Lyon was to retain 3,700 men and 10 pieces of artillery and move down the Mount Vernon Road and attack in the morning on the left front and flank simultaneously with Sigel's attack on the right. 159 A force of 250 Home Guards with two pieces of artillery was left at Springfield to guard the trains and public property. Col. Sigel's column moved out at 6:30 o'clock in the evening by the left and arrived at daybreak of the 10th within two miles of the extreme right and rear of the enemy's camp, where they proceeded to cut off and bring into camp some 40 stragglers who were out foraging. This was done to prevent their carrying intelligence into camp. Gen. Lyon with the First, Second and Third Brigades, set out about the same hour, and by 1 o'clock in the morning came within sight of the enemy's camp-fires, where they halted until morning. Capt. Plummer was ordered to deploy his battalion to act as skirmishers on the left, while Maj. Osterhaus did the same on the right with his battalion of the 2d Mo. 160 CHAPTER X. BATTLE OF WILSON'S CREEK If the idea of an attack by Gen. Lyon was remote from Gen. McCulloch's thoughts, it was entirely absent from those of Gen. Sterling Price. Gen. Price's mind was concentrated upon the plan to which he had wrung McCulloch's reluctant consent of advancing that morning upon Lyon in four columns, and thereby crushing him, probably capturing his army entire or driving him into a ruinous retreat The first messengers bringing the news of Lyon's close proximity were received with contemptuous disbelief by McCulloch, but on their heels came an Aid from Gen. Rains with the announcement that the fields in front of Rains were "covered with Yankees, infantry and artillery." This roused all to soldierly activity. Neither Price nor McCulloch lacked anything of the full measure of martial courage, and both at once sped to their respective commands to lead them into action. After breaking up the council of war, the previous afternoon, Gen. Lyon said very little beyond giving from time to time, as circumstances called, sharp, precise, practical orders. Naturally talkative and disputatious, he was, when action was demanded, brief, sententious, and sparing of any words but what the occasion demanded. He had carefully thought out his plan of march and battle to the last detail--determined exactly what he and every subordinate, every regiment and battery should do, and his directions to them were clear, concise, prompt and unmistakable. [Illustration: 165-Battlefield of Wilson's Creek] 161 He rode with Maj. Schofield, his Chief of Staff, to the place where they halted about midnight in sight of the rebel campfires and slept with him in the brief bivouac under the same blanket. To Schofield he seemed unusually depressed. The only words he said, beyond necessary orders, were almost as if talking to himself: "I would give my life for a victory."