Daily Times
Leavenworth, Kansas,
July 23, 1861
We conversed yesterday with five families who have just been driven out from Southwestern Missouri, and are on their way to Illinois. They appear to be intelligent, industrious and honest people. They are from Jasper County, and about six miles from where the battle of Carthage was fought.–They say that the battle was far more desperate than we had heretofore supposed; that fifteen hundred secessionists were killed; that they were from Friday until the next Thursday, in burying the dead. They say that Siegel’s artillery was terrible in the work of death; that all along the line of the retreat, the ground was covered for miles with the dead–men and horses; that the day after the battle, the battle field presented a scene of terrible carnage. They report that the loss of the Federal troops was small, owing to the great skill of their commander, and the superior management of their artillery.
About thirty families are following them–all driven out because they are loyal to the Government. Thus is Missouri being desolated, depopulated and ruined. This is the fruit of treason.