It is altogether unlikely that the 1st Mo., for example, took into battle within 100 or more of the 900 men assigned to it, and the same thing is true of the 900 men given for the 1st Iowa, and the 700 each for the two Kansas regiments.

If we assume that the 1st Mo. and the 1st Iowa had 800 men each and the Kansas regiments 600 each, we find that the loss of 295 for the 1st Mo., 284 for the 1st Kan., and 154 for the 1st Iowa to be appalling. The Regulars suffered severely, but not so badly as the volunteers.

Among those who were noted for gallant conduct in the battle of Wilson's Creek was Eugene F. Ware, then a private in the 1st Iowa, and who afterward became a Captain in the 7th Iowa Cav. In civil life he attained a leading place at the Kansas bar, and was appointed Commissioner of Pensions by President Roosevelt.

None of the Confederate regiments engaged suffered to anything like the same extent, and as they were driven from the field, while the Union regiments maintained their position and were even ready for further aggression, the palm of higher purposes and more desperate fighting must be unhesitatingly conceded to the Union volunteers. Few of the Confederate commanders give reports of the number they carried into action, but many of their regiments must have been approximately as strong as those of the Union, and they had many more of them.

The moral effect of the battle was prodigious on both sides. The Union troops were conscious of having met overwhelming forces and fought them to a stand-still, if not actual defeat. Every man felt himself a victor as he left the field, and only retreated because the exigencies of the situation rendered that the most politic move.

It was consequently a great encouragement to the Union sentiment everywhere, and did much to retrieve the humiliation of Bull Run. The Confederates naturally made the very most of the fact that they had been left masters of the field, and they dilated extensively upon the killing of Gen. Lyon and the crushing defeat they had administered upon Sigel, with capture of prisoners, guns and flags. They used this to so good purpose as to greatly stimulate the Secession spirit thruout the State.

Gen. McCulloch's dispatches to the Confederate War Department are, to say the least, disingenuous. His first dispatch that evening stated that the enemy was 12,000 strong, but had "fled" after eight hours' hard fighting. His second official report, dated two days after the battle, gave his "effective" forces at 5,300 infantry, 15 pieces of artillery and 6,000 horsemen, armed with flintlock muskets, rifles and shotguns. He says: "There were, other horsemen with the army, but they were entirely unarmed, and instead of being a help they were continually in the way." He repeatedly pronounces the collisions at the different periods of the battle as "terrific," and says: "The incessant roar of musketry was deafening, and the balls fell as thick as hailstones." His next sentences are at surprising variance with the concurrent testimony on the Union side; for he says: "Nothing could withstand the impetuosity of our final charge. The enemy fell back and could not again be rallied, and they were seen at 12 m. fast retreating among the hills in the distance. This ended the battle. It lasted six hours and a half."

By this time Gen. McCulloch had reduced the Union force to between 9,000 and 10,000, and he claims the Union loss to have been 800 killed, 1,000 wounded and 300 prisoners. He gave his own loss at 265 killed, 800 wounded and 30 missing. His colleague, Gen. Price, he curtly dismisses with this brief laudation: "To Gen. Price I am under many obligations for assistance on the battlefield. He was at the head of his force, leading them on and sustaining them by his gallant bearing."

Gen. Price's report is more accurate and soldierlike, but he says that after several "severe and bloody conflicts" had ensued, and the battle had been conducted with the "greatest gallantry and vigor on both sides for more than five hours, the enemy retreated in great confusion, leaving their Commander-in-Chief, Gen. Lyon, dead upon the battlefield, over 500 killed and a great number wounded." He claims that his forces numbered 5,221 officers and men, of whom 156 were killed and 517 wounded. This would make the loss of his whole division of 5,000 men 673, or about the same lost by the 1st Mo. and the 1st Kan., with these two regiments still maintaining their position, while the enemy retired.

It seems difficult to understand why, if the enemy "retreated in great confusion," as reported by Mc-Culloch and Price, the several thousand horsemen who did little or nothing during the battle were not let loose to complete the ruin of the Union forces. No matter how poorly armed or disciplined these might have been, their appearance on the flank of the retiring column would have been fatal to any orderly retreat such as was conducted. The universal testimony of the Union officers and soldiers is that there was no enemy in sight when they started to leave the field, and that they suffered no molestation whatever, though they halted two miles from the field and in plain sight for some time.

