Camp Halleck Ark Feb 28 1862

Camp Halleck Ark Feb 28 1862

My last concluded with our disappointment in regard to a fight near Springfield on the 13th of February, from which point I now complete my rambling narrative.

Leaving the field of the second battle, which was not fought at, on, near or about Springfield, we marched into and through the town, planting the national flag on the courthouse, and receiving the congratulations of numerous Union citizens, particularly the ladies, prominent among whom was the wife of Col. Phelps, himself now in command of a Federal regiment of Missourians raised in that vicinity. She assured us that Price was a coward, that she had told him so, and that he would run when we approached, (he, meanwhile, protesting that he would fight us there,) that if we pressed on we might overtake him, and that we were abundantly able to whip him. The town bore evidences of rebel occupation—houses deserted, many of them dismantled, doors and fences down, and indeed every indication of vandal barbarism and outrage.

Passing through and south of the town, a mile or more, we halted and encamped on the ground recently vacated by a portion of Price’s forces, finding fires yet burning, plenty of wood, and considerable forage, for all of which we were, like the old woman with her bread, truly “thankful to God, though the devil prepared it.� At 7 A. M. on the 14th we resume our pursuit of Price. Ten miles brought us to Wilson’s Creek, where fell that pure and brave patriot, the gallant Lyon.—Halting here for the Second Brigade to pass us, many explored the battle field, finding abundant evidence of the fierceness of the fight, though but few mementoes which they could carry away. About 4 P. M. we came to the enemy’s camp of the preceding night. About dark our cavalry came up with the rebels some four miles in advance, and we could hear our mountain howitzers shelling their camp, doing, as we subsequently learned, considerable damage. It was reported by a prisoner that one shell killed fifteen of them. Having marched twenty-six miles we bivouacked by the roadside, hoping our cavalry would hold them until morning.

February 15.—Moved early, but found it no easy matter for cavalry to hold the enemy until infantry could overtake them, even by hard forced marches. Price vamosed [sic] about midnight from his camp on Cane Creek, so hastily that he left many tents, cooking utensils, wagons, and a large quantity of fresh beef. About 4 P. M. the mountain howitzers belonging to Col. Ellia’s 1st Missouri Cavalry opened fire on the enemy’s rear guard, some two miles in advance, and were replied to by their field pieces. We pressed forward rapidly, the 18th in advance, Klauss’s battery being between it and the 8th. While the 8th was detained a few moments in crossing Flat Creek an Iowa regiment moved forward in advance of it, when Lt. Col. Shunk, waving his cap, shouted “Forward! my bully boys, double quick.� Through the creek they then plunged, and through the Iowa regiment they rushed, hoping to have a “put� in this skirmish, but only arriving in time to see the smoke clearing away from the field, the enemy having made another hasty “skedaddle.� I several times heard men of the regiment we so unceremoniously cut in two remarking that those Indiana boys beat the d—l on a “double quick,� whenever a fight was on hand. In this affair three of the rebels, at least, were killed, without any loss to us except the wounding of an artillery man by overturning of a battery wagon.

Having marched 21 miles we encamped on Little Flat Creek. Next morning we marched at about 5 o’clock, passing through Cassville, the county seat of Barry county [sic], about noon. Nearly all the houses were deserted, Price having expected us to follow his rear guard there last night sent the woman and children away. Our Commissary took possession of considerable quantities of provisions here. Heard cannon, as we supposed, some four or five miles ahead, but found after pushing on rapidly for seven miles to Keatsville, that it commenced there. Results, if any, not known. One of Gen. Curtis’s bodyguards was shot here, by a rebel, from the bushes.

Passing on three miles further, and marching 18 miles to day, we bivouacked on the waters of Big Sugar Creek.

Gen. Davis, with some 300 cavalry, made a reconnaissance some seven miles in advance, where he found a rebel force which he estimated at some 4,000, very strongly posted, and with a portion of which some skirmishing was had, led by the gallant Col. Pease, but with what results I have been unable to ascertain. We lay down to rest, with what we regarded as a tolerable certainty, that we should at last be gratified with a fight on the morrow.

