VI. On the 8th of October, when General Pleasonton assumed command at Jefferson City, he sent Sanborn with all his mounted force, 4,100 strong, to follow the rebel track and harass them until all our remaining cavalry could join you, and the infantry supports come up. You drove the enemy's rear guard upon their main force in line of battle near Boonville, and bearded them in position with a force of only 5,500 men. Pursuing their retreat westward, and keeping them between you and the Missouri River, without an opportunity to double on their track, you waited the arrival of Winslow's command, 1,500 strong, which followed the enemy from Arkansas, and when, on the 19th, it joined, forming the Provisional Cavalry Division of 6,500 men, exclusive of escort guards, under General Pleasonton, you moved on the foe for battle and victory, overtook and gave them the first sweet taste of your sabers on the 22nd, at Independence, where you routed Fagan and captured two of his guns. On the 23rd you forced the passage of the Big Blue, fought them from 7 in the morning until 1 p. m. Their advance quitting Curtis then fell upon you, when by the combined use of Thurber's double-shotted canister and the saber you routed their main force, and by dark had thrown them beyond Little Santa Fe.

On the 24th, at midnight, after marching some sixty-miles, with little water, except the rain on your backs, and less food for men or horses, you again overtook them at the Marais des Cygnes, began skirmishing, and at 4 a. m. on the 25th, opening with artillery, routed them with loss; capturing mules, horses, &c. Thence, in a running fight, you pursued them to the Little Osage Crossing, where two advanced brigades, under Benteen and Phillips, charged two rebel divisions, routed them, captured eight pieces of artillery, and near 1,000 prisoners, including General Marmaduke and Cabell. Sanborn's brigade again led in pursuit, overtook them and made two more brilliant charges, driving everything before it, across the Marmiton, whence the enemy fled, under cover if night, toward the Arkansas. After thus marching 204 miles in six days and beating the enemy, his flying columns were pursued toward the Arkansas by the Kansas troops and Benteen's brigade, while Sanborn, following, marched 104 miles in thirty-six hours, and on the 28th reached Newtonia, where the enemy made his last stand, in time to turn the tide of battle which was going against General Blunt, again routing the enemy, and giving the final blow to the greatest cavalry raid of the war.

VII. The substantial results of this brilliant series of operations are, that while our infantry and dismounted men nobly performed their share of the work by fighting at Pilot Knob and Glasgow, holding the depots and important points, and backing your hazards, the enemy, entering the State with a mounted force of veteran troops, variously estimated at from 15,000 to 26,000, and eighteen pieces of artillery, with vast expectations of revolutionizing the State destroying Kansas, and operating on the Presidential election, after having added to his force 6,000 Missourians, which general marmaduke told General Pleasonton were armed and organized into a division, has been defeated in all his schemes, his mischief confined to the narrow belt of country over which he passed, and routed by you in four engagements, he has lost ten pieces of artillery, a large number of small-arms, nearly all his trains and plunder, and, besides his killed, wounded, and deserters, 1,958 prisoners, which we have now in possession, and the latest reports confirm the statement that when the enemy's forces recrossed the Arkansas demoralization, desertion, and losses had reduced their strength to less than 5,000, but partially armed and mounted, with three pieces of