for Government use, and commencing a rigid conscription, as communicated in my telegraphic dispatches to department headquarters on the 15th and 16th of that month.

On the ---- day of September I was informed from department headquarters that Price had crossed the Arkansas, on the following day my scouts brought in the same report, stating that his command consisted of a large mounted force and some twenty pieces of artillery, with a train of about 600 wagons.

On the 23rd of September it was ascertained that the rebel army was moving toward Batesville. I had already concentrated all the troops that could be spared from the various outposts of this district, and at once sen tout a detachment of 100 men of the Sixth Provisional Enrolled Missouri Militia, under Captain Sallee, to reconnoiter. He moved to a point below the mouth of the North Fork of the White River, and returning on the 26th day of September reported the entire force of the enemy moving rapidly up the Blackwater.

On the 27th day of September, pursuant to a telegraphic order from the general commanding, dated September 26, 1864, I moved with all my available cavalry force in the direction of Rolla, leaving a sufficient force at this place to make it reasonably secure. I arrived at Rolla with my command, consisting of about 1,500 cavalry, at 3 p. m. on the 29th, making the entire distance of 120 miles in fifty-eight hours.

On the evening of October 1 information was received that General Ewing and his command were at Leasburg, hard pressed by the enemy. On the following morning I moved my command to Saint James. Soon after my arrival there I received information from Colonel Beveridge, Seventeenth Illinois Cavalry, who had been ordered to Leasburg by General McNeil, that he was within a few miles of that place, and had met with no opposition. This seemed to indicate conclusively that the enemy had moved forward on a line of march east of Leasburg, and I abandoned the idea of moving any farther down the road.

At 1 a. m. on the 2nd of October I received a verbal message from General Ewing, through a Mr. Smith, of Cuba, stating that the enemy was still near him in heavy force and that it would be imprudent for him to move out with his small force. I immediately ordered Colonel John E. Phelps to proceed with his own regiment, the Second Arkansas Cavalry, and the Seventeenth Provisional Enrolled Missouri Militia to Leasburg and to cover any movement that General Ewing might desire to make. This order was executed promptly, but this force met General Ewing's command at Knob View. The enemy was till reported in the immediate vicinity of the railroad. A train of cars had been left at Leasburg, and early on the following morning I moved forward to Cuba, repaired the track, sent down to Leasburg and brought the train out unharmed and at the same time learned that the entire force of the enemy had crossed the road near Sullivan and moved in a northwest direction. I communicated my information and intentions to General McNeil and received word that he would be at Vienna with his command the next evening. I moved with my command at daylight the next day, October 4, joined McNeil at Vienna that evening, and reached Jefferson City in thirty-six hours after leaving Cuba, a distance of about eighty miles, crossing the ford on the Osage but a few hours before the enemy.

At the Osage information came from ---- by an orderly that the enemy was already across the Osage at a point farther down and his advance fighting at the Moreau. This induced me to move my command from the Osage forward to the Moreau before reporting to General Brown.