in our hands. All their artillery, field batteries, and siege guns, amounting to thirty-three pieces, magazines full of fixed ammunition of the best character,

our own gun-boats, it became necessary to bring down a few heavy guns by land to operate against those of the enemy. They were accordingly sent for, and, meantime, forced reconnoissances were pushed over the whole ground and into several parts of the town. Some brisk skirmishes resulted, in which the enemy invariably retreated precipitately. It was found impossible to induce them to trust any considerable force of their infantry outside of their intrenchments. As soon as I found that it would be necessary to await the arrival of our heavy guns, I determined to occupy some point on the river below, and establish our small guns, if possible, in such position as to blockade the river, so far as transports were concerned, and to cut off supplies and reinforcements for the enemy from below.

"Point Pleasant, twelve miles below, was selected as being in a rich agricultural region, and being the terminus of the plank road from the interior of Arkansas. I accordingly threw forward Colonel Plummer, Eleventh Missouri, to that point, with three regiments of infantry, three companies of cavalry, and a field battery of ten-pound Parrott and rifle guns, with orders to make a lodgment on the river bank, to line the bank with rifle pits for 1,000 men, and to establish his artillery in sunk batteries of single pieces between the rifle pits. This arrangement was made to present as small a mark as possible to the shells of the gun-boats, and to render futile the use of round shot from their heavy guns. Colonel Plummer marched with all speed, and after some cannonading from gun-boats which he found there, succeeded in making a lodgment, constructing his batteries and rifle pits, and occupying them in sufficient force to maintain them against any open assault. "After repeated and persistent cannonading from the gun-boats, the enemy found it impossible to dislodge him, and he maintained obstinately his position, and the blockade of the river to transports during the whole of our operations. Meantime the enemy continued every day to reinforce New Madrid from Island No. 10, until, on the 12th, they had 9,000 infantry, besides a considerable force of artillery and nine gun-boats. The fleet was commanded by Commodore Hollins; the land forces by Generals McCown, Stewart, and Gantt. On the 11th the siege guns were delivered to Colonel Bissell's engineer regiment, who had been sent to Cairo for that purpose. They were at once shipped to Sikeston, reached here at sunset on the 12th; were placed in battery during the same night, within 800 yards on the enemy's main work, so as to command that and the river above it, and opened fire at daylight on the 13th, just thirty-four hours after they were received at Cairo. One brigade, consisting of the Tenth and Sixteenth Illinois, under Colonel Morgan, of the Tenth, was detailed to cover the construction of the battery and to

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several thousand stand of inferior smallarms, with hundreds of boxes of musket cartridges, tents for an army of 10,000 men, horses, mules, wagons, intrenching work in the trenches. They were supported by Stanley's division, consisting of the Twenty-seventh and Thirtyninth Ohio, under Colonel Groesbeck, and the Forty-third and Sixty-third Ohio, under Colonel Smith. Captain Mower, First United States Infantry, with companies A and H of his regiment, was placed in charge of the siege guns. 'The enemy's pickets and grand guards were driven in by Colonel Morgan from the ground selected for the battery, without firing a shot, although the enemy fired several volleys of musketry. The work was prosecuted in silence, and with the utmost rapidity until, at three A.M., two small redoubts, connected by a curtain, and mounting the four heavy guns which had been sent me, were completed, together with rifle pits in front and on the flanks for two regiments of infantry. Our batteries opened as soon as the day dawned, and were replied to in front and on the flanks by the whole of the enemy's heavy artillery on land and water. As our supply of ammunition for heavy artillery was very limited, I directed Captain Mower to fire only occasionally at the enemy's land batteries, and to concentrate all his fire upon the gun-boats. Our guns were served by Captain Mower with vigor and skill, and in a few hours disabled several of the gun-boats, and dismounted three of the heavy guns in the enemy's main work. Shortly after our batteries opened, one of the twenty-four-pound guns was struck in the muzzle by a round shot from the enemy's batteries, and disabled.

The cannonading was continued furiously all day by the gun-boats and land batteries of the enemy, but without producing any impression upon us. Meantime, during the whole day, our trenches were being extended and advanced, as it was my purpose to push forward our heavy batteries in the course of the night to the bank of the river. While the cannonading was thus going on on our right, I instructed General Paine to make demonstration against intrenchments on our left, and supported his movements by Palmer's division. The enemy's pickets and grand guards were driven into his intrenchments, and the skirmishers forced their way close to the main ditch. A furious thunder-storm began to rage about eleven o'clock that night, and continued almost without interruption until morning. Just before daylight, General Stanley was relieved in his trenches with his division by General Hamilton. A few minutes after daylight, a flag of truce approached our batteries with information that the enemy had evacuated his works. Small parties were at once advanced by General Hamilton to ascertain whether such was the fact, and Captain Mower, First United States Infantry, with companies A and H of that regiment, was sent forward to plant the United States flag over the abandoned works.

except the men escaped, and they with only what they wore. They landed on the opposite side of the river, and are scattered in the wide bottoms. I immediately advanced Hamilton's division into the place, and had the guns of the enemy turned upon the river, which they completely command."