It also passes comprehension that this horde of irregular horsemen were not employed during the long hours of the battle in making some diversion in the rear of the Union army.

Both Price and McCulloch seem to have had their attention so fully engrossed in bringing up new regiments to keep Lyon from breaking thru their lines and reaching their trains that they had no opportunity to give orders or organize manuvers by the horsemen, and nobody seems to have suggested to the mounted men that they could employ their time better than by standing back and watching the progress of the terrible conflict between the two opposing lines of infantry.

It appears that the Union officers in the council called by Gen. Sturgis were not at all unanimous for retreat. Capt. Sweeny, altho severely wounded, vehemently insisted upon pursuing the enemy, and Capt. Gordon Granger, also severely wounded, rode up to Sturgis, pointed out that there was not a man in sight and that the fire could be seen from where the retreating foe was burning his wagons, and he urged the pursuit so vigorously that Sturgis had to repeat his order for him to leave the field.

Col. Sigel, in his report made at Rolla eight days after the battle, made a long and labored explanation of his operations during the day. He thus explained his failure to do more:

Later, when Gen. Sigel was seeking promotion, Maj. Schofield, then a Brigadier-General, sent the following communication to Gen. Halleck:

This was accompanied by a statement embodying the same facts and signed by substantially all the higher officers who had been with Lyon.

At the first halt of the army, about two miles from the battlefield, while the dead and wounded were being gathered up, it was discovered that Gen. Lyon's body had been left behind. The Surgeon and another officer volunteered to take an ambulance and return to the battlefield for it They were received graciously by Gen. McCulloch; the body was delivered to them and they reached Springfield with it shortly after dark. The Surgeon made an attempt to embalm it by injecting arsenic into the veins, but decomposition, owing to exposure to the hot sun, had progressed too far to render it practicable, and they were compelled to leave it when the army moved off.

Mrs. Phelps, wife of the member of Congress from that District, and a true Union woman, obtained it and had it placed in a wooden coffin, which was hermetically sealed in another one of zinc. Fearing that it might be molested by the Confederate troops when they entered the city, Mrs. Phelps had the coffin placed in an out-door cellar and covered with straw. Later she took an opportunity of having it secretly buried at night.

Thinking that the remains had been brought on, Mr. Danford Knowlton, of New York, a cousin, and Mr. John B. Hasler, of Webster, Mass., a brother-in-law of Gen. Lyon, came on at the instance of the Connecticut relatives to obtain the remains. Not finding them at St. Louis, they went forward to Rolla, where Col. Wyman furnished them with an ambulance, with which they proceeded to Springfield under a flag of truce. They were kindly received by Gen. Price, and also by Gen. Parsons, whose brigade was encamped on the ground where the body was buried, and exhuming it, brought it to St. Louis. The city went into mourning, and the remains were conducted by a military and civic procession to the depot, where they were delivered to the Adams Express Company to be conveyed East under an escort of officers and enlisted men.

At every station on the road crowds gathered to pay their tribute of respect to the deceased hero and distinguished honors were paid at Cincinnati, Pittsburg, New York, and Hartford. The body was taken to Eastford, Conn., where the General was born, and in the presence of a large assemblage was interred in a grave beside his parents, in accordance with the desire the General expressed while in life.

Upon opening Lyons' will it was found that he had bequeathed all his savings, prudent investments and property, amounting to about $50,000, to the Government to aid it in the prosecution of the war for its existence.

Aug. 25, Gen. Fremont issued congratulatory orders, in which he said:

Dec. 30, 1861, Congress passed a joint resolution, in which it said:

Gen. McCulloch made a number of lengthy and labored explanations to the Confederate War Department of his failure to make any pursuit, but in the light of facts that then should have been attainable none of these was at all satisfactory. He admits that he did not enter Springfield until after his scouts had brought him satisfactory assurances that the Union army had abandoned the town. Aug. 12 he advanced to Springfield, and issued proclamations to the people announcing himself as their deliverer, and that his army "by great gallantry and determined courage" had entirely "routed the enemy with great slaughter."

