General Fremont welcomed Zagonyi cordially, and authorized him to recruit a company of horse, to act as his bodyguard.  Zagonyi was most scrupulous in his selection; but so ardent was the desire to serve under the eye and near the person of the General, that in five days after the lists were opened two full companies were enlisted.  Soon after a whole company, composed of the very flower of the youth of Kentucky, tendered its services, and requested to be added to the Guard.  Zagonyi was still overwhelmed with applications, and he obtained permission to recruit a fourth company.  The fourth company, however, did not go with us into the field.  The men were clad in blue jackets, trousers, and caps.  They were armed with light German sabres, the best that at that time could be procured, and revolvers; besides which, the first company carried carbines.  They were mounted upon bay horses, carefully chosen from the Government stables.  Zagonyi had but little time to instruct his recruits, but in less than a month from the commencement of the enlistments the Body-Guard was a well-disciplined and most efficient corps of cavalry.  The officers were all Americans except three,—­one Hollander, and two Hungarians, Zagonyi and Lieutenant Maythenyi, who came to the United States during his boyhood.

Zagonyi left our camp at eight o’clock on the evening of the twenty-fourth, with about a hundred and sixty men, the remainder of the Guard being left at headquarters under the command of a non-commissioned officer.

Major White was already on his way to Springfield with his squadron.  This young officer, hardly twenty-one years old, had won great reputation for energy and zeal while a captain of infantry in a New-York regiment stationed at Fort Monroe.  He there saw much hazardous scouting-service, and had been in a number of small engagements.  In the West he held a position upon General Fremont’s staff, with the rank of Major.  While at Jefferson City, by permission of the General, he had organized a battalion to act as scouts and rangers, composed of two companies of the Third Illinois Cavalry, under Captains Fairbanks and Kehoe, and a company of Irish dragoons, Captain Naughton, which had been recruited for Mulligan’s brigade, but had not joined Mulligan in time to be at Lexington.

Major White went to Georgetown in advance of the whole army, from there marched sixty-five miles in one night to Lexington, surprised the garrison, liberated a number of Federal officers who were there wounded and prisoners, and captured the steamers which Price had taken from Mulligan.  From Lexington White came by way of Warrensburg to Warsaw.  During this long and hazardous expedition, the Prairie Scouts had been without tents, and dependent for food upon the supplies they could take from the enemy.

Major White did not remain at Warsaw to recruit his health, seriously impaired by hardship and exposure.  He asked for further service, and was directed to report himself to General Sigel, by whom he was ordered to make a reconnoissance in the direction of Springfield.