from slavery to Missouri Rebels; and | 10,000 strong, he moved north-eastthis was their masters' mode of punishing that offense. ward into Missouri;" marching up the St. Francis to Frederickton," thence striking south-eastward at Cape Girardeau, a large dépôt of Union army stores, on the Mississippi, whither Gen. John McNeil had repaired from Bloomfield, with 1,200 men and 6 guns; reaching it, by hard marching, two days before Marmaduke's arrival." McNeil found here 500 men, mainly of the 1st Nebraska, Lt.-Col. Baumer, with 4 more guns, behind four very rude and simple earthworks. As a measure of prudence, he sent away most of the stores on steamboats, and was then ready for the fight with which Marmaduke, with four brigades, soon accommodated him: the place being first formally summoned "by order of Maj.-Gen. Sterling Price" (who was not within 100 miles)-30 minutes being allowed for an answer; but only one was taken. The enemy next shelled a while; when another summons was sent; but McNeil refused to stop firing or to make any answer. And now gunboats were seen coming up with rëenforcements to the besieged, and Marmaduke drew off," having lost considerably, and commenced his retreat toward Arkansas; which he was enabled, by burning bridges, to prosecute with little loss-McNeil having been ranked by Gen. Vandever, who arrived with the rëenforcements, and whose ideas of pursuit were of the slow-and-easy pattern. Two or three ineffective skirmishes occurred between our advance and the Rebel rear: McNeil, in the last, having his horse shot: but Marmaduke got over the St. Francis unharmed, and was April 22. " April 25. April 26. Fayetteville was our chief outpost on the Arkansas frontier; and here Col. M. L. Harrison, with the 1st Arkansas (Union) infantry and 1st Arkansas cavalry, was charged " by Gen. W. L. Cabell, who, with 2,000 mounted men and 2 guns, had rapidly crossed the Boston mountains from Ozark, intending to attack at daylight, but not arriving till after sunrise. After due shelling, a spirited cavalry charge on our right wing was led by Col. Munroe, but repulsed; and by noon the enemy were on their way back to Ozark. Harrison, having very few horses, was unable to pursue. His loss was but 4 killed, 26 wounded, 16 prisoners, and 35 "missing," whom he bluntly reports as "mostly stampeded to Cassville during the engagement." He took 55 prisoners, 50 horses, and 100 shotguns. He says all of his force who did any fighting numbered less than 500. Marmaduke, after his failure in south-western Missouri and his mishap at Batesville, repaired to Little Rock; where a new campaign was planned, in conjunction with the choice spirits there assembled. South-western Missouri was preponderantly Union; while south-eastern, at least below the Iron mountain, was considered otherwise. It is an unprepossessing, swampy, thinly peopled region, and had been scouted over by each party in turn, and not firmly held by either. Leaving Little Rock about the middle of April, with Price's '1st corps of the trans-Mississippi department,' reported (doubtless, with exaggeration) as 10 April 18. "1 April 20. 11 12 13 34 BLUNT DEFEATS COOPER AT HONEY SPRINGS. 449 thenceforth safe; retreating into Arkansas with as many prisoners as we had taken from him; but his losses in killed and wounded were far the heavier. The next blow in this department was struck" by the Rebels, perhaps 3,000 strong, under Col. Coffey, at Fort Blunt," in the Cherokee Nation, which was held by Col. Wm. A. Phillips, with some 800 mounted men and a regiment of Creck Indians. Phillips's Indian scouts proved untrustworthy, letting the enemy approach him unannounced; still, he had works which they did not care to attack, but, crossing the Arkansas, pounced upon his cattle, that were grazing on his left, and took the whole; only a part being recovered by a charge of his mounted men. "The Creek regiment refused to charge, or they would all have been saved," the Colonel dolefully reports. The enemy posted themselves in a strong position five miles from his fort; and there Col. Phillips attacked them with spirit-he driving them (or they escaping with their booty) over the Arkansas, with a loss of 50 or 60 on each side. Phillips seems to have conducted his part of the affair with judgment and energy. A train of 300 wagons, conveying supplies from Kansas to Fort Blunt, and guarded by ten companies of Western cavalry, with the 1st Kansas colored, 800 strong, Col. J. M. Williams, and 500 Indians, Maj. Forman, had a fight" at the crossing of Cabin creek, Indian Territory, with a force of Texans and Indians under Standwatie, the Cherokee