THE FLIGHT AND THE PURSUIT.
From Springfield to Pea Ridge.--Mark Tapley in Missouri.--"The
Arkansas Traveler."--Encountering the Rebel Army.--A "Wonderful
Spring."--The Cantonment at Cross Hollows.--Game Chickens.--Magruder
_vs_. Breckinridge.--Rebel Generals in a Controversy.--Its Result.--An
Expedition to Huntsville.--Curiosities of Rebel Currency.--Important
Information.--A Long and Weary March.--Disposition of Forces before
the Battle.--Changing Front.--What the Rebels lost by Ignorance.
When it became certain the army would continue its march into
Arkansas, myself and the _Democrat's_ correspondent pushed forward
to overtake it. Along the road we learned of the rapid retreat of the
Rebels, and the equally rapid pursuit by our own forces. About twenty
miles south of Springfield one of the natives came to his door to
greet us. Learning to which army we belonged, he was very voluble in
his efforts to explain the consternation of the Rebels. A half-dozen
of his neighbors were by his side, and joined in the hilarity of the
occasion. I saw that something more than usual was the cause of their
assembling, and inquired what it could be.
"My wife died this morning, and my friends have come here to see me,"
was the answer I received from the proprietor of the house.
Almost at the instant of completing the sentence, he burst into a
laugh, and said,
"It would have done you good to see how your folks captured a big
drove of Price's cattle. The Rebs were driving them along all right,
and your cavalry just came up and took them. It was rich, I tell you.
Ha! ha!"
Not knowing what condolence to offer a man who could be so gay after
the death of his wife, I bade him good-morning, and pushed on. He
had not, as far as I could perceive, the single excuse of being
intoxicated, and his display of vivacity appeared entirely genuine. In
all my travels I have never met his equal.
Up to the time of this campaign none of our armies had been into
Arkansas. When General Curtis approached the line, the head of the
column was halted, the regiments closed up, and the men brought their
muskets to the "right shoulder shift," instead of the customary "at
will" of the march. Two bands were sent to the front, where a small
post marked the boundary, and were stationed by the roadside, one in
either State. Close by them the National flag was unfurled. The bands
struck up "The Arkansas Traveler," the order to advance was given,
and, with many cheers in honor of the event, the column moved onward.
For several days "The Arkansas Traveler" was exceedingly popular with
the entire command. On the night after crossing the line the news of
the fall of Fort Donelson was received.
Soon after entering Arkansas on his retreat, General Price met General
McCulloch moving northward to join him. With their forces united, they
determined on making a stand against General Curtis, and, accordingly,
halted near Sugar Creek. A little skirmish ensued, in which the Rebels
gave way, the loss on either side being trifling. They did not stop
until they reached Fayetteville. Their halt at that point was very
brief.
At Cross Hollows, in Benton County, Arkansas, about two miles from
the main road, there is one of the finest springs in the Southwest. It
issues from the base of a rocky ledge, where the ravine is about three
hundred yards wide, and forms the head of a large brook. Two small
flouring mills are run during the entire year by the water from this
spring. The water is at all times clear, cold, and pure, and is said
never to vary in quantity.
Along the stream fed by this spring, the Rebels had established a
cantonment for the Army of Northern Arkansas, and erected houses
capable of containing ten or twelve thousand men. The cantonment
was laid out with the regularity of a Western city. The houses were
constructed of sawed lumber, and provided with substantial brick
chimneys.
Of course, this establishment was abandoned when the Rebel army
retreated. The buildings were set on fire, and all but a half-dozen of
them consumed. When our cavalry reached the place, the rear-guard of
the Rebels had been gone less than half an hour. There were about
two hundred chickens running loose among the burning buildings. Our
soldiers commenced killing them, and had slaughtered two-thirds of
the lot when one of the officers discovered that they were game-cocks.
