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434 Series I Volume XLI-I Serial 83 - Price's Missouri Expedition Part I

Page 434 LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. Chapter LIII.


Numbers 47. Report of Brigadier General James Craig, Missouri State Militia.


HDQRS. SEVENTH MILITARY DISTRICT OF MISSOURI,
Saint Joseph, December 14, 1864.

LIEUTENANT: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 8th instant calling for a list of the killed, wounded, and captured by the Enrolled Missouri Militia in my district. I regret that the officers of the militia generally neglect to make written reports of their scouts. In the fight in which Bill Anderson was defeated and killed some 6 of his men were killed by the Daviess and Ray County militia, under Acting Lieutenant-Colonel Cox and Major Grimes. Major Pace, Eleventh Missouri Cavalry, at my request took command of 100 Enrolled Missouri Militia, and had a fight in Clay County, in which he killed 7 bushwhackers; and in an affair at Skinner's Bridge, in Platte, his command killed 2 others, one of whom was a son of Kemp Woods. Hart, a brother of the notorious Joe, was wounded and captured by a scout sent out from Stewartsville. The military prison of this city is full of prisoners taken by the Enrolled Missouri Militia, who were captured under circumstances which forbid their being shot as guerrillas; they nearly all surrendered unarmed, and claim to have been conscripted by Thornton, Thrailkill, Welden, or some other leader, and that they each deserted at the first safe opportunity and surrendered to the nearest military commander of Union forces. Major E. S. Castle, jr., had a fight with the bushwhackers at Smithville, Clay County; casualties not recollected, and no report on file.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAS. CRAIG.

Lieutenant W. T. CLARKE,

Aide-de-Camp, Macon, Mo.


Numbers 48. Report of Colonel Chester Harding, jr., Forty-third Missouri Infantry.

BENTON BARRACKS, November 12, 1864

SIR: I have the honor to report that on the 5th day of October, 1864, six companies (A, C, D, E, G, and H) of the Forty-third Infantry Missouri Volunteers were embarked under my command upon the steamboat West Wind to proceed to Jefferson City by river, in pursuance of orders from headquarters of the District of North Missouri. Accompanying me as passengers on their way to headquarters were Lieutenant Colonel D. J. Hynes, chief of cavalry; Surg. F. G. Porter, medical director, and Captain G. A. Holloway, assistant adjutant-general upon the staff of the general commanding the district, and Lieuts. J. A. Cotton and I. H. Eldridge of the Seventeenth Illinois Cavalry. Second Lieutenant George F. Simmonds, of the Sixty-second U. S. Colored Infantry, at his own request, was ordered to report to me for duty during his leave of absence, and up to the moment of his being killed in action rendered me efficient service in responsible positions. At Fort Leavenworth Major General S. R. Curtis, sent the steam-boat Benton with us, under the control of Major S. S. Curtis, of his staff, to remove Government stores from Lexington to a place of safety, and kindly allowed me to transfer


Page 434 LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. Chapter LIII.