o'clock, carrying his dinner in a tin pail. Taking a good position, he banged away at the Federals till noon, then rested an hour, ate his dinner after which he resumed operations till

bellowing over the grand victory, cursing, blaspheming, yelling, babbling, hurrahing, lying in the gutter, insulting prisoners, quarrelling aniong friends-this and more did whiskey-the grand moving spirit that won the battle, and then re-six P. M., when he returned home to supper joiced over its success.

and a night's sleep. The next day, a little before seven, saw him, dinner and rifle in hand, trudging up street to begin again his regular day's work-and in this style he continued till the surrender.

But little damage was done to the city. Col. Anderson's house was literally sprinkled with grape and musket shot, and the brick house south of the college was burnt to the ground; another lost its roof and contents, while all in that immediate neighborhood retain more or less marks of the contest.

Very true, scarcely a hundred of all the Confederate troops were uniformed; scarcely two had guns alike-no two exhibited the same trappings. Here went one fellow in a shirt of brilliant green, on his side an immense cavalry sabre, in his belt two navy revolvers and a bowie knife, and slung from his shoulder a Sharp's rifle. Right by his side was another, upon whose hip dangled a light medical sword, in his hand a double-barrelled shot-gun, in his boot an immense scythe, on his heel the inevitable spur-his whole appearance, from tattered The dead of the Federals were not buried till boot, through which gazed audaciously his the next day after the surrender; and a more toes, indicating that the plunderings of many a loathsome sight than these blackened, hideous different locality made up his whole. General-corpses I never saw or imagined. Some sevly the soldiers were armed with shot-guns or squirrel rifles; some had the old flint-lock muskets, a few had Minié guns, and others Sharp's or Maynard rifles, while all, to the poorest, had horses.

The very elite of the Confederate forces were there-Generals Price, Rains, Slack, Parsons, Harris, Green, Hardee, were all there-Colonels Saunders, Payn, Beal, Turner, Craven, Clay, and in short, I believe the balance of the thirty-five thousand men, all either colonels or majors, as I was introduced to no one who was not either the one or the other.

The treatment extended by the Confederate officers to the prisoners was both humane and courteous-they protected them, when possible, from insult and plundering, and as much as possible extended to them the courtesies with which a chivalrous enemy always treats a conquered foe.

enty horses were also killed, and these two were as hideous and disgusting in many respects as the poor remains of humanity that lay about them-all poisoned the air with the stench of decomposition, and shocked terribly the sensibilities by their ghastly wounds, their agonized positions, and loathsome evidences of decay which characterized them all.

LEAVENWORTH "CONSERVATIVE" ACCOUNT.

Samuel C. Gamble and William H. Cutter, of the Missouri Thirteenth, Col. Peabody, arrived at Leavenworth from Lexington. The regiment, numbering six hundred and fifty men, left Kansas City on the 3d inst., in company with one hundred and fifty men under Col. Van Horn, and marched to Lexington. On the 7th, they went to Warrensburg and took a lot of coin from the banks, and returned on the 11th. The whole number of troops then in Lexington, was two thousand six hundred, and no reinforcements arrived up to the time of surrender, on Friday last.

Besides their own force, there were nine hundred men belonging to Col. Mulligan's Irish Brigade, (of Chicago,) Col. Marshall's cavalry, and the Missouri Home Guards.

Of the losses on both sides, I will not pretend to speak with accuracy. That of the Federals has been given-that of the Confederates is not known, even by themselves. Hundreds of the men who fought on the Confederate side were attached to no command-they came in when they pleased, fought or not as they pleased, left when ready, and if killed were On the morning of the 12th, skirmishing comburied on the spot, were missed from no mus- menced between Mulligan's men and the enemy, ter-roll, and hence would not be reckoned in and Companies A and E of Peabody's command, the aggregate loss. attacked the main body of rebels. The enemy The Confederates vary in their statements-on this day was estimated at thirteen thousand. one said they lost sixty killed, another said | We fired about ten rounds each and retreated; their loss was at least equal to the Federals, while still another admitted to me that the taking of the works cost them a thousand men, in killed and wounded. From the very large number of buildings in the town from which the hospital flag was flying, I am inclined to believe that the last admission is close upon the truth.

