Base Ball Challenge - The Empire Club desires friendly match for a ball, with any nine players selected from city. This challenge is open for one month. Any communications respecting the above will be directed to the Secretary of the Club.
L.P. Fuller, President
John W. Williams, Secretary E.B.B. Club
-Missouri Republican, August 13, 1861
Three days before the Empire's challenge was published in the Republican, the Battle of Wilson's Creek was fought. The first major battle of the Western Theater, the battle is remembered, at least by me, for the death of Nathaniel Lyon, who was the first Union general killed in action during the war.
I have nothing but admiration and respect for Lyon and consider him to be one of the forgotten heroes of the war. At a time when his country needed him, Lyon was forceful and resolute in the defense of the Union. Without his actions at the beginning of the war, the Union very well could have lost St. Louis and control of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. The actions of Lyons at St. Louis and Boonville and Grant at Cairo and Paducah may very well have won the Civil War in the West in the opening months of the war.
I have nothing but admiration and respect for Lyon and consider him to be one of the forgotten heroes of the war. At a time when his country needed him, Lyon was forceful and resolute in the defense of the Union. Without his actions at the beginning of the war, the Union very well could have lost St. Louis and control of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. The actions of Lyons at St. Louis and Boonville and Grant at Cairo and Paducah may very well have won the Civil War in the West in the opening months of the war.
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