you, and a special report, mentioning those offi
cers and men of my command who deserve con-
sideration for their conduct in action, together with
the reports of the different commanders of regi-
ments and corps, will follow to-day, as some of
the reports have not come in yet. I am, General,
very respectfully, your obedient servant,
F. SIGEL,

Brig. Gen. Commanding First and Second Divisions.

Commanding South-Western Army.

Arrested by Klause's battery on the right, and cooperating with the troops of the Third and Fourth divisions, who advanced with new spirit on the Keitsville road, the enemy was overwhelmed by the deadly power of our artillery, and after about an hour's work, the firing on his side began to slacken, and nearly totally ceased. To profit this favorable moment, I ordered the Twelfth Missouri, the Twenty-fifth and Fortyfourth Illinois to throw forward a strong force of To Brig.-Gen. S. R. CURTIS, skirmishers, and take the woods in front, where the enemy had planted one of his batteries. At the same time, I ordered the Seventeenth Missouri Volunteers, which had arrived during the battle from the Bentonville road, to climb the hill on our left, and to press forward against the enemy's rear. The Thirty-sixth Illinois was also ordered to assist this movement, and to hold communication between the Twelfth and Seventeenth Missouri Volunteers, whilst Colonels Schaefer and Joliat, with the Second and Fifteenth Missouri, followed slowly, and Colonel Demett with his cavalry guarded the rear.

The rattling of musketry, the volleys, the hurrahs, did prove very soon that our troops were well at work in the woods, and that they were gaining ground rapidly. It was the Twelfth Missouri Volunteers, under Major Wengelin, which at this occasion took Dallas's artillery and their flag, followed close behind and on the right by part of the Third Missouri, the Forty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Illinois, and on the left by the Thirty-sixth Illinois. The Seventeenth Missouri, under Major Paten, had meanwhile arrived on the top of Pea Ridge, forming the extreme left of our line of battle.

The enemy was routed, and fled in terror and confusion in all directions. It was a delightful moment when we all met after twelve o'clock on the eminence where the enemy held position with his batteries a few minutes before, and when you let pass by the columns of your victorious army.

To pursue the enemy, I sent Capt. Von Reilmansegge, with one company of Fremont hussars, forward. The Seventeenth and Third Missouri followed in double-quick time, assisted by two pieces of Elbert's flying artillery. Other troops of the First division, all under Colonel Osterhaus, came up and continued their march toward Keitsville.

At the fork of the Bentonville and Keitsville roads, I detached the Forty-fourth Illinois, Col. Knoblesdorf, two pieces of artillery of the flying battery, and a squad of thirty Fremont hussars, to proceed a short distance on the road to Bentonville, and to guard that road. Arrived at Keitsville with the greatest portion of my command, I found that one part of the enemy had turned to the Roaring River and Bentonville, while others had turned to the left. I also received your order to return to Sugar Creek, which I did, and met the army on Sugar Creek, at four o'clock on the evening of the ninth.

A list of the dead, wounded, and missing of this command has already been transmitted to

Doc. 116.

THE TRIP OF THE CARONDELET.
ST. LOUIS "DEMOCRAT" ACCOUNT.
ON BOARD THE GUNBOAT CARONDELET,
OFF NEW-MADRID, April 5.

}

ON the thirtieth of March Com. Foote addressed to Capt. Henry Walke, commanding the gunboat Carondelet, the following order:

U. S. FLAG-STEAMER BENTON,

OFF ISLAND No. TEN, March 30, 1862. }

SIR: You will avail yourself of the first fog or rainy night, and drift your steamer down past the batteries on the Tennessee shore and Island No. Ten, until you reach New-Madrid. I assign you this service, as it is vitally important to the capture of this place that a gunboat should be at New-Madrid, for the purpose of covering Gen. Pope's army while he crosses that point to the opposite or Tennessee side of the river, that he may move his army up to Island No. Ten, and attack the rebels in rear while we attack them in front. Should you succeed in reaching Gen. Pope, you will confer with him and adopt his suggestions so far as your superior knowledge of what your boat will perform will enable you to do, for the purpose of protecting his force while crossing the river. You will also, if you have coal, and the current of the river will permit, steam up the river when the army moves, for the purpose of attacking their fortifications. Still, you will act cautiously here, as your own will be the only boat below. You will capture or destroy the rebel steamer Grampus and the transports, if possible, between this place and Island No. Ten, at such time as will not embarrass you in placing yourself in communication with Gen. Pope at the earliest possible time after leaving this place. On this delicate and somewhat hazardous service I assign you. I must enjoin on you the importance of keeping your light secreted in the hold or put out; keeping your officers and men from speaking at all when passing the forts above a whisper, and then only on duty, and of using every other precaution to prevent the rebels suspecting that you are dropping below their batteries. If you successfully perform this duty assigned you, which you so willingly undertake, it will reflect the highest credit upon you and all belonging to your vessel; and I doubt not but the Government will fully appreciate and reward you for a service which, I trust, will enable the army to cross the river and make a sue cessful attack in the rear while we storm the

to cut the cold water supply and the injectorpipes, and sink the boat if it became liable to fall into the enemy's hands. This, in case of necessity, would have been resorted to instead of burning the vessel, for it would not only have given to those aboard better means of escape, but averted the terrible loss of life that inevitably would have resulted from the firing of the boat and the explosion of her magazines.

