ain out of the way. To quote once more from Dick Graham, it was
hardly worth the trouble, for the oxen were so lean and weak that they
could scarcely walk, and the wagons, which were fit for nothing but
fire-wood, were loaded with a lot of rubbish that was of little value.
But "Old Pap" was bent on saving everything he had, and could not have
worked harder to take this train to a place of security if it had been
freighted with the money he captured at Lexington. The retreat soon
became a rout. The whole country was thrown into a state of alarm, and
people came flocking from all directions, bringing with them the few
household effects that the different raiding parties had left them.
Price kept up a running fight until some of McCulloch's troops came up,
and then the Federal advance was checked.

If General Curtis intended this sudden movement for a surprise he could
not have selected a better time for it, and if he had kept his two
columns together, instead of sending Siegel off with thirteen thousand
men to operate in another quarter, Price's army would have "been
eliminated from the problem of war," and the battle of Pea Ridge would
not have been fought. McCulloch's army was divided, and McCulloch
himself was away in another direction surveying a route for the march to
New Madrid; and Price, relying upon the inhabitants to keep him posted
in regard to the movements of our forces, as well as upon the supposed
impassable condition of the roads in his front, was whipped before he
knew there was an enemy anywhere within reach of him. Then followed a
disastrous retreat of an army without provisions or tents, along a muddy
road, through a snow storm so blinding that one could scarcely see ten
feet ahead of him, and it went on until it was stopped by a telegram
from General Van Dorn, who had been appointed to command the Confederate
Army of the West because Price and McCulloch could not agree. The new
general, who declared that "all retrograde movements must be stopped at
once," and that "henceforth the army must press on to victory," arrived
on the 2d of March, drove Siegel out of Bentonville on the 5th, and on
Friday and Saturday fought the battle of Pea Ridge--a thing that he
might as well have let alone, for he did not do what he set out to do.
He retreated one way, while General Curtis went another and settled down
to await reinforcements. Van Dorn gave his men to understand that he was
not beaten, but he couldn't stop t