with a request for either gold or Rebel paper.

The officer then exhibited a large sheet of "promises to pay," which
he had procured in Fayetteville a few days before, and asked how they
would answer.

"That is just what I want," said the whisky vender.

The officer called his attention to the fact that the notes had no
signatures.

"That don't make any difference," was the reply; "nobody will know
whether they are signed or not, and they are just as good, anyhow."

I was a listener to the conversation, and at this juncture proffered a
pair of scissors to assist in dividing the notes. It took but a short
time to cut off enough "money" to pay for twenty canteens of the worst
whisky I ever saw.

At Huntsville we made a few prisoners, who said they were on their
way from Price's army to Forsyth, Missouri. They gave us the important
information that the Rebel army, thirty thousand strong, was on the
Boston Mountains the day previous; and on the very day of our arrival
at Huntsville, it was to begin its advance toward our front. These
men, and some others, had been sent away because they had no weapons
with which to enter the fight.

Immediately on learning this, Colonel Vandever dispatched a courier
to General Curtis, and prepared to set out on his return to the main
army. We marched six miles before nightfall, and at midnight, while
we were endeavoring to sleep, a courier joined us from the
commander-in-chief. He brought orders for us to make our way back with
all possible speed, as the Rebel army was advancing in full force.

At two o'clock we broke camp, and, with only one halt of an hour,
made a forced march of forty-one miles, joining the main column at ten
o'clock at night. I doubt if there were many occasions during the
war where better marching was done by infantry than on that day.
Of course, the soldiers were much fatigued, but were ready, on the
following day, to take active part in the battle.

On the 5th of March, as soon as General Curtis learned of the Rebel
advance, he ordered General Sigel, who was in camp at Bentonville, to
fall back to Pea Ridge, on the north bank of Sugar Creek. At the
same time he withdrew Colonel Jeff. C. Davis's Division to the same
locality. This placed the army in a strong, defensible position, with
the creek in its front. On the ridge above the stream our artillery
and infantry were posted.

The Rebel armies under Price and McCulloch had been united and
strongly re-enf