Today in History:

315 Series I Volume XLI-II Serial 84 - Price's Missouri Expedition Part II

Page 315 Chapter LIII. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. - UNION.

SAINT JOSEPH, July 21, 1864.

Major S. S. CURTIS,

Aide-de-Camp, Fort Leavenworth:

I shall need the arms. Let me have infantry arms, if you can do no better, and send them to Saint Joseph under a strong guard if you can spare it. Thornton's clans have consolidated and to-day occupy Plattsburg. I judge there are nearly 1,000 rebels in striking distance. Can you give me any cavalry in an emergency? Colonel Ford's command should have pursued the enemy. We can hold mass-meetings after the war.

CLINTON B. FISK,

Brigadier-General.

FORT LEAVENWORTH, July 21, 1864.

General FISK:

The general has gone west; I send him yours and also one of same purport from General Rosecrans, to Lawrence, where he will be to-night. I think we can let you have some infantry arms, but none of cavalry. Shall you want them at Weston or Saint Joseph? Colonel Ford also wants 500 stand. Where is the enemy, and how strong?

S. S. CURTIS,

Major and Aide-de-Camp.

WEEKLY MISSOURI PLAINDEALER OFFICE,

Savannah, Mo., July 21, 1864.

Governor W. P. HALL:

DEAR SIR: It is all important that you be advised of what is going on here. This section of country is already upon the eve of a bloody conflict, and the authority of the State set at defiance. General Fisk has issued an order calling for 5,000 men, for what he calls protecting the people and putting down guerrillas. He has verbally told citizens of this section that the men can come forward in regiments, or companies, or by tens, fives, threes, twos, or ones, and that he will furnish them clothing, arms, &c. General Ben. Loan spoke at our court-house last night, for the purpose of arousing a recruiting spirit among the people. In order to show what seems to be on foot, I shall give you a few points in his speech. He said, before leaving Washington he called upon the President and told him of the grievances of the loyal people of Missouri, and asked for help to protect the loyal people. The President told him the troops of the regular army were needed to combat the organized armies of the rebels; that he (Mr. Lincoln) could only transact such business through his subordinates; that Governor Hall and General Rosecrans were the parties whom to apply to; and that he (Lincoln) had confidence in Governor Hall and General Rosecrans. General Loan then said that on the way from Washington he came by way of Saint Louis, and in company with his colleagues, Boyd and McClurg, he called upon General Rosecrans; that they told the general of the same grievances; that General Rosecrans said he had no force; he had to depend upon just such troops as the Governor of the State furnished him; that when said troops punished rebels they were relieved from duty by the Governor; and that he, Rosecrans, could do nothing, and asked what could be done. Loan said he suggested to him the propriety of calling into immediate service the loyal men of the State. "But," said Rosecrans, "I have no law for so doing, and if I call them


Page 315 Chapter LIII. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. - UNION.