The dilemma into which Gen. Harney was becoming daily more involved was far more perplexing than any he had encountered in his fighting days. A question that could be settled sword in hand never had troubled him much. Alas! this could not be--not then. On the one side were the lifelong associations and habits of thought of the plain old soldier. All of his friends were Southerners and Slaveholders, as he himself was. Nearly all of the public men he knew, the officials of the State of Louisiana, which he called his home; of Missouri, which was almost equally his home, had either gone over irrevocably to Secession, or were preparing to do so. In his real home, the Army, it was almost as bad. The next Brigadier-General above him, Daniel E. Twiggs, had just surrendered all the men and property under his command to the State of Texas. The men who controlled the War Department,--Secretary Floyd, Adjutant-General Samuel Cooper, Quartermaster-General Joe E. Johnston, Assistant Adjutants-General John Withers and George Deas, had gone into the Confederate army. Robert E. Lee, Gen. Scott's prime favorite, was preparing to do so. On the other hand were the deep, ineradicable instincts of soldierly loyalty to the Flag under which he had fought for 40 years. The man who had hanged 60 men at one time in Mexico for deserting the Flag was likely to have a severe struggle before he could bring himself to do the same. He was deeply incensed at the "Black Republicans" for irritating the Southerners so that they felt compelled to secede, but did not believe that the latter should have seceded. At least, until Missouri seceded he was going to maintain, as best he could, the National authority in his Department. 59 A flashlight is thrown on his mental attitude by his reply to Lieut, (afterwards General) Schofield, when informed by him of the above-mentioned preparations for seizing the Arsenal under the cover of a riot. "A -------- outrage," he exclaimed in his usual explosive way. "Why, the State has not yet passed the Ordinance of Secession. Missouri has not gone out of the United States." The limitations placed by Gen. Harney upon Lyon's assignment to command were aggravating. Hagner commanded the buildings, the arms, ammunition, and other stores, and the strong walls surrounding the grounds. Lyon commanded merely the men. He could not draw a musket, a cannon, or a cartridge for either, not even a hammer, a spade nor an ax, without a requisition duly approved by Harney. Nor could he change a single arrangement of the grounds without Harney's approval. Lyon was almost nightly meeting with the Committee of Safety, and visiting the drill-rooms of the Home Guards, where he advised, encouraged and drilled the men. The Secessionists were extremely fearful that in some way he would manage to get the arms and ammunition, and besought Harney and Hagner to omit no precaution to prevent this.