I saw one case that shows the Confederate style of fighting. An old Texan, dressed in buckskin and armed with a long rifle, used to go up to the works every morning about seven

four other companies advanced and fired once, but were opened upon by artillery and compelled to return. There was a severe cannonading which lasted about two hours. There was but little firing of musketry on this day. About dark the enemy stopped firing and retreated.

We immediately commenced throwing up intrenchments, and continued the work all night. We did not quit this position during the following days, and nothing but starvation or the hemp bale movement (which was the actual

cause of our surrender) could have forced us to leave it. There were three cisterns inside our lines and two springs near by on the bank to ward the river. Our men were often shot at while going to the springs, but there was only one day when we actually suffered from water. We had about seventy-five wagons in the lines, and about three hundred horses and mules belonging to them.

On the morning of the 13th, they brought in a flag of truce-we were told that their object was to get time to bury their dead, of which they must have had a very large number. Our loss on the previous day was four killed and eighteen wounded. Up to the 18th, fighting was confined to the pickets. We continued to work on our fortifications. The enemy was constantly receiving reinforcements. On that morning, at about eight o'clock, they planted cannon, six in all, on three sides of us.

Fighting immediately commenced, and lasted nine hours. On our side artillery and cavalry were chiefly engaged. The contest of that day closed by our cavalry making a charge, driving the enemy back and capturing their flag. Thursday, the 18th, was almost a repetition of the last day's work, except that about half of our infantry were engaged.

The enemy was posted on a declivity between us and the river. The "lay of the land" was such, that they could come very near to us with out being discovered. They tried three times to creep upon us and scale the embankment, but whenever their brisk firing was commenced, it was answered by our artillery, and they were compelled to fall back.

LEXINGTON, Sept. 21, 1861.

MY DEAR FRIEND-You will receive, before you see this, the intelligence of the surrender of the garrison at Lexington. The fight which occurred on Thursday, of last week, was but preliminary to the greater fight which has since taken place, and which resulted in the unconditional surrender of the post on yesterday at five o'clock P. M.

On Wednesday last, our town and fort were invested by a force variously estimated at from twenty thousand to thirty thousand men, under the command of Price, Rains, Parsons, Slack, and who else I know not, but certain it is that the entire army of Jackson is here. The fight was begun by the pickets as early as eight o'clock, and was continued during the whole of that day and nearly the whole of the night. Early on Thursday morning it was resumed, and lasted to a late hour of the evening, when a flag of truce was sent in proposing terms of surrender, which were at once rejected by the officer in command.

By the dawn of day on the following morning, the fight was resumed, and during that day many attempts were made to carry the place by assault; in every instance, however, the enemy meeting a signal repulse, with great loss. In the mean time, the water had given out. Indeed as early as Wednesday, it was announced that the water had given out, and the men were warned not to eat salt provisions for fear of provoking thirst-and for want of water, no bread could be baked. Thus for three days and nights did the brave men endure the tortures of continual watching, of hunger and thirst, till in many instances they actually fainted in the trenches. Add to all this, the fact that there were near two thousand horses inside the forti

the early part of the fight and could not be removed, and were putrefying in the sun, till the stench became insupportable, and you can form some idea of the horrors with which we were surrounded, to say nothing of the dangers to which we were continually subjected, by the firing of volleys of artillery and musketry from a foe concealed behind houses, banks, and trees.

