THE FLANKING COLUMN AT WILSON’S CREEK.
O N August 9th, 1861, the day before the battleat Wilson’s Creek, my brigade, consisting ofthe 3d and 5th Missouri Infantry, commanded re-spectively by Lieutenant-Colonel Anselm Albertand Charles E. Salomon, and two batteries of artil-lery, each of 4 pieces, under the command ofLieutenants Schaefer and Schuetzenbach, was en-camped on the south side of Springfield , near theYokermill road. On our right was encamped the1st Iowa Infantry, a regiment clad in militia gray.The bulk of General Lyon’s forces were on thewest side of the city. During the morning I senta staff-officer to General Lyon’s headquarters fororders, and on his return he reported to me thata forward movement would take place, and that wemust hold ourselves in readiness to march at amoment’s warning directly from our camp, towardthe south, to attack the enemy from the rear. Iimmediately went to General Lyon, who said thatwe would move in the evening to attack the enemyin his position at Wilson’s Creek, and that I was tobe prepared to move with my brigade; the 1stIowa would join the main column with him, whileI was to take the Yokermill (Forsyth) road, thenturn toward the south-west and try to gain the en-emy’s rear. At my request, he said that he wouldprocure guides and some cavalry to assist me ; hewould also let me know the exact time when Ishould move. I then asked him whether, on ourarrival near the enemy’s position, we should attackimmediately or wait until we were apprised of thefight by the other troops. He reflected a momentand then said : “ Wait until you hear the firing onour side.” The conversation did not last longerthan about ten minutes. Between 4 and 5 o’clockin the afternoon I received the order to move at6:30 P. M. At 6 o’clock two companies of cavalry,under Captain Eugene A. Carr and LieutenantCharles E. Farrand, joined us, also several guides.My whole force now consisted of 8 companies ofthe 3d and 9 companies of the 5th Missouri (912men), 6 pieces of artillery (85 men), and the 2companies of cavalry (121),— in all, 1118 men.
Precisely at 6 : 30 o’clock the brigade moved outof its camp; after following the Yokermill road forabout five miles we turned south-west into thewoods, and found our way, with difficulty, to a pointsouth of the enemy’s camp, where we arrived be-tween 11 and 12 o’clock at night. There we rested.It was a dark, cloudy night, and a drizzling rain be-gan to fall. So far no news of our movement hadreached the enemy’s camp, as the cavalry in ad-vance had arrested every person on the road, andput guards before the houses in its neighborhood.
At the first dawn of day we continued our advancefor abcut a mile and a half, the cavalry patrols infront capturing forty men who had strolled into ourline while looking for food and water, and who saidthat twenty regiments of Missouri, Arkansas , andLouisiana troops were encamped not far distant in
the valley beyond. Moving on, we suddenly foundourselves near a hill, from which we gained a fullview of the camp. We halted a few moments,when I directed four pieces of our artillery to takeposition on the top of the hill, commanding thecamp, while the infantry, with the other two piecesand preceded by Lieutenant Farrand’s cavalrycompany, continued its march down the road tothe crossing of Wilson’s Creek.
It was now 5:30 A. M. At this moment somemusket-firing was heard from the north-west, an-nouncing the approach of General Lyon’s troops ;I therefore ordered the four pieces to open fireagaiust the camp, which had a “ stirring” effecton the enemy, who were preparing breakfast.The surprise was complete, except that one ofthe enemy’s cavalrymen made good his retreatfrom Lieutenant Farrand’s dragoons and took thenews of our advance to the other side (GeneralPearce’s headquarters). I became aware of hisescape, and believing that no time should be lostto lend assistance to our friends, we crossed Wil-son’s Creek, took down the fences at Dixon’sfarm, passed through it and crossed Terrel (orTyrel) Creek. (See map, page 290.) Not know-ing whether it would be possible to bring all ourpieces along, I left the four pieces on the hill, witha support of infantry, and continued our marchuntil we reached the south side of the valley, whichextends northward to Sharp’s house, about 3000paces, and from west to east about 1000. Wetook the road on the west side of the valley, alongthe margin of the woods, and within a fence run-ning nearly parallel with the open fields.
During this time a large body of the enemy’scavalry, about 2500 strong, was forming acrossthe valley, not far distant from its northern ex-tremity ; I therefore halted the column on theroad, sent for the four pieces left on the otherside of the creek, and, as soon as their approachwas reported to me, I directed the head of ourcolumn to the right, left the road, and formed thetroops in line of battle, between the road and theenemy’s deserted camp,— the infantry on the left,the artillery on the right, and the cavalry on theextreme right, toward Wilson’s Creek. A livelycannonade was now opened against the densemasses of the hostile cavalry, which lasted abouttwenty minutes, and forced the enemy to retire indisorder toward the north and into the woods. Wenow turned back into the road, and, advancing,made our way through a number of cattle nearSharp’s house, and suddenly struck the Fayette-ville road, leading north to that part of the battle-field on which General Lyon’s troops were engaged.We were now on the principal line of retreat of theenemy, and had arrived there in perfect order anddiscipline. Up to this time we had made fifteenmiles, had been constantly in motion, had had a suc-cessful engagement, and the troops felt encouraged
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