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 MARCH BEGUN—ROUTE OF GEN. LYON.

At about 6 P. M. of Friday evening, the 9th, the movement of troops began. Gen. Lyon’s column went to the westward, on the Mt. Vernon road, Capt. Gilbert’s company of regular infantry having the advance. In a short time it was dark, but the march was continued. Although the march was intended to result in a surprise, and, it was expected, would be conducted silently, yet there was a great deal of noise made. The Iowa and Kansas volunteers were disposed to exercise their vocal organs, and camp songs of all sorts were sung con spirito, along the march. The 1st Iowa had a favorite song, the burden of which ran:—

So let the wide world wag as it will,

We’ll be gay and happy still.

Gay and happy, gay and happy,

We’ll be gay and happy still.

The strains of this song were wafted out over the prairie, loud enough, it would have seemed, to have been heard by McCulloch’s pickets, if any were out. The Kansas men sang the “Happy Land of Canaan,” and raised the neighborhood with their vocal efforts. Toward midnight, however, the line became more quiet, by Gen. Lyon’s orders. The latter had remarked during the march that the Iowa troops had too much levity in their composition to do good fighting, but added that he would give them an opportunity to show what they were made of. It so turned out that the general was mistaken in his estimate of the fighting qualities of the Hawkeyes.

Lyon marched west from Springfield on the Mt. Vernon road, about five miles, or a little east of where the town of Brooklyn now stands, when he turned south, and made his way over neighboring roads and across prairies as best he could nearly six miles, when he reached a point within striking distance of Price’s Missourians. The center of the camp of the Southerners was about six miles west, and about seven miles south of the public square of Springfield. Gen. Lyon had for guides Pleasant Hart, Parker Cox, and other men. Nearly twenty men have come forward to claim this distinction.

It was 1 o’clock in the morning when the advance discovered the camp-fires of the Missourians. The command was then halted, and the ground reconnoitered as well as possible until the dawn of day, when it again moved forward and formed a battle line, moving a little southeast so as to strike the extreme northern point of the enemy’s camp.