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322 Series I Volume XLI-II Serial 84 - Price's Missouri Expedition Part II

Page 322 LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. Chapter LIII.

LAWRENCE, July 21, 1864.

Major S. S. CURTIS:

Will telegraph General Fisk answering your dispatch. Our guns must go into the hands of our men who are mustering. If good men muster in Weston or Kansas City we may help to arm them, but we want no more armed rebels. We have routed what there were, and we are ready for them if they return, as they will not. See General Lane. Tell him we have driven the bushwhackers from the eastern border, and I go to care for the Indians and troops in the west. Let him devolve on you any matter of confidence, and try to carry out his views. We expect to move early to-morrow, but an orderly could overtake me with dispatches.

S. R. CURTIS,

Major-General.

FORT LEAVENWORTH, KANS., July 21, 1864.

Major-General CURTIS,

Lawrence, Kans.:

General Fisk says further:

Let me have infantry arms, if you can do no better, and send them to Saint Joseph under as strong guard as you can spare. Thornton's clans have consolidated and to-day occupy Plattsburg. I judge there are nearly 1,000 rebels in striking distance. Can you give me any cavalry in an emergency?

I am getting the arms ready.

S. S. CURTIS,

Major and Aide-de-Camp.

LAWRENCE, July 21, 1864.

Major S. S. CURTIS:

If wanted, we would in three days concentrate 2,000 or 3,000 militia to go into Missouri, but in any case we must have our own commander. Rumor here that Indians have taken Larned and Walnut Station.

S. R. CURTIS,

Major-General.

LEAVENWORTH CITY, July 21, 1864.

Major-General CURTIS,

Lawrence:

I send you a letter* from General Lane by messenger. A boat is at the city with a battalion of Seventeenth Illinois Cavalry for Saint Joseph. It leaves in the morning. I will send 1,000 stand of arms on it. What do you think of letting the militia arm and go over about 600 or 800 strong with our cavalry? I do not want any more to go unless commanded by our own men.

S. S. CURTIS,

Major and Aide-de-Camp.

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*Not found.

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Page 322 LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. Chapter LIII.