Columbus N. Udell, son of Dr. Udell of the Senate, is a
member of Col. Bussey’s Cavalry Regiment, and was in the late battle of Pea
Ridge, Arkansas. Writing to his mother
he says that the Federal army was largely indebted to Franz Sigel for the
victory which they won. For nearly two
days they had been surrounded by the superior numbers of the enemy, when Sigel
planned and executed a ruse, the result of which really settled the fortunes of
the battle. He commanded his
artillerymen to load their guns with blank cartridges. As the enemy approached, the guns were fired,
but not a single man was seen to fall. A
half a dozen times was this repeated, until the rebels concluded that the
federals had exhausted their ammunition, and they therefore made an indiscriminate
rush upon the federal battery. Sigel
withheld his fire until the enemy had got into the right position, and then
hurled such a storm of grape and canister among them that mowed them down like
grass. No body of men could face such a
murderous fire, and the rebels in that portion of the field were put to utter
rout.
No wonder such a man has been made a Major General. – {Des
Moines Register.
– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye,
Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 1
