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

On the eighth, General Pleasonton, on his arrival at Jefferson, under orders to assume command, despatched General Sanborn with all the available cavalry, four thousand one hundred men, to follow and harass the enemy until General Smith's command could come up. General Smith was informed of the rebel failure at Jefferson, and directed to move by the most expeditious route to that place, where Mower's infantry were to join and the cavalry overtake him. He was to send all his cavalry, under Colonel Catherwood, in advance to report to Pleasonton, who, on its arrival, was to join Sanborn and assume direction of the provisional cavalry division thus formed. General Pike. with his militia, was charged with the control of the country and the defences of our line of communication from St. Louis to Jefferson City. Sanborn followed the rebels, attacked their rear guard at Versailles, where it was uncertain what course they would take ; found they were going north toward Boonville, followed and drove them into line of battle near that place, and, when he found himself nearly enveloped by their entire army, fell back out of their reach to meet Catherwood's command and his provisions, which both arrived at California on the fourteenth. The enemy, taking advantage of this, crossed the Lamine at Scott's and Dug fords, and moved north toward Arrow Rock. Sanborn immediately followed this movement by Georgetown bridge, keeping between the Pacific railroad and the line of the enemy's march, and holding the line of the Blackwater, a western tributary of the Lamine, while Price, crossing a part of Shelby's command at Arrow Rock, on the Boonville ferry-boat, to the north side of the river, advanced on Glasgow, which he captured after a seven hours fight with a part of Colonel Harding's regiment, Forty-third Missouri volunteer infantry, and small detachments of the Ninth Missouri State militia and Seventeenth Illinois cavalry.

On the seventeenth our cavalry, following his westward movement, keeping south of, without pressing him, until General Smith's and Mower's troops could be brought up, kept the line of the Blackwater, and on the seventeenth reported themselves out of supplies, and the enemy between Marshall and Waverley.

On the seventeenth, Mower's infantry, except two small regiments, arrived at Jefferson City, and went at once by rail to Lamine bridge to join General Smith, who, passing Jefferson by land on the fourteenth, had followed the cavalry movement to that point, taking charge of the supplies, which, in consequence of the destruction of the bridge by the rebels, could go by rail no further. Winslow's cavalry, marching, reached Jefferson, the advance twenty miles beyond, at California, on the sixteenth, and was ordered to join General Pleasonton without delay.

On the eighteenth, General Smith was ordered to move to Dunksburg, near the cavalry Headquarters, taking five days rations, and leaving minimum garrisons to guard and handle stores at Sedalia and Lamine bridge.

The nineteenth found the movement accomplished, the cavalry with its centre near Cook's store, its right behind the Blackwater, and its left near Kirkpatrick's mills, toward Warrensburg. The enemy apparently hesitated in the vicinity of Marshall, as if uncertain whether to go west or double on his tracks between Sedalia and Jefferson; but our cavalry advance, receding a few miles to meet supplies and concentrate, on the seventeenth and eighteenth, seemed to decide his movement toward Lexington, where General Curtis telegraphed me on the nineteenth the head of his column had arrived, General Blunt, after a sharp skirmish, retiring toward Independence. I informed General Curtis of our position; that our troops reported Price near Waverley; advised that Blunt check his advance at Wellington, and as soon as we were sure his main force was moving on Lexington, we would endeavor, by a forced march, to strike him in the flank.

To ascertain Price's real intentions, General Pleasonton was directed to make a strong reconnoissance toward Waverley. The results of this reached me on the morning of the twentieth, and Pleasonton was directed at once to push the centre of his cavalry to Lexington, and General Smith, with his infantry, to support the movement. At seven P. M., Pleasonton reported the enemy had left Lexington, going west, McNeill and Sanborn entering the town.

October twenty-first our cavalry advance followed the enemy to Fire Creek Prairie, Brown's and Winslow's brigades reaching Lexington at two o'clock P. M., and the infantry at nine P. M. of the same day. General Curtis also reported a fight with the enemy's entire force at the Little Blue from ten A. M. to two P. M., and that to prevent being flanked he should retire to the Big Blue, where his militia and artillery were in strong position. Supposing the enemy could not cross the Big Blue in the face of Curtis, I despatched General Pleasonton my belief that he would move south, and that while McNeill's brigade should harass his rear, he, with the other three brigades, should move toward Lone Jack, near which would be General Smith's infantry, now marching from Lexington to Chapel Hill. At ten o'clock P. M., a despatch from Pleasonton informed me of the receipt of these conditional orders, and that the enemy, in full force, were moving far to the west, followed by his cavalry.

October twenty-second, Pleasonton's cavalry reached the Little Blue at ten A. M.; found the bridge destroyed; a temporary one was constructed, the enemy's skirmishers driven, the command crossed, when the enemy opened with artillery, and was steadily driven toward Independence, which place was taken by a brilliant cavalry charge, in which Catherwood's regiment captured two guns complete. Near a hundred