In 1859, William Bent again found the military at his doorstep as the army sought to defend emigrants and gold seekers in Colorado. Tens of thousands of people came seeking gold and demanded protection along the Santa Fe Trail against thieves and the perceived threat of Indians defending their homelands. The army saw advantages in a position near Bent's New Fort, which overlooked the Arkansas River and had plentiful water, forage, and timber. Still resentful after the occupation of his first fort in 1846, Bent negotiated a lease with Major John Sedgwick in 1860 for the army to use Bent's New Fort as a quartermaster and commissary depot. At the same time, the army built a stone, timber, and adobe post just downhill called Fort Wise, later Fort Lyon. The army regarded Bent as a squatter at Bent's New Fort and ignored his request for rent, so he moved to his ranch 20 miles up the river and continued trading along the Santa Fe Trail. He pressed his claim for lease payments until his death in May 1869. Fort Wise, built in 1860, was named for Virginia Governor Henry A. Wise, and in 1862 it was renamed Fort Lyon for Nathaniel Lyon, the first Union general killed in the Civil War.