Monday, I decided to get out in the Trans Mississippi and assist ETEX’s long awaited study by touring the Pea Ridge National Military Park. I never really appreciated the two battles that took place there nor understood their context. I could not prod Skip out of his comfy air conditioning to guide me so I bought a most excellent guidebook
Wilson's Creek, Pea Ridge, and Prairie Grove: A Battlefield Guide, with a Section on Wire RoadThe book was invaluable. It is very clearly written and an absolute must for this park in particular. The park is in the most undisturbed state of any Civil War battlefield park I have been to and while this is magnificent and all the battlesites are within the park, there are only two monuments in the entire place and a lot of ground pounding is required. Not sure if mountain bikes are allowed off the paved roads, but that would be a great way to go.
Here is my Cliff Note version which folks like Skip can add to or correct.
Van Dorn (CS) would not engage Curtis (US) in his fortified position at Sugar Creek (I drove by that place 2.5 miles South of the battlefield but did not have time for it). Curtis moved up the road to Pratt's store where he found out he was in a world of hurt -- heavily outnumbered in one of the only occasions the CS had the numbers. Fortunately for him, Van Dorn was going all in to try and flank him and block Curtis' supply route. He split his forces (Caeser says a no no) but each half still had the advantage of numbers.
The half that was to go East of Big Mountain was led by McCulloch. Alerted to his moves, a few Yankees raced over to where his men were marching down a road and McCulloch couldn't resist engaging them. As Yankees will do, more followed, but not before McCulloch bravely, honorably and stupidly left his staff behind to scout the front line. He was shot dead at 1:30pm (that is where the bullet part of this story comes in). Command fell to Gen. McIntosh who wasn't used to commanding an entire army so he engaged with the troops under his command. He was shot dead at 2:30pm (another bullet). Command fell to Col.Hebert who rightly started to head off to join up with Van Dorn, but a shell flew over his head from the South and he felt (IMO stupidly) compelled to engage so he turned around and plunged after the Yankees through some nasty dense woods, made more impassable by the fact that a tornado had recently gone through. Things became hot and confused and Hebert got himself captured.
The Confederate command had been wiped out as swiftly as in any Civil War battle and nobody knew what to do so they either gave up, took off or tried to make their way North to where Van Dorn was.
Stop 2 is where you hike to Leetown which is now a ghost town, actually its just a field, but it was used as a hospital after the battle so I figure there are a lot of ghosts there.
Stop 3 is a corner of the field where the above mentioned fighting took place. You have to walk 400 yard out into the field to get this view. Where the two generals fell is unmarked, but presumable McCulloch fell 200 yards left of the road near the trees and McIntosh fell 100 yards right (East) of the road near the trees. Imagine McCulloch dressed all in black and riding a horse at the edge of the trees, silhouetted perfectly for Yankee skirmishers who were on that side of the field.
Just right of the modern road (seen left of the splite rail fence) was the Civil War period road the troops came in on and where the first contact was made. 600 Federals were quickly beaten back. One odd aspect of this fight was there were Cherokee Indians fighting for the Confederacy and they got out of control. Much to the embarassment of the Confederacy, these Indians scalped about a dozen dead and wounded Federals. None were ever punished, but the Bluebellies would get their revenge in the subsequent Indian Wars (this being a Western Theatre engagement, a lot of the troops continued to serve after the Civil War was over).
Where I took the picture from are 3 field pieces. Two iron ones could use some TLC.
They used a lot of James shells here and this 6pdr tube was rifled on the James pattern. There are several of these at the park.
The fighting moved up to Elkhorn Tavern where Van Dorn was coming down with Sterling Price (another bullet reference for you guys who can't stay on topic).
Bushwackers (we are only 2 miles South of the Missouri border at this point) burned the place down about a year after the battle so this is a restored building. It is getting painted now (wish they could spare some paint for those poor iron tubes out in the middle of the field).
