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

Page 268 LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. Chapter LIII.

more writhing among bushwhackers than any other mode of attack; but they threaten to stay and fight me on boiled acorns. If your scouts report any movements of importance on the east of this please inform me.

I remained, general, your most obedient servant,

M. LA RUE HARRISON,

Colonel, Commanding.

Brigadier-General SANBORN,

Commanding District of Southwest Missouri.


Numbers 2. Reports of Lieutenant Colonel Albert W. Bishop, First Arkansas Cavalry (Union).

NEOSHO, August 27, 1864.

GENERAL: A detachment of the First Arkansas Cavalry and Captain Hughes' command arrived here this noon, the whole under my general command. I left Fayetteville on the night of the 21st with 300 men mounted and dismounted, and one howitzer, fully expecting to have a fight somewhere in the vicinity of Cane Hill or Rhea's Mills, but the birds had mainly flown. At Cane Hill we ran on a squad of twenty-five or thirty, whom we very quickly dispersed. I soon afterward ascertained that Adair had gone south with his command, and Brown was reported to be temporarily out of the country. The next day I sent my dismounted men back to Fayetteville and commenced scouting the country thoroughly to this place. Captain Hughes will give you the particulars. Though we discovered no force of any consequence, there is still much work to be done in Northwestern Arkansas, and I respectfully request, in behalf of the command at Fayetteville, that Captain Hughes be sent south again as soon as possible with as much of a command as you can spare for him. He has done us very essential service. I move again to-morrow in the direction of Pineville and Bentonville.

Hoping that we shall soon be attacked to your district, I remain, in haste,

Yours, very sincerely,

A. W. BISHOP.

Brigadier General JOHN B. SANBORN,

Springfield, Mo.

FAYETTEVILLE, ARK., August 31, 1864.

COLONEL: I have the honor to report that in accordance with your order of the 19th instant I proceeded with a detachment of 300 men of the First Arkansas Cavalry and Sixth Cavalry Missouri State Militia, and one mountain howitzer to the vicinity of Cane Hill, Ark., to attack and pursue any rebel bands that I might be able to find int the western portion of Washington or Benton Counties. Leaving Fayetteville at 10 p. m. on the 21st, the next morning the command arrived at Cane Hill, where our extreme advance, led by Sergeant Miles, Company H, First Arkansas Cavalry, gallantly charged a party of twenty-five or thirty men seen hovering on the outskirts of the town. A stand was attempted, but our men pressed them so closely that they fled in confusion to the bushes. They proved from reliable subsequent inquiry to be a portion


Page 268 LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. Chapter LIII.