The Lost Army

This conversation took place between two boys of Dubuque, Iowa, one pleasant morning early in the year 1861. They were Jack Wilson and Harry Fulton, neither of whom had yet seen...

|While Jack and Harry are waiting impatiently for the order that will give them a taste of military life, we will leave them for a while and go down the Mississippi river to the...

There was great excitement when, on the morning of the eleventh of May, the particulars of occurrences of the day before in St. Louis were published. Jack read about it in the m...

|The regiment to which our young friends were attached--the First Iowa--received orders to move southward. Everything was bustle and activity in the camp, and the boys made them...

|It was a new life for Jack and Harry, and they greatly enjoyed it. Both declared that they slept more comfortably on the ground than they had formerly slept in bed, and as for...

When they were on the road again, after the affair of the rebel flag, they found a change of situation. A storm arose, and they had the disagreeable experience of marching and c...

|Let us now return to General Lyon, whom we left at Jefferson City, which he had occupied without opposition. The union men gave him a hearty welcome, while the secessionists re...

|There were no horses in camp, but there were many saddles, an indication that the camp was evacuated so hastily that there was not time to put the accouterments on the steeds,...

|Jack and Harry were pretty busily employed about the camp for the first two or three days following their arrival at Booneville. After that time they had more leisure, and were...

|Our young friends were not long in receiving the promotion they desired and certainly deserved. From being mere attachés, or as Jack expressed it, “adjutants,” of the wagon-tra...

|On the first of August General Lyon marched out on the road to the southwest and in the direction where the enemy was supposed to be; in fact, where it was positively known tha...

|Here is a description of the battlefield of the tenth of August, 1861, by a gentleman who was there on that occasion, and afterward visited the spot when he could do so without...

|On the whole battlefield there was no man more calm and collected than General Lyon, notwithstanding the great responsibility that rested upon him and the fearful odds against...

|We expected to pick up one or two of the wounded men into my wagon on our way back,” said Harry, “but found we did n't have to. The other wagons had followed close behind us, a...

|The three-months troops whose terms had expired, or were about to expire, were sent home, and the post at Rolla left in charge of the three-years regiments that remained, toget...

|After they had walked four or five miles the youths began to feel hungry, and at Jack's suggestion they stopped for breakfast at the side of a little brook, which could supply...

|Are they friends or enemies?” was the question which rose simultaneously in the thoughts of the two adventurers. One thing was certain, they were not a cavalry scouting party f...

|The morning after their arrival at Rolla, the prisoners taken through the instrumentality of Jack and Harry were sent to St. Louis, where they were held until an exchange was a...

|To the lack of ammunition and provisions, the stench of the dead animals, the immense preponderance in numbers of the enemy, the abundance of hemp with which the rebels could c...

|Fremont's army reached Springfield two days after the charge of the body-guard, the rebels retiring as the advance of the column approached. There was an amusing incident conne...

|For some time there had been rumors that General Fremont was about to be removed from the command of the Western Department. It was said that the authorities at Washington were...

|Careful students of the war did not fail to see that there was a systematic advance along the whole line from Virginia to Missouri during the early part of February, 1862. Duri...

|It was impossible to prevent news of the advance of the Union forces being carried to General Price at Springfield. That astute commander knew that he was in no condition to co...

|The union army followed closely after the rebel one, and for more than a hundred miles the chase was continued. Sometimes the advance of the pursuers was not more than a mile o...

|For two weeks after the army reached Cross Hollows it remained apparently inactive, though really far from idle. Foraging expeditions were constantly in motion, scouting partie...

|Van Dorn had learned through his spies and the country people about the strong front presented by General Curtis on the northern bank of Sugar Creek and the hills that bordered...

|Van Dorn's movements were delayed by the obstructions on the roads by which he moved. As soon as General Curtis became satisfied that the rebels were trying to get around to hi...

|WHEN I had delivered my orders, and just as I was returning to General Vandever,” continues Harry, “the rebels made a charge upon our battery and the infantry that supported it...

Harry touched his cap in acknowledgment of the command and then jogged back to camp, which was not more than a mile to the rear. Learning that it was possible to get to the bank...

|While Sigel's batteries had been pouring their iron hail upon the hill which formed the center of the rebel position the divisions of Carr and Davis had slowly advanced till th...

|To judge by the number of times I had to get off and walk,” continued Jack, “it was up-hill pretty nearly all the way to Fayetteville. A wounded major of the rebel army was put...

|General Curtis remained a few days in the camp near where the battle was fought, and then, as the country around was exhausted of supplies, he drew back a few miles to Keitsvil...

“It's an expedition into the enemy's country, where you 'll run a good deal of risk; but, as you are not enlisted into the service, you can undertake it without compromising you...

|Their new captors proved to belong to the band through whose hands they had passed, as already described, and after another examination, in which their pockets were again turne...

|The house where they asked for entertainment for the night was a two-story frame building, and belonged to a well-to-do farmer, who was the owner of ten or twelve negroes, and...

|The boys pushed on as fast as they could, but it was not possible to make so good time with so many horses to lead as though they had been unencumbered. But they had a good sta...

|But though he opened his eyes with astonishment, he did not open his lips to say why he did so. To have done so would have been imprudent to the last degree.

|There was a shot from the bank. The soldiers sprang to their arms and places, and everybody was ready for business in a moment. The shot had been fired from a clump of trees on...

|A flag of truce came during the evening, but was not admitted. The bearers were informed that the dead were being buried by our own men, and the wounded receiving every attenti...

The greater part of the baggage-wagons failed to come up until late in the evening, and it became necessary for the soldiers to bivouac without shelter, as the little town was n...

|Our story draws to a close. We have brought Harry and Jack to the banks of the great river, and there we will leave them. The army of General Curtis had terminated a most arduo...