At dusk twenty sharpshooters, company H, Forty-second Illinois, commanded by Captain Hollensteine, dropped down in cutters from the transports, came aboard of the Carondelet, were mustered on deck, inspected, received their orders-which were to cooperate with the crew in repelling boarders-and then taken to the gundeck, there to remain until called upon, observing the strictest silence in the mean time.

Last night was appointed by Capt. Walke for the performance of the above order. Yesterday morning preparations began on the Carondelet. Planks from the wreck of an old barge were brought aboard, with which the deck of the boat At eight o'clock the boat left her anchorage, was covered to resist plunging shot; all surplus and passed up the shore for a mile, where, partchains were coiled over the most vulnerable parts ly concealed between some of our transports, was of the boat; an eleven-inch hawser was wound a barge containing coal and baled hay. This around the pilot-house as high up as the win- was immediately made fast to the port sidedows, the hammock-nettings were well packed it being the part to be chiefly exposed to the with hammocks; gun-carriages were taken apart enemy's batteries. The hay had been placed in and cord-wood was brought up from the hold for layers upon the wrong side of the barge-the the purpose of constructing barriers about the outer one-and the crew was soon employed boilers, and many other minor preparations were shifting it where it would afford greater protecmade during the day to fit the vessel, so far as tion, and at the same time enable the gunboat to possible, for the ordeal through which she was control it much easier. One course of bales was to pass. laid over the casemates astern, as they were to The condition of the weather was anxiously be presented to the enemy for a long time after looked forward to, and every perceptible change passing the batteries, and liable to receive all the in the atmosphere or wind observed, and the shots sent after us, without being iron-plated or consequences carefully calculated, as they were able to resist heavy cannon-balls. The barge to bear upon the success or defeat of the enter- and the hay came up to the top of the broadside prise. Late in the day there was every prospect port-holes, and would have been of much service, of a clear, moonlight night, something very un- had the batteries to be passed been on a parallel desirable, as may be inferred from the foregoing with the gunboat, but such was not the case order, and that which would have given the ene- here, for both on the mainland and head of the my timely notice of our approach, and enable him | Island they stand upon a bank twenty or thirty to serve his guns with as much accuracy as in feet high, and in firing into a passing boat it bedaylight. Under these circumstances, it was comes necessary, as was subsequently demonconcluded to wait until the moon had gone down, strated, for them to depress their guns, in which and then, be the auspices what they might, at- event the barge alongside was an imperfect tempt the execution of a project, the abandon-shield. ment of which would have been a great disappointment after the preliminaries had attained such a degree of maturity.

At sundown, the indications grew more favorable; the atmosphere became suddenly hazy, the wind veered to the north-west, and a set of black clouds, rapidly increasing in width, bordering the horizon from north to west, strongly evidenced an approaching storm.

The way the batteries were to be passed was as follows: Com. Foote's injunctions concerning quietness and suppression of all lights aboard were to be strictly observed, the guns were run back, ports closed, the sailors armed cap-a-pie with pistols, cutlasses, boarding-pikes, and muskets. Hand-grenades had been provided and the hot-water hose were connected with the boilers, and held in readiness to drench with scalding water those who might attempt to board the boat and overcome the crew. The engineer had orders

William R. Hoel, First Master of the Cincinnati, a gentleman of twenty-one years' experience on the Mississippi, and whom, we may parenthetically state, is now making his one hundred and ninety-fourth trip to New-Orleans, came aboard of the Carondelet at nine A.M., and relieved Richard M. Wade, the first master of the boat. A consultation was immediately held with the pilots, in which the course of the channel and the location of bars were taken into consideration. It had been previously determined to run down on the Missouri side of the island; and to add to the practicability of this, last Thursday afternoon the fleet shelled the rebel floating battery, for the purpose of driving it from the command it held over that channel.

