|For two weeks after the army reached Cross Hollows it remained
apparently inactive, though really far from idle. Foraging expeditions
were constantly in motion, scouting parties were sent out in every
direction, and small forces of infantry and cavalry went to visit the
various villages and towns within a radius of fifty miles to the east
and west. Several times detachments of cavalry visited Fayetteville, and
made sure that the rebels had not reoccupied the place.
As already intimated the negro servants of the officers were active
in search of chickens and other articles of food. General Vandever
and Colonel Herron had as manager of their mess a negro named William,
generally abbreviated to Bill, who could scent a chicken at least a mile
away, and a concealed ham even though a load of hay had been piled on
top of it. In the same brigade was the Twenty-fifth Missouri, commanded
by Colonel John S. Phelps. The latter officer rejoiced in a negro
named Jake, and he and Bill went together almost daily in a hunt for
provisions. Not infrequently they ventured beyond the lines, and on two
or three occasions had narrow escapes from capture.
One evening Bill gave the following account of the day's performance:
“Me and Jake went out for to find suthin', and I says to Jake that
chickens was gettin' mighty sca'ce round yere. We went out on a side
road off from de Fayetteville road, and while we wras at a house dere
and trying to find out if dere was any chickens in de chicken-house, and
if de man what owned de place was to home or not, we heern a noise.
“I looks out o' de chicken-house, and down de road I sees some dust, and
in dat dust I sees two or free dozen rebs. I jest says 'Rebs' to Jake,
and him and me lit out o' dat dere chicken-house and over behind der
barn and den we got out inter de road.
“De rebs dey comes up and stops at der house, and den me and Jake lit
out for camp. And yer jest ort to a-seen Jake run; dere nebber was a
nigger run like Jake did; he jest streaked it along ez if a tiger was
arter him, and mighty near cotchin' him, too.”
Here Bill doubled himself up with laughing at the picture presented by
the swift-footed Jake. After laughing awhile he paused, and repeated his
belief that Jake was, “de runnin'est nigger dat eber was know'd.”
“Well, what did you do, Bill?” said the general, when the negro stopped
laughing long enough to permit the question to be edged in.
“Wot did I do? Wot do yer s'pose I did, Gineral? I jest retreated, fell
back, alongside o' Jake, and got inter camp'bout five minutes ahead of
him.”
“And that's the way of war,” the general remarked to the rest of the
party. “We retreat or fall back, but others run.”
Jack and Harry had a retreat of this sort one day when out in search
of a quantity of bacon that was said to be concealed in a barn several
miles away. They did n't get the bacon, but they did get a brush with
a similar but larger party of the enemy, probably on the same baconian
intent. Being in the minority, the union squadron retired in good though
somewhat rapid order, which was doubtless described afterward by the
rebels who witnessed it as a dead run. Harry admitted as much to a
friend, but insisted that it was a retreat, and not a run for safety.
Rumors reached the army that the rebels had formed a camp about
twenty-five miles south of Fayetteville, and were receiving
reinforcements. The position at Cross Hollows was a strong one, and
in view of the reports from the front General Curtis did not care to
advance, and thus abandon his very desirable camp. With an abundant
supply of water, and with the natural advantages of the ridges that
bounded the hollows, and on which his artillery was planted, he thought
it best to wait there for the advance of the enemy rather than advance
to Fayetteville.
The front of the army was extended so that it covered a distance of
about five miles, the camps being pushed out to the south of Cross
Hollows and the wings extended both ways from the line of the main road.
General Sigel's division was moved to Bentonville, several miles to
the west of Cross Hollows, in order to increase the opportunities of
foraging for supplies and also to guard the roads in that direction.
It was supposed that the advance of the main body of the enemy would be
along the main road, and only a small force would be sufficient to hold
the roads on the flanks. The rear of the union army was at Sugar Creek,
and the quartermaster's train, heavily laden with supplies, was along
this creek and at Elkhorn Tavern, a country hotel, which derived its
name from a pair of antlers or elkhorns over the front entrance.
On the second and third of March several expeditions were sent out for
the purpose of collecting supplies and also of breaking up small camps
where the rebels were said to be recruiting. One of these expeditions
went in the direction of Pineville, Missouri, and arrived within half a
mile of the object of its search, when it received orders to return.
