Missouri Democrat account.
on the eighteenth of July,
Major John Y. Clopper, in command of a detachment of
Merrill's Horse, about three hundred strong, and a detachment of
Major Rogers's battalion, Eleventh Missouri State militia, about one hundred strong, attacked and, after a very severe fight, entirely routed
Porter and
Dunn's combined bands of guerrillas, six hundred strong.
At last accounts
Major Clopper was still in swift march upon the forces of
Porter, which had fled south, crossed the railroad and posted themselves for another fight in the vicinity of
Florida, where they were doubtless attacked this morning by our forces, which crossed the road in pursuit of
Porter yesterday.
The fight took place near
Memphis, Mo., and was brought on by a small advanced guard being fired upon by the enemy, who were concealed in heavy brush and timber across the road, where they had halted and chosen the ground for their fight.
They were immediately attacked by
Major Clopper, and after a desperate conflict were completely driven from the field, leaving a large number of their dead and wounded on the ground.
The severity of the fight is well illustrated by the fact that five successive charges across the open ground, on the concealed enemy, were repulsed, and the sixth was successful, resulting in a hand-to-hand struggle, in which one man of
Merrill's Horse was killed by a blow with a stock of a musket across the back of the neck, breaking his neck.
At the time the messenger left the ground all of our killed, wounded, and missing had been found, amounting to eighty-three, and twenty-three dead guerrillas had been discovered upon the field, yet the search among the thick brush for the dead and wounded of the enemy had just commenced.
In
Major Clopper's hasty note, written on the field, and when just starting in pursuit, he says:
I cannot find terms adequate to express my admiration of the heroic manner in which my command stood the galling and destructive fire poured upon them by the concealed assassins.
The enemy are badly whipped, and in a free fight, and I follow at once.
The enemy were well concealed in thick brush and timber, and I must do them the justice to say that they fought desperately.
They will not meet me on other ground.