At ten o'clock the moon had gone down; the storm which had been thickening and gathering for several hours now about to burst upon us, and greatly encouraged by so opportune a period

with an impenetrable darkness precluding a knowledge of our position, which every turn of the wheel changed.

taken for it, and a little delay was occasioned to avoid this error. Our friends at the fleet, it was known, were anxiously awaiting to hear the result of the hazardous enterprise, and it was feared that every moment's delay would contribute to dishearten and lead them to sus

Our boat was not very fleet, and the barge in tow impeded a speed which might otherwise have been made with the current in our favor. The consequence was an exposure for thirty min-pect disaster. utes to an uninterrupted fire from four batteries on the Kentucky shore, and one at the head of the Island.

Orders were given to get the guns in readiness, and fire three times at intervals of one minute, and after a lapse of five minutes to fire three The judgment which we were enabled to form more guns. This was accordingly done, and the from the shrieking of their shot, was that they fact of the echo having borne the glad tidings flew from five to thirty yards over our heads. A back to the fleet, was made certain by a response few were heard to plunge in the water. One from the flag-ship. cause of their wild shooting was in over-estimating the distance of our boat. It was close along the bank under their guns, and had this been fully understood the rebels would have found it difficult to depress their guns to such a degree as to bear upon us without having them dismounted by an angular recoil.

After passing the foot of the Island without finding the battery there which, for several days, had been reported as mounting a number of longrange guns, a feeling of security came over our officers, and they would have been glad to make it known to the crew, and afford them relief from a long and patient suspense, but all was not over yet.

At the fort above New-Madrid the signal was also understood, though a misapprehension had induced them to look for three perpendicular lights-red, white and blue, with a blue centre. The non-appearance of those, however, was not thought a sufficient cause for shooting at the boat, and in a few minutes she was in the stream off New-Madrid, where Capt. Walke informed those ashore, with a speaking - trumpet, that she was the United States gunboat Carondelet. A fire was soon kindled on the banks, and the best landing - place made known by the men at the fort.

In rounding to, a misunderstanding occurred between the pilot and the engineer, by which a "stray turn ahead," when it should have been a "turn back," was made, resulting in getting the boat hard aground fifty yards out in the stream.

ing been two hours in the passage, and one hour aground.

A reconnoissance made on the preceding day discovered the locality of the floating battery, three miles below the island, on the Tennessee shore, and this remained to be passed. A light The cannon forward were all shifted to the was seen burning on it as we approached, and stern; the crew withdrew also, and with the being in no wise prepared to engage it-though bow thus lightened, the boat backed off, and was a feeling of this kind was exhibited, after hav-made secure to the bank at one o'clock A.M., having thus far successfully accomplished the mission the Carondelet bore over to the Missouri shore and ran by, being fired at only six or eight times from the battery. It was said that our shooting last Thursday, when it was lying alongside the island, cut its fastenings, when it floated down to the place we found it in last night, and where it was overhauled and made fast by a rebel transport.

It evidently evinced a disinclination to fight last night, by not firing at our boat while approaching, and reserving its fire until we had passed by out of range, and even then the shooting was exceedingly stinted, as if through fear of provoking our return.

Being out of all danger from the enemy, the fact was made known to the sailors, who were relieved from a rigid silence, and permitted to join in the jubilant congratulations that passed around the boat.

Purser Nixson, desiring to add to the joy of the gallant tars of the Carondelet, asked and obtained permission of the Captain to let them "splice the main brace." This, though partially forbidden by regulations, was on this occasion accorded, because of the unrestricted enjoyment which should be allowed to follow all such happy issues, and when the boatswain's mate sounded, "Grog, oh!" there never was a ship's crew merrier than the one aboard the Carondelet.

Early this morning, Col. Bissell came aboard the boat, and suggested that she be run into a slough close by, and secreted from the sight of the enemy, thinking that thereby she might hereafter operate with greater effect, and derive some advantages by surprising the enemy. This suggestion was made, however, at the instance of Gen. Pope, who at the time was under the im pression that the boats had passed the rebel batteries unobserved. When he was better informed, the proposed movement was abandoned.

A little danger, however, was still to be encountered that of approaching our own batteries at New-Madrid, and making known the colors under which we sailed, before being mistaken and fired upon as rebels. Signal-guns, according to prearrangement, were to be fired in case of success, as the boat rounded New-Madrid The boat's arrival has been heralded all over Bend; but the incessant thunder rendered it the camps hereabouts, and army officers have highly probable that our guns might be mis-been flocking aboard all day expressing their gra

At eight o'clock this morning, Assistant Secre tary of War, Scott, and Gen. Pope came aboard to congratulate Capt. Walke.

The following names are those of the officers EXPEDITION TO PASS CHRISTIAN, MISS. of the Carondolet, all of whom deserve great praise for the manner in which they conducted themselves last night under the trying circumstances attending the daring exploit of that boat: Henry Walke, U.S.N.