menced throwing up intrenchments, intending to hold the place as long as possible. We here learned that General Price was at Boonville, twenty miles below, with a force variously estimated at from 15,000 to 30,000 men, probably about 20,000, and twenty pieces of artillery. Detachments of his command were scouting the country in every direction, on both sides of the river, conscripting every man if for military duty. He had possession of the stream ferryboat at Boonville, which was in serviceable condition.

In view of these circumstances Colonel Hardin concluded the remain at Glasgow, and as I believed that the steamer Benton would be wanted in the vicinity of Leavenworth, and in view of the fact that Price had possession of the ferry-boat and could at any time throw a sufficient force on the north side of the river to capture Glasgow, I concluded to return with the boat, and as I did not consider the garrison very strong to do so without a guard. I felt safe in doing this as I was confident the boat could not be taken with artillery to the west of us. We had about twenty guns on board, and barricaded the pilot-house as well as we could, and built very serviceable breast-works of cord-wood around the boiler and main decks. We left Glasgow on the morning of the 14th and saw nothing of the enemy until we reached Brunswick, which was again occupied by the enemy, but they did not fire on us, as I presume they supposed there were troops on board. We had gone but a few rods when we were fired at from the bank, one shot slightly wounding the mate of the boat in the leg. We returned the fire briskly. At Waverly we saw about fifty of the enemy, but as the channel here is a long way from the town they did not fire on us, but we saw them start up the river, and, as we expected, they attacked us about five miles from Waverly at a point where the channel runs very close to the south side of the river. In endeavoring to keep as far as possible from the shore we grounded and for about half an hour a brisk fire was kept up on both sides. Just before reaching Lexington on the same day a woman informed us that there were about 200 bushwhackers at that place. As we approached it we could see them scattered through the town in every direction, and an officer appeared on the hill and shouted to us to stop and come to shore or we would be fired into. We pushed ahead and firing commenced on both sides, but at such long range as not to be very effective. As we came to the bend in the river, the wind blowing directly downstream took us on the starboard and carried us to the shore. We were still under fire, but the men gallantry shoved her bow out, and after two and three efforts we got started. We must have been aground for ten minutes, during which time we were very liable to capture, but fortunately escaped; as we left we could see a large body of them move up the river, and about six miles above we received a very heavy fire from the brush on the bank, only about fifty feet distance. The shot fell thick and fast and some of them came with great force, going clear through and chimneys. Their aim seemed to be mostly at the pilot-house, which received about seventy-five shots, none of which, however, did any material damage.

Besides the above-named places we were fired into repeatedly by small parties. The boat was struck by about 600 shots, and I presume 3,000 or 4,000 more were fired at her. We had no further trouble and