Pea Ridge #9 - The Battle of Dunagin's Farm, Arkansas

Old Wire Road passes Elkhorn Tavern

The Union army continued to push south down the Wire Road on the morning of February 17, 1862, passing through Cassville and into the rolling mountain country south of that city.

The route of Curtis's cavalry took it across the Arkansas state line just north of Elkhorn Tavern and then through the fields and woods that would soon be the scene of the Battle of Pea Ridge. As the mounted forces reached Sugar Creek, they once again encountered stiff resistance from the Confederates, this time under the command of Colonel Louis Hebert of Louisiana.

Col. Louis Hebert, CSA

Pushing up to the creek and forming for the attack, Wright's Battalion of Missouri Cavalry and McConnell's Battalion of the 3rd Illinois Cavalry drove forward on the Wire Road and into the teeth of a Confederate crossfire:

...Colonel Ellis, leading the charge, took the road and received a heavy cross-fire from the enemy. As I approached, I discovered a heavy column of the enemy on either side of the road. I at once deployed my battalion to the right and charged their lines. Major McConnell went to the left. For a few minutes the fight was well contested on the right, the heavy timber and dense underbrush affording good coverage for the enemy. I ordered a saber charge after firing our carbines and pistols, but soon found that the brush was too dense to make it rapid enough. - Lt. Col. Clark Wright, Clark's Battalion, February 17, 1862.

Aerial View of Dunigan's Farm Battlefield

 

Unable to cut through the Confederate resistance with sabers, Lt. Col. Wright ordered his men to return sabers and shift to their carbines. This tactic work and his battalion pushed forward, focing the Southern left from its position in the brush and into open ground beyond. This accomplished, Wright's Missourians fell back about 200 yards and reformed. Their loss was 1 killed and 3 wounded.

Curtis reported that the battle had been opened with artillery fire by the Confederates, to which his own cannon had replied, but that the cavalry charge succeeded in driving the Southern defenders from their high ground. He did not attempt to estimate Southern losses, but reported his own total losses in the fight as 13 killed and 15-20 wounded:

USGS Topo Map of Dunigan's Farm Battlefield

...My advance encamped on the battle ground. General Sigel's command is 4 miles back and will reach me this morning. Have sent cavalry forward to annoy and explore. Cross Hollow is their next point, 12 miles ahead. I shall also await the arrive of the First and Second Divisions, as this is their great boasted trap for the Federal Army. - Samuel R. Curtis, February 18, 1862.

The Battle of Dunigan's Farm is also known as the Battle of Battle of Little Sugar Creek. The Historic Preservation Alliance of Arkansas named it one of its Most Endangered Places for 2011. Please click here to read their comments.

 An important delaying action of the Pea Ridge Campaign, the stand by Hebert at Dunigan's Farm gave Price time to fully extract his Missouri State Guard from danger and reach the reinforcements waiting in Northwest Arkansas under General Ben McCulloch.

I will continue posting on the 150th Anniversary of the Pea Ridge Campaign over coming days, so be sure to check back regularly. You can read more about the Battle of Pea Ridge anytime at www.exploresouthernhistory.com/pearidgeindex.
 

February 2, 1862 - "The snow here has been a foot deep"

Col. Louis Hebert, C.S.A.

The letter that follows was written by a Confederate soldier stationed at Camp Benjamin in Northwest Arkansas on February 2, 1862 (150 years ago today).
The man identified himself only as "T" and was probably a member of Colonel Louis Hebert's brigade.

Camp Benjamin, according to an account by Surgeon Washington L. Gammage of the Fourth Arkansas Infantry, was two miles southeast of Cross Hollows and two miles east of the main road connecting Fayetteville and Springfield in Benton County, Arkansas. Gamage described the camp as being in a "narrow, level valley, bounded on the north and south by a high range of hills, and supplied with an abundance of pure sparkling water by a mountain stream, which was of sufficient size to support a grist mill where the corn and wheat which the neighboring farms supplied in abundance."

