Today in History:

696 Series I Volume VIII- Serial 8 - Pea Ridge

Page 696 OPERATIONS IN MO., ARK., KANS., AND IND T. Chapter XVIII.

noblest devotion known among men on earth to the cause of your country and your rights with their lives.

But where one has been lost on the field three have been lost by diseased induced by privation and toil. During all these trials we have murmured not; we offered all we had on earth at the altar of our common country - our own beloved Missouri - and we only now ask our fellow-citizens, our brethren, to come to us and help to secure what we have gained and to win our glorious inheritance from the cruel hand of the spoiler and the oppressor. Come to us, brave sons of Missouri rally to our standard! I must have 50,000 men. I call upon you in the name of your country for 50,000 men. Do you stay at home to take care of your property? Millions of dollars have been lost because you staid at home. Do you stay at home for protection? More men have been murdered at home than I have lost in five successive battles. Do you stay at home to secure terms with the enemy? Then, I warn you, the day may soon come when you may be surrendered to the mercies of that enemy and your substance be given up to the Hessian and jayhawker. I cannot, I will not, attribute such motives to you, my countrymen.

But where are our Southern-rights friends? We must drive the oppressor from our land. I must have 50,000 men. Now is the crisis of your fate; now the golden opportunity to save the State; now is the day of your political salvation. The time of enlistment for our brave band is beginning to expire. Do not tax their patience beyond endurance; do not longer sicken their hearts by hope deferred. They begin to inquire, "Where are our friends?" Who shall give them an answer? Boys and small property-holders have in the main fought the battles for the protection of your properly, and when they ask, "Where are the men for whom we are fighting?" how can I, how shall I explain?

Citizens of Missouri, I call upon you by every consideration of interest, by every desire for safety, by every tie that binds you to home and country, delay no longer. "Let the dead bury their dead." Leave your property to take care of itself. Commend your homes to the protection of God, and merit the admiration and love of childhood and womanhood by showing yourselves men, the sons of the brave and free, who bequeathed to us the sacred trust of free institutions. Come to the Army of Missouri, not for a week or month, but to free your country.

Strike till each armed foe expires!

Strike for your altars and your fires!

For the green graves of your sires,

God and your native land!

The burning fires of patriotism must inspire and lead you or all is lost; lost, too, just at the moment when all might be forever saved. Numbers give strength. Numbers intimidated the foe. Numbers save the necessity often of fighting battles. Numbers make our arms irresistible. Numbers command universal respect and insure confidence. We must have men - 50,000 men. Let the herdsman leave his folds. Let the farmer leave his fields. Let the mechanic leave his shop. Let the lawyer leave his office till we restore the supremacy of law. Let the aspirants for office and place know they will be weighed in the balances of patriotism and may be found wanting. If there be any craven, crouching spirits, who have not the greatness of soul to respond to their country's call for help, let them stay at home, and let only the brave and true come out to join their brethren on the tended field.

Come with supplies of clothing, and with tents, if you can procure


Page 696 OPERATIONS IN MO., ARK., KANS., AND IND T. Chapter XVIII.