I believe, was never questioned; and now, when in the natural course of things I shall, before the lapse of many years, lay aside the sword which has so long served my country, my countrymen will be slow to believe that I have chosen this portion of my career to damn with treason my life, which is so soon to become a record of the past, and which I shall most willingly leave to the unbiased judgment of posterity. I trust that I may yet be spared to do my country some further service that will testify to the love I bear her, and that the vigor of my arm may never relax while there is a blow to be struck in her defense. I respectfully ask to be assigned to the command of the Department of California, and I doubt not the present commander of the Division is even now anxious to serve on the Atlantic frontier. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, WM. S. HARNEY, Brigadier-General, U. S. Army. He started for Washington, but the train on which he was going was captured at Harper's Ferry by a Secession force, and he was taken a prisoner to Richmond, where the authorities immediately ordered his release. The Government made no further use of him; he was retired in 1863 as a Brigadier-General. At the conclusion of the struggle, in which he took no further part, he was brevetted a Major-General, and died in the fullness of years May 9,1889, at his home at Pass Christian, Miss. Once more Gen. Lyon was in the saddle, this time for good, with Frank Blair and the Radicals massed behind him. 103 CHAPTER VI. THE LAST WORD BEFORE THE BLOW Brig.-Gen. Nathaniel Lyon was now in full command, not only of the City of St. Louis and the State of Missouri, but of all the vast territory lying between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains, except Texas, New Mexico, and Utah.