ying column under Lieutenant-Colonel Brown, sent out the same night,
came upon the camp, drove out the command, kept up the pursuit all
night, and all the next day and night, pushing the fugitives away from
Price and utterly dispersing them over the country, and rejoined Pope on
the 18th with 150 prisoners, and sixteen wagons loaded with supplies
captured. At the same time Major Hubbard with his detachment pushed
south to the lines of one of Price's divisions, encamped opposite
Osceola, on the north shore of the Osage, and captured pickets and one
entire company of cavalry, with its tents and wagons. On the 18th, Pope
moved to the north, to intercept another body moving south to join
Price, and which he learned from his scouts would camp that night at the
mouth of Clear Creek, just beyond Warrensburg. His dispositions were so
made and carried out that the entire body was surrounded and captured,
comprising parts of two regiments of infantry and three companies of
cavalry--numbering 1,300 officers and men, with complete train and full
supplies. Pope's troops reoccupied their camps at Sedalia and Otterville
just one week after they marched out of them. Price broke up his camp at
Osceola in haste, and fell rapidly back to Springfield.

General Samuel R. Curtis arrived at Rolla on December 27th, to take
command of a force concentrating there and called the Army of the
Southwest. One division, under the command of Colonel Jefferson C.
Davis, detached from General Pope's district, added to three other
divisions commanded respectively by General Sigel, General Ashboth, and
Colonel E.A. Carr, made together 12,095 men and fifty pieces of
artillery, including four mountain howitzers. Marching out from Rolla on
January 23, 1862, with three divisions, he halted a week at Lebanon,
where he was joined by Colonel Davis, completing organization and
preparation. After some skirmishing with Price's outposts, Curtis
entered Springfield at daylight, February 15th, to find that Price had
abandoned it in the night. Curtis followed with forced marches, his
advance skirmishing every day with Price's rear-guard. In Arkansas,
Price was joined by McCulloch and they retired to Boston Mountains.
Curtis advanced as far as Fayetteville and then fell back to await
attack on ground of his own choice.

The position selected was where the main road, running north from
Fayetteville into Missouri, crosses Sugar Creek, and goes over a ridge
or rough platea