The following is an extract from Harper's Weekly, Journal of Civilization, dated August 24, 1861:

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The Battle of Dug Springs

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          The illustration above show a Cavalry attached to General Lyon's Army upon an enormous force of rebel infantry, at the Battle of Dug Springs, on 1st August. The dispatch from Springfield, Missouri, dated August 2, says:

          On Thursday news reached here that the enemy were advancing on us in three columns, with a force numbering 20,000 men. General Lyon immediately set out to meet them with the Second and Third Missouri regiments from the city, the First and Second Kansas regiments, and the First Iowa regiment; also with two or three companies of regular infantry and two or three companies of regular cavalry from Camp McClellan. About twelve miles west of here General Lyon encamped that evening, on Tyrel Creek, and on Friday advanced to Dug Springs, about nineteen miles southwest of Springfield, were he obtained intelligence of the enemy.

          A fight took place between four and six o'clock that afternoon. A party of two hundred and seventy of General Lyon's cavalry, as previously reported, were crossing a ridge of high land, partially inclosed on the east by a valley, and, when descending the hill, came upon a large force of the enemy's infantry, variously estimated at from two thousand to four thousand, and being unable to retreat, they charged and cut their way through with the loss of only five men. The lieutenant commanding the cavalry was killed, after killing eight of the rebels. Meantime the enemy appeared in large numbers moving along the valley, but they were put to flight by our artillery. Our infantry was not engaged. The rebels retreated southward, to a place called McCullough's Store, on the Fayetteville Road.

          The number of rebels found dead on the field amounted to forty, and some forty-four wounded were picked up.

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          The correspondent of the Herald thus describes the affair:

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          About nine in the morning, after a march of seven miles, a picket guard of some fifty mounted men was seen, and a shell was thrown among them as a gentile reminder that the Union troops were around. They at once made good time toward the main body, some two miles ahead. Near a place called Dug Spring, about nineteen miles from Springfield, our advanced pickets met those of the enemy and exchanged a few shots. Our cavalry formed in line at the right of the road, and Captain Steele, with two companies if infantry, took the left. Captain Plummer, with three companies of First Infantry, supported by Captain Tatten's battery, held the centre. The enemy was posted in a wood crowning a gentle slope, and covering it to the foot, where the road for half a mile ran through a valley between low hills, or rather "swells" of land, covered with a scanty growth of oak bushes, from one to five feet in height, interspersed with a few small trees. As the rebels' position and numbers were concealed by the wood, General Lyon did not deem it prudent to advance the column withing range, as a masked battery might at any moment open it with considerable effect, while at the same time our strength would avail us nothing. 

          For upward of an hour nothing was done save the exchanging of a few shots among the pickets, and at the length General Lyon gave the order for the column to fall back and encamp in the vicinity of the spring. This movement was considered by the rebels to be a retreat, and as soon as we were motion their cavalry made its appearance from the wood and passed to the front of a corn-field which covered their extreme left. Their number was not far from four hundred, and they formed in a solid square preparatory to charging. Just as they were on the point of rushing forward, Captain Totten sent a twelve pound shell from his favorite howitzer; but the elevation was too great and the missile passed over its mark. A half minute later another shell followed with better success, bursting directly in the centre of the cavalry and emptying some twenty saddles. The whole body made a retreat for the timber in "precipitous and tumultuous haste."

​          Captain Steele was still on the left, and a body of nearly eight hundred infantry, with a few mounted men, came forward from the enemy's right with the evident intention of engaging and surrounding the Captain's two companies. Company C, of First Cavalry, was in the rear (lately front), near Captain Steele and Lieutenant M. J. Kelly, with right in the face of the bullets and bayonets of the whole rebel infantry. Four of the twenty were killed and six were wounded, but they succeeded in breaking the infantry and putting them to flight. Four Horses were wounded so and badly that it was necessary to kill them -- one receiving nine, and another eleven rifle balls. One of the men -- Sergeant Sullivan -- received three terrible, thought not fatal, wounds. As he was falling from his horse he waved his sabre, and shouted "Hurrah for the old Stars and Stripes!" When brought to camp he seemed to forget his wounds in his joy at having struck a blow for the Union. One of the enemy's wounded inquired of Lieutenant Kelly, with great earnestness, 

          "Are your cavalry men or devils!"

          The Lieutenant replied that it was possible they might be a composition of both.

          "Well," said the man, " we can't stand such a charge as that. You can whip us all out if you've got a decent army of such soldiers." 

          One of our wounded, a private named Jacobs, who was captured by the rebels, was knocked from his horse while a prisoner by a blow from a musket, and left for dead. He was found on the field the next morning and carefully attended to. He will probably recover. 

          The enemy did not again appear that day, and the command encamped and passed the night in quiet. The utmost care was taken to prevent a surprise during the night by posting pickets in all directions, and arranging the camp with with special reference to a defense in the darkness. Major Sturgis was particularly active at all hours, and if the enemy had made an attack they would have met a warm reception. 

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