On the eighteenth of December, Brigadier-General Pope, commanding the Federal troops in the central district of Missouri, made a brilliant and successful movement, which resulted in the capture of a considerable number of the enemy. [Illustration: _H. W. Halleck_] It will be recollected that the withdrawal of the Federal troops from Springfield and the leading points of both central and southern Missouri, had given free scope to the action of the enemy. Seditious proclamations had been issued by Ex-Governor Jackson and General Price, and had been thoroughly circulated. Enlisting agents, also, had been very active, and some two thousand recruits, mostly drawn from the northern counties, were proceeding by slow stages southward, to unite with the main body under General Price. A well laid plan was matured by Generals Halleck and Pope to capture these reinforcements; and two brigades of General Pope’s division were dispatched without exciting any suspicion as to their destination, to intercept the enemy on their march. The brigades were constituted as follows: First Brigade, Acting Brigadier-General Steele.—Twenty-seventh regiment Ohio Volunteers, Colonel Kennett; Twenty-second regiment Indiana Volunteers, Colonel Hendricks; First regiment Kansas Volunteers, Colonel Thayer; one battery First Missouri Volunteers, Lieutenant Marr; four companies regular cavalry, Colonel Amory. Second Brigade, Acting Brigadier-General Jeff. C. Davis.—Eighteenth regiment Indiana Volunteers, Colonel Patterson; Eighth regiment Indiana Volunteers, Colonel Benton; Twenty-fourth regiment Indiana Volunteers, Lieutenant ——; one battery First Missouri Artillery, Lieutenant Klaus; one squadron First Iowa Cavalry, Major Torrence. The whole was under the immediate command of General Pope. The four companies of regular cavalry were the fragments of the original companies, B, C, D, and E, and numbered but a little over a hundred men. They were under the command of Captain Crittenden, of the regular army, son of Hon. John J. Crittenden.