If he expected to be received and feted as a liberator he was sorely disappointed, and in one of his letters he says in connection with his customary uncomplimentary allusions to Gen. Price's army, "and from all I can see we had as well be in Boston as far as the friendly feelings of the inhabitants are concerned."

The truth was that the advance of the Confederates had had a blighting effect upon that large portion of the people which had hoped to remain neutral in the struggle.

Gen. Lyon, with all his intensity of purpose, had kept uppermost in mind that he was an agent of the law, and his mission was to enforce the law. He had kept his troops under excellent discipline, had permitted no outrages upon citizens, and had either paid for or given vouchers for anything his men needed, and had generally conducted himself in strict obedience of the law. His course was a crushing refutal of the inflammatory proclamations of Gov. Jackson and others about the Union soldiers being robbers, thieves, ravishers and outragers.

Quite different was the course of the twenty or more thousand men whom Price and McCulloch led into Springfield. They were under very little discipline of any kind, and were burning with a desire to punish and drive out of the country not merely those who were outspoken Unionists, but all who were not radical Secessionists. They knew that the sentiment in Springfield and the country of which it was the center was in favor of the Union, and they wanted to stamp this out by terror.

While this brought to their ranks a great many of the more pliant neutrals, it drove away from them a great number, and put into the ranks of the Union many who had been more or less inclined to the pro-slavery element.

The soreness between Price and McCulloch which had been filmed over before the battle by Price subordinating himself and his troops to McCulloch, became more inflamed during the stay at Springfield. In spite of the fact that the Missouri troops had done much better fighting, and suffered severer losses in the battle than McCulloch, he persisted in denouncing them as cowards, stragglers and mobites, without soldierly qualities.

The following extracts from a report to J. P. Benjamin, Confederate Secretary of War, will show the temper which pervaded all his correspondence, and was probably still more manifest in his personal relations with the Missourians:

McCulloch was a voluminous writer, both to the Confederate War Department and to personal and official friends, and few of these communications are without some complaint about the Missouri troops. Everything that he had failed to do was due to their inefficiency, their lack of soldierly perceptions, and conduct. They would give him no information, would not scout nor reconnoiter, and he was continually left in the dark as to the movements of the enemy. When they were attacked he claimed that they would run away in a shameful manner. His dislike of Gen. Rains seemed to grow more bitter continually.

Gen. Price saw a great opportunity and was anxious to improve it. The retreat of the Union forces from Springfield opened up the whole western part of the State, and a prompt movement would carry the army forward to the Missouri River again, where it could control the navigation of that great stream, receive thousands of recruits now being assembled at places north of the river, separate the Unionists of Missouri from the loyal people in Kansas and Nebraska, and hearten up the Secessionists everywhere as much as it disheartened the Union people, and possibly recover St. Louis.

He pressed this with all earnestness upon Gen. McCulloch, only to have it received with cold indifference or strong objections. He proposed that if McCulloch would undertake the movement, that he, Price, would continue in subordination to him and give him all the assistance that his troops could give.

There is no doubt that Price was entirely right in his views, and that a prompt forward movement with such forces as he and McCulloch commanded would have been a very serious matter for the Union cause and carry discouragement everywhere to add to that which had been caused by the disaster of Bull Run.

The relations between the two Generals constantly became more strained, and for the latter part of the two weeks which McCulloch remained at Springfield there was little communication between them. Gen. Price made good use of the time to bring in recruits from every part of the State which was accessible and to organize and discipline them for further service.

At the end of a fortnight Gen. McCulloch suffered Gen. Pearce to return to Arkansas with his Arkansas Division, while Gen. McCulloch retired with his brigade of Louisianians and Texans, and Price was left free to do as he pleased.

