WHAT IMPRESSED ME MOST

By J. K. P. Holt, 19TH Arkansas Infantry, C. S. A.

The incident that impressed me most during the war was, I think, connected with the battle of Elkhorn Tavern. Our regiment had marched up in the old field and formed in line of battle with General Green. About this time an ambulance was driven up in front of us, and I asked the driver—who had told us that there was immediate danger for us if we got into the main fight—what was in the ambulance. He replied, "The bodies of General McCulloch and General Mcintosh. Both were killed this morning, and our whole army is in the greatest confusion and disorder." Oh, how we felt! We had marched nearly three hundred miles to participate in that battle; now we stood our ground until our entire wagon train of 250 wagons had passed. We had the Federals whipped, but the killing of those two generals scared General Van Dorn .off the field, with the result that all night and all the next day was a dreary retreat. Passing broken-down wagons and men utterly exhausted and worn out, we got back to near Fort Smith in about four days. How many times my heart ached as I fired volleys over my dead comrades that died near Fort Smith on that awful retreat.

"The War of the 'Sixties", compiled by E.R. Hutchins, Neale Publishing C., N.Y., 1912, pg. 385.