My first Civil War battlefield, and a striking chapel in the woods

We left Bentonville after a relaxing morning, driving along highway 62 towards Eureka Springs.  As always, I check the route to see if there are any points of interest – historic, quirky, natural, food-related – along the way.  There were two places I wanted to check out on this short trip, only about a one hour drive, along the shore of Beaver Lake, to the artsy little town founded by hippies, home of B and Bs and romantic getaways. 

The first stop was Pea Ridge, home of the largest Civil War battle fought west of the Mississippi.  I know I said in my sabbatical application that I would be visiting Civil War/Civil Rights sites, but I must admit I was less than enthused about the visit.  I always think military history is sort of boring, sort of (this is going to sound really sexist) a “guy” thing, with the War College and reenacting battles and discussing the various strategies.  Who cares, when all these people are dying senselessly? Whenever I am teaching about the Civil War, I just want to talk about an overview (like the north actually had factories to build weaponry, whereas the south did not) and read some poetry or inspirational songs.  However, I decided to visit my first real actual Civil War battlefield, maybe talk to some reenactors,  and maybe get a feeling  for the place, and boy, did I ever.  It was a lot more emotional and striking than I ever thought it would be.  Now I feel like an expert on the battle of Pea Ridge, so I am probably going to go on and on about it, and if you are like me (the way I was before visiting) you’ll probably be really bored and spaced out.  Because reading the story of a battle, or even hearing it told to you, is not at all the same as being there, standing in the place where American boys fought and killed each other in a field.  But here goes:

Missouri was a highly contended state.  As many of you know, it was a slave state, but it was also one of the few slave states that remained loyal to the union and did not secede.  Just like Kentucky, Maryland and Delaware, loyalties were sharply divided.  However, a lot of Missourians were “rebels” and joined the Missouri State Guard,  which wore these special silvery-white uniforms.  Who knew?  Anyway, the Confederates even added an extra star to their flag after that army won a couple of battles.  Also, the Cherokee Nation got involved at this point, with two regiments fighting for the South.  Even though the great Cherokee leader, John Ross, was pro-Union and anti-slavery, many of his fellows listened to the promises of the Confederacy saying they would restore their land (HA), and joined the rebel army, even going so far as to burn John Ross’ house at one point. 

The US appointed a general named Curtis to go down there and defeat the rebels in the West, keeping Missouri on the Union side and also protecting the Mississippi river.  He had about 10,000 troops, half of whom were pretty recent German immigrants from Iowa, Illinois and Indiana.  His second in command was a German by the name of Franz Sigel, who had fought in the revolution of 1848 in Germany (on which side?  I have to look it up.)  Sigel was sort of a dandy (apparently he was delayed on the morning of the 7^th because he was finishing up a fine hotel breakfast in Bentonville), but also an artillery expert, and would be crucial to the victory at Pea Ridge.  Literally half the Union army here was speaking German.  Meanwhile, commanding the Southern army was Major General Earl Van Dorn, who had foppish locks and a Colonel Sanders type beard.  He fancied himself a bold, glorious leader and I think this would be his downfall.  Hubris, as usual, destroys more leaders than anything else.

Curtis started digging earth works to set up the artillery

(the North always had WAY more artillery than the South.  Do you know how many munitions factories the South had?  Zero) but meanwhile, Van Dorn had this brilliant plan to go around to his rear and surprise him.  He had about 16,000 troops, so he outnumbered the Yankees, but when he snuck about half the force around the back, he was marching them so fast and for so long that they became exhausted.  Also, they had to leave most of the supplies (including a lot of extra ammunition) behind.  This turned out to be a HUGE mistake.  Half the army stayed behind, under the command of this Scottish guy, McCulloch.  The next morning, McCulloch thought it was a good idea to go scout out the enemy’s positions, not realizing there were a bunch of Union troops stationed in the woods.  They just picked him off, and also killed his lieutenant, so the other half of the army (including the 1000 Cherokee troops) pretty much just sat there for the entire day without a leader.  By the time they got the message to come to the aid of Van Dorn, it was too late.

That evening, March 7 1862, Van Dorn’s aggressive charge was successful, although he was held off by a small group of brave Iowan Germans (about 600 vs. 6000) for a short time.  This used up even more of his ammunition (remember, he left most of the ammunition back there to the west side of the field).  That night, Van Dorn was able to take over the Elkhorn Tavern, which had been a Union stronghold, that night.  However, casualties were heavy on both sides and the Missouri troops were exhausted.  Van Dorn received a message that night as he lay in a field outside the tavern that McCulloch had been killed. He sent word that the rest of the troops should come asap, but it was too late.  Early in the morning of March 8, Curtis attacked, assisted by Sigel’s crack artillery, and triumphed for the Union.  Van Dorn had run out of ammunition, food and other crucial supplies and had to flee.  Van Dorn himself was never trusted again by his troops, and “killed by a jealous husband” 14 months later.  Curtis and Sigel were both promoted, and Missouri remained a Union state.

The losses in this battle were 1100 Union soldiers and about twice as many Missouri Confederates.  It was really intense to stand right outside the Elkhorn tavern and imagine the troops rushing at each other amid flying bullets and cannonballs.  Kids the same age as my son Jack and younger, killing each other - I shed some tears as I stood there.   In 1914, survivors from both sides returned to Pea Ridge.  Together, they erected a monument to the dead, and stood together, remembering their fallen friends. 

Part of the monument bears the following poem as an inscription:

The graves of our dead with the grass overgrown

May yet form the footstool of Liberty’s throne;

And each single wreck in the war-path of might

Shall yet be a rock in the Temple of Right.

May it be so.  As we drove away, we had a lively discussion about why people would want to reenact battles of the Civil War.  I thought maybe I understood a little bit better; maybe people wanted to get closer to the dead soldiers who had struggled and suffered and died.  Matt said he thought it was just a dumb weekend hobby.  The jury is still out.  I didn’t see any Civil War reenactors today, but will keep looking.  

Read more about Pea Ridge National Historic Site

We then continued our drive to Eureka Springs, stopping to visit Thorncrown Chapel, an amazing structure designed by the famous E. Fay Jones, not to be confused with Pacific Northwest painter (and NWS grandma) Fay Jones.  Fay Jones is a gal and E. Fay Jones is a guy.  Plus, E. Fay is an architect and Fay is a painter.  Hopefully you’ve got them straight now. 

We arrived at Thorncrown Chapel, which has received many national and international architectural awards, just as a big tour bus of older ladies was arriving.  Oh no, I thought, I wanted to have a moment to myself in the Chapel.  But whatever, just go with it.  I joined the tour group and took a seat in a pew.  Because of the group, the chapel’s music director came out.  She played “How Great Thou Art” in a flowery arrangement, perfect for the Arkansas setting, on the piano, and then told us the story of how the founder of the chapel was a recovering alcoholic (!) and retired teacher (!) who had this crazy scheme, and ended up, just by “co-incidence,” finding the perfect architect and the funding and everything he needed.  It was a very inspirational story, after which she sang “Amazing Grace” and “In the Sweet By and By” in a lovely church-ey voice, and then told us to rely on God for all our needs.  It was definitely better than a solitary visit.

Link to Thorncrown Chapel

That lady on the left is the music director who played and sang so sweetly.