oners. With small detachments from the companies of the Eleventh I scoured through a portion of the brush west of the town, meeting with but little resistance and capturing a few prisoners, many guns, horses, blankets, &c.

Every officer and man readily obeyed every order and gallantly performed the work assigned them. It is impossible to discriminate.

the casualties are remarkably small, considering the length of time the troops were under fire and the duties they were called on to perform. In the Eleventh no person was hurt, and in the Second a few were wounded; but being separated immediately from them, and they only obeying my orders for the time, I am not able to give the names, having received no report from the company officers.

I cannot close this report without congratulating you on your victory. It is decidedly the most severe blow the rebels have received in Northern Missouri, and has broken the backbone of the rebellion here. Other successes over them have been only partial and our losses generally exceeding theirs; but this is like a thunder-bolt to them, and will teach them, I trust, a lesson for the future.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. F. BENJAMIN,

Major.

Colonel JOHN McNEIL.

AUGUST 7, 1862.-Skirmish at Rocky Bluff, Platte County, Mo.

Report of Lieutenant Colonel John T. Burris, Tenth Kansas Infantry.

HEADQUARTERS,
Fort Leavenworth, Kans., August 9, 1862.

SIR: I have the honor to report that in pursuance of verbal instructions received from Brigadier General J. G. Blunt, commanding Department of Kansas, I marched from this post and from Leavenworth City at sunset on Sunday, the 3rd instant, with Companies A and D, Eighth Kansas Volunteers, commanded respectively by Captain Abernathy and First Lieutenant Todd; a battalion of the Third Wisconsin Cavalry, under Major Schroeling, and two sections of the post battery, commanded by First Lieutenant Charles S. Bowman, Fourth U. S. Cavalry, assisted by First Lieutenant J. M. Laing, of the Sixth Kansas Volunteers. Volunteer aides for the expedition, Major Charles W. Blair, of the Second Kansas Volunteers; Majors Vaughn and Quidor, of General Blunt's staff; Captain R. H. Offley, First U. S. Infantry; Captain J. B. Stockton, First Kansas Volunteers; Lieutenants Hill and Loring, of General Blunt's staff, and Lieutenant H. Sachs, Third U. S. Cavalry, post adjutant.

Being detained at the ferry below the city until after midnight we did not reach Platte City, Mo., until 6 a. m. of Monday, the 4th instant. At that point I was joined by another small detachment of the Third Wisconsin Cavalry, under command of Major E. A. Calkins, who now assumed command of the cavalry. The men being greatly fatigued and horses much jaded from a night march over muddy, difficult roads, I laid over with the command at Platte City until 2 p. m., when we marched to Barry, a distance of 15 miles.

On the following day, at 6 a. m., I started the infantry and artillery, in command of Captain Abernathy, on the road direct to Liberty, Clay County, and made a detour with the cavalry in the direction of Kansas City, and joined Captain Abernathy at Liberty in the evening.