When the Union army retreated after the battle of Wilson's Creek, Aug. 10, there went back with it the 1st and 2d Kan.—all the organized troops the State had in the field. This left the border exposed to the vengeance of Price's on-sweeping hordes, who made loud threats of what they proposed to do. Lane sounded the trumpet. Wilson's Creek with Bull Run had awakened the people to the stern realities of the contest, and there speedily gathered into camp the men who formed the 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Kan., Montgomery becoming Colonel of the 3d Kan.; Jennison of the 7th (Jennison's Jayhawkers). Lane took command of the troops assembled at Fort Scott, moved out aggressively on Price's flank, gave Rains, who was in command there, a sharp skirmish at Dry Wood, and his manuvers were so menacing that Price called Rains back when within five miles of the Kansas line, relinquishing his cherished idea of "scourging the Abolitionist nest," and pushed on to Lexington. Lane then made a dash into Missouri in Price's rear, fought a lively skirmish at Papinsville, and followed up the retreating Confederates, capturing Osceola, as has been previously stated.
After Gen. Hunter assumed command Lane reappeared with a commission as Brigadier-General of Volunteers, of which he had beguiled President Lincoln, and began playing a game which gave intense annoyance to the bluff, straightforward old soldier. To Hunter he represented that he was there merely as a Senator and a member of the Senate Military Committee, which latter he was not. To the President and War Department he represented that he and Hunter were in brotherly sympathy and confidence, and planning a movement of mighty importance. The "sympathy" and "confidence" part were believed so completely, that the War Department did not take the trouble to communicate with Hunter in regard to the details of the proposed movement.
To his friends and to the press he talked magniloquently about a grand "Southern expedition" to be made up of 8,000 or 10,000 Kansas troops, 4,000 Indians, seven regiments of cavalry, three batteries of artillery, and four regiments of infantry from Minnesota and Wisconsin, which he would command. It would move from Kansas down into Texas, and there meet an expedition coming up from the Gulf of Mexico. The War Department seems to have been impressed with the feasibility of this, and began ordering troops, officers and supplies to Fort Leavenworth to report to "Brig.-Gen. James H. Lane."
Lane's enemies as well as his friends in Kansas heartily approved of this, as it would take him away from Kansas, and the Kansas Legislature united in a request to have him appointed a Major-General, as that would vacate his seat in the Senate.
General-in-Chief McClellan "invited" Gen. Hunter's attention to the proposed expedition, and suggested that he prepare for it and report what might be necessary. Gen. Hunter replied that he had had no official information as to the expedition, and gently complained that the War Department seemed entirely unmindful of the Commander of the Department, and had consistently ignored him. As to the expedition, he regarded it as impracticable. It was 440 miles from Leavenworth to the nearest point in Texas, and the road was over a wild, barren country, which would require an immense train of supplies for the troops. He had in the Department only about 3,000 men, entirely too few to successfully defend Fort Leavenworth and its valuable supplies against a raid such as Price and McCulloch were continually threatening. He said he knew no such person as "Brig.-Gen. J. H. Lane," to whom so many came with orders to report. He also said that Lane himself now saw that he had raised expectations which he could not fulfill, and that he was seeking to pick a quarrel with the Department Commander to give him an excuse for dropping the whole business, and was making himself very annoying in a thousand ways.
Secretary Stanton was profoundly distrustful of Lane, and said that he would leave the Cabinet rather than put him in independent command. Finally the matter came to President Lincoln, who wrote the following characteristic letter:
Executive Mansion, Washington, Feb. 10. Maj.-Gen. Hunter and
Brig.-Gen. Lane, Leavenworth, Kan.:
My wish has been and is to avail the Government of the
services of both Gen. Hunter and Gen. Lane, and, so far as
possible, to personally oblige both. Gen. Hunter is the
senior officer, and must command when they serve together;
tho in so far as he can, consistently with the public
service and his own honor, oblige Gen. Lane, he will also
oblige me. If they cannot come to an amicable understanding,
Gen. Lane must report to Gen. Hunter for duty, according to
the rules, or decline the service.
A. LINCOLN.
Lane, who then thought his seat in the Senate safe, decided that he would rather serve his country in the forum than in the field, and his commission was cancelled. Five years later, dismayed to find he had lost his hold on the people of Kansas by his support of Andrew Johnson, he ended his strange, eventful history with a pistol-shot from his own hand.