The Lost Army

by Thomas Wallace Knox

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Immediately after the surrender the rebels swarmed around the prisoners, and while some treated them kindly, others heaped abuse upon them, and if the Unionists had not already laid down their arms there would have been a good prospect of a renewal of the fight. The prisoners were paroled not to take up arms against the Confederacy until regularly exchanged, and then they were set across the Missouri river and marched to a point near the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railway and told to go where they pleased. During this march they were in charge of General Rains and his brigade, and most of them testified to the kindness of the soldiers of Rain's Brigade and of the people along the road they traveled.

After the surrender Lexington was a lively place. With nearly thirty thousand victorious rebel soldiery in the town, and many of these soldiers filled with whisky, in addition to being flushed with victory, the streets were anything but quiet and orderly. The officers of the Confederates were gentlemanly enough, but as for the soldiers they were anything but well-behaved. It required all the authority of the officers to keep the men from breaking loose and setting the town on fire or committing some other folly or barbarity. In some instances it became necessary to order the men out of town and form camps three or four miles away, which no one could leave without express permission.

There was the same lack of uniforms that had characterized the troops at Wilson's Creek, only a few hundreds of all the army under General Price having been able to obtain the Confederate gray. Some of the generals and colonels were uniformed, but many were not, and wore their civilian dress, with cloth shoulder-straps to indicate their rank. Many of the soldiers fought quite independently of all command, and took their positions wherever they were best suited.

An eye-witness of the siege said that the mode of fighting was well illustrated by something that came under his observation. There was an old Texan, dressed in a buckskin suit and armed with a hunting-rifle of the kind in use on the plains before the war. About seven o'clock every morning this Texan used to go to the Confederate breastworks, carrying his dinner in a tin pail. He hunted around for a good position till he found one, and then he fired away whenever he saw a head until the sun showed the meridian.

Promptly at noon he knocked off for an hour and ate his dinner. Then he went to work again and kept at it till six o'clock, when he went home to supper and to spend the night in peaceful sleep. Morning saw him at his post again; and thus he continued at his daily task till the surrender took place. There were a good many independent warriors of this sort, and if they did not kill many of their adversaries it was because the latter kept their heads out of range.

As soon as Lexington was surrendered Price turned his attention to gathering supplies and recruits from the rich and populous counties along the river. While he was engaged at this business, General Fremont assembled an army at Jefferson City for the purpose of heading him off. A portion of Fremont's army marched from Jefferson City to Tipton and Syracuse, while the balance was sent forward by railway to the same point. It was intended to march from these points to Springfield and reoccupy the place, which Lyon's army had been compelled to give up in August after the reverse at Wilson's Creek.

At the same time the garrison of Rolla was strengthened, and a column was ordered to move from that point to join the main force at Springfield. This movement promised to give occupation to Jack and Harry, who had been chafing at their inactivity while preparations were in progress. True, they had scouting expeditions occasionally, but as they did not succeed in finding any enemy, except in a very few instances, there was not enough to make the life of the camp at all exciting.

Movements were delayed by a lack of supplies and transportation, and it was not till the middle of October that the Union forces took the offensive. In the main column from Tipton and Syracuse, General Sigel's division had the advance; while the other commanders were waiting for transportation Sigel scoured the country and picked up everything that could be of use. His wagon-train when he started was one of the funniest things of the kind ever known; there were some army wagons of the regulation pattern, but there were more emigrant wagons, such as are used by pioneers seeking new homes in the far West beyond the lines of railway, and where steamboats are unknown.

Then he had stage-coaches, family-carriages, drays, hay-carts, in fact all the kinds of vehicles known to that part of the country, and whenever a pack-saddle was found it was taken along. And the motive power was as varied as the vehicles to be moved; it comprised mules and horses as a matter of course, and it also included oxen, and even cows where the latter were found docile enough to be yoked or harnessed. There was a rumor that some of Sigel's men attempted to harness up a drove of pigs; that they took the pigs along there can be no reasonable doubt, but probably for some other purpose than breaking them in as draft animals. However burdensome to carry a pig may be, he has never been found a satisfactory beast of burden.