Fremont's army reached Springfield two days after the charge of the body-guard, the rebels retiring as the advance of the column approached. There was an amusing incident connected with the charge which may here be related.

A corporal and half a dozen men became separated from the rest of the body-guard and straggled into Springfield after the others had left. While the corporal was undecided what to do, a flag of truce came in from the rebels, asking a suspension of hostilities to permit the burial of the dead.

The corporal received the flag of truce at the courthouse, and, on learning the object of the visit, said he must consult his general, who was lying down in an inner room of the building. He disappeared for several minutes, and after a sufficient time had elapsed for a parley with the imaginary general, he returned with the partial and conditional approval of the request. He cautioned the officer bearing the flag of truce not to approach a certain piece of woods near the scene of the fight until word could be sent there that a truce had been arranged; otherwise there would be danger of a collision between the troops, as the general's division was too much exasperated to be under control. He said it would take not less than three hours to arrange the matter, and meantime the burying party must remain away. The flag of truce departed, and the corporal hastily summoned his men and decamped in the direction which his chief had taken.

A ruse not unlike this was played by the colonel of a Kansas regiment that was suddenly confronted while on the march through western Missouri by a force four times its own strength. The colonel immediately deployed his entire regiment into a skirmish-line and boldly advanced to battle. The rebels naturally thought that when an entire regiment was deployed as skirmishers there must be a good sized force behind it. They retired carefully and in good order, the Kansas colonel pressing them sufficiently close to give the impression that he was anxious for a fight. By this ruse, which required a good deal of nerve to undertake, a battle was avoided and the prestige of victory went to the Unionists.

The day after Fremont's advance reached Springfield the column from Rolla made its appearance, and went into camp just outside the town. Jack and Harry were attached to the wagon-train as before, but with the advantage in their favor that they were allowed to retain the horses which had been given to them after the capture of the rebel captain, and therefore they were able to see more of the country than under their former circumstances. There had been no opposition on the march, and therefore the trip from Rolla had been devoid of incidents of importance. The boys went several times with scouting parties that were sent out to examine the country, on both sides of the line of march, but however much they wanted to get into a brush with the enemy they could not find an enemy to brush with. All the men who sympathized with the rebellion seemed to have gone to the rebel army, with the exception of those who were too old for service.

But if the men were absent, the women were not; and what was more, they were not slow, in most cases, to make known their feelings. They denounced the “Yankees” and “Dutch” in the bitterest terms, taunting them with robbing and killing honest people who were fighting in defense of their homes; charging them with being cowards and hirelings, and sometimes cursing them roundly in language altogether unfit for ears polite or lips refined.

One day a woman poured upon Jack and Harry a volley of vituperation that was delivered with such rapidity as to render fully half of it unintelligible. Jack was at first inclined to anger, and started to “talk back,” but Harry restrained him, and asked the woman if that was all she had to say.

“All I've got to say?” she screamed; “no, I've got more to say; and that is that you're a pair of brainless boys that sense is wasted on.'T ain't no use talking to such babies without no more beards than the back of my hand.”

“Did you ever read 'Washington's farewell address to his army, madam?” said Harry, with the utmost gravity depicted on his face.

“No; I don't know nothing about it,” she replied. “Who's he, I'd like to know; one of your Dutch thieves, I s'pose?” and her voice came down a note or two from its very high pitch.

“He was first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen,” said Harry, with his mock gravity continued throughout.

“I s'pose he's one of your Dutch generals or colonels,” retorted the woman. “He'd better not come around here, or I 'll tell him what I think of him and all his other Dutchmen.”

“He will not come, madam; I 'll take care that he does n't. But in his farewell address he remarked that there was nothing half so sweet in life as two souls without a single thought, and two hearts that beets and cabbages could not turn from their faithful allegiance.”

“What's that got to do with us, I'd like to know,” said she. “He'd better not come around here alone talking that way; but if he fetches along his Dutch thieves, we can't help ourselves. You'uns ought to go home if you want to save yourselves from killing, for the Southern men won't leave one of ye alive.”

“That is what I was saying to my friend here,” responded Harry; “and now that we've had our call, we 'll take your advice and go.”

