The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1880-03-11


CONTINUATION I'm this style of mid
summer idyIing within the beautiful groves
and orchards of Upper Loudon, the three
months following the Bull Run battle were
gassed. Fatal idling it was destined to
prove, in the end for if the South had
ever anv chance of success it must have
been dependent upon the activity of her
movements during this first summer, when
she had the advantage in zeal, unity, popu-
lar enthusiasm, and physical fighting ma
terial. The whole history of the struggle
IN to this period had been a series OF shock
inc surprises to the Abolltlonlsts; surprise
that secession should so speedily succeed
Lincoln $ election surprise that the border
States should stand by their Southern SIS
ters. after pleading on their very knees for
Peace and Union; surprise that the slaves,
instead of being an ever present error to the
South, should really prove a great help to
her, quietly using the ~readanaklng hoe at
home. while their masters We're welding
different implements in another field and,
finally, surprise (and chagrln as well,) that
the braggart Southerners, after all, should
fqht, aud fight so we'll that each and every
Federal expedition, howsoever formidable,
seemed assured of shameful overthrow
These successive reversals of expectation
would have been fatal to a less pertinaclous
ana DlCluilcCl DctttlC. iidpluy " tICfu,
as have said, the South in the intoxication
of her three great victories, imagined the
cause already won; and sat down IN scornful
Incidence, idling away month after month OF
magnificent weather aud superb roads, while
her great adversary was reaching around the
world. raking land and sea, for men and
means to crush her.
The only symptoms of military life during
this period transpired in the far Northwes-
tern corner of the Confederacy to which
let us glance.
LYON LAID OCT.
Missouri. as heretofore stated, had at
tempted, like Kentucky and Maryland, to
maintain an independent, or neutral, atti-
tude, and had failed therein quite as sig
nallv as the other States mentioned though
unlike them she refused to submit without
a struggle against desperate odds.
When Col. Nathaniel Lyon treacherOusly
bounced upon the brigade of unarmed State
troops near st. Louis on the 10th of May,
GOV. jackson mantully issued a call for 30,
900 volunteers u maintain the InrlOla blhty
of the States laws. Lyon, an energetic
Yankee, surrounded by members of old
John Browns Kansas and liza per's Ferry
outlaw gang, hastened to Bonneville where
Col. Marmaduke had collected some Six
hundred militiamen. The latter refused to
obey orders to retreat, and though greatly
outnumbered, stood their ground until l5o
of the Blue Coats were killed or wounded.
Meantime Gen. Sterling Price, who had
done so much to keep the State from Sc
ceding, started. with Gov. Jackson, and a
few hundred volunteers, to JOIN Ben Nc
Culloch who had been collecting a force on
the Arkansas border.
The Federal General, Franz Siegel, with
about 5000 men of all arms, attempted to
intercept Price and Jackson near Carthage
but soon found be had caught a Tartar. >
The Missourians were armed with squire
rifles and shot guns, and without artillery
but being nearly all on horseback were ell.
abled to swarm around the Yankee Dutch.
man like Indians encircling a foe on the
plains. Siegel retired to Dry Creek thence
fled 10 miles to Rolla and within a hours
was forty miles from the battlefield. Bel
MeCulloch fastened to join the yictoriou:
Alssourlans, and the united army, nov
numbering about IL 500 men, went in search
OF Lyon. Unfortunately the majority of the
i9rce We're mere volunteers pro tenn, without
thought of organization, subordination, o
restraint. Price knew they would fight i