The death of Gen. Lyon at last aroused Gen. Fremont to a fever of energy to do the things that he should have done weeks before. He began a bombardment of Washington with telegrams asking for men, money and supplies, and sent dispatches of the most urgent nature to everybody from whom he could expect the least help. He called on the Governors of the loyal Western States to hurry to him all the troops that they could raise, and asked from Washington Regular troops, artillery, $3,000,000 for the Quartermaster's Department, and other requirements in proportion. He made a requisition on the St. Louis banks for money, and showed a great deal of fertility of resource.

Aug. 15, five days after the battle, President Lincoln, stirred up by his fusillade of telegrams, dispatched him the following:

With relation to his conduct toward Gen. Lyon, Gen. Fremont afterward testified to this effect before the Committee on the Conduct of the War:

The ebullition of the Secession sentiment in Missouri following the news of the battle of Wilson's Creek made Gen. Fremont feel that the most extraordinary measures were necessary in order to hold the State. He had reasons for this alarm, for the greatest activity was manifested in every County in enrolling young men in Secession companies and regiments. Heavy columns were threatening invasion from various points. One of these was led by Gen. Hardee, a Regular officer of much ability, who had acquired considerable fame by his translation of the tactics in use in the Army. He had been appointed to the command of North Arkansas, and had collected considerable force at Pocahontas, at the head of navigation on the White River, where he was within easy striking distance of the State and Lyon's line of retreat, and was threatening numberless direful things.

McCulloch and Price had sent special messengers to him to urge him to join his force with theirs to crush Lyon, or at least to move forward and cut off Lyon's communications with Rolla. They found Hardee within 400 yards of the Missouri State line. He had every disposition to do as desired, but had too much of the Regular officer in him to be willing to move until his forces were thoroly organized and equipped. There was little in him of the spirit of Lyon or Price, who improvised means for doing what they wanted to do, no matter whether regulations permitted it or not.

Hardee complained that though he had then 2,300 men and expected to shortly raise this force to 5,000, one of his batteries had no horses and no harness, and none of his regiments had transportation enough for field service, and that all regiments were badly equipped and needed discipline and instruction.

Later, Hardee repaired many of these deficiencies, and was in shape to do a great deal of damage to the Union cause, and of this Fremont and his subordinates were well aware. Gens. Polk and Pillow, with quite strong forces at Columbus, were threatening Cairo and southeast Missouri, and an advance was made into the State by their picturesque subordinate, Gen. M. Jeff Thompson, the poet laureate of the New Madrid marshes and the "Swamp Fox" who was to emulate the exploits of Francis Marion. Thompson moved forward with a considerable force of irregular mounted men, the number of which was greatly exaggerated, and it was reported that behind him was a column commanded by Pillow, ranging all the way from 8,000 to 25,000.

Gen. Fremont set an immense force of laborers to work on an elaborate system of fortification for the city of St. Louis, and also began the construction of fortifications at Cape Girardeau, Ironton, Rolla and Jefferson City. He employed laborers instead of using his troops, in order to give the latter opportunity to be drilled and equipped. He issued the following startling General Order, which produced the greatest commotion in the State and outside of it:

Another man who appeared on the scene as Colonel of the 2d Iowa was Samuel R. Curtis, an Ohio man, who graduated from West Point in 1831, in the same class with Gens. Ammen, Humphreys and W. H. Emory. He resigned the next year and became a prominent civil engineer in Ohio. He served in the Mexican War as Colonel of the 2d Ohio, and at the close of that struggle returned to his profession of engineering, removed to Iowa, and at the outbreak of the war was a member of Congress from that State. He was a man of decided military ability, and the victory won at Pea Ridge was his personal triumph. He was to rise to the rank of Major-General and command an independent army, but become involved in the factional fights in Missouri and have his further career curtailed.

Still another name which appears with increased frequency about this time is that of U. S. Grant, an Ohio man, who had graduated from West Point in 1843, and had shown much real enterprise and soldiership in Mexico, but had fallen under the disfavor of his commanding officers; had been compelled to resign while holding the rank of Captain in the 4th U. S., and for eight years had had a losing struggle in trying to make a living in civil pursuits. A happy accident put him at the head of the 21st Ill., with which he had entered Missouri to guard the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, and incidentally to dispose of one Thomas A. Harris, a very energetic and able man who held a Brigadier-Generalship from Gov. Jackson, and who was making himself particularly active in the neighborhood of that railroad. Grant showed much energy in chasing around for Harris, but had never succeeded in bringing him into battle, though when he left for other scenes Harris was hiding among the knobs of Salt River, with his command reduced to three enlisted men and his staff.

