way to glory and immortal renown. He comes to hurl back the minions of the despots at Washington, whose ignorance, licentiousness, and brutality are equalled by their own craven natures. They come to free your slaves, lay waste your plantations, burn your villages, and abuse your loving wives and beautiful daughters."

He issued a proclamation, which was distributed by messengers through all the towns of Arkansas and northern Louisiana. Confederate sympathizers in Missouri distributed it in that State.

"We have voted to be free," it read; "we must now fight to be free, or present to the world the humiliating spectacle of a nation of braggarts more contemptible than the tyrants who seek to enslave us. The flag of our country is waving on the southern border of Missouri, planted there by my hands under authority of our chief magistrate. It represents all that is dear to us in life. Shall it wave there in melancholy loneliness as a fall leaf in our primeval forests, or shall its beautiful field and bright stars flaunt in the breeze over the bright fields of Arkansas, Texas, and of Louisiana, as they are marshalling to do battle with Missouri for victory, for honor, and for independence?

"Awake, young men of Arkansas, and arm! Beautiful maidens of Louisiana, smile not upon the craven youth who may linger by your hearths when the rude blast of war is sounding in your ears! Texas chivalry, to arms! Hardship and hunger, disease and death are preferable to slavish subjugation; and a nation with a bright page in history and a glorious epitaph is better than a vassalled land, with honor lost and a people sunk in infamy!"

To fire the hearts of the people of Arkansas and arouse his troops to action, he forged a telegraphic despatch that there had been a great battle on the Mississippi, in which three Union gunboats were destroyed and twenty thousand Union troops were killed, wounded, or taken pris

oners.

General Pike, who had been commissioned brigadier-general by Jef ferson Davis, was placed in command of the Indians.

The whole force, under Van Dorn, moved towards Pea Ridge to crush the only Union army south-west of St. Louis, under General Curtis, who had advanced to the boundary line of Arkansas. He had eleven thousand troops the brigades of Osterhaus and Asboth, under General Sigel, the brigades of Davis and Carr, with thirty-eight cannon and howitzers.

General Van Dorn's army had been hastily gathered. The Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas troops numbered eleven thousand, and were commanded by General McCulloch; the Missouri troops were under Gen

eral Price, and numbered eight thousand. General Pike had two white regiments besides the Indians, numbering four thousand, making the Confederate army above twenty thousand.

General Van Dorn was in the Boston Mountains, on the border of the Indian country, fifty miles from Pea Ridge, and he determined to make a rapid march, get in rear of General Curtis, and strike a sudden blow, cutting off his retreat.

It was a windy morning, March 5, 1862, when the Confederate troops broke camp, packed up their iron kettles and tin dishes, and marched north along the road to Pea Ridge. They had no long line of baggage-wagons, and marched rapidly, though the snow was whirling in their facés. The movement was so rapid that Van Dorn confidently expected to make it a surprise.

"The Union troops are widely scattered," said the Confederate scouts.

SUGAR

It was true. Sigel was south of Bentonville, several miles from the

CROSS TIMBER

BENTONVILLE

SIGEL

PEA

DAVIS

Elk Horn Tavern

GEN CURTIS

Hd.Qts.

CARR

CROSS HOLLOWS

PEA RIDGE.

Third and Fourth divisions under Curtis. Some of the regiments were out after forage, which would make the work all the easier for the Confederates.

Startling news reached General Curtis at two o'clock on the afternoon of March 5th. Men came riding into camp with the information that the Confederates were advancing. He is quick to act. He must concentrate his troops. Cavalrymen ride across the country with orders to the officers who are out after forage and to Sigel. He resolves to fight a battle, although the Confederates outnumber him two to one. He selects his ground on Pea Ridge.

The road from Springfield to Fayetteville runs south-west. Leaving Elk Horn Tavern, where the landlord has a pair of antlers for a sign, and going south, we come to Sugar Creek and the hamlet of Mottsville, near which the Third and Fourth divisions of the Union army are in camp. Bentonville is ten miles west, near which Sigel is stationed. Ten miles. brings us to Cross Hollows-a place where three hollows or ravines cross

one another. The ravines are narrow-seventy-five feet wide-the banks steep, and the position one of great strength. Just south of Cross Hollows General Van Dorn pitches his tent. Keeping these points in mind,. we shall see just how the Confederates moved to surprise General Curtis.

General Curtis had formed his line facing south, expecting that Van Dorn would advance from Cross Hollows; but that was not Van Dorn's plan. He sends a small force up the road towards General Curtis, but the main army turns west towards Bentonville to strike Sigel.

Messengers have brought orders to Sigel to retreat to Pea Ridge. He has two hundred wagons, which he sends in

advance. The Confederate cavalry ride rapidly round him and gain his rear, but he fights his way through them, losing twenty-eight killed and fifty prisoners,. and joins General Curtis, who has discovered what Van Dorn is intending to do, and who quickly changes his front, forming his line facing north-east instead of south-west.

