advance.
|To the lack of ammunition and provisions, the stench of the dead
animals, the immense preponderance in numbers of the enemy, the
abundance of hemp with which the rebels could construct breastworks, the
beleaguered garrison had to face an additional horror--that of thirst.
As before stated, the fortification was at some distance from the river,
and within the limits of the fortification there were two cisterns,
which were soon exhausted, and just outside the lines were two springs,
which afforded a scanty supply, the rest being taken from the river. As
soon as the besiegers ascertained this state of affairs they proceeded
to cut off the supply of water, which they were able to do with their
greatly superior numbers.
All communication with the river was severed, and then a force was
posted in a position to fire on anybody who went to get water at the
springs. Men can fight under great privations of food and with short
supplies of ammunition, but they cannot fight against thirst. So
determined were the men to hold out, that during a heavy rain on the
second night after the siege began every tent and wagon cover was spread
to catch as much water as possible; in this way a great amount was
secured, and more was obtained by spreading blankets, and afterward
wringing them out.
Twice a white flag was raised on the ramparts without the authority of
Colonel Mulligan, and immediately hauled down as soon as he learned of
it. A third time it was raised, also without his authority; but when he
considered the sufferings of his men and found there was no prospect
of relief, he consented to surrender, and negotiations were begun
immediately. Unconditional surrender were the terms demanded by the
besiegers, and under the circumstances the besieged were forced to
accept them. They piled their arms and handed over their colors. Colonel
Mulligan wept as he gave up his command, and many of his men fairly
rolled on the ground in their rage at having been defeated. But it was
practically impossible that they could hold out any longer, and the
surrender was certainly in the interests of humanity.
The losses were less than might have been expected in a fight that
lasted from the eleventh to the twentieth of September, though it must
be remembered that for the first few days it was not very energetically
pushed by the besiegers. The water supply was cut off on the seventeenth
and from that time to the twentieth the garrison had no water beyond
what they caught in blankets, tents and wagon-covers in the rain that
has been mentioned. Less than two hundred were killed and wounded on the
Union side, and about the same number on that of the rebels. Each side
claimed to have inflicted a greater loss on the enemy than it sustained
itself, a circumstance which has been more or less intimately connected
with warfare since the world began.
[Illustration: 151]
Immediately after the surrender the rebels swarmed around the prisoners,
and while some treated them kindly, others heaped abuse upon them, and
if the Unionists had not already laid down their arms there would have
been a good prospect of a renewal of the fight. The prisoners were
paroled not to take up arms against the Confederacy until regularly
exchanged, and then they were set across the Missouri river and marched
to a point near the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railway and told to go where
they pleased. During this march they were in charge of General Rains and
his brigade, and most of them testified to the kindness of the soldiers
of Rain's Brigade and of the people along the road they traveled.
After the surrender Lexington was a lively place. With nearly thirty
thousand victorious rebel soldiery in the town, and many of these
soldiers filled with whisky, in addition to being flushed with victory,
the streets were anything but quiet and orderly. The officers of the
Confederates were gentlemanly enough, but as for the soldiers they were
anything but well-behaved. It required all the authority of the officers
to keep the men from breaking loose and setting the town on fire or
committing some other folly or barbarity. In some instances it became
necessary to order the men out of town and form camps three or four
miles away, which no one could leave without express permission.
There was the same lack of uniforms that had characterized the troops at
Wilson's Creek, only a few hundreds of all the army under General Price
having been able to obtain the Confederate gray. Some of the generals
and colonels were uniformed, but many were not, and wore their civilian
dress, with cloth shoulder-straps to indicate their rank. Many of the
soldiers fought quite independently of all command, and took their
positions wherever they were best suited.
An eye-witness of the siege said that the mode of fighting was well
illustrated by something that came under his observation. There was an
old Texan, dressed in a buckskin suit and armed with a hunting-rifle of
the kind in use on the plains before the war. About seven o'clock every
morning this Texan used to go to the Confederate breastworks, carrying
his dinner in a tin pail. He hunted around for a good position till he
found one, and then he fired away whenever he saw a head until the sun
showed the meridian.
Promptly at noon he knocked off for an hour and ate his dinner. Then he
went to work again and kept at it till six o'clock, when he went home to
supper and to spend the night in peaceful sleep. Morning saw him at his
post again; and thus he continued at his daily task till the surrender
took place. There were a good many independent warriors of this sort,
and if they did not kill many of their adversaries it was because the
latter kept their heads out of range.
