Nathaniel Lyon (July 14, 1818 – August 10, 1861) was the first Union general to be killed in the American Civil War and is noted for his actions in the state of Missouri at the beginning of the conflict.
Lyon is a controversial figure in American history. Some credit his quick action and hard line Unionism for stopping the Missouri secession movement. Others question his influence peddling and his role in events such as the Camp Jackson Affair, which inflamed many Missourians on the secession issue (See Missouri secession.)
Read more about Nathaniel Lyon: Early Life and Career, St. Louis Arsenal, Pursuit of Jackson, Battle of Wilson's Creek, Fate of Lyon's Remains, Legacy, Namesakes and Honors
Famous quotes containing the words nathaniel and/or lyon:
“There is the grand truth about Nathaniel Hawthorne. He says NO! in thunder; but the Devil himself cannot make him say yes. For all men who say yes, lie; and all men who say no,—why, they are in the happy condition of judicious, unincumbered travellers in Europe; they cross the frontiers into Eternity with nothing but a carpet-bag,—that is to say, the Ego. Whereas those yes-gentry, they travel with heaps of baggage, and, damn them! they will never get through the Custom House.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“... no other railroad station in the world manages so mysteriously to cloak with compassion the anguish of departure and the dubious ecstasies of return and arrival. Any waiting room in the world is filled with all this, and I have sat in many of them and accepted it, and I know from deliberate acquaintance that the whole human experience is more bearable at the Gare de Lyon in Paris than anywhere else.”
—M.F.K. Fisher (1908–1992)