Battle of Marais Des Cygnes - Little Girl Lost

Little Girl Lost

William Forse Scott, a Union participant in the battle, wrote in The Story of a Cavalry Regiment: the Career of the Fourth Iowa Veteran Volunteers that as he and other cavalrymen were crossing the field adjacent to the Confederate encampment (having just driven the Rebels across the Marais des Cygnes moments before), they came across a terrified six-year-old girl hiding in some grass. She was clutching a schoolbook, and had apparently become lost while trying to avoid the Southern soldiers camping near her home the night before. Amazingly, she had been lying between the attacking Federals and Price's force, but was unhurt and undiscovered until Scott stumbled upon her. The girl, whom Scott did not name, was taken to the nearest house and turned over to the occupants after assuring Scott and his compainions that she could make her way home from there.