Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 38.djvu/385

Rh of Wilson Creek he seemed the most promising champion of the Southern cause. He came from the Indian frontier with the fame and paraphernalia of the resistless hero. The tales that were told of the ranger's prowess and skill in fighting the wily-savage on the Western plains could hardly have been more improbable, but that was a credulous age, and few of the partisans of the South, who gazed on the marvelous feats of horsemanship exhibited by the bold Texan as he dashed about the camp, doubted the truth of these wonderful legends. That the knight of the lasso would perform new wonders in driving back the "hireling foe,"' all Southern sympathizers about Springfield in the latter part of August, 1861, firmly believed.

When Generals McCulloch and Price occupied Springfield, after the retreat of the Federal army to Rolla, the new recruits from the mountains of Missouri and Arkansas began to learn their first lessons in the art of war. Boasting of neither patrician birth nor heroic adventure, these ungainly sons of the Ozarks had left their homes to fight for the glittering cause which allured all classes of men to the field of death. The experience of these unlettered followers of the Confederate standard had been narrow, indeed. Beyond their primitive homes, made of oak or pine logs, where the boys had been born and reared, their knowledge of the world did not extend far. The thrilling 'coon-hunt, the shooting-match, the camp-meeting, and the Christmas dances were the events that had given life its coloring of adventure for the young mountaineers, who were now trying so hard to master some of the simpler elements in the manual of arms. The traditions of the war in southwest Missouri say that some of Price's youthful recruits had never been "up-stairs" till they came to Springfield and explored the architectural wonders of the old Greene County Courthouse, a three-story building, which still stands on the west side of the public square.

Of the prominent Confederate officers who took part in the Battle of Oak Hills, only General Price survived the close of the war. General McCulloch was killed at Pea Ridge the following March. General Slack and several other officers, who took part in the battle near Springfield, fell there also.

General Price always regarded the Battle of Oak Hills as a great victory for his troops, and after he was moved to the