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ZAGONYI'S CHARGE AT SPRINGFIELD.

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get his army across the Osage-cer- | 'Prairie Scouts,' led by Maj. Frank tainly not to Springfield; and that southern Missouri was virtually given over to Rebel possession.

These gloomy apprehensions were destined to be signally dispelled. Gen. Fremont moved southward immediately thereafter, reaching Warsaw on the 17th. Thither Sigel had preceded him. Five days thereafter, the bridging of the Osage had been completed, and the army, as it crossed, pressed rapidly forward.

Meantime, on the 21st, a spirited fight had occurred at Fredericktown, in the south-east, which section had hitherto been overrun almost at will by Rebel bands directed by Jeff. Thompson, one of Jackson's brigadiers, termed the "Swamp Fox" by his admirers. Capt. Hawkins, of the Missouri (Union) cavalry, having been ordered thither on a reconnoissance from Pilot Knob, on the north-east, engaged and occupied Thompson while Gen. Grant, commanding at Cape Girardeau, on the Mississippi, sent a superior force, under Col. Plummer, to strike him from the east. Meantime, Col. Carlin, with a considerable body of infantry, moved up from Pilot Knob to support Hawkins. When all these advanced, the disparity in numbers was so great as to preclude a serious. contest; so that Thompson, though strongly posted, was overpowered, and, after two hours' fighting, constrained to fly, leaving 60 dead behind him, including Col. Lowe, his second in command. Thompson was hotly pursued for twenty miles, and his banditti thoroughly demoralized and broken up.

The advance of Gen. Fremont's army was preceded by a squadron of

J. White, who had recently distinguished himself by a forced march of sixty miles on Lexington, which he captured without loss on the morning of the 16th, taking 60 or 70 prisoners, considerable property, and releasing a number of Unionists captured with Mulligan, including two colonels. Lexington and its vicinity being strongly Rebel, Maj. White abandoned it on the 17th, and moved southerly by Warrensburg and Warsaw to the front, which they struck at Pomme de Terre river, fifty-one miles north of Springfield. Still pushing ahead, Maj. White was joined, on the 24th, by Maj. Zagonyi, of the 'Fremont Body-Guard,' who assumed command, and, marching all night, resolved to surprise and capture Springfield next day. Maj. White, being very ill, was left at a farm-house to recover; but in a few hours started in a wagon, with a guard of six men, to overtake his command, and soon found himself in a Rebel camp a prisoner, and in imminent danger of assassination. He had moved on the direct road to Springfield, while Zagonyi had made a détour of twelve miles to the right, hoping thus to surprise the enemy in Springfield, who, he was advised, were fully 2,000 strong.

The two commands combined numbered hardly 300 sabers, when, on reaching the outskirts of Springfield, they found 1,200 infantry and 400 cavalry well posted on the crown of a hill, prepared for and awaiting them. Zagonyi did not quail. To his officers he said: "Follow me, and do like me!" to his soldiers

"Comrades, the hour of danger has come: your first battle is before you. The enemy

is 2,000 strong, and you are 300. If any of you would turn back, you can do so now.”

Not a man stepped from the ranks. He then added:

"I will lead you. Let the watchword be,

'The Union and Fremont Draw sabers! By the right flank-quick trot-march!"

With a ringing shout, the thin battalion dashed eagerly forward.

A miry brook, a stout rail-fence, a narrow lane, with sharpshooters judiciously posted behind fences and trees -such were the obstacles to be overcome before getting at the enemy. A fence must be taken down, the lane traversed, the sharpshooters defied, before a blow could be struck. All was the work of a moment; but when that moment had passed, seventy of their number were stretched dead or writhing on the ground. Maj. Dorsheimer, an Aid to Fremont, who came up soon after, thus describes the close of the fight:

“The remnant of the Guard are now in the field under the hill; and, from the shape of the ground, the Rebel fire sweeps with the roar of a whirlwind over their heads. A line of fire upon the summit marks the position of the Rebel infantry; while nearer, and on the top of a lower eminence to the right, stand their horse. Up to this time, no guardsman has struck a blow, but blue coats and bay horses lie thick along the bloody lane. Their time has come. Lieut. May thenyi, with 30 men, is ordered to attack the cavalry. With sabers flashing over their heads, the little band of heroes spring toward their tremendous foe. Right upon the center they charge. The dense mass opens, the blue-coats force their way in, and the whole Rebel squadron scatter in disgraceful flight through the cornfields in the rear. The

boys follow them, sabering the fugitives.

quick as thought, with thrilling cheers, the noble hearts rush into the leaden torrent which pours down the incline. With unabated fire, the gallant fellows press through.

