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

Page 708 LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. Chapter LIII.

JEFFERSON CITY, October 8, 1864-5 a. m.

Major-General ROSECRANS:

Please send me battery Second Missouri Light Artillery now in Saint Louis, Mo.

A. PLEASONTON,

Major-General.

JEFFERSON CITY, October 8, 1864-6 a. m.

Colonel DU BOIS, Chief of Staff:

COLONEL: I have just arrived here and find that Price has moved up the Pacific Railroad toward Sedalia. His rear is reported six miles off. I have ordered all the available force to proceed under the orders of Brigadier-General Sanborn, and battery of 3-inch guns to follow them up and harass them as much as possible. This will impede their progress, and I will endeavor to send some infantry to Boonville and Lexington to defend those places. If General Curtis could send a mounted force from Kansas to meet Price in the western part of this State, while Sanborn follows him up, it may turn out an advantage. A great mistake was made here in not attempting to hold Price in check at the Osage and Moreau Creek in a more determined manner. The enemy has now too much of a start to promise the same result as if it had been done. Please have the ammunition sent to Saint Charles forwarded by boat as son as possible. I would suggest that some of Major-General Smith's troops be sent to this place to enable Generals Fisk and McNeill's commands to return to their respective districts.

I am, colonel, very respectfully,

A. PLEASONTON,

Major-General, Commanding.

JEFFERSON CITY, October 8, 1864-2.40 p. m.

Colonel JOHN V. DU BOIS, Chief of Staff:

The following information has just been received here [from] Colonel Philips, Seventh Missouri State Militia, at the front, six miles out on the Columbia road:

General Price is in front of me with a considerable force north passing to the west. We are skirmishing with their rear, and driving them slowly.

All accounts show that Price's main body is moving rather south of west from this place. I have sent General Fisk with two regiment infantry and section of artillery by boat to Lexington, and a regiment and four pieces light artillery to Boonville.

A. PLEASONTON,

Major-General, Commanding.

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HEADQUARTERS U. S. FORCES, Numbers 1.
Jefferson City, Mo., October 8, 1864.

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IV. Brigadier General Clinton B. Fisk, U. S. Volunteers, will assume command of the Thirty-ninth and Forty-ninth Missouri Infantry Volunteers, and will immediately occupy that portion of the intrenched lines now held by Brigadier-General Sanborn.

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Page 708 LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. Chapter LIII.