first business was to secure the points he could best strike - Saint Louis, Jefferson City, and Rolla. General Smith's 4,500 infantry and the mounted force we could raise, the Seventh Kansas, just in from Memphis, part of the Thirteenth Missouri Volunteer Cavalry, under Colonel Catherwood,and the recruits of Merrill's Horse, hastily mounted and organized, a total of 1,500 men, were all the force we could place between Saint Louis and an invading army of at least 15,000 mounted men, whose advance was within a day's march of the city. Meanwhile Brigadier-General Pike, ably seconded by Generals Wolff and Miller, of the Enrolled Missouri Militia, had assembled and armed skeletons of the First, Second, Third, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Tenth, Eleventh, Thirteenth, and Fifty-second Regiments of Enrolled Militia. The mayor and others, under the direction of the Honorable B. Gratz Brown and Major-Lederberger, organized the citizens exempt from militia duty, who volunteered for the defense of the city, into companies and regiments, numbering by the 30th some 4,000 or 5,000 men. The One hundred and thirty-second, One hundred and thirty-fourth, One hundred and thirty-eighth, One hundred and fortieth, and One hundred and forty-second Illinois (100-day's volunteers) also began to arrive on the 30th, and were all in by October 1 and formed into a brigade, under Colonel Wangelin, for the immediate defense of the city, beyond which they did not wish to serve, as all of them were out over time, and many having desirable offers as substitutes.

The enemy moving up by Potosi seemed to halt at Richwoods, about forty miles southeast of Saint Louis, in the hills between Big River and the Meramec, as of concentrating for an attack on the city. This appeared the more possible from the magnitude of his interest in it, and the fact that he did not show much force in the Meramec Valley, even on the 30th. On that day Major-General Smith was ordered to occupy Kirkwood, which commands the Richwoods road and crossing of the Meramec to Saint Louis, his cavalry reconnoiter south and west, Colonel Merrill going as far as Franklin. General Fisk, previously ordered to join General Brown with all his available force, reached and reported from Jefferson City to-day. At the close of it news came that a brigade of rebel cavalry had burned the Moselle Bridge and were moving north toward Franklin. General Smith was ordered to send a brigade of infantry to support the cavalry at that point, and on the 1st of October Colonel Wolff, with his brigade, reached Franklin, and after a sharp skirmish drove the enemy from the place, but not until he had burned the depot.

The rebels were now apparently at bay with 1,500 and 4,500 infantry. General Smith was not in condition to attempt offensive movements against a force of 15,000 veteran mounted rebels who could reach Saint Louis from any point in the Meramec Valley where he might comfort them in half the time it would take his infantry to reach it. Our obvious policy under these circumstances was to keep as close as possible to the enemy without risking Saint Louis until General Mower's command should arrive from Arkansas, or at least we be able to join to Smith's our mounted forces at Rolla. Every hour's delay of the enemy in the Meramec Valley brought Mower nearer and increased our chances of striking him as it did the security of Jefferson City. On the 2nd the enemy was reported massing in the vicinity of Union, on the road either to Jefferson City or Rolla, and General Smith was ordered to Franklin. But as the enemy's movements appeared to tend westward, on the 3rd General Smith was advanced to Gray's Summit and General Pike moved to Franklin. On the 4th General Smith Pushed his cavalry toward the Gasconade, advanced his infantry to Union, fol-