command; marching back to his starting point, and capturing an army and its entire outfit by an unconditional surrender. It had been Gen. Price's design not to repose on the victory of Lexington; but obtaining supplies and recruits, to sweep down upon St. Louis, uniting with Maj.-Gen. Polk and his Confederate forces. But the progress of this brilliant conception was unexpectedly checked:-first, by the order to Gen. Polk from the War Department for the Tennessee campaign; secondly by Price's failure to receive a large supply of ammunition from Brig.-Gen. McCulloch according to promise. He could not move upon St. Louis for the want of coöperation by Gen. Polk; he could not remain where he was, for the want of ammunition, threatened by Sturges on the north, and Fremont on the south. There were not three rounds of percussion-caps to the man. Hence he was forced to evacuate the place, and retreat towards Springfield, not even having time to organize fully ten or twelve thousand volunteers, who were then ready to enlist under his banner. On the 20th August, 1861, the Confederate Congress, at Richmond, passed an act, one section of which admitted the State of Missouri as a member of the Confederacy, upon an equal footing with the other States under the Constitution for the Provisional Government, upon condition that the said Constitution should be adopted and ratified by the properly and legally constituted authorities of the State. Another section recognized the Government, of which Claiborne F. Jackson was the chief magistrate, in Missouri, to be the legally elected and regularly constituted Government of the people and State, and authorized the President of the Confederate States, at any time prior to her full admission, to form with her a treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive. Gen. Price, with his army, entered the town of Neosho, in Newton county, early in November. On the second day of that month the Legislature had here assembled, by proclamation of Governor Jackson. The attendance was full; twenty-three members of the upper, and seventy-seven of the lower house being present, and with entire unanimity they passed an act of secession from the Federal Union, adopted the Provisional Constitution of the Confederate States, and initiated such measures as would perfect the union between their State and her sisters of the South. From Neosho, Gen. Price marched to Cassville, in Barry County, and thence to McDonald County, in the extreme southwestern angle of the State. Here he rested and recruited his army, and then again moved northward. On the 30th November, from Neosho, he issued a stirring proclamation, calling volunteers to his camp. He called for fifty thousand men, according to the first summons of the Governor, and promised with this force to liberate Missouri surely and speedily. The language of the appeal was ardent, and characteristic of the man. "In the month of June last," he wrote, "I was called to the command of a handful of Missourians, who nobly gave up home and comforts to espouse in that gloomy hour the cause of your bleeding country, struggling with the most heartless and cruel despotism known among civilized men. When peace and protection could no longer be enjoyed but at the price of honour and liberty, your chief magistrate called for fifty thousand men to drive the ruthless invaders from a soil made fruitful by your labours, and consecrated by your homes. And to that call less than five thousand responded out of a male population exceeding two hundred thousand. One in forty only stepped forward to defend with their persons and their lives the cause of constitutional liberty and human rights. Some allowances are to be made on the face of the want of military organization, a supposed want of arms, the necessary retreat of the army southward, the blockade of the river, and the presence of an armed and organized foe. But nearly six months have now elapsed * I must have fifty thousand men. Now is the crisis of your fate; now is the golden opportunity to save the State; now is the time for your political salvation. The time of the enlistment of our brave bands is beginning to expire. Do not hold their patience beyond endurance. Do not longer sicken their hearts by hopes deferred. Boys and small property-holders have in the main fought the battles for the protection of your property, and when they ask, where are the men for whom we are fighting, how can I explain, my fellow-citizens? I call upon you, by every consideration of interest, by every desire of safety, by every tie that binds you to home and country, delay no longer. Let the dead bury the dead. Leave your property to take care of itself. Come to the Army of the Missouri-not for a week, or a month, but to free your country. "Strike, till each armed foe expires! Strike, for your country's altar fires! * * Strike, for the green graves of your sires, Be yours the office to choose between the glory of a free country and a just government, or the bondage of your children. I, at least, will never see the chains fastened upon my country. I will ask for six and a half feet of Missouri soil on which to repose, for I will not live to see my people enslaved. Are you coming? Fifty thousand men of Missouri shall move to victory with the tread of a giant. Come on, my brave fifty thousand heroes—gallant, unconquerable Southern men! We await your coming." CHAPTER XXVII. Gen. Price at the head of ten thousand men.