the command bivouacked for the night. Daylight 24th, pursuit renewed by the combined forces of Generals Curtis and Pleasonton, general Blunt's division in the advance. The general and staff left camp at 8 o'clock. Major Weed was sent forward with orders to General Blunt to press hard on the enemy's rear and not scatter. Continued pursuit without intermission or halt to West Point, where we arrived after dark. After a short halt the march was resumed and kept up all night, through a steady and cold rain which had not ceased at daylight (25th), when the advance struck the rebels at the crossing of the Marais des Cygnes. Here was fought the first of a series of engagements which resulted in the complete overthrow of the rebels, the utter rout and demoralization of the Army of Missouri under Price in person, the capture of Major-General Marmaduke, Brigadier-General Cabell, 8 colonels, large number of inferior officers, 8 pieces of artillery, ad colors and small-arms in large quantities, and rendered the 25th of October, 1864, and the battles of Marais des Cygnes, Osage, and Charlot proudly historic in the annals of the great civil war of the rebellion. My personal report of this glorious day's operations consists chiefly of hard riding to the rear in bringing up troops. McNeil's brigade was brought up in a gallop and held our advanced position in front of the enemy that night. In carrying an order to Major-General Blunt I passed the house where the prisoners were assembled in charge of Lieutenant-Colonel Sears, provost-marshal-general Army of the Border, and found Captain yates and Major Suess, of General Pleasonton's staff, quarreling over the prisoners and claiming them from the custody of Colonel Sears as General Pleasonton's prisoners.

Being in the execution of a specific duty I did not feel at liberty to detain [remain] and interfere, but informed Captain Yates and Major Suess that Major-General Curtis was the senior officer present and his roders must be obeyed, and rode on. The prisoners were afterward taken from Fort Scott, in General Curtis' department, and contrary to his orders, by General Pleasonton's officers, to Saint Louis via Warrensburg, after our own troops had left Fort Scott in further pursuit of the enemy, and our provost-marshal was powerless to execute his order to convey the prisoners, under guard detailed from General Pleasonton's command, to Fort Leavenworth. The temporary abandonment of the pursuit of the enemy, and the march to Fort Scott on the evening of the 25th, became a necessity for our command after General Pleasonton had marched his command, constituting the largest portion of the combined forces, away from the line of pursuit and to that post without consultation with his senior and commanding officer, Major-General Curtis, and contrary to the views of General Curtis, previously and earnestly expressed. We reached Fort Scott at 8 o'clock, and General Orders, Numbers 57, Department of Kansas, was issued rescinding General Orders, Numbers 54, and relieving the State from martial law. Next morning the command was ordered forward from Fort Scott, after the general and staff had gone some distance out of town, by the following order:

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE BORDER,
In the Field, October 26, 1864.

Generals BLUNT and PLEASONTON,

Commanding Officer:

I have reliable information that the enemy have all crossed at Adamson's Ford and gone eastward. I therefore direct all forces to move by the shortest route to that point and follow me in pursuit.

S. R. CURTIS,

Major-General.