This is where Pea Ridge is different from any park I have been to before. There are a few people at the building but few signs and a couple paths heading off into the woods. Some reenactor dude was there and I asked him where the path was and he pointed out 2 or 3. My guidebook said North and my iPhone had a Compass so I headed off North on a 3+ mile loop through the woods. There is one sign the entire route so you are screwed without a guidebook, but this is where the Confederate troops came down from the North and engaged the Federals.
The (Wire) road is pretty much as was:
It was a nice walk in 98 degree heat. I saw noone the entire time but I did see 4 deer and pick up two ticks along the way. So, Van Dorn came crashing down this road, Price had 21 cannon against 4 union guns, two of them 6pdrs, and pushed the Federals back to Elkhorn Tavern.
Price brought his troops out of the woods and hit the heavily outnumbered Dodge. This is the Clemmons Farm where Price got an education in soldiering. His first two charges were piecemeal commitments and his men paid for his education. By the third time he got the point and unleashed everybody and they outnumbered the Yankees several times over. Note how the field is crested so each side was hidden from the other.
Looks like rather than paint its iron tubes, the Park Service is going to farb up a foundation of the Clemmons House where the family huddled and survived the fighting amazingly. (Hint to NPS, get some paint for the cannon instead)
At the end of Day 1 (March 7, 1862), Van Dorn was feeling pretty smug, outnumbering the Yankees and on their supply route between the and their supply base up in Missouri. Shakespeare would call that his moment of hubris.
One of the few displays tells it all. Here is Van Dorn (sick with a cold) and Price having been shot through the arm early in the day (he never stopped fighting) finding out they have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory:
During the night, the Yankees got their artillery up on some high ground and Van Dorn recovered from his cold but didn't secure the even higher ground of Big Mountain. When he woke up he could not deploy all his troops owing to the mountain or his artillery and he was sitting there with little ammo and in a world of hurt. On the bright side, when he woke up in the morning his cold was gone.
Sigel formed his men in a long line of battle and advanced. With that, little ammo due to a cock up that sent the wagons to the wrong place, and artillery pounding them, Van Dorn retreated.
Sigel had fouled up at Wilson's Creek pretty bad so this was a nice vindication for him. (By the way, he was German and half the Federal troops were too). Unfortunately, he committed one of those "DUH" moments that would today be the subject of a Southwest Airlines "Wanna Get Away" advertisement. Just as Van Dorn thought the night before that the Federals were in the bag so did Sigel. Seeing the Confederates retreat, he got really excited and thought he could escape from the trap. He led his troops off on the Wire road and sent word to Curtis to join his escape through the lines left open by the Confederate retreat. Curtis sent word back that Sigel had just won the battle and he might not want to run away in victory and Sigel said something like "Scheisse" and then started high fiving everyone around.
The rebs snuck off in various directions and got away for reasons of terrain, fatigue and the Federal army, especially the cavalry, still being outnumbered. They ended up South between Pea Ridge and Little Rock where they stuck around a while. About half the Confederate troops engaged here in Arkansas were from Missouri militia called out by their Governor (ahem, "State Guard" Minie enthusiasts) but with this loss Missouri, a neutral state mind you, was no longer going to be defended from Federal "invasion." I don't know if these State Guard troops stuck around now that the fighting was out of their state.
The guidebook has a ton of information and lots of sidetrips I didn't have time to begin to consider. I think a person could easily spend 2 or more days in the area. Hopefully, I will get back to see some more of the sights.
Here are the two monuments in the park down by Elkhorn Tavern. They were erected in 1887 and 1889.
The 1887 one is an austere tribute raised by Confederate veterans to the all their fallen. Three CS Generals fell in the fighting -- Benjamin McCulloch, James McIntosh & William Y. Slack, of the Missouri State Guard
The 1889 one is an uplifting one called The Reunited Soldiery Monument was placed here by Confederate and Union veterans. It is one of the first Civil War monuments dedicated to the soldiers of both sides to be placed on any battlefield.
