sions to act against him, Price moved back as fast as he had
advanced, and did not stop until he was south of Springfield and near
supports in Arkansas.

General McCullough, in his letters from Springfield, Mo., August 24th,
says that there were only 3,000 troops in Springfield and all the Arkansas
troops had left the service. Price's total force was about 12,000 men, and
on November 7th he reached and joined McCullough and suggested to General
A. S. Johnston a campaign against St. Louis, offering to raise in Missouri
and Arkansas a force of 25,000 men in such a campaign, and stated he
should wait for Fremont at Pineville, Ark., believing in that rugged
country he could defeat him.

While at Rolla I was ordered to send a force to take Salem, to the south
of me, and I entrusted the command of the force to Colonel Greusel, of the
Thirteenth Illinois Infantry. I issued to him the following instructions:

If the men who are away from home are in the rebel Army, or if their
families cannot give a good account of them or their whereabouts, take
their property or that portion of it worth taking; also their slaves.
Be sure that they are aiding the enemy, then take all they have got.

When I wrote these instructions I had not considered for a moment what a
row the order to take the slaves would cause. I simply treated them as
other property. It was written innocently, but made a sensation I never
dreamed of, and I have often since been quoted as one of the first to
liberate and utilize the negro.

On the return of Lyon's Army to Rolla I was ordered by General Fremont to
report at his headquarters in St. Louis. On my arrival in St. Louis I
reported myself to his Adjutant, who was in the basement of the old home
of Thomas A. Benton, on Choutau Avenue, but was unable to obtain an
interview with the General. I showed my dispatch to his Adjutant-General,
and waited there two days. I met any number of staff officers, and was
handed about from one to another, never reaching or hearing from General
Fremont. After remaining in St. Louis two days I considered it was my duty
to return to my command, and left a note to the Adjutant stating that I
had waited there two days for an interview with General Fremont, and had
left for my command, and that if wanted would return to St. Louis again.

Evidently no communication was made to Fremont of my presence in the city
or of my note, for soon after I arrived at Rolla I receive