“Colonel Boyd, Sir! The cannings is ceased a-firing!”
THE RETREAT FROM SPRINGFIELD.
Upon reaching Springfield the Federal army rested a brief time and got itself ready for flight. A conference of the principal officers was held, and the command of all the forces given to Col. Sigel, of whom it is reported Maj. Sturgis said he was not altogether successful in attack, but was “h—l on retreat.” The citizens were notified, and hundreds of them began packing up and preparing to follow the army. These were Union people who dreaded the approach of the Southern troops. The Home Guards also got ready to move as a part of the army. Many citizens of the county, living outside of Springfield, got their effects together and were ready to go.
A vast amount of money belonging to the bank had been made ready for shipment, by Lyon’s order, and was being guarded by a Home Guard company. Merchandise of all kinds was loaded into wagons and certain of the officers “pressed” teams for the occasion to load commissary and quartermasters’ stores into.
Sigel’s ordnance officer destroyed a considerable quantity of powder because there were no means of transporting it. The 1st Iowa also burned a portion of its baggage for the same reason. The town was full of frightened men, women, and children, wagons, teams, horses, mules, milch cows, soldiers, infantry, cavalry, and artillery, and there was the greatest confusion all of the evening and till long after dark, even up to the time when the hegira commenced. The public square was a perfect jam of cannon carriages, army wagons, farm wagons, buggies, etc.
CARE OF THE UNION WOUNDED.
By 10 o’clock in the forenoon the wounded Federals had begun to arrive from the front, where the battle was raging, with the news that Lyon was driving the enemy at all points, the Union people cheered, and bestirred themselves to take care of the stricken. The new court-house (the present) and the sheriff’s residence were taken for hospital purposes, and by midnight contained 100 men; the Bailey house was filled; the Methodist church building was similarly occupied. Ambulances, carriages, butchers’ wagons, express wagons, every sort of vehicle with wheels and springs, plied between the battle field and the town all day and until after dark, bringing off the wounded.
Many of the ladies of the town volunteered their services and became hospital nurses. Maj. Sturgis left with Dr. E. C. Franklin, of the 5th Missouri, the sum of $2,500 in gold, with which to purchase supplies for the wounded left behind, to care for Gen. Lyon’s body, and for other necessary expenses. This is upon the authority of Dr. Franklin himself. The doctor was given general charge of the Federal wounded.
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.