the protection of the arsenal, the order went forth for the assembling of the State troops in their camps of instruction.  On Monday, the 6th of May, the First Brigade of Missouri militia, under Gen. D.M.  Frost, was ordered by Gov.  Jackson into camp at St. Louis, avowedly for purposes of drill and exercise.  At the same time encampments were formed, by order of the governor, in other parts of the State.  The governor’s adherents in St. Louis intimated that the time for taking the arsenal had arrived, and the indiscreet young men who made up the First Brigade openly declared that they only awaited an order from Gov.  Jackson—­an order which they evidently had been led to expect—­to attack the arsenal and possess it, in spite of the feeble opposition they calculated to meet from ‘the Dutch’ Home Guards enlisted to defend it.  A few days previously, an agent of the governor had purchased at St. Louis several hundred kegs of gun-powder, and succeeded, by an adroit stratagem, in shipping it to Jefferson City.  The encampment at St. Louis, ’Camp Jackson,’ so called from the governor, was laid off by streets, to which were assigned the names ‘Rue de Beauregard,’ and others similarly significant; and when among the visitors whom curiosity soon began to bring to the camp a ‘Black Republican’ was discovered by the soldiers,—­and this epithet was applied to all unconditional Unionists,—­he was treated with unmistakable coldness, if not positive insult.  If additional proof of the hostile designs entertained against the federal authority by this camp were needed, it was furnished on Thursday, the 9th, by the reception within the camp of several pieces of cannon, and several hundred stand of small arms, taken from the federal arsenal at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which was then in the possession of the rebels.  These arms were brought to St. Louis by the steamboat J.C.  Swon, the military authorities at Cairo having been deceived by the packages, which were represented to contain marble slabs.  On the arrival of the Swon at the St. Louis levee, the arms were taken from her, sent to Camp Jackson, and received there with demonstrations of triumph.

When Capt.  Lyon was entrusted with full command at St. Louis, President Lincoln had named, in his orders to him, a commission of six loyal and discreet citizens with whom he should consult in matters pertaining to the public safety, and with whose counsel he might declare martial law.  These citizens were John How, Samuel T. Glover, O.D.  Filley, Jean J. Witsig, James O. Broadhead, and Col.  Frank P. Blair.  The last mentioned—­Colonel Blair—­was Capt.  Lyon’s confidential and constant companion.  They were comrades in arms, and a unit in counsel.  Their views were in full accord as to the necessity of immediately reducing Camp Jackson.  Defiance was daily passing between the marshalling hosts, not face to face, but through dubious partisans who passed from camp to camp, flitting like the bats