ave State should go out. Call on every country paper
to defend me, and assure them I am fighting under the true
flag. Who does not know that every sympathy of my heart is
with the South? The Legislature, in my view, should sit in
secret session, and touch nothing but the measures of
defense.

Though in point of fighting and losses this initial campaign
ending with the skirmish at Boonville had been
insignificant, its results far surpassed those of many of
the bloodiest battles of the rebellion. The Governor of the
State was in flight from his Capital; his troops had been
scattered in the first collision; control had been gained of
the Missouri River, cutting the enemy's line in two; and
above all, there was the immense moral effect of the defeat
in action of the boastful Secessionists by the much
denounced "St. Louis Dutch." This alone accounted for the
acquisition of many thousand wavering men to the side of the
Union. Missourians were not different from the rest of
mankind, and every community had its large proportion of
those who, when the Secessionists seemed to have everything
their own way, inclined to that side, but came back to their
true allegiance at the first sign of the Government being
able to assert its supremacy. The Government was now aroused
and striking--and striking successfully. Its enemies were
immensely depressed, and its friends correspondingly elated.

129

Gen. Lyon's next thought was to drive Gov. Jackson and his
Secession clique out of Missouri into Arkansas, free the
people from their pernicious influence, protect the Union
people, especially in the southwestern part of the State,
and keep tens of thousands of young men from being persuaded
or dragged into the rebel army.

He would demonstrate the Government's position so
convincingly that there would be no longer any doubt of
Missouri's remaining in the Union.

129

[Illustration: 129-The Storm Gathers]

CHAPTER VIII. STORM GATHERS IN SOUTHWESTERN MISSOURI

The Osage River enters Missouri from Kansas about 60 miles south of the
Missouri River, and flowing a little south of east empties into that
river a few miles below Jefferson City. It thus forms a natural line of
defense across the State, which Gen. Price's soldierly eye had noted,
and he advised the G