The Late Battle Of Pea Ridge

Lieutenant Colonel Herron, of the Ninth Iowa volunteers, one of the regiments which bore so gallant a part in the actions at Leetown and Elkhorn, in Arkansas, (known officially as the battle of Pea Ridge,) recently arrived in this city, and is occupying a room at the Planters House.  He is in care of Dr. Charles A. Pope, and has promise of as speedy recovery from his wound as possible.  During one of the fiercest contests of the battle, and in which the Ninth had to struggle against a superior force of the enemy, a cannon ball passed entirely through Lieutenant Colonel Herron’s horse, and striking the rider’s right ankle, produced both a fracture and a dislocation.  While thus prostrated on the field, he fell into the hands of the enemy, and on the retreat of their army to Van Buren he was carried thither a prisoner, and exchanged, after two weeks’ detention, for Col. Hebert, of Louisiana, who was among the captives taken by the Union forces.  He was as well treated while in possession of the rebels as their limited means for hospitality and the courtesies of warfare would allow, and met among them several St. Louisans with whom he was acquainted before the breaking out of the war.  He saw or heard of them at the town of Van Buren, on the Arkansas river, four miles from Fort Smith. – It was on Van Buren that the enemy directed their retreat after the fortunes of the contest at Pea Ridge went against them, the columns of the deceased Generals McCulloch and McIntosh, taking the route via Huntsville, and Van Dorn and Price, the road through Bentonville.  They made capital time to Van Buren, and there effected a re-concentration of their defeated and dispirited followers.

Col. Herron Frequently saw and conversed with Gen. Price, and believes him to be rather the best and most sensible of the rebel magnates.  Price was shot through the left arm with a Minie ball.  It entered a few inches below the elbow and cut the bone without causing a complete fracture.  The arm was painful and much swollen, and Dr. France, Price’s Surgeon, had great difficulty in reducing the inflammation.

Gen. Slack received a mortal wound in the battle, and was found on the field by Federal soldiers, and carried to a hospital used temporarily for the treatment of the rebel wounded. – He lived only four hours.

Gens. McCulloch and McIntosh were buried at the same time, at Fort Smith.  An escort of cavalry accompanied their remains to the grave.

Gen. Rains after getting to Van Buren, became insubordinate, under the influence of copious drinks of bad whiskey.  He met. Maj. Gen. Van Dorn on the street, denounced him, and damned him for a coward – laying the loss of the battle wholly to Van Dorn’s account.  The opinion generally expressed by the rebel officers was that Van Dorn had courage enough, but lacked judgment.  He arrived at the confederate camps only the day before the battle, and was received with a grand artillery salute, the thunder of which was heard in the Federal lines.  Learning from the subordinate generals that their combined forces amounted to 40,000 men, he ordered them to move forward early next morning and surround the Federal troops.  The day before Col. Heron was released, Price received a commission from Richmond as Major-General.  This still left Price subordinate to Van Dorn, but he thinks the latter has retired or resigned leaving Price in chief command.

Two thirds of the rebel soldiers were armed with muskets, many of them of the Springfield and Enfield pattern, and having sabre bayonets.  The balance had shot guns and country rifles with usual variety.  A brigade of three regiments of Louisiana troops had good uniforms of gray cloth, but with the remainder of the army uniforms were few except with the officers.  They had forty-five pieces of artillery, many of the guns being superior to those in the Union army, who counted, all told, but forty two pieces.  The mules and wagons comprising the commissary train were better than our own, but in medical stores and hospital appliances they were very deficient.

The rebels generally were much dispirited. – Their officers studiously deceived them as to the extent of the late reverses.  They admitted that Fort Donelson had been lost to them with a garrison of two or three thousand men but they denied that Columbus had been evacuated, or that the Federal troops occupied Nashville.  The news of the naval engagement in Hampton Roads was bulletined throughout their camps on sheets of paper, printed in large type.  They represented that six Government vessels were then destroyed – on of them with the entire crew of five hundred men. –{St. Louis Rep.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 2

See Also:

• Iowa Colonels and Regiments: Major General Francis J. Herron

The Difference

The rebels have lost the following Generals during the war:

Garnett was killed at Carrick’s Ford; Burton and Bee at Manassas; Zollicoffer at Mill Springs; McCulloch, McIntosh and Slack at Pea Ridge; A. Sidney Johnston and Bushrod Johnson at Pittsburg Landing. Then we have captured Tilghman, Buckner, McCall, Galt, and Walker.

