There were five or six prominent Secessionists among the killed, one of them being Mr. Leach, the editor of the Southwestern Democrat. Col. Cook gathered up his men, received some additional recruits, some arms and ammunition, and pushed on to Warsaw, on the Osage, one of the points of concentration indicated by Gen. Price, capturing 1,500 pound cans and 1,500 kegs of fine rifle powder, many tons of pig-lead, 70 stand of small-arms, a steamboat-load of tent cloth, a lot of State Guard uniforms, four Confederate flags, and 1,200 false-faces which had been used by the "border ruffians" in their political operations in Kansas. A little further on they surrounded and captured 1,000 Secessionists, and paroled them on the spot. The Secessionists, on the other hand, took much comfort out of the surprise and defeat and the acquisition of 362 new muskets and 150 more which they had beguiled from a German company in a neighboring County. 133 In the meanwhile the Conservatives, aided by Lieut-Gen. Scott, whose distrust of "Capt." Lyon never abated, secured the addition of Missouri to the Department commanded by McClellan, whom it was thought would hold the "audacious" officer in check. Lyon, though he felt that McClellan, then far distant in West Virginia, could not give matters in the State the attention they needed, yet loyally accepted the assignment, wrote at once to McClellan cordially welcoming him as his commander, and giving full information as to the conditions, with suggestions as to what should be done. Col. Blair and the Radicals were much displeased at this move, and began efforts to have Missouri erected into a separate Department and placed under the command of John C. Fremont, lately appointed a Major-General, and from whose military talents there were the greatest expectations. As the first Presidential candidate of the Republican Party Fremont had a strong hold upon the hearts of the Northern people. During the campaign of 1856 there had been the customary partisan eulogies of the candidates, which placed "the Great Pathfinder" and all he had done in the most favorable light before the American people. Above all he was thought to be thoroughly in sympathy with the policy which Blair and his following desired to pursue. In reality Fremont was a man of somewhat more than moderate ability, but boundless aspirations. He was the son-in-law of Senator Benton, and his wife, the queenly, ambitious, handsome Jessie Benton Fremont, was naturally eager for her husband to be as prominent in the National councils as had been her father. What Fremont was equal to is one of the many unsolved problems of the war, but certainly he was not to the command of the great Western Department, including the State of Illinois and all the States and Territories west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, to which he was assigned by General Orders, No. 40, issued July 3,1861. 134