Civil War in Missouri Virtual Museum

By Private Robert Morris Peck

In the latter part of August, we received news of the battle of Wilson’s Creek, near Springfield, MO, and death of Gen Lyon.

As many of our soldiers have served under Lyon when he was a Captain in the 2d Inf., a few months before, while he was commanding officer at Fort Riley, Kan, the account for his death had a special interest to us.

Lyon has been greatly overrated and over-praised. Soldiers and officers who served with him for years before the war never detected the slightest indication of any of these brilliant qualities that was historians have discovered in him since his death. If he possessed such admirable traits and such a lovable personality as they attribute to him, it is strange tat those who were intimately associated with him in the Regular Army during many yeas of service did not find it out. But, on the contrary, they found him to be a crank, who exhibited many characteristics that were not exemplary in an officer, and which estranged his fellow officers from him, and made the soldiers dislike him very much.

He used to go about Fort Riley, when he was I command there, always slovenly and slouchy in appearance, sour, morose, misanthropic in his manner, and exhibited, when opportunity presented, a cold, unfeeling cruelty, a love if inflicting torture, and an enjoyment of such amusements that I would scarcely be believed by those who have known him for only as the heroic martyr of Wilson’s Creek.

He used to have a riding pony that he called “Corporal”. As an amusement he would take “Corporal” into his back yard at Riley and whip him with a buggy-whip by the hour, trying to make him perform “circus tricks”.

He delighted in testing his soldiers’ capacity for enduring punishment, and it was a proverb with him that a man was not fit for a soldier till he had been “punished properly”.

One day an old soldier came along who offered to reenlist in Lyon’s company. Among the questions put to him by the Captain was, “Have you ever been punished?” Which the soldier answered “Yes sir’ I have sometimes been punished.” “Well, you haven’t been punished properly.” Than calling to his Sergeant, “Sergeant, swing the rascal up by the thumbs till I see how he can stand it.”

And after keeping the poor fellow hung up so that his toes would just touch the ground till he was satisfied of the man;s ability to stand punishment, he let him down and signified his willingness to enlist him: but the fellow while swinging by the thumbs had concluded Lyon was not the kind of a Captain he wished to serve under, and wisely went to another company.

Starving Soldiers

While he was in command of Fort Riley, Capt Lyon put two soldiers in the cells, for some offense, and had them fed insufficiently on bread and water, nothing else, until they were so far gone that on being taken to the hospital they died.

As there seemed to be no officer in the garrison who cared, or took interest enough in the matter, to report him to higher authority for this act of cruel tyranny, a plucky woman, Mrs Jennie McIntyre, the wife of Lieut James B McIntyre, of our regiment (McIntyre himself being absent), sent a report of the affair to the Secretary of War, preferring charges against Capt Lyon for causing the two soldiers deaths.

This occurred in the Spring of ‘61.

The Secretary ordered a court of inquiry, but before it was convened Lyon had been ordered to Missouri, given an important command, and was rendering such good service against the rebels that the charges were squelched and nothing more was heard of the matter.

He was fond of propounding conundrums of absurd questions to sentinels on post when he was acting as Officer of the Day, to see, as he said, if they were prepared for emergencies, and many amusing tales were current among the men as examples of his eccentricities.

He met a sentry, once when he was Officer of the Day, who was a match for him. The Captain, after making the usual demand, “What are your orders on this post?” and receiving the stereotyped answer from the sentinel, thought to confound the man by some of his cranky questions, when the following colloquy is said to have taken place”

A Ready Sentry

Capt Lyon- “Soldier, suppose you should see steamboat, coming across the prairie, approaching your post; what would you do?”

Sentry- “I’d halt her, sir.”

Captain- “And then what?”

Sentry- “I’d call the Sergeant of the Guard.”

Captain- “And then what?”

Sentry- “I’d have the Sergeant take my place and walk post for me while I’d go aboard and get a drink of whisky.”

Captain- “And then?”

Sentry- “I’d take another drink.”

Captain- “And then?”

Sentry- “I’d ask the bartender the time o’ day, and by that time, I’d be dry enough for another drink of whisky.”

Captain- “And then?”

Sentry- “Well, after a few more drinks I’d have a matinee with the bartender, assisted by teh Captain, Clerk, Mate, cook, and deck hands, in which I’d get beautifully licked.”

Captain- “And then?”

Sentry- “I’d be lugged off to the guard house.”

Captain- “And then?”

Sentry - “Court martial, ball and chain, hard labor, pay stopped and punishment world without end.”

Captain- “Right you re sir. I see you would be prepared for such an emergency.”

The forgoing incidents will show of what queer materials heroes are manufactured in war times, assisted by accidentally favorable circumstances and gushing newspaper correspondents. From the newspapers, unmerited praise is often accepted as authentic history by the public when the are anxious for a hero to worship.

When the news of the death of Lyon reached us it was interesting to notice, among the comments of the soldiers who have served under him, that the almost invariable verdict was”Well, the old son of a gun is ‘punished properly’ at last.”

Our post here, as before stated, has been named Fort Wise, of Virginia, in honor of Governor Wise, of Virginia, but now, as he had gone over to the rebels, the name was changed to Fort Lyon, in honor of the hero of Wilson’s Creek.

(published National Tribune Aug 29, 1901 Page 1 column 1)

Author left the 1st US Cavalry in late 1861 after serving 4 years with the US 1st Cavalry. He wrote a series of articles in 1901 for National Tribune that covered his military experiences. It is from this series the above on General Lyon was from.

His next two years were spent hunting buffalo and wolves, which he wrote a book about “The Wolf Hunters: A Story of the Buffalo Plains” which can be read free online at https://books.google.com/books?id=HgUoAAAAMAAJ

Other works include “Recollections of Early Times in Kansas Territory: From the Standpoint of a Regular Cavalryman.” Kansas Historical Collection, 1903-1904 8 (1904): 484-507. Peck was private in the First U.S. Cavalry assigned to Fort Leavenworth in 1857.




 
I must say that this soldier's opinion just reinforces my own opinion of Lyon. My opinion of Lyon was formed by reading accounts of things he did in the St. Louis area and around my home town of Boonville, Missouri in the spring of 1861. I think he was rash, arrogant, and a martinet. I think he had a wildly overblown sense of entitlement. I believe he overstepped his authorization. I don't believe that many of his soldiers actually liked him or wanted to serve with him, although some of them might have begrudgingly given him some respect as an officer. He was lionized by the St. Louis newspapers after the first battle of Boonville. Literally, they cartooned a lion's body with Lyon's head on it. As for me, I think he was one of the ultimate jerks of the entire war. I already know of a few members who will jump in and try to "correct" my thinking about Lyon. They won't succeed.
 
Everything I had read about Lyon talked about how odd and peculiar he was. Not many thought he was normal acting at all. Lyon's views on many subjects was weird to say the least. His appearance was always shabby and disheveled. He did not inspire his men by example. he was massively opinionated, and he was intolerant of other people's views. Lyon was never afraid to speak his mind and it earned him a reputation among military and political leaders. "He was intolerant of opposition, unmindful of the many obligatory courtesies of life, easily aroused to a degree of anger, that was almost insane in it's manifestations." Lyon possessed a violent, hair trigger temper that got him a court-marshal for violently and brutally beating and torturing an unruly enlisted man. He would voice his opinions and get his ideas published in Kansas newspaper mostly about his opposition certain politics and his views on slavery, which he called a scourge and curse of humanity. Some of the information is from the following article on Lyon.

http://www.ozarkscivilwar.org/archives/1800
 
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