On the morning of the 25th of October, the troops commenced crossing
the river, and about 11 o'clock, A.M., the Ninth Missouri landed on
the opposite shore, and halted an hour for dinner, and for stragglers
to come up from Warsaw. Although orders against straggling was very
strict, and the punishment threatened, severe, many of the soldiers
fell out of ranks, and slipped off to town.
Warsaw is situated on the left bank of the Osage river, and is the
largest town passed through since leaving Boonville. There being no
towns of any size within many miles of it, it has quite an extended
country trade, and boasts of several large stores and business houses
of different kinds. The rebels while here, two weeks since, supplied
themselves with goods to a large amount, from two or three Union Stores
which were in the town. The merchants and citizens here are still
undecided as to which cause they should give their influence. They are
all, however, willing to be let alone. No demonstrations of
satisfaction or the contrary, was manifested while the army remained
here.
At 1 o'clock, the bugle sounded, and the line of march was again taken
up and continued until the 30th, when the army went into camp for a day
or two, at Humansville. The direction from Warsaw to Humansville, is
southward, and the fear of the men now was, that the rebels were making
for Arkansas. Rumor again had it that they were fortifying somewhere
between here and Springfield, Missouri; but the boys did not credit it.
Nothing reliable could be obtained of their whereabouts, and Arkansas
appeared to be the most inviting place for a fleeing army. At any rate,
it was evident that they had so far, fled as fast as they had been
pursued.
The country from the Osage to this point is poor, broken and rocky. It
seems as though nature intended this as the stone quarry for the
universe. Here is stone enough to supply the United States with
building material for centuries. The roads are all stone, the hills are
solid rock, and the fields are stone. There is very little tillable
lands south of the Osage, until within the vicinity of Humansville.
There are a few farms, and occasionally a small town, but they are for
the most part deserted. The inhabitants, perhaps, have gone south with
Price. Quincy, the largest town on the road, is entirely deserted; the
citizens all being rebels.
The only incident of note, during the march from the Osage, to
Humansville, was the return to the army of Major White and his Prairie
Scouts.
On the 30th of September, Price evacuated Lexington, and commenced a
retreat to the south. He left a rebel guard there in charge of some
Union prisoners. On the 15th of October, Major White, commanding a
squadron of cavalry, called Prairie Scouts, with two and twenty men,
made a forced march of nearly sixty miles, surprised Lexington,
dispersed the rebels, captured sixty or seventy prisoners, took two
steam ferry boats, and some other less valuable articles, secured the
Union prisoners left there, and with a rebel captured flag, returned by
another route to Warsaw, traveling with neither provisions nor
transportation, and joining Fremont's forces south of the Osage. As
characteristic of the energy of the men whom Gen. Fremont gathered
about him, it is worth narrating, that Major White's horses being
unshod, he procured some old iron, called for blacksmiths from the
ranks, took possession of two unoccupied blacksmith's shop, and in five
days made the shoes and shod all his horses. At another time, the
cartridges being spoiled by rain, they procured powder and lead, and
turning a carpenter's shop into a cartridge factory, made three
thousand cartridges. Such men could march, if necessary, without
waiting for army wagons and regular equipments. As the Major and his
Prairie Scouts proceeded to Head Quarters, they were greeted with cheer
after cheer by the soldiers. The rebel flag, being the first they had
seen, was a great curiosity to the boys. In contrast with their own
loved stars and stripes, it was an insignificant affair. Its stars and
bars elicited the scorn and contempt of every one who saw it. The
curses bestowed upon it were not loud, but they were deep and came from
the heart.