BATTLE OF PEA RIDGE.
The Union right was commanded by General Sigel, the left by General Carr, and the centre by General Jefferson C. Davis. Sigel was surprised and came very near being cut off, but he was master of the art of retreating rather than of advancing, and he extricated his Germans with astonishing skill and joined the main army. General Curtis changed his front, and in the attack his right wing was driven back, obliging him that night to take a new position a mile to the rear. The fighting next day was at first in favor of the Confederates, and for a time the Union army was in a critical position; but with great bravery and skill the enemy's left was turned, the centre broken, and their forces driven in disorder from the field.
In this battle Albert Pike used 2,000 Indian allies. They belonged to the "civilized" tribes, and good service was expected from them; but they were unaccustomed to fighting in the open, could not be disciplined, and in the excitement of the struggle it is alleged they so lost their heads that they scalped about as many of the Confederates as Unionists. At any rate, the experiment was a failure, and thereafter they cut no figure in the war.
INDECISIVE FIGHTING.
The enemy were so badly shaken that they retreated toward the North to reorganize and recruit. Reinforcements from Kansas and Missouri also joined Curtis, who advanced in the direction of Springfield, Missouri, upon learning that Price was making for the same point. Nothing followed, and Curtis returned to Arkansas. He had been at Batesville in that State a few months when he found himself in serious peril. His supplies were nearly exhausted, and it was impossible to renew them in the hostile country by which he was surrounded. An expedition for his relief left Memphis in June, but failed. Supplies from Missouri, however, reached him early in July.
Curtis marched to Jacksonport, and afterward established himself at Helena on the Mississippi. In September he was appointed commander of the department of Missouri, which included that State, Arkansas, and the Indian Territory. There were many minor engagements, and the Unionists succeeded in keeping the Confederates from regaining their former foothold in Missouri and north of Arkansas. It may be said that all the fighting in that section produced not the slightest effect on the war as a whole. The best military leaders of the Confederacy advised President Davis to withdraw all his forces beyond the Mississippi and concentrate them in the East, but he rejected their counsel, and his stubbornness greatly weakened the Confederacy.
Having given an account of military operations in the West, it now remains to tell of the much more important ones that occurred on the coast and in the East, for they were decisive in their nature, and produced a distinct effect upon the progress of the war for the Union.
CONSTRUCTION OF THE MERRIMAC.
It has been stated that early in the war the Norfolk navy yard was burned to prevent its falling into the possession of the Confederates. Among the vessels sunk was the frigate Merrimac, which went down before much injury was done to her. She was a formidable craft of 3,500 tons, 300 feet in length, and had mounted 40 guns. The Confederates succeeded in raising her, and proceeded to work marvelous changes in her structure, by which she was turned into the first real armor-clad ever constructed. She was protected by layers of railroad iron, which sloped like the roof of a house, and was furnished with a prow of cast iron which projected four feet in front. Pivot guns were so fixed as to be used for bow and stern chasers, and the pilot-house was placed forward of the smoke-stack and armored with four inches of iron. She carried ten guns, one at the stern, one at the bow, and eight at the sides, and fired shells. Her iron armor sloped down at the sides, so that she looked like an enormous mansard-roof moving through the water. Her commanding officer was Commodore Franklin Buchanan, formerly of the United States navy, while under him were Lieutenant Catesby R. Jones, the executive officer, six other lieutenants, six midshipmen, surgeons, engineers, and subordinate officers, in addition to a crew of 300 men. She was rechristened the Virginia, but will always be remembered as the Merrimac.