As soon as Lyon reached Springfield he again sent off a courier to Fremont at St. Louis asking for reinforcements. Hon. John S. Phelps, who had started for Washington City to attend the extra session of Congress convened by President Lincoln, had stopped in St. Louis, called upon Gen. Fremont, and urged him to help Lyon and the Union people of Southwest Missouri with men and supplies, both of which were at St. Louis in abundance.[2] But Fremont stated that he did not believe Gen. Lyon was in anything like desperate straits; that McCulloch and Price could have nothing but an inconsiderable force, since the country in Southwestern Missouri was too poor to support a force of any formidable strength; that in his opinion Lyon could take care of himself; and finally that he had no troops to spare him anyhow, as he had received information through Gov. Morton, of Indiana, that a large Confederate force and flotilla of gunboats, under command of Gen. Pillow, were coming up the Mississippi to attack Cairo, Bird’s Point, and if successful in their destruction, would come on and destroy St. Louis, and that he had need of every available man to guard those threatened points. Gen. Lyon consulted with his officers and with the prominent Union men of Springfield very freely. He knew the situation perfectly. His scouts came in every day from McCulloch’s army and gave him all needed information. He was impatient to fight the force in his front, but he anxiously desired reinforcements to enable him to have a reasonable chance of success. Every day he visited the out-posts and nearly every day sent off messages for help. Sometimes he would lose his temper and curse and swear quite violently. On one occasion he received a message from Fremont that no more troops could or would be sent for the present. Striding back and forth in his room, with the paper in his hand, he suddenly threw it on the table, and smiting his hands together cried out: “_G—d d—n General Fremont_: He is a worse enemy to me and the Union cause than Price and McCulloch and the whole d—d tribe of rebels in this part of the State!”[3] PRELIMINARIES OF THE FINAL STRUGGLE. On Monday, August 5, the day of Lyon’s arrival at Springfield, as before stated, he left a force of 2,500 strong at a point about five miles from Springfield, on the Fayetteville road. This force (comprising fully one-third of Lyon’s army), under Major Sturgis, was ordered by Gen. Lyon to be ready to move at a moment’s notice, and at about 6 o’clock on the evening of the next day the men were in ranks, the artillery horses harnessed, and everything in readiness to march back and attack the advancing enemy.