Battle Of Pea Ridg Essay

Arkansas was a very pro-southern, democratic state in the 1860’s. In fact, no votes were cast for Abraham Lincoln in the election of 1860 . As a confederate state along the border and along the Mississippi River, it was a gateway to the west and a crucial location during the war. It was the home to around seventeen battles. As well as being the place in which David O. Dodd was hanged. Altogether, if the Union army hadn’t captured the “Land of Opportunity” they would have had difficulty winning the war. In the state of Arkansas many battles were fought, mostly Union victories. Some battles were major, including Pea Ridge and Helena. But others, such as Elkin’s Ferry and Arkansas Post, were on a small scale but made a major impact. After Pea Ridge the Confederates couldn’t get the Union out of the state. The Battle of Pea

Dodd (1846-1864) , a confederate boy from Texas who moved to Little Rock before the war. After the Union army captured Little Rock, his family moved to Camden, Arkansas in Ouachita County behind Confederate lines. One day, when Dodd was just 16, his father asked him to go to Little Rock, the state capital, to do business. When General James F. Fagan issued his pass he said that Dodd must give him a full report when he returned. When leaving the city, he stayed just outside Little Rock at his uncle Washington Dodd’s home. Leaving the next day, he was stopped on Stagecoach Road, caught without his pass he showed the man his notebook, his birth certificate was in it as well as a page of Morse code. Union soldiers brought it to an office to discover it revealed Union troop positions. He was accused of being a spy for the Confederate army and ten days later he was hanged on the grounds of his former college, St. Johns’. Interestingly, he did not testify at his court martial to defend his innocence, despite having the opportunity . With nicknames such as the “Boy Martyr of Arkansas,” Dodd’s legacy will live on