In the latter part of April it was declared that the rebels had planned to send into northern Missouri two brigades of cavalry and two of mounted infantry; and into the region about Rolla in the southern part of the State a column of guerrillas, together with the Confederate Seventh Missouri Regiment, to act in conjunction with some conspirators’ organization[102] of whose existence and character the public at large had received only an inkling. At the same time it was reported that three Confederate colonels, with over a hundred armed men, were on their way to northern Missouri and that most of these men were recruiting officers of the rebel army.[103] We began to apprehend that the quietude that we had felt and in which we had prematurely rejoiced was only the stillness that precedes the fierce tornado. On the last day of April it was announced that rebel raids from the South into the central part of the State had begun, and that many of the citizens of Boonville, alarmed by these reports, were fleeing from their homes. Four days after, companies of Confederate cavalry, numbering from one to three hundred, were reported as advancing towards our State from the southwest, and, what was still more astounding and bewildering, it was rumored that there were rebel organizations in Illinois, and that Quantrell, with eight hundred men, was below Quincy between the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. Of the truth of this, Rosecrans was convinced, because he declared that he hoped to bring “these conspirators and raiders to grief.”[104] On the 4th of May from eight to twelve hundred rebels were seen on Grand River, west of Neosho.[105] Rumors multiplied. Marmaduke with eleven hundred men was observed going toward Missouri.[106] Officers of the army on watch in the interior were persuaded that the State would be soon invaded by a powerful force.[107] Before the middle of June this became clear to all. Reports of guerrillas drifting in from the South came from all parts of the State,[108] coupled with the rumor that Price and his veteran host would soon be upon us. And what in the meantime were these invaders doing? They were endeavoring with but scant success to secure recruits for the Confederate army. Their campaign had been shrewdly planned. They were in all parts of the commonwealth. They made their appeal to every one in sympathy with the rebellion. Every able-bodied man disloyal at heart had a chance now to show his colors, to come out into the open and enlist in the Confederate army.