Veteran of the Seminole and Mexican-American Wars (1818-1861) who 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. ALS signed “N. Lyon, 1st Lt. 2d Inf'y,” one page, 8.25 x 10.25, December 31, 1847. Handwritten letter to Col. Gen. George Bomford, Chief of Ordnance at Washington, from Tacubaya, Mexico, during the Mexican-American War. In full: "I herewith enclose a Return of Ordnance & Ordnance Stores pertaining to Company 'D' 2nd Infantry for the 4th quarter of 1847." In fine condition.
The 2nd US Infantry traveled to Mexico in the summer of 1846 for service in the Mexican-American War. By the end of 1847, the regiment was in Tacubaya, a southwestern part of Mexico City, from where Lyon prepared this quarterly report of ordnance for his company. At the beginning of the Civil War, Lyon was in St. Louis, where he took command of the federal arsenal and kept the weapons there from falling into Confederate hands by sending many of them to Illinois and arming Unionist militia. He pursued Missouri governor Claiborne F. Jackson and southern-sympathizing Missourians to Springfield, Missouri. On August 10, at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, Lyon became the first general to die in the Civil War and an immediate martyr in the Union cause.
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