Important from Missouri
movements of Ben McCulloch and General Price--Kansas to be made a field of operations — Depredations of the Rebils, &c. Rolla, Mo. Nov. 29, 1861
--A gentleman left Springfield on Tuesday last says that Ben McCulloch's forces had marched for Arkansas, having passed Pond Spring.
At the latest accounts the rebels under General Price were skill moving northward.
Proclamation of General Price.
Sedalia, Mo., Nov. 30.
--The following is a proclamation from General Price, issued at Neosho, but bearing no date:
Fellow: Citizens:
In the month of June last I was called to the command of a handful of Missourian, who nobly gave up home and comfort to espouse, in that gloomy hour, the cause of your bleeding country, struggling with the most causeless and cruel despotism known among civilized men. When peace and protection could no longer be enjoyed but at the price of honor and liberty, your Chief Magistrate called for fifty thousand men to drive the ruthless invaders from a soil made fruitful by your labors, and consecrated by your homes; and to that call less than 5,000 responded.
Out of a male population exceeding 200,000 men, one in forty only stepped forward to defend with their persons and their lives the cause of constitutional liberty and human rights.
Some allowances are to be made on the score of the want of military organization, a supposed want of arms, the necessary retreat of the army southward, the blockade of the liver, and the presence of an armed and organized foe. But nearly six months have now elapsed — your crops have been tilled, your harvests have been reaped, your preparations for winter have been made — the army of Missouri, organized and equipped, fought its way to the river.
The foe is still in the field, the country bleeds, and our people groan under the inflictions of a foe marked with all the characteristics of barbaric warfare; and where now are the fifty thousand to avenge our wrongs and free our country?
Had fifty thousand men flocked to our standard with their shot-guns in their hands, there would now be no Federal hirelings in the State to pollute our soil.
Instead of ruined communities, starving families and desolated districts, we should have had a people blessed with protection and with stores to supply the wants and necessaries and comforts of life.--Where are those fifty thousand men?
Are Missourian no longer true to themselves?--Are they a timid, time-severing, craven race, fit only for subjection to a despot?--A wake, my countrymen, to a sense of what constitutes the dignity and true greatness of a people.
A few men have fought your battles — a few have dared the dangers of the battle-field — a few have borne the hardships of the camp, the scorching sun of summer, the frost of winter, the malaria of the swamps, the privations incident to our circumstances, fatigue and hunger and thirst, often without blankets, without shoes, with insufficient clothing, with the cold, wet earth for a bed, the sky for a covering, and a stone for a pillow, glad only to meet the enemy on the field, where some paid the noblest devotion known among men on earth to the cause of your country and your rights with their lives.
But where one has been lost on the battle-field three have been lost by disease induced by privation and toil.
During all these trials we have murmured not. We offered all we had on earth at the altar of our common country, our own beloved Missouri, and we only now ask our fellow citizens, our brethren, to come to us and help to wear what we have gained — to win our glorious inheritance from the cruel hand of the spoiler and oppressor.
Come to us, brave sons of Missouri; rally, to our standard.
I must have fifty thousand men. I call upon you, in the name of your country, for fifty thousand men.--Do you stay at home to take care of us and your property?
Millions of dollars have been lost because you stayed at home.
Do you stay at home for gratification?
More men have been murdered at home than I have lost in five successive battles.
Do you stay at home to secure terms with the enemy?
Then I warn you the day may soon come when you may be surrendered to the mercies of that enemy, and your substance be given up to the Hessian and the Jayhawker.
I cannot, I will not, attribute such motives to you, my countrymen.
But where are our Southern Rights friends?
We must drive the oppressor from our land.
I must have fifty thousand men. Now is the crisis of your fate — now is the golden opportunity to save the State--now is the time of your political salvation.
The time for enlistment, for our brave band is beginning to expire.
Do not hold their patience beyond end durance — do not longer sicken their hearts by "hope deferred." They begin to inquire, where are our friends?
Who shall give them an answer?
Boys and small property holders have in the main fought the battles for the protection of your property, and when they ask, where are the men for whom we are fighting, how shall I, how can I, explain?
Citizens of Missouri, I call upon you, by every consideration of interest, by every desire of safety, by every tie that binds you to home and country, delay no longer; let the dead bury their dead, leave your property to take care of itself, commend your homes to the protection of God, and merit the approbation and love of childhood and womanhood, by showing yourselves men, the sons of the brave and free, who bequeathed to us the sacred trust of free institutions.
Come to the army of Missouri, not for a week or a month, but to free your country.