But alas for all human hopes! The morrow came, but so did not the big fight. Moving early on the morning of the 17th, we passed the hills on which the rebel army was said to have been posted (and probably were) on the evening before, but all had fled, leaving, “like the baseless fabric of a vision, no wreck behind.� There were no frowning batteries nor bristling bayonets to mark the presence of a hostile force. About 10 a. m. we crossed the north line of Arkansas, and passed into the land of Dixie. We halted a few moments while the boys sent up deafening cheers for the Union, and the bands discoursed “Hail Columbia,� “Yankee Doodle,� “Red, White and Blue,� &c., thus investing, with due solemnity, our first invasion of the “sacred soil� of the Confederate States.

A little after noon the report of cannon informed us that our advance had again overtaken the rear guard of the rebel force. The infantry hastened with all practicable speed, but, as usual, arrived just in time to be too late. Price’s bushwhacking dragoons can beat us in running, especially when they have several hours start. Here occurred the only casualty to any Indianan, so far as I am informed, during the entire march.

It appears that when our cavalry advance reached the hills on the north side of Little Sugar Creek, they found the enemy posted in some force on the hills opposite. Gen. Curtis ordered them to advance, but they seemed to hesitate. Quartermaster Branson, of Muncie, and Sergeant John A. Edwards, Co, H, 8th Indiana, who had been detailed, temporarily, as Commissary Sergeant, both of whom happened to be there with the cavalry, dashed forward in the direction of the enemy. First only individuals, and soon several companies of the cavalry followed and the fight began. Edwards, with his Enfield, brought down a rebel, mounted on a gray horse, pointed out to him by Col. Ellis, at a very long range.

On reaching the top of the hill, he received a shot in his right arm, just above the elbow, breaking the bone. He, however continued to fight, and charged with the cavalry fully a mile after he was wounded, when he was brought down by a musket ball, which passed diagonally through his left thigh, well up, and fracturing the bone. He was then on the third horse he had mounted during the fight, having remounted once after being shot in the arm. Although so severely wounded, his brave and indomitable spirit is bearing him up, and he bids fair to recover. He has ever been one of the very best and most valuable soldiers in the whole command, and his heroism should entitle him to the grateful remembrance of every Indianian and every lover of the country for which he so bravely perilled [sic] his life.

Capt. Branson, notwithstanding he bravely pushed on until the rebels fled, and possesses, witnal [sic] a portly person, escaped without injury to himself, though he lost one revolver, and had his horse shot in the head, though not fatally. Our loss in this affair foots up, to this date, nine dead and some six or seven wounded, most, if not all of whom will recover, while thirty-seven rebels killed are said to have been found and buried, and one or more of their wounded are here. After the skirmish we went into camp in the creek bottom, where we rested until the 20th, when, it being reported that Price was preparing to make a stand at Cross Hollows, some twelve miles farther south, our columns again moved out on different roads, with a view to flank him and compel a fight; but as usual, before we arrived—probably before we started—the bird had again flown. ____ ____ [two words not legible in copy] and apparently hopeless pursuit now seems to be abandoned.

We have been lying encamped in this vicinity ever since, and, to-night, it is said, we move back to Sugar Creek day after to-morrow.

Although we have not succeeded in capturing Price, we have driven him out of Missouri with a vengeance, and from the best information of his present location, nearly eighty miles into Arkansas. We have invaded Confederate soil some twenty odd miles, and lain here a week inviting an attack from doubtless a largely superior force which has fled from our approach like the timid hare before the hounds.

If this retreat does not demoralize and disband Price’s army, it must be because it is “like rotten eggs—hard to spoil.� Southern Missouri is now free from organized, armed rebellion, and if we keep it so—especially as we cannot fight Price unless he chooses, and he don’t choose “worth a cent,� nor catch him while there is room to run—I think that our almost unparalleled winter campaign has been crowned, if not with brilliant, yet with highly important and valuable results.
A. W. Sanford,
Chaplain Eight Indiana.