Today in History:

211 Series I Volume XLVIII-II Serial 102 - Powder River Expedition Part II

Page 211 Chapter LX. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. - UNION.

BLOOMFIELD, MO., April 26, 1865 - 10 p. m.

Major J. W. BARNES,

Asst. Adjt. General, Department Headquarters, Saint Louis, Mo.:

Captain Ed. Colbert, commanding post, received a telegram to-night from Brigadier-General Beveridge that a force of rebels under Jeff. Thompson were within fifteen miles of Fredericktown. There was a company of the Seventeenth Illinois Cavalry sent here on scout and are ordered back to the Cape. We are short of cavalry at this place, and I would request that they be ordered to remain here for the present. If this be true, Jeff. intends to carry out the plan I spoke of in my last dispatch. The artillery has not been hear of. What kind have I to prepare for? I must know it to enable me to make the platforms. If you cannot send it at once, send it as soon as you can.

D. F. TIEDMANN,

Lieutenant-Colonel and Assistant Engineer.


HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF CENTRAL MISSOURI,
Warrensburg, Mo., April 26, 1865.

Major J. W. BARNES,

Asst. Adjt. General, Hdqrs. Dept. of the Missouri, Saint Louis:

SIR: For the information of the major-general commanding department, I have the honor to state that with troops posted as indicated in my telegrams of yesterday I believe navigation can be kept safe and bushwhackers prevented from gathering or crossing the river in any considerable numbers. The cavalry operating at and around Miami will be sent down into the interior to co-operate with two other companies which have been ordered into Saline County. The company of the Forty-third Infantry Missouri Volunteers now at Waverly will be moved up tp Sibley on the arrival of the Fiftieth Missouri Infantry. Sibley, opposite the mouth of Fishing River, has always been one of the worts places on the river. There are but few houses left in the town and scarcely any inhabitants, but the facilities for crossing and recrossing the Missouri and the opportunity for hiding in the Fishing River bottom lands remain the same. I shall send another company of the Forty-third to Napoleon as soon as militia can occupy the stockades at the railroad bridges over the Big Blue and Rock Creek. It will be seen by a glance at the map that our post, Kansas City, Independence, Sibley, Napoleon, Wellington, Lexington, Berlin, Waverly, Miami, Cambridge, Arrow Rock, and Booneville, on this side of the river, are chiefly within easy communication of each other. If Missouri City, Camden, Brunswick, Glasgow, Rocheport, and Providence, on the other side of the river, be occupied by troops also, active scouting between posts ought to prevent any assemblage of guerrillas or crossing either way in bands, as well as to give security to boats, &c. Jackson, Cass, and Lafayette Counties have bee pretty thoroughly scoured and cavalry is still and will be kept active there. Saline and Cooper have not hitherto has so much attention paid to them. There is one company of cavalry now in Saline. Two more are on the way there. One will go into Cooper. One company is in Pettis operating in that and Moniteau Counties. A portion of the Third Wisconsin Cavalry is now on its way from California northwardly and will eventually return to Lafayette, whence it came. I see by the papers that the railroad people are at


Page 211 Chapter LX. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. - UNION.