We had hard fighting on Friday-when their numbers had swelled to thirty-five thousandup to the time of the surrender. At two o'clock P. M., they fired two cannon balls into our hos-fications, hundreds of which had been shot in pital, killing two of the wounded. Four unsuccessful charges were made on our lines. The fifth was made under the cover of hemp bales, two in height, and along a line about forty yards in extent. The bales were slowly rolled before them, and neither bullets nor cannon balls could pierce the hempen fortification or stop the steady and fatal approach of the rebel " conda." It came within fifty yards of us, and our men continued the fire. When they had approached thus near, a captain or lieutenant in the Lexington Home Guards ran up a flag of truce. We knew nothing of it in our part of the field, and continued at work until we saw that the enemy had ceased firing.

ara

The surrender speedily followed, when we were made to take an oath that if found again in arms against Treason, the penalty would be death. -Neosho Register, Oct. 8.

ANOTHER ACCOUNT.

The following private letter from one of the Home Guards, who fought under Col. Mulligan, gives a highly interesting account of the fight at Lexington:

Late on Friday evening, the final charge was made from behind hemp bales, which had been rolled up for breast works, and the fire was so heavy as to force a part of Col. Marshall's command-two companies of Home Guards and a company of the Irish Brigade-to retreat inside of the second breastworks. In this charge one of the cannon of the Home Guards and a brass piece belonging to the Irish Brigade, were cap tured by Harris's command. At this critical juncture, a detachment was sent by Col. Mulligan to sustain the retreating forces, who re turned to the charge, sallied outside the breastworks, drove the enemy before them, and captured both pieces of artillery! Immediately after this charge, a white flag was sent in by General Price, and Colonel Mulligan, in view

of the condition of his men, surrendered the | panies have now gone out. Co. D is placed post. as guard to the post. Three other companies A more gallant defence is not on record, and are in the ditch, working with all their energy. although suffering the extreme of hunger and Four o'clock.-Here come the scouts with the thirst, the brave officers and soldiers shed bit-report that the rebels are within one mile. Our ter tears at the stern necessity which forced men are all in rank waiting their first appearthem to strike their flag.

The thought that their Government had neglected them in their need, and had turned a deaf ear to all their supplications for assistance, was even more painful than the physical torments they endured.

Of the killed and wounded I can scarcely venture an estimate. Those who profess to be informed, tell me that the entire Federal loss does not exceed one hundred and fifty in killed and wounded, of which only forty-two are yet dead, while the loss of the State forces is certainly not less than twelve hundred, of which at least five hundred are killed.

ance.

Seven o'clock P. M.-The rebels have ceased firing for the night. Our little embankment has done us great good. But two more killed and seven severely, perhaps fatally wounded. The fight was principally with the artillery, for their forces were in the woods and some distance from us. Our men fought well. It is not very pleasant to have cannon balls flying all around and over me. One poor fellow had his head taken off with a ball, another one both legs. A ball passed over us, went through three mules which stood in range, and they did not impede the momentum of the ball apparently Nearly every house in town is a hospital. in the least, but it went tearing, crashing along, The saddest want prevails everywhere through-like some infuriated thing. Our men discharged out the country. Starvation is staring us in from one cannon one hundred and ten shots in the face; and men who six months ago were an hour. We had three pieces at work; they reported wealthy, have not the means of pro- had the same number. We did them great viding for their families a single day. damage, so much that they are now retiring. They do not aim well, for most of the balls pass too high. Our last shot disabled one of their pieces.

May God bless you, and avert from you and from your city the extremity of suffering with which we have been visited.

Ever yours,

P.

St. Louis Democrat, September 26.
DIARY OF LIEUT. McCLURE.

