conveyed; but Rodney and Dick had
no hopes of wearing the new uniforms and wrapping themselves in the warm
blankets that their share of the hundred thousand would purchase for
them, if they had it. They were afraid they wouldn't get any of it, and
this fear was confirmed when their advance guard was severely repulsed
by less than half a regiment of Home Guards who were found strongly
entrenched at Lexington. The attack, which was renewed on the 12th of
September, after Colonel Mulligan arrived with his Irish brigade,
bringing the strength of the garrison up to twenty-five hundred men, was
even more disastrous than the first, and Price retired to wait until his
supplies of ammunition could be brought up. He waited six days, and
during that time not a soldier was thrown into the garrison, while Price
saw his own army growing daily. Every man in the country for miles
around, and every boy, too, who was strong enough to handle a gun,
"rushed to Lexington to take part in the victory to which Price invited
them." The few Union men there were left in that part of the State came
with the rest, because it was the only thing they could do to save
themselves and their property from the vengeance of the rebels. The real
battle began on the 18th, and on the afternoon of the 20th, after
fifty-two hours of constant fighting, when his ammunition and provisions
were almost exhausted and his supply of water entirely cut off, the
brave colonel, who afterward died on the field of Winchester

"And dying--'Lay me down
And save the flag!' he cried,"

gave up the struggle, and surrendered a worn-out garrison of two
thousand five hundred men to an army of more than twenty thousand. It
was a grand victory--almost as grand as the one Beauregard won over
Anderson at Fort Sumter. By it Price secured "a great number of stands
of arms, a considerable quantity of ammunition, a vast amount of
commissary stores, and nine hundred thousand dollars in hard cash." He
did not abuse his power but paid tribute to the courage of the men who
had so long resisted him by releasing the soldiers on parole, and
keeping the officers only as prisoners.

Having accomplished his object and rallied to his standard all the
scattered bands of partisans in Northern Missouri, and hearing that
Fremont was advancing upon him, while Hardee, who was to support him by
moving up the river from New Madrid, had been driven back, Price tu