On the night of the 6th, cheering was heard throughout our army, as some grapevine or false dispatches had reached our officers of a great victory gained in the east. The thunder of drums and voices were heard for miles.
General Fremont received instructions not to follow Price farther into the mountains, or he would be caught in a trap. On the morning of the 9th we received orders to march back to Tipton.
On the 13th our regiment and the Forty-second Illinois marched on a race to Camp Burr. We beat them by five hours. On the morning of the 14th we made double quick time back to Osage Bridge, in order that we might get there before General Sturges’ brigade arrived there. We crossed the river and went into camp. We stayed two days waiting for our supply train.
We went to Tipton on the 20th of November. This completed the Springfield march.
While on this expedition General Fremont issued a proclamation to free all the slaves who made their way into our lines. Soon they were flocking in by the score. For assuming this authority General Fremont was superceded by General Pope. His name was never mentioned again in the history of our late civil war, as he was placed on the retired list of our good old generals who had served their time faithfully in our past wars.
CHAPTER IV.
We pitched tents at Tipton and went into camp for a few days rest. The weather was getting somewhat cold, making our camp life somewhat disagreeable. We stayed here until the morning of the 27th, when we struck tents and marched to Syracuse. Here we went into camp and stayed until the morning of the 29th, at which time we got orders to march back to Tipton again. We were getting tired of running around so much, and having no fighting to do, as we had been promised that we would put down the rebellion in thirty days. As yet we had not even made a start. Some of our boys were getting homesick and wanted to fight it out in a pitched battle. Some of them thought that they could clean up five little greased rebels.