CHAPTER XIX. SURRENDER OF LEXINGTON--PRICE’S RETREAT AND FREmont’sadvance.
|To the lack of ammunition and provisions, the stench of the deadanimals, the immense preponderance in numbers of the enemy, theabundance of hemp with which the rebels could construct breastworks, thebeleaguered garrison had to face an additional horror--that of thirst.
As before stated, the fortification was at some distance from the river,and within the limits of the fortification there were two cisterns,which were soon exhausted, and just outside the lines were two springs,which afforded a scanty supply, the rest being taken from the river. Assoon as the besiegers ascertained this state of affairs they proceededto cut off the supply of water, which they were able to do with theirgreatly superior numbers.
All communication with the river was severed, and then a force wasposted in a position to fire on anybody who went to get water at thesprings. Men can fight under great privations of food and with shortsupplies of ammunition, but they cannot fight against thirst. Sodetermined were the men to hold out, that during a heavy rain on thesecond night after the siege began every tent and wagon cover was spreadto catch as much water as possible; in this way a great amount wassecured, and more was obtained by spreading blankets, and afterwardwringing them out.
Twice a white flag was raised on the ramparts without the authority ofColonel Mulligan, and immediately hauled down as soon as he learned ofit. A third time it was raised, also without his authority; but when heconsidered the sufferings of his men and found there was no prospectof relief, he consented to surrender, and negotiations were begunimmediately. Unconditional surrender were the terms demanded by thebesiegers, and under the circumstances the besieged were forced toaccept them. They piled their arms and handed over their colors. ColonelMulligan wept as he gave up his command, and many of his men fairlyrolled on the ground in their rage at having been defeated. But it waspractically impossible that they could hold out any longer, and thesurrender was certainly in the interests of humanity.
The losses were less than might have been expected in a fight thatlasted from the eleventh to the twentieth of September, though it mustbe remembered that for the first few days it was not very energeticallypushed by the besiegers. The water supply was cut off on the seventeenthand from that time to the twentieth the garrison had no water beyondwhat they caught in blankets, tents and wagon-covers in the rain thathas been mentioned. Less than two hundred were killed and wounded on theUnion side, and about the same number on that of the rebels. Each sideclaimed to have inflicted a greater loss on the enemy than it sustaineditself, a circumstance which has been more or less intimately connectedwith warfare since the world began.
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Immediately after the surrender the rebels swarmed around the prisoners,and while some treated them kindly, others heaped abuse upon them, andif the Unionists had not already laid down their arms there would havebeen a good prospect of a renewal of the fight. The prisoners wereparoled not to take up arms against the Confederacy until regularlyexchanged, and then they were set across the Missouri river and marchedto a point near the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railway and told to go wherethey pleased. During this march they were in charge of General Rains andhis brigade, and most of them testified to the kindness of the soldiersof Rain’s Brigade and of the people along the road they traveled.
After the surrender Lexington was a lively place. With nearly thirtythousand victorious rebel soldiery in the town, and many of thesesoldiers filled with whisky, in addition to being flushed with victory,the streets were anything but quiet and orderly. The officers of theConfederates were gentlemanly enough, but as for the soldiers they wereanything but well-behaved. It required all the authority of the officersto keep the men from breaking loose and setting the town on fire orcommitting some other folly or barbarity. In some instances it becamenecessary to order the men out of town and form camps three or fourmiles away, which no one could leave without express permission.
There was the same lack of uniforms that had characterized the troops atWilson’s Creek, only a few hundreds of all the army under General Pricehaving been able to obtain the Confederate gray. Some of the generalsand colonels were uniformed, but many were not, and wore their civiliandress, with cloth shoulder-straps to indicate their rank. Many of thesoldiers fought quite independently of all command, and took theirpositions wherever they were best suited.
An eye-witness of the siege said that the mode of fighting was wellillustrated by something that came under his observation. There was anold Texan, dressed in a buckskin suit and armed with a hunting-rifle ofthe kind in use on the plains before the war. About seven o’clock everymorning this Texan used to go to the Confederate breastworks, carryinghis dinner in a tin pail. He hunted around for a good position till hefound one, and then he fired away whenever he saw a head until the sunshowed the meridian.
Promptly at noon he knocked off for an hour and ate his dinner. Then hewent to work again and kept at it till six o’clock, when he went home tosupper and to spend the night in peaceful sleep. Morning saw him at hispost again; and thus he continued at his daily task till the surrendertook place. There were a good many independent warriors of this sort,and if they did not kill many of their adversaries it was because thelatter kept their heads out of range.