The soldier's letter provides good insight to the mindset of Confederate soldiers in Northwest Arkansas during the early days of the Pea Ridge Campaign:

Thinking perhaps a line from this section might be acceptable, I write you a line from our lonely winter quarters. We are situated twenty miles east of Fayetteville, in a hollow, surrounded on all sides by high hills, and as freefrom any society except our own forces as we would be in the deserts of Arabia. The daily routine of camp duties is all there is to relieve our monotonous life. My duties confine me very close to my quarters.

We look for stirring times, however, on the opening of the spring campaign. Our General, McCulloch, has returned to command us, which gives universal satisfaction. It would have beeen a great misfortune to this brigade if Price's newspaper friends had succeeded in displacing our General. I fear our brigade would ahve been completely demoralized. McCulloch is beloved by officers and men, here, as a prudent, careful and brave officer, and those who know him best love him most.

Our regiment is looking forward with much interest to the time (17th May,) when we are to be permitted to see our friends at home once more. We are willing to "fight on, fight ever," as long as the war and life last; but we would like, if possible, to go home first.

The snow here has been a foot deep on a level the past week, and the weather intensely cold. To-day it is sleeting and raining by turns, while icicles hang from the eaves of our houses four feet long. We are in comfortable quarters. Three regiments being quartered here it looks like quite a village. The houses are built uniform, 18 by 36, two rooms in each, and about one hundred and fifty houses in all, laid out in regular streets and avenues, in military style, the regimental and staff forming a square at the head of each regiment.

The entire regiment is well clothed and healthy.

A marker for the Confederate camps at Cross Hollows is located at the corner of Cross Hollow Road and Old Wire Road, near Rogers and between Fayetteville and Bentonville. The actual hollow runs from just north of Lowell east into what is now Beaver Lake.

I will continue posting on the 150th anniversary of the Pea Ridge Campaign over coming days, so be sure to check back often. You can learn more about the Battle of Pea Ridge at www.exploresouthernhistory.com/pearidgeindex.

The map below shows you the Cross Hollows area as it appears today.

View Larger Map

Over the Boston Mountains - December 27, 1862

The Union Army of the Frontier moved out from its camps at Prairie Grove and Cane Hill (now spelled Canehill) on the morning of December 27, 1862, 147 years ago today.

Well aware of the risks of trying to converge their entire force onto a single road and then move the resulting logjam over the Boston Mountains, which rise abruptly just south of Prairie Grove, Generals Blunt and Herron decided to cross the mountains by two separate routes.

Herron moved to the left via the Wire or Telegraph Road, which followed the old Butterfield Stage Line route over the mountains by staying primarily on the crests of the ridges. Much of this old road remains in use today and a portion can be hiked at Devil's Den State Park (shown above).

Blunt, meanwhile, move south via the Cove Creek Road, which follows the creek of that name south through the mountains. The original road crossed the winding creek nearly 40 times and as the soldiers marched on December 27th, they were forced to wade through the icy water over and over.

It had snowed the week before and there was still snow and ice in the mountains. Although the troops were in good spirits, the march was miserable. A member of Blunt's division wrote that water was high and the little streams that fed the creek and the creek itself were deep and fast. The icy water at the fords was often waist or chest deep. The soldiers were marching so fast and wading so much water that they did not have time to dry out and marched in sodden boots and wet clothes. It was also reported that it took as many as 12 horses to pull each of the army's 12 cannon over the mountains, sometimes with the assistance of as many as 50 men pulling on ropes.

By midnight on December 27th, the two wings of the army were approaching their planned bivouac at Oliver's Store, then a well-known landmark in northern Crawford County. Thus far the Confederate forces to the south had not detected the danger that was rapidly approaching via the mountains.

I'll continue to retrace the daily events of the raid tomorrow. Until then, you can read more at www.exploresouthernhistory.com/vanburenbattle1. You can learn more about Devil's Den State Park at www.exploresouthernhistory.com/ardevils1.