|The morning after their arrival at Rolla, the prisoners taken through
the instrumentality of Jack and Harry were sent to St. Louis, where
they were held until an exchange was arranged. Colonel Wyman thought
the interests of the service would be advanced by keeping the captured
captain and his comrades in ignorance of how their seizure was
accomplished, and in obedience to his orders the two youths kept out of
the way of the prisoners, and nothing was said in their presence that
could enlighten them.
It was several months before the captain found out how cleverly he had
been taken. At first he was inclined to be very angry with the boys, and
vowed vengeance upon them if he ever met them again; but on reflection
he remarked that all was fair in love and war, and perhaps he was not
quite free from blame in talking so readily with two entire strangers.
“They played the game well,” said he; “splendidly, in fact, for a pair
of youngsters, and if I can ever give them a helping hand when they're
in trouble I 'll do it.” He was n't at all a bad sort of fellow, that
captain, and you can be sure that after that he was n't quite so ready
to confide in persons whom he had never seen before.
Not only did the boys have a selection from the captured horses, but
they had a choice of saddles and also of the pistols which formed the
armament of the prisoners.
All the pistols were old, and some of them were quite as likely to do
damage at the rear as at the business end. The captain had the best
weapon of the lot--a Colt's revolver, and there was another just about
as good. Jack and Harry drew lots for the choice. The advantage fell
to Jack, who immediately picked up the captain's revolver and handed it
over to Harry. “I've got the captain's horse,” said he, “and you ought
to have something to remember him by, so you must take this along.” Thus
the division was settled, and both were happy.
Thus armed and mounted, the boys were what might be called “swells” in
the garrison of Rolla, and the envy of many of their associates. There
was not a great deal for them to do for a month or more, as the enemy
did not make the attack upon the post they had been threatening to make,
nor did they even make a feint of one. The boys went on several scouting
expeditions on their own account, with the approval of the commanding
officer of the post, and though they made some discoveries and obtained
information that was of use, they did not succeed in making captures of
prisoners and horses.
Recruiting for the rebel army was in progress in all the interior
counties of Missouri, and often almost under the eyes of the Union
authorities. Now and then an expedition seized a squad or company
of recruits and brought them triumphantly within the lines, but as a
general thing the most of the men who wanted to join the Southern armies
succeeded in doing so. The fact was, it was not possible to garrison
every town and village throughout the State, and it was thought best
to allow those with secession proclivities to get away to the field
whenever they wanted to go, rather than remain and be a cause of
trouble.
General Fremont had been assigned to the command of the Department of
the Missouri shortly before the battle of Wilson's Creek, and it was
to him that General Lyon had appealed so earnestly and so vainly for
reinforcements to enable him to hold out against the advancing rebels.
After the retreat of the army to Rolla and the occupation of Springfield
by the rebels, General Fremont set about organizing a force to take the
field early in the autumn, with the hope of securing possession of the
state and flying the Union flag all over its territory.
After the battle of Wilson's Creek the disagreement which had existed
between the rebel leaders--Price and McCulloch--increased, and finally
threatened to end in warfare almost equal to that which they were trying
to wage together against the Union. McCulloch refused to advance further
into the state, in spite of the entreaties of Price. An appeal to the
Confederate government did not result in securing a peremptory order for
McCulloch to advance as Price desired, and the result was a separation.
McCulloch went back to Arkansas, while Price, whose forces had been
strengthened by recruits from various parts of the state, marched
northward in the direction of the Missouri river.
Price's openly-declared intentions were to capture Jefferson City, the
capital, and re-establish Governor Jackson in authority there. A state
convention had met there in July, and, of course, there was no governor
to welcome it, and no commander-in-chief of the state forces. The
convention declared the office of governor vacant, and chose a new
governor, Honorable Hamilton R. Gamble, to fill Jackson's place. It is
needless to say that Governor Gamble was a Union man, and from that
time onward the power of the state was exerted in favor of the national
government and against the rebellion of the South.
Jackson, the fugitive and rebel governor, never saw the state capital
again after he left on the day of the memorable flight to Booneville. He
continued with the rebel armies in southwest Missouri and Arkansas and
died in the last-named state long before the end of the war. General
Price survived the war and afterward went to Mexico, where he was one of
the founders of a colony of Americans who had sworn never to live under
the flag of the United States. He died there in 1867.
