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Rh

March 27, 1862.

General :

General—I have the honor to report that while at Pocahontas I received dispatches on the 22d February, informing me that General Price had rapidly fallen back from Springfield before a superior force of the enemy, and was endeavoring to form a junction with the division of General McCulloch in Boston mountains. For reasons which seemed to me imperative, I resolved to go in person and take command of the combined forces of Price and McCulloch. I reached their headquarters on the 3d of March, and being satisfied that the enemy, who had halted on Sugar creek, fifty-five miles distant, was only awaiting large reinforcements before he would advance, I resolved to attack him at once. Accordingly, I sent for General Pike to join me near Elm Springs with the forces under his command, and on the morning of the 4th of March moved with the divisions of Price and McCulloch, by way of Fayetteville and Bentonville, to attack the enemy's main camp on Sugar creek. The whole force under my command was about sixteen thousand men.

On the 6th we left Elm Spring for Bentonville, and from prisoners captured by our scouting parties on the 5th I became convinced that up to that time no suspicion was entertained of our advance, and that there were strong hopes of our effecting a complete surprise, and attacking the enemy before the large detachments encamped at the various points in the surrounding country could rejoin the main body. I therefore endeavored to reach Bentonville, eleven miles distant, by a rapid march, but the troops moved so very slowly that it was 11 A. M. before the head of the leading division (Price's) reached the village, and we had the mortification to see Siegel's division, seven thousand strong, leaving it as we