Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 11.
Frank Moore, Ed.

[512] organized, a total of fifteen hundred men — were all the force we could place between St. Louis and an invading army of at least fifteen thousand mounted men, whose advance was within a day's march of the city. Meanwhile Brigadier-General Pike, ably seconded by Generals Wolfe and Miller, of the Enrolled Missouri militia, had assembled and armed skeletons of the First, Second, Third, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Tenth, Eleventh, Thirteenth, and Fifty-second regiments of enrolled militia. The Mayor and others, under the direction of the Hon. B. Gratz Brown and Major Ledergerber, organized the citizens exempt from militia duty, who volunteered for the defence of the city, into companies and regiments, numbering, by the thirtieth, some four or five thousand men. The One Hundred and Thirty-second, One Hundred and Thirty-fourth, One Hundred and Thirty-eighth, One Hundred and Fortieth, and One Hundred and Forty-second Illinois hundred-day volunteers also began to arrive on the thirtieth, and were all in by October first, and formed into a brigade, under Colonel Wangelin, for the immediate defence of the city, beyond which they did not wish to serve, as all of them were out over time, and many having desirable offers as substitutes.

The enemy, moving up by Potosi, seemed to halt at Richwoods, about four miles south-west of St. Louis, in the hills between Big River and the Meramec, as if concentrating for an attack on the city. This appeared the more possible from the magnitude of his interest in it, and the fact that he did not show much force in the Meramec valley, even on the thirtieth. On that day Major-General Smith was ordered to occupy Kirkwood, which commands the Richwoods road and crossing of the Meramec to St. Louis, his cavalry to reconnoitre south and west, Colonel Merrill going as far as Franklin.

General Fisk, previously ordered to join General Brown with all his available force, reached and reported from Jefferson City to-day. At the close of it, news came that a brigade of rebel cavalry had burned the Moselle bridge, and were moving north toward Franklin. General Smith was ordered to send a brigade of infantry to support the cavalry at that point, and on the first of October Colonel Wolfe, with his brigade, reached Franklin, and, after a sharp skirmish, drove the enemy from the place, but not until he had burned the depot.

The rebels were now apparently at bay, with fifteen hundred cavalry and four thousand five hundred infantry. General Smith was not in condition to attempt offensive movements against a force of fifteen thousand veteran mounted rebels, who could reach St. Louis from any point in the Meramec valley, where he might confront them, in half the time it would take his infantry to reach it. Our obvious policy, under these circumstances, was to keep as close as possible to the enemy, without risking St. Louis, until General Mower's command should arrive from Arkansas, or at least we be able to join to Smith's our mounted forces at Rolla. Every hour's delay of the enemy in the Meramec valley brought Mower nearer, and increased our chance of striking him, as it did the security of Jefferson City. On the second the enemy was reported massing in the vicinity of Union, on the road either to Jefferson City or Rolla, and General Smith was ordered to Franklin. But as the enemy's movements appeared to tend westward, on the third General Smith was advanced to Gray's Summit, and General Pike moved to Franklin. On the fourth General Smith pushed his cavalry toward the Gasconade, advanced his infantry to Union, followed up by General Pike's militia. On the fifth Price's command took Herman, burned the Gasconade bridge, and was crossing that stream at the old State road ford. General Smith followed him. General Mower reported his arrival at Girardeau, out of supplies, his teams worn down, part of his cavalry dismounted, and many horses unshod. Transports and supply-boats were at once despatched, and on the eighth and ninth his command reached St. Louis, from whence the infantry was pushed forward by water as rapidly as the low stage of the river would permit, to join General Smith. The cavalry under Winslow re-shod and started by land from St. Louis on the tenth, toward Jefferson City, which point it reached on the sixteenth instant, one day in advance of the infantry.

On the sixth, the enemy began crossing the Osage at Castle Rock and one or two other fords under cover of his artillery, opposed by Colonel Phillips with the available cavalry at Jefferson City. While thus engaged, Generals McNeill and Sanborn reached Jefferson City, by a forced march, with all the mounted force from Rolla, and uniting with Fisk and Brown, gave us a garrison there of four thousand one hundred cavalry and two thousand six hundred infantry, mostly the new and partially organized twelve months men, with a few citizens and militia. As this force, though capable of giving a strong battle behind intrenchments, was not very formidable to act offensively against a veteran force like that of the enemy, it was decided by General Fisk, the other three Generals concurring, to oppose a moderate resistance to the enemy's advance across the Moreau, a small stream with muddy banks and bad bottom, four or five miles east of the city, and then to retire and receive his attack at the defensive line, which with industry and good judgment had been prepared by the entire laboring force, civil and military, at Jefferson City. The enemy burned the Osage bridge and crossed the river on the sixth.

On the seventh, he advanced on the city, crossed the Moreau, after sharp fighting, and developed a line of battle three or four miles long, east, south, and west of the place. But after reconnoitering its apparently formidable intrenchments, warned by his Pilot Knob experience in storming earthworks, he declined attacking, and, passing his train in rear, moved