Major Russell, of Osage, ten miles below Humboldt, arrived here on Monday night. He gives the most distressing accounts of affairs on our South-eastern border. He and his family have been driven from their home by rebels. A party of Secessionists, said to number 437, are now in Allen and Woodson counties, overrunning those counties and threatening to sweep thro’ the whole Neosho Valley. Major Russell fears that our next news will be that Iola and Leroy have followed the fate of luckless Humboldt. Citizens are leaving that portion of the State in the greatest haste, leaving all their furniture and goods behind. Scouts from Leroy report a force of 1,200 Missourians within thirty miles of Humboldt with the avowed purpose of making a raid upon Kansas.
Major Russell and his son were led out and shown the tree they where to hang on. When a pistol was pointed at Russell he appealed to the leader of the gang and asked him if he would spatter his wife with his brains. The family afterwards escaped by resorting to a skillful stratagem.
These reports show what peril we are in. The rebels began by sacking Humboldt, and have since burned it. This State has thousands of soldiers in the field, but none are loft to defend our own homes. Conservative.
The Independent, Oskaloosa, KS