“While we were on the march we met couriers that had been sent out by General Curtis to tell us that fighting had already begun away on the right of our line where General Sigel was. They also told us that we should find the center or main position at Sugar Creek, where the shape of the ground was such as to give us a better defensive position than the one at Cross Hollows. General Curtis had decided to concentrate his forces there as soon as he heard of the rebel advance, and the movements of the various parts of the army had such a concentration in view.”
Not the least weary of these who took part in General Vandever's expedition on its return to camp were Harry and Jack. The noble-hearted youths had done all they could to help along their comrades, and for nearly half the way they had loaned their horses to footsore infantrymen who were unable to keep up with the column. Harry declared that a little exercise would do him good. Jack shared his kindly feeling, and walked briskly along as though it was the greatest fun in the world. General Vandever said they were a pair of Mark Tapleys, who could be jolly under the most adverse circumstances.
When they were yet four or five miles from camp the general sent Harry to give notice of the coming of the expedition and order a supper prepared for the weary men. Harry took his horse from the man who had been riding it, and darted away as fast as he could go. The men in camp set to work with a will, and when the expedition arrived a supper as good as the army rations could supply was ready and waiting. Harry satisfied his own hunger and secured a good meal for Jack, who was not long in swallowing it; the horses were fed and watered, and then the pair of young veterans stretched themselves on the ground to get what sleep they could before the breaking of day should be the signal for battle.
While they are sleeping we will look at the organization of the two armies, and the plans on which the battle of Pea Ridge was fought.
As before stated, the army of General Curtis was about sixteen thousand strong when it started from Rolla, but the number had been reduced by leaving a garrison at Springfield and by the other causes that always reduce the strength of an army in the field, so that the aggregate of effective men ready for battle was little if any above ten thousand. It was in four divisions—the first being commanded by General Osterhaus, the second by General Asboth, the third by General Jeff C. Davis, and the fourth by General Carr. Some of these officers had not then received their commissions as generals and were still known as colonels; but as they all rose to the rank shortly afterward, it will be convenient and not unjust for us to designate them by the higher titles, whose duties they were performing.
Each division consisted of two brigades, but some of the brigades were very small, and did not contain enough men for a full regiment. General Sigel was in command of the first and second divisions, and thus held the position of a field marshal, under the superior command of General Curtis, the commander-in-chief. The infantry regiments that were in the battle of Pea Ridge on the union side were the Twenty-fifth, Thirty-fifth, Thirty-sixth, Thirty-seventh and Forty-fourth Illinois, the Eighth, Eighteenth, and Twenty-second Indiana, the Fourth and Ninth Iowa, and the Second, Ninth, Fifteenth, Twelfth, Seventeenth, Twenty-fifth and a part of the Third Missouri; of cavalry regiments there were the Third Iowa, the Third and Thirty-ninth Illinois, and the First, Fourth and Sixth Missouri together with two battalions of Benton hussars, and Major Brown's battalion of cavalry, which served as a body-guard to the general-in-chief. The artillery comprised about fifty field-guns of various sizes, in four and six-gun batteries, from the same states as were represented by the infantry.
The rebel army was commanded by General Earl Van Dorn, and its aggregate was said to be not far from thirty thousand men. Van Dorn's army was composed as follows: Missouri troops, under Major-General Sterling Price, about nine thousand; Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas troops, under Brigadier-General Ben McCulloch, about thirteen thousand; Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw and other Indian troops, with two white regiments, under Brigadier-General Albert Pike, about seven thousand. No exact statement of the number of rebel troops in the battle has ever been published, but the above-named figures are not far from the correct ones. An officer of Price's army wrote an account of the battle, which was published in the Richmond Whiff. In this account he said the rebels estimated their strength at thirty-five thousand, and making all deductions for stragglers and the usual falling off on the line of march, they had from twenty-five thousand to thirty thousand men to go into action.