staff officers to ascertain the object of the flag and to open negotiations with the enemy, if such should be his desire. It was agreed that the Federal forces should lay down their arms and surrender themselves prisoners of war.

The entire loss of the Missourians in this series of battles was but twenty-five killed and seventy-two wounded. The enery'e loss was considerably larger, but cannot be stated here with accuracy. The visible fruits of the victory to the Missourians were great: about three thousand five hundred prisoners-among whom were Cols. Mulligan, Marshall, Peabody, White, Grover, Major Van Horn, and one hundred and eighteen other commissioned officers; five pieces of artillery and two mortars; over three thousand stand of infantry arms, a large number of sabres, about seven hundred and fifty horses, many sets of cavalry equipments, wagons, teams, some ammunition, more than $100,000 worth of commissary stores, and a large amount of other property. In addition to all this, General Price obtained the restoration of the great seal of the State, of the public records, and about $900,000 of which the bank at Lexington had been robbed, in accordance with Fremont's instructions. General Price caused the money to be returned at once to the bank.

In his official report of the battle of Lexington, Genera. Price paid a high compliment to the command that had achieved such rich and substantial fruits of victory. "This victory," he wrote, "has demonstrated the fitness of our citizen soldiery for the tedious operations of a siege, as well as for a dashing charge. They lay for fifty-two hours in the open air, without tents or covering, regardless of the sun and rain, and in the very presence of a watchful and desperate foe, manfully repelling every assault and patiently awaiting my orders to storm the fortifications. No general ever commanded a braver of better army. It is composed of the best blood and bravest men of Missouri."

During the siege, quite a number of citizens came in from the neighboring country, and fought, as they expressed it, "on their own hooks." A participator in the battle tells an anecdote of an old man, about sixty years of age, who came up daily from his farm, with his walnut-stock rifle and a basket of pro visions, and went to work just as if he were engaged in hauling

rails or some other necessary labor of his farm. He took his position behind a large stump upon the descent of the hill on which the fortification was constructed, where he fired with deadly aim during each day of the siege.

When the surrender was made, and the forces under Colonel Mulligan stacked their arms, General Price ordered that they were not to be insulted by word or act, assigning as the reason therefor, that they had fought like brave men, and were entitled to be treated as such. When Colonel Mulligan surrendered his sword, General Price asked him for the scabbard. Mulligan replied that he had thrown it away. The general, upon receiving his sword, returned it to him, saying, he disliked to see a man of his valor without a sword. Mulligan refused to be paroled, upon the ground that his government did not acknowledge the Missourians as belligerents. While awaiting his exchange, Colonel Mulligan and his wife became the guests of General Price, the general surrendering to them his carriage, and treating them with the most civil and obliging hospitality. The captive colonel and his lady were treated by all the officers and soldiers of the Missouri army with a courtesy and kindness which they seemed to appreciate.

After the first day's conflict at Lexington, while General Price was encamped at the Fair Grounds near the city, awaiting reinforcements and preparing the renewal of the attack, an episode occurred at some distance from the city, in which the Missourians again had the satisfaction of inflicting a terrible chastisement upon the bandits of the Lane and Montgomery organization.

Gen. Price was informed that four thousand men under Lane and Montgomery were advancing from the direction of St. Joseph, on the north side of the Missouri river, and Gen. Sturgis, with fifteen hundred cavalry, was also advancing from the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad, for the purpose of relieving the forces under Mulligan. About twenty-five hundred Missourians, under the immediate command of Col. Saunders were, at the same time, hurrying to the aid of Gen. Price, from the same direction with the Lane and Montgomery Jayhawkers; and having reached the run at Blue Mills, thirty miles above Lexington, on the 17th September, crossed over their forec, except some five hundred men, in a ferry-boat. While

the remainder were waiting to cross over, the Jayhawkers attacked the five hundred Missourians on the north bank or the river. The battle raged furiously for one hour on the river bottom, which was heavily timbered and in many places covered with water. The Missourians were armed with only shot-guns and rifles, and taken by surprise: no time was given them to call back any portion of their force on the south side of the river; but they were from the counties contiguous to Kansas, accustomed in the border wars since 1854 to almost monthly fights with the Kansas "Jayhawkers," under Lane, and were fired with the most intense hatred of him and of them. Gen. D. R. Atchison, former President of the United States Senate, and well known as one of the boldest leaders of the State Rights party in Missouri, had been sent from Lexington by Gen. Price to meet our troops under Col. Saunders, and hasten them on to his army. He was with the five hundred, on the north side of the river, when they were attacked, and by his presence and example cheered them in the conflict. Charging the "Jayhawkers," with shouts of almost savage ferocity, and fighting with reckless valor, the Missourians drove the enemy back a distance of ten miles, the conflict becoming a hand-to-hand fight, between detached parties on both sides. At length, unable to support the fearful fire of the Missourians at the short distance of forty yards, the enemy broke into open flight. The loss of the Jayhawkers was very considerable. Their official report admitted one hundred and fifty killed and some two hundred wounded. The entire loss of the Missourians was five killed and twenty wounded. The intelligence of this brilliant victory of "the five hundred," was received with shouts of exultation by Price's army at Lexington.

