CHAPTER XI

W. H. Ryus Enters Second Contract With Stage Company, Messenger and
Conductor of the U. S. Mail and Express.

The spring of 1864 I left the services of the stage company and came to
Kansas City, Kansas, where my parents lived.

In June of that year I bought a team, mowing machine and wire hay rake
and entered into a contract to furnish hay to the government. I took my
hay-making apparatus out on the prairie, about ten miles from Kansas
City, and cut several hundred tons of hay which I sold to the government
quartermaster at Kansas City.

During the summer of that year Confederate General Price made his famous
raid through Westport, going South with his army, followed by the
Federal soldiers.

There were upwards of 3000 of the Federal militia, and while on the road
from Westport to Kansas City they became frightened and stampeded. They
heard that Price's army was coming toward them from Westport. It was an
exciting scene to see men acting like wild men.

The militia posted at Kansas City, Kansas, consisted of troops from the
counties of Brown, Atchison and Leavenworth and were under a newspaper
man's command, an editor from Hiawatha, Kansas, whose name I do not
recall. The governor of Kansas ordered this major to take his militia
and go to the line and protect Kansas City, Missouri, from Price's
raiders. The soldiers refused to go with their major in command.