- James Peckham, Union Lieutenant Colonel 8 th and 11 th Missouri Volunteer Infantry Regiments, Colonel 29 th Missouri Infantry Regiment, Missouri State Representative - Gen. Nathaniel Lyon and Missouri in 1861: a Monograph of the Great Rebellion by Peckham, James, New York: American News Company. Very Good. 1866. First Edition. Spine top and rear endpaper worn, corners bumped; rare first edition, the first account of the civil war in Missouri and a biography of the commanding officer authored by his subordinate, inscribed by author, green cloth, 447 pp. Biography of General Nathaniel Lyon, the first Union general killed during the Civil War. Lyon was stationed in Missouri and died August 10, 1861, at the Battle of Wilson's Creek. The author, James Peckham, was a member of the Missouri Legislature before the Civil War and was a strident Unionist when the state was debating to secede or not. He left the legislature and organized the 8th MO Regiment. Peckham served as the 8th MO Regiment’s Lt. Col. and led the regiment at Shiloh and Pittsburg Landing, TN, and at Jackson, MS. He later went on to lead the 29th MO. After the war he published a book on the history of the war in Missouri and General Nathaniel Lyon. He passed away in 1869 and is buried at Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, MO. In 1861 the Missouri legislature was faced with the dilemma of how to handle Southern secession and the Northern reaction. James Peckham was a member of the Missouri Legislature when George G. Vest introduced a resolution in the house in the nature of a reply to resolutions adopted by the legislatures of New York and other Northern States tendering men and money to the President for the purpose of coercing the seceding States. Vest's resolution said: "We regard with the utmost abhorrence the doctrine of coercion as indicated by the action of the States aforesaid, believing, that the same would end in civil war and forever destroy the hope of reconstructing the Federal Union. So believing, we deem it our duty to declare that if there is any invasion of the slaveholding States for the purpose of carrying such doctrine into effect, it is the opinion of this general assembly that the people of Missouri will constantly rally on the side of their Southern brethren to resist the invader at all hazards and to the last extremity." The resolution was supported by Geo. G. Vest, Thomas A. Harris and J. F. Cunningham in impassioned speeches, and opposed by Geo. Partridge and James Peckham, Unconditional Union men, with equal fervor. It was adopted in the house by a vote of 89 to 14, and in the senate with only one dissenting vote. The Secessionists were jubilant, for they considered that the State was solemnly pledged, as far as the legislature could pledge it, to resist coercion and stand with the South to the last extremity. After this resolution, a Convention was called, in hopes of declaring secession. However, the voters of Missouri chose anti-secession delegates. Missouri wound up with two state governments in 1861 - an elected pro-slavery state government (Governor Jackson) which seceded from the Union, and a pro-slavery government (Governor Humble) which was imposed on the state by the Federal Government under martial law. It was in this atmosphere that James Peckham decided to join the 8th Missouri.