With twenty thousand men in his command, and with his numbers increasing
every day of his advance, Price reached Lexington, on the banks of the
Missouri, having two or three encounters with the Union forces on his
way, none of which were of much account. The superiority of his numbers
gave him the advantage, and his opponents wisely retreated as he moved
on. Lexington was garrisoned by about two thousand six hundred Union
troops, consisting of volunteer infantry and Home Guards, under command
of Colonel Mulligan, of the Irish Brigade. A fortification had been
thrown up around the college buildings, which stood in a commanding
position between the new and old towns of Lexington, and about half a
mile from the river. The bank of the river was a high bluff, and with
the exception of a small supply from cisterns and springs, water for
the garrison had to be brought by hand or hauled by teams from below the
base of this bluff.
Colonel Mulligan arrived at Lexington on the first of September, and the
fortification, which he greatly strengthened, had been laid out by the
commander of the troops already there. The spot was not wisely selected,
as we shall presently see. As one of the officers said afterwards, “It
was a very good place for a peace fortress, but very bad for warfare,
especially when the warfare has to be defensive.”
The men worked night and day to complete the intrenchments, which were
ten feet high, with a ditch eight feet wide, and capable of inclosing
ten thousand men. Rumors of the advance of Price were in the air, and
it was definitely known that he was moving toward Lexington. Appeals
for reinforcements were sent to St. Louis, but they did not succeed in
bringing troops to the aid of the garrison, for the simple reason that
none could be spared from that city.
On the afternoon of Wednesday, the eleventh of September, the Union
scouts and pickets were driven in by the enemy only a few miles out of
Lexington. The rebels followed rapidly and attacked one of the angles of
the fortifications, but not very vigorously. The fighting was kept up on
the twelfth and following days, while the rebel army was coming up
and making its preparations for the reduction of the fortification and
capture of the garrison.
There were nearly three-thousand mules and horses inside the
fortifications, and as the rebel shot and shell fell amongst them they
caused a great deal of trouble. Numbers of them were killed and their
bodies lay rotting in the sun, the garrison being too much occupied with
defending the position to give attention to burying the dead animals
or doing any other work of the camp. Frequently some of the affrighted
animals broke loose from their fastenings and ran wildly about the camp,
and it was finally found advisable to allow some of them to run outside,
as their value was not sufficient compensation for the trouble and
danger of caring for them.
The college building was within the inclosure, and occupied as the
headquarters of Colonel Mulligan. Very naturally, it formed a fine
target for the rebel artillery, and they fired away at it with good
effect. One night they fired hot shot at it, but did not set it on fire;
had they succeeded in doing so it would have created considerable havoc
among the garrison, as the ammunition for the defense of the place was
stored in the cellar, where it was covered with dirt and sods.
The rebels went to work leisurely, as before stated. They planted some
of their artillery on the river bank, where they stopped every steamboat
going up or down. They seized the ferry-boats that connect Lexington
with the opposite bank of the river, and thus prevented the crossing
of reinforcements which were moving from Kansas to join the threatened
garrison. Several steamboats were thus taken, and for a while, at least,
General Price was certainly master of the situation.
The country around Lexington grows a large amount of hemp, and thousands
of bales of this article were stored in the warehouses of the town.
The rebels rolled out this hemp, and with it constructed movable
fortifications, with which they proceeded to reduce the earthworks of
the Union army.
And this is the way it was done: The hemp was thoroughly wetted, so that
there would be no danger of its taking fire, and then the bales were
rolled toward the Union works, one after another, until they formed a
breastwork; and all the time not a head of a man could be seen. Then
other bales were brought forward and rolled on the top of the first
layer, and in this way the assailants had a defense that no bullet could
penetrate. Even the four or five pieces of light artillery which Colonel
Mulligan possessed could do but little against such a bulwark as this.
The first of these hemp breastworks was thrown up to the west of the
fort; another on the north, where it was partially sheltered by timber,
followed it very quickly. In the night they were pushed forward, so that
they were within very short range, and from the spaces between the bales
the rebels kept up a fire upon every Union head that was shown on that
side of the earthworks. It was a repetition of the trick of General
Jackson with the cotton bales of New Orleans in 1815.
There were several houses within range of the fort, and these were
speedily occupied by the rebels. Then from every rock, elevation, fence,
gully and tree bullets were steadily whizzing, the great numbers of the
rebels enabling them to keep their lines of attack fully manned at all
times.
Rations were growing short in the fortifications, and the men were worn
out with hard work and the necessity of being almost constantly on
duty. The stench from the dead animals within the lines was fearful,
and threatened to breed an epidemic; some of the Home Guards were
demoralized and wanted to surrender, but the commander refused to
entertain the idea of giving up the place.