es for the care of the wounded, and the ability
and ingenuity of our medical staff in supplying our wants was inestimable.
The day after the battle, when we had all our own wounded and so many of
the enemy's with us, Mrs. Governor Phelps, the wife of Governor Phelps, of
Missouri, who commanded the Twenty-fifth Missouri Infantry, arrived on the
field with a general supply of sanitary goods, a part of which had been
sent to my Regiment from Philadelphia by the father and mother of Captain
Ford, who was then a Lieutenant in Company B, Fourth Iowa Infantry. These
were a great relief, as fully one-third of my command were killed and
wounded, and were suffering for want of this class of goods. Mrs. Phelps
spent her time day and night on the field aiding the surgeons and
succoring the wounded.

General Curtis endeavored to send all the wounded to the rear who could
stand the trip. I was hauled 250 miles over a rough road in an ambulance,
and if any of you have had the same experience you can judge what I
suffered. Captain Burton, of my Regiment, who was severely wounded in the
arm, sat on the front seat of that ambulance the whole distance, and never
murmured, although he came near losing his arm from the exposure. It was
during this ambulance trip, while lying on my back, that I received a
telegraphic dispatch from General Halleck notifying me of my promotion for
services in this battle. It was thought, and was also stated in the
papers, that I could not live, and I told General Halleck afterwards that
they expected to have the credit of making a Brigadier-General and at the
same time to have a vacancy, too, but that on the vacancy I fooled them,
for the promotion insured my getting well.

This campaign demonstrated early in the war what could be accomplished by
a small Army 300 miles away from any rail or water communication, in a
rugged, mountainous, sparsely settled county, marching in winter, and
virtually subsisting upon the country. Nothing escaped that Army that was
eatable.

The Battle of Pea Ridge was fought by the two Divisions commanded by Carr
and Davis, not exceeding 6,000 men, and it is a lesson in war that is very
seldom appreciated: that no one can tell what the result of a battle may
be, and that even where forces are very wide apart in numbers it is not
always the larger force that wins. In this battle Van Dorn had put twice
as many men into the fight as Curtis did, and still was defeated. His
dividing his