Battle Of Pea Ridge Essay

The Battle of Pea Ridge The Battle of Pea Ridge resulted from Federal efforts to get control of Missouri, on March 7, 1862 to March 8, 1862. The battle resulted from a Union Army campaign to clear Missouri of Confederate forces during the Civil War. For a few years Missouri had been a slaved state and they wanted the situation to spread to other states as well. In 1854 the question of slavery flared into bloodshed when Missourians tried to force it onto the free Kansas settlers. Because of military strategy, shortage of supplies, and logistics, the Union was successful during the Battle of Pea Ridge. Missouri was important to both sides for a couple of reasons: first there were two great waterways, the Missouri and the Mississippi Rivers, and there are an abundance of natural resources and manpower (Howard 1). The Pea Ridge campaign was the most significant campaign of the Civil War in the Trans-Mississippi region. The new union general, Samuel Curtis, took control in Missouri and decided to destroy the rebel armies. He marched south into northern Arkansas and prepared a solid defense on Pea Ridge (Owens 2). Instead of attacking Curtis’s planned defenses, the new confederate general, Earl Van Dorn,

Curtis was born near Champlain, New York, on August 29th, 1779. On February 10th, 1862, Curtis began his campaign with an army numbering almost 11,000 soldiers. Curtis decided that the best form of defense is to attack. Van Dorn resigned his commission in the United States Army in January, 1861, and was appointed a Colonel in the Army of the Confederacy. On June 5th, 1861, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general. Four months later, in September, he was promoted again, this time to major general, and given command of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department. Van Dorn let it be known that he intended on taking control of the entire state of Missouri for the Confederacy (Howard