Van Dorn resolved to give battle, and he fell upon the advance division of Federal troops at Bentonville, under Gen. Sigel, who succeeded in conducting a masterly retreat until reinforced by the main body. Then, in a severe engagement March 7th and 8th, the Confederates were driven to the ravines, and finally put to rout. The National loss in this engagement, called by the Federals the battle of Pea Ridge (named by the Confederates Elk Horn), was over 1,300 killed, wounded, and missing. The Confederate loss was heavy, but the numbers are unknown.

GUERRILLA WARFARE.-No important military operations were undertaken in Missouri and Arkansas for some time after the engagement at Pea Ridge. The more important events farther East drained the resources of the West, and led to a withdrawal of the troops from this State. Van Dorn and Price were called to Tennessee, and participated in the engagement around Corinth. Curtis sent a large part of his army to assist in the siege of Corinth, and led the rest in a march across the State of Arkansas to Helena, on the Mississippi.

The withdrawal of these forces encouraged the formation of guerrilla bands. They became very numerous in the interior of Missouri, where they carried on a desperate and sanguinary guerrilla warfare. The encounters were many and fierce. Gen. J. M. Schofield, who was left in command in Missouri, organized the loyal citizens into a State militia. He had 50,000 names on his rolls, of whom 20,000 were ready for effective service by July, 1862.

The Confederate Gen. Hindman gathered a large force in. Arkansas in the fall of the year 1862. His troops were poorly armed and disciplined, but commanded by a general who was determined to engage in battle. The opportunity was afforded him at Prairie Grove, in December, where he was defeated by a force much smaller than his own, under Generals Blunt and Herron. The losses were about equal on each side. The Confederates retreated south to the protecting barriers of the Boston Mountains.

QUANTRELL RAID ON LAWRENCE, KAN., AUG. 21, 1863.After the fall of Vicksburg, many Confederate soldiers returned to their homes in Missouri. A season of renewed activity was imparted to the guerrilla bands that continued to roam about in their plundering excursions. One of the most atrocious outrages of the war was committed by one of these bands led by the notorious Quantrell, who had for some weeks been threatening various Kansas towns. Assembling about 300 picked and well-mounted followers, at a place of rendezvous near the State line, and skillfully avoiding several detachments sent in pursuit of him, he crossed into Kansas, and pushed directly for Lawrence. He entered the defenseless city in the early morning of August 21. Stores and banks were robbed, 185 buildings burned, and 150 to 200 inhabitants murdered in cold blood. The work was completed in three or four hours and the marauders were on the retreat, pursued so closely that more than 100 of the band were killed.

CONFEDERATE REVERSES.-Gen. Holmes's attack on Helena, Ark., was gallantly repulsed by Gen. Prentiss July 4th; and the Confederate Gen. Marmaduke met reverses at Springfield, Mo., January 8th; at Hartsville, January 11th; and at Cape Girardeau, April 26th, 1863.

PRICE'S LAST RAID IN MISSOURI, 1864.-The last important operation in the West was a raid conducted by Gen. Sterling R. Price through Arkansas and Missouri. In the West it is called the "Price Raid." Several engagements between his raiders and Federal authority occurred in Arkansas. Price then, organizing his forces to the number of about 15,000, into three divisions, entered Missouri and ravaged the State for two months-September and October. At Pilot Knob he attacked a small Federal force, which, after administering severe punishment to him from behind intrenchments, was forced to retreat. The raiders at once threatened the depots at St. Louis, Rolla, and Jefferson, and for a week or more they seemed to have their own way.

Gen. W. S. Rosecrans, now in command of the Department of the Missouri at St. Louis, sent Pleasonton's cavalry and the Kansas militia under Blunt and Curtis, to cope with Price's veterans. Engagements occurred at St. Louis, Jefferson City, Independence, and Westport. The marauders were put to flight southward. They crossed into Kansas near West Point, Mo., closely pursued in their southern movement by the Union troops. There was an engagement at the crossing of the Marais des Cygnes (called the Osage, farther down-stream) river, and

on Oct. 25th the Confederates were overtaken, and the decisive battle of Mine Creek was fought on Kansas soil, in Linn county. The enemy lost nine pieces of artillery, and 800 prisoners, among whom were Generals Marmaduke, Cabell, and Slemmons, the latter being mortally wounded. General Graham, also of the Confederate army, was killed. The pursuit was conducted with such vigor that the enemy abandoned the project of attacking Fort Scott, fled from Kansas, and soon after departed from the State of Missouri with his forces greatly demoralized, and his army reduced by captures and dispersions to perhaps 5,000 men.

Most of the noted guerrilla bands followed Price out of Missouri, and their raids and depredations came to an end.

These operations, of a secondary nature, bore little relation to the general strategy of the main campaigns. Their chief importance consisted in the moral weight added to the Federal cause by the preservation of national authority in this section, and in the protection of the rights of loyal citizens.

CHAPTER VI.

GRANT'S CAMPAIGN IN THE WEST.

BELMONT, GRANT'S FIRST BATTLE, NOVEMBER 7, 1861.Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, who was in command of Cairo, moved down the Mississippi with 3,000 men for a demonstration against Belmont, Mo., opposite Columbus. Two Union gunboats accompanied the transports. These engaged the batteries of Columbus, while the troops landed on the Missouri side, Nov. 7, 1861. After a spirited conflict, the troops fought their way through the abatis surrounding Belmont, and succeeded in driving the enemy over the bluff to the bank of the river. Heavy reinforcements were sent from Columbus to cut Grant's troops off from their gunboats, and with superior numbers compel them to surrender. His exhausted troops valiantly fought their way back to the boats, and re-embarked for Cairo. The Confederate loss was more than 600, while the Union loss was much less.

BATTLE OF MILL SPRINGS, JANUARY 19, 1862.-While General Grant was preparing to move against Forts Henry and Donelson, General Thomas, who commanded the Union forces in eastern Tennessee, began operations against the extreme east of the Confederate line of defense. Gen. Felix K. Zollicoffer was at the head of the enemy's forces. His principal camp was at Mill Springs, on the Cumberland river, in a thinly settled