On the second day after the battle of Blue Mills, Col. Saunders, with his command, joined the army at Lexington, and fought gallantly till the surrender of the Federal garrison. In the mean time, Sturgis with his cavalry appeared on the river bank opposite Lexington, expecting to cross over in the boats. of Mulligan, and reinforce him to the extent of fourteen hundred men. It happened, however, that on the day before his arrival, Gen. Price's forces had captured all of the enemy's boats and Gen. Sturgis ascertaining this fact, retreated precipi

tately in the direction from which he came. Gen. Price had sent across the river two thousand men under Gen. Parsons, to meet the forces under Gen. Sturgis, and they succeeded in capturing all the tents and camp equipage of that distinguished Yankee commander. The tents were most acceptable to the Missourians, as they were the first they had obtained in the war, except one hundred and fifty taken at Springfield. Gen. Sturgis did not stop in his flight for three days and three nights.

The capture of Lexington had crowned Gen. Price's command with a brilliant victory, and so far, the Missouri campaign had proceeded, step by step, from one success to another. It was at this period, however, that Gen. Price found his position one of the greatest emergency. After the victory of Lexington, he received intelligence that the Confederate forces, under Generals Pillow and Hardee, had been withdrawn from the southeastern portion of the State. Gen. McCulloch had retired to Arkansas. In these circumstances, Gen. Price was left with the only forces in Missouri, to confront an enemy seventy thousand strong, and being almost entirely without ammunition, he was reduced to the necessity of making a retrograde movement.

Before leaving Springfield, Gen. Price had made arrangements for an ample supply of ammunition, then at Jacksonsport, Arkansas, to be sent to him in Missouri, Gen. McCulloch promising to send a safe escort for it. Gen. McCulloch subsequently declined to furnish the escort and stopped the train, assigning as the reason therefor that, under the circumstances then existing, it would be unsafe to send it, and that Gen. Price would be compelled to fall back from the Missouri river, before the overwhelming forces of the enemy moving against him under the direction of Gen. Fremont.

Having no means of transportation, except for a limited number of men, and surrounded by circumstances of the most painful and unlooked-for misfortune, Gen. Price was compelled to disband a considerable portion of his forces. No occasion could be more fraught with mortifying reflections to the brave generous, and hopeful spirit of such a commander as Gen. Price He had marched from success to success; he had raised a force from hundreds to tens of thousands; his army had been swellec

to twenty-three thousand during his stay at Lexington, not enumerating ten thousand volunteers who had collected on the north bank of the Missouri about the period when he com menced a retreat, compe.led by emergencies which the most daring valor could no longer hope to surmount. Gen. Price advised all who could not accompany him to take care of such arms as they had, to cherish a determined spirit, and to hold themselves in readiness for another opportunity to join his standard.

In southeastern Missouri, the operations of the partisan, Jeff. Thompson, in connection with Gen. Hardee's command, had attracted some public notice from its adventure, and some incidents of interest. But the campaign in the Ozark mountains was not productive of any important or serious results. Gen. Thompson and his "Swamp Fox Brigade" gave many rash illustrations of daring in the face of the enemy. At one time he burnt an important railroad bridge within fifty miles of the city of St. Louis, which was swarming with Federal troops. On a march towards Fredericktown, with a force of twelve hundred men, Gen. Thompson encountered a Federal force numbering ten thousand men, which he engaged with such skill and courage as to check the enemy's pursuit and move his little force out of danger. The feat showed extraordinary military skill, when we consider that the small force was extricated with only twenty killed, while the loss of the enemy was counted by hundreds; and that his pursuit was baffled only from the impression of a large force opposed to him, which was given by the skilful disposition of ambuscades.

Gen. Price commenced his retreat about the 27th of September. He sent his cavalry forward, and directed them to make a demonstration in the neighborhood of Georgetown, fifty miles from Lexington, where Fremont was concentrating his forces with a view of surrounding him. With Sturgis on the north side of the river, Lane on the west, and himself on the east, each advancing upon Lexington, Fremont expected to cut off and capture the entire force of the Missourians. Gen. Price supplied his mounted men with provisions for several days, and directed them to make demonstrations on each of the divisions of the Federals, so as to gain time for the safe retreat of his infantry and artillery. By this means, he succeeded in deceiv