308
THE SIEGE OF LEXINGTON.
ammunition, and but few rations. We then dispatched a courier to JeffersonCity to inform General Davis of our condition, and to pray for reenforcementsor even rations, whereupon we would hold out to the last. At noon of the11th we commenced throwing up intrenchments on College Hill, an eminenceoverlooking Lexington and the broad Missouri . All day long the men workeduntiringly with the shovel. That evening, but six or eight hours after we hadcommenced, our pickets were driven in and intimation was given that theenemy were upon us. Colonel Peabody was ordered out to meet them, andtwo six-pounders were planted in a position to command a covered bridgeby which the enemy were obliged to enter the town. It was a night offearful anxiety; none knew at what moment the enemy would be upon ourdevoted little band, and the hours passed in silence. We waited until themorning of the 12th, vigilantly and without sleep, when a messenger rushedin, saying, “ Colonel, the enemy are pushing across the bridge in overwhelm-ing force.” With a glass we could see them as they came, General Priceriding up and down the lines, urging his men on. Two companies of theMissouri 13th were ordered out, and, with Company K of the Irish Brigade,quickly checked the enemy, drove him back, burned the bridge, and gallantlyended their work before breakfast.
The enemy now made a detour, and approached the town once more, bythe Independence road. Six companies of the Missouri 13th and the IllinoisCavalry were ordered out, and met them in the Lexington Cemetery, justoutside the town, where the fight raged furiously over the dead. We suc-ceeded in keeping the enemy in check, and in the mean time the work withthe shovel went bravely on until we had thrown up breastworks three orfour feet high.
At 3 o’clock in the afternoon the engagement opened with artillery. Avolley of grape from the enemy was directed at a group of our officers whowere outside the breastworks. Our men returned the volley. The contestraged about an hour and a half, when we had the satisfaction, by a lucky shot,of knocking over the enemy’s big gun, exploding a powder caisson, and other-wise doing much damage. The fight was continued until dusk, and, as themoon rose, the enemy retired to camp in the Fair Ground, two miles away,and Lexington was our own again.
On Friday, the 13th, though a drenching rain had set in, the work ofthrowing up intrenchments went on, and the men stood almost knee-deepin mud and water, at their work. We had taken the basement of the MasonicCollege, a building from which the eminence took its name; powder wasobtained, and the men commenced making cartridges. A foundry was fittedup, and 150 rounds of shot — grape and canister — were cast for each of oursix-pounders.
batteries, as follows : Bledsoe, 4 guns ; Churchill not include in his estimate either his officers or theClark,2; Gfuibor, 4; Kelly, 4; Kneisley, 2.—(“His- body of Home Guards who assisted in the defense,tory of Lafayette County, Missouri .”) Colonel Snead states positively that, as adjutant-
The lack of agreement between the numbers of general of the Missouri troops, he paroled aboutthe Union forces as here stated, and as given by Col- 3500 prisoners. Among these may have beenonel Snead on page 273, is accounted for by the many not reckoned as effectives by Colonel Mulli-latter on the supposition that Colonel Mulligan did gan.— Editors.