Sept. 13-Six o'clock A. M.-The rebels have not yet appeared this morning, although we have orders to remain on our posts round the embankments. I have been up all night. Our By the politeness of the wife of Lieutenant men worked on the dyke until two this mornThomas D. McClure, of Company D, 23d regi-ing, then they lay down in the ditch to sleep ment Illinois Volunteers, of Earlville, Lasalle while I stood sentry and "look-out" for them. County, we are enabled to print a full and cir- It now begins to rain. cumstantial narrative of the siege and surrender of Lexington, from a well-written diary kept by Lieut. McClure. The narrative begins on the 1st of September, the day on which Col. Mulligan cominence his march to Lexington. Although the attack on the intrenchments did not begin till the 19th, the place was invested by Gen. Price on the 12th, and the skirmishing of pickets began then. We, therefore, take up Lieut. McClure's narrative on that day:

Sept. 12-Six o'clock A. M.-Great excitement all night, rumors constantly coming in and going out; hark, now the ball is opening! Company K, Capt. Quirk, went out about four A. M., and now we hear their cheers and rallying cries; also the discharge of their guns. The shots are becoming more frequent; there goes a discharge of at least fifty guns, and still another. I think that they will check the advance guard of the rebels. We are anxious to meet them, although they have five men to our one-most fearful odds. Our intrenchments are only begun. If we could have one day more we could complete the work.

We

Three o'clock P. M.-The rain has just ceased, but from appearances will soon begin again. We have stood in this ditch all the time and are cold, wet, and weary. The rebels move round like wild geese. We can't tell where to look for them. We are now better prepared, having a good dyke and embankment. also cut down some corn-fields, and had to burn down seven dwellings which afforded them shelter and hid them from our view. They have sent in two flags of truce, both (we think) mere strategy, which they seem to practise very much. One was for the exchange of prisoners; the other for permission to bury their dead, which they say number three hundred. It is amusing to hear the rumors in our camp. It would take me a day to write all I hear in an hour. A prominent one this morning was that McCulloch and Rains are here with Price, and that they are retreating from Siegel, who is now closing in on their rear. I have no faith in it, yet we cannot tell, for we have had no news since we left Jefferson.

Six o'clock. The rebels send word they are about to take this place and dance on the ground to-morrow evening. Our answer was, Come and take it. They are now planting their batteries;

Eight o'clock. The firing has ceased; our pickets have returned and report that they met the rebel picket, but it did not stand their fire but fled into the cornfield. We killed twenty-one is opposite Company D. six and brought in two prisoners. Two com

VOL. III.-Doc. 14

Sept. 14-Six o'clock A. M.-We expected to

Seven o'clock P. M.-Pickets just came in and inform us that Price was reinforced this morning by Gen. Harris with three thousand men, and several large pieces of cannon. They intend to open on us in the morning. It cer tainly looks like death; but mark me now, will be as hard a battle as will occur during the war.

this

see the sun rise upon a scene of blood, carnage, | The city is in smoke-more buildings on fire. and the furious din and noise of battle; but I am sleepy, tired, and sad. strange! not a rebel is in sight this morning. What does it mean? They probably want to induce us to come outside, which we will not do yet. They are waiting for more cannon or men, which seems ludicrous, or they are making a retreat; either of these motives looks ridiculous to us, yet one of them must be their plan, for they must be afraid of us, judging from their present actions and the bold assuming manner they first advanced upon us. A colonel, whom we hold as a prisoner, says that they thought there were only the Home Guard here, (one thousand.) They did not think the "damned Irish Brigade" had arrived, and all they had to do was to march up, fire a few rounds and then enter the grounds. Their faith proved false this time. We were formed in line three times to meet them last night, but they did not come. They want that gold and State seal we have. No doubt we will have a bloody, fearful contest yet. We mortally wounded Gen. Price's son (who is an officer) in the early part of the engagement. Col. Mulligan shows all the coolness and ability of a veteran.

"Here is a sigh for those who love me,
And a smile for those who hate;
And whatever skies above me,

Here is a heart for every fate."

