Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 9.djvu/465



HE army camped in and around Independence on the night of October 21, 1864, the day of the fight at the crossing of the Little Blue. It was confronting an army in its front under Curtis and Blunt, and another equally as large, under Rosecrans and Pleasanton, was forced-marching to strike it in rear. When General Price reached Lexington he had accomplished all he could hope to accomplish. He might have turned southward from there and had an unobstructed line of retreat. He might turn southward from Independence and have all the forces opposed to him in his rear. But if he crossed the Big Blue, just in his front, he would be hemmed in between three rivers—the Missouri, the Kansas and the Big Blue—and have to fight two armies to recross the last named river.

The next morning Shelby took the advance and crossed the Big Blue. All day his guns could be heard thundering in front, indicating that he was forcing his way with difficulty. Early in the morning Rosecrans' army came up and attacked Independence before it was clear of the horde of unorganized men and stragglers who were a perpetual nuisance and hindrance to the organized troops. In getting out of the town Cabell lost his battery. It was run down by a great body of stragglers, with the enemy close behind them, and before the artillerymen could recover themselves they were charged by a regiment of cavalry and sabered in the act of firing their