Rebel chief. The Texans fought well; but they were only 700; while the Rebel Indians proved of no account. Standwatie was driven off, with a total loss of 23 on our side, including Maj. Forman, wounded. The Rebels left 40 dead on the field and 9 prisoners. Gen. Blunt, learning that Fort Blunt, his advanced post, was in peril, rode thither from Fort Scott175 miles-in five days, arriving just in time." Learning that the Rebel Gen. Cooper was at Honey Springs, on Elk creek, 25 miles south, waiting, with 6,000 men, for a rëenforcement of three regiments from Texas, which he expected on the 17th, and purposed then to advance and fight, Blunt could not perceive the wisdom of waiting, but resolved to bring the matter to issue forthwith. So, setting out at midnight," with 250 cavalry and 4 guns, and, moving 13 miles up the Arkansas, he crossed and came down the other side, driving back the Rebel outpost and beginning forthwith to cross in boats his entire force-3,000 men, with 12 light guns. Advancing five miles, he came upon the enemy, posted behind Elk creek: their numbers and position concealed by a growth of bushes. At 10 A. M., Blunt 20 advanced in two columns, under May 20. 16 Near Fort Gibson, Creek Nation. 17 July 1. July 10. "July 15-16. 20 July 17. their wounded at 400. Our loss was But very few thought of resistance, 17 killed and 60 wounded. Hardly had Cooper fled, when Cabell, at 4 P. M., arrived with the expected Texans, estimated by Blunt at 3,000; but they did not see fit to attack; while our men were exhausted with marching and fighting, and were running short of ammunition. So Blunt halted and waited till next morning; when he ascertained that the enemy had decamped during the night, retreating across the Canadian. But, though beaten at the front, the Rebels soon began to exhibit a fresh vitality by means of guerrilla raids in the rear of our forces. The 6th Missouri cavalry, Col. Catherwood, holding PINEVILLE, in the south-west corner of Missouri, was next attacked" by Coffey, raiding up from Arkansas; who was beaten off, with the loss of his wagons, munitions, and cattle, with some 200 killed, wounded, and prisoners. The next raid was more savage and more successful. It was made by a bandit termed Quantrell-though that was not his real name-who, collecting a force of 300 Rebel guerrillas on the Blackwater, in western Missouri, 50 miles from the State line, far within the Union lines, and while no Rebel flag openly floated within 100 miles, rode stealthily across the border and at early dawn" into the young city of Lawrence, Kansas, where no preparation for defense existed, for no danger of attack was ever dreamed of. The people were surprised in their beds, the roads picketed, and every one who emerged from a house with a weapon was shot down, of course. Aug. 13. 21 which was manifestly idle. The Eldridge House, the chief hotel, contained no arms of any kind, and was formally surrendered by Capt. Banks, who, frankly avowing himself a Union officer, insisted on seeing Quantrell, who assured him that none who surrendered should receive personal harm. The banks, stores, and safes, were all broken open and robbed, as were the private dwellings. All the horses were taken, of course; otherwise the booty could not have been carried off. Every negro and every German who were caught were killed at once. The Court-house and many of the best dwellings were fired and burnt. Eighteen unarmed recruits were found at the rendezvous near the city, and killed; as were quite a number of private citizens; several of them after they had surrendered and given up their money under a promise that they should be spared; but those taken in the Eldridge House were protected by Quantrell and saved. Few, if any, who were shot, survived. U. S. Senator J. H. Lane escaped; as did Col. Deitzler and some others; Gen. Collamore, who hid in a well, was suffocated, as were two men who successively went down to help him out. At 10 A. M., the work of devastation and murder was complete-140 men having been butchered and 185 buildings burned, including most of the stores and one-fourth of the dwellings-and the bandits left, being fired at by some soldiers across the Kansas, as they fled, and three of them killed. A series of fatalities had prevented the receipt of any warning of this "Aug. 21. STEELE AND DAVIDSON MENACE LITTLE ROCK. 451 raid. Col. Woodson, with 600 Missourians, starting" from Pilot Knob, Mo., dashed into Pocahontas," Ark., where he captured Gen. M. Jeff. Thompson and some 50 others; returning unmolested. The surrender of Vicksburg and "Aug. 21. "Aug. 24. "July 31. "Aug. 10. Port