Smith's army from Tennessee, Blunt's troops from Kansas, what few regulars there were in Missouri, and some detachments of Kansas volunteers were all being moved forward to head off Price.

Being still a member of the Ninth Kansas Cavalry, I now found myself back in my old country--just ahead of Price's army, which had now reached the fertile northwestern Missouri.
In carrying dispatches from General McNeil to General Blunt or General Pleasanton I passed around and through Price's army many times.

I always wore the disguise of a Confederate soldier, and always escaped detection.

Price fought hard and successfully, gaining ground steadily, till at Westport, Missouri, and other battlefields near the Kansas line, the Federal troops checked his advance.
At the Little Blue, a stream that runs through what is now Kansas City, he was finally turned south, and took up a course through southern Kansas.
Near Mound City a scouting party of which I was a member surprised a small detachment of Price's army.

Our advantage was such that they surrendered, and while we were rounding them up I heard one of them say that we Yanks had captured a bigger prize than we suspected.