Okla-homey
3/5/2006, 09:28 AM
If you live in eastern Oklahoma or western Arkansas, you should take the short drive to Pea Ridge National Military Park over in the Rogers/Springdale/Bentonville area.
It is a beautiful site, and IMHO among the best preserved Civil War battlefields in the US.
Pea Ridge gets short shrift among Civil War addicts who usually assume nothing of consequence happened west of the the Mississippi, but Pea Ridge which occurred this week 144 years ago actually ensured the entire state of Missouri would remain in Union control.
See, pro-South forces were holed up in SW Missouri in the winter of 1861-1862. The Yanks had the rest of the state. CS reinforcements including Cherokees, Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas regiments formed an army and were headed up thru eastern Arkansas to link up with them, then bust out and take control of the entire state of Missouri.
http://img380.imageshack.us/img380/3065/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzv.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Prior to the Pea Ridge campaign, CS Major General Earl Van Dorn wrote home to his wife, "I am now in for it, to make a reputation and serve my country conspicuously or fail. I must not, shall not, do the latter. I must have St. Louis -- then Huzza!" A "ladies man" Van Dorn was killed later in the war by a jealous husband.
The CS forces under Van Dorn were stopped cold at Pea Ridge on March 7&8 1862 by US forces made up of mostly Iowa, Indiana and Illinois troops under MG Samuel Curtis. The CS fellers were met in open battle at Pea Ridge and routed, thus sealing the fate of conventional Confederate forces in Missouri to wither on the vine and thus keep Missouri in Union control.
http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/9853/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz14.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
MG Sam Curtis. Old by Civil War standards at 56.
Take the short drive over and check it out. Its only about 30 miles north of Fayetteville. I expect its spectacular in the fall when the leaves turn.
http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/8339/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz15.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Elkhorn Tavern, around which the worst fighting raged at Pea Ridge. The inn was being used as a Federal headquarters and base of supply. Many an Iowa and Arkansas farm boy breathed his last while struggling to blow the brains out of each other at this site
http://www.nps.gov/peri/
It is a beautiful site, and IMHO among the best preserved Civil War battlefields in the US.
Pea Ridge gets short shrift among Civil War addicts who usually assume nothing of consequence happened west of the the Mississippi, but Pea Ridge which occurred this week 144 years ago actually ensured the entire state of Missouri would remain in Union control.
See, pro-South forces were holed up in SW Missouri in the winter of 1861-1862. The Yanks had the rest of the state. CS reinforcements including Cherokees, Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas regiments formed an army and were headed up thru eastern Arkansas to link up with them, then bust out and take control of the entire state of Missouri.
http://img380.imageshack.us/img380/3065/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzv.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Prior to the Pea Ridge campaign, CS Major General Earl Van Dorn wrote home to his wife, "I am now in for it, to make a reputation and serve my country conspicuously or fail. I must not, shall not, do the latter. I must have St. Louis -- then Huzza!" A "ladies man" Van Dorn was killed later in the war by a jealous husband.
The CS forces under Van Dorn were stopped cold at Pea Ridge on March 7&8 1862 by US forces made up of mostly Iowa, Indiana and Illinois troops under MG Samuel Curtis. The CS fellers were met in open battle at Pea Ridge and routed, thus sealing the fate of conventional Confederate forces in Missouri to wither on the vine and thus keep Missouri in Union control.
http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/9853/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz14.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
MG Sam Curtis. Old by Civil War standards at 56.
Take the short drive over and check it out. Its only about 30 miles north of Fayetteville. I expect its spectacular in the fall when the leaves turn.
http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/8339/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz15.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Elkhorn Tavern, around which the worst fighting raged at Pea Ridge. The inn was being used as a Federal headquarters and base of supply. Many an Iowa and Arkansas farm boy breathed his last while struggling to blow the brains out of each other at this site
http://www.nps.gov/peri/