Edward Alfred Pollard, The lost cause; a new Southern history of the War of the Confederates ... Drawn from official sources and approved by the most distinguished Confederate leaders.

On the right Gen. Sigel had already opened a heavy fire. By muffling the wheels of his cannon, he had succeeded, under cover of the night, in getting positions near McCulloch's camp, and now poured into it a severe and destructive fire. Gen. Lyon led the attack on the left.

Reinforcements were rapidly hurried in the direction of Sigel's attack. Gen. McCulloch sent forward Col. Hebert's Louisiana Volunteers and McIntosh's mounted Arkansians, who, loving to the left, gained a position along a fence enclosing a cornfield. Here McIntosh dismounted his men, and the two regiments rapidly advanced in the face of a galling fire. A terrible conflict of small arms ensued. Undismayed, breasting a deadly fire, the gallant men of these regiments leaped the fence, and drove the enemy before them back upon his main body. But still Sigel's artillery continued to play with damaging effect. A battery, commanded by Capt. Reid, was brought up to oppose it. Seizing the critical moment, Gen. McCulloch placed himself at the head of two companies of a Louisiana regiment near him, and marching to the right, drew rapidly upon the adverse guns. At the same time, McIntosh and Hebert, with their men, came up, and with a loud cheer, they rushed upon the enemy's cannoniers, driving them from their guns. This gallant charge swept everything before it; five guns were taken; and nothing could now arrest the tide of success on the right. Sigel fell back in confusion, and lost his last gull in a retreat which had now become irretrievable.

Having cleared their right and rear, it became necessary for the Confederate forces to direct all their attention to the centre, where Gen. Lyon was pressing upon the Missourians with all his strength. To this point McIntosh's regiment, Churchill's regiment on foot, Gratiot's regiment, and McRae's battalion were rapidly moved. Along the whole line of the hill, upon which the enemy was posted, a terrible fire of musketry was now kept up. The roar of the battle was tremendous, bursting along two opposing lines which swept for miles over the rolling fields. Masses of infantry fell back and again marched forward. The summit of the hill was covered with the dead and wounded. Totten's battery on the enemy's side did fearful execution. With the loss of many men and horses, the Federal battery, after a fierce engagement with Woodruff's, was with difficulty withdrawn. Part of it was again planted where it swept the front-part was masked to meet an advance. At this moment, when the fortunes of the day yet hung in doubt, two regiments of Gen. Pearce's command were ordered forward to support the centre. Reid's battery was also brought up and the Louisiana regiment was again called into action on the left of it. The enemy was now evidently giving way.

Gen. Lyon had marked the progress of the battle with deep anxiety.