After laying in camp two days on Sugar Creek, resting from the
wearisome march it had undergone since leaving Springfield, the
regiment again moved out in the pursuit. After making somewhat of a
circuitous route by Osage Springs, it arrived in the neighborhood of
Cross Hollows, and went into camp, on the 22d day of February--lacking
three days of being one month since leaving Syracuse, Mo. During that
time it had marched over two hundred and fifty miles.
Cross Hollows, from which Price's army has just disappeared beyond
pursuit, is on the Fayetteville road, eighteen miles from that place,
and sixteen miles from the Arkansas line, in Benton county. The road
passes due south at this point, along the bed of a deep valley with
precipitous sides, covered with brush, and the eminences covered with
forests of black-jacks and swamp-oaks. Two other ravines cut across
this valley at right angels, the other obliquely in a south-east and
north-west direction. The junction of these ravines is called "Cross
Hollows." A cantonment of three thousand Arkansas infantry has been
located here during the winter. An excellent spring gushes forth under
one of the banks, giving origin to a creek. It was thought that the six
bold promontories, which send their salient points into the valley,
would constitute natural ramparts for placing cannon to enfilade the
gorges and render the place impregnable, but it seems that the gorges
were untenable in the face of the ardent troops of General Curtis. This
is the last place at which it has been said by rebel sympathisers, that
Price was going to give the Federal army battle. It is now said that he
has fled to the mountains of Indian Territory, where it would be
useless to undertake a pursuit.
[Illustration:
LIEUT. C. C. DOOLITTLE. LIEUT. JOHN KELLY.
LIEUT. ANDERSON. LIEUT. MOSSMAN.
LIEUT. R. D. IRVINE. LIEUT. SANDERSON.
SERGT. T. J. MELVIN. SERGT. CH^s. SMITH.
Lith. by W^m. BRADEN & C^o. Indianapolis.]
Ben McCulloch arrived from Fort Smith the day before the fight at Sugar
Creek, but did not participate in any part of the action, except the
retreat. He insisted on making a stand at Cross Hollows, but Price
objected. His habit of running has become a second nature to him. The
stampede of the deluded people was exceeded only by the hurry of the
rebel army to get away.
Camp Benjamin, located in a beautiful place, three miles west of Cross
Hollows, in the principal valley, had one hundred and eight commodious
huts erected, with chimneys in the center. The rebels burned all but
five, and in the hurry of their flight, left thirty game cocks: some of
these brandished silver spurs. Their best fighting material was thus
evidently left behind. A book containing the general orders, and a
quantity of brass knuckles were also left behind by the chivalry. It is
a wonder to our troops why the two grist mills at this point were not
fired.
As soon as the Federal army went into camp, many refugees returned to
our lines, among whom were two intelligent women from their homes south
of Fayetteville. They represented that their husbands were Union men,
who fled to avoid being pressed into the rebel service. A threat was
made that the wives of such who favored the Union cause would be hung,
and many of these poor women were trying to make their way into the
Federal lines to escape this threatened doom. The day before these
women left home, there were two Union men hung at Hewit's Mills. These
women were piloted through to our lines by an intelligent
contraband--the trusty slave of their father. This negro says that the
retreat of Price was preceded by dispatches sent ahead, calling every
citizen to arms. A perfect reign of terror prevails; committees were
appointed to hang every man refusing to join the rebel army. People
were removing their provisions to the woods and burying them, and
fleeing in large numbers to the mountains. By a recent act, no negro
must be found beyond his master's premises, under pain of thirty-nine
lashes, administered on the bare back. A few weeks since, five negroes
caught fishing together in a stream, twelve miles from Fayetteville,
were hung, and their bird-pecked carcass can be seen swinging in the
air to this day, as a warning to others. The negros are told that the
Northern Abolitionists are trying to get them in their power for the
purpose of transporting them to Cuba. This negro says that the war has
made the Southern men "mighty temperate;" none but the vilest corn
whisky can be procured. The "quality" are suffering headaches from
being deprived of their accustomed beverage, coffee. Sassafras tea,
used as a substitute, sweetened with sorghum, was not generally
relished. Coffee in Fayetteville held at sixty cents a pound, and none
could be had even at that price. Sheeting and shirting was worth one
dollar a yard. The negro made a statement to General Curtis, and gave
the latter a plan showing the roads through the Boston Mountains. Full
confidence is placed in his statement. The two women and negro were
sent forward to Springfield.
On the evening of the 24th, the head of a train on the way, five miles
this side of Keitsville, and four wagons belonging to a Sutler of the
Twenty-Second Indiana, were burned. The balance of the train,
containing five days provisions, was several miles behind, and returned
to Cassville. On the same evening, Captain Montgomery's command, of
Wright's battalion, stationed at Keitsville, was attacked by eight
hundred and fifty Texan Rangers, under Colonel Young. Montgomery and
his men escaped to Cassville, with the loss of two killed, one wounded
and one taken prisoner. Seventy-five horses were left in possession of
the rebels. The enemy, it appears, came on our pickets in the dark. In
reply to "who comes there?" the answer was, "a friend." The rebels then
rushed forward, the pickets fired, but were overpowered. The enemy
rushed into Keitsville and fired upon the house occupied by the
cavalry. Captain Montgomery did not order a fire in the darkness and
confusion, as his men and the enemy became undistinguishable. The
rebels had two killed and one wounded. They said they were Texan
Rangers, encamped on Sugar Creek, and had burned one of our trains and
intended to destroy another.
On the 21st, one of the First Missouri Cavalry ventured into
Bentonville, the county seat of Benton county, five miles from Cross
Hollows, alone; got into difficulty with some citizens, and was
literally stoned to death. The next day, the company to which he
belonged retaliated by burning several houses and razing the town
generally.
While laying here, the news came to camp, that the Ninth Regiment of
Missouri Volunteers was no longer a Missouri regiment, but was now
numbered among the honored regiments of its own State, and was
hereafter to be known as the Fifty-Ninth Illinois Regiment. The news
was received with acclamations of hearty satisfaction. Colonel Julius
White, who now commanded the brigade, read the dispatch announcing the
fact, and the Major of the regiment, P. Sidney Post, made some few,
well chosen and congratulatory remarks, which were received with three
hearty cheers. Three cheers for Colonel White; three for Colonel C. H.
Frederick, and three times three for the State of Illinois.
While at the Lamoine, some time in January, Captain S. W. Kelly,
Captain Winters and Captain Elliott got up a petition to the Secretary
of War, to have the regiment transferred from the Missouri to the
Illinois service. Nine-tenths of the men in the regiment were from that
State, and the feeling was almost universal in favor of the transfer.
In order to add weight and influence to the petition, they procured the
signatures of General Palmer and Colonel White, now commanding brigade,
and, with one exception, all the line officers of the regiment. Colonel
Frederick being a citizen of Missouri, and having used great exertions
and made much personal sacrifice to recruit and organize the regiment
for his own State, did not feel inclined to encourage the petition. Yet
he most generously withheld any effort to prevent its free circulation
and passage to the Secretary of War; and after the transfer, he
withheld not his kindly feeling towards the regiment, nor spared any
labor to promote its efficiency or welfare. Through the personal
influence of General Palmer, the Adjutant General of Illinois, and
Governor Yates became interested in the matter, and through their
exertions the petition was acted upon.