Blair immediately began lobbying Washington for Bell’s removal, but the Buchanan administration would not comply. Finally, Blair was able to bypass the administration and persuade General-in-Chief Winfield Scott to replace Bell with Major Peter V. Hagner. Hagner was an old-line Regular Army officer and was not predisposed to surrender the arsenal to either side without proper military orders from Washington. While not exactly a victory for Blair, the appointment of Hagner at least prevented Bell from turning the arsenal over to the Minutemen.

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Blair was not completely satisfied; he still coveted the arms in the arsenal for his Wide-Awakes, not all of whom were armed yet. He also wished to deny the arms to the Minutemen, and to both these ends he began lobbying both Buchanan and General William S. Harney, the military commander of the district, to assign Nathaniel Lyon as arsenal commander. What had prompted Blair and Lyon to take this course of action was the firm refusal of Hagner to release any arms to the Wide-Awakes without explicit orders from Washington.

Once again Blair and Lyon appealed to Scott, who responded by ordering 200 men from Jefferson Barracks to garrison the arsenal. The general showed further support by sending an additional 500 men to the arsenal garrison a few days later. Scott, however, did not give Hagner direct orders to release any of the arms, and the major remained steadfast. Lyon grew increasingly exasperated with Hagner and wrote Blair that Hagner’s stance was “either…imbecility or damned villainy.” Lyon vowed, if necessary, to “pitch him in the river.” After Lincoln took office on March 4, Blair had his brother Montgomery, now postmaster general, use his powerful influence to persuade the president to appoint Lyon commander of the arsenal. Lincoln did so promptly, and Lyon set about fortifying the arsenal and the city by placing artillery on the surrounding heights and approaches to the area.

While Blair and Lyon went through their machinations, Frost, Jackson, Price and other Minutemen were not idle. Frost deemed it inexpedient to interfere forcibly during Bell’s and Hagner’s tenure, hoping the Unionists would fail in their attempts to place Lyon in command. After Lyon secured the arsenal and emplaced artillery, however, Frost wrote Jackson with a plan of action. He advocated dispatching emissaries to Alabama to lobby the Confederate government for mortars and siege guns. At the same time, he asked Jackson to order him to establish a militia camp at St. Louis, with full authority to begin military instruction and recruit more men into state service. Frost also wanted permission to begin placing artillery and building fortifications of his own, and he advised Jackson to convene an extra session of the legislature as soon as possible for the purpose of again addressing the question of secession.

Jackson moved with admirable swiftness. He sent Basil Duke and Colton Greene to Montgomery to ask the Confederate authorities for the mortars and siege guns necessary to reduce Lyon’s fortifications and immediately authorized Frost to form a camp at St. Louis and begin to recruit and train men for state service. Then Jackson called a special session of the General Assembly and ordered the state militia commanders of the various districts within the state to go into camp by May 3 and await further instructions.

Before Duke and Greene left for Montgomery, a meeting was held in St. Louis at the O’Fallon residence on Fifth Street. Attending were Frost, Duke, Greene and Lt. Col. John S. Bowen, a wealthy merchant and militiaman from the town of Carondelet, just south of the city. At the meeting, Frost gave Duke and Greene a list of the exact types of artillery and arms needed from Montgomery. Bowen proposed that the camp ordered by Jackson be positioned just south of the arsenal on the banks of the Mississippi River, where he suggested that Frost emplace his artillery while pretending to instruct the militia in the art of building field fortifications.

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