Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 1.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[507] in vain exciting his own soldiers to desert their colors and making them prisoners afterwards—Van Dorn, who had become one of the important personages of the new Confederacy, had assumed the chief command of that army. He had more than sixteen thousand men under him, which gave him a great numerical superiority over his opponent. Consequently, he went forth to meet the small Federal army in the hope of destroying it altogether, and of not allowing a single one of those abolition soldiers to re-enter Missouri who had ventured so far from all possible succor.

On the 5th of March Curtis had been warned of his approach by parties of his own cavalry scattered far into the country, and he ordered all his troops to concentrate upon Sugar Creek. That position was well selected, for the steep acclivity of the ridge, covered as it was by the strong current of the stream, presented a formidable front to an enemy coming from the south. But the latter was aware of this, and resolved to strike elsewhere. He had brought with him provisions to last for several days, and was, therefore, free in his movements in a country where the population was generally friendly to him, and where he could move his supply-trains in every direction without escort. Curtis, on the contrary, was, by the very circumstances of his position, tied to the post-road, which he had followed from Rolla. He had undoubtedly given up the idea of keeping it always open, being well aware that the advantage of that route as a line of retreat depended entirely upon the strength of his army; he could not, however, abandon it for any length of time without the risk of becoming short of ammunition and provisions, and without seeing his army gradually weakened for want of the necessary means to keep up his personnel and materiel. Consequently, he had been obliged to establish small posts en echelon along the most important points of his line.

It was by this line that Van Dorn desired to attack and take the Federal positions in rear, thus reversing the order of the two armies and placing them in the position of two combatants in the lists who had changed places. He calculated that his numerical superiority would enable him to remain longer in that difficult position than his adversary. Consequently, after leaving Boston