It got back to camp without meeting the enemy, but it was afterward
ascertained that it crossed the intersection of two roads only half an
hour before a rebel division reached that spot in sufficient force to
have completely overwhelmed the little detachment.
Another detachment which went to Maysville, near the western boundary
of Arkansas, was completely cut off and compelled to march northward to
avoid capture. A third expedition went to Huntsville, in Madison county,
to break up a rebel camp; but it failed of its mission, as the rebels
had left two days before it arrived there.
Harry and Jack accompanied this expedition, and therefore we have a
special interest in knowing how it turned out. We will let Harry tell
the story of their adventures.
“We were not a large party,” wrote Harry afterward; “only a thousand
men in all. There was a part of the Ninth Iowa and the Twenty-fifth
Missouri, two companies of cavalry and two pieces of light artillery
from the Dubuque battery. General Vandever commanded the expedition, and
we expected to be away four or five days.
“We were two days getting to Huntsville, where we found the rebels that
we were after had gone. Huntsville is an Arkansas county-seat of two or
three hundred inhabitants, and hardly an able-bodied man could be found
in the whole place; all were away fighting in the rebel ranks. The
principal store in the place was a whisky-shop, and the proprietor
claimed to be a union man. One of the officers, a captain, bought a
canteen of whisky of him, and offered a United States treasury note in
payment.
“The man took the note and looked at it carefully. Then he returned it,
saying he must have either gold or Confederate paper money.
“'Isn't this good enough?' the captain asked.
“'Good enough as long as you 'uns are here,' said the man; 'but when you
turn your backs the other fellows would hang me if I had that kind of
money.'
“Nobody had any Confederate paper, and the captain didn't know what to
do. He wanted the man's whisky, as the weather was cold, but he knew the
fellow was right about getting into trouble for having our money.
“Another of the officers had been in the first expedition to
Fayetteville, and happened to have in his pocket a whole sheet of
private 'shinplasters,' or promises to pay, that he picked up in a
printing-office in that town. He took the sheet from his pocket and
asked if that was the kind of money the man wanted.
“'Just the thing,' said the whisky-dealer. 'Give me one of them slips
and you can have a canteen of whisky for it.'
“The slip was cut from the sheet and handed over. The man's attention
was called to the fact that it had not been signed, but he declared it
was just as good, and nobody would know the difference.
“Another and another and another were cut off, and finally the whole
sheet had been disposed of for canteens of bad whisky. Then
somebody fished out another sheet of the same sort of stuff, and the
whisky-dealer did a lively stroke of business as long as the paper
lasted. Probably he worked it off on his neighbors and suffered no loss
owing to the notes having been without signature.
“Well, we did n't make many prisoners at Huntsville, but the few we did
make set us thinking pretty lively.
“We picked up four or five men of no particular consequence, and they
were examined apart from each other to make sure that they had not
patched up lies to tell us. Next we picked up two men who had left the
rebel army only twenty-four hours before, for the reason that they had
no weapons and were simply useless mouths to feed.
“They gave us the startling intelligence that the rebels were already
advancing to attack our army. They had left the camp about twenty-five
miles south of Fayetteville, but not until they actually saw the troops
marching out on the road to the north. They said there were thirty
thousand of the rebels, and they were commanded by General Van Dorn.
“General Vandever immediately sent off a courier with this information
to General Curtis, and very soon afterward he gave the order to return
to camp. We went about six miles and then camped, but before we had
been in camp an hour we had a courier from General Curtis with the same
information and ordering our immediate return.
“General Vandever,” continued Harry, “gave orders for us to start out of
camp at two o'clock and make a forced march to rejoin the main column.
Do you know what a forced march is?
“Well, it's something pretty tough when you have to make it, as it means
a march without any rest until it is ended. We had forty-one miles to go
that day, and it took us from two in the morning until ten at night, but
we did it. It was n't so bad for the cavalry and artillery, as they
had their horses, but it was terrible for the infantry. The word passed
along the lines that the enemy was on the road to attack us. General
Vandever had great fears that the rebels knew of our expedition and
would try to cut us off at the crossing of the White river, and so he
hurried on till he got the stream behind us. There was about three feet
of water at the ford, and to save the infantrymen from getting their
feet wet, and consequently sore, he crossed them over with the cavalry.
An infantry soldier jumped up behind a cavalryman and was soon on the
other side. Others climbea on the caissons of the artillery, and so by
two trips of the cavalry the whole force was crossed over with dry feet.
