Arkansas Rallies to the

Call of the Civil War

South Secedes and Four Years of Strife and Misery are Launched…Much Blood Spilled on State’s Soil 

The Battle of Pea Ridge 

The Union force is put by one Arkansas historian at 20,000 men.  Another places it at 10,500  men.  Estimates ranging between those figures have also been made.  Whatever the number of the federal troops was, it is certain t hey were far better equipped than the Confederates were, and that is where a great deal of the advantage in battle rests.  Moreover, they occupied a strong position. 

The Pea Ridge battlefield is a plateau about 10 miles long and five miles wide, in the northern part of Benton county.  It was, when the engagement occurred, a jumble of small fields, strips of timber, and patches of dense undergrowth, which afforded the federal force much natural shelter.  Besides trees had been felled across the roads by the Union troops. 

It snowed just before the battle opened.  Against that white background, the flash and smoke of long, irregular columns of gunfire made a strange, weird scene.  The hills and woods shook with the hollow reverberation of cannon and musketry, as the Confederates launched their attack.  They met with stubborn resistance.  Withering cross-fires were poured into the gray ranks from concealed federal artillery and infantry.  But again and again the Confederates assaulted their foe.  Through the greater part of three days, the fierce, costly fighting raged, with the scales of victory inclining to the Southern side.

 But the final outcome was scarcely decisive.  Losses were heavy for both armies, including for the Confederates two brave and able officers.  General McCulloch and General McIntosh.  Except for the death of those two commanders, the battle might well have been a complete Southern triumph.  On that point, Col. John M. Harrell, wrote in the Confederate Military History: 

“The battle was conducted (by the Southern forces) upon a daring and master plan that would have proved a crushing victory over the Federals had McCulloch and McIntosh lived to execute it on their part.  The confusion and inactivity that followed their deaths saved the enemy. 
The brave Confederate dead who fell on the field March 6, 7, & 8, 1862

General W.Y. Slack of Missouri
General Ben McCullouch of Texas
General James McIntosh of Arkansas

"Oh give me the land with a grave in each spot,
and names in the graves, that shall not be forgot;
Yes, give me the land of the wreck and the tomb,
There's a grandeaur in grave, there's a glory in gloom."

A number of skirmishes occurred at various points after the Pea Ridge engagement.  But there was no force in the state strong enough to effectively halt the federal advance.  Van Dorn and Price crossed the Mississippi, taking many Arkansas troops with them.  Governor Rector and the state delegates in the Confederate Congress protested against removing so many Arkansas soldiers from the state, and leaving it inadequately defended.  As a result, Gen. T.C. Hindman, a vigorous and daring leader, was put in command of the Arkansas district.