u LAW-AND-ORDER 55 MEN, ETC. 
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Missourians and Southerners have been coming into the territory. 
They have not taken claims and built houses upon them, but have 
built forts and stocked them with provisions and munitions of war. 
It all looked like a war of extermination, and preparations for a 
general siege, although many Missourians had said they were 
coming in to vote. The principal head-quarters for the invaders 
were the fort near Osawattomie, one on Washington Creek, at 
Franklin, and the house of Col. Titus. From the latter, morning 
and evening, we heard the report of fire-arms, as his gang were 
firing at a mark. Depredations being committed by the men at 
all these places, it was decided to drive them out. About the 
eighth, a party of free-state men reached the fort on Sugar Creek, 
but Dame Rumor had flown in advance of it, and the fort was 
vacated. The invaders had gone back to their homes in Missouri, 
leaving a load of flour, sugar, hams, etc. The flour and sugar 
were taken, wdiile the bacon was burned with the fort. 
Several of the free-state scouts to the upper country have 
returned. They report the emigrants making roads, and bridging 
streams. Some of the scouts went through to Iowa. The reports 
of* the emigrants being intercepted by Missourians were false 
There are over four hundred emigrants on the way. The train 
is more than a mile and a quarter long. Such a body of men 
looked formidable to the spies of the enemy, and they returned to 
report larger numbers. 
The people at Leeompton are exceedingly alarmed for the safety 
of their town. For a week or two they have been so worn out, 
keeping a nightly guard, that they have hired a guard, paying 
each man two dollars a night. At several different times they 
have been awakened in the night by a courier going in with the 
false report of the free-state men close at hand. Early on the 
morning of the 12th, Titus sent in word that he had seen one 
hundred and seventy-five free-state horsemen approaching the 
town, which at once created a panic. On the night of the 13th, 
we heard firing in the direction of Lawrence, and before sunrise 
the next morning, an express was sent to Maj. Sedgwick. As he 
rode in by our tents, the sentinel hailed him with, “ What news? ” 
His reply was, “ War! war ! ” 
