on of country wagons, if scattered among the stables and
barn-yards of the adjoining territory, wholly disappeared. But all
through this eruptive discord flowed a continuous stream of more regular
contests, which constitute the connected beginning of the military
operations of the Mississippi Valley.

Under countenance of Governor Jackson's proclamation, General D.M. Frost
organized a force and established Camp Jackson, near St. Louis, the site
being now covered by a well-built portion of the city. Jackson had
refused to call out troops in response to President Lincoln's
requisition, but Frank P. Blair had promptly raised one regiment and
stimulated the formation of four others in St. Louis. On May 10, 1861,
Captain Nathaniel Lyon, of the regular army, who commanded at the
arsenal at St. Louis, and had there a garrison of several hundred
regulars, marched with Colonel Blair and the volunteers and a battery to
Camp Jackson, surrounded it, and demanded a surrender. Resistance was
useless. General Frost surrendered his men and stores, including twenty
cannon. St. Louis, and with it Missouri, was thus preserved. Lyon was
made brigadier-general of volunteers.

Jackson and Price left Jefferson City--Jackson stopping, on June 18th,
at Booneville, one rendezvous for his forces, while Price continued up
the river to Lexington, another rendezvous. General Lyon, leaving St.
Louis on June 13th with an expeditionary force on boats, reached
Booneville almost as soon as Jackson. The unorganized and partially
armed gathering of several thousand men made an impotent attempt at
resistance when Lyon landed, but was quickly routed. Jackson fled, with
his mounted men and such of the infantry as he could hold together, to
the southwest part of the State, gathering accretions of men as he
marched. Lyon set out in pursuit, and Price, abandoning Lexington,
hastened with the force assembled there to join Jackson. Colonel Franz
Sigel had proceeded from St. Louis to Rolla by rail, and marched thence
in pursuit of Jackson to strike him before he could be reinforced.
Sigel, with 1,500 men, encountered Jackson with more than double that
number, on July 5th, near Carthage, in Jasper County. Sigel's
superiority in artillery gave him an advantage in a desultory combat of
some hours. Jackson, greatly outnumbering him in cavalry, proceeded to
envelop his rear, and Sigel was forced to withdraw. Sigel retreated in
perfect order, and managed his artillery s