“We only halted for about fifteen minutes at a time, and three times in
all during that long day's march. The infantrymen were completely tired
out when they got into camp, but they were ready for the battle the next
day, and they did good work, too, you may be sure.
“While we were on the march we met couriers that had been sent out by
General Curtis to tell us that fighting had already begun away on the
right of our line where General Sigel was. They also told us that we
should find the center or main position at Sugar Creek, where the shape
of the ground was such as to give us a better defensive position than
the one at Cross Hollows. General Curtis had decided to concentrate his
forces there as soon as he heard of the rebel advance, and the movements
of the various parts of the army had such a concentration in view.”
Not the least weary of these who took part in General Vandever's
expedition on its return to camp were Harry and Jack. The noble-hearted
youths had done all they could to help along their comrades, and for
nearly half the way they had loaned their horses to footsore infantrymen
who were unable to keep up with the column. Harry declared that a little
exercise would do him good. Jack shared his kindly feeling, and walked
briskly along as though it was the greatest fun in the world. General
Vandever said they were a pair of Mark Tapleys, who could be jolly under
the most adverse circumstances.
When they were yet four or five miles from camp the general sent Harry
to give notice of the coming of the expedition and order a supper
prepared for the weary men. Harry took his horse from the man who had
been riding it, and darted away as fast as he could go. The men in camp
set to work with a will, and when the expedition arrived a supper as
good as the army rations could supply was ready and waiting. Harry
satisfied his own hunger and secured a good meal for Jack, who was not
long in swallowing it; the horses were fed and watered, and then the
pair of young veterans stretched themselves on the ground to get what
sleep they could before the breaking of day should be the signal for
battle.
While they are sleeping we will look at the organization of the two
armies, and the plans on which the battle of Pea Ridge was fought.
As before stated, the army of General Curtis was about sixteen thousand
strong when it started from Rolla, but the number had been reduced by
leaving a garrison at Springfield and by the other causes that always
reduce the strength of an army in the field, so that the aggregate of
effective men ready for battle was little if any above ten thousand. It
was in four divisions--the first being commanded by General Osterhaus,
the second by General Asboth, the third by General Jeff C. Davis, and
the fourth by General Carr. Some of these officers had not then received
their commissions as generals and were still known as colonels; but as
they all rose to the rank shortly afterward, it will be convenient and
not unjust for us to designate them by the higher titles, whose duties
they were performing.
Each division consisted of two brigades, but some of the brigades were
very small, and did not contain enough men for a full regiment. General
Sigel was in command of the first and second divisions, and thus held
the position of a field marshal, under the superior command of General
Curtis, the commander-in-chief. The infantry regiments that
were in the battle of Pea Ridge on the union side were the
Twenty-fifth, Thirty-fifth, Thirty-sixth, Thirty-seventh and Forty-fourth
Illinois, the Eighth, Eighteenth, and Twenty-second Indiana, the Fourth
and Ninth Iowa, and the Second, Ninth, Fifteenth, Twelfth, Seventeenth,
Twenty-fifth and a part of the Third Missouri; of cavalry regiments
there were the Third Iowa, the Third and Thirty-ninth Illinois, and the
First, Fourth and Sixth Missouri together with two battalions of Benton
hussars, and Major Brown's battalion of cavalry, which served as a
body-guard to the general-in-chief. The artillery comprised about fifty
field-guns of various sizes, in four and six-gun batteries, from the
same states as were represented by the infantry.
The rebel army was commanded by General Earl Van Dorn, and its aggregate
was said to be not far from thirty thousand men. Van Dorn's army was
composed as follows: Missouri troops, under Major-General Sterling
Price, about nine thousand; Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas troops, under
Brigadier-General Ben McCulloch, about thirteen thousand; Choctaw,
Cherokee, Chickasaw and other Indian troops, with two white regiments,
under Brigadier-General Albert Pike, about seven thousand. No exact
statement of the number of rebel troops in the battle has ever been
published, but the above-named figures are not far from the correct
ones. An officer of Price's army wrote an account of the battle, which
was published in the Richmond _Whiff_. In this account he said the
rebels estimated their strength at thirty-five thousand, and making
all deductions for stragglers and the usual falling off on the line of
march, they had from twenty-five thousand to thirty thousand men to go
into action.