fifty-five miles, to Harrison thirty-five. I here sent Captain Hills, with ten men in advance, to Franklin with instructions to telegraph thence to the major-general commanding at Saint Louis and to General McNeil at Rolla of our movements and to arrange means for securing our safe and speedy withdrawal from Harrison to Rolla or Saint Louis.

The night was intensely dark and stormy and we groped our way with great effort and little progress. We had just reached the ridge at 8 Thursday morning, when the enemy charged on our rear guard and drove it upon the column. I placed,the detachment of the Fourteenth Iowa Infantry, Company H, Forty-seventh Missouri, Companies C, D, and K, Third Missouri State Militia Cavalry, and Lieutenant Smiley's section of artillery in the rear all under the command of Major Williams, Tenth Kansas, acting aide-de-camp, and, with occasional halts to rake the woods with grape and canister, we made a good and successful march, the enemy almost constantly engaged with our rear, guard, but unable to break through or flank it until we came within four miles of Harrison. There the road debouches on a high sweep of gently rolling woodland and from that out we fought hard for every step we gained. The refugees, men, women, and children, white and black, who clung to the command, nearly sacrificed it by their panics. I had to throw out the available fighting force, infantry and cavalry as advance and rear guard and flankers, leaving in the body of the column the affrighted non-combatants, and two sections of artillery not often brought into action on the retreat. Repeated and stubborn efforts were made to bring us to a stand, and could they have forced a halt of an hour they would have enveloped and taken us, but our halts, though frequent, were brief, and were only to unlimber the artillery, stagger the pursuers with a few rounds, and move on. We reached Harrison just after dark, having made the march of sixty-six miles in thirty-nine hours. We found Warmoth's militia gone. This station is thirty-five miles from Rolla, forty-five from Franklin and eighty-two from Saint Louis. The position is naturally strong, being on the crest of a ridge, with no timber to obstruct the range for 200 yards on either side. A cut for the railroad track gave shelter for the horses. A large number of ties were there of which the militia had made breast-works, and the adjacent buildings were well situated for purposes of defense. My command had just time to form and the artillery to unlimber, when an assault was made, but aided by darkness and our rude defenses we repulsed it. Just then the eastern train arrived with military stores for Rolla, and cars enough to move my command. We got the command aboard and were about to start for Saint Louis, with the cavalry and artillery horses moving on a parallel road, when the nearest stations north and south of us were seen in flames. The command was at once taken off the cars and the night spent in fortifying.

At daybreak Friday the enemy appeared in force and prepared apparently for an assault. They kept up a demonstration through the day, accompanied with a heavy fire of skirmishers, which was well replied to from our defenses. Having less than thirty rounds to the gun we used our artillery but little, reserving it for the moment of assault, or the emergencies of a farther retreat. The day passed in instant expectation of an attack in force and in unremitting labor on the defenses, which were extended and strengthened so they grew formidable. Friday night another assault was repulsed and the night passed in snatches of rest, amid hourly and most harassing alarms. Hearing nothing of re-enforcements I at midnight dispatched a citizen messenger to Rolla to ask help from there, and Lieutenant-Colonel