was cavalry I sent scouting parties east and south, which returned by Monday morning, reporting no enemy north of Fredericktown. They brought, however, apparently credible rumors that Price was at Fredericktown with all his army,. At 10 Monday morning I took Companies B, C, D, E, and H, Fourteenth Iowa Infantry, under Captain Campbell, and went to Pilot Knob. Major James Wilson, Third Missouri State Militia Cavalry, then commanded the Third Sub-District of this district, with headquarters at that post. He had under orders withdrawn his outposts from Patterson, Centreville Fredericktown and Farmington, and collected at Pilot Knob, all the available force of his sub-district, except bridge guards. The force there present consisted of Companies A, F, E, G, H, and I, Forty-seventh Missouri Infantry, and Captain Lindsay's company, Fiftieth Missouri Infantry, which were raw troops, with an aggregate of 489 officers and men for duty, and Companies A, C, D, H, I, and K, Third Missouri State Militia Cavalry; Company L, Second Missouri State Militia Cavalry; Company G, First Missouri State Militia Infantry and Captain Montgomery's battery, which, with the detachment of the Fourteenth Iowa, made an aggregate of old troops for duty of 562. My instructions from Major-General Rosecrans were to have Major Wilson endeavor to hold Pilot Knob against any mere detachment of the enemy, but to evacuate if Price's main army should move against it. The village of Pilot Knob, which is the terminus of the railroad and the depot for supply of the lower outposts, is eighty-six miles south of Saint Louis. It lies in a plain of about 1,000 acres, encircled by Cedar and Rock Mountains on the north, Pilot Knob on the east, and Shepherd's Mountain, stretching around the valley, on the south and west. Each hill is from 500 to 600 feet in height, and rises abruptly from the valley, with the sides toward it covered with rocks, gnarled oaks, and undergrowth. The southern and western slopes of Shepherd's Mountain are accessible and several roads lead over them to "the coalings" on its summit. Stout's Creek flows along the base of Shepherd's Mountain and through a gap between it and Pilot Knob into a larger valley of several thousands of acres, encircled by a chain of hills, in the northern end of which and about a mile from the town of Pilot Knob is the flourishing village of Ironton. Through this gap runs the road from Pilot Knob to Fredericktown, passing out oft he larger valley by the "Shut-in," a gap four miles southeast of Pilot Knob. The two valleys are called Arcadia.

Fort Davidson is a hexagonal work, mounting four 32-pounder siege guns and three 24-pounder howitzers en barbette. It lies about 300 yards from the base of the knob and 1,000 from the gap. From the fort to the remotest summit of these hills visible from it is not over 1,200 yards, while all parts of the hill-sides toward the fort, except the west end of Shepherd's Mountain, are in musket-range. The fort was always conceded to be indefensible against any large army having serviceable artillery. Early last summer I sent competent engineers to select another site, but such are the difficulties of the position no practicable place could be found any more defensible. I therefore had the roads leading up the hills obstructed, cleared the nearest hill-sides of timber, and put the fort in a thorough state of defense by deepening the ditches, strengthening the parapet, and adding two rifle-pits leading north and south, commanding the best approaches. On reaching Pilot Knob at noon of Monday, September 26, I found scouting parties had been sent the night before on all the main roads, but that the party sent toward Fredericktown had returned after going but six or eight miles. I forthwith sent two companies to make a thorough reconnais-