Little Rock, May 9. }
“To you, troops of the Seventh Army Corps, who participated in the recent campaign designed to cooperate with General Banks’s movement against Shreveport, the Major-General commanding tenders his earnest and grateful thanks. Although you were compelled to fall back without seeing the main object of the expedition accomplished, you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you have beaten the enemy wherever he has met you in force, and extricated yourselves from the perilous position in which you were placed by the reverses of the cooperating column. This let loose upon you a superior force of the enemy, under one of their best generals, causing the loss of your trains and the total interruption of your communications, rendering it impossible for you to obtain supplies. You have fallen back over rivers and swamps, while pressed by a superior force of the enemy. This you have done successfully, punishing the enemy severely at the same time.
“The patience with which you have endured hardships and privations, and your heroic conduct on the battle-field, have been brought to the notice of the Government, and will furnish a page in the history of this war of which you may well be proud.
“F. STEELE, Major-General Commanding.”
The rebel force subsequently became still more formidable in the State of Arkansas, owing to the failure of Banks’s Red river expedition. Large forces of Confederates, relieved from the necessity of opposing Banks, were enabled to concentrate in Arkansas, and keep General Steele at bay, in Little Rock. So completely, indeed, did the rebels overrun the State, that, by the close of the year 1864, Little Rock, Fort Smith, Pine Bluff, Duval’s Bluff, and a few other points, were all that the National arms preserved. The State was, likewise, furnished with a rebel State government; and, altogether its affairs seemed anything but promising to the hopes of the Unionists within its borders.
Having ample troops in Arkansas, and desiring to work as much mischief as possible, the rebel General Price projected an
INVASION OF MISSOURI.
September, 1864.
This movement, as may well be imagined, created no small excitement. It led, moreover, to several lively encounters between the Unionists and the Confederates, but it ended in utter discomfiture to the rebel arms. General Price’s forces consisted of between fifteen and twenty thousand men, while, at the time his invasion commenced—September 21st, 1864—the Union troops in Missouri, commanded by General Rosecrans, numbered less than seven thousand. At the first note of danger, however, reinforcements were hurried forward to the aid of that gallant commander. It appeared, at first, as if the rebels proposed moving on Springfield; but, eventually, they turned in the direction of St. Louis. They were first encountered at Pilot Knob, which was bravely and successfully defended by the Union forces under General Ewing, consisting of the Fourteenth Iowa and the Forty-seventh Missouri, with detachments of the State militia. A severe fight took place at Pilot Knob, on September 27th, in which the rebels were discomfited. Meanwhile, St. Louis was rapidly put into condition to meet and repel any possible rebel attack, and a large force of State troops, under Generals Brown and Fisk, was concentrated at Jefferson City, the capital of Missouri. Toward this point the rebel chieftain finally led his army. His advance was successfully withstood, however, by the Union Generals, who succeeded in saving the State capital, and destroying the hopes of the rebels.
Upon the 8th of October, General Pleasanton assumed command at Jefferson City, and his first step was to send General Sanborn, with a mounted force of four thousand men in pursuit of the enemy, with the view of harassing and hindering them, until the remaining Union cavalry and infantry supports should arrive at the State capital. The enemy’s rear-guard was by this movement forced back upon their main body at Bruenville, and so kept between the Missouri river and the National force, until the 19th of the month, when the Unionists were joined by Wilson’s command, fifteen thousand strong, making the National force in all forty-five thousand men, exclusive of escort-guards.
A small force attacked the rebels under General Fagan at Independence on the 22d, and routed them with loss, capturing two valuable guns. A contest with the enemy’s main force took place on the following day, in which the rebels were driven beyond the Little Santa Fe; and, on the 24th, after marching sixty miles, the Unionists overtook a party of rebels, about midnight, at a place called Marais des Cygnes. At four o’clock on the ensuing morning, sharp skirmishing began, and the enemy was driven from the field with a heavy loss of horses, mules, ammunition, &c. Still fighting, they retreated to Little Osage Crossing, where the pursuing Unionists, under Colonels Benteen and Phillips, made a charge upon them, capturing eight pieces of artillery, and more than one thousand prisoners, among whom were General Marmaduke and General Cabell. The National troops, under General Sanborn, kept up the pursuit, with many and always successful charges, until the enemy had been driven to Marinton; where, under cover of the night, the rebels effected their escape towards Arkansas. But they had not yet got rid of their pursuers. A force of Kansas troops, and Colonel Benteen’s brigade, followed close upon them, and on the 28th, they were overtaken at Newtonia, where they made their last stand. Again they were routed, and the final blow was struck at the unsuccessful invasion of the State. All General Price’s schemes were signally defeated, and he inflicted no serious injury except upon the narrow belt of country over which his army moved. His loss was ten pieces of artillery; a very large quantity of small arms; the greater number of his trains and plunder; one thousand nine hundred and fifty-eight prisoners, and a long list of killed, wounded, and deserters. The National loss amounted to three hundred and forty-six in officers and men.