Pictorial history of the war for the Union, volume 1 (of 2) : $b A complete and reliable history of the war from its commencement to its close ... together with a complete chronological analysis of the warStephens, Ann S. (Ann Sophia)
History
Pictorial history of the war for the Union, volume 1 (of 2) : $b A complete and reliable history of the war from its commencement to its close ... together with a complete chronological analysis of the war
Stephens, Ann S. (Ann Sophia)
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865
The scenes at the capitulation were extraordinary. Colonel Mulligan shed
tears. The men threw themselves upon the ground, raved and stormed; well
nigh frenzied, demanding to be led out again and “finish the thing.” In
Colonel Marshall’s Cavalry regiment, the feeling was equally intense.
Much havoc had already been done among their horses during the siege,
and but little more than half of them remained. Numbers of the privates
actually shot their own horses dead on the spot, unwilling that their
companions in the campaign should now fall into the enemy’s hands.
The privates, numbering some one thousand five hundred strong, were
first compelled to take the oath not to serve against the Confederate
States, when they were put across the river, and in charge of General
Rains marched on Saturday night to Richmond, sixteen miles, whence on
Sunday they marched to Hamilton, a station on the Hannibal and St.
Joseph railroad, where they were declared free to go where they pleased.
No reliable statement of the casualties at the siege of Lexington seems
to have been published. Of the irregular army of General Price, large
numbers of whom were not enrolled, but were outside volunteers, many
were killed and buried on the spot, no record being made of their loss.
One hundred and forty Federals were left in the hospital, many of whom
were suffering from sickness, and not from wounds. Colonel Mulligan lost
probably two hundred in killed and wounded, while the rebel loss could
not have been less, and according to some estimates must have reached
three or four times that number. General Price’s force was estimated at
numbers varying from twenty to thirty thousand, the lowest being
probably nearest the actual number, with twenty-one pieces of artillery.
General Price, in his official report to Governor Jackson, inventoried
his acquisitions as follow:—“Three thousand five hundred prisoners,
including the colonels, and one hundred and eighteen commissioned
officers, five pieces of artillery and two mortars, over three thousand
stand of infantry arms, a large number of sabres, about seven hundred
and fifty horses, many sets of cavalry equipments, wagons, teams,
ammunition, more than a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of commissary
stores, and a large amount of other property.”
[Illustration: Geo. B. McClellan]
For daring and patient suffering—fighting day after day without water,
the battle of Lexington stands almost without a rival in history. It was
stubbornly contested, and evinced in the most striking manner the
devotion and faithfulness of the adopted citizens of our country.
ATTACK ON SANTA ROSA ISLAND.
OCTOBER 9, 1861.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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