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Capt. F. J. Erwin, early in the action, was shot through the body and I was thus deprived of the services of one of my most efficient officers.
Capts. J. B. McCulloch and Augustus Kile did much to sustain the men by their intrepidity during the entire engagement.
Lieut. H. G. Bunn, my adjutant, rendered efficient service during the whole engagement, and was wounded on the head by the explosion of a shell, as we were retiring from the field.
Capt. W. J. Ferguson, my quartermaster, who acted as my aide during the whole engagement, conducted himself with marked ability and intrepidity.
Mr. Wm. Garland participated as a volunteer during the entire engagement and proved himself a valiant soldier, rendering great assistance.
Col. John T. Hughes, in his report, describing the part of the action which extended to
Trott's hill, or
Sugar mountain, where he was stationed the first day, said: ‘A terrific fire of bombs and balls hailed upon our ranks.
Several of my men were wounded, but none were killed.
Several brave Confederates in
Colonel Churchill's regiment and
Major Whitfield's Texas battalion were killed, fighting alongside on our left.’
The battle was conducted upon a daring and masterly plan that would have proved a crushing victory over the
Federals had
McCulloch and
McIntosh lived to execute it on their part.
The confusion and inactivity that followed their death saved the enemy.
Van Dorn and
Price grandly carried out the plan of campaign on their part, but they were defeated in the end by a series of accidents, the like of which rarely occur, though similar ones caused disaster in other great battles with more fateful results.
In his report of the battle,
General Van Dorn indited the following manly, feeling, and sincere words of commendation:
The force with which I went into action was less than 14,000.
That of the enemy is variously estimated at from 17,000 to 24,000.
During the whole of this engagement I was with the Missouri division, under Price, and I have never seen better fighters than these Missouri troops, and
