An account of the battle of Wilson's Creek, or Oak Hills, fought between the Union troops, commanded by Gen. N. Lyon and the Southern, or Confederate troops, under command of Gens. McCulloch and Price, on Saturday, August 10, 1861, in Greene county, Missouri

by R. I. Holcombe; Thomas W. Adams

THE ARMY SETS OUT.

At last all was ready and the army set out for Rolla, with a train of wagons three miles long and a huge column of refugees, men, women, and children, black and white, old and young, in carriages, wagons, carts, on horseback, on foot, “anyway to get away,” as it has been expressed. The march was begun at midnight, and by daybreak the head of the column was outside of the county. No attempt was made on the part of the Southern troops to pursue and capture the column with its $2,000,000 in money and stores, and it was not molested in any way—as, it would seem, it should have been. Sigel was not disturbed until near the crossing of the Gasconade.

Before crossing this river Col. Sigel received information that the ford could not be passed well, and that a strong force of the enemy was moving from West Plains towards Waynesville, to cut off the retreat. He was also aware that it would take considerable time to cross the Robidoux and the two Pineys on the old road. To avoid these difficulties, and to give the army an opportunity to rest, Sigel directed the troops from Lebanon to the northern road, passing Right Point, in the southeastern part of Camden county, and Humboldt, Pulaski county, and terminating opposite the mouth of Little Piney, where in case the ford could not be passed, the train could be sent by Vienna and Linn to the mouth of the Gasconade, while the troops could ford the river at the mouth of the Little Piney to reinforce Rolla. To cross over the artillery he ordered a ferryboat from Big Piney Crossing to be hauled down on the Gasconade to the mouth of Little Piney, where it arrived immediately after the army had crossed the ford. Before reaching the ford, however, Sigel had given up the command of the army to Maj. Sturgis, who marched it into Rolla August 19th, where it went into temporary camp, the first encampment being named “Camp Cary Gratz,” in honor of the captain of the 1st Missouri, killed at Wilson’s Creek. In a few days the Missouri and Kansas troops and the 1st Iowa, whose term of service had long before expired, were sent to St. Louis to be mustered out.