Sept. 20, 1861. |
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fell back until they met Sigel's advance, between Springfield and Bolivar.
The report of this brilliant charge and victory, which had preceded them, filled the whole army with delight and enthusiasm.
“This was really a Balaklava charge,” wrote Fremont.
“The Guard numbered only one hundred and fifty.
You notice that Zagonyi says he has seen charges, but never such a one.
Their war-cry, he says, sounded like thunder.
This action is a noble example to the army.”
1 There had been other noble examples for the army during its advance in Missouri.2
Fremont's army arrived at Springfield at the beginning of November, inspirited by news of recent successes in the Department, and the prospect of speedily ridding Missouri of insurgents.
While it had been moving forward, Lane and Montgomery, who, we have seen, had been driven back into Kansas by Price,3 had crossed into Missouri again, to cut oft or embarrass the Confederates in their retreat from Lexington.
Montgomery pushed on to the town of Osceola, the capital of St. Clair County, on the Osage, but was too late to intercept Price.
The armed Confederates at that place, after a brief skirmish,
were driven away, and the village was laid in ashes, with no other excuse for the cruel measure than the fact that it was a rendezvous for the foe, and its inhabitants were all disloyal.
A month later the National troops gained a signal victory over the guerrilla chief, Thompson (who was called the “Swamp Fox,” and his command, the “Swamp Fox brigade” ), at Frederickton, the capital of Madison County, in Southeastern Missouri. General Grant was in command at Cape Girardeau at that time.
General Thompson and Colonel Lowe had been roaming at will over the region between New Madrid and Pilot Knob.
Thompson, with six hundred men, had captured the guard at the Big River Bridge, near Potosi, and destroyed that structure on the 15th of October, and on the following day he and Lowe were at the head of a thousand men near Ironton, threatening that place, where they were defeated by Major Gavitt's Indiana cavalry, and a part of Colonel Alexander's Twenty-first Illinois cavalry, with a loss of thirty-six killed and wounded. Grant determined to put an end to the career of these marauders, if possible.
Informed that they were near Frederickton, he sent out a considerable force under Colonel Plummer,4 to strike them from the East, while Captain Hawkins, with Missouri cavalry, was ordered up from Pilot Knob on the Northeast, followed by Colonel Carlin with a body of infantry as a support,5 to engage and occupy Thompson
1 An accident occurred to Major White and prevented his being in this action. He had sickened on the way and been compelled to lag behind. When attempting to overtake his troops, he was made a prisoner, but escaped and reached Springfield on the morning after the fight, with a few Home Guards. Stationing 22 of his 24 men as pickets, he deceived the Confederates in the town with the belief that he had a considerable force with him. After receiving a flag of truce, and permitting them to bury their dead, he prudently fell back to meet the advancing army.
2 Other detachments of cavalry from Fremont's army, besides those of White and Zagonyi, had been operating against the Confederates during the march of the main body. One of them, under Major Clark Wright, routed and dispersed a body of Confederates near Lebanon, in Laclede County, on the 18th of October; and on the following day the same forces captured the village of Lynn Creek. In the former engagement, after a charge, and a running fight for a mile and a half, there were about 60 Confederates killed and wounded, while the Union loss was only one man killed.--Report of Major Wright, October 18, 1861.
3 See page 66.
4 They consisted of the Eleventh, Seventeenth, and Twentieth Illinois, and 400 cavalry.
5 These consisted of parts of the Twenty-first, Twenty-third, and Twenty-eighth Illinois, the Eighth Wisconsin, Colonel Baker's Indiana cavalry, and Major Schofield's Battery.
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