General Van Dorn's Report of the Elkhorn Campaign.
[We have been very fortunate in securing recently a copy of the headquarter book of General Earl Van Dorn, containing the orders, telegrams, letters, &c., issued from his headquarters from January 23d, 1862, to June 22d, 1862. Many of these will be read with interest as from time to time we shall be able to print them; but we are especially gratified at being able to present the following report of the Elkhorn campaign, which does not appear in the volumes of Confederate reports, and which, so far as we know, has never been in print in any form.]
Jacksonport, Ark., March 27, 1862.
General Braxton Bragg:
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
