First Brigade, Acting Brigadier-General Steele.—Twenty-seventh regiment Ohio Volunteers, Colonel Kennett; Twenty-second regiment Indiana Volunteers, Colonel Hendricks; First regiment Kansas Volunteers, Colonel Thayer; one battery First Missouri Volunteers, Lieutenant Marr; four companies regular cavalry, Colonel Amory.
Second Brigade, Acting Brigadier-General Jeff. C. Davis.—Eighteenth regiment Indiana Volunteers, Colonel Patterson; Eighth regiment Indiana Volunteers, Colonel Benton; Twenty-fourth regiment Indiana Volunteers, Lieutenant ——; one battery First Missouri Artillery, Lieutenant Klaus; one squadron First Iowa Cavalry, Major Torrence.
The whole was under the immediate command of General Pope. The four companies of regular cavalry were the fragments of the original companies, B, C, D, and E, and numbered but a little over a hundred men. They were under the command of Captain Crittenden, of the regular army, son of Hon. John J. Crittenden.
The command started from Sedalia on Sunday, the 15th, and encamped at night eleven miles distant on the road to Clinton. The next day they marched twenty-six miles, and at sunset arrived at Shawnee Mound, in Henry county. Here reports of various companies of rebels began to come in from residents and from Union scouts. One company of near five hundred was heard of at a point about twelve miles north-west, and several smaller bodies directly south, from Clinton to Butler. General Pope then dispatched his whole available force of cavalry, nearly seven hundred, before they had secured three hours’ rest, after the five hundred near Morristown. The cavalry under Lieutenant-Colonel Brown, of the Seventh Missouri Volunteers, pushed on all night, and arriving at the rebel camp they found it vacated. The enemy had received warning and fled precipitately, leaving numerous evidences of haste. The cavalry, notwithstanding their forty miles’ continuous march, pushed on after the fleeing rebels till they reached Rose Hill, picking up some twenty or thirty stragglers on the road. At Rose Hill the rebels separated into several squads, some taking the road west, others taking the south route to Butler, and Colonel Brown had no other alternative than to rest his exhausted horses, and finally to make his way back to the main column next day, near Warrensburg. He brought in nearly one hundred prisoners.
General Pope in the meantime kept advancing in a direction west of north to Chilhowee, a most important point, being the centre of numerous cross-roads. This was near the site of the rebel camp just referred to, and here the pickets brought in some few straggling men who were bound for Price’s army. At Chilhowee they heard of a rebel force of 1,800 from the north, and of the scouring of the country south of Clinton by Major Hubbard, of the First Missouri Cavalry. The direction of the Union forces was at once east, toward Warrenburg. That night (Wednesday) they encamped two and a half miles west of Warrenburg. The reports were confirmed by a loyal man, who was on his way to give the information. He gave their location as at Kilpatrick’s mill, on the Clear fork of Blackwater Creek. (Milford is the post-office name.) Early on Thursday morning they started in the direction of Knob Noster, being directly south of the enemy. Colonel Merrill’s Horse was ordered to take the direct road running parallel with the course of the Blackwater, so as to intercept them in case they took a western course.
The brigade of Colonel Davis was placed in the advance, with orders to keep well up to the cavalry, a section of artillery being ready to support the cavalry upon a minute’s warning. General Pope, with the main body, kept due west for Knob Noster, ready to come up if necessary. Colonel Davis, finding that the enemy was still in camp at Milford, diverged to the left, and put the regular cavalry, under Lieutenant Amory, in the advance, the four companies of the First Iowa Cavalry, under Major Torrence, being next. On approaching the mill, the men discovered that the rebels were posted on the opposite side of the bridge, across the dam. Finding that it would be dangerous to charge the bridge mounted, Lieutenant Amory ordered the men to dismount and skirmish with pistols and sabres, as infantry, the fourth man holding the horses of the other three. This they instantly did, and advanced under the lead of Lieutenant Gordon, of Company D. Some ineffectual skirmishing took place between the regulars, who were sheltered behind a barn on the south of the creek, and the rebels, who were on the north side. During this interval the Iowa Cavalry filed off to the left, in the attempt to cross the stream higher up, but after vainly traversing its steep sides and muddy bottom for a mile, returned to find Lieutenant Amory charging across the bridge, the rebels having deserted it upon seeing Colonel Davis, with the artillery advancing. Lieutenant Amory followed the road, thinking that the rebels might flee to the north. Lieutenant Gordon immediately dashed after some of the scattering fugitives through the wood, and after penetrating a few rods, received a volley from the enemy, whom he just then discovered formed in line. He instantly formed in line, and ordered his men to fire.
The cavalry, under Major Torrence, and the regulars, under Lieutenant Amory, had in the mean time reached the flank and rear of another body of the enemy, who was thus enclosed on one side by a long marsh, on the other by a deep and muddy mill-pond, and on the third by our cavalry. Colonel Davis had by this time come up in the rear. A white flag was displayed, and Colonel Alexander, a young man, came forward and asked if thirty minutes would be allowed them for consultation. Colonel Davis’s answer was “that as night was closing in, that was too long.” Colonel A. then asked if he would be allowed to go to headquarters and bring back the answer of the commander of the corps, Colonel Robinson. Permission being granted, he returned in about five minutes, with the response that “they would be obliged to surrender as prisoners of war.” The arms were stacked, and the men formed in line and marched between two files of infantry, the Eighteenth and Twenty-fourth Illinois, with all the honors of war. Colonel Davis immediately sent dispatches to General Pope announcing his success, and as night was closing around, the arms were hastily stowed in wagons, and the Federal troops commenced the march for camp. One thousand guns of all kinds were captured, with a full supply of clothing and provision. One of the enemy was killed, and several wounded. Two Federals were killed and eight wounded.
Dispatches were received Thursday evening from General Halleck ordering the Union troops to fall back to Sedalia. General Pope, therefore, accompanied with the victors as an escort, and the wounded men, started and made the journey (twenty miles) by two o’clock.
Following close upon them was the brigade of Colonel Hovey, of the Twenty-fourth Indiana, who had been dispatched with two regiments, a battery, and two squadrons of the First Missouri Cavalry, on the Clinton road some twelve miles from Sedalia, where the cavalry, under Major Hubbard, some two hundred and fifty in number, made a reconnoissance of the country extending westward and southward, as far as the Grand river, beyond Clinton. Here they came upon the pickets of General Rains, who, with an advanced cavalry force was guarding the Grand river. The pickets were driven in, one shot, about sixty prisoners taken within the lines of General Rains, and a mill near Clinton burned.
The detachment of cavalry under Lieutenant-Colonel Brown also burned a mill near Johnstown, on the borders of Bates county. His force travelled two hundred and fifty miles in six days.