Battle of Pea Ridge

The Battle of Pea Ridge (March 7–8, 1862), also known as the Battle of Elkhorn Tavern, took place during the American Civil War near Leetown, northeast of Fayetteville, Arkansas. Federal forces, led by Brig. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis, moved south from central Missouri, driving Confederate forces into northwestern Arkansas. Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn had launched a Confederate counteroffensive, hoping to recapture northern Arkansas and Missouri. Confederate forces met at Bentonville and became the most substantial Rebel force, by way of guns and men, to assemble in the Trans-Mississippi. Against the odds, Curtis held off the Confederate attack on the first day and drove Van Dorn's force off the battlefield on the second. By defeating the Confederates, the Union forces established Federal control of most of Missouri and northern Arkansas.

Union forces in Missouri during the latter part of 1861 and early 1862 had pushed the Confederate Missouri State Guard under Maj.-Gen. Sterling Price out of the state. By spring 1862, Federal Brig. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis determined to pursue the Confederates into Arkansas with his Army of the Southwest.

Curtis moved his approximately 10,250 soldiers and 50 artillery pieces into Benton County, Arkansas, and along Little Sugar Creek. The Federal forces consisted primarily of soldiers from Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Ohio. Over half of the Union soldiers were German immigrants, grouped into the 1st and 2nd Divisions, which were under the command of Brig. Gen. Franz Sigel, a German immigrant who had expected to command the army forces into Arkansas. Upon learning that General Curtis was appointed in command, Sigel threatened to resign. The predominantly native-born regiments were assigned to the 3rd and 4th Divisions in order to create an ethnic balance among divisions and their commanders.

Price and his troops pulled back into Arkansas along Wire Road at a rapid pace with Curtis not far behind. There were skirmishes between Federal and Confederate troops at Potts Hill and Little Sugar Creek as Confederate reinforcements reached Price to combine forces against Curtis. The combined Rebel force kept continuing farther into Arkansas thinning Curtis's supply line. Due to the length of Curtis's supply lines and a lack of the reinforcements needed for a further advance, Curtis decided to remain in position. He fortified an excellent defensive line on the north side of the creek, placing artillery for an expected Confederate assault from the south. While Curtis kept position along Little Sugar Creek, Confederate generals Sterling Price and Benjamin McCulloch went into Fayetteville evacuating the city and setting up camp in the Boston Mountains.

Confederate Maj.-Gen. Earl Van Dorn had been appointed as the overall commander of the Trans-Mississippi District to quell a simmering conflict between Price of Missouri and McCulloch of Texas. Van Dorn's Army of the West totaled approximately 16,000 men, which included 800 Indian troops, Price's Missouri State Guard contingents and other Missouri units, and McCulloch's contingent of cavalry, infantry, and artillery from Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Missouri.

Van Dorn was aware of the federal movements into Arkansas and was intent on destroying Curtis's Army of the Southwest and reopening the gateway into Missouri. He intended to flank Curtis and attack his rear, forcing Curtis to retreat north or be encircled and destroyed. Van Dorn had ordered his army to travel light so each soldier carried only three days' rations, forty rounds of ammunition, and a blanket. Each division was allowed an ammunition train and an additional day of rations. All other supplies, including tents and cooking utensils, were to be left behind.

On March 4, 1862, instead of attacking Curtis's position head on, Van Dorn split his army into two divisions under Price and McCulloch, ordering a march north along the Bentonville Detour to get behind Curtis and cut his lines of communication. For speed, Van Dorn left his supply trains behind, which proved a crucial decision. Amid a freezing storm, the Confederates made a three-day forced march from Fayetteville through Elm Springs and Osage Spring to Bentonville, arriving stretched out along the road, hungry and tired.

Warned by scouts and Arkansas unionists, Curtis rapidly concentrated his outlying units behind Little Sugar Creek, placing William Vandever's 700-man brigade, who marched 42 miles (68 km) in 16 hours from Huntsville to Little Sugar Creek. But Curtis's right flank also suffered from Sigel's having sent a 360-man task force to the west, where they would miss the next three days of fighting. Sigel also withdrew a cavalry patrol from the road on which the Confederate army was advancing; however, Colonel Frederick Schaefer of the 2nd Missouri Infantry, on his own initiative, extended his patrols to cover the gap. When Van Dorn's advance guard blundered into one of these patrols near Elm Springs, the Federals were alerted. Still, Sigel was so slow in evacuating Bentonville that his rear guard was nearly snared by Van Dorn on March 6 as he advanced.