As soon as Lexington was surrendered Price turned his attention to
gathering supplies and recruits from the rich and populous counties
along the river. While he was engaged at this business, General Fremont
assembled an army at Jefferson City for the purpose of heading him off.
A portion of Fremont's army marched from Jefferson City to Tipton and
Syracuse, while the balance was sent forward by railway to the same
point. It was intended to march from these points to Springfield and
reoccupy the place, which Lyon's army had been compelled to give up in
August after the reverse at Wilson's Creek.
At the same time the garrison of Rolla was strengthened, and a
column was ordered to move from that point to join the main force at
Springfield. This movement promised to give occupation to Jack and
Harry, who had been chafing at their inactivity while preparations were
in progress. True, they had scouting expeditions occasionally, but
as they did not succeed in finding any enemy, except in a very few
instances, there was not enough to make the life of the camp at all
exciting.
Movements were delayed by a lack of supplies and transportation, and
it was not till the middle of October that the Union forces took the
offensive. In the main column from Tipton and Syracuse, General Sigel's
division had the advance; while the other commanders were waiting for
transportation Sigel scoured the country and picked up everything that
could be of use. His wagon-train when he started was one of the funniest
things of the kind ever known; there were some army wagons of the
regulation pattern, but there were more emigrant wagons, such as are
used by pioneers seeking new homes in the far West beyond the lines of
railway, and where steamboats are unknown.
Then he had stage-coaches, family-carriages, drays, hay-carts, in
fact all the kinds of vehicles known to that part of the country, and
whenever a pack-saddle was found it was taken along. And the motive
power was as varied as the vehicles to be moved; it comprised mules and
horses as a matter of course, and it also included oxen, and even cows
where the latter were found docile enough to be yoked or harnessed.
There was a rumor that some of Sigel's men attempted to harness up a
drove of pigs; that they took the pigs along there can be no reasonable
doubt, but probably for some other purpose than breaking them in as
draft animals. However burdensome to carry a pig may be, he has never
been found a satisfactory beast of burden.
Before Fremont could get his army in motion, Price had taken the alarm
and evacuated Lexington. He was too wily to wait till his enemy could
get in front of him to cut him off, and the most that Fremont could hope
for was that Price would make a stand in the neighborhood of Springfield
and give chance for a battle.
Fremont did not encounter any enemy on his southward march until he
was in the neighborhood of Springfield. When within fifty miles of that
place he sent forward two companies of his body-guard, comprising about
one hundred and fifty men, under the command of Major Zagonyi, and
composed of most excellent materials for a cavalry squadron. The members
of the body-guard were from the best class of young men of St. Louis
and Cincinnati. From the completeness of the body-guard's outfit and
the dashing appearance it presented, it was derisively known as the
kid-gloved regiment. It consisted of four companies of cavalry, and the
intention was to increase it to a full regiment of ten companies, an
intention never carried out. After the removal of Fremont the famous
organization was sent to St. Louis and disbanded.
Well, the body-guard got within eight miles of Springfield without
seeing the enemy, but at that distance from town it found a brigade of
infantry, with some cavalry, drawn up to receive them. Major Zagonyi
ordered a charge, and it was made in gallant style. It was like the
charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava--it was magnificent, but it
was not war. The enemy was routed and the town was occupied only to
be abandoned as soon as night came on, for the very natural fear of
a surprise, which might easily have been disastrous to the seventy or
eighty men that remained of Zagonyi's command, the rest having been
killed, wounded, or scattered in the fight. Fifteen were killed and
twenty-seven wounded, and fully fifty horses were killed or rendered
useless by reason of wounds and over-riding.
Jack and Harry discussed the affair, when the news reached them, with
the coolness and critical air of major-generals.
“What was the use of such a charge as that?” said Jack, with his eye
fixed on Harry as though he would pierce him.
“It was a splendid fight,” was the reply, “and did great credit to the
men that made it.”
“Nobody says it did n't,” responded Jack; “but just look at the waste
of life, and nothing to show for it. The rebels were preparing to leave
Springfield; in fact, the two thousand that Zagonyi says he encountered
were only the rear-guard of Price's army, and when our army came along
it could have occupied the town, as it afterwards did, without any
opposition. The lives of those soldiers were just thrown away, and it
is n't the only time men have been sacrificed just to enable somebody
to show off.” Harry nodded assent, and the conversation shifted to other
topics.