Breakfasted and under way at 5 A. M. Passed through Rose
Hill, a very pretty little town. Hugh Watson and I went ahead and got apples,
watermelons, plums and wild grapes. Had a good time. Passed through “Index,”
another little town. Major rode with us in the wagon all day, good time.
Reached “Lone Jack,” where the enemy were, at sundown an hour before. A man
came up and reported 1500 enemy in our rear. Major Purington with rear guard,
watched them and kept near them. Fired a good deal and tried to detain them.
Proved to be the enemy retreating the way we had come. Major sent word for
reinforcements. Some went but did not follow fast enough till dark set in.
Commenced to rain. Command moved. Baggage soon could not go, it was so dark. So
the enemy escaped us, so slickly through the gap. General Salomon had advised
and entreated Blunt to keep flankers and scouts out through the woods near “Lone
Jack.” They had intelligence from Warren that they were surely there, and we
were passing within a mile. The ground was favorable for their retreat from the
town — unseen. They kept a large picket about town and thus fooled our men.
Warren could not believe that they had gone. So they left us, as a mouse from a
trap. All the officers were enraged and disgusted with Blunt's mistake, still
hoped to overtake them. I went out a mile and got an old mare to ride. The history
of the fight of the day previous was as follows: The day before, Quantrell,
with 1200 men burned Independence and then skedaddled; Capt. Burns from Kansas
City, with two companies of cavalry, four of infantry and two pieces of artillery,
followed; at night overtook them and shelled their camp. They ran. The next morning
Quantrell met Coffee and turned back. Lay in the brush and waited for them,
coming through a lane. When the Feds came along they rose up and poured volley after
volley into them. They hurried back to the village and there fought
desperately. Finally overpowered, spiked one of the guns, destroyed the ammunition
and ran. Warren, who had followed Coffee from Butler, watched them here that
and the next day, till we came up confident that they would stand a fight.
About 60 killed and many wounded on each side. Rebels burned ten of our wounded
men in a house used as a hospital.
SOURCE: Frances Andrews Tenney, War Diary Of Luman
Harris Tenney, p. 26
