BRIGADIER-GENERAL JAMES McINTOSH, C. S. A. Commanding the 2d Arkansas Mounted Rifles at Wilson’s Creek. Killed at Pea Ridge. (From a photograph.)
THE SIEGE OF LEXINGTON.
BY COLONEL JAMES A. MULLIGAN, U. S. Y.
Commander of tlie garrison at Lexington, Mo.
Note.—General Price hastened from Wilson’s Creek battle-field, northward toward Lexington, and by the middle of September bad completely invested the place with 18,000 men. The garrison was composed of Illinois and Missouri troops and numbered about 3500. The commandant, Colonel Mulligan, had received orders to hold Lexington at all hazards, and on the nth of September began intrenching College Hill, a broad eminence overlooking Lexington and the Missouri Eiver. His narrative describes the chief events of the siege.
. . . We waited until the morning of the 12th, vigilantly and without sleep, when a messenger rushed in, saying, “Colonel, the enemy are pushing across the bridge in overwhelming force.” With a glass we could see them as they came, General Price riding up and down the lines, urging his men on. Two companies of the Missouri 13th were ordered out, and, with Company K of the Irish Brigade, quickly checked the enemy, drove him hack, and burned the bridge.
The enemy now made a détour, and approached the town once more, by the Independence road. Six companies of the Missouri 13th and the Illinois cavalry were ordered out, and met them in the Lexington Cemetery, just outside the town, where the fight raged furiously over the dead. We succeeded in keeping the enemy in check, and in the meantime the work with the shovel went bravely on until -we had thrown up breastworks three or four feet high.
THE BATTLE-FIELD OF WILSON’S CHEEK AS SEEN FBOM BEHIND PEARCE’S CAMP ON THE EAST SIDE OF THE CEEEK. (From photographs.)
SHARP’S HOUSE (SIGEL’S POSITION).
moved to the eastward. A party of horsemen came out in front of this line of the enemy and proceeded to reeonnoiter. General Price and Major Emmett Mac Donald (who had sworn that he would not cut his hair till the Confederacy was acknowledged) were easily recognized. General Lyon started as if to confront them, ordering his party to “ draw pistols and follow” him, when the aide protested against his exposing himself to the fire of the line, which was partly concealed by the mass of dense underbrush, and asked if he should not bring up some other troops. To this Lyon assented, and directed the aide to order up the 2d Kansas. The general advanced a short distance, joining two companies of the 1st Iowa, left to protect an exposed position.
Colonel Mitchell of the 2d Kansas, near DuBois’s battery, sent his lieutenant-colonel, Blair, to Lyon to ask to be put in action, and the two messengers passed each other without meeting. Lyon repeated his order for the regiment to come forward. The regiment moved promptly by the flank, and as it approached Lyon he directed the two companies of Iowa troops to go forward with it, himself leading the column, swinging his hat. A murderous fire was opened from the thick brash, the 2d Kansas deployed rapidly to the front and with the two companies of the 1st Iowa swept over the hill, dislodging the enemy and driving them back into the next ravine; but while he was at the head of the column, and pretty nearly in the first fire, a ball penetrated Lyon’s left breast, inflicting a mortal wound. He slowly dismounted, and as he fell into the arms of his faithful orderly, Lehmann, he exclaimed, “Lehmann, I am killed,” and almost immediately expired. . . .
The engagement on different parts of the line lasted about half an hour after Lyon’s death, when the Confederates gave way, and silence reigned for nearly the same length of time. Many of the senior officers having been disabled, Sturgis assumed command, and the principal officers were summoned for consultation. This council and the suspended hostilities were soon abruptly terminated by the appearance of the Confederates along our entire front, where the troops had been readjusted in more compact form and were now more determined and cooler than ever. A battery planted in the front began to use shrapnel and canister. . . .
section and by piece as the conformation of the ground would admit, performed extraordinary service. Steele’s regular infantry was added to its support. Price’s troops had fought with great bravery and determination, advancing and retiring two or three times before they were compelled to give way on the lower slope of the ridge they had occupied. Many times the firing was one continuous roar.
The lull enabled the enemy to readjust his lines and bring up fresh troops, having accomplished which, Price made a determined advance along nearly the whole of Lyon’s front. He charged fiercely in lines of three or four ranks, to within thirty or forty yards, pouring in a galling fire and directing his most determined efforts against Totten’s battery, for which Woodruff’s, which was pitted against it, was no match at all.
Every available man of Lyon’s was now brought into action and the battle raged with redoubled energy on both sides. For more than an hour the balance was about even, one side gaining ground only to give way in its turn to the advance of the other, till at last the Confederates seemed to yield, and a suspension of the fury took place. . . .
About this time great anxiety began to be felt for the fate of Sigel’s command. Shortly after Lyon’s attack the sound of battle had been heard in the rear of the enemy’s line. It continued but a short time, and was renewed shortly afterward for a very brief period only, when it ceased altogether.
. . . By 10 o’clock Sigel was out of the fight, and the enemy conld turn his whole force upon Lyon.
Meantime a body of troops was observed moving down the hill on the east bank of Wilson’s Creek toward Lyon’s left, and an attack by other troops from that direction was anticipated. Schofield deployed eight companies of the 1st Iowa and led them in person to repel this. They did so most gallantly after a sanguinary contest, effectually assisted by the fire from DuBois’s battery, which alone drove back the column on the opposite side of the stream before it began a crossing.
Lyon, accompanied by an aide and his six or eight orderlies, followed closely the right of the Iowa regiment. After proceeding a short distance, his attention was called by the aide to a line of men drawn np on the prolongation of the left of our main line and nearly perpendicular to the 1st Iowa as it
the main body by a deep ravine terminating in a swampy piece of ground, beyond which lay a cornfield which he entered, encountering a large force, the main part of which was the Louisiana regiment. These troops fought with determined valor and checked Plummer’s progress. DuBois’s battery was moved up to a hill on the left, supported by Osterhaus’s battalion, the 1st Iowa, and the 2d Kansas, and opened a deadly fire with shells upon the corn-field, with such marked effect as to throw the Confederates into disorder and enable Plummer to draw off his command in good order across the ravine.
A momentary lull occurred at this time, except on our extreme right, where Price’s Missourians opposed the 1st Missouri and attempted to turn that flank, but the 2d Kansas by its timely arrival and gallant attack bore back Price’s overwhelming numbers and saved the flank. Meanwhile Totten’s battery, which had been brought into action by
BRIGADIER-GENERAL WM. Y. SLACK, C. S. A. In command of a division at Wilson’s Creek. Mortally wounded at Pea Ridge. (From a photograph.)