Freeborn captures prizes; battle looms in NE Missouri

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Sighting a gun on USS Freeborn

• In Pohick Creek, Virginia, the USS Thomas Freeborn under Lieutenant Eastman, captures the schooner Pocahontas loaded with wood, and the sloop Mary Frey./1861
• In northeast Missouri, Colonel Martin E. Green, commanding the 2^nd Division of the secessionist Missouri State Guard (about 2000 men and 3 cannons), bivouacs seven miles west of Athens (pronounced Aythens), Missouri, in preparation for a retaliatory attack on the 1st Northeast Missouri Home Guard (333-500 men) under Col. David Moore for the Union destruction of Green’s training camp on July 21st. While Moore attempts to prepare for the attack, several of his company commanders without orders allow their men to visit their homes. In a panic, Moore calls for reinforcement from the Iowa State Militia companies in Croton and Keokuk, Iowa, but they would not cross the river in time to participate in the engagement on August 5^th. /1861

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