Pea Ridge National Military Park and The Trail of Tears

The next stop on our journey brings us to Pea Ridge National Military Park in Garfield, Arkansas.  We were heading south from Missouri to our final stop that day to Hot Springs.  Pea Ridge has a Visitor's Center, theater, bookstore and 7 mile (10 stop) auto-tour route of the battlefield.

The exhibits were interesting about this location.

My favorite thing about this Visitor's Center was the love story of Mollie Van Winkle and John Belle Steele who were separated by the War.  Enjoy the store below.

Since Pea Ridge is just over the Missouri border, it along with Wilson's Creek was important to keeping Missouri as part of the Union Army and Federal Government so both of these battles were crucial in this venture.  Pea Ridge Campaign began on Christmas Day, 1861 with Brig. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis to command the troops there and drive out the confederates from this area.  23,000 solider fought at Pea Ridge during March 7-8, 1862.  Curtis and his army clashed with General Earl Van Dorn and the following day, March 8th, the battle ended for defeat for the Confederates.  The History and Culture of this park is very interesting if you want to take the time to learn about it.  It contains biographies of battle leaders the along with letters and diaries of soldiers.  There were a good many commanders on both sides here so if you want to learn about it, I'd suggest taking the time online.  There were some heavy hitters at this location.

Next, we did the auto-tour road.  Now, I'll stop here and say, DO NOT take your RV or rig on this auto-tour.  I asked the ranger if our rig would be OK and the road without trees hitting us and he assured us it was just fine, but as we got about 1 mile into it, we were NOT fine and had a LOT of low hanging tree limbs which really didn't not make us happy.  So, unhitch if you want to do this loop.  The 7-mile auto-tour stops were as follows:

Stop 1 - Trail of Tears.  The footpath can still be seen today!

Stop 2 - General Curtis' HQ

Stop 3 - Leetown - Small town once stood a short distance where wounded were brought.
Stop 4 - Leetown Battlefield

The Army was getting training her today.

Stop 5 - Armies Collide

Stop 