On the other hand, so far Generals Lyon and Wallace are the only Generals killed in battle, although Lander died from effects of a wound. Gen. Prentiss is the only prisoner of the same rank in possession of the rebels.

We hope all of the rebel officers will not be disposed of by bullets. There ought to be some left to taste the virtue of hemp.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 3, 1862, p. 1

Battle of Pea Ridge

We have received some information of interest respecting the battle of Pea Ridge, derived from gentlemen of this State who have recently returned from a visit on business to Louisiana. On their way they passed through the confederate Camp, at Van Buren, Arkansas, and remained there for several days. They were well acquainted with many officers and privates, and conversed freely in reference to the prominent events of the late battle at Pea Ridge, and their information is considered entirely reliable.

Generals McCulloch, McIntosh and McRae, and Col. Rives of this State are certainly dead. General Slack was not dead, and hopes of his recovery are entertained. In General Price’s division the number of dead was between 125 and 150 – the wounded between four and five hundred – and a number missing. In the other division no report was know to have been made, and probably never will be. That of Gen. McCulloch had dispersed, leaving no one to report, whilst those of McIntosh and Pike seem to have been overlooked or lost sight of. The army Argus, after a while, will probably contain the names and other particulars in General Price’s division, which will be promptly published on its receipt.

They confirm the desperation of the battle – its long continuance and extremely doubtful result – the superior numbers of the Confederate army, and its final defeat and retreat to Van Buren. Being friends of Gen. Price, they speak in the most delicate manner of his mortification at the result, but the fact of the admitted defeat and retreat is not concealed. All the stories of a second battle, so industriously circulated, are contradicted. None such occurred.

Much conversation was going on in the army in reference to the plan of attack, and events during the battle. Manu of the Friends of Gen. Price allege his non-concurrence, and attribute the defeat a failure to carry out his views. – Great pains had been taken to ascertain the exact size of Gen. Curtis’ column, the number being put down at 15,970 men. That of the Confederates being about 25,000. Gen. Van Dorn considered it an easy matter to practically surround and capture the entire army. The battle as is known, was fought on that theory, and lost.

Gen. Price, it would seem, lacked confidence in the columns of McCulloch and McIntosh, and for that or some other reason desired his Division to bring on and sustain the fight. He stated, it is alleged, that they would stand – stand and shoot until he ordered them to retreat, which he would never do.

The divisions of McCulloch and McIntosh he desired in his rear as a reserve, this line to be opened, at a proper time, for them to charge thro and upon the Federal troops with a huzzah and a yell. A charge of that kind, well directed by fresh troops, upon hard fought and weary men, he insisted, would break their lines and demoralize and destroy them. And whether true or false, this theory is presented in commendation of Gen. Price, and to the prejudice of Gen. Van Dorn as a military commander.

General Rains, it is said, became furious on learning of an order to retreat. He questioned Gen. Van Dorn, and upon receiving an affirmative reply, told him flatly if he was whipped he was the only man in the entire army in that state of mind. Van Dorn required of him to retract which being declined, his sword was demanded and surrendered. But some of the men have a different version of the affair, and they say the real difficulty is deeper than mere words; that Rains had captured a barrel of Van Dorn’s best whisky, and the difference about the retreat was a pretext to enable him to furnish a much more substantial offense. The facts we hope, will come out before a court martial.

General Price received a painful wound in the arm, and was slightly cut by a ball passing along the point of the abdomen. His army numbered only some eight or ten thousand, but he was expecting large reinforcements, and expressed the determination of marching to and occupying the Missouri river. But before General Curtis and his brave and increasing army, he might have some hope of accomplishing this purpose. As it is, his next move will be South – his fate, annihilation of himself and army. – {Mo. Republican.

– Published in the Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 12, 1862