Hi Y'all James here to help you get a new taste of the Civil War that most of you have never thought of. Yea I know the battles out east are more covered and they seem to be the pivotal moments in the Civil War. But ho lets not forget the Trans-Mississippi for a minute, with out the supplies and manpower provided from this region the war wouldn't have lasted as long as it did. Well enough of that, lets cover the areas in Arkansas that were involved with the war as a whole. Of course the first major battle of Arkansas is of course PEA RIDGE or ELKHORN TAVERN. The time is Late February early March it's 1862 and the war has gone fairly well for the Confederate side. The major players in this tubule are for the Union: Brig. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis With him is a stunning cast of future stars and a few duds Brig. Gen. F. Sigel a dud to Col. J.C. Davis and Col. G. M. Dodge soon to be future rising stars. Confederate : Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn with his own good and bad cast Maj. Gen. Sterling Price great popular leader but doesn't play well with others Brig. Gen Benjamin McCulloch very good but short lived leader. Well as the show unfolds in the lower part of Missouri you have the force of Maj. Gen. Sterling Price having been pushed back by superior forces moving down from St. Louis and looking for assistance from Brig. General Ben McCulloch Arkansas forces to move up and support him at Springfield, MO. The impasse of Arkansas forces refusal to move out of the state is the reason that the Missouri forces end up retreating to Arkansas's Cross Timber Hollow valley. Due to the problem s between Price and McCulloch, one being State commissioned Maj. Gen. (Price) and the other a Confederate commissioned Brig. Gen. (McCulloch) the Confederate War office sends out Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn to take overall command of the Trans- Mississippi District. So the game unfolds in a cold rain, sleet and snow covered valley and few small towns in upper Arkansas. The Confederate forces hold up just south of the valley in the towns of Bentonville, Fayetteville, Osage Springs to name a few. The Union forces move into the Cross Timber Hollow and set up camp along the Little Sugar Creek and start to send out patrols and combat forces to sweep the local area of the Confederate forces. After the initial sweep the Union forces are as far a Fayetteville with outposts at Osage springs and Bentonville. There are a few Cavalry forays as far East as Berryville and as far west as Maysville near the border with Indian Territory (Oklahoma) After the initial entry into Arkansas and the Union push the Confederate forces are massed and start to sweep back up toward the Union outposts. Thru the lucky set of orders that had the Union forces moving back to winter at Cross Hollow Timbers the main outposts in Fayetteville and Bentonville were set to move at 2:00am the morning of March 6th, 1862 the outpost at Osage Springs having the furthest to travel where up and moving and sighted the Confederate forces on the march. The alarm went out and the outlaying forces started the move with Brig. Gen. Sigel holding the rearguard action with 700 men and some artillery at Bentonville, while the main part of the force returned to Cross Hollow Timbers and the Little sugar Creek encampment. Brig. Gen. F. Sigel waited till around 9:00 am before the Confederate forces closed up then tried to envelope his force. During the time provided by Brig. Gen. Sigel the rest of the 1st and 2nd Division made it's way to Little Sugar Creek at about 2:00pm where upon notice of the rearguard action was passed on to Brig. Gen. S. Curtis, he requested that parts of the divisions return to assist Brig. Gen. Sigel in his escape from the Confederates. Col. P. Osterhaus `s 1st Division forces met up with the rearguard about 3 to 4 miles from the creek and effected their relief with some timely artillery fire and massed infantry fire. The cavalry force sent with the relief column held the road and the rest of the units returned to Little Sugar creek camp area around 5:00pm to finish the 6th of March, 1862 fighting. Tune in next time for the continuing story of the Arkansas in the Civil War. Excerpts from the OR's Series 1 Vol. 8 p 198 And "Arkansas Civil War Battles and Skirmishes" by James Acerra 2004 still in the works for release. Back to Table of Contents -- ACW Newsletter # 12 Back to ACW Newsletter List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by Marc Shefelton. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com