The Pea Ridge Campaign
Every march, skirmish, and command decision from December 1861 to March 1862
A free educational resource built in Pea Ridge, AR by Steven Barrow, P.E.
Christmas Day: Halleck orders Curtis to drive Price out of Missouri
What happened
Maj. Gen. Henry Halleck, in St. Louis, gives Curtis command of the District of Southwest Missouri on Christmas Day 1861. Curtis is at the supply railhead at Rolla, the western terminus of the railroad from St. Louis. From Rolla he stages forward to Lebanon to assemble the new Army of the Southwest. The supply chain Rolla to Lebanon to Springfield to Sugar Creek will be the fragile lifeline that nearly costs him the campaign.
Key people
Why the cannons face every direction
Van Dorn marched his entire army around behind Curtis to attack from the rear. Curtis literally turned his army 180° in place, his rear became his front. Then Van Dorn split his force on opposite sides of Big Mountain, so within hours Curtis was fighting two simultaneous battles two miles apart, on different fronts, facing different directions. The cannons in the park aren't oriented randomly. Each one points the way it actually fired during a specific phase, placed using archaeological evidence of where shell fragments and bullets landed.
If you are with the Pea Ridge National Military Park Foundation, the City of Pea Ridge, the National Park Service, or an organization interested in battlefield preservation, heritage tourism, or Civil War education in Northwest Arkansas, I would be glad to hear from you.
Built on 9 primary source collections including Shea & Hess, Pea Ridge: Civil War Campaign in the West (UNC Press, 1992), NPS interpretive materials, and GPS field verification from Civil War Muse. Full bibliography and methodology