"As the sun went down Sunday night," concluded the brigade correspondent, "Osceola was a heap of smoldering ruins. Well over two thousand people were left homeless and perhaps the fairest city in Missouri had been utterly wiped from the face of the earth. Union Brigadier General Jim Lane left Osceola with all their plunder and headed for Kansas, leaving old age, and helpless innocents to keep vigil over the dead and wounded, and life blood and tears marked the spot which only a few short hours before had been peaceful, contented, happy homes."