Nathaniel Lyon (14 July 1818 – 10 August 1861) was a Brigadier-General of the US Army during the American Civil War. Lyon commanded Union forces in Missouri early in the war, and he was killed at the Battle of Wilson's Creek in August 1861.
Biography[]
Nathaniel Lyon was born in Ashford, Connecticut in 1818, and he graduated from West Point in 1841, placing 11th in a class of 52. He served in the US Army during the Mexican-American War, distinguishing himself at the Battle of Contreras and the Battle of Churubusco, and he fought against Native Americans in California before the American Civil War broke out in 1861. Lyon was given command of the Union arsenal in St. Louis, Missouri in February 1861, and he was promoted to Brigadier-General and given command of US forces in Missouri on 17 May 1861. Lyon engaged in skirmishes with the Confederate States Army and Missouri State Guard and forced the secessionist governor Claiborne Fox Jackson to flee to Arkansas alongside his Confederate supporters. In August 1861, he engaged in a decisive battle with Confederate generals Benjamin McCulloch and Sterling Price at Wilson's Creek in southeastern Missouri, and he was shot in the heart and killed during the battle.