loose order in a wood Seeing no reasonable

ander command of Col. Marmaduke, were posted in along a wheat-field not far from the water's edge. 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 sub stituted 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

out from St. Louis on the southwestern branch of the Pacific Railroad to Rolla, and had arrived at the town of Carthage, immediately in Jackson's front, thus threatening him with battle in the course of a few hours. About ten o'clock in the morning of the 5th of July, the Missourians approached a creek within a mile and a half of the enemy, whose forces in three detachments were admirably posted upon the brow of a hill.

The first important encounter of arms in Missouri was now to take place. Gen. Jackson found great difficulty in forming his line of battle and in deploying his cavalry under the constant fire of Sigel's batteries. Gen. Sigel had assured his men that there would be no serious conflict; he had remarked that the Missourians were coming into line like a wormfence, and that a few grape and canister thrown into their midst would soon involve them in confusion and put them to flight. But he was terribly undeceived. When it was found impossible, on account of the rawness of their horses, to get the cavalry in position under fire, the order was given for the infantry to charge the enemy; the cavalry to come up at the same time in supporting distance. They advanced at the double-quick with a shout. The Federals retreated across Bear Creek, a wide and deep stream, destroying the bridge over which they had crossed. They still continued their retreat along the bank of the creek, for the distance of a mile or more, and formed behind a skirt of timber.

The Missourians had to cross an open field; they were exposed to a raking fire before they could reach the enemy's cover. A number of the cavalry dismounted, and acted with the infantry, so as to put in active use all the small arms brought upon the field. They rushed towards the skirt of timber, and opened vigorously upon the enemy across the stream, who returned the fire with spirit. For the space of an hour the fire on each side was incessant and fierce. At last, the Missourians threw a quantity of dead timber into the stream, and commenced crossing in large numbers, when the enemy again abandoned his position, and started in the direction of Carthage, eight miles distant. A running fight was kept up all the way to Carthage. Here the enemy again made a stand, forming ambuscades behind houses, wood-piles, and fences. After a severe engagement there of some forty minutes, he retreated under cover of night in the direction of Rolla; never halting until the next day, about forty miles from the field of battle, over twelve of which he had been pursued by men, whom Gen. Sigel had expected to capture, almost without a fight.

The results of the day were greatly encouraging and gratifying to the Missourians. These raw and poorly-armed men had driven a well-disciplined enemy from three different positions. Their own loss was probably not more than fifty killed and one hundred and fifty wounded; that of the enemy, who had suffered greatly in his retreat, about three times as large. No wonder that with this experience of the fighting qualities of

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the people against whom they had to contend, the Federal commanders in Missouri were awakened to a sense of the magnitude of the work before them.

The day succeeding this engagement, Gen. Price, who had hitherto been detained from active command by a severe sickness, arrived at Carthage, accompanied by Brig.-Gen. McCulloch of the Confederate forces, and Maj.-Gen. Pearce of the Arkansas State troops, with a force of nearly two thousand men. These timely reinforcements were hailed with great joy; and the patriot army was alike animated by the appearance of their beloved commander, and the assurance, which McCulloch's presence gave them, of the friendly feeling and intention of the Confederate Government.

The next day the forces at Carthage, under their respective commands, took up their line of march for Cowskin Prairie, near the boundary of the Indian Nation. Here they remained for several days, organizing and drilling; Gen. Price still continued to receive reinforcements; and the whole numerical strength of the command was now rated about ten thousand. With this force, although yet imperfectly armed, it was decided to venture on the offensive; and it having been ascertained that the Federal commanders, Lee, Sturgis, Sweeny, and Sigel, were about to form a junction at Springfield, it was determined by Price, McCulloch, and Pearce, to march upon that place, and attack the enemy where he had taken his position in force.

When the army reached Crane Creek, about thirty miles from Springfield, a consultation was held as to their future course. Gen. Price earnestly advocated an advance. Gen. McCulloch doubted its prudence. He looked with great concern on the large proportion of undisciplined men in Price's command; he regarded the unarmed men as incumbrances; and he concluded that the unorganized and undisciplined condition of both wings of the army suggested the wisdom of avoiding battle with the disciplined enemy upon his own ground and in greatly superiour numbers. Gen. Price resented the idea of the nature of the materials under his command, and assured McCulloch that when the time of battle came, these untaught and headstrong men would fight together and with a resolution which would spurn defeat. He requested the Confederate commander to loan a number of arms from his command for the use of such Misssouri soldiers as were unarmed, believing that, with the force at his command, he could whip the enemy. This McCulloch refused, and still declined the responsibility of ordering an advance of the whole command.

