First Response

With the fire still blazing and the city in havoc, Common Council President Charles C. P. Holden assembles what city leaders he can in the safety of the First Congregational Church in the West Division’s tenth ward, which he represents.  Mayor Roswell B. Mason arrives and soon issues a proclamation outlining numerous emergency measures.  Other notices suspend the sale of alcohol and instruct the homeless that shelter can be found in schools and churches.  General Philip Sheridan, who commands the United States Army Division of the Missouri from headquarters in Chicago, requisitions troops and supplies from posts in Nebraska, Missouri, and Indiana.