Gen. Curtis and Gen. Sigel

A writer in the Missouri Republican, writing in defense of Gen. Sigel, closes his communication with the following authoritative contradiction of a libel perpetrated and widely circulated against Gen. Curtis:

I avail myself of this writing to contradict, on the authority of Gen. Sigel, that he was ever present at a conference of division commanders, at which “a surrender was seriously considered” at Pea Ridge; and I am satisfied that this and other rumors and extravagant statements which have gained currency in the newspapers are as distasteful as they are annoying to Gen. Sigel, and especially is he displeased with all those contrasts drawn between the German and the American, since it is his pride and honor to command an army nearly equally balanced with German and American, who are harmonious in camp, and equally valiant in battle. If the credit is claimed for either, injustice is done to the other.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, April 19, 1862, p. 2