Chapter XXV: A Rapid Retreat--An Expedition and a Forced March

|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.