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Pea Ridge
In the early part of 1862, Union General Curtis and his Army of the Southwest forced Confederate General Price to retreat from Springfield, Missouri, into northwestern Arkansas.
In Arkansas, Price’s troops were joined with those of Generals McCulloch, McIntosh, and Pike, all of whom were under the command of General Van Dorn, who ordered his troops, numbering about 16,000, north across the Boston Mountains in the cold, hoping to defeat Curtis and march on to St. Louis.
The Confederate forces also included a regiment of almost a thousand Choctaw, Cherokee, and Creek Indians, who were fighting for the Confederacy, under the command of General McCulloch.
Although Van Dorn was not the ranking officer, he was chosen to command the Trans-Mississippi district due to disagreements between McCulloch and Price.
The Union forces were under the command of General Curtis, whose forces were later reinforced by the German troops of General Franz Sigel.
Interestingly, one of the Union division commanders was Colonel Jefferson Davis. Davis was an artillery office at Fort Sumter when the war first began.
The opposing forces met at Pea Ridge, Arkansas, a few miles from the Missouri line, and not far from the Oklahoma Indian territory. The date was March 7, 1862.
Van Dorn sent Price and his Missouri State Guard to move forward and attack the Union forces on their left flank, while McCulloch and McIntosh met the enemy on its right flank. Van Dorn and Pike led another column to meet the Union in the area of Elkhorn Tavern and Tanyard.
McCulloch and McIntosh both were killed early in the fighting, resulting in a bloody and confused retreat of the Confederate forces in the area of Leetown.
A couple of miles to the east, Van Horn and Price fared better, controlling Elkhorn Tavern and Telegraph Road by nightfall.
Van Horn neglected, or was unable to resupply his troops, however. The following day found the Confederates tired, cold, hungry, and short on ammunition. Worse, the Confederate forces were split, with Union troops between Van Horn and Pike, now in command of McCulloch and McIntosh’s troops.
Curtis, reinforced with fresh troops under the command of General Franz Sigel, pushed hard against the Confederates, prompting Van Horn to abandon the battlefield.
Missouri remained in Union hands for the next two years.
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