A Quick Photographic Tour of the Battle of Leetown

When I woke up yesterday, I checked the weather forecast and then decided to drive to the Pea Ridge National Military Park for the day. Before I reached the battlefield, I made a detour to Fayetteville to eat at a great restaurant: The Catfish Hole. Regrettably, I skipped the Dickson Street Bookstore—the University of Arkansas Razorbacks were hosting the South Carolina Gamecocks later in the day, and I feared that the traffic would be bad. After fortifying myself for a battlefield visit by eating catfish and hush puppies, I drove to the Pea Ridge battlefield. It had been quite some time since I last visited, and I noticed that the displays have been almost completely revamped in the visitor center; also workers have constructed several new fences on the battlefield. One major upgrade over the past few years has been the installation of new interpretive signage; these new signs, illustrated by artist Andy Thomas, are a significant improvement over the old signs.

My companion for this tour was Wilson’s Creek, Pea Ridge & Prairie Grove: A Battlefield Guide with a Section on Wire Road (2006) by Earl J. Hess, Richard W. Hatcher III, William Garrett Piston, and William L. Shea. This guidebook has served me well on visits to Wilson’s Creek and Prairie Grove; it is well organized with clear maps. In case you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend Pea Ridge: Civil War Campaign in the West (1992) by William L. Shea and Earl J. Hess. This is an outstanding campaign history!

The battle of Pea Ridge was basically a two-part fight with action occurring near Leetown on March 7, 1862 as well as fighting near Elkhorn Tavern on March 7^th and 8^th. What follows are a handful of photographs of the Leetown battlefield with brief commentary.

This first photograph looks west along a fence bordering the south edge of Oberson’s Field. The view depicts the area occupied by the 22^nd Indiana Infantry until they moved toward Morgan’s Woods.

Next a view looking north from the position of Captain Martin Welfley’s Independent Missouri Battery (Union). The 2^nd Arkansas Mounted Rifles were positioned in the treeline in the distance. Skirmishers from the 36^th Illinois Infantry killed Confederate Brigadier General Benjamin McCulloch along the treeline shown on the far left of this photograph; Brigadier General James M. McIntosh met his demise along the treeline at about the 11:00 position in the photograph.

A view of Morgan’s Woods where the 3^rd Louisiana Infantry and the 4^th, 14^th, and 15^th Arkansas Infantry clashed with the 18^th Indiana, the 22^nd Indiana, the 37^th Illinois, and the 59^th Illinois. Fighting was difficult in such a tangled wood.

The cannons mark the position of Captain Peter Davidson's Peoria Battery (Battery A, 2nd Illinois Light Artillery). Parts of the 3rd Louisiana Infantry and the 4th Arkansas Infantry emerged from their fight in Morgan's Woods and charged toward this battery. A part of the 37th Illinois Infantry provided support with Captain William P. Black earning a Medal of Honor by firing a Colt revolving rifle at the advancing Confederates until he fell wounded. Captain John M. Simpson of the 4th Arkansas Infantry leaped on top of one of the cannon and then was mortally wounded as Confederates captured two of the guns.

The cannon marks the position of Captain John J. Good’s Texas Battery. Oberson’s Field is over the treeline. Before Good’s battery took position, a brief clash took place nearby at Foster’s Farm. The events there were perhaps the most controversial of the battle with allegations that Cherokee Indians had scalped Union soldiers.

Is It Hot Enough For You?

Northeastern Oklahoma is experiencing a heat wave, and I decided to look up some quotes from Civil War soldiers in the trans-Mississippi to see what they had to say about summer weather. My unscientific and admittedly rather brief survey of primary accounts led to a surprising conclusion; Union soldiers seemed more apt to comment in detail about the weather than their Confederate opponents. All of the following quotations are from the Union perspective, but hopefully I’ll locate some lively quotations about summertime weather from the Confederate point of view. Another conclusion… summer weather was just as dreadful in the 1860s as it is now, however, we have a great advantage…air conditioning.


Franc B. Wilkie, Springfield, Missouri:

From a dispatch dated August 2, 1861:
“The weather was hot—slightly. I rather enjoy respectable hot weather, such for instance as will cook an egg hard in two minutes, or roast a joint equal to a Dutch oven; but the weather of that day was a little too much for even my ardent constitution. There were men with us who had toasted their chins beneath the vertical rays of a tropical sun; there were others who went through the fiery rays of Mexico’s sun during the war, but all confessed that they never had known anything comparable to that. I won’t undertake to say how many degrees hot it was, as we had no thermometer, but will venture the guess that it was anywhere between 1,100 and 2,000 ‘in the shade.’ Men dropped in the ranks as if smitten by lightning; under every tree and beneath every bush they staggered and fell in groups of twos and dozens.”

Banasik, Michael E., ed., Missouri In 1861: The Civil War Letters of Franc B. Wilkie, Newspaper Correspondent, Unwritten Chapters of the Civil War West of the River, Volume IV, (Iowa City: Camp Pope Bookshop, 2001), 131-132.

William P. Black, Springfield, Missouri:

“Springfield, Mo. July 10^th 1862….What exceedingly hot weather we have been having in these weeks past. No rain this month till to-night, when the windows of heaven seemed open to us to pour out a bounteous blessing. Already we feel the cooled & refreshed vigor of the air, & we all rejoice. The ground had become parched, vegetation of all kinds was withering up, gardens were blighting, & roads were a bed of dust. But now is a day of better things. As is nearly always the case at the breaking up of such a hot spell of weather, however, we had quite a gust of wind & a thunder-shower—The clapps were at times very sharp & close but now they have retired to the distance & seem as if some one had retired to heaven’s growlery & were doing his best to maintain the expectation of the place. And still the rain comes down steadily & joyously, giving life & health.”

Banasik, Michael E., ed., Duty, Honor and Country: The Civil War Experiences of Captain William P. Black, Thirty-Seventh Illinois Infantry, Unwritten Chapters of the Civil War West of the River, Volume VI, (Iowa City: Camp Pope Bookshop, 2006), 111-112.


August Scherneckau, Fort Davidson, Missouri:

“Tuesday, June 16 [1863]—Very warm. We had drill as usual in the morning and afternoon, today under our new commander, who seems to be more concerned about us than any one of our own officers. Even though the exercise is not very strenuous, it is sufficient to bring out the sweat. Our campground is without shade, and the sun burns on our tents without mercy; therefore, it is unbearably hot inside. To remedy this misfortune, we have built various huts of leafy branches in which we pass the hot daytime hours. They are somewhat more airy and shady.”

Potter, James E. and Edith Robbins, eds., Marching With The First Nebraska: A Civil War Diary, (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007), 173.

Charles O. Musser, Helena, Arkansas:

“Helena, Arkansas July the 9^th, 63….The weather is almost too hot for a white man to live here. i never felt Such hot Sun before. we lay in our tents almost panting for breath. it [is] awful Sultry. I will never complain of the hot sun in Iowa again if i get there.”

Popchock, Barry, ed., Soldier Boy: The Civil War Letters Of Charles O. Musser, 29^th Iowa, (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1995), 67-68.

“An officer with the Native Battalion, stationed at Fort Yuma [California] in August 1865, wrote home: ‘For heaven’s sake, never come out this way if you can help it. You will surely melt. The thermometer is 112 in the shade every day, with no wind. Scorpions thick as molasses and flies still more. When we want to drink cool water we have to boil it and drink it immediately or else it gets hotter.’”

Masich, Andrew E., The Civil War in Arizona: The Story Of The California Volunteers, 1861-1865, (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2006), 105-106.