and so this is going to set up the battle of pearidge, thank you very much. doing a lot better than that last word. this is samuel curtis, to give short shrift of the battles, and i apologize that. the federalists were under the command of curtis, on the screen here, and van dorn ordered mccullough and prices forces, about 16,000 total, which included 1,000 indians under the command of albert pike, confederate organized indians to unite for a counter offensive. for his part federal commander curtis took up a defensive position along sugar creek with about 10,000 federals, so 16,000 versus 10,000, from a confederate standpoint up might think they had pretty good odds. van dorn did not wish to attack the federals in their strong position along this creek. you can't see it very well. i can't either. it's down here at the bottom of the screen. this blue which you see and that line you see is sugar creek. so anyway, van dorn proceeds to try to outflank them and tried to attack curtis from the rear. the attack was slow, though, too slow to surprise curtis in an eff