POST NEOSHO, Mo., April 21, 1863.

CAPTAIN: I have the honor to report that, in obedience to your orders, on the 19th of the present month, I took command of a detachment of 30 men from Companies L and M, Eighth Missouri State Militia Cavalry, with Lieut. John R. Kelso, and proceeded in the direction of Seneca Mills, in search of certain notorious bushwhackers in that region of country. Traveling till about 2 p. m., and finding no one, I detailed Lieutenant Kelso, with 5 men, all properly uniformed, and sent them forward for the purpose of obtaining reliable information, while I, with the remainder of the command, proceeded to Scott�s Mill and encamped. Lieutenant Kelso returned to me about midnight, and informed me that he had found a kennel of bushwhackers, two of whom had fought till they died. He also had found in Cowskin Prairie a pasture containing a number of cattle jayhawked by the bushwhackers, who intended, in a short time, to drive them to the Southern army. We saddled our horses immediately, and returned to the place indicated, surrounded several houses, and found two more desperate bushwhackers, who fought till they died. We then went to a pasture, and found 40 head of cattle, jayhawked by these thieves to sell to the Southern army; all of which, with one two-horse wagon and one horse, I have brought to this post.

Too much praise cannot be bestowed upon Lieutenant Kelso for the daring and cunning he displayed. With five men in citizens� dress, and well armed, he succeeded in convincing the bushwhackers that he was a dispatch-bearer from General Marmaduke. They freely boasted to Lieutenant Kelso of having driven all the Union people out of the country. They bragged of having killed a number of Federal soldiers, of jayhawking the property of Union men, and said if they got any of the Neosho militia they would have them at the stake. One of these thieves stated that he had been a prisoner at Fort Scott; that he took the oath, put it in his pocket, and then stole two United States mules and a wagon, and returned to his home in McDonald County, Missouri, under protection of the oath. After conversing a short time with the bushwhackers, Lieutenant Kelso made an agreement with them that he and they would jayhawk and collect 100 head of cattle and drive them to the Southern army and sell them, and he and they went out and actually gathered in a few before he reported himself to me at midnight.

The scout was out about thirty hours, and traveled 60 miles, without loss or accident of any kind.

OZIAS RUARK,
Captain Company L, Eighth Missouri State Militia Cavalry

SOURCE: OR, Series I, Volume 22, Part I, Page 314.

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