THE PEA RIDGE CAMPAIGN.

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distance in front of ns. When well in action, we advanced slowly from posi-tion to position, at the same time contracting our line, the infantry following,rising quickly, and as soon as they had reached a new position lying downagain. During this time the whole cavalry force of the two divisions hadformed behind the extreme left of our line, supported by the 2d Missouri andElbert’s flying battery of General Asboth’s command. The 17th Missouri ,under Major Poten, also came up from the Bentonville road, and was postedon the left. On our right, communication was established with the rightwing, and the two batteries of Klauss and Davidson were brought into linewith our own, while the two brigades of Colonels Julius White and ThomasPattison held the left of the enemy’s line in check until our whole line advanced.

It was now a little after 11 o’clock; most of the enemy’s batteries (aboutfifty guns) were silenced one after another, by our concentric fire; his infantry,not venturing out of the woods into the open fields, was now treated with ashower of shell and shrapnel. Opposite our extreme left, however, nearElkhorn Tavern, Van Dorn made a determined effort to hold the high spur ofhills, the top of which was crowned and protected by rocks and bowlders.Some of Price ’s infantry had already taken possession of it, and a battery wasbeing placed in position, when Hoffmann’s and Elbert’s batteries were orderedto direct their fire against them chiefly with solid shot. Not more thanfifteen minutes elapsed before the enemy evacuated this last stronghold,while our infantry on the left — the 36th Illinois , and the 2d, 3d, and 17thMissouri — rushed up the steep hill and forced the remnants of the enemy’stroops down into Cross Timber Hollow. Almost simultaneously the 12thMissouri, the 25th and the 44th Illinois advanced in double-quick from thecenter and right into the woods, engaged the enemy’s infantry, drove it back,and one of our regiments (the 12th Missouri ) captured the “ Dallas Battery.”On the extreme right, where General Curtis had directed the movements ofthe troops, Davis’s division and a part of Carr’s, assisted by Hayden’s andJones’s batteries (the latter commanded by Lieutenant David), pushed forwardagainst the left wing of the enemy and forced it to leave the field. The armyof Yan Dorn and Price , including about two-thirds of McCulloch’s troopsunder Churchill and Greer, and one-third of Pike’s Indian Brigade, all ofwhom had joined Price during the night, were now in precipitate retreat inall directions, pursued by the First and Second Divisions as far as Keets-ville, 9 miles to the north, and by a cavalry force under Colonel Bussey with2 mountain howitzers to the south-west beyond Bentonville . So ended thebattle of Pea Ridge, and our little army, instead of being “ beaten and com-pelled to surrender,” had gained a decisive victory. %

& The picture on the next page shows Big across the fields from east to west, with its highestMountain in the right "background, as it appeared elevation in the center, and on which my artilleryin March, 1862. When I visited the battle-field a was posted, shows at once how great our advan-few weeks ago (July 6th, 1887) the whole range tage must have been against the hostile batteries,of mountains was covered by a dense forest, and which were planted behind the margin of the woodsthe rocky summits of Big Mountain were not dis- in the lower ground. The surface of the cultivatedeernible from the fields below, where our troops fields is nowwidenedbythe clearing of the adjacenthad been posted. In other respects there were not woods, so that the whole interior space of the bat-great changes. The rising ground stretching tie-field seems much larger. The house and barn