t that now, since the rest of the
army was coming to their help, they would undoubtedly win a victory
in the morning, and clear the rebels from the road leading back to
Springfield. This confidence was shared by the men of Jeff C. Davis's
and Osterhaus's Divisions, who had come to their assistance, and they
all felt more hopeful than did Sigel and Asboth's Division, which had
taken little or no part in the fighting. The following remarkable letter
from Gen. Asboth to Gen. Curtis, written at 2 o'clock in the morning of
March 8, reveals the general belief of that portion of the army that the
condition was desperate and it would require extraordinary efforts to
release the army from a very hazardous situation:

333

Headquarters Second Division, Camp Near Sugar Creek, Ark.,

March 8, 1862; 2 a. m. General: As Oen. Sigel, under whose
command you have placed me, with my division, has not yet
returned to our camp, I beg to address you, General,
directly, reporting that all the troops of the Second
Division were yesterday, as well as now, in the night,
entirely without forage; and as we are cut off from all
supplies by the enemy, outnumbering our forces several
times, and as one more day without forage will make our
horses unserviceable, consequently the cavalry and artillery
as well as the teams, of no use at all, I would respectfully
solicit a decided concentrated movement, with the view of
cutting our way through the enemy where you may deem it more
advisable, and save by this, if not the whole, at least the
larger part of our surrounded army.

Gen. Curtis seems to have realized quite early in the afternoon the
condition of affairs on his left in front of Leetown, and that the fight
there was over. He therefore directed the cavalry under Col. Bussey to
take up the best positions, holding the ground. All the infantry and
artillery were ordered over toward the Springfield road to form a new
line of battle, substantially a prolongation of that established at
the close of the fighting by the stubborn resistance of Dodge's and
Vandever's Brigades, which had so decisively repulsed the last attacks
upon them the previous evening.

384

Sigel, who had a remarkable faculty for incurring criticism in every
battle, had not made use of Gen. Asboth's Division at any time to
relieve the pressure upon Davis and Osterhaus, so that it had hardly
fired a