Away they rode, and had a good laugh as soon as they were out of sight of the house. Jack admitted that Harry had shown good sense in making light of the vituperation they received, and said he would follow the same plan in future.

“It's no use trying to convert these people to our way of thinking,” said Harry, as they rode along on their way to rejoin the column. “Argument is wasted on them just as it would be wasted on us. Nobody could win us over to believe in secession, and why should we expect these men and women, born and bred with slaves around them, to regard slavery and what comes of it as we regard it.” Jack acquiesced in Harry's theory, and he further admitted that if he had been born in the South and brought up there, it was fair to suppose that he would have believed in state-rights and the other principles that the Southern leaders had advocated since the formation of the republic.

After the arrival of the column at Springfield and its junction with the forces of General Fremont, there was a prolonged halt to wait for supplies for the army, preparatory to a further advance into the enemy's country. The rebels fell back toward the Arkansas line, and it was reported that a force was advancing to join them from Arkansas, when they would be ready to meet us. Scouting parties were sent out, and ascertained that there was practically no enemy within fifty miles, the rebel army being concentrated at Cassville, where they waited the reinforcements mentioned. The country far beyond Wilson's Creek was entirely safe, only a stray scouting party of rebels having been seen for several days.

Jack and Harry obtained permission to visit Wilson's Creek and the battle-ground from which they had been driven eleven weeks before. “The thing that impressed us most,” said Jack, in his letter to his father, which he wrote the evening afterward, “was the absolute stillness of the place in contrast to the roar of artillery and the crash of the small arms on the day of the battle. There was no sound whatever to break it, except the occasional chirping of a bird or the rippling of the creek, except our own voices and the breaking of the twigs under the feet of our horses. At every step we took we could not help contrasting the cool autumn morning with that hot day in August when shot and shell and bullets were flying all around and the sound of the cannon was like rapid peals of thunder.

“My horse stumbled over something in the grass, and I looked down to see what it was. It was a human skull on which his foot had fallen, and the skull turning had caused him to stumble as he did. A few feet away lay the dismembered skeleton to which the skull evidently belonged. It was probably the remains of a soldier who had been wounded and crawled under a tree for shelter and died there, as the spot was among the trees, and away from the beaten track. There were bits of cloth scattered over the ground, and it was evident that birds or wild animals had been at work there; and also upon another skeleton a little further on, which was disturbed and scattered like the first.

“On the battle-field there were numerous graves, that showed how severe had been the carnage; some were single graves, while others were sufficiently broad to contain a dozen or more bodies. Fragments of weapons, pieces of the broken wheel of a gun-carriage, and of the shell that destroyed it, were lying all around, and the trees everywhere were seamed and scarred by bullets. Then there were skeletons of horses lying where the animals fell, and these had also been the prey of birds or animals, to judge by the general aspect of dismemberment.

“We looked for the spot where General Lyon fell, and found it marked by an inscription carved upon the nearest tree. A farmer living near the battle-field came out to show us around, and he told us that the rebel soldiers cut off the glossy mane and tail of General Lyon's horse and divided it among them, to wear as badges of honor or send home to their friends. Then they took away the teeth and bones as souvenirs of the fight, and when these were exhausted the teeth and bones of other horses were secured as relics of the general's favorite steed.

“We rode over and around Bloody Hill and then descended to the valley of the creek, where the rebels had their camp on the morning of the battle. Here there were more traces of the conflict in the shape of the ashes of the wagons that were set on fire at the time of Sigel's attack, and the bits of iron which the fire could not consume. And all the time the stillness impressed us so much that it was almost painful.”

They returned to Springfield by the Fayetteville road, having gone to the battle-field by the route which was followed by General Lyon.

The next day there was a rumor that the rebels had been reinforced and were advancing. A battle could be looked for very soon, and the whole camp was in a state of excitement.

On the morning of the second of November the scouts brought positive information that the rebels were advancing, and the next day it was reported that they were camped on the old battleground at Wilson's Creek and would fight there. The general officially announced it, and gave orders for an advance on the following day.

The army was ready to move, pickets were doubled and grand guards increased, and a battery of four guns was placed on the Fayetteville road to greet the enemy if he chose to come on. Jack and Harry slept that night with their horses saddled; their sleep was more in theory than practice, as they were so excited that they hardly closed an eye during the night.