"We drove them back with great slaughter..."

"We drove them back with great slaughter...". . Upton setting up his four-cannon battery near here, Lieutenant John V. Dubois noticed movement across the creek., "On our left, four companies of regulars drove the enemy across a cornfield to the timber beyond. The enemy drove us back in turn. Seeing this, I turned my guns upon them. A few rounds of spherical case defeated them with some loss. Our men retreated at a slow walk, firing. They now advanced all their reserves...The day seemed lost. My battery was turned on their exposed flank. The little band rallied for one more effort for the old flag, and again we drove them back with great slaughter. The ground was black with their dead. Now...came a lull as if each had ceased from sheer exhaustion.", During the remainder of the day, DuBois's battery blasted a number of Southern threats and covered the Union retreat from the battlefield., (caption) An 1851 graduate of West Point, Lt. John V. DuBois was assigned to the Regiment of Mounted Riflemen, on the western frontier. In early June, 1861, Dubois was traveling through Fort Leavenworth, Kansas while escorting a batch of 255 replacements for the regiment. Major Samuel Sturgis took the recruits, along with DuBois and two other officers, to form two infantry companies and an artillery battery. Within two weeks, Dubois and his new battery marched with Sturgis to link up with Lyon in Missouri.