BATTLE AT MONROE, MO.
July 10, 1861.
Before daylight, on the morning of the 10th, Colonel Smith, with about six hundred men of the Sixteenth Illinois Volunteers, while encamped near Monroe Station, thirty miles west of Hannibal, was attacked by one thousand six hundred rebels under the command of Governor Harris. After a successful skirmish with the enemy, Colonel Smith retired to the Academy buildings for greater security. Here he was again attacked by an increased force of the rebels, and again succeeded in repulsing them. Determined on keeping them at bay, he sent messengers to Hannibal and other places for reinforcements, while the long-range rifles of his men told with fearful effect on his besiegers, and rendered two inferior pieces of artillery which they had brought to bear on him of but little use.
Three companies from Hannibal arrived first to the rescue, with two pieces of cannon of superior power to that of the enemy, and Colonel Smith immediately assumed the offensive. Toward evening, a body of cavalry under the command of Governor Wood, of Illinois, arrived and fell upon the rear of the enemy, when the struggle soon ended, and the rebel besiegers fled, with a loss of thirty killed and wounded, seventy-five prisoners, one gun, and a large number of horses. Of the Union troops, but four or five were severely wounded—none killed.