Arkansas true Democrat., 1862-07-03
Letter from Gen. Pike to Chas. B. John
 scn, Esq.
FoRr McCULLocH, CHocrAw NATION, ]
 May %, 1862.

| ORT 1utCULLOCH, IHOCIAh NAHUM. l May 29, 1862. 1 DEAR SIR You have asked me to state what personally know, in regard to the retreat from 1 the field at Elk Horn, on Saturday, the 7th of 1 March, of the infantry, including Col. Frank Rector's regiment, who effected their retreat by the telegraph road.
 am quite willing to do this, if may at the same time protest that 1t shall not be construed to involve any defence of myself. l may enter l upon that at the proper time, when we have l gained our independence, and the country is at leisure to listen to matters of private interest; l but until the contest ends, if not always after wards, l am willing to let lies, like other epide- mics, run their course.
 | General Van Dorn states in his report that he commenced his retreat eastward, at 10 clock. At little before l l, coming down from the high ridge on the right, aQ the eastern shoulder of which, and beyond. pat Of our troops had been engaged, l crossed the telegraph road, and went up the road that led out of 1t to the south east, into the field where l had seen General Van Dorn in the morning, when General Rains d vision was being formed there; and where, was told, I would still find the commanding ge neral.
 When I reached the top of the hill, some l50 yards from the feld 1 found a battery of artil
 
 the right front, where that road came in open view down the first descent north of the Elk Horn tavern. I stopped and inquired what 1t was there for as it could only be used there, in case of retreat of the army, and against the enemy pursuing on the telegraph road. l was told that it had been engaged in front, and hav> ing exhausted its ammunition, had been sent to the rear for a supply, and had received no fur ther orders. IL was also said, by one person and another, that the orders were that the army was to fall back on the telegraph road and take a uew position
 Before reached this place, the enemy was sepdirg shells into the woods on the ridge upon the right; and very soon after reached it, saw 8 body ot cavalry and a considerable force of infantry come in good order down the hospital hollow, from that ridge, into the telegraph road; and supposed they were moving round to our left, to repe the attempt of the enemy to turn our left which Gen. Van DorR had told me in the morning, he anticipated. This column pass ed on, up the telegraph road (northward) out ot my sight They were followed by no others, nor was there then any appearance ot flight, or of a rout.
 Soon after, second battery came up the hill, and the officer in command told me he wa without orders and did not know what to do,
  him that did not know what Gen. Van Dorn's plans were, that 1t was said the army was to fall back to take new position, and that he had better place his battery also in pos;' on facing the telegraph road by the side of the other, su as to sweep the road if thaenemy pursued on 1t; and send an officer to Gen. Van Dorn, in the field beyond, for orders.
 Having no command whatever, as the single Cherokee regiment with me had been posted on the different ridges, widely apart, merely to ob~ serve the enemy. and thinking 1 might be of service with the batteriss. ] still remained with them, and about half past eleven o clock we heard an immense cheering in front, loud and long continued. As no fugitives, then or aiter> wards, came down the telegraph road, we all supposed the cheering to proceed from our troops and that we had repulsed the enemy. l then sent Major Lanigan and Capt. Schwarzman, of my staff. to find Gen. Van Dorm, who 1 suppos- ed was in the field beyond, to receive any orders he wished to give me in regard to the Chero- kees: and remained with the batteries awaiting their return.
 After they had been gone some fifteen min> utes or more, an officer came from the field, and told me he came near being captured there, as he found t in the possession of fifty or sixty of the enemy's infantry and cavalry; and soon after another rode up, who had gone some time be fore to find Gen. Van Dorn. He told me that it was supposed that Gen. Van Dorn and Price were both captured, as no one had seen either of them for long time, and the last time they tcere seen. they were in the field, which was now in possession of the enemy: and he added, " General, you are not safe here. The enemy's cavalry are within hundred and fifty yards of you."
 suppose this was overheard by the officers and men of the batteries; for, without any order that heard, the pieces and caissons were one after the other wheeled rapidly round and de- scended the hill into the telegraph road, mp which they continued to move as rapidly as they could. No fugitives, not a single man, had come from the field of action in front, by either road. No one had received any orders from the front that l knew of and no aid had been seen by any one. Major Lanigan and Capt Schwarz- man had not returned. They rode, as they at- forwards informed me- some five miles, passing along the retreating column, before they over- took Gen. Van Dorn, who was at the head of the column; and they accompanied that part of the ars1y to Van Wrinkles mill, supposing that it would not be possible to rejoin me.
 Seeing the enemy s cavalry, distinctly enough, in the field, not more than a hundred and fifty wards of, l followed the guns down the hill, passed them as soon as possible, and made two attempts to halt them and bring them into bat terv facing to the rear. The second time I rave the orders myself to the drivers, and had three of the guns brought into position. This was at the upper end of a large open feld into which the road uns~aftea-,uzs.;Eg sharply round the point of a hill that controls the road beyond 1t to the southward. Here l found the infantry, including Col. Rector's regiment, halted, drawn up in two separate lines, not across but up and down the valley. l directed the officers who were near me to move their men to the rear of the guns coming into battery, and form them in line to resist the enemy; and they commenced doing so. There was then no sign of trepida- ton, but only the appearance of uncertainty, in the absence of orders, as to what was to be done. But just as the movement was commencing, and the third gun in position, the enemy sent a shell up the road from the point round which we had just passed, and the cry was raised that their cavalry were coming. All was immediately in confusion The artillery could not be used on account of infantry in front of them; and seeing that no stand could be made there, and that the rout had commenced, got out of the way of the cro vd which was now hurrying up the road, and crossed through the valley and up the hill into the Bentonville road, which I sup posed the retreat would take, as it was by that road the army had come the day before. But they kept on up the telegraph road, and that so ' t,.aJA Ar. -P Il