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488 Series I Volume XLI-III Serial 85 - Price's Missouri Expedition Part III

Page 488 LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. Chapter LIII.

GLASGOW, September 29, 1864.

Major-General ROSECRANS, Saint Louis:

Major Johnston, Thirty-ninth Regiment Missouri Volunteers, left Paris, Monroe County, on the 26th instant, with 150 men, in pursuit of the guerrillas. He arrived at Centralia soon after Anderson had closed his bloody chapter of crime at that station, and discovering the demons in the timber, about two miles distant, he immediately pushed his command after them. On nearing the timber he formed his men in line of battle and dismounted them, each man holding his own horse. The guerrillas rushed from the timber in line of battle, nearly 500 strong, under Thrailkill. Perkins, Todd, Anderson, and Holtzclaw. When within 150 yards of our troops Major Johnston ordered his troops to fire. The fiends were temporarily checked and thrown into disorder, but speedily rallied, re-formed, and charged upon our men before they could fire a second shot. Major Johnston was completely overwhelmed, and himself and command subjected to the most inhuman butchery and barbarities that blacken the pages of history. Major Johnston was murdered and scalped. One hundred and thirty of his officers and men shared his fate. Most of them were shot through the head, then scalped, bayonets thrust in the mouths of the daring. The hearts sickens and the mind recoils at the recital and contemplation of the barbarous atrocities, and these barbarities were committed by beings who have been recruited in North Missouri to serve in the army of the rebellion, and sworn into the service of the so-called Confederate States by recruiting officers sent to Missouri by General Sterling Price, as attested by Edwin W. Price, of Chariton County, Mo., son of Sterling Price, and who in many instances in July last sought an interviews with Holtzclaw and Perkins to ascertain by whose authority they had come among our people to spread desolation and death in their bloody pathway. The guerrillas, immediately after the massacre, broke up into small parties and scattered through Bone and Howard. I am looking for a concentration near Rocheport, and making dispositions accordingly. General Douglass left Columbia yesterday, moving with 400 good men and one howitzer, in search of them. Troops are moving from Mexico and Sturgeon into Boone. Steamer has not yet arrived here to patrol the river. Shall press the first one that arrives from either direction. I have called out 6,000 Enrolled Missouri Militia in the entire district. They will rendezvous at Hannibal, Mexico, Macon, Chillicothe, and Saint Joseph. I hope to have them ready for service speedily, and be prepared to meet the invaders if they the Missouri River.

CLINTON B. FISK,

Brigadier-General.

SAINT LOUIS, September 29, 1864-4.15 p. m.

Brigadier General C. B. FISK, Glasgow Mo.:

You are hereby authorized to call into service the enrolled militia applied for in your dispatch of to-day.

WILLARD P. HALL,

Governor of Missouri.

COMMANDING OFFICER, Huntsville:

Send the above telegram to General Fisk at Glasgow by special messenger.

W. S. ROSECRANS,

Major-General.


Page 488 LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. Chapter LIII.