The Battle of Pea Ridge

Name: The Battle of Pea Ridge
Rating: 4 (95 reviews)

by Captivating History Book 6 in the Battles of the Civil War series.

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3.8(95)

The Battle of Pea Ridge examines the campaign that decided whether Confederate forces could regain control of Missouri in early 1862. Major General Earl Van Dorn led the Confederate Army of the West through difficult winter country in an attempt to move around Samuel Ryan Curtis’s Union Army of the Southwest and strike it from the rear in north-western Arkansas.

The manoeuvre produced two days of confused fighting on 7–8 March. Confederate command problems were worsened by the deaths of senior officers and by supply difficulties created during the rapid march, while Curtis successfully reversed his front and concentrated his forces. A Union counterattack on the second day drove Van Dorn from the field. The victory helped secure Missouri for the Union and reduced the Confederacy’s ability to mount another major invasion of the state.