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198 Series I Volume XLI-I Serial 83 - Price's Missouri Expedition Part I

Page 198 LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. Chapter LIII.


Numbers 3. Report of Colonel Joseph J. Gravely, Eighth Missouri State Militia Cavalry.

SPRINGFIELD, MO., August 18, 1864.

GENERAL: I have the honor to inform you that having complied with Special Orders, Numbers 213, headquarters District of Southwest Missouri, I have returned to this post and make the following report:

I assumed command of the different detachments of troops ordered by you to Neosho on the morning of the 13th instant and marched to Cowskin Creek. The advance guard saw six men in the evening and killed 1 of them. On the morning of the 14th Captain Kelso killed Lieutenant Baxter, a noted bushwhacker, whom we learned from the ladies at the house at which he was killed had brought dispatches from General Stand Watie to the companies in that vicinity to join Stand Watie near Fort Smith. On the 14th I marched near Maysville, Ark., but did not discover any enemy, but learned from reliable sources that the forces which had been in the vicinity of cowskin Prairie had gone south, and that there was no rebel force left in that section except a few bushwhackers, who hide in the bluff and caves when any Federal soldiers are near. Having become satisfied from the trails of the rebels and rebel horses that the information received to the effect that Captains Rusk, Roberts, and Robinson, rebel officers, who attacked Major Burch about the 6th [7th] instant, had left for Stand Watie near Fort Smith, and that there was no probability of overtaking them, I returned to Neosho and ordered the different detachments of troops to return to their respective posts. On our return to Neosho the advance guard severely wounded 2 bushwhackers. They returned the fire and slightly wounded 1 man of the Sixth Provisional Regiment Enrolled Missouri Militia.

I have the honor, general, to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOSEPH J. GRAVELY,

Colonel Eighth Cavalry Missouri State Militia.

[Brigadier General JOHN B. SANBORN.]

AUGUST 2, 1864.- Reconnaissance from Berwick to Pattersonville, La.

REPORTS.


Numbers 1.- Brigadier General Robert A. Cameron, U. S. Army, commanding District of La Fourche.


Numbers 2.- Acting Master Levi S. Fickett, U. S. Navy.


Numbers 1. Report of Brigadier General Robert A. Cameron, U. S. Army, commanding district of La Fourche.

THIBODEAUX, August 2, 1864.

Colonel Jones, Ninety-third U. S. Colored Infantry, with his regiment and some cavalry, made a reconnaissance from Berwick to-day up the Teche as far as Pattersonville. They took 1 prisoner, 3 horses, 30 head of cattle, some molasses, and ammunition. They learned that the enemy had crossed the lake toward the La Fourche, but do not state when or where.

R. A. CAMERON,

Brigadier-General of Volunteers, Commanding.

Major GEORGE B. DRAKE,

Assistant Adjutant-General.


Page 198 LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. Chapter LIII.