ficers were in the service
from one company of the First Iowa Infantry. Out of one company of the
First Missouri Infantry, twenty-eight men received commissions. To the
majority of the officers from that army promotion was rapid, though
a few cases occurred in which the services they rendered were tardily
acknowledged.

[Illustration: DEATH OF GENERAL LYON]

CHAPTER VII.

THE RETREAT FROM SPRINGFIELD.

A Council of War.--The Journalists' Council.--Preparations for
Retreat.--Preceding the Advance-Guard.--Alarm and Anxiety of the
People.--Magnificent Distances.--A Novel Odometer.--The Unreliable
Countryman.--Neutrality.--A Night at Lebanon.--A Disagreeable
Lodging-place.--Active Secessionists.--The Man who Sought and
Found his Rights.--Approaching Civilization.--Rebel Couriers on the
Route.--Arrival at Rolla.

On the night after the battle, the army was quartered at Springfield.
The Rebels had returned to the battle-ground, and were holding it in
possession. The court-house and a large hotel were taken for hospitals,
and received such of our wounded as were brought in. At a council of
war, it was decided to fall back to Rolla, a hundred and twenty miles
distant, and orders were given to move at daylight.

The journalists held a council of war, and decided to commence their
retreat at half-past two o'clock in the morning, in order to be in
advance of the army. The probabilities were in favor of the enemy's
cavalry being at the junction of certain roads, five miles east of
the town. We, therefore, divested ourselves of every thing of a
compromising character. In my own saddle-bags I took only such toilet
articles as I had long carried, and which were not of a warlike
nature. We destroyed papers that might give information to the enemy,
and kept only our note-books, from which all reference to the strength
of our army was carefully stricken out. We determined, in case
of capture, to announce ourselves as journalists, and display our
credentials.

One of our party was a telegraph operator as well as a journalist. He
did not wish to appear in the former character, as the Missouri
Rebels were then declaring they would show no quarter to telegraphers.
Accordingly, he took special care to divest himself of all that
pertained to the transmission of intelligence over the wires. A
pocket "instrument," which he had hitherto carried, he concealed in
Springfield, after carefully disabling the office, and leaving the