Upon graduation he had been assigned to the 2d U. S., and sent to get his first lessons in actual war fighting the Florida Indians. There his superiors found occasion to remark that his zeal sometimes outran his discretion--not an infrequent fault of earnest young men. He had distinguished himself and received a brevet in the Mexican War for gallantry at Contreras and Churubusco, and had then been sent to California. With a slender force he was charged with the duty of keeping a long frontier in order against turbulent Indians. He accomplished this by making the Indians more afraid of him than the whites could possibly be of them. No quick retreat, no impregnable fastness, could shelter them from his inexorable pursuit. On one occasion he carried boats on wagons over a mountain range to cross a river and strike an Indian lair where the marauders were resting in the fullest sense of security. His company had next been transferred to Kansas in the midst of the political troubles there, where, while doing his official duty with strict impartiality, his sympathies were actively with the Free State settlers. 53 For 42 years he had been growing and fitting himself for a great Opportunity. For once Opportunity and the Man equal to it met. Immediately after settling his company in the Arsenal, Capt. Lyon went to the city to meet Frank P. Blair. The two strong men recognized each the other's strength, and at once came into harmonious cooperation. The fate of the Arsenal, of the City of St. Louis, and of the State of Missouri, was settled. Before Capt. Lyon arrived, the Committee of Safety had had an alarm about the Arsenal, and rallied a strong force of their Home Guards in waiting to go to the assistance of Capt. Sweeny and his 40 men, should the Minute Men attack him. But the Secessionist leaders had such confidence in Maj. Hagner that they dissuaded the impatient Basil Duke, Colton Greene, Brock Champion and other eager young Captains from making the attack. Capt. Lyon was soon reinforced. Lieut. Warren L. Lothrop, of the 4th U. S. Art., a Maine man, who had risen from the ranks, came in with 40 men. He was afterwards to succeed Frank P. Blair, jr., as Colonel of the 1st Mo. Light Art. Next came Capt. Rufus Saxton, also of the 4th Art., a Massachusetts man, later to rise to brevet Major-General of Volunteers, and to play an important part in caring for the freedmen of the South Carolina coast. 54