to seize about $100,000 deposited in the State banks.
He arrived too late for this however, because the Union troops had the
same object in view, and had anticipated him, carrying the money off
with them and leaving behind some very clever caricatures, drawn by the
skillful artists among the Germans, which irritated Price and his men
more than it was reasonable they should.

The Union commander at Warrensburg, Col. Everett Peabody, of the
13th Mo., had kept himself well informed as to Price's movements, and
retreated from Warrensburg to Lexington, burning the bridges after he
had crossed them. He sent notice to Fremont of Price's movements.

Col. James A. Mulligan, with the 23d 111., an Irish regiment, was
ordered forward to Lexington to Col. Peabdy's assistance, and to hold
the place to the last.

206

The 1st Ill. Cav., Col. Thos. A. Marshall, and fragments of Home Guard
regiments in process of organization, were drawn back to Lexington, in
face of the advance of Price's columns. There was also a mongrel field
battery, consisting of one 4-pounder, three 6-pounders, one 12-pounder
and two little 4-inch howitzers, the latter being useless on account of
having no shells.

The cavalry was only armed with pistols and sabers.

No official Union reports are on file as to the affair, but the total
strength of the garrison is given unofficially at from 2,640 to 3,300.
The correspondent of the Missouri Republican gives these figures:

23d 111., Col. Mulligan............................... 800

Home Guards, Col. White.......................... 500

13th Mo., Col. Peabody................................ 840

1st Ill. Cav., CoL Marshall........................... 500

Total...................................................2,040

Col. Mulligan assumed command of the whole by seniority of commission.
He was an Irishman with all his race's pugnacity, and also its
effervescence. He was born in Utica, N. Y., in 1830, had graduated from
a Roman Catholic college, studied law, and edited the principal Roman
Catholic paper in the West, "The Tablet."

207

Lexington, which is the County seat of Lafayette County, was a
very important place in frontier times, and the center of the great
hemp-growing region of Missouri. It is situated on the south bank of the
Missouri River, about 300 miles by its course above St. Louis, and about
84 miles below Kansas City by water, or 42 miles by