Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 1.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[168] those of which Missouri was then the theatre sufficed to secure to the Federals the possession of a territory as large as five or six French departments. On the 29th of May, Lyon was appointed to the command of the Federal troops in place of General Harney, who was relieved for having concluded the treaty of neutrality with Sterling Price. The State of Missouri was thenceforth irrevocably divided between the Unionists and their enemies. Governor Jackson, a partisan of the latter, relied upon the legislature and on Price, who commanded the rebel militia. The State convention, on the contrary, had pronounced in favor of the Union, and it was in consequence of its decrees that the volunteers loyal to the Union flocked to the encampments established by Lyon. On the 12th of June, Jackson and his legislature, which had assembled at Jefferson City, on the Missouri, the official capital of the State, issued a real declaration of war against the Federal authorities and all those who recognized their power. Lyon determined to answer this provocation by driving them out of the city, and thus clearing the whole course of the Missouri. A detachment sent by him as far as Gasconade River having made his opponents believe that he was following the railway line, they prepared to receive him on that side, and destroyed all the bridges in order to stop his progress. But instead of taking that route, Lyon embarked, with two thousand men and all the necessary materiel for a long campaign, on board two large steamers plying between St. Louis and New Orleans. He thus inaugurated a method of waging war which was much in vogue during the subsequent campaigns. Price and Jackson, surprised by this unexpected movement, abandon Jefferson City, where the Federals arrive on the 15th of June, and retire to Booneville, situated sixty kilometres higher up on the Missouri. Lyon pursues them on board his vessels, reaches the positions occupied by the enemy on the 18th, lands his soldiers, and vigorously leads them to the attack; after a short engagement he throws the rebel troops into confusion and disperses them. The losses at the battle of Booneville were insignificant on both sides, but the Confederates, being utterly disorganized, were obliged to retreat southward into the interior of the State of Missouri, leaving Lyon in possession of both sides of the river.