Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 75, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 March 1912 — STORIES OF CAMP AND WAR [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

STORIES OF CAMP AND WAR

SAW FAMOUS BATTLEFIELD! How Wilson's Creek Appeared Yeafl or More After It Had Become j Known Over Country. The appearance of the Wilson*# creek battle field A year and morel after this obscure Missouri valley be* came known to all the country is described in a letter written November! 24, 1862, by the late Capt William! Van Gundy of the Ninety-fourth Illinois regiment, which was concerned in the Arkansas-Missouri campaign of that season. The letter is now in the possession of Captain Van Gundy’® grandson, A. L. Benedict of Franklin Park, 111. It is. In part, as follows: "Wilson’s creek, Mo, Nov. 24, 1862. —I wrote you two letters since we left Springfield, in which I gave yon an account of our- march up to the twenty-first, when we were camped on the James river. We left there the next morning and traveled about a mile west, when we were halted and two companies were detailed to build a bridge across the river. This was done by piling up rails In the water for pillars about fifteen feet apart;! then logs were laid from one pile to the other for sills; then rails were laid across on the logs for a floor to walk on. The bridge was about 10(1 i feet long. It took about one and onehalf hours to build It. We crossed over with dry feet, but we did not stop to put the rails back on the fence again. "After we had crossed the river kept bearing to the north until we struck the main road from Springfield to Cassville. Then we came about a mile toward Springfield to Wilson: creek, where we camped and we are still here. Herron’s whole division is camped here, about 10,000 men. Totten’s division Is about ten miles south* We are about one and one-half miles south of the battle ground. "Yesterday was a beautiful Sabbath* day, and Henry, Ad. Branaman, Gip. Watkins and John Furr and myself went over to see the battle ground. We followed the road until we cams to a large frame house, where they told us Price had his cannon planted In front and about fifteen feet from the house It was here that Sigel took Price’s cannon and, burned his train of wagons. The house shows the es-

sects of the battle. The weather boarding is pierced with musket balls. One twelve-pound cannon ball went clean through the kitchen and a piece of a shell cut its way through the cor nice. “We went on about half a mils northwest of this house and we cams to the Spot where General Lyon was killed. ■ I confess that as I went up to the place there was a feeling came over me different from anything 1 ever experienced before. I had read over and over about the battle and his death, not dreaming that I would ever see the place, but here I was* right on the very spot where he felL The spot is kept sacred. There la S pile of rocks where he fell, and everybody that goes to see the place puts a •tone on the pile. I put two, and all that were with me did the same. The bones of his two horses are lying •bout twelve feet from where be felL It Is a very rough and uneven plaoe for a battle. There are trees and bushe* all over it, and there ie hardly a tree or bush that escaped the bullets.” ‘ #

“There Is a Pile of Rocks Where He Fell."