General Curtis sends. General Carr's division up the road on the morning of March 7th to Elk Horn Tavern. The troops of this division are to hold the right of the line. They are to be in the thick of the fight, which is to rage around the tavern, and which is to give a

name to the battle-the Confederates calling it the battle of Elk Horn. Next in line is General Davis's division, and beyond him the troops under Sigel.

General Price, with the Missourians, has led the advance of the Confederates. They have made a long march, have reached the road northeast of Elk Horn Tavern, and confront General Carr. Next in line, towards Cross-timber Hollows, are the Arkansas troops, under General

McCulloch, while the Texans, Louisianians, and Indians are in front of Sigel.

It was half-past ten in the morning when Colonel Osterhaus, with the Third Iowa Cavalry, a detachment of the First Missouri Cavalry, the Twenty-second Indiana, and Davidson's battery advanced to reconnoitre the Confederate position. The cavalry drove in the enemy's pickets, who retreated to the woods; but suddenly the woods were thick with Confederates, who rushed upon the Union battery and captured two guns. At the same moment there was a ripple of musketry in the woods north of the tavern. Price was advancing, and the Union pickets were falling back.

The battle was raging so fiercely on the left that General Curtis sent General Davis to assist Osterhaus. The woods were alive with Indians, under General Pike and the celebrated chief, John Ross. The Texans and Louisiana troops charged with fury. In the fight General McCulloch was killed and General McIntosh wounded.

General Davis saw that the Confederate left flank was exposed, and sent the Eighteenth Indiana to attack it. The regiment fell upon the Indians, driving them, and strewing the field with killed and wounded, rushing upon the cannon, capturing them, wheeling them into position, and turning them upon the fleeing Confederates. The battle on the left

centre was over.

General Carr placed Dodge's brigade east of the road, and Colonel Vandever's brigade west of it. Captain Jones's battery was the first to open fire. Colonel Vandever was at Huntsville, forty miles away, when General Curtis's orders reached him. The brigade had marched the distance, stopping three times only, making a rest at each halt of fifteen minutes. The troops had arrived the night before, but they were rested, and ready for the battle.

We see the brigade advancing half a mile north of the tavern, and Captain Hayden's battery from Dubuque, Iowa, coming into position and opening fire. Sterling Price determines to strike with all his force. He presses on, drives the Union troops towards the tavern, making a sudden rush, and capturing one of the cannon.

General Carr was outnumbered two to one. "I must have reinforcements," is his message to Curtis.

"I send you my body-guard; you must hold them," was the response, and Major Bowen's battalion of cavalry went down the road with a howitzer. They were all the troops that could be spared at the moment.

"I cannot hold on much longer," was the second message from Carr.

"You shall have help," was the reply, and a battery came up from the left with a battalion of infantry.

A few minutes later Curtis himself, with Asboth's division, came over the ridge to Carr's aid. Through the afternoon Price had pressed on, Carr disputing every inch of ground. He had been driven a mile; a bullet had pierced his arm, one-fourth of his men had been killed or wounded, but his line had not been broken.

Asboth's batteries wheeled into position south of the tavern. The Second Missouri and Third Iowa Infantry had fired away all their ammunition, but they charged and drove the Confederates.

Night came, with the Confederates defeated on the left, but well satisfied with what they had accomplished on the right. They had captured one cannon, had possession of the road to Springfield, cutting off Curtis's retreat. Van Dorn made his headquarters at the tavern and prepared for the morrow.

It is not a very bright outlook for General Curtis when the sun goes down. His line of retreat is cut off, his supplies nearly exhausted. His mules and horses have had little to eat for forty-eight hours. He is hemmed in. He must be ready to fight in the morning, and must win the victory. He does not sit down and wring his hands in despair, for he is confident. that he will win. He knows the ground, and reforms his line, with Davis's division on the right, where the fighting is to be most severe, and places Carr in the centre, with Sigel on the left. His line is shorter than it has been. He knows that Van Dorn will advance from the tavern with all his force.

Eight o'clock, and the Confederates have not advanced. General Curtis resolves to begin the battle. The cannon open, and Sigel brings his infantry forward, attacking the right flank of the Confederates.

It would be a long account were I to narrate all the details: how Pattison's brigade and the First Indiana battery fought in the fields south of the tavern and east of the road; how the Confederate batteries opened upon them, compelling them to fall back; how White's brigade and Davidson's battery made the line a sheet of flame; how the Twenty-fifth Illinois took position behind a fence on the left, and the Twelfth Missouri, with twelve guns, on the ridge in their rear, the men lying down, and the cannon sending shells into the Confederate lines, silencing Van Dorn's batteries, discouraging his troops; the Indians fleeing, the Arkansas and Louisiana troops losing heart, the Confederate fire growing fainter, the troops fleeing at last-some towards Cross-timber Hollows, the Missourians, under Price, running along the road towards Springfield, then fleeing