The fierce onset is not even checked. The foe do not wait for them-they waver, break, and fly. The guardsmen spur into the midst of the rout, and their fast-falling swords work a terrible revenge. Some of the boldest of the Southrons retreat into the woods, and continue a murderous fire from behind trees and thickets. Seven guard horses fall upon a space not more than twenty feet square. As his steed sinks under him, one of the officers is caught around the shoulders by a grape-vine, and hangs dangling in the air until he is cut down by his friends. The Rebel foot are flying in furious haste from the field. Some take refuge in the fairground; some hurry into the cornfields; but the greater part run along the edge of the wood, swarm over the fence into the road, and hasten to the village. The guardsmen Over the follow. Zagonyi leads them.

loudest roar of battle rings his clarion voice -'Come on, Old Kentuck! I'm with you!' and the flash of his sword-blade tells his men where to go. As he approaches a barn, a man steps from behind the door and lowers his rifle; but, before it has reached a level, Zagonyi's saber-point descends upon his head, and his life-blood leaps to the very top of the huge barn-door.

"The conflict now rages through the village-in the public square, and along the streets. Up and down, the Guards ride in squads of three or four, and, wherever they see a group of the enemy, charge upon and scatter them. It is hand to hand. No one but has a share in the fray."

Zagonyi wisely evacuated the town. at night-fall, knowing that by night. he was at the mercy of the Rebels, if they should muster courage to return and attack him. Of his 300 men, 84 were dead or wounded.

Maj. White, who had escaped from his captors, taking captive in turn their leader, arrived next morning, at the head of a score of improvised "Zagonyi holds his main body until May-arch of all he surveyed.' He had 24 Home Guards, to find himself' mon

Days afterward, the enemy's horse lay thick among the uncut corn.

thenyi disappears in the cloud of Rebel cavalry; then his voice rises through the air. 'In open order-charge!' The line opens out to give play to their sword-arm. Steeds respond to the ardor of their riders; and,

men, of whom he stationed 22 as pickets on the outskirts, and held the balance in reserve. At noon, he re

14 Of the Guard, 100 were Kentuckians.

FREMONT SUPERSEDED BY HUNTER.

ceived a Rebel flag of truce, asking permission to bury their dead; which, he said, must be referred to Gen. Sigel, from whom he, the next.hour, forwarded the permission required." White drew in a part of his pickets, stationed them between the village and the bloody field of yesterday's conflict, and the Rebels quietly buried their dead. He did not venture to remain through the night, but fell back upon Sigel, who reached Springfield by a forced march of thirty miles, on the evening of the 27th. Asboth came up with another division on the 30th; and Lane, with the Kansas brigade, was not long behind him. But Hunter, McKinstry, and Pope, with their respective divisions, were still struggling with the badness of the roads from thirty to forty miles back. Pope arrived November 1st, having marched seventy miles in two days; and McKinstry came in just behind him.

16

On the morning of Nov. 2d, a messenger brought to Springfield an order from Gen. Scott removing Fremont from his command, and directing him to turn it over to Gen. Hunter, who had not yet arrived. This was sad news to the great bulk of the army, which had been collected and equipped with such effort; which had driven the Rebels almost out of Missouri without loss; and which confidently expected to meet and beat them within the State, and to chase the fragments of their army through Little Rock, and, ultimately, to New Orleans. Hunter not having yet arrived, and the enemy being reported in force at Wilson's Creek, it was determined in council to march out and give him battle next morn

15

Sigel was then forty miles distant.

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ing; but Hunter came up that night, and the command was turned over to him by Fremont.

It does not seem that their advices of the Rebels' proximity were wellfounded. Pollard asserts that they were then at Pineville, some fifty miles from Springfield; but adds that Gen. Price had made preparations to receive Fremont, determined not to abandon Missouri without a battle. It must therefore be regarded as a national misfortune that the order superseding Gen. Fremont arrived at this time; for it is not possible that his army-superior in numbers and in equipment to the Rebels, and inspired by enthusiastic devotion to its chief-could have been beaten.

Gen. Fremont departed for St. Louis early next morning, accompanied by his Body-Guard as a special escort. That Guard, it is sad to say, though enlisted for three years, and composed of the very best material, were mustered out of service, by order of Gen. McClellan, soon afterward.

That Gen. Fremont-placed in so important a command, and frantically entreated for reënforcements from so many sides at once-committed some errors of judgment, is very probable. It may be he should have divined earlier than he did that Price would not strike at Jefferson City or Booneville, which he seemed to threaten, but would take the safer course of swooping down on Lexington, so much further west. It may be that he should have foreseen that the ferry-boats at Lexington, instead of being kept out of the reach of the Rebels, would be allowed to fall into their hands; and that neither Davis,

16 Scott was himself retired the day before.

nor Pope, nor Sigel, nor Smith, nor Lane, would be enabled to reach that point in season to save Mulligan; though the series of blunders and fatalities by which all succor was precluded, could not happen twice in a century. Had he known that the Rebels would not attack Louisville, nor Cairo, nor make a demonstration, by way of Cape Girardeau, on St. Louis, backed by an insurrection in that city, he might have stripped that vital point of troops, and rushed everything to the relief of Mulligan. He certainly had reason to believe that Pope's promise to push 4,000 men to Lexington by the 18th or 19th would be fulfilled; and that these, with the forces of Sturgis and Smith, and those that Davis might have sent at any time after he had learned that the Rebels were concentrating on Lexington, would be sufficient. Had even the. imperative call for five regiments to be dispatched to Washington been forborne," it is probable that Mulligan would have been saved.

