Pea Ridge by Shea William L. & Hess Earl J

Author:Shea, William L. & Hess, Earl J. [Hess, Earl J.]
Language: zho
Format: epub
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Published: 1992-11-14T16:00:00+00:00

About 2:00 A.M. Sigel found himself at Pratt’s store instead of at Little Sugar Creek. Unfazed, he took this opportunity to inform Curtis of his altered plans. Roused yet again from his bed of straw, the commanding general was astonished to learn that Sigel had abandoned his position on Ford Road without seeking permission or, until now, informing anyone of his action. Curtis was even more astonished when he heard Sigel’s scheme. With dawn only four hours away and the troops still two miles from their camps, it would be impossible for them to eat, sleep, and return in time to do battle—especially with Sigel in charge. Curtis still was reluctant to give his chief subordinate a direct order, but he forcefully urged him to rest his weary men at Pratt’s store and “send for provisions, as the other troops were doing.” Taken aback by Curtis’s sharp tone, Sigel “readily concurred.”36

The wandering warriors of the 1st and 2nd Divisions, “dead tired, starved and discouraged,” plopped down in the woods surrounding Pratt’s store. Some started cooking fires; others scurried off to fill canteens, borrow utensils, and collect rations of flour from the nearby supply trains. Within an hour or so they were dining on flapjacks. The small cooking fires soon became roaring bonfires surrounded by slumbering masses of thinly clad soldiers. “We were thoroughly tired out,” recalled one midwesterner, “and had reached a point where sleep, however uncomfortable, was a necessity.” Sigel’s men were among the few Federals who enjoyed the luxury of campfires that night.37

When Asboth learned of the arrival of the 1st and 2nd Divisions at Pratt’s store, he hurried over and poured out his fears to Sigel, who was one of his closest friends in the army. Sigel’s military career thus far had been highlighted by a series of retreats in Germany, at Carthage and Wilson’s Creek in Missouri, and most recently, at Bentonville. By now he was predisposed to think of battle in terms of defeat and escape. Even though Sigel had seen the Federal triumph at Leetown with his own eyes, Asboth had little difficulty persuading him that the overall tactical situation was hopeless. By the time this curious meeting ended, the army’s senior division commander had convinced the army’s second-in-command that the battle of Pea Ridge was lost and that the Federals could avoid disaster only by making a vigorous fighting withdrawal. Sigel’s heart must have quickened as he contemplated the prospect of his second brilliant retreat in three days.

Hours earlier, after Sigel and Osterhaus had marched toward the sound of battle at Elkhorn Tavern, Davis directed the soldiers of his 3rd Division to secure the Leetown battlefield and retrieve the wounded. Not having heard from Curtis in some time, Davis dispatched a company of cavalrymen from the 36th Illinois to check the Winton Hollow Road between Leetown and Pratt’s store for rebel ambushes. The troopers found none and reached army headquarters without incident, where they described the final stages of the Federal victory at Leetown to Curtis in detail.

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