Today in History:

846 Series I Volume XLI-IV Serial 86 - Price's Missouri Expedition Part IV

Page 846 LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. Chapter LIII.

Department of Arkansas, and also in this department, with a view of applying the proper remedy, and I shall be exceedingly glad for the honor of our Kansas soldier if the reports that have reached me shall prove to have been exaggerated.

Respectfully, your obedient servant.

JAS. G. BLUNT,

Major-General.

[Inclosure Numbers 4.]

PAOLA, KANS., December 11, 1864.

Colonel C. R. JENNISON,

Fifteenth Kansas Cav., Commanding Sub-Dist. Numbers 1, Mound City:

You will turn over the command of the First Sub-District to Lieutenant Colonel G. H. Hoyt, Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry, and report immediately in person at these headquarters under arrest.

By order of Major-General Blunt:

GEO. S. HAMPTON,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

[Indorsement.]

DECEMBER 28, 1864.

Respectfully returned to General Curtis.

I cannot see that Jennison has said anything about anybody that he had not a perfect right to do. It is rather a matter of taste, I suppose, whether he abuses a U. S. Senator, as such, or not. I cannot agree with General Blunt that in what Jennison has said of Lane he should be dismissed.

H. W. H[ALLECK].


HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF WEST MISSISSIPPI,
OFFICE OF THE CHIEF SIGNAL OFFICER,

New Orleans, La., December 13, 1864.

Lieutenant Colonel C. T. CHRISTENSEN,

Asst. Adjt. General, Mil. Div. of West Miss., New Orleans, La.:

SIR: I have the honor to submit to your consideration a statement of the information received at this office this 13th day of December, 1864, from the following sources, report of J. J. Gravely, colonel Eighth Cavalry Missouri State Militia, Springfield, Mo., November 30, 1864; report of Gustavus Saint Gem, captain, Forty-seventh Missouri Infantry Volunteers, Sainte Genevieve, Mo., November 30, 1864:

General Price's army at the time of invading Missouri is estimated to have been 20,000 of all arms. (Captain [Saint] Gem's estimate is too high; the rebel army numbered 13,000 strong at that time.) Between 3,000 and 5,000 conscripts and recruits were added to it in the State. Most of the conscripts, however, effected their escape. Their successive defeats, the capture of Generals Marmaduke and Cabell and of many prisoners, and the loss of all artillery excepting one piece entirely dispirited the rebels. Their organization was lost, discipline abandoned, and the remnant of their forces at the time of leaving Missouri was little better than a rabble. Jackman's and Slemons' brigades, mounted, of General Shelby's division, passed into Northeastern Arkansas. (In my report of December 6, 1864, I stated that 3,000 of Price's troops had gone to or near Jacksonport, Northeastern Arkansas. This is the force referred to.-F. W. M[arston].) Major Mooney, of Colonel Schnable's regiment, Jackman's brigade, was captured and brought to Springfield, Mo. He asserts that these two brigades are dispersed over the country. The men are


Page 846 LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. Chapter LIII.