The National tribune., 1888-11-29


rection of CoTinth. Van Dorm declared en-
phstically that he wanted 10 more Indians un-
der his command, and declined to take them
along. His orders 10 transfer his army east OF
the Mississippi reached him on the night OF the
9TH OF March, and some of his officers say that
they were the cause of his giving up the battle
and ordering a retirement at the time he did.
But this is an excuse rather than a reason.
Probably he was confident Of winning the bat
tie down TO within an hour Of the time when
the Union troops were in possession Of Elkhorn
Tavern and his batteries had been driven from
the hill which they had hoped would command
the field, as it was certainly the key of the po-
stion. The fact was he brought his whole
force to bear in the battle of the 7th, and had
concentrated II almost wholly on Carr's Divls-
ion. CaTr'S Division suffered fearfully and
was barely able to hold out through the day,
as we have seen. But it did hold out, and so
on the evening of the eth the sun went down
on the entire rebel army more or less used up
by having been all day in battle, while fully
a third of the Union forces had scarcely fired
a shot.
The concentration Of the Union army during
the night brought these fresh troops to bear
against the wearicd Confederates, and thus
gave an advantage TO the National cause.
There is no doubt that the rebel ammunition
was exhausted at the time of the retirement;
several of the rebel batteries had not single
shot remaining, all having been expended in
the prolonged contest. Ammunition for the
small-arms had also run short, and with the
scarcity of ammunition the troops lost courage
and showed disposition to break and fee
from the field. On the other hand, the Union
troops We're still firing rapidly with their can
non and delivering steady volleys with their
small-aTms when Van Dorm gave the order to
retire. The fact was the Union ammunition
had already shown signs of giving out, and
probably another two hours of fighting would
have exhausted il completely. But the old
adage says miss is as good as a mile, and the
army that has just a single round of cartridges
left when IFS eRemy's supply Is entirely gone,
practically holds the key of the situation as
well as If il had a shipload of powder with
bullets in proportion
Gen. CuFtis's entire loss was 1851, of whom
7Ol-more than haif-were of Gen. Carr's Diyis-
ion. The rebel losses were never given, but
they can hardly have been less and were prob
ably more. On the Union side no general OIL
GERS were killed and only one officer above the
rank of Captain, that one being Col. Hendricks,
of the 22d Ind. Several field officers were
wounded, and one, Lieut-Col. Heron, of the
9Th Iowa, was captured after being wounded.
On the rebel side Gems. McCulloch and Nc
Intosh were killed, Gems. Price and Slack
wounded (the latter mortality, and several
CClonels and Majors killed or wounded. One
Of their commanders ascribed the losses among
compelled the officers TO expose themselves.
Rebel officers who survived the battle say their
best fighting was done by the Missouri troops;
the Indians, as already set forth, were of little
use, aud some of the Arkansas regiments were
not much better than the Redskins. One
Arkansas regiment (CoI. Rector's) disbanded
during the retreat and went home, the men
piling their arms in ravine, where they were
! found a few days later by an expedition sent
out by Gen Curtis IN consequence of informa-
! tion brought ia by a countryman.
The rebels disappeared so suddenly from the
battlefield that the Union commanders could
not make atWhere they had gone. Gen. Sigel
went after them in one direction and Col.
Bussey in another, but could not overtake them,
and the pursuit was soon given up 1t seems
they turned of through several hollows and
Tayines, taking obscure roads, and finally re-
uniting in the neighborhoOd of Bentouyille
where they camped for the night. A good
many OF them continued along the road with
out hating, determined to get 8 safe distance
! between themselves and the terrible Yankees
| The officers had previous to the battle. spread
! the most startling stories about Northern
atrocities to prisoners. with the object of nerv-
| ing the men up to high pitch of courage.
On TINS subject let US listen to Jack whom
/ We left IN the hands of the enemy, and who was
/ carried away by them in their retreat
. The night after they captured the Colonel,
| and took me along with him. said Jack we
/ had hard old time Of it. We had very little
TO eat, and nothing but our clothes to sleep in.
! We were no worse of than the officers and men
/ around Us, as there were good many of them
1 that hadn6 any blankets, and nearly all were
ragged and fearfully out at the elbows. Each
man had for his rations a piece of cornbread
as dry as a stone and nearly as hard and some
/ of them had nothing more than an ear or two
| of corn, that they chewed on as though they
] horses nf tlgn Gnnf IL Il Tro1
HerrOn's wounded leg. He couldn't stand
on il, and when he wanted to move around /
| helped him on one side and one of the hospital
| attendants on the other. They put him in an
ambulance along with one of their own wound
/ ed officers and started us of on the road to
Bentonyilie, and there we staid through the
night Probably they would have sent us fur
ther if they'd known how the next days battle
was coming out.
They were going TO send me of with the
soldiers, but Col. Heron asked to be permitted
to keep me as personal attendant. He offer
cd 10 give has parole and become responsible
that / would not escape, the same as he had
done when We were first captured, and this
they accepted after q little palaver. At one
time l thought they wouldn't do it, and began
to think I'd have TO trudge along the road with
the soldiers. And think owe my good for
tune 10 an old friend at least I'll call him So
as he acted ike friend, though he had no rea.
son 70 remember rae kindly.
" You remember the Captain we helped to
capture near Rolla when we went on oul
scouting expedition on f0ot?n
Certainly" replied Harry; 81 remember
him we'll"
4" lie was the man that befriended me-" said
Jack, " and he did it just at the right time, too
he was one of the officers that was debating
whether to do as the Colonel wanted, and lei
me 20 with him, and while they we're talking
little way of from US he kept eyeing me al
over. After while he came up to me anG
said:
Are you one Of the boys that was out one day
on the road from Rolla 20 Pilot Knob. and found
out where q Captain had a recruiting Campo
" / turned all sorts Of colors, l know. ani
while was trying TO stammer out somethin,
10 convince him wasn't the boy he was look
ing for he nodded his head in a satisfied sor
OF way.
r s. ] thought my case was done for and he't
have me shot sure, but he only laughed ant
said / was made of good stuff and had got th
sand whatever that was. Then he wen
back and talked with the others, and after
few minutes he came to me and said he would
be responsible for me.
Ny heart went down in my boots at this
but he didn't let it stay there long. fYou'r
all right said he, and You may go with you
: Colonel. But, first, you must give me your sol
. emn word Of honor that you won't try to es
cape as long as you are allowed to be with him.
gave my word of honor and signed pa
y