But none of his errors, if errors they were, can compare in magnitude with that which dictated a second abandonment of Springfield and retreat to Rolla by our army, five days after Hunter had assumed command. No doubt, this was ordered from Washington; but that order was most mistaken and disastrous. We had already once abandoned southwestern Missouri; and, even then, Lyon had wisely and nobly decided that it were better to risk a probable defeat than to give up a Unionloving people to the mercy of their enemies, without making a determined effort to save them. But now

there was no such exigency. We were too strong to be beaten; and might have routed Price near Pineville, chasing the wreck of his army into Arkansas, thus insuring a dispersion of large numbers of the defeated Missourians to their homes; and then 5,000 men, well intrenched, could have held Springfield against all gainsayers, until the next Spring. But our second retreat, so clearly wanton and unnecessary, disheartened the Unionists and elated the Secessionists It made of all southern Missouri. our predominance in any part of that State appear exotic and casual, not It revived natural and permanent. all the elements of turbulence, anarchy, and rapine, which the uncontested ascendency of our cause, under Fremont, had temporarily stilled. The Secession strongholds along and even above the Missouri river were galvanized into fresh activity in guerrilla outrages and murders, by the unexpected tidings that we had abandoned southern Missouri without a blow, and were sneaking back to our fastnesses along the lines of completed railroads, and within striking` distance of St. Louis.

Gen. Henry W. Halleck succeeded to the command of the Missouri department, November 12th. But meantime, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, in command at Cairo, had made a spirited demonstration on the little steamboat landing known as Belmont, on the Missouri side of the Mississippi, opposite Columbus, Ky. Columbus was then the head-quarters of the Secession force observing and threatening Cairo, while the Rebellion, protected by similar demonstrations of Con

17 This order, when partially executed, was withdrawn, but too late for the emergency.

GEN. GRANT'S FIGHT AT BELMONT.

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federate strength at different points | ried the camp, capturing several guns, throughout the State, was greedily and driving the enemy completely absorbing and annexing Kentucky, over the bluff down to the bank of without encountering any forcible the river. The tents of the Rebels opposition from her 'loyal' authori- were promptly fired, and their blanties. Requesting Gen. Smith, com- kets and camp equipage destroyed manding the Union garrison at Pa- with them. But, by this time, Maj. | ducah, to make a feint of attacking Gen. Polk, commanding in ColumColumbus from the north-east, Gen. bus, had been thoroughly waked up, Grant, sending a small force of his and, perceiving his camp across the own down the Kentucky side of the river in possession of our forces, had great river to Ellicott's Mills, twelve trained some of his heaviest guns to miles from Columbus, embarked (Nov. bear from the hights on that side of 6th) 2,850 men, mainly Illinoisans, upon four steamboats, convoyed by the gunboats Tyler and Lexington, and dropped down the river to Island No. 1, eleven miles above Columbus, where they remained until 7 A. M. of the 7th, when they proceeded to Hunter's Point, some two to three miles above the ferry connecting Columbus with Belmont, where the whole array was debarked on the Missouri shore, formed in line of battle, and pushed forward as rapidly as possible, to overwhelm the somewhat inferior force of Rebels encamped at Belmont. This movement was rather annoyed than checked by a small Rebel detachment promptly thrown forward to impede its progress; but by 11 o'clock our little army was formed westward of and facing the Rebel camp, which was found well protected by a strong abatis nearly surrounding it on every side but that of the river. Fighting their way through this with great gallantry, though stoutly resisted by the Rebels, the Unionists reached and car

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18 The Chicago Journal has a letter from its Cairo correspondent, from which we extract the following spirited account of the battle:

"The design was to reach Belmont just before daylight; but, owing to unavoidable delays in embarking, it was 8 o'clock before the fleet |

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BATTLE OF BELMONT.

the river upon the position of our victorious regiments, which was much lower, and thoroughly exposed to their fire, which our men had no means of effectively returning." Meantime, he had sent over three re

reached Lucas Bend, the point fixed upon for debarkation. This is about three miles north of Columbus, Ky., on the Missouri side.

"The enemy were encamped on the high ground back from the river, and about two and a half miles from the landing. From their position, they could easily see our landing, and had

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