The command started from Sedalia on Sunday, the 15th, and encamped at night eleven miles distant on the road to Clinton. The next day they marched twenty-six miles, and at sunset arrived at Shawnee Mound, in Henry county. Here reports of various companies of rebels began to come in from residents and from Union scouts. One company of near five hundred was heard of at a point about twelve miles north-west, and several smaller bodies directly south, from Clinton to Butler. General Pope then dispatched his whole available force of cavalry, nearly seven hundred, before they had secured three hours’ rest, after the five hundred near Morristown. The cavalry under Lieutenant-Colonel Brown, of the Seventh Missouri Volunteers, pushed on all night, and arriving at the rebel camp they found it vacated. The enemy had received warning and fled precipitately, leaving numerous evidences of haste. The cavalry, notwithstanding their forty miles’ continuous march, pushed on after the fleeing rebels till they reached Rose Hill, picking up some twenty or thirty stragglers on the road. At Rose Hill the rebels separated into several squads, some taking the road west, others taking the south route to Butler, and Colonel Brown had no other alternative than to rest his exhausted horses, and finally to make his way back to the main column next day, near Warrensburg. He brought in nearly one hundred prisoners. General Pope in the meantime kept advancing in a direction west of north to Chilhowee, a most important point, being the centre of numerous cross-roads. This was near the site of the rebel camp just referred to, and here the pickets brought in some few straggling men who were bound for Price’s army. At Chilhowee they heard of a rebel force of 1,800 from the north, and of the scouring of the country south of Clinton by Major Hubbard, of the First Missouri Cavalry. The direction of the Union forces was at once east, toward Warrenburg. That night (Wednesday) they encamped two and a half miles west of Warrenburg. The reports were confirmed by a loyal man, who was on his way to give the information. He gave their location as at Kilpatrick’s mill, on the Clear fork of Blackwater Creek. (Milford is the post-office name.) Early on Thursday morning they started in the direction of Knob Noster, being directly south of the enemy. Colonel Merrill’s Horse was ordered to take the direct road running parallel with the course of the Blackwater, so as to intercept them in case they took a western course.