overnor to order his troops to take up their
position behind it, gain time for organization, and prepare for battle
for possession of the State.

Gen. Lyon had also noticed the strategic advantages of the Osage River,
and did not propose to allow his enemies to have the benefit of them.
He did not intend to permit them to concentrate there, and be joined in
time by heavy forces already coming up from Arkansas, Indian Territory,
and Texas. While he was collecting farm wagons around Boonville
to move his own columns forward, laboring to gather a sufficient stock
of ammunition and supplies, and planning to make secure his holding of
the important points already gained, he began moving other columns under
Gen. Sweeny and Maj. Sturgis directly upon Springfield, the central
point of the southwestern part of the State, which would take the Osage
line in the rear, and compel Jackson and Price to retreat with their
forces across the Missouri line into Arkansas.

130

This would clear the State of the whole congerie of Secession leaders,
remove the young men from their influence, stop the persecutions of
the Union men in that section, and cement Missouri solidly in the Union
line. He also wrote Gen. B. M. Prentiss, in command of the troops
at Cairo, asking co-operation by clearing out the rebels from the
southeastern portion of the State. Lyon's far-reaching plans did not
stop with Missouri. He also contemplated pushing his advance directly
upon Little Rock, through the Union-loving region in northwestern
Arkansas, and clinching that State as firmly as Missouri.

The next day after the decisive little victory at Boonville occurred an
event which greatly raised the drooping spirits of the Secessionists,
and was much exaggerated by them in order to offset their defeat at
Boonville by Lyon.

Benton is one of the interior Counties of the State, lying on both sides
of the Osage River. In 1860 its people had cast 74 votes for Lincoln,
306 for Bell and Everett, 100 for Breckinridge, and 574 for Stephen A.
Douglas. All the County officials and leading men were Secessionists,
and doing their utmost to aid the rebellion; still, the Union people,
under the leadership of A. H. W. Cook and Alex. Mackey, were undaunted
and earnestly desirous of doing effective service for the United States.
Cook and Mackey had been warned to leave the State, and Cook had done
so, but returned to take part in the capture of Camp Jackson, and
afterward w