‘ Strike till each armed foe expires!
Strike for your altars and your fires!
Strike for the green graves of your sires!
God and your native land!
’ The burning fires of patriotism must inspire and lead you, or all is lost; just at the moment, too, when all might forever be saved. Numbers give strength, numbers intimidate the foe, numbers save the necessity often of fighting battles, numbers make our arms irresistible, numbers command universal respect and insure confidence. We must have fifty thousand men. Let the herdsman leave his fold; let the farmer leave his field; let the mechanic leave his shop; let the lawyer leave his office, till we restore the supremacy of law. Let the aspirants for office and place know they will be weighed in the balance of patriotism, and may be found wanting. If there be any craven, crinching spirits who have not the greatness of soul to respond to their country's call for help, let them stay at home, and let only the brave and true come out to join their brethren on the tented field. Come with supplies of clothing, and with tents if you can procure them. Come with your guns of every description that can be made to bring down a foe. If you have no arms come without them, and we will supply you as far as that is possible. Bring cooking utensils and rations for a few weeks, bring blankets and heavy shoes, and extra bed clothing if you have them. Bring no horses to remain with the army, except those necessary for the baggage transportation. We must have fifty thousand men. Give me these men, and, by the help of God, I will drive the hirelings, thieves, and marauders from the State. But if Missourian fail now to rise in their strength and avail themselves of this opportunity to work for honor and liberty, you cannot say that we have not done all we could to save you. You will be advised in times at what point to report for organization and active service. Leave your property at home. What if it all be taken? We have twenty million dollars worth of Northern means in Missouri which cannot be recovered. When we are once free the State will indemnify every citizen who may have lost a dollar by adhesion to the cause of your country.--We shall have our property, or its value, with interest. But in the name of God and the attributes of manhood, let me appeal to you by considerations nobler and fleur than money. Are we a generation of drivelling, sniveling, degraded slaves, or are we men who can maintain the rights bequeathed to us by our fathers? These rights cannot be surrendered. They are founded on principles pure and high and sacred — like God their authority. Be yours the office to choose between the glory of a free country and a just Government and the bondage of your children. I at least will never see the chains fastened upon my country. I will ask for 6½ feet of Missouri soil on which to repose, for I will not live to see my people enslaved. Do I hear your shouts? Is that your war cry which echoes through the land? Are you coming, fifty thousand men? Missouri shall move to victory with the head of a giant. Come on, my brave, fifty thousand heroes — gallant, unconquerable Southern men — we await your coming.
Rolla, Mo., Nov. 30, 1861
--A scout who has followed the army of the rebels since the evacuation of Springfield, came in yesterday: He reports the rebels some 15,000 strong, moving north in three divisions.
The right wing, 6,000 strong, commanded by General McBridge, resting on Stockton, Cedar county. --The left wing held position near Nevada, Vernon county, under command of Gen. Rains, with 4,000 men. Gen. Price, with 5,000 men, commanded the centre, and was near Montibello, Vernon county.
These figures were obtained from the Quartermaster of the rebel force by our scouts.
General Price's intention is to march into Kansas, and make that State the field of his operations.
His spies report to him that General Lane is at Fort Scott, with 5,000 men. --Price will evade the latter and pass into Kansas, at or near Butler, Bates county.
The march was taken up on the 26th ult.
Col. Clarkson, commanding the rear of the rebel army, left Greenfield on Sunday last.
Gen. Price issued an order to McCulloch to follow him, which the latter disregarded, and is now moving towards Arkansas to go into winter quarters.
The rebels are thinly clad and poorly fed, and evinces a disposition to disband and seek their homes.
Fifty of Freeman's marauders were at Steeleville, breaking open stores and houses, and helping themselves to what they could find, Freeman himself is reported in that vicinity.
Major Boren with 1,000 cavalry left here yesterday, with a view of getting south of Freeman and cutting off his retreat.
The weather is exceedingly fresh.
On Friday we had a slight fall of snow.
Sedalla, Mo., Dec. 1.--Parties from the West say that the country between Lexington is almost deserted, the men having gone to join Price, or attaching themselves to the various commands of his officers throughout that region.
Jennison's men are in Jackson county, devastating the country, and various parties of armed rebels have gone into that section with the avowed purpose of driving them out.
Gen. Price's proclamation has been circulating in the river counties, and will doubtless induce large numbers to join the rebel army.
My informants say that for a distance of sixty miles, which was travelled yesterday and to-day, they met only one man on the road.
