|For some time there had been rumors that General Fremont was about to
be removed from the command of the Western Department. It was said that
the authorities at Washington were greatly dissatisfied with the way
he had managed affairs, and thought he gave more attention to making a
grand display than in pushing operations against the enemy. Rumors of
the impending change grew more and more numerous, and finally, on the
second of November, General Fremont was officially notified of his
removal from command and the appointment of General Hunter in his place.
Then on the third came the report that the enemy was in force at
Wilson's Creek, and the plan of battle was formed. But the arrival of
General Hunter at midnight caused the order for the troops to march at
daybreak to be countermanded, and so the army did not move out to fight,
greatly to the disappointment of our young friends.
It was fortunate for Fremont's reputation that the army did not make
the proposed march, as the fact would have been revealed, which was
discovered next day by a reconnoitering party which General Hunter sent
out, that there was not a rebel camped on the old battleground or any
where near it. A scouting party of about fifty men had been in the
neighborhood, but they did not remain an hour; they had simply satisfied
themselves that the Union army was still in Springfield, and then
returned to their army at Cassville.
[Illustration: 163]
“How could General Fremont have been so deceived?” was the very natural
inquiry of Jack when it became known exactly how little foundation there
was for the report of the near presence of the enemy.
“He was deceived by his scouts, I presume,” said Harry. “Suppose we ask
one of our friends, who 'll know more about it.”
So they referred the matter to one of the soldiers attached to the
commissary department, and the latter explained as follows:
“You understand,” said he, “that a general must depend a good deal on
what his scouts tell him, and to avoid being deceived by them he is
compelled to use a great deal of judgment. There are three classes of
scouts: those who are really brave, cool and truthful; those who intend
to be honest, but are timid and credulous, and lastly those who are born
liars and boasters. The first are not always to be had, and at best
are scarce, and so a general's scouting force is largely made up of the
second and third classes. The second class get their information from
the frightened inhabitants, and the fifty or so that composed the
scouting party of rebels which came as far as 'Wilson's Creek were
easily magnified into five or ten thousand; the imagination and fears
of the scouts doubled the numbers given by the inhabitants, and thus
the fictitious army was created. As for the liars and boasters, they are
always, if their stories could be believed, doing prodigies of valor and
whipping ten or twenty times their number of the enemy.
“What they principally do is to scare the people through whose country
they ride, and many of them are not above plundering after a fashion no
better than downright robbery. Generally they are in no hurry to meet
the enemy face to face, but confine their scouting to places that are
entirely safe.”
The soldier knew what he was talking about. Among Fremont's followers
were several men of this sort with the rank of captain or lieutenant,
and several who were unattached to any command and had an air of mystery
about them. One of them used to ride out of camp about sunset as though
bent on an important mission. He would return in the morning with a
thrilling story of a night's ride, in which he had several times been
fired upon by rebel scouting parties, and had used his revolver with
such effect as to leave five or perhaps ten of his enemies dead upon the
ground.
The fact was he went only a mile or two, and there spent the night at a
farmhouse, having previously informed himself as to the entire safety of
the place.
Another so-called scout was a forager whose equal is rarely to be seen.
Whenever the army went into camp he would take half-a-dozen companions
and start on a foraging expedition, from which he returned with a varied
assortment of things, most of which were utterly unsuited to the uses of
an army in the field and had to be left behind. One day he brought back
a wagon drawn by two oxen and two cows, and with a horse attached behind
it. Inside the wagon he had a pair of bull-terrier pups about three
months old, a hoopskirt, and other articles of the feminine wardrobe,
a baby's cradle and also a grain-reaping one, a rocking-chair, some
battered railway-spikes, three door-mats and a side-saddle. Another
time he returned with a family carriage drawn by a horse and a mule, and
containing a litter of young kittens without the mother-cat, a bird-cage
with a frightened canary in it, an empty parrot-cage, several bound
volumes of sermons by celebrated English divines, and a box of
garden-seeds.
