Edward Alfred Pollard, The lost cause; a new Southern history of the War of the Confederates ... Drawn from official sources and approved by the most distinguished Confederate leaders.

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[157] wander command of Col. Marmaduke, were posted in loose order in a wood along a wheat-field not far from the water's edge. Seeing no reasonable hope of holding his position against a column of Federals advancing with eight pieces of artillery, Col. Marmaduke ordered his little force to retreat. The men refused to obey the order; and received the advancing enemy with a close volley, under which more than a hundred fell killed and wounded. But the shock of the encounter, as the enemy came on, was too much for the thin and irregular line of these desperately brave men, and they were soon scattered in flight. Their loss was inconsiderable-three men killed, and twenty-five or thirty wounded; and they had given to the enemy his first lesson of the courage and adventure of the “rebel militia” of Missouri.

After the singular affair of Booneville, Gov. Jackson, who had taken the field, commenced to retire his small force towards Warsaw; intending to effect a junction with Price, and to continue with him the line of march to the southwestern angle of the State. This was effected on the night of the 3d of July; the column from Lexington forming a junction with Jackson's forces in Cedar County. The plan of campaign was now to get as far as possible from the line of the Missouri River, which gave facilities for attack to the enemy, who could bring forward overwhelming numbers before Gen. Price could possibly organize his forces in this vicinity and throw them in fighting posture.

The very night of the junction of the two columns, an order was issued for the report and organization of the entire force. Two thousand men reported to Brig.-Gen. Rains, six hundred to Brig.-Gen. Slack, and about five hundred each to Brig.-Gens. Clark and Parsons; making an entire force of about thirty-six hundred men. This, then, was the Patriot Army of Missouri. It was a heterogeneous mixture of all human compounds, and represented every condition of Western life. There were the old and the young, the rich and poor, the high and low, the grave and gay, the planter and labourer, the farmer and clerk, the hunter and boatman, the merchant and woodsman. At least five hundred of these men were entirely unarmed. Many had only the common rifle and shot-gun. None were provided with cartridge-boxes or canteens. They had eight pieces of cannon, but no shells, and very few solid shot or rounds of grape and canister. Rude and almost incredible devices were made to supply these wants: trace-chains, iron-rods, hard pebbles, and smooth stones were substituted for shot; and evidence of the effect of such rough missiles was to be given in the next encounter with the enemy.

On the 4th of July, with his motley, ill-provided, brave army, Gen. Jackson, then in command, took up his line of march for the Southwest, where he hoped to join McCulloch. In the mean time, however, Gen. Sigel, with a column of Federals three thousand in number, had been sent