Such was the precipitation of the enemy's flight that "their dead were found unburied, their suppers untouched -standing on the tables, candles burning in the tents and every other evidence of a disgraceful panic. Private baggage of officers and knapsacks of men were left behind. Neither provisions nor ammunition were carried off. Some attempt was made to carry ammunition, as boxes without number were found on the bank of the river where the steamers had been landed."

The whole loss of the Unionists during the siege was fifty-one killed and wounded; that of the enemy could not be ascertained. General Pope, after taking possession of the enemy's works, was enabled to command almost every point of the river, with twenty-five guns in position. While thus our land forces were ready at New Madrid to prevent the escape of the enemy down the Mississippi, Captain Foote was preparing his leet to descend the river from above, and attack them in their refuge at Island No. 10.

The enemy had, however, in the mean time, skilfully availed themselves, under the direct supervision of General Beauregard who had been appointed,

mander-in-chief of the Department of the Mississippi-of the great natural advantages for defence of Island No. 10, and everything betokened a vigorous and perhaps long-sustained resistance on their part. The enemy, since their defeat at Fort Donelson, had been aroused to the necessity of great exertions, and calls had been made for fresh troops from all the seceding States. Beauregard, on assuming command on the Mississippi, called General Bragg from Pensacola to his aid, and manifested the greatest activity. His first order was a fervid appeal to the spirit of his troops :

"Soldiers," he said, "I assume this day command of the army of the Missis- Mar. sippi, for the defence of our home- 5. steads and liberties, and to resist the subjugation, spoliation, and dishonor of our people. Our mothers and wives, our sisters and children, expect us to do our duty, even to the sacrifice of our lives. Our losses since the commencement of the present war, in killed, wounded, and prisoners, are now about the same as those of the enemy. He must be made to atone for those reverses we have lately experienced. Those reverses, far from disheartening, must nerve us to new deeds of valor and patriotism, and should inspire us with an unconquerable determination to drive back our invaders. Should any one in this army be unequal to the task before us, let him transfer his arms and equipments at once to braver, firmer hands, and return to his home. Our cause is as just and sacred

Price in Arkansas, marched from the Mar. camp in the Boston Mountains with 5. his main body, and took a route leading to the rear of the Unionists' position on Sugar Creek. Leaving the main road at Fayetteville, he passed to the westward, and traversing Bentonville, went northward nearly to the Missouri boundary. Here he took the main road from Springfield and marched directly south toward Sugar Creek, and in the rear of the Union army. He had left; however, a small force to make a feint in front of General Curtis, and a detachment of Indians under General Albert Pike, about two miles on Curtis' right, with the same object.

The enemy, on their march, fell in Mar. with the rear guard of General 6. Sigel, consisting of the Thirty-sixth Illinois Infantry and a portion of the Second Missouri Regiment. Sigel was with this detachment, hastening it forward to close in with the line on Sugar Creek, when he found himself surrounded by a numerous force. He, however, succeeded in cutting his way through to his main body, with a loss of twentyeight killed and wounded, and a portion of the Illinois regiment taken prisoners. After this attack by the enemy on Sigel's detachment, General Curtis became aware that Van Dorn had turned his flank, and was about to attack him on his right or in the rear. He accordingly prepared for the approach of the enemy in this hitherto unexpected direction.

"During the night," says Curtis, "I became convinced that the enemy had

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moved on so as to attack my rear, therefore, early on the 7th, I ordered a Mar. change of front to the right; my 7. right, which thus became my left, still resting on Sugar Creek Hollow. This brought my line across Pea Ridge, with my new right resting on Head Cross Timber Hollow, which is the head of Big Sugar Creek. I also ordered," he adds, "an immediate advance of the cavalry and light artillery, under Colonel Osterhaus, with orders to attack and break what I supposed would be the reinforced line of the enemy. This movement was in progress when the enemy, at eleven A.M., commenced an attack on my right."

Colonel Carr was with his fourth division on the right of the Unionists, where he had to meet the first onset of the enemy. Carr's line was extended across the main road to Springfield, forming the extreme left and rear of the position of General Curtis' army, before he had changed its front, when an attack in that quarter became imminent. Carr was now in the advance and on the right, directly facing the main body of the enemy coming from the north. Major-General Van Dorn commanded their right, and Major-General Price their left. As the enemy advanced, Carr moved along the Springfield road to meet them, to a point about four miles from the boundary of Missouri.

"Colonel Dodge's brigade," writes an eye-witness, "filed off upon a road leading to the east from the Elk Horn Hotel, and opened its battery upon the enemy, who was posted in a wood on a declivity