Page images
PDF
EPUB

VAN DORN RETIRES FROM PEA RIDGE.

31

mistakably ours, but the trophies
were not abundant. No cannon, nor
caissons, nor prisoners of any account,
save a few too severely wounded to
hobble off, were taken; and, though
a letter to The New York Herald,
written from the battle-field on the
9th, speaks of "a considerable quan-

fire, the infantry moving steadily to
their support, while the left wing
was pushed rapidly forward, climb-
ing a low cliff from which the Rebels
had been driven by our guns, and
crowding them back into the deep
ravines of Cross-Timber Hollow.
The 36th Illinois was prominent in
this movement; while the 12th Mis-tity of wagons, supplies, etc., a load
souri, pushing into the enemy's lines,
captured a flag and two guns.

The flight of the Rebels was so sudden and swift, and the ravines wherein they disappeared so impracticable for cavalry, that our commanders were for some time at fault in the pursuit. Gen. Sigel pushed north on the Keytesville road, where but few of them had gone; and it was not till afternoon that Gen. Curtis ascertained that, after entering the Hollow, the main Rebel force had turned to the right, following obscure ravines which led into the Huntsville road, on which they escaped. Col. Bussey, with our. cavalry and howitzers, followed them beyond Bentonville.15

of powder, and nearly a thousand
stand of arms," as captured by Sigel
during his pursuit of the fugitives
upon the Keytesville road, they do
not figure in either of Sigel's official
reports of the battle, nor yet in those
of Curtis. The beaten Confederates,
fleeing with celerity in different di-
rections and by many paths, finally
came together in the direction of
Bentonville, some 8 miles from the
Elkhorn Tavern, whence Van Dorn
dispatched a flag of truce to Curtis,
soliciting an arrangement for bury-
ing the dead, which was accorded.

Pollard makes a scarcity of ammu-
nition a main reason for Van Dorn's
retreat, and it is probable that neither
army was well supplied with car-
tridges at the close of this protracted
though desultory struggle. He adds
that "Gen. Curtis was forced to fall
back into Missouri," and that the

Gen. Curtis reports his entire loss in the battle at 1,351, of whom 701 -more than half-were of Col. Carr's division. The Rebel loss can hardly have been less; since, in ad-"total abandonment of their enterdition to Gens. Ben McCulloch and McIntosh killed, Gens. Price and Slack were wounded.

prise of subjugation in Arkansas is
the most conclusive evidence in the
world that the Federals were worsted

The victory at Pea Ridge was un- by Gen. Van Dorn;" but fails to

[blocks in formation]

vision was placed in position to follow; while
Gen. Van Dorn so disposed of his remaining
force as best to deceive the enemy as to his in-
tention, and to hold him in check while execu-
ting it. An attempt was made by the enemy to
follow the retreating column. It was effectually
checked, however; and, about 2 P.M., the Con-
federates encamped about six miles from the
field of battle, all the artillery and baggage
joining the army in safety. They brought away
from the field of battle 300 prisoners, 4 cannon,
and 3 baggage-wagons."

[ocr errors]

mention the fact that the Confederate | century, it is certain that the mass of army was also compelled to fall back the Indians there collected still reto a region less wasted and exhaust-garded with just indignation the ed than that which for many miles surrounded the well-fought field of Pea Ridge.

As this was the only important battle in which 'Indians' in considerable numbers took part, and as they were all found fighting-or, more strictly, yelling on the side of the Confederacy, a few words of explanation may be pertinent.

16

wrongs they had experienced, remembering fondly the pleasant streams and valleys of the lower Alleghanies, from which they had been forcibly and wrongfully expelled. But their Chiefs had been early corrupted in their old homes, by the example and practice among their White neighbors of slaveholding-a practice novel indeed, but eminently congenial to the natural indolence and pride of the savage character. They, consequently, adhered to it in their new location; and, since to hold slaves was a proof of wealth and importance, nearly every one who by any means obtained property, exchanged a part of it for one or more negroes; who, if they did not by labor increase his wealth, were certain, by flattery and servility, to magnify his conscious importance. Thus thoroughly saturated with the virus of slaveholding, the most civilized Indian tribes fell an easy prey to the arts of the Confederate emissaries. The agents through whom they received their annuities and transacted most of their business with the Federal Government, had nearly always been Democratic politicians—of course, pro-Slavery, and generally Southern—and for the last eight years emphatically so. These agents had little difficulty, at the outset of the Rebellion, in persuading their Chiefs that the old Union was irrecoverably destroyed; that it was scarcely probable that an effort would be made to restore it; and that, at all events, their interests and their safety dictated an alliance with that Confederacy which was 16 See Vol. I., pages 102-6.

