On the 25th of July, 1861, General Sterling Price, in command of Gov. Jackson’s State Guard, began to move his command from its encampment on the Cowskin Prairie toward Cassville, Barry county, at which place it had been agreed between Generals McCulloch and N. B. Pearce, of the Confederate force, and Price that their respective commands, together with General J. H. McBride’s division of State Guards, should concentrate, preparatory to a forward movement on Lyon and Sigel and the other Federal troops in the vicinity of Springfield. On the 29th the junction was effected. The combined armies were then put under marching orders. The 1st division, commanded by Gen. McCulloch in person; the 2d, by Gen. Pearce, of Arkansas, and the 3d, by Gen. Steen, of Missouri, left Cassville on the 1st and 2d of August, taking the Springfield road. It is said that Gen. Price, with the greater portion of his infantry, accompanied the 2d division. A few days afterward a regiment of Texas rangers, under Col. E. Greer, joined the martial host advancing to attack the Federals. Gen. James S. Rains, formerly the well known politician of Jasper county, with six companies of mounted Missourians belonging to his division, the 8th, commanded the advance guard. Rains was given the advance because many of his men were from this quarter of the State and knew the country very well. On Friday, August 2, he encamped at Dug Springs, in Stone county, about 20 miles southwest of Springfield. The main army was some distance to the westward.
The Southern army was really composed of three small armies, as follows: The Missouri State Guard, under Gen. Price; a division of Arkansas State troops, under Gen. N. Bart. Pearce, and a division of Confederate troops under Gen. McCulloch. Pearce’s division was composed of the 1st Arkansas cavalry, Col. De Rosey Carroll; Capt. Chas. A. Carroll’s independent company of cavalry; the 3d Arkansas infantry, Col. John R. Gratiot; the 4th Arkansas infantry, Col. J. D. Walker; the 5th Arkansas infantry, Col. Tom P. Dockery, and Capt. Woodruff’s battery, the “Pulaski Artillery.” All of the infantry regiments had enlisted only for three months, and their time expired about Sept. 1. They were State troops, or militia. Another Arkansas battery, Capt. J. G. Reid’s, of Ft. Smith, was also with Gen. Pearce, but assigned to McCulloch afterwards.
THE FIGHT AT DUG SPRINGS.
Gen. Lyon was duly informed of the concentration of the Southern troops at Cassville, of the junction of Price and McCulloch, and of their intention of marching upon his own camp. His scouts and spies were numerous, sharp and faithful. They marched in the ranks with the secession troops at times, hung about officers’ quarters, picked up all the information they could and then made their way inside the Federal lines in a very short time. For the most part Lyon’s scouts were residents of this part of the State and knew all the country very thoroughly. Gen. Price, too, had scouts and spies, who kept him posted—who, by various ruses and stratagems visited the Federal camps, and obtained valuable information and conveyed it to “Old Pap” in short order. And Price’s scouts, too, were chiefly residents of Southwest Missouri. A number of Greene county men did scouting for both Price and Lyon.
Learning of the movements of Price and McCulloch, Gen. Lyon determined to go out and meet them. He first sent more messengers to Gen. Fremont, at St. Louis, begging for reinforcements, and late in the afternoon of Thursday, the 1st of August, his entire army, which, by the addition of Sigel’s and Sturgis’ forces, had been increased to 5,868 men of all arms, infantry, cavalry and eighteen pieces of artillery, led by himself, moved toward Cassville, leaving behind a force of volunteers and Home Guards to guard Springfield. That night the army bivouacked about ten miles southwest of Springfield, on a branch of the James. Gen. Lyon’s subordinate commanders were Brig. Gen. T. W. Sweeney, Col. Sigel and Maj. Sturgis. The next morning, early, the command moved forward. It was a hot day and the men suffered severely from dust, heat and excessive thirst, most of the wells and the streams being dry. Towards evening five dollars was offered for a canteen of warm ditch water.
At Dug Springs the army halted, having come up with Gen. Rains’ advance of the Southern forces. The Missourians were first observed about 11 o’clock in the forenoon, at a house by the roadside with a wagon partially laden with cooked provisions, from which they were driven away by shell from one of Capt. Totten’s guns. At the Dug Springs (which are in an oblong valley, five miles in length and broken by projecting spurs of the hills, which form wooded ridges), at about 5 o’clock in the evening a skirmish took place between Rains’ secessionists and a battalion of regular infantry under Capt. Fred Steele, a company of U. S. dragoons under Capt. D. S. Stanley, and two 6-pounders of Capt. Totten’s battery. The Southerners were driven away with a loss of one killed, perhaps half a dozen wounded, and ten prisoners. A Lieutenant Northent is reported as having been mortally wounded. The Federal loss was four killed outright, one mortally wounded, and about thirty slightly wounded. Three of the Federal killed were Corporal Klein, and Privates Givens and Devlin.
On the side of the Missourians a young man named H. D. Fulbright, was sunstruck in the engagement, and died. W. J. Frazier, of the Greene County Company, attached to McBride’s division, was wounded.
The Federals pursued next morning, going as far as Curran, or McCullah’s store, nearly on the county line between Stone and Barry counties, and twenty-six miles from Springfield. During the day a scouting party of secessionists, which had come across the country from Marionville, was encountered at dinner. Totten’s artillery was brought up, a few shells fired, and the Southern troops did not wait for the dessert! This is a brief, but correct account of what is often referred to in histories of the civil war as the “battle” of Dug Springs.
GEN. LYON FALLS BACK.
Finding that the enemy in his front was much his superior in numbers, Gen. Lyon determined to go no farther than Curran, but to return to Springfield and await the reinforcements so urgently requested of Gen. Fremont before risking a decisive battle, the result of which would certainly mean a splendid victory and possession of all Southwestern Missouri to one party or the other. The Federal scouts also reported that a large force of State Guards was marching to the assistance of Gen. Price from toward Sarcoxie. Accordingly, after a conference with his officers, Sweeney, Sigel, and Majors Sturgis, Schofield, Shepherd, and Conant, and the artillery captains, Totten and Schaeffer, Gen. Lyon countermarched his army and returned to Springfield, coming this time directly to the town, where he arrived August 5th. The main body of the army camped about the town. Nearly 2,000 of the volunteers and regulars under Lt. Col. Andrews, of the 1st Missouri, and Maj. Sturgis were stationed out about four miles from town. Two days later this force was withdrawn to the line of defence around the town.