The National tribune., 1907-01-31

turned down the wire road TO Fayette-
vile, where this beautiful little town
sheltered so many of our sick and
wounded after the battle of Prairie
Grove Now there was not house
left standing. AT the south side of the
town there was a fort, occupied by the
I'd Ark. (Federals). Price tried to cap
ture the fort that morning, but failed.
From Fayetteville we pushed on to the
Prairie Grove battlefield, getting there
just before sundown. At the Illinois
Creek the column was halted for some
cause. 1 saw a. large persimmon tree at
the SIDE of the road. ! rode out of
ranks, tied my horse to the fence and
climbed the tree. Just as l got up to
where / could get the fruit l looked
down to the ground. There were Gen.
Blunt and Col. Moonlight riding under
the tree. Now, the most of soldiers nat
urally feel embarrassed to get caught
out of ranks while on the march, SO /
thought my time had come. But they
dismounted, and called for me to shake
some down, so [ knew / was all right.
OF course, / shook the tree for all that
was in it; but Just then che guns began
to crack on the other side of the creek.
The General jumped on his horse, and
hallooed for me to come on, and /
thought while climbing down out of
that persimmon tree that we would
have another battle on the same ground
where Gen. Herron's faithful divisions
were almost ove:powered on the 7th Of
December, 1852.
On the Prairie Grove Battlefield.
The firing soon died out, and we went
into camp for the night on the battle
field A great many of our regiment
walked around over the battlefield un-
til 1t was SO dark we could not see. Then
we gathered in groups to talk over the
incidents of the awful struggle that took
place here almost two years before. l
walked over the spot where so many of
our dead had been laid side by side in
one long trench, with blanket for
winding sheet, with foot or two of
dirt thrown over them. l found several
skulls and other bones lying around
that dogs or wolves had dug out. Just
why the histories of the civil war make
no more mention of the battle of Prairie
Grove than they do has always seemed
strange to me- The Union dead alone
would equal one-third as many as Gen.
Raum gives the Union dead I'm the bat
tie of Missionary Ridge. That battle
lasted two whole days, with $4,000
troops on each side, while the battle of
Prairie Grove only lasted a few hours,
with only three small divisions, deci-
mated by unheard-of forced marches.
AS Gen. Herron's two divisions had
made the 100 miles from Springfield,
Mo-, in three days and two nights, while
Blunts Division had made the distance
from Cane Hill to Prairie Grove, from
O'Clock In the morning to the time
they arrived on the field, and the route
they Travelled the distance is all of 16
miles. Gen. Samuel Jones, C. S. A, in
his description of the battle, says that
Blunt's Division was at Rhea's Mills.
Such is rot the case. Blunts Division
was at Cane Hill the morning of the
battle. Otherwise Gen. Jones's account
of the battle is very good from his point
of view. The next morning after leav-
ing Prairie Grove we continued on the
road to Cane HILL While here / tried
to locate where the Mcclellan residence
stood, as all the houses as far as !
could see had been destroyed since we
were camped there in 1862. I made
the acquaintance OF this family while
in the hospital at Cane Hill. Mrs. Nc
Clellan and daughter asked If they
might give our sick some milk and 9TH
er delicacies. DIR. Hogaboom, of our
regiment, gave her the privilege. I ask
ed her why she was so kind to our sick.
She said she had husband and two
sons in the Southern army, and If they
should get sick she hoped people would
be kind to them.
Price left the wire road at Cane Hill,
and went west by Dutch Mills. That
night we camped in the territory on the
head of the stream that we followed
down to near Webber Falls. This night
we ate the last bite of our food, and
some of us did not taste food again for
three days. until we got to Fort Smith.
Some time the next day we passed
where Prices army had camped the
night before. I counted lis beef heads
they had killed for their men to eat,
but they had cut every particle of meat
off Of the heads SO we could not get
a bite. We marched good part of
this night, and at daylight We were in
the valley of the Arkansas River.
Prices army had all crost over the
river, and we were there in the wilder
ness. with no prospect of getting any
thing to eat closer than Fort Smith, 80
or 40 miles down the river. The troops
scattered here. Some went back into
Arkansas to the vicinity of Rhea's Mills.
A part of the command went down the
river to Fort Smith, the 11th Kan. Cav.
with the latter.
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