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 Brigadier General Samuel R. Curtis, moved south from central Missouri, driving Confederate forces into northwestern Arkansas. Major General 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.
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the deadliest conflict in American history, killing an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers and an unknown number of civilians. The Confederate States of America, formed by eleven seceding Southern states, faced the Union in four years of warfare across 23 states and territories. Major engagements included First and Second Bull Run, Antietam (the bloodiest single day in American history, September 17, 1862), Chancellorsville, Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), Vicksburg (surrendered July 4, 1863), and Sherman's March through Georgia and the Carolinas (1864–1865). President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, transforming the war's stated purpose to include the abolition of slavery and enabling the enlistment of approximately 180,000 Black men in the United States Colored Troops. Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. The war resolved the question of secession and ended American slavery, though Reconstruction would face sustained resistance in its attempt to secure civil rights for formerly enslaved people.
This page covers Skirmish at Pea Ridge, Tennessee (McNairy County). A full Aubrey report for the area pulls together this battle alongside historic sites, land records, and everything else the record holds within a few miles:
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