But in the midst of this hesitation Gen. McCulloch received a general order from Gen. Polk, commander of the Southwestern division of the Confederate army, to advance upon the enemy in Missouri. Another council was called. McCulloch exhibited the order he had received, and offered to march at once upon Springfield, upon condition that he should have the

chief command of the army. The question of rank was one of no little embarrassment. Price was a Major-General in the State service. McCulloch was a Brigadier-General in the Confederate service. If the State troops were merely militia, and Price a General of Militia, the question was at once settled-McCulloch would have been entitled to precedence. But the Missourians, with much show of reason, contended that their State had assumed an independent attitude, and by her laws, as a sovereign, had raised an army which was on a regular military footing, and therefore their Major-General was entitled to command.

The question was solved by Price in a noble and patriotic spirit. He relinquished his post to McCulloch, expressing himself in substance as follows: "I seek not distinction; I am not fighting for that; but in the defence of the liberties of my countrymen. It matters little what position I hold. I am ready to surrender, not only the command, but my life as a sacrifice to the cause." That his services and his presence among the men should not be lost, he took a subordinate position in the forthcoming contest. McCulloch assumed chief command, and Price was a division general under him; and thus the army marched forward to meet the foe.

THE BATTLE OF OAK HILL.

On the 7th of August, McCulloch reached a camp three miles from Wilson's Creek, and twelve miles from Springfield. His command was thus composed: the Missouri forces numbered eight thousand, of whom only about six thousand were armed; the Confederate troops were three thousand two hundred, coming from Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas; and there were eighteen hundred Arkansas State troops under General Pearce. The total effective force was thus about eleven thousand, of whom nearly six thousand were mounted; and it had fifteen pieces of artillery.

General Lyon had assembled at Springfield an effective army of nearly ten thousand men, consisting of his own and Col. Totten's forces from Booneville and St. Louis, and the troops heretofore acting under Gens. Sigel and Sturgis and Col. Sweeny. About two thousand were "home guards," of Missouri, the rest were United States regulars and volunteers from the Northwestern States. Their artillery consisted of sixteen pieces -several batteries being of the regular service.

On the 9th of August McCulloch moved up to Wilson's Creek, intending to advance upon the enemy at Springfield. But Lyon had anticipated him, and was already moving in three heavy columns. The next morning before sunrise, the enemy had succeeded in obtaining the position he desired; and McCulloch, who was quietly taking breakfast at the time,

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was surprised by his couriers announcing that the enemy were in sight and in great force, and had gained both sides of his camp.

On the right Gen. Sigel had already opened a heavy fire. By muffling the wheels of his cannon, he had succeeded, under cover of the night, in getting positions near McCulloch's camp, and now poured into it a severe and destructive fire. Gen. Lyon led the attack on the left.

Reinforcements were rapidly hurried in the direction of Sigel's attack. Gen. McCulloch sent forward Col. Hebert's Louisiana Volunteers and McIntosh's mounted Arkansians, who, moving to the left, gained a position along a fence enclosing a cornfield. Here McIntosh dismounted his men, and the two regiments rapidly advanced in the face of a galling fire. A terrible conflict of small arms ensued. Undismayed, breasting a deadly fire, the gallant men of these regiments leaped the fence, and drove the enemy before them back upon his main body. But still Sigel's artillery continued to play with damaging effect. A battery, commanded by Capt. Reid, was brought up to oppose it. Seizing the critical moment, Gen. McCulloch placed himself at the head of two companies of a Louisiana regiment near him, and marching to the right, drew rapidly upon the adverse guns. At the same time, McIntosh and Hebert, with their men, came up, and with a loud cheer, they rushed upon the enemy's cannoniers, driving them from their guns. This gallant charge swept everything before it; five guns were taken; and nothing could now arrest the tide of success on the right. Sigel fell back in confusion, and lost his last gun in a retreat which had now become irretrievable.

Having cleared their right and rear, it became necessary for the Confederate forces to direct all their attention to the centre, where Gen. Lyon was pressing upon the Missourians with all his strength. To this point McIntosh's regiment, Churchill's regiment on foot, Gratiot's regiment, and McRae's battalion were rapidly moved. Along the whole line of the hill, upon which the enemy was posted, a terrible fire of musketry was now kept up. The roar of the battle was tremendous, bursting along two opposing lines which swept for miles over the rolling fields. Masses of infantry fell back and again marched forward. The summit of the hill was covered with the dead and wounded. Totten's battery on the enemy's side did fearful execution. With the loss of many men and horses, the Federal battery, after a fierce engagement with Woodruff's, was with difficulty withdrawn. Part of it was again planted where it swept the front-part was masked to meet an advance. At this moment, when the fortunes of the day yet hung in doubt, two regiments of Gen. Pearce's command were ordered forward to support the centre. Reid's battery was also brought up and the Louisiana regiment was again called into action on the left of it. The enemy was now evidently giving way.

Gen. Lyon had marked the progress of the battle with deep anxiety.