This class of chickens not being considered edible, the killing was
stopped and the balance of the flock saved. Afterward, while we lay in
camp, they were made a source of much amusement. The cock-fights that
took place in General Curtis's army would have done honor to Havana or
Vera Cruz. Before we captured them the birds were the property of the
officers of a Louisiana regiment. We gave them the names of the Rebel
leaders. It was an every-day affair for Beauregard, Van Dorn, and
Price to be matched against Lee, Johnston, and Polk. I remember losing
a small wager on Magruder against Breckinridge. I should have won if
Breck had not torn the feathers from Mac's neck, and injured his right
wing by a foul blow. I never backed Magruder after that.
From Cross Hollows, General Curtis sent a division in pursuit of
Price's army, in its retreat through Fayetteville, twenty-two miles
distant. On reaching the town they found the Rebels had left in the
direction of Fort Smith. The pursuit terminated at this point. It had
been continued for a hundred and ten miles--a large portion of the
distance our advance being within a mile or two of the Rebel rear.
In retreating from Fayetteville, the Rebels were obliged to abandon
much of the supplies for their army. A serious quarrel is reported
to have taken place between Price and McCulloch, concerning the
disposition to be made of these supplies. The former was in favor
of leaving the large amount of stores, of which, bacon was the chief
article, that it might fall into our hands. He argued that we had
occupied the country, and would stay there until driven out. Our army
would be subsisted at all hazards. If we found this large quantity of
bacon, it would obviate the necessity of our foraging upon the country
and impoverishing the inhabitants.
General McCulloch opposed this policy, and accused Price of a desire
to play into the enemy's hands. The quarrel became warm, and resulted
in the discomfiture of the latter. All the Rebel warehouses were set
on fire. When our troops entered Fayetteville the conflagration was at
its height. It resulted as Price had predicted. The inhabitants were
compelled, in great measure, to support our army.
The Rebels retreated across the Boston Mountains to Fort Smith, and
commenced a reorganization of their army. Our army remained at Cross
Hollows as its central point, but threw out its wings so as to form
a front nearly five miles in extent. Small expeditions were sent in
various directions to break up Rebel camps and recruiting stations.
In this way two weeks passed with little activity beyond a careful
observation of the enemy's movements. There were several flouring
mills in the vicinity of our camp, which were kept in constant
activity for the benefit of the army.
I accompanied an expedition, commanded by Colonel Vandever, of the
Ninth Iowa, to the town of Huntsville, thirty-five miles distant. Our
march occupied two days, and resulted in the occupation of the town
and the dispersal of a small camp of Rebels. We had no fighting,
scarcely a shot being fired in anger. The inhabitants did not greet us
very cordially, though some of them professed Union sentiments.
In this town of Huntsville, the best friend of the Union was the
keeper of a whisky-shop. This man desired to look at some of our
money, but declined to take it. An officer procured a canteen of
whisky and tendered a Treasury note in payment. The note was refused,
with a request for either gold or Rebel paper.
The officer then exhibited a large sheet of "promises to pay," which
he had procured in Fayetteville a few days before, and asked how they
would answer.
"That is just what I want," said the whisky vender.
The officer called his attention to the fact that the notes had no
signatures.
"That don't make any difference," was the reply; "nobody will know
whether they are signed or not, and they are just as good, anyhow."
I was a listener to the conversation, and at this juncture proffered a
pair of scissors to assist in dividing the notes. It took but a short
time to cut off enough "money" to pay for twenty canteens of the worst
whisky I ever saw.
At Huntsville we made a few prisoners, who said they were on their
way from Price's army to Forsyth, Missouri. They gave us the important
information that the Rebel army, thirty thousand strong, was on the
Boston Mountains the day previous; and on the very day of our arrival
at Huntsville, it was to begin its advance toward our front. These
men, and some others, had been sent away because they had no weapons
with which to enter the fight.