Though he was out of favor with Gen. McClellan and many others who were directing military operations, in some way a Brigadier-General's commission came to U. S. Grant, and he was assigned to the District of Southeastern Missouri, with headquarters at Cape Girardeau, where his duty was to hold in check the poetical M. Jeff Thompson, the noisy Gideon J. Pillow and the prelatic Leonidas J. Polk in their efforts to get control of the southeastern corner of the State and menace Cairo and St. Louis.

Maj. Sturgis was promptly made a Brigadier-General to date from Wilson's Creek, and assigned to the command of Northeast Missouri, where he had five or six thousand men under him.

Capt. Fred Steele had accepted a commission as Colonel of the 8th Iowa; Capt. Jos. B. Plummer shortly took the Colonelcy of a new regiment, the 11th Mo.; Capt. Totten became Lieutenant-Colonel and Colonel of the 1st Mo. Art., of which Schofield was Major.

Notwithstanding the feeling of the officers and soldiers who had participated in the battle of Wilson's Creek against Sigel, it was found so necessary to "recognize the Germans" and hold them strongly for the Union cause that he was made a Brigadier-General to date from May 17, 1861, which put him in the same class of Volunteer Brigadier-Generals as Hunter, Heintzelman, Fitz John Porter, Wm. B. Franklin, Wm. T. Sherman, C. P. Stone, Don Carlos Buell, John Pope, Philip Kearny, Joseph Hooker, U. S. Grant, John A. McClernand and A. S. Williams, all of whose volunteer commissions bore the date of May 17. This was subsequently a cause of trouble.

There appeared also another of those figures so common among the State builders of this country, and upholding to the fullest the character of a leader of pioneers. James H. Lane was an Indiana man, son of a preacher; had served with credit as Colonel of Indiana troops in Mexico, and had been Lieutenant-Governor of Indiana and Member of Congress, but getting at odds with his party had migrated to Kansas, where his natural talents and fiery, aggressive courage speedily brought him to the front as the leader of the warlike Free State men, who resisted with force and arms the attempts of the Pro-slavery men to dominate the Territory. His instant readiness for battle and the unsparing energy with which he prosecuted his enterprises so endeared him to the Free State men that when the State was admitted there was no question about his election as her first United States Senator.

Kansas had promptly raised two regiments, which had fought superbly at Wilson's Creek and afterwards joined in the retrograde movement to Rolla. This left Kansas without any protection, and the people naturally reasoned that in the advance upon the territory left unguarded by the retirement of the Union army, Gen. Price and his Missourians would embrace the opportunity to pay back with interest the debt of vengeance which had been running since the wars of '56 and '57. Therefore Lane received the authority to recruit five regiments in Kansas, and went about his work with his characteristic energy.

The 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Kan. at once began organizing, receiving many recruits from the young Union men who had been forced to leave Missouri, and within a week or more after the battle of Wilson's Creek Gen. Lane had mustered an effective force of about 2,500 men, who had received some clothing and equipment and much instruction from the Regular officers and men at Forts Scott, Riley and Leavenworth.

With these forces in hand under a man of Lane's well-known character, neither Gen. Price nor his men had much disposition to meddle with Kansas, even if the General had not other and more comprehensive views.

Gen. Price was not waiting for Fremont's plans to develop before executing his own. He employed the two weeks after the battle in diligently organizing his men, and Aug. 26 left Springfield at the head of a column of about 10,000 enthusiastic young Missourians, who had in that brief time made great progress in soldiership. He caused great alarm at Fort Scott, by pointing the head of his column toward that place, and arriving within 10 miles of it on the night of the 1st of September, sent Rains's Division, which was made up of men from southwest Missouri, forward to reconnoiter.

