CHAPTER IX. EVE OF THE BATTLE OF WILSON'S CREEK Mountainous perplexities and burdens weighed upon Gen. Lyon during the last days of July. The country was hysterical over the safety of the National Capital, and it seemed that the Administration was equally emotional. Every regiment and gun was being rushed to the heights in front of Washington, and all eyes were fixed on the line of the Potomac. The perennial adventurer in Gen. Fremont did not fail to suggest to him that the greatest of opportunities might develop in Washington, and he lingered in New York until peremptorily ordered by Gen. Scott to his command. He did not arrive in St. Louis until July 25. Like Seward, Chase, McClellan, and many other aspiring men, Fremont had little confidence that the untrained Illinois Rail Splitter in the Presidential chair would be able to keep his head above the waves in the sea of troubles the country had entered. The disaster at Bull Run was but the beginning of a series of catastrophes which would soon call for a stronger brain and a more experienced hand at the helm. Then? 148 Mrs. Jessie Benton Fremont was not the only one to suggest that the man for the hour would be found to be the first Republican candidate for President--the Great Pathfinder of the Rocky Mountains! Upon his arrival at St Louis Gen. Fremont was immediately waited upon by the faithful Chester Harding and others who had been awaiting his coming with painful anxiety. They represented most energetically Gen. Lyon's predicament, without money, clothing or rations, and with a force even more rapidly diminishing than that of the enemy was augmenting. They revealed Gen. Lyon's far-reaching plans of making Springfield a base from which to carry the war into Arkansas, and begged for men, money, arms, food; shoes and clothing for him. Fremont was too much engrossed in forming in the Brant Mansion that vice-regal court of his--the main requirement for which seemed to be inability to speak English--to feel the urgency of these importunities. The country was swarming with military adventurers from Europe, men with more or less shadow on their connection with the foreign armies, and eager to sell their swords to the highest advantage. They swarmed around Fremont like bees around a sugar barrel, much to the detriment of the honest and earnest men of foreign birth who were rallying to the support of the Union. Next to his satrapal court of exotic manners and speech, Fremont was most concerned about the safety of Cairo, Ill., a most important point, then noisily threatened by Maj.-Gen. Leonidas Polk, the militant Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Louisiana, and his subordinate, the blatant Gen. Gideon J. Pillow, of Mexican War notoriety. 149 Gen. Fremont made quite a show of reinforcing Cairo, sending a most imposing fleet of steamboats to carry the 4,000 troops sent thither.