Immediately on learning this, Colonel Vandever dispatched a courier
to General Curtis, and prepared to set out on his return to the main
army. We marched six miles before nightfall, and at midnight, while
we were endeavoring to sleep, a courier joined us from the
commander-in-chief. He brought orders for us to make our way back with
all possible speed, as the Rebel army was advancing in full force.
At two o'clock we broke camp, and, with only one halt of an hour,
made a forced march of forty-one miles, joining the main column at ten
o'clock at night. I doubt if there were many occasions during the
war where better marching was done by infantry than on that day.
Of course, the soldiers were much fatigued, but were ready, on the
following day, to take active part in the battle.
On the 5th of March, as soon as General Curtis learned of the Rebel
advance, he ordered General Sigel, who was in camp at Bentonville, to
fall back to Pea Ridge, on the north bank of Sugar Creek. At the
same time he withdrew Colonel Jeff. C. Davis's Division to the same
locality. This placed the army in a strong, defensible position, with
the creek in its front. On the ridge above the stream our artillery
and infantry were posted.
The Rebel armies under Price and McCulloch had been united and
strongly re-enforced, the whole being under the command of General Van
Dorn. Their strength was upward of twenty thousand men, and they were
confident of their ability to overpower us. Knowing our strong front
line, General Van Dorn decided upon a bold movement, and threw himself
around our right flank to a position between us and our base at
Springfield.
In moving to our right and rear, the Rebels encountered General
Sigel's Division before it had left Bentonville, and kept up a running
fight during the afternoon of the 6th. Several times the Rebels, in
small force, secured positions in Sigel's front, but that officer
succeeded in cutting his way through and reaching the main force, with
a loss of less than a hundred men.
The position of the enemy at Bentonville showed us his intentions,
and we made our best preparations to oppose him. Our first step was
to obstruct the road from Bentonville to our rear, so as to retard
the enemy's movements. Colonel Dodge, of the Fourth Iowa (afterward
a major-general), rose from a sick-bed to perform this work. The
impediments which he placed in the way of the Rebels prevented their
reaching the road in our rear until nine o'clock on the morning of the
7th.
Our next movement was to reverse our position. We had been facing
south--it was now necessary to face to the north. The line that had
been our rear became our front. A change of front implied that our
artillery train should take the place of the supply train, and _vice
versâ_. "Elkhorn Tavern" had been the quartermaster's depot. We made
all haste to substitute artillery for baggage-wagons, and boxes of
ammunition for boxes of hard bread. This transfer was not accomplished
before the battle began, and as our troops were pressed steadily back
on our new front, Elkhorn Tavern fell into the hands of the Rebels.
The sugar, salt, and bread which they captured, happily not of large
quantity, were very acceptable, and speedily disappeared. Among the
quartermaster's stores was a wagon-load of desiccated vegetables, a
very valuable article for an army in the field. All expected it would
be made into soup and eaten by the Rebels. What was our astonishment
to find, two days later, that they had opened and examined a single
case, and, after scattering its contents on the ground, left the
balance undisturbed!
Elkhorn Tavern was designated by a pair of elk-horns, which occupied a
conspicuous position above the door. After the battle these horns were
removed by Colonel Carr, and sent to his home in Illinois, as trophies
of the victory.
A family occupied the building at the time of the battle, and remained
there during the whole contest. When the battle raged most fiercely
the cellar proved a place of refuge. Shells tore through the house,
sometimes from the National batteries, and sometimes from Rebel guns.
One shell exploded in a room where three women were sitting. Though
their clothes were torn by the flying fragments, they escaped without
personal injury. They announced their determination not to leave home
so long as the house remained standing.
Among other things captured at Elkhorn Tavern by the Rebels, was
a sutler's wagon, which, had just arrived from St. Louis. In the
division of the spoils, a large box, filled with wallets, fell to the
lot of McDonald's Battery. For several weeks the officers and privates
of this battery could boast of a dozen wallets each, while very few
had any money to carry. The Rebel soldiers complained that the visits
of the paymaster were like those of angels.