March 3, 1862 - Van Dorn reaches the Boston Mountains

Confederate Camp in Boston Mountains

On March 3, 1862, 150 years ago today, Confederate General Earl Van Dorn reached the camps of the combined forces of Sterling Price and Ben McCulloch in the Boston Mountains between Fayetteville and the Arkansas River:

...[B]eing satisfied that the enemy, who had halted at Sugar Creek, 55 miles distant, was only waiting large re-enforcements before he would advance, I resolved to attack him at once. Accordingly I sent for General Pike to join me near Elm Springs with the forces under his command. - Gen. Earl Van Dorn, March 27, 1862.

Van Dorn's plan was solid, but he was so determined to attack that he moved before he had a full understanding of the logistics of the situation facing him. As a result he would outrace his supplies, a critical mistake if the coming battle should last for more than one day.

Gen. Albert Pike, CSA

On the same day, even before receiving the commanding general's orders, General Albert Pike had marched from Park Hill in the Cherokee Nation with O.C. Welch's squadron of Texans, the First Choctaw and Chickasaw Regiment and Colonel D.N. McIntosh's Creek Regiment. His immediate objectives were the towns of Evansville and Cincinnati, on the border between Arkansas and the Cherokee Nation. Colonel Stand Watie was waiting in Cincinnati with his Second Mounted Cherokee Rifles and would join Pike's force as he advanced.

Col. Stand Watie, CSA

Van Dorn, meanwhile, would march out from the camps in the Boston Mountains the next morning and engage the Federals at Pea Ridge just three days later on the 7th. 


His strategy was to swing around the right flank of the Union army of General Samuel Curtis, which was then encamped and entrenched on the north side of Sugar Creek in Benton County, Arkansas. If he could carry out this movement quickly and without being detected, Van Dorn believed he could launch simultaneous attacks on Curtis's right flank and rear, destroying the Union army before it knew what had hit it.


I will continue to post on the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Pea Ridge tomorrow, so check back then to learn about the Confederate march from the mountains. Until then you can read more about the Battle of Pea Ridge at www.exploresouthernhistory.com/pearidgeindex.

Battle of Honey Springs, Oklahoma - Part Twelve

As the Confederates were driven back from the ground along Elk Creek, General Cooper made one last effort to stop the oncoming Federals.

Forming the 1st Choctaw and Chickasaw Regiment on this ridge near the southern end of the battlefield, Cooper attacked the Union forces as they approached down the Texas Road:

The Choctaw, under Colonel Walker, opportunely arrived at this time, and under my personal direction charged the enemy, who had now planted a battery upon the tibered ridge about 1,000 yards north of Honey Springs. With their usual intrepidity, the Choctaws went at them, giving the war-whoop, and succeeded in checking the advance of the enemy until their force could be concentrated and all brought up.

The charge by the Choctaw and Chickasaw soldiers was particularly brave when it is noted that they were armed with some of the worst weapons used during the war. A report the following year indicated that many of their guns would barely fire and were almost useless in battle. At Honey Springs their ammunition also failed them. Dampened from weather conditions, few Confederates could even fire their guns by this time of the battle and the Choctaw and Chickasaw charged into the face of well armed Union troops with virtually no ability to return fire.

Discouraged by the state of their arms and ammunition, the Native American soldiers withdrew ahead of the now reformed Union forces and provided cover for the rear of Cooper's column as it withdrew from the battlefield.

Our series on the Battle of Honey Springs, Oklahoma, will continue.