Gen. McCulloch's dispatches to the Confederate War Department are, to say the least, disingenuous. His first dispatch that evening stated that the enemy was 12,000 strong, but had "fled" after eight hours' hard fighting. His second official report, dated two days after the battle, gave his "effective" forces at 5,300 infantry, 15 pieces of artillery and 6,000 horsemen, armed with flintlock muskets, rifles and shotguns. He says: "There were, other horsemen with the army, but they were entirely unarmed, and instead of being a help they were continually in the way." He repeatedly pronounces the collisions at the different periods of the battle as "terrific," and says: "The incessant roar of musketry was deafening, and the balls fell as thick as hailstones." His next sentences are at surprising variance with the concurrent testimony on the Union side; for he says: "Nothing could withstand the impetuosity of our final charge. The enemy fell back and could not again be rallied, and they were seen at 12 m. fast retreating among the hills in the distance. This ended the battle. It lasted six hours and a half."
By this time Gen. McCulloch had reduced the Union force to between 9,000 and 10,000, and he claims the Union loss to have been 800 killed, 1,000 wounded and 300 prisoners. He gave his own loss at 265 killed, 800 wounded and 30 missing. His colleague, Gen. Price, he curtly dismisses with this brief laudation: "To Gen. Price I am under many obligations for assistance on the battlefield. He was at the head of his force, leading them on and sustaining them by his gallant bearing."
Gen. Price's report is more accurate and soldierlike, but he says that after several "severe and bloody conflicts" had ensued, and the battle had been conducted with the "greatest gallantry and vigor on both sides for more than five hours, the enemy retreated in great confusion, leaving their Commander-in-Chief, Gen. Lyon, dead upon the battlefield, over 500 killed and a great number wounded." He claims that his forces numbered 5,221 officers and men, of whom 156 were killed and 517 wounded. This would make the loss of his whole division of 5,000 men 673, or about the same lost by the 1st Mo. and the 1st Kan., with these two regiments still maintaining their position, while the enemy retired.
It seems difficult to understand why, if the enemy "retreated in great confusion," as reported by Mc-Culloch and Price, the several thousand horsemen who did little or nothing during the battle were not let loose to complete the ruin of the Union forces. No matter how poorly armed or disciplined these might have been, their appearance on the flank of the retiring column would have been fatal to any orderly retreat such as was conducted. The universal testimony of the Union officers and soldiers is that there was no enemy in sight when they started to leave the field, and that they suffered no molestation whatever, though they halted two miles from the field and in plain sight for some time.
It also passes comprehension that this horde of irregular horsemen were not employed during the long hours of the battle in making some diversion in the rear of the Union army.
Both Price and McCulloch seem to have had their attention so fully engrossed in bringing up new regiments to keep Lyon from breaking thru their lines and reaching their trains that they had no opportunity to give orders or organize manuvers by the horsemen, and nobody seems to have suggested to the mounted men that they could employ their time better than by standing back and watching the progress of the terrible conflict between the two opposing lines of infantry.
It appears that the Union officers in the council called by Gen. Sturgis were not at all unanimous for retreat. Capt. Sweeny, altho severely wounded, vehemently insisted upon pursuing the enemy, and Capt. Gordon Granger, also severely wounded, rode up to Sturgis, pointed out that there was not a man in sight and that the fire could be seen from where the retreating foe was burning his wagons, and he urged the pursuit so vigorously that Sturgis had to repeat his order for him to leave the field.
Col. Sigel, in his report made at Rolla eight days after the battle, made a long and labored explanation of his operations during the day. He thus explained his failure to do more: