and effective action necessary. In disposing of my regiment you need pay no attention to my rank. I am willing to do all I can in this emergency in any shape that may be deemed best.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. H. SHANKLIN,

Colonel Thirtieth Regiment Enrolled Missouri Militia.

SAINT JOSEPH, July 22, 1864.

Colonel J. H. SHANKLIN,

Chillicothe:

You will assume command of all the troops from Grundy and Mercer Counties, and as soon as possible take the field in the direction of Carroll County, and find and exterminate the infernal bushwhackers that infest that region. The best of discipline must be maintained. Tell your men our mission is to put down, not to create, disorder. Keep your men well in hand, and will be right. You will obtain from merchants in Chillicothe such ammunition as they may have suitable for the various arms brought in. We will send other ammunition from here by first train.

JAS. CRAIG,

Brigadier-General, Enrolled Missouri Militia.

CHILLICOTHE, July 22, 1864.

General FISK:

The column of cavalry from Glasgow reached here just now, hearing much, but seeing nothing, on the way. I wait command.

L. C. MATLACK,

Major Seventeenth Illinois Cavalry, Commanding Detachment.

BRUNSWICK, July 22, 1864.

Colonel O. D. GREENE,

Assistant Adjutant-General:

Your message came by horseman from Glasgow at midnight. I had been ordered by General Fisk to move from Glasgow in the direction of Chillicothe. I came north to Keytesville and west to Boonville over the trail of bushwhackers who for three days had been reported to me. General Fisk, July 20, reported Thornton with 400 men in Livingston County, twenty miles south from Chillicothe. I expected to intercept him at some crossing on Grand River, north of Brunswick. If that was correct, your report makes him retiring westward toward Saint Joseph. Word came here yesterday that 175 men were moving through Chariton County northwest; numbers stated are wholly unreliable. My command is 136 mounted men. Major Leonard, Ninth Cavalry Missouri State Militia, from Fayette, is with me, having seventy men. We move at 6 a.m.; will cross Grand River eighteen miles north at Compton's Ferry, and as far as possible do as you direct.

L. C. MATLACK,

Major Seventeenth Illinois Cavalry.