[Federal] skirmishers and concentrated a heavy fire upon Collins and the exposed horsemen
bestriding their steeds as calmly as if on dress parade.... The two batteries, unable to silence
his guns, were reinforced by another, and still another, until twenty-four pieces of cannon were
pouring a hell of shot and shell into the ranks. Not a soldier moved or changed the position of
his horse's head. Steele angrily turned to his chief of artillery and said: "If you can not silence
those four guns of Shelby's yonder on a naked prairie, and break his simple lines of cavalry, you
had best return to Little Rock -- you can do nothing here."

For an hour and more the artillery fight continued. Every horse and seventeen of Collins'
men lay dead and wounded among the guns. Great gaps torn in the cavalry regiments were coolly
filled up... Then the skirmishers met in desperate battle. The cavalry thrown forward by Steele
was shattered and driven back; three batteries changed positions twice, and finally left the front
for repairs....

Darkness came down upon the vast prairie, yet the battle was not ended. Steele showed
signs of advancing, and Marmaduke ordered Shelby to attack and check him effectually.
Deploying his entire brigade, except Gordon's regiment, as skirmishers, he engaged Steele's whole

army.””

Captain Rankin lined (evening) our Company in Battle Formation and marched them up the hill
facing the enemy and then marched them down again. In the morning the enemy was gone.”

[The afternoon of April 10] the rebels began to resist our advance. All the way was
through timber, mostly pine, and a good part of the time we marched through this, in line of
battle. As we neared the large and beautiful prairie called Prairie De Anne, the opposition of the
rebels increased. Their main body was posted on the prairie, under command of Price himself,
and numbered several thousand...

At about 4:45 P. M., as we came upon the edge of the prairie, the continuous skirmishing
merged into a battle, and the artillery-firing became quite heavy. ... we marched in close column
by division formation for several minutes, in the direct range of a rebel battery.... Marching
steadily forward to the edge of the prairie, we were ordered to support the 9th Wisconsin
battery... by lying down flat on our faces in line of battle, while the battery continued its vigorous
and well-directed fire. The rebels responded actively; but their guns were of an old and inferior
pattern, and their shot and shell, though very destructive to the trees in the rear, did not come
very near us. For a while the cannonade was brisk and lively; but it gradually grew weaker, as the
rebels retreated, and before sun-down, had almost ceased.

Now began a slow and cautious advance over the prairie, in line of battle, with skirmishers
deployed, and interrupted by frequent orders to halt and lie down. The prairie was at intervals
intersected by small brooks, fringed with dense and some times very thorny thickets... As it grew
too dark to go any farther, the line was ordered back a little, to one of these thickets, where we

 

12 John N. Edwards, Shelby And His Men, pp. 264-266.
*1° Letter, Roland A. Kolb to Mark Knipping, March 29, 1972.

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