Chapter XXIII: In the Camp of the Rebels--Captured Letters and Their

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.