CHAPTER XXIII. IN THE CAMP OF THE REBELS--CAPTURED LETTERS AND THEIRCONTENTS.
|It was impossible to prevent news of the advance of the Union forcesbeing carried to General Price at Springfield. That astute commanderknew that he was in no condition to cope with an army of sixteenthousand men, and so he wisely withdrew when certain that he would haveto fight if he remained. He left in haste and did not take time to packup all his correspondence, of which a considerable portion fell into thehands of the invaders.
General Curtis had hoped to surround Price in Springfield and preventhis retreat; he did surround the town on two of its four sides, butleft the other two wide open, and consequently Price was able to marchserenely and leisurely down the road in the direction of the Arkansasline.
General Sigel was sent along a parallel road in the hope of heading offPrice, but the latter got wind of the movement and accelerated his ownspeed so that heading off was out of the question. Then, too, his rearwas rather closely followed by General Curtis’s cavalry, so that therear-guard pressed against the column in front of it and urged theretreat. General Sigel’s officers afterwards complained that they werefoiled in their heading-off attempt by the vigorous pursuit of thecavalry that led the main column.
Jack and Harry were with a scouting party that visited the deserted campof the rebels close to the town of Springfield, and were much interestedin studying the buildings which had been erected for the use ofthe troops. They consisted of log and board structures, and weresufficiently numerous and extensive to accommodate ten thousand men,in the way troops are lodged in barracks, without any overcrowding. Thelog-houses were well chinked with mud and clay, and the board ones werewell built and comfortable; both kinds of buildings had flooringsof boards, and at one end of every house there was a chimney and afireplace.
“In some of the camps,” said Jack afterwards, in describing the placeto a friend, “the buildings seemed to have been dropped down hap-hazard,without any effort at regularity, while in other camps they werelaid out into streets and lanes. Some of the streets had signs atthe corners, and of course the names were sure to be those of theConfederate generals. The bunks were arranged in tiers, sometimes fouror five in a tier; some of the roofs of the buildings were coveredwith rawhide, and we saw several chairs and sofas seated with the samematerial.
“We thought by the looks of the place that they must have left in ahurry. There was a dead pig lying on the ground with the knife stillsticking in his throat, and close by was a sheep hanging on a peg in theside of a house, with its skin about half taken off. Dough was fresh inthe pans, and there were cooking utensils in considerable number, manyof them containing food wholly or partially cooked. They took away theirblankets, hardly one having been left behind. The sick men who remainedin camp said that there was a very short supply of blankets, and theywere sure the army would suffer greatly for want of proper clothing andcovering.
“I’m certain they left in a great hurry,” continued Jack, “or I wouldn’t have this.”
As he spoke he drew from his pocket a gold watch, which he had found ina bunk in one of the houses, evidently a house where the officers ofa regiment were lodged. It was a pleasing souvenir of the visit to thecamp, and Jack said he hoped to carry it home to show to his friends inIowa.
“And what did you find, Harry?” said one of the listeners, turning tothe other of our young friends.
“There were no gold watches, or even a silver one, in any bunk thatI examined; but I found this, which was quite likely a treasuredpossession of its former owner as much as was the watch to the man wholeft it behind for Jack to pick up. But it would n’t sell for as much;in fact, I don’t think it would bring any price at all in the market, asit’s only a bundle of love-letters.”
Then he read some of the letters aloud, to the great amusement of theentire party. It is a fact worthy of record that anybody’s love-lettersare amusing, and generally silly, to all except the one person for whomthey are intended and the other person who writes them.
The love element was not stronger than the devotion of the fair writersto the cause of the South. One of them urged her lover to stay withthe army and fight till the last slave-stealing Yankee was put out ofexistence and the triumph of the Confederacy was assured. “And youwon’t have long to stay,” she added, “as we hear the northern people arestarving, and all of them are fast getting sick of the war. They won’tbe able to hire any more Dutchmen to fight for them, and when they can’thire Dutchmen the war will stop and the South will be independent.
“I know I can trust you when you get among the northern women,” she saysin conclusion; “and am sure you won’t forget me and fall in love withone of those ill-looking, wheezing, whining, ignorant creatures. That’swhat Johnny Scott says all the Yankee women are like, and he’s beenNorth three or four times, you know.”
“Poor, dear, confiding girl,” said Harry. “I’m afraid Johnny Scottwanted to make her mind easy about her far-off sweetheart, and soinvented this charming fiction about the northern lasses. How her eyeswould be opened if she could take a run through the cities and countrytowns all the way from the state of Maine to the Missouri river and seethe thousands and thousands of pretty faces that could be seen there.”
To judge by the passages of the letters giving the news and rumorsconcerning the progress of the war, it was evident that the mostastounding stories of the prowess of the southern soldiers and thecowardice of the northern ones were in active circulation. The latterhad been defeated over and over again, and generally ran at the firstfire; sometimes they even ran before a shot was fired, and gave theenemy the victory without spilling a drop of blood.
There was an amusing juxtaposition of paragraphs, one of which said theYankees were being driven back everywhere as fast as they could be met,and the other saying they were pushing down into the South all the time“further and further.” Evidently the writer of the letter was puzzled atthis, for she says:
“I asked Colonel Jones that if we were whipping the Yanks all the time,how it was they kept coming further down South as fast as we whippedthem. He said a woman could n’t understand war; he could excuse myasking such a question, but if it had been a man that asked it he wouldhave arrested him for a Yankee spy. Of course I am aware, Charles, thatI don’t know anything about war, and I wish you’d write me something,so that I can talk understandingly. I think I can guess it; the southerngenerals want to entice the Yanks down into the South, and when they getready to kill the whole lot, none of them can get away.”
This was the explanation given on several occasions by the rebel leadersin reply to inquiries as to the reasons for certain retirements of therebel troops. A letter from Colonel Thomas H. Price, of General Price’sstaff, was among the correspondence captured at Springfield. It had beenleft behind by the general in his hasty departure. This letter was datedat Memphis, January sixth, and contained, among other information, thefollowing:
* * * I shall start in the morning for Richmond. I have not the leastwish or curiosity to go, but Major Anderson and Colonel Hunt, of theQuartermaster and Ordnance Departments, advise to go immediately there.I tell everybody who mentions your retreat that you only moved your campto be more convenient to forage, etc.
There were many other letters which the rebel general left behind in hisflight that were of special interest to the union commanders, as theyrevealed the methods of recruiting and gathering provisions in theConfederate states. There was a complaint that the governor of Arkansashad placed an embargo on the shipment of pork, corn and other produce toNew Orleans, on the ground that it would all be needed for feeding theArkansas troops in the field. One man said he had bought twelve thousandpounds of pork to ship to New Orleans, and on which he expected ahandsome profit, but owing to the action of the governor he was unableto sell a pound of it.
This was agreeable news to the union commanders, as it went far toinsure a good supply of provisions in any movements the Army of theSouthwest might make in Arkansas. Various let
ters gave the strengthof the rebel forces at different points, and altogether a good deal ofinformation was obtained from the captured correspondence.
The rebels had established a foundry and armory at Springfield. In theformer they were casting shot and shell for the use of the artillerymen,and in the latter small arms were being repaired and cartridges madefor the infantry, while swords were fashioned and put in serviceablecondition for the cavalry.
Several buildings were filled with provisions, one large one being quiteuntouched. The reason why the torch was not applied to these storehousesand their contents will be seen later on.