Hudson, with the retreat of Jo. Johnston from Jackson, having left Gen. Grant's army at leisure, Maj.Gen. F. Steele was sent to Helena," to fit out and lead an expedition for the capture of LITTLE ROCK. The force assigned him for this task numbered 6,000 men of all arms, including 500 cavalry, with 22 guns; but Gen. Davidson, with nearly 6,000 more men, mainly mounted, and 18 guns, soon joined him from Missouri; swelling his aggregate to 12,000 men and 40 guns. Steele soon moved out," Davidson's cavalry in advance; crossing White river" at Clarendon, and sending forward" Davidson to reconnoiter the enemy's position at Brownsville, while he shipped his extra supplies and his sick-by this time numbering 1,000-down to Duvall's bluff, which was accounted the healthiest spot in that unhealthy region. Davidson advanced, skirmishing, to Brownsville," which Marmaduke evacuated; retreating to his intrenchments at Bayou Metea; whence he was, after some fighting, dislodged ' and driven over the bayou; burning the bridge behind him, and so checking pursuit. 30 Gen. True's brigade, from Memphis, reaching Clarendon on the 29th, was ferried over the White next day, and a general advance resumed; Steele concentrating at Brownsville, and, after attempting to pass Bayou Metea on the north and being baffled by miry swamps, decided to move by the left to the Arkansas, which he struck" near Ashley's mills; where Davidson's cavalry, reconnoitering in the advance, had another sharp skirmish with the enemy; Steele, Aug. 17. Aug. 22. "Aug. 25. "Aug. 27. "Sept. 7. finding himself embarrassed with 700 more sick; whom, along with his train, he was obliged to leave True's brigade and Ritter's cavalry to guard, while he pushed up the Arkansas and fought his way into Little Rock; Davidson, supported by two divisions and two batteries, crossing directly, and approaching that city on the south side of the river. Davidson, having completed his reconnoissances and fixed on his point of crossing, threw over his pontoons during the night," and was all over by 11 A. M.; the fire of his batteries having speedily silenced the enemy's opposition. Advancing directly on Little Rock, he was more stubbornly resisted at Bayou Fourche, five miles out, by Marmaduke's cavalry and Tappan's brigade of infantry, supporting two batteries, strongly posted; but Steele, advancing simultaneously on the north bank of the river, his batteries fired across at the enemy obstructing Davidson; which enabled the latter slowly to gain ground, until at length, ordering a charge by Ritter's brigade and Strange's howitzers, supported by part of the 1st Iowa cavalry, his men went into the city, saber in hand, on the heels of the flying enemy; and, at 7 P. M., the capital of Arkansas was formally surrendered by its civil authorities: the United States arsenal being uninjured, and whatever Rebel stores were there falling into our hands; but six steamboats were completely burned by Price, who had been in chief command here, with several railroad cars; while their three pontoon-bridges and two locomotives, though also fired by them, were partially saved. Steele, moving parallel with Davidson, was opposite the city, when it was evacuated and given up, and entered it late that evening: the enemy making for Arkadelphia too rapidly to be overtaken by our jaded horses, to say nothing of our men. Steele says his entire loss to or by the enemy during this campaign did not exceed 100; yet he had but 7,000 of his 12,000 when he started that morning to enter Little Rock. True, he had left many guarding hospitals and trains; but he had been rëenforced by two brigades: so that his losses by disease must have been fearful. He had taken 1,000 prisoners. Ere this, Gen. Blunt, pursuing the motley Rebel horde under Standwatie and Cabell, had very nearly brought them to a stand at Perryville," Choctaw Nation; but they were too nimble to receive much damage, and he chased them by Fort Smith, whereof he took" bloodless possession. Col. J. M. Johnson, 1st [Union] Arkansas, was made post commander. Cabell, it was said, fell back to participate in the defense of Little Rock; but he failed to arrive in season; joining Price's fugitive force somewhere on its retreat to the Washita. Price ultimately fell back to Red river. Gen. Blunt, having been on business to Kansas, was returning with a small cavalry escort to Fort Smith, when he was struck," near Baxter's springs, Cherokee Nation, by Quantrell, with 600 guerrillas, and most of his small escort killed or disabled: among the 80 killed-nearly all after they had been captured-were Maj. H. Z. Curtis, son of Maj.-Gen. S. R. |