Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 4.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[408] sections. At a given signal, at about four hundred yards from the enemy, the two columns deploy quickly in line; the artillery places its guns and commences firing; the cavalry moves to its flanks, dismounts, and penetrates into the woods rifle in hand. The infantry follows closely, in spite of the well-sustained fire of the Southerners, and after a struggle of nearly two hours the latter are driven back on the bridge. They strive in vain to defend this outlet; disorder takes place in their ranks, and Blunt, pursuing them closely, reaches Honey Springs, where the storehouses are on fire. He stops only when the fatigue of his troops does not admit of his going farther. The Honey Springs fight had cost him seventeen killed and thirty-six wounded; Cooper's losses were much greater. Hence, notwithstanding the reinforcement that Cabell brought him that very evening, he continued his retreat in the direction of Fort Smith. Blunt, on his side, satisfied with his success, returned to Fort Gibson, the safety of which was henceforth assured.

To obtain this result he had been obliged to diminish the effective force, already much reduced, of the protecting troops that were defending Missouri and Kansas. The regular forces of the Confederates were too far distant to trouble those States. But the guerillas were not long in availing themselves of the situation, and by the end of July partisan warfare revived in these unfortunate districts, which it had already so cruelly distressed. Quantrell, who is about to acquire a bloody reputation throughout all America, organizes small bands under the Confederate flag to devastate the State of Missouri. On the 30th of July some of his partisans appear in arms far north, in the county of Sabine, on the right bank of the Missouri, and give fight to the local militia. A short time after, on August 30th, the Southern colonel Coffee, with one of these bands, wandering about in search of the Federal trains on the frontiers of Missouri, Arkansas, and the Indian Territory, attacks the post of Pineville in the south-western part of Missouri, and is repulsed with loss by the Sixth Missouri cavalry. Meanwhile, Quantrell has collected his forces on the frontier of Kansas, the young State which, before secession, had already given the example of civil war, and where the two parties have not ceased to be in arms. In order to strike a blow that may spread terror