26 - Clash In The Ozarks - Pea Ridge

About this episode: 

E.B. and Barbara Long’s monumental The Civil War Day By Day reveals that there were 10,455 military events during the American Civil War. Here’s a few examples selected from the 16 classifications that they used: there were 79 captures, 727 expeditions, 6337 skirmishes, 76 major battles, and 29 campaigns. No surprise that Virginia was the stage for the most military events. Though Tennessee was second, most students of the conflict are more aware of those events in the eastern theater. However, for this episode, we take you west to The Trans-Mississippi - to an active theater of the war that may surprise you. The statistics bear me out. The third most active state for Civil War events was Missouri, fourth was Mississippi, and the fifth serves as our stage today: Arkansas. For this episode, we recount a clash that may well have slipped under your Civil War radar - a 2-day fight which produced profound consequences. Today, we make our way to northwestern Arkansas - to Elkhorn Tavern, and the Battle of Pea Ridge.

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Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: 

Henry W. Halleck

Samuel Ryan Curtis

Peter J. Osterhaus

Sterling Price

Benjamin McCulloch

Earl Van Dorn

Albert Pike

 

Other References From This Episode

 Leetown - March 7th, 1862

 

Elkhorn Tavern - March 7th, 1862

 

Elkhorn Tavern - March 8th, 1862

 

**Maps credit: Steven Stanley of The Civil War Trust

**Picture credit: On The Battery by Andy Thomas

 

Get The Guide:

Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.

 

Producer: Dan Irving