Rains's advance of 30 mounted men under Capt. Rector Johnson pushed forward to within sight of Fort Scott, on the morning of Sept. 1, and captured a drove of 80 Government mules which had been sent out to graze on the prairies. They also carried off all the able-bodied men that they could find on their line of march. Two companies of the newly-raised Kansas cavalry promptly attacked Johnson's command, which fell back across the line toward the main body, encamped at Dry Wood. Gen. Lane gathered up such of his volunteers as were in reach, and moved to Dry Wood, where he offered Gen. Rains battle, but the latter declined to be drawn from the shelter in the woods in which he had formed his lines, and Lane did not think it was prudent to attack a force the strength of which he could not ascertain.

A noisy, long-range skirmish ensued, which terminated at nightfall by Lane withdrawing his forces to Fort Scott. The next day, leaving Col. Jennison with 400 cavalry in Fort Scott, Lane crossed the Little Osage and threw up fortifications on its banks to oppose Price's further advance and give him battle should he attempt to move into Kansas.

Gen. Price declined to fight him in his chosen position, but drew his forces together and started to execute his cherished plan of advancing to the Missouri River and forming connection there with the troops which Gens. Harris and Green had been raising in northern Missouri, not seriously molested in their work by the Union forces under Gens. Pope and Sturgis. The action at Dry Wood was made the most of by the Secessionists, who claimed a defeat for the terror-striking "Jim" Lane. The casualties were insignificant for the forces engaged, as there were but five killed and 12 wounded on the Union side, and four killed and 16 wounded on the Confederate.

It was feared that after Gen. Price had moved forward to the Missouri River McCulloch would come up from Arkansas and take Fort Scott, which he had been authorized to do by the Confederate Secretary of War; but McCulloch seems to have had other ideas, and spent the weeks in inaction.

The situation of the Union men of southwest Missouri became gloomy in the extreme. The whole country was overrun with guerrilla bands hunting down the Union men, and not infrequently shooting them on sight.

Gen. Fremont had seriously alarmed Polk, Pillow and Thompson by his showy reinforcement of Cairo with 3,800 men. Though Pillow was reputed to have about 20,000 troops at his disposal, he was seized with a great fear, wrote to Hardee at Pocahontas urging him to come to his help, and limited the sphere of the operations of his dashing lieutenant, M. Jeff Thompson. Maj.-Gen. Polk seems to have also been deeply impressed, for he wrote to Pillow urging him to put his troops in trenches in the neighborhood of New Madrid, strongly fortify that place and stretch a chain across the river to prevent the passage of gunboats.

Then Polk had another tremor, and ordered Pillow to evacuate New Madrid at once, taking his men and heavy guns across the river to the strong works of Fort Pillow. Pillow, however, as insubordinate and self-seeking as he had been in the Mexican War, and thirsting for the distinction of taking Cape Girardeau, did not obey his superior's orders, but retained his forces at New Madrid. He had the audacity to write to his superior, "Withdraw your control over me for a few hours."

Pillow, merely hanging on to the remotest fringe of the State, assumed the title of "Liberator of Missouri", and his correspondence, orders and proclamations were headed, "Headquarters Army of Liberation."

About the same time an old acquaintance, Lieut-Gov. Thos. C. Reynolds, he of the ready pen and fluent phrases, taking advantage of a hasty journey of Gov. Jackson to Richmond, assumed full gubernatorial powers, set up his capital in Pillow's camp at New Madrid, and proceeded to clothe him with the most extraordinary prerogatives. He made himself the whole of the "Sovereign people of Missouri," and issued a proclamation withdrawing the State from the Union. He said that "disregarding the forms and considering only realities, I view an ordinance for the separation from the North and union with the Confederate States as a mere outward expression giving notice to others of an act already consummated in the hearts of the people." He then proceeded to establish a military despotism which made the worst of what had been said of Fremont pale before it. He clothed all the military commanders—not merely those of Missouri provided by the odious Military Act, but such Confederate commanders as Pillow and Hardee, who should enter the State—with a most absolute power over the lives and property of the people of Missouri.

The following oath was prescribed which all citizens were to be compelled to take by any officer of the Missouri State Guards or Confederate army who might come upon them: