Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 7.
Frank Moore, Ed.

[515] was in command of the troops on the border south of Little Santa Fe, including the stations at Aubrey, Coldwater Grove, (thirteen miles south of Aubrey,) Rockville, (thirteen miles south of Coldwater Grove,) Cboteau's Trading Post, (fifteen miles south of Rockville,) and Harrisonville. There were two companies at each station, but the force out patrolling rarely left fifty men in camp at each post. He received Captain Pike's message as to the gathering of Quantrell's forces on Grand River on the night of the twentieth, and at once sent for the spare troops at Rockville and Trading Post to march up to Coldwater Grove. At three o'clock on the morning of the twenty-first, he received a despatch from Captain Coleman, at Aubrey, saying that Quantrell had crossed into Kansas; and he set out with thirty men, following Quantrell's trail nearly to Gardner, and thence going south to Paola, reaching there at five P. M. With this command, and a force of perhaps fifty citizens, and a part of Captain Beuter's company of the Thirteenth Kansas infantry, which had been garrisoning Paola, he prepared to attack Quantrell at the ford of Bull Creek, three miles south of Paola, toward which he was then retreating. But Quantrell, on coming within four or five miles of that crossing, soon after dark, formed line of battle, as I stated above, broke trail, turned sharp to the north, and dodged and bewildered the force in waiting for him, as well as that in pursuit. These troops at the ford returned to Paola about the time the command which had followed Quantrell reached there. One of the parties in search of the trail found it five miles north of Paola, and reported the fact to Lieutenant-Colonel Clark, who was then ranking officer there, at between one and two o'clock. He was slow in ordering pursuit, which was not renewed until daybreak. He at that time sent Captain Coleman forward, with thirty men of the Ninth Kansas, which he himself had brought to Paola, and forty of the same regiment, which had got there from the Trading Post at about two o'clock that morning, and about seventy militia, chiefly of Linn county. He marched soon after himself with the troops which had followed Quantrell the day before.

Half an hour before Major Plumb started from Kansas City on the night of the twenty-first, Captain Palmer, eleventh Kansas, was sent by him from Westport, with fifty men of his company, down the line to near Aubrey, where he met a messenger from Captain Coleman, directing reenforcements to Spring Hill, at which point he struck Quantrell's trail and followed it to within seven miles of Lawrence. Thence learning that Quantrell had gone south, he turned south-east; and at Lanesfield (Uniontown) was joined by a force about eighty strong, tinder Major Phillips, composed of detachments of Captain Smith's Company, E. M. M., Captain Killen's Ninth Kansas, and a squad of the Fifth Kansas. This latter force had been collected by Major Thacher at Westport, and despatched from there at noon on Friday the twenty-first, via Lexington, Kansas. The command of Major Phillips, thus increased to one hundred and thirty, pushed south-east from Lanesfield, and struck Quantrell's trail about sunrise, five miles north of Paola, and but a little behind the commands of Coleman and Clark.

Major Thacher, commanding at Westport, when news arrived that Quantrell was returning by way of the Osage Valley, took the rest of the mounted troops on the upper border, (company A, Ninth, and E, Eleventh Kansas, numbering one hundred and twenty men,) and moved down the line. He struck Quantrell's trail below Aubrey, immediately in the rear of Lieutenant-Colonel Clark's command.

Quantrell, when after dark he had baffled his pursuers, stopped to rest five miles north-east of Paoli, and there, after midnight, a squad of Linn county militia, under Captain Pardee, alarmed the camp. He at once moved on, and between that point and the Kansas line his column came within gunshot of the advance of about one hundred and fifty of the Fourth M. S. M., under Lieutenant-Colonel King, which had been ordered from the country of the Little Blue, in Jackson county, down the line to interrupt him. The advance apprised Lieutenant-Colonel King of the approach of another force. Skirmishers were thrown out, but Quantrell, aided by the darkness and the broken character of the prairie, eluded the force and passed on. Lieutenant-Colonel King was unable to find his trail that night.

The pursuing forces thus thrown behind, Quantrell passed out of Kansas and got to the timber of the middle fork of Grand River in Missouri, near his last rendezvous, before starting, about noon of the twenty-second, an hour in advance of the head of the pursuing column. There his force scattered. Many dismounted, or, worn out through fatigue or wounds, sought concealment and safety in the fastnesses of that region. About one hundred moved down Grand River, while the chief part of the force passed north-east toward Chapel Hill. Our forces divided in like manner at that point, Major Plumb and Major Thacher following the main body.

On the twentieth of August I went to Leaven-worth on official business. The despatches of Captain Pike were not sent to Leavenworth until eight A. M. on the morning of the twentyfirst, because the telegraph offices at Leavenworth City and Fort Leavenworth close at eleven P. M. for want of relief of operators. I received those despatches and the one announcing that Quantrell had passed through Gardner going toward Lawrence, not until quarter to eleven A. M. on the twenty-first. There was no cavalry stationed at Fort Leavenworth, though five companies of the Eleventh Ohio were outfitting for Fort Laramie, but without arms.

There was one company at Leavenworth City just receiving horse equipments. Arms and horse equipments were issued at once, and at one P. M. I started from Fort Leavenworth with near three hundred men of these companies. News