Shelby And His Men Or the War in the West

ensive policy, withdrew his forces outside the State, and thereby weakened, to a considerable degree, the military enthusiasm awakened by the victory of Oak Hills. United counsels and a cordial commingling of State banners at this critical period, would certainly have secured Missouri to the Confederacy, and prevented that fatal division among the people which, later, lost the State, and forced Price across the Mississippi river. Thus far the fighting had all been in favor of the Southerners, and, lp a military aspect, affairs were hopeful and in a most prosperous condition. Lieutenant Colonel William S. O'Kane, commanding a battalion of Missourians, had attacked, charged, and captured a large detachment of German Home Guards, at Cole Camp, near Warsaw, Benton county, and the blow dealt them was brief, bloody, and terribly in earnest. It had a wonderful effect, too, upon that portion of the State for a long time afterward?even when O'Kane and his gallant followers had been transferred to other fields of usefulness. This Cole Camp battle had a greater effect upon the prolongation of the struggle in Missouri, and did more to secure the success of future operations in the State, than would seem probable from cas nal attention. Colonel Cook, in constant and direct communication with General Lyon, commanded thirteen hundred and ninety German militia, well armed and passably drilled. When the forces under Governor Jackson retreated southward from Booneville, and the ...