-McCulloch refuses to cooperate.Admirable retreat of Price's army to Boston Mountains. - Hardihood of his troops. -A message from Gen. Halleck.-Gen. Van Dorn appointed Confederate Com. mander of the Trans-Mississippi.-Battle of Elk Horn-Its importance.-Heroism of Gen. Price on the field.-The Missouri troops cross the Mississippi River, -Gen. Price's eloquent address to "the State Guard." THE response to Gen. Price's glowing appeal to the patriotism of Missouri, was not what the commander expected and required; but yet it was sufficient to inspire him with something of new hope. His command had suffered sadly for want of steady and persistent organization; it being mostly made up of volunteers who had hied to the camps in prospect of short service and a speedy return to their homes; and at one time it had been reduced by absenteeism to less than five thousand men, when Gen. Price was threatened on all sides: by Lane, from Kansas; by the forces from the north of Lexington, and by those coming out from St. Louis, by Rolla. Now, however, under the influence of fresh appeals, his forces ran up to more than ten thousand men, and with these he determined to move towards Springfield, and make another effort for the redemption of the State. He had again put himself in communication with McCulloch's forces, then under command of Cols. McIntosh and Hebert. His aim was to hold the State of Missouri, because of the richness of the country, and its great capacity of subsistence; because of the priceless value of the Granby Lead Mines; and because he most especially desired to confine the destroying tide of war to its limits, and leave Arkansas and the South free and unharmed. He could not do this unaided and alone. His force was too small to resist one of the best appointed armies ever put on foot by the United States. He argued the subject fully and repeatedly with McIntosh and Hebert, McCulloch then being at Richmond. He appealed to Albert Sidney Johnson, to the Richmond Government, and entreated the co-operating aid of the Confederate forces, there hoard. ed and rusting on the confines of Arkansas, while he was standing picket for the whole Trans-Mississippi Department. He expressed his willingness and ability to hold Missouri, and keep the Federal forces at bay; he exhibited the teeming granaries and meat supplies of the country; he urged the importance of holding the Granby Lead Mines; and he argued the rich returns the armies of the Confederacy would derive from the fearless yeomanry of Missouri. But these views were not taken by the Confederate authorities. Price was not reinforced; Curtis, Sigel, and Davis advanced; the little Army of Missouri was compelled to retreat, and Springfield and Granby fell into the enemy's possession, no more to be reclaimed. But the retreat was conducted with a skill and success worthy of all praise; and wherever the enemy came up with it he found a steadiness and ferocity, seldom the traits of a retreating column. Millions of stores, wagons and teams, lead and cattle, and other property were carried out by Price; for four days and nights he marched and fought, saving all his stores and losing but few of his men; and he exhibited an endurance and energy which astonished the enemy, and was the occasion of the remark, that "Old Price could beat the world running after a fight or away from one." With sullen steps he retired to the Boston Mountains, where he encamped, and where finally he was to be joined by McCulloch's forces, but not until the golden moment for an offensive movement had departed, and the enemy had increased the forces, and multiplied the toils, by which he held the State of Missouri. An officer of Price's army, describing this hard and painful retreat, writes: "Our sufferings during the campaign had been extreme, but setting the inconveniences aside, had tended to harden us, and make our limbs as tough as steel. Continually marching through non-inhabited districts, we had to depend upon Providence for supplies. Over mountains, through 'gaps,' across rivers and creeks, our progress was toilsome and weary; but not more than a hundred names could be found upon the sick-list at any time during our frequent and rapid journeyings. Our cavalry led a hard life, incident to their daily duty. Among the mountains a party of these 'irregular' horse would watch all the roads, conceal their fires, and hang around the enemy with a pertinacious deter |