“It was with no slight misgivings that I turned the _Emilie_ downstream and started in the direction of Boonville. I knew that there was trouble in store for me. When I approached the Federal lines a volley was fired at the boat, apparently with the definite purpose of hitting her. I promptly rounded to and the firing ceased. A young Lieutenant by the name of White came on board with a guard of a dozen men to arrest me. I had known White in St. Louis as a commission clerk, a young man of no account, but who, having now some authority, felt disposed, like all inferior men, to exercise it with a severity in inverse proportion to his ability. He doubtless thought it a great feather in his cap to have as prisoner a man who would scarcely have deigned to notice him in any other situation. He was insolent and arbitrary, and lunging his sword toward me, would order me to walk faster. I was taken to General Lyon’s quarters, and when in that officer’s presence, he said to me: ‘You are in a very bad scrape here, sir.’ I took Price’s letter from my pocket and handed it to him, saying, ‘General, please read that; it may help to straighten matters out.’ He read the letter, but pretended not to think much of it. After hemming and hawing over the matter for a while he said: ‘Do you know anyone here who can tell me who you are?’ He knew very well who I was, for he had been with Harney in the Sioux War of 1854–55 and we had met then. I asked him to name the members of his staff, and I could tell. He finally mentioned Frank Blair. I said with some irony, ‘I know Frank Blair very well, and I think _he_ knows me.’ We then walked up to Blair’s quarters. He shook hands cordially and said, ‘I understand that you are in a bad fix here.’ ‘It looks like it,’ I replied. ‘Rather be at home than here, I presume,’ he continued jokingly. ‘Much rather,’ I replied. Lyon showed Blair Price’s letter. They consulted together for a little while and Lyon then said to me, ‘You can take possession of your steamboat and go home.’ I found the boat in Lyon’s fleet where it had been taken, and all of her provisions confiscated. I was not long in getting up steam, and left the inhospitable region with the utmost expedition. “I did not like Lyon. He was a Yankee, and his disposition seemed to be to crush everyone who did not think as he did. His language and bearing toward me were so insolent and exasperating that they left a lasting rancor in my mind.[46] “This affair cost me about five thousand dollars, although I was partially reimbursed for the stores taken. I did not go up the river again that season, being too much vexed and disgusted with my late experience. I sent the boat up under charge of a man of the name of Nick Wall, who ran her until my government contracts were completed.”