UNDER FIRE.
|Van Dorn's movements were delayed by the obstructions on the roads
by which he moved. As soon as General Curtis became satisfied that the
rebels were trying to get around to his rear, he ordered General Dodge,
who commanded the fourth division of the army, to cut down trees along
the road leading north from Bentonville, and the order was instantly
carried out. General Dodge had been ill in his tent for three days, but
when the news of the approaching enemy reached him he was cured as if
by magic. Remarking that it was no time to be sick, he got out of bed,
assumed the active command of his division, and during the afternoon of
the sixth supervised the work of a large detail of men, who felled trees
across the road and otherwise blocked it to delay the rebel advance. He
kept at it until the rebel skirmishers began to fire upon his men, and
as he had orders not to bring on an engagement he prudently withdrew.
“General Dodge was a trump,” said Harry afterwards, when telling the
story of the battle; “sick in his tent and in the doctor's hands before
the battle began, he was almost constantly in the saddle for three days.
When the battle was over and the enemy had retreated, he dropped to the
ground and went back to his sick-bed. It's a good example of what a man
can do under excitement.”
“And there was another example of the same sort,” said Jack. “There was
Major Post, of the Thirty-seventh Illinois who became General Philip
Sidney Post, and served gallantly in a good many battles. Early on the
second day at Pea Ridge he was wounded in the arm, but he kept his place
with his regiment and would not stop to have his wound dressed. The
surgeon insisted, but he would n't go. 'I can walk and give orders,'
he said, 'even if I can't use my arm, and I'm going to stay here.' The
colonel of his regiment had to order him to go to the field hospital. He
went very reluctantly, as he wanted to see the battle fought out to the
end, and was determined to do all he could toward winning it.”
The same spirit prevailed among officers and men throughout the whole
army. Of course there were instances of shirking, as will always be the
case in any battle, but they were not numerous. Perhaps the knowledge
that the enemy was right on the line of communications, so as to cut
off retreat and render surrender necessary in case of a defeat, had
something to do with the good conduct of a few, but it could not be
the case throughout the whole army. And to do the rebels justice, they
displayed similar courage, but they had the advantage of being the
attacking party and knowing that they were superior in numbers to the
union forces.
“On the morning of the seventh,” said Harry, in his story of the battle,
“there was great activity all through the union camp. Every drum and
fife in the army was called into use, and never before had the woods of
Pea Ridge resounded to so much martial music. Rations for two days
had been prepared, the soldier's cartridge-boxes were filled to their
fullest capacity, every man made a careful inspection of the lock of his
rifle to make sure that it was in perfect order, and then the order was
given to load with ball cartridge and be in readiness to advance when
the word was given.
“We were kept waiting while General Sigel had his fight with the enemy
on the left of our line that I've already told about. While we were
getting ready for work Jack and I went to General Vandever and asked
what we should do.
“'What do you want to do?' said he.
“'We want to do the best we can,' I answered, 'and help all we can.
We'll do anything you tell us to do.'
“'Well, then,' the general said, very quickly, 'stay near me and act as
my volunteer aide till I tell you to do something else.' Then he turned
away to attend to getting his brigade in order, and we stood still and
waited till he came back.
“He was gone only a minute or two, and then told Jack to ride over to
General Carr and say the second brigade was waiting for orders. He told
me to go to General Dodge and ask if he had received orders to move yet,
and to let him know whenever orders came.
“Jack came back with the order for the brigade to follow that of General
Dodge, which had received its orders just before I got to it. One of
General Carr's aids had brought the order to General Dodge, and he rode
with me to General Vandever to repeat the order which Jack had already
brought.
“The order to advance was loudly cheered, and the men stepped off as
gayly as though they were going to dress-parade, and most of them a
great deal more so. I couldn't help thinking how many of these gallant
fellows would be stark and stiff on the ground or suffering with wounds
before another morning sun would rise on them. We could hear the roll
of musketry and the booming of cannon where General Sigel was engaged
on the left, and before long our advance was engaged with that of the
rebels, and the shot and shell were crashing among the trees as their
artillery opened upon us.
“General Dodge's brigade marched up the main road toward the Missouri
state line, and filed off to the east near Elkhorn Tavern. As soon as
it got into position it opened with a battery upon the rebels, who were
posted in a wood on a slope in front. The battery was promptly replied
to, and then the shots were exchanged with great rapidity. There were
six guns on each side, though some of our men thought the rebels had
eight or ten guns, but we afterward learned they had only six; but it
was the best battery in their whole army. Our battery was the First
Iowa, and its captain prided himself on having brought it to a state of
great efficiency, but he wasn't quite equal to his antagonist.