We have seen that the important aboriginal tribes known to us as Creeks and Cherokees, holding from time immemorial extensive and desirable territories, mainly within the States of North Carolina and Georgia, but extending also into Tennessee and Alabama, were constrained to surrender those lands to the lust of the neighboring Whites, and migrate across the Mississippi, at the instance of the State authorities, resisted, in obedience to treaties, by President John Quincy Adams, and succumbed to, in defiance of treaties and repeated judgments of the Supreme Court, by President Andrew Jackson. They were located, with some smaller tribes, in a region lying directly westward of Arkansas and north of the Red river, to which the name of Indian Territory was given, and which, lying between the 34th and 37th parallels of North latitude, and well watered by the Arkansas and several affluents of that and of Red river, was probably as genial and inviting as any new region to which they could have been transferred. Yet, though their removal had been effected nearly a quarter of a

THE WAR AMONG THE INDIANS.

18

33

ocrat called loudly for rëenforcements to the Rebel array in the Indian Territory, and expressed apprehension that the Northern party might prove the stronger. A battle between the antagonistic Indian forces took place Dec. 9th, 1861, on Bushy creek, near the Verdigris river, 180 miles west of Fort Smith, the Confederates being led by Col. Cooper, the Unionists by Opothleyolo. The result was not decisive, but the advantage appears to have been with the Rebel party, the Unionists being constrained soon after to make their way northward to Kansas, where they received the supplies they so much needed, and where a treaty of close alliance was negotiated" between Opothleyolo and his followers on one side, and Col. Dole, U. S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs, on the other.

their immediate neighbor, and of which the conservation and perpetuity of slaveholding was the most cherished idea. Some of those Chiefs have since insisted that they were deceived by the Confederate emissaries, and especially by Gen. Albert Pike, chief Commissioner for Indian Affairs of the Confederacy, who had led them to confound that concern with the Union. What is certain is, that, directly after tidings reached them of the battles of Bull Run and Wilson's creek-the latter reported to them from that side as a complete discomfiture of the North, which view the undoubted death of Lyon and abandonment of Springfield tended strongly to corroborate-the Chiefs of most of the tribes very generally entered into a close offensive and defensive alliance with the Confederacy; even so cautious and politic a diplomatist as John Ross throwing his weight into that scale. It is said that, after the death of Lyon, Ben McCulloch's brigade of Texans was marched back to the Indian border, and that the Creeks and Cherokees were impressively required to decide quickly between the North and the South; else, betwixt Texas on the one side and Arkansas on the other, a force of 20,000 Confederates would speedily ravage and lay waste their country. They decided accordingly. Yet a very large minority of both Creeks and Cherokees rallied around the Chief Opothleyolo, made head against the current, and stood firm for the Union. Assembling near the Creek Agency, they tore down the Rebel flag there flying and replanted the Stars and Stripes; and a letter" from Col. McIntosh to the True Dem18 Little Rock, Arkansas.

17 Oct. 17, 1861.
VOL. II.--3

The Rebels were thus left in undisputed possession of the Indian Territory, from which they collected the four or five thousand warriors who appeared at Pea Ridge; but, though the ground was mainly broken and wooded, affording every facility for irregular warfare, they do not seem to have proved of much account, save in the consumption of rations and massacre and massacre of the Union wounded, of whom at least a score fell victims to their barbarities. Their war-whoop was overborne by the roar of our heavy guns; they were displeased with the frequent falling on their heads of great branches and tops of the trees behind which they had sought shelter; and, in fact, the whole conduct of the battle on our part was, to their apprehension, disgusting. The amount of effort and of profanity expended

19 At Leavenworth, Feb. 1, 1862.

by their White officers in trying to keep them in line at the front, probably overbalanced the total value of their services; so that, if they chose to depart for their homes soon after the close of the battle, it is not probable that any strenuous efforts were made to detain them.2o

Gen. Curtis, after resting and refitting his army, finding no enemy in its vicinity, again put his column in motion, proceeding S. S. E. through north-western Arkansas to Batesville," on White river, near which point he had expected to meet gunboats with supplies from below. He found the river, however, at an unusually low stage for the seasonbarely four feet; while the gunboats required six or seven; beside which, the Mound City, which attempted the ascent, had been resisted and blown up in a fight with the Rebel battery at St. Charles some days before. Being compelled, therefore, to depend for all his supplies on wagontrains from Rolla, Mo., now several hundred miles distant, he did not feel strong enough to advance on Little Rock, the capital of Arkansas, nearly 100 miles S, S. W. from his present position. Having halted seven weeks, wholly unmolested, at Batesville, he again set forth," crossing the Big Black by a pontoon-bridge, and pursuing a southerly course through a