As soon as Lexington was surrendered Price turned his attention togathering supplies and recruits from the rich and populous countiesalong the river. While he was engaged at this business, General Fremontassembled an army at Jefferson City for the purpose of heading him off.A portion of Fremont’s army marched from Jefferson City to Tipton andSyracuse, while the balance was sent forward by railway to the samepoint. It was intended to march from these points to Springfield andreoccupy the place, which Lyon’s army had been compelled to give up inAugust after the reverse at Wilson’s Creek.
At the same time the garrison of Rolla was strengthened, and acolumn was ordered to move from that point to join the main force atSpringfield. This movement promised to give occupation to Jack andHarry, who had been chafing at their inactivity while preparations werein progress. True, they had scouting expeditions occasionally, butas they did not succeed in finding any enemy, except in a very fewinstances, there was not enough to make the life of the camp at allexciting.
Movements were delayed by a lack of supplies and transportation, andit was not till the middle of October that the Union forces took theoffensive. In the main column from Tipton and Syracuse, General Sigel’sdivision had the advance; while the other commanders were waiting fortransportation Sigel scoured the country and picked up everything thatcould be of use. His wagon-train when he started was one of the funniestthings of the kind ever known; there were some army wagons of theregulation pattern, but there were more emigrant wagons, such as areused by pioneers seeking new homes in the far West beyond the lines ofrailway, and where steamboats are unknown.
Then he had stage-coaches, family-carriages, drays, hay-carts, infact all the kinds of vehicles known to that part of the country, andwhenever a pack-saddle was found it was taken along. And the motivepower was as varied as the vehicles to be moved; it comprised mules andhorses as a matter of course, and it also included oxen, and even cowswhere the latter were found docile enough to be yoked or harnessed.There was a rumor that some of Sigel’s men attempted to harness up adrove of pigs; that they took the pigs along there can be no reasonabledoubt, but probably for some other purpose than breaking them in asdraft animals. However burdensome to carry a pig may be, he has neverbeen found a satisfactory beast of burden.
Before Fremont could get his army in motion, Price had taken the alarmand evacuated Lexington. He was too wily to wait till his enemy couldget in front of him to cut him off, and the most that Fremont could hopefor was that Price would make a stand in the neighborhood of Springfieldand give chance for a battle.
Fremont did not encounter any enemy on his southward march until hewas in the neighborhood of Springfield. When within fifty miles of thatplace he sent f
orward two companies of his body-guard, comprising aboutone hundred and fifty men, under the command of Major Zagonyi, andcomposed of most excellent materials for a cavalry squadron. The membersof the body-guard were from the best class of young men of St. Louisand Cincinnati. From the completeness of the body-guard’s outfit andthe dashing appearance it presented, it was derisively known as thekid-gloved regiment. It consisted of four companies of cavalry, and theintention was to increase it to a full regiment of ten companies, anintention never carried out. After the removal of Fremont the famousorganization was sent to St. Louis and disbanded.
Well, the body-guard got within eight miles of Springfield withoutseeing the enemy, but at that distance from town it found a brigade ofinfantry, with some cavalry, drawn up to receive them. Major Zagonyiordered a charge, and it was made in gallant style. It was like thecharge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava--it was magnificent, but itwas not war. The enemy was routed and the town was occupied only tobe abandoned as soon as night came on, for the very natural fear ofa surprise, which might easily have been disastrous to the seventy oreighty men that remained of Zagonyi’s command, the rest having beenkilled, wounded, or scattered in the fight. Fifteen were killed andtwenty-seven wounded, and fully fifty horses were killed or rendereduseless by reason of wounds and over-riding.
Jack and Harry discussed the affair, when the news reached them, withthe coolness and critical air of major-generals.
“What was the use of such a charge as that?” said Jack, with his eyefixed on Harry as though he would pierce him.
“It was a splendid fight,” was the reply, “and did great credit to themen that made it.”
“Nobody says it did n’t,” responded Jack; “but just look at the wasteof life, and nothing to show for it. The rebels were preparing to leaveSpringfield; in fact, the two thousand that Zagonyi says he encounteredwere only the rear-guard of Price’s army, and when our army came alongit could have occupied the town, as it afterwards did, without anyopposition. The lives of those soldiers were just thrown away, and itis n’t the only time men have been sacrificed just to enable somebodyto show off.” Harry nodded assent, and the conversation shifted to othertopics.