The Lost Army

by Thomas Wallace Knox

“He was first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen,” said Harry, with his mock gravity continued throughout.

“I s'pose he's one of your Dutch generals or colonels,” retorted the woman. “He'd better not come around here, or I 'll tell him what I think of him and all his other Dutchmen.”

“He will not come, madam; I 'll take care that he does n't. But in his farewell address he remarked that there was nothing half so sweet in life as two souls without a single thought, and two hearts that beets and cabbages could not turn from their faithful allegiance.”

“What's that got to do with us, I'd like to know,” said she. “He'd better not come around here alone talking that way; but if he fetches along his Dutch thieves, we can't help ourselves. You'uns ought to go home if you want to save yourselves from killing, for the Southern men won't leave one of ye alive.”

“That is what I was saying to my friend here,” responded Harry; “and now that we've had our call, we 'll take your advice and go.”

Away they rode, and had a good laugh as soon as they were out of sight of the house. Jack admitted that Harry had shown good sense in making light of the vituperation they received, and said he would follow the same plan in future.

“It's no use trying to convert these people to our way of thinking,” said Harry, as they rode along on their way to rejoin the column. “Argument is wasted on them just as it would be wasted on us. Nobody could win us over to believe in secession, and why should we expect these men and women, born and bred with slaves around them, to regard slavery and what comes of it as we regard it.” Jack acquiesced in Harry's theory, and he further admitted that if he had been born in the South and brought up there, it was fair to suppose that he would have believed in state-rights and the other principles that the Southern leaders had advocated since the formation of the republic.

After the arrival of the column at Springfield and its junction with the forces of General Fremont, there was a prolonged halt to wait for supplies for the army, preparatory to a further advance into the enemy's country. The rebels fell back toward the Arkansas line, and it was reported that a force was advancing to join them from Arkansas, when they would be ready to meet us. Scouting parties were sent out, and ascertained that there was practically no enemy within fifty miles, the rebel army being concentrated at Cassville, where they waited the reinforcements mentioned. The country far beyond Wilson's Creek was entirely safe, only a stray scouting party of rebels having been seen for several days.

Jack and Harry obtained permission to visit Wilson's Creek and the battle-ground from which they had been driven eleven weeks before. “The thing that impressed us most,” said Jack, in his letter to his father, which he wrote the evening afterward, “was the absolute stillness of the place in contrast to the roar of artillery and the crash of the small arms on the day of the battle. There was no sound whatever to break it, except the occasional chirping of a bird or the rippling of the creek, except our own voices and the breaking of the twigs under the feet of our horses. At every step we took we could not help contrasting the cool autumn morning with that hot day in August when shot and shell and bullets were flying all around and the sound of the cannon was like rapid peals of thunder.

“My horse stumbled over something in the grass, and I looked down to see what it was. It was a human skull on which his foot had fallen, and the skull turning had caused him to stumble as he did. A few feet away lay the dismembered skeleton to which the skull evidently belonged. It was probably the remains of a soldier who had been wounded and crawled under a tree for shelter and died there, as the spot was among the trees, and away from the beaten track. There were bits of cloth scattered over the ground, and it was evident that birds or wild animals had been at work there; and also upon another skeleton a little further on, which was disturbed and scattered like the first.