Col. John C. Moore, Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 9.2, Missouri
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

It was now a race for the southwestern part of the State —the rugged hills of the Ozark mountain country—between the unorganized and unarmed Southern men, and Lyon and his thoroughly equipped forces, with the knowledge on the part of the Southern men that there was a considerable army under Sweeny there, the object of which was to capture or kill them. The governor, with Generals Parsons and Clark, started to Warsaw. General Price at Lexington was threatened by Lyon from Booneville, and 3,000 troops, regulars and Kansas volunteers, from Fort Leavenworth. At this time General Price was seriously sick, which added to the complexities and dangers of the situation. But, with his staff and a small escort, he set out for Arkansas to see Gen. Ben McCulloch, who commanded Confederate troops in that section, and if possible induce him to come to the assistance of the broken and scattered Missourians. He left General Rains in command of the State troops at Lexington, with orders to move them as rapidly as possible to Lamar, in Barton county. Rains had need to move quickly and rapidly, because Lyon was threatening him from the east and Major Sturgis, with 900 Federal dragoons and two regiments of Kansas volunteers, from the west. When Governor Jackson and his party, 250 or 300 in number, got to Warsaw, they halted to ascertain what had become of General Price and the main body of the army.

Good news—the first gleam of sunlight that had fallen upon the adherents of the Southern cause in the State—reached him. At Cold Camp, some 20 miles from Warsaw, was encamped a regiment of German Home Guards, commanded by Colonel Cook, a brother of the Cook who was executed in Virginia with John Brown. The object of Cook was to intercept Governor Jackson's party or any other body of Southern men making their way southward