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Chapter 2: civil and military operations in Missouri.
- Position of National troops in Missouri
-- Sigel's pursuit of Price, 42.
-- battle near Carthage, 43.
-- Sigel's retreat to Springfield
-- Lyon's March southward, 44.
-- he hastens toward Springfield
-- Confederates marching on that town, 45.
-- Lyon goes out to meet them
-- battle at Dug Springs, 46.
-- Price and McCulloch at variance
-- the Confederates at Wilson's Creek, 47.
-- Lyon marches out to attack them, 48.
-- battle of Wilson's Creek, 49.
-- death of General Lyon
-- Major Sturgis in command
-- Sigel's troops lost by a trick of the Confederates, 53.
-- a drawn battle
-- retreat of the National troops northward, 54.
-- guerrillas in Missouri
-- activity of Union troops
-- civil affairs in Missouri, 55.
-- promises of protection to slavery
-- movements of the Missouri traitors
-- a military despotism proclaimed, 56.
-- operations of Hardee, Thompson, and Pillow, 57.
-- measures for annexing Missouri to the Confederacy, 58.
-- General Fremont in command in the Western Department
-- his embarrassments, 59.
-- aspect of affairs in his Department
-- Kentucky neutrality a help to the insurgents, 60.
-- Cairo and its vicinity strengthened
-- Pillow anxious for a Union of Confederate forces, 61.
-- the Confederates alarmed
-- Polk orders Pillow to fly from Missouri, 62.
-- activity of Missouri secessionists
-- guerrilla bands, 63.
-- Fremont proclaims martial law throughout Missouri
-- secessionists rigorously treated
-- Fremont's Emancipation proclamation, 64.
-- the proclamation modified by the President
-- relations of the Government to slavery, 65.
We left
General Lyon in possession of
Booneville, Missouri,
1 from which he had driven the
Confederates under
Price and
Jackson, on the 18th of June.
These leaders, as we have observed, were satisfied that the northern part of the
State was lost to the cause of Secession, for the time, they endeavored to concentrate their troops with
Ben McCulloch's more southern men, in the southwestern part of the
Commonwealth.
We also left
Colonel Franz Sigel in the vicinity of
Rolla, pushing with eager
Missouri loyalists toward the
Confederate camps, on the borders of
Kansas and
Arkansas.
2
Colonel Sigel arrived at
Springfield on the 23d of June, where he was informed that the
Confederates, under
Governor Jackson, were making their way from the
Osage River in a southwesterly direction.
He pushed on to
Sarcoxie, a post-village in
Jackson County, where he arrived toward the evening of the 28th, and learned that
General Price, with about nine hundred troops, was encamped at
Pool's Prairie, a few miles north of
Neosho, the capital of
Newton County, and that other State troops, under
Jackson and
Rains, were making their way in the same direction.
It. was important to prevent their junction.
Sigel resolved to march first on
Price, and capture or disperse his force, and then, turning northward, attack the other troops, and so open a communication with
General Lyon, who, he had been informed (but incorrectly), had been fighting with the
Confederates on the banks of the Little Osage.
Sigel's march from
Sarcoxie had just commenced, when a scout brought him word that
Price had fled from
Pool's Prairie to Elk
Mills, thirty miles south of
Neosho.
He at once turned his attention to the troops north of him, who he supposed were endeavoring to make their way into
Arkansas.. He sent forward a detachment of two companies, under
Captain Grone, with two field-pieces, toward
Cedar Creek and
Grand Falls, on the
Neosho, to occupy a road in this supposed route of the
Confederates, and to gain information, while he pushed on with the remainder of his command to
Neosho, receiving greetings of welcome from the inhabitants on the way, who had been pillaged by the insurgents.
He had already summoned
Colonel Salomon, with his
Missouri battalion, to join him at
Neosho, and with this addition
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to his force, he went forward to meet his foe, leaving a single rifle company, under
Captain Conrad, to protect the loyal inhabitants there, with orders to retreat to
Sarcoxie if necessary.
