I will now return to Major White.  During the conflict upon the hill, he was in the forest near the front of the Rebel line.  Here his horse was shot under him.  Captain Wroton kept careful watch over him.  When the flight began he hurried White away, and, accompanied by a squad of eleven men, took him ten miles into the country.  They stopped at a farm-house for the night.  White discovered that their host was a Union man.  His parole having expired, he took advantage of the momentary absence of his captor to speak to the farmer, telling him who he was, and asking him to send for assistance.  The countryman mounted his son upon his swiftest horse, and sent him for succor.  The party lay down by the fire, White being placed in the midst.  The Rebels were soon asleep, but there was no sleep for the Major.  He listened anxiously for the footsteps of his rescuers.  After long, weary hours, he heard the tramp of horses.  He arose, and walking on tiptoe, cautiously stepping over his sleeping guards, he reached the door and silently unfastened it.  The Union men rushed into the room and took the astonished Wroton and his followers prisoners.  At daybreak White rode into Springfield at the head of his captives and a motley band of Home-Guards.  He found the Federals still in possession of the place.  As the officer of highest rank, be took command.  His garrison consisted of twenty-four men.  He stationed twenty-two of them as pickets in the outskirts of the village, and held the other two as a reserve.  At noon the enemy sent in a flag of truce, and asked permission to bury their dead.  Major White received the flag with proper ceremony, but said that General Sigel was in command and the request would have to be referred to him.  Sigel was then forty miles away.  In a short time a written communication purporting to come from General Sigel, saying that the Rebels might send a party under certain restrictions to bury their dead, White drew in some of his pickets, stationed them about the field, and under their surveillance the Southern dead were buried.

The loss of the enemy, as reported by some of their working party, was one hundred and sixteen killed.  The number of wounded could not be ascertained.  After the conflict had drifted away from the hill-side, some of the foe had returned to the field, taken away their wounded, and robbed our dead.  The loss of the Guard was fifty-three out of one hundred and forty-eight actually engaged, twelve men having been left by Zagonyi in charge of his train.  The Prairie Scouts reported a loss of thirty-one out of one hundred and thirty:  half of these belonged to the Irish Dragoons.  In a neighboring field an Irishman was found stark and stiff, still clinging to the hilt of his sword, which was thrust through the body of a Rebel who lay beside him.  Within a few feet a second Rebel lay, shot through the head.

I have given a statement of this affair drawn from the testimony taken before a Court of Inquiry, from conversations with men who were engaged upon both sides, and from a careful examination of the locality.  It was the first essay of raw troops, and yet there are few more brilliant achievements in history.