CONTENTS.
|It was impossible to prevent news of the advance of the Union forces
being carried to General Price at Springfield. That astute commander
knew that he was in no condition to cope with an army of sixteen
thousand men, and so he wisely withdrew when certain that he would have
to fight if he remained. He left in haste and did not take time to pack
up all his correspondence, of which a considerable portion fell into the
hands of the invaders.
General Curtis had hoped to surround Price in Springfield and prevent
his retreat; he did surround the town on two of its four sides, but
left the other two wide open, and consequently Price was able to march
serenely and leisurely down the road in the direction of the Arkansas
line.
General Sigel was sent along a parallel road in the hope of heading off
Price, but the latter got wind of the movement and accelerated his own
speed so that heading off was out of the question. Then, too, his rear
was rather closely followed by General Curtis's cavalry, so that the
rear-guard pressed against the column in front of it and urged the
retreat. General Sigel's officers afterwards complained that they were
foiled in their heading-off attempt by the vigorous pursuit of the
cavalry that led the main column.
Jack and Harry were with a scouting party that visited the deserted camp
of the rebels close to the town of Springfield, and were much interested
in studying the buildings which had been erected for the use of
the troops. They consisted of log and board structures, and were
sufficiently numerous and extensive to accommodate ten thousand men,
in the way troops are lodged in barracks, without any overcrowding. The
log-houses were well chinked with mud and clay, and the board ones were
well built and comfortable; both kinds of buildings had floorings
of boards, and at one end of every house there was a chimney and a
fireplace.
“In some of the camps,” said Jack afterwards, in describing the place
to a friend, “the buildings seemed to have been dropped down hap-hazard,
without any effort at regularity, while in other camps they were
laid out into streets and lanes. Some of the streets had signs at
the corners, and of course the names were sure to be those of the
Confederate generals. The bunks were arranged in tiers, sometimes four
or five in a tier; some of the roofs of the buildings were covered
with rawhide, and we saw several chairs and sofas seated with the same
material.
“We thought by the looks of the place that they must have left in a
hurry. There was a dead pig lying on the ground with the knife still
sticking in his throat, and close by was a sheep hanging on a peg in the
side of a house, with its skin about half taken off. Dough was fresh in
the pans, and there were cooking utensils in considerable number, many
of them containing food wholly or partially cooked. They took away their
blankets, hardly one having been left behind. The sick men who remained
in camp said that there was a very short supply of blankets, and they
were sure the army would suffer greatly for want of proper clothing and
covering.
“I'm certain they left in a great hurry,” continued Jack, “or I would
n't have this.”
As he spoke he drew from his pocket a gold watch, which he had found in
a bunk in one of the houses, evidently a house where the officers of
a regiment were lodged. It was a pleasing souvenir of the visit to the
camp, and Jack said he hoped to carry it home to show to his friends in
Iowa.
“And what did you find, Harry?” said one of the listeners, turning to
the other of our young friends.
“There were no gold watches, or even a silver one, in any bunk that
I examined; but I found this, which was quite likely a treasured
possession of its former owner as much as was the watch to the man who
left it behind for Jack to pick up. But it would n't sell for as much;
in fact, I don't think it would bring any price at all in the market, as
it's only a bundle of love-letters.”
Then he read some of the letters aloud, to the great amusement of the
entire party. It is a fact worthy of record that anybody's love-letters
are amusing, and generally silly, to all except the one person for whom
they are intended and the other person who writes them.
The love element was not stronger than the devotion of the fair writers
to the cause of the South. One of them urged her lover to stay with
the army and fight till the last slave-stealing Yankee was put out of
existence and the triumph of the Confederacy was assured. “And you
won't have long to stay,” she added, “as we hear the northern people are
starving, and all of them are fast getting sick of the war. They won't
be able to hire any more Dutchmen to fight for them, and when they can't
hire Dutchmen the war will stop and the South will be independent.
“I know I can trust you when you get among the northern women,” she says
in conclusion; “and am sure you won't forget me and fall in love with
one of those ill-looking, wheezing, whining, ignorant creatures. That's
what Johnny Scott says all the Yankee women are like, and he's been
North three or four times, you know.”
“Poor, dear, confiding girl,” said Harry. “I'm afraid Johnny Scott
wanted to make her mind easy about her far-off sweetheart, and so
invented this charming fiction about the northern lasses. How her eyes
would be opened if she could take a run through the cities and country
towns all the way from the state of Maine to the Missouri river and see
the thousands and thousands of pretty faces that could be seen there.”
To judge by the passages of the letters giving the news and rumors
concerning the progress of the war, it was evident that the most
astounding stories of the prowess of the southern soldiers and the
cowardice of the northern ones were in active circulation. The latter
had been defeated over and over again, and generally ran at the first
fire; sometimes they even ran before a shot was fired, and gave the
enemy the victory without spilling a drop of blood.
There was an amusing juxtaposition of paragraphs, one of which said the
Yankees were being driven back everywhere as fast as they could be met,
and the other saying they were pushing down into the South all the time
“further and further.” Evidently the writer of the letter was puzzled at
this, for she says:
“I asked Colonel Jones that if we were whipping the Yanks all the time,
how it was they kept coming further down South as fast as we whipped
them. He said a woman could n't understand war; he could excuse my
asking such a question, but if it had been a man that asked it he would
have arrested him for a Yankee spy. Of course I am aware, Charles, that
I don't know anything about war, and I wish you'd write me something,
so that I can talk understandingly. I think I can guess it; the southern
generals want to entice the Yanks down into the South, and when they get
ready to kill the whole lot, none of them can get away.”
This was the explanation given on several occasions by the rebel leaders
in reply to inquiries as to the reasons for certain retirements of the
rebel troops. A letter from Colonel Thomas H. Price, of General Price's
staff, was among the correspondence captured at Springfield. It had been
left behind by the general in his hasty departure. This letter was dated
at Memphis, January sixth, and contained, among other information, the
following:
* * * I shall start in the morning for Richmond. I have not the least
wish or curiosity to go, but Major Anderson and Colonel Hunt, of the
Quartermaster and Ordnance Departments, advise to go immediately there.
I tell everybody who mentions your retreat that you only moved your camp
to be more convenient to forage, etc.
There were many other letters which the rebel general left behind in his
flight that were of special interest to the union commanders, as they
revealed the methods of recruiting and gathering provisions in the
Confederate states. There was a complaint that the governor of Arkansas
had placed an embargo on the shipment of pork, corn and other produce to
New Orleans, on the ground that it would all be needed for feeding the
Arkansas troops in the field. One man said he had bought twelve thousand
pounds of pork to ship to New Orleans, and on which he expected a
handsome profit, but owing to the action of the governor he was unable
to sell a pound of it.
This was agreeable news to the union commanders, as it went far to
insure a good supply of provisions in any movements the Army of the
Southwest might make in Arkansas. Various letters gave the strength
of the rebel forces at different points, and altogether a good deal of
information was obtained from the captured correspondence.
The rebels had established a foundry and armory at Springfield. In the
former they were casting shot and shell for the use of the artillerymen,
and in the latter small arms were being repaired and cartridges made
for the infantry, while swords were fashioned and put in serviceable
condition for the cavalry.
Several buildings were filled with provisions, one large one being quite
untouched. The reason why the torch was not applied to these storehouses
and their contents will be seen later on.