This same scout got into trouble afterwards in a queer sort of a way.
While on a foraging tour at one time he secured a lot of ready-made
clothing, which he found in a trunk where some salt belonging to the
rebel authorities had been stored. The quartermaster refused to receive
the trunk and contents, and so the captain carried it to St. Louis and
took it to the hotel where he temporarily stopped.
It so happened that some detectives were hunting for a suspected thief,
who was said to be stopping at the hotel. They got into the captain's
room by mistake and searched his trunk while he was absent; they did
not find the articles they sought but they did find thirteen coats of
different sizes, without any waistcoats or trousers to match. This was
considered such a remarkable wardrobe for a gentleman to carry, that
they did not hesitate to arrest him on general principles. He was locked
up over night and did not succeed in obtaining his liberty until the
quartermaster could be found to show that the goods were not stolen, but
were simply the spoils of war.
Immediately after his removal, General Fremont, who had been in command
just one hundred days, returned with his staff to St. Louis, and the
army was ordered back to the line of the railway. On the ninth of
November it evacuated Springfield, which was soon after occupied by
General Price, and the second campaign of the Southwest was over.
General Hunter remained only fifteen days in command and was succeeded
by General Halleck, who proceeded to undo pretty nearly everything that
Fremont had established.
Late in November Jack and Harry found themselves once more in Rolla,
where a part of the army of the Southwest went into winter quarters. The
rebels were content to remain in Springfield, though they sent scouting
and foraging parties at irregular intervals to scour the country between
those two points and gather whatever supplies could be obtained.
The commander at Rolla also sent out similar expeditions, which were
frequently accompanied by our young friends, and thus each army was
fairly well informed as to what the other was doing.
The retirement of the Union forces gave the rebels great encouragement,
and they pushed their recruiting through the interior country with great
activity. They threatened to capture St. Louis, at least in words, and
so loud were their promises that many of their sympathizers believed
them.
During January, 1862, the camp at Rolla was increased by the arrival
of troops from Illinois, Iowa and Kansas, and it was evident that the
spring was to open with another campaign. General Samuel R. Curtis
arrived and took command, transportation was cut down as much as
possible, stores were accumulated and sent forward as far as the
Gasconade river, a cavalry division under General Carr was pushed
forward, and by degrees the country was occupied to within fifty miles
of Springfield, where Price's army was known to be in force. It was
ascertained that McCulloch's army had gone into a winter camp at Cross
Hollows, in Arkansas, and would probably move north in the spring to
join Price, or in case of a Union advance would wait where it was until
Price could fall back to that position.
Among the regiments that came to Rolla was the Ninth Iowa, which
contained several officers and many men of the First Iowa, which had
been mustered out of service after its return from Wilson's Creek, its
time having expired. Its colonel, William Vandever, was assigned to the
command of a brigade, so that the control of the regiment fell to its
lieutenant-colonel, F. J. Herron, who had fought at Wilson's Creek as a
captain in the First Iowa.
Jack and Harry were overjoyed to see so many of their old acquaintances,
and at the request of Colonel Vandever the two youths were turned over
to his care. They had made such a good record in their scouting services
during their stay at Rolla, that Colonel Vandever, whom we will now call
general, as he was shortly afterward promoted to that rank, decided to
make use of them as scouts and orderlies whenever occasion offered. They
were allowed to retain their horses, of which they had taken excellent
care. The animals showed much attachment to their young masters, and
evidently were quite reconciled to serving under the Union flag instead
of the rebel one, beneath which they were captured.
Orders to advance were impatiently waited, and at last they came. Early
in February the army of General Curtis moved out of Rolla with drums
beating and trumpets sounding, and every indication of a determination
to push on to victory. Sixteen thousand men, in the proper proportions
of infantry, artillery and cavalry, composed the force which was to
carry the flag across the borders of Missouri and into the rebellious
state of Arkansas.
But before we follow the army of the Southwest and make note of its
fortunes, let us briefly turn our gaze elsewhere.