20 Pollard says:

“The Indian regiments, under Gen. Pike, had not come up in time to take any important part in the battle. Some of the red men behaved well, and a portion of them assisted in taking a battery; but they were difficult to manage in the deafening roar of artillery, to which they were unaccustomed, and were naturally amazed at the sight of guns that ran on wheels. They knew what to do with the rifle; they were accustomed to the sounds of battle as loud as their own war-whoop; and the amazement of these

generally swampy, wooded, and thinly settled country, where none but negroes made any professions of Unionism, and, being joined at Jacksonport" by Gen. C. C. Washburne, with the 3d Wisconsin cavalry, which had come through from Springfield alone and unassailed, proceeded to Augusta, where he took leave" of the White, and, assuming a generally S. W. direction, took his way across the cypress swamps and canebrakes of the Cache, where his advance (the 33d Illinois, Col. Hovey), which had been struggling over roads heavily obstructed by fallen trees, was attacked" by some 1,500 Rebel cavalry, mainly Texans, led by Gen. Albert Rust, who held him in check for an hour, until he was joined by the 1st Indiana cavalry, Lt.-Col. Wood, with two howitzers, when an impetuous charge was made by the Indianians, whereby the enemy were routed and put to flight. The bodies of 110 dead Rebels were buried by our soldiers, whose loss was but 8 killed and 45 wounded, including Maj. Glendennin, who led the charge, receiving a shot in the breast, which proved mortal. The Rebels were satisfied with this experiment, and gave no further trouble.

Gen. Curtis again struck" White river at Clarendon, just below the mouth of the Cache, only to learn, with intense chagrin, that Col. Fitch,

simple children of the forest may be imagined at the sight of such roaring, deafening, crashing monsters as 12-pounders running around on wheels. Gen. Van Dorn, in his official report of the battle, does not mention that any assistance was derived from the Indians—an ally that had, perhaps, cost us much more trouble, expense, and annoyance than their services in modern warfare could, under any circumstances,

be worth."

[blocks in formation]

SCHOFIELD AND MCNEIL HOLD MISSOURI.

with the expected gunboats and transports, had gone down the river barely 24 hours previous. Being short of provisions, in a thoroughly inhospitable country, he had no choice but to make his way to the most accessible point on the Mississippi. This was Helena, 65 miles S. E., which was made" by Gen: Washburne, with 2,500 cavalry and 5 howitzers, in a march of 24 hours, the infantry coming through during the two following days, bringing about half a regiment of white Arkansas volunteers, with a large number of negroes, who, having been employed to block the roads in our front by felling trees across them, were entitled to liberty and protection under the regnant military policy. A single train of 40 wagons, laden with supplies, being wholly unguarded, was captured by Rebel guerrillas in Missouri, within 30 miles of Rolla, its starting-point.

Gen. John M. Schofield had at an early day" been placed by Gen. Halleck in command of all the Missouri militia a force then visible only to the eye of faith. By the middle of April following, he had an array of 13,800 men in the field, mainly cavalry; to which was intrusted the defense of the State, while our other troops were drawn away to Arkansas and the Tennessee. Gen. Curtis's movements eastward toward the Mississippi opened the State to incursions from the Rebels, still in force in western Arkansas; while considerble numbers of Price's men were clandestinely sent home to enlist recruits and organize guerrilla bands for activity during the summer. Scho

[blocks in formation]

35

field persisted in enrolling and organizing militia until he had 50,900 men on his lists, of whom about 30,000 were armed. Upon full consideration, he decided to enroll only loyal men, since passive were often converted into active Rebels by a requirement to serve in the Union forces. He had 20,000 men ready for service, when, late in July, 1862, the tidings of McClellan's disastrous failure before Richmond combined with other influences to fill the interior of the State with formidable bands of Rebel partisans. Of these, Col. Porter's, two or three thousand strong, was attacked " at Kirksville, Adair County, by Col. John McNeil, with 1,000 cavalry and a battery of 6 guns, and, after a desperate fight of four hours, utterly defeated, with a loss of 180 killed and 500 wounded. Several wagonloads of arms were among the spoils of victory, and Porter's force was by this defeat practically destroyed. McNeil's loss was reported at 28 killed and 60 wounded.

Four days thereafter, Col. Poindexter's band of about 1,200 Rebels was attacked, while crossing the Chariton river, by Col. Odin Guitar, 9th militia cavalry, 600 men, with 2 guns, and thoroughly routed; many of the Rebels being driven into the river and drowned. "Many horses and arms, and all their spare ammunition and other supplies, were captured."" Poindexter, with what remained of his force, fled northward to join Porter; but was intercepted and driven back by another Union force under Gen. Ben. Loan, and again struck by Guitar; who, in a running fight of nearly 48 hours, Aug 6, 1862.

30 Gen. Schofield's official report.

« PreviousContinue »