At two o’clock in the morning there was another alarm.  Again the body-guard bugles sounded and the drums rolled.  Again soldiers sprang to their arms, and officers rushed to report to the General,—­the first man finding him, as before, leaning upon his sword in front of his tent.  But, alas for the reputation of our mess, not one of its number appeared.  In complete unconsciousness of danger or duty, we slept on.  Colonel S. said he heard “the music, but thought it was a continuation of the evening’s serenade,” and went to sleep again.  It was not long before we discovered that the General knew that four members of his staff did not report to him when the long roll was sounded.

There are several encampments on the hill-sides north of us which are in full view from our quarters, and it is not the least of our amusements to watch the regiments going through the afternoon drill.  In the soft light of these golden days we see the long blue lines, silver-tipped, wheel and turn, scatter and form, upon the brown hill-sides.  Now the slopes are dotted with skirmishers, and puffs of gray smoke rise over the kneeling figures; again a solid wall of bayonets gleams along the crest of the hill, and peals of musketry echo through the woods in the ravines.

Colonel Myscall Johnson, a Methodist exhorter and formidable Rebel marauder, is said to be forty miles south of us with a small force, and some of the Union farmers came into camp to-day asking for protection.  Zagonyi, the commander of the body-guard, is anxious to descend upon Johnson and scatter his thieving crew; but it is not probable he will obtain permission.  The Union men of Missouri are quite willing to have you fight for them, but their patriotism does not go farther than this.  These people represent that three-fourths of the inhabitants of Miller County are loyal.  The General probably thinks, if this be true, they ought to be able to take care of Johnson’s men.  But a suggestion that they should defend their own homes and families astonishes our Missouri friends.  General Lyon established Home-Guards throughout the State, and armed them with several thousand Springfield muskets taken from the arsenal at St. Louis.  Most of these muskets are now in Price’s army, and are the most formidable weapons he has.  In some instances the Rebels enlisted in the Home-Guards and thus controlled the organization, carrying whole companies into Price’s ranks.  In other cases bands of Rebels scoured the country, went to the house of every Home-Guard, and took away his musket.  In the German settlements alone the Guards still preserve their organization and their arms.