Sept. 16-Seven o'clock A. M.-No attack yet! We were not disturbed during the night; I hope they will soon get a "good ready." They sent in a white flag last evening with two propositions: one was, if we would promise to fight no more in this State, they would take the same oath. The other was, if we would evacuate, they would permit us to leave with the honors of war. Our reply was: "The Irish Brigade makes no compromises and never surrenders, but if you give us a few more days we will drive you out of the State." Will it be believed that seventeen thousand men hesitate to meet us, two thousand seven hundred; their force only fourteen thousand stronger than ours! They feel ashamed of the first fight, for we killed three hundred and wounded six hundred; our loss was now four dead and four wounded. We look for them all the time; we are impatient; but what more can we do? If we had the Washington news, we would be more content; but here is our world, we hear nothing that occurs five miles from our post; it is hard, but we can stand it.

If we had reinforcements now, this rebel army would be in our power. We could both rout and destroy them. It is a great pity that Gen. Fremont has not sent forward more men. If we are finally beaten it will rest upon him, not us. I now reiterate, that this war could be speedily closed if they would pitch in, but it seems that our policy is to make a long, linger-light. ing thing of it.

There has been constant firing far away to the southwest of us since yesterday afternoon. We are full of conjectures, but have no facts.

Sept. 15-Sunday, Nine o'clock A. M.-We expected an attack last night, but all was still. We destroyed some more buildings, one of which exploded, and from the noise there must have been a very large amount of powder concealed in it. Oh! how we wish for two or three more regiments! We could then clean them out; but we dare not try it now. Look at our condition, and we are no worse than many others. Of our brigade there are fit for duty eight hundred and sixty men; Home Guards, six hundred and seventy; artillerymen, seventy; Illinois Cavalry, eight hundred; Home Guard Cavalry, three hundred-making about two thousand seven hundred men, all told, to hold one of the most important posts in Missouri, which is now surrounded by a force that numbers not less than eleven thousand, and some rumors say thirteen thousand. It is wearing us out in working and watching. We now are doing a work that ought to require a force three times as strong to do. It is a sad wrong, and disheartens me when I think it all over.

Eight o'clock P. M.- -This is a beautiful night; so light that I am lying on the top of our breast works writing by moon and starNo enemy yet, although they got one thousand five hundred more men and cannon to-day from Booneville, and still they seem afraid.

Sept. 17-Seven o'clock P. M.-Nothing unusual took place last night. We all slept as well as could be expected. There is a continual exchange of shots this morning between our and their pickets. What the result will be we cannot tell, but we think they are advancing on

us.

I hope they will attempt to storm us. We have means of defence they have no idea of, and there will be now. Here comes another prisoner; I must see him; he is a smart fellow, has some twenty-five letters for the rebels, and only by chance fell into our hands. He passed all our pickets but the last one, the extreme outside picket, who he thought was a rebel. He asked him where Price's army was quartered. Our picket told him to surrender, and brought him in. Gov. Jackson is here, also Gen. Harris, and many of the prominent rebels. This county, Lafayette, is the hottest county in the State: 'in fact, the adjoining counties are almost

a unit for the South.

Eleven o'clock.-Another flag of truce, bearing the humane notice, that if we don't leave in three hours, they must drive us out. Their feelings are too tender. Why do they pity us

