War really began in Missouri at the taking of Camp Jackson. But many hoped against hope that the fire that then began to flame might be dampened and extinguished. Eminent citizens of St. Louis besought the Governor and his chief of staff, General Price, to ask for a conference with General Lyon, that, by a frank, honest interchange of views, some basis for peace might be discovered. This these officers reluctantly consented to do. When their request was presented to General Lyon, some men, who commanded his confidence, urged him to grant it, in order that no one in the future might be able to say that he refused to consider any measure by which war might have been honorably averted. Lyon, yielding to this reasonable solicitation, agreed to participate in the proposed conference. But with him time was precious. Harney had relinquished his command of the department on May 30th, and Lyon had assumed it on the following day. Since that time he had been exceedingly busy in gathering and equipping troops. To him war in Missouri, probably fierce and protracted, was inevitable, and he was bending every energy upon the work of preparation, that he might be able to wage it successfully. He considered any suspension of his activity as intolerable. Whatever was done by way of compromise must be done without delay. So he fixed an early day for the solicited conference. He announced that if the Governor and his general, or either of them, “should visit St. Louis on, or before, the 12th of June, in order to hold an interview with him for the purpose of effecting, if possible, a pacific solution of the troubles in Missouri, they should be free from molestation or arrest during their journey to St. Louis, and their return from St. Louis to Jefferson City.” Thus assured of safe-conduct, in the afternoon of June 10th, Governor Jackson, General Price, and one of the Governor’s aides-de-camp, Thomas L. Snead, left the State capital for our city. On the following morning, June 11th, they apprised Lyon that they were at the Planters’ Hotel. In the afternoon of that day, the conference took place.[38] The fact of that vitally important meeting became generally known. All intelligent persons in the city were full of interest, not to say anxiety, in reference to the outcome. [Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL NATHANIEL LYON. [_Page 198_ ]