Today in History:

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

Page 423 Chapter LIII. PRICE'S MISSOURI EXPEDITION.

manding such facts touching the whereabouts and movements of the enemy as I had been able to gather. On the 19th I was ordered by Major-General Rosecrans to proceed with the troops of my command to La Mine bridge and take command of all troops at that point and on the railroad from California to Warrensburg. My command arrived at La Mine bridge on the 21st and immediately commenced rebuilding the bridge at that and other points, and in one week re-opened the Pacific Railroad from Jefferson City to Warrensburg. The labor performed by troops in the reconstruction of destroyed bridges, the opening up and maintaining lines of communication, the pushing forward with promptness troops and supplies to the army at the front, is too frequently overlooked or forgotten in the recapitulation of services rendered in important campaigns.

On the 28th I reported to the major-general commanding, then at Warrensburg and was by him ordered to return to North Missouri, via Glasgow and reorganize my district with all possible dispatch I moved my command from the La Mine bridge on the 29th, arrived at Glasgow November 2, and at my headquarters in Saint Joseph on the 6th, and proceeded to the organization of my district.

I am pleased to make honorable mention of the following-named staff officers, who served with me during the campaign on the south side of the Missouri River: Lieutenant Colonel Austin A. King, jr., Thirteenth Missouri Cavalry Volunteers, acting aide-de-camp; Captain H. S. Glaze, Ninth Cavalry Missouri State Militia, assistant inspector-general and acting aide-de-camp; Lieutenant William T. Clarke, aide-de-camp: Lieutenant J. H. Waite, Seventeenth Illinois Cavalry Volunteers, acting aide-de-camp, and Lieutenant Thomas J. Tidswell, Forty-fourth Missouri Volunteers, acting assistant adjutant-general. Lieutenant Clarke, aide-de-camp, is entitled to special commendation for the energy and zeal he devoted to the concentration of troops from the District of North Missouri for the salvation of the State capital. Brigadier-General Douglass, Enrolled Missouri Militia, commanding Eighth Military District of Missouri, rendered valuable service in concentrating and forwarding troops.

During my absence from the district bands of guerrillas, detached from Price's main force, were sent by their chief into North Missouri to murder Unionists and burn their substance, and to destroy railway depots and bridges. The Enrolled Missouri Militia of the district responded promptly to the call made upon them, and generally rendered most excellent service in beating back the robber horde.

The militia garrison at Paris, Monroe County, under command of Captain Fowkes, with 100 men, was surrendered to a superior force of the enemy. Officers and men were sworn not to bear arms against the rebels; horses, arms, and private property were stolen and carried away. The post of Carrollton, under command of Major George Deagle, Sixty-fifth Regiment Enrolled Missouri Militia, with 160 men, was similarly surrendered on the 17th of October. The surrendered officers were paroled on the spot; the men were marched to the south side of the Missouri River near Waverly, and all paroled but six, who were brutally murdered and thrown by the wayside. The bodies of the victims were discovered, identified, and removed to Carroll County for burial.

The Enrolled Missouri Militia, of Daviess and Ray Counties, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel S. P. Cox, attacked Bill Anderson and fiends at Albany, Ray County, on the 27th [26th] day of October and gained a signal victory. Among the slain was Anderson the murdered chieftain, who for months had been a terror to Unionists in Central and North Missouri. The heart would sicken and the mind recoil at the recital and contemplation


Page 423 Chapter LIII. PRICE'S MISSOURI EXPEDITION.