Ardent secessionists in western Missouri again eyed the Liberty Arsenal. A large company of Clay County militia led by Colonel Henry Lewis Routt and a Jackson County militia company captained by John H. McMurray of Independence, about 200 men in all, forced their way into the arsenal on April 20, 1861. The depot's caretaker, Major Nathaniel Grant, with only two employees, could do nothing but protest the forcible takeover. The event has sometimes been called the "Missouri Fort Sumter." This left the St. Louis Arsenal as the only other Federal military arsenal in the entire state.