“General Vandever's brigade went a little beyond Elkhorn Tavern and
took position on the left of the road nearly opposite to where General
Dodge had stretched out to the right. As I sat on my horse close behind
the general I could see that we had a dry ravine in front of us and a
wooded slope farther on, and it did not need sharp eyes to discover that
this slope was well occupied by rebels. The general ordered the Dubuque
battery (Captain Hayden) to open fire on these gray and butternut coats,
and as he did so there was a lively running of the fellows to cover.
They showed by their actions that Captain Hayden's shots were well
aimed; but we had not given them more than two or three rounds before a
battery on the other side replied to us.
“That battery was evidently in the hands of a good officer, as he got
our range at the very first fire. A shot came whistling close to the
general, and I thought it passed between him and me, but an officer who
was there said it went over our heads. You have no, idea if you've never
heard it, what a spiteful screeching a cannon-shot makes when it goes
by you. Involuntarily you dodge, but really dodging is of no use, as the
ball has gone past you before you hear it. A cannon-ball moves a great
deal faster than sound. According to our school-books sound moves one
thousand one hundred and forty-two feet a second, and the scientific
gunners say the velocity of a cannon-ball is from one thousand four
hundred to one thousand, eight hundred feet a second. That of a
rifle-ball is greater, and so by the time you can hear the sound made by
a missile, whether large or small, it has gone way past you.
“At the third fire the rebels blew up one of our limber-chests, which
was standing close behind the gun to which it belonged. The great puff
of smoke that rose from it showed the rebels that they were taking
good aim, and they poured in their shot very rapidly after that. In ten
minutes more they blew up another limber-chest, and then the general
ordered the battery to change its position, and sent me to carry the
order to Captain Hayden.
“It was about nine o'clock in the morning when the first shots were
exchanged on this part of the field, and in fifteen minutes the whole
of General Carr's division was engaged. Before I could get to Captain
Hayden to give him General Vandever's order the rebels made a rush upon
the battery and captured one of the guns; the rest were hauled back
a short distance, and at the same time the Ninth Iowa, which was
supporting the battery, poured in a heavy fire and covered the ground
with the enemy's dead and wounded. The rebels were driven back to their
cover in the woods, and the gun that had been captured was retaken, as
they did not have time to drag it from the field.
“'They stand like veterans,' said General Vandever, referring to the
soldiers of the Ninth Iowa. 'Their long march yesterday has n't affected
their courage. There were never better men on a battlefield.'
“Just as he said this Colonel Herron, of the Ninth came up, and the
general congratulated him; and then the general rode along the line and
said to the soldiers the same that he had to their commander. The
men cheered him and were evidently determined to do their part toward
winning the battle for the union side. But would they succeed against
all those masses of men that could be seen on the hill-slope to the
east and west, and crowded in the brushwood and among the trees that
stretched away to the north?
“After this for a while there was a lull in the fighting, and meantime
we could hear the artillery and small arms to the left, where General
Sigel and General Davis, with their divisions, were sustaining the shock
of the enemy. They were overmatched in numbers, but their weapons were
more effective, and they had a better supply of ammunition. Many of
the enemy were armed only with squirrel-rifles and shot-guns, and, of
course, they could not load and fire with the rapidity of our men. Had
they been able to do so, and had their weapons been equally effective
with ours, the battle would have been hopelessly lost to us by reason
of the great superiority of the rebels in numbers alone and their better
knowledge of the ground.
“By and by we heard that Sigel and Davis had driven away the enemy and
were slowly drawing in their lines, as only a small force were in front
of them. The attack on General Carr's division was renewed by the rebel
artillery, and we could see that they had a great number of men gathered
behind their battery to charge upon our lines at the proper moment. So
General Carr sent an order for General Vandever to fall back, and at the
same time he gave a similar order to General Dodge.
“We fell back perhaps a hundred and fifty yards, close to Elkhorn Tavern
and a little to the north of it. There our battery opened fire again,
still supported by the Ninth Iowa, and there the rebel battery again
poured its fire upon us.
“Near the house were two companies of infantry drawn up in line and
waiting orders to move. I had just gone to carry an order for them to
come up to the support of the Ninth, when a shell passed close to me and
struck in their ranks, where it burst. Two of the men were killed and
five were wounded by this shell. Almost at the same time another shell
exploded on the ground in front of the house and shattered the leg of
a soldier who stood there. Another fell among some horse-teams,
frightening the animals into running away. They dashed up the road in
the direction of the enemy, and were lost in a cloud of dust. In its
runaway career one of the wagons knocked down some of our soldiers,
wounding one seriously and two or three slightly. A solid shot struck
the house and went completely through it, but did no damage to any one,
as the family had taken refuge in the cellar.”