so much? We cannot return the feeling. We | attack until seven o'clock P. M., being nine and think they design making this city their capital, one-half hours' constant fighting, but we refor they held a Congress yesterday, so rumor pulsed them. They drew off their troops at says, but I cannot vouch for the truth of the this hour, and we expect to see them make a report. grand charge to-day with fresh troops, thinking Seven o'clock P. M.-We expected to have that after our severe test yesterday we will be them begin the fight to-day. There has been too tired to resist them long. They left many constant firing all day between our pickets and troops to annoy us all night. Half of our men theirs. Still they have given us another day to had to be on duty all the time, and every few make ourselves safe, and this day's work adds minutes during the night shots were exchanged. just so much more to our strength, and just so Our little fort holds out well, but from the many more names to their list of killed and fact that it is located in the timber, the rebels wounded. They released twelve Union men are concealed from view, only getting a fair to-day from confinement, and a captain whom sight at them when they attempt to storm us. they have had for a long time managed to slip I cannot think of many incidents now, for I am out with these twelve. He is now in our camp still behind the breastwork, and every few and confirms the report of their strength. He minutes balls come whistling round my ears. says they would not attack us at all if we The most prominent incident in my mind is would give up Magoffin, but retreat; for they this: They have many sharpshooters, who believe that we have heavy reinforcements up have placed themselves round in convenient on their rear. This Magoffin is brother of the places; some in trees, others behind stumps Kentucky Governor, and a colonel in their and logs, and from their secure position keep army. They have offered us forty men for constantly firing upon us. Three of these him. They said in this captain's hearing that scoundrels are placed on our track, and have they were bound to eat breakfast with us to-been firing on us since three o'clock yesterday. morrow morning. They intend to storm us, i. e., rush on and use their bayonets and scale the embankments. That is just what we have prepared for; it makes us rub our hands with pleasure to think they will attempt to scale our bank. This night is as beautiful as last night, not a cloud, nothing but the deep, dark, inimitable blue, lighted up by the broad fine rays of the moon, and ornamented by the myriads of twinkling stars. Oh, 'tis grand! every thing in nature has the calmness, the contentment of repose and happiness-all which seems to reproach our turbulent hearts.

Sept. 18-Seven o'clock A. M.-The same old beginning of my diary. No attack yet, but we are now looking for them every hour. Hark! I hear their cheering and their drums beating, now they cheer again. Do they expect to terrify us with the sound of their fifteen thousand voices?

We have failed in finding their location, although there are a number of our sharpshooters on the look-out. We have fired at them, but firing at random does not affect them.

Ha! that makes me start. He sent a bullet just past my cheek. It struck our camp kettle by my side, and I have the bullet in my pocket. If any of us raise our heads above the breastwork these fellows fire at us. The rebels several times threw charges of canister and grape into company D's quarters, but we have all escaped, and the rifle and musket balls have been whizzing round our heads so much that we don't notice them as much as we would a bumble bee at home. The first ball that struck the ground very near me, I picked up to show you, also the next one and the next; but I found that if I kept every one that I could feel its hiss as it passed over me, I would be loaded down. These sharpshooters' guns must be splendid. Nine o'clock A. M.-They are coming. The things; they make but a slight report, so slight drums have sounded the alarm. We are all you don't notice the sound. I wish I could at our posts. They have fired the challenge. have my picture taken now, you would see the Col. Mulligan has just passed along the line, dirtiest and blackest McClure of the race. We inspiring the men with his calmness and hero-have twenty-seven hundred men in our force, ism. He talked to us in this manner:-"Capt. but here let me say every one of these is as firm Simison, from all indications they will make as steel, and brave as patriotism can make them. their heaviest attack on your part of the line. The rebels act with all the savageness of devOf course you will not permit them to cross.ils. Our hospital is situated outside and some If you do, never make a report to me." They come on very slowly, but every moment's delay is to our benefit. Now I must cease my writing for the present. I am almost certain that we will achieve a victory, but I may have to lay down my life. It is a mournful thought to entertain, but I look calmly upon death.

distance from the breast works, and had several white flags upon it, but they charged upon it and reports say killed our sick and took possession. Company B made a charge upon them and routed them out, but in the evening at eight o'clock they slipped in and took it again; then our artillery men turned our cannon upon Sept. 19-Seven o'clock A. M.-We have it and battered it down. They made a charge met the rebels and the victory is ours. At at our very weakest point, but the men repulsed half past nine o'clock yesterday, they fired their them and took their flag, a singular-looking first cannon ball into our ranks. They sur-thing; it has a blue field with fifteen stars, then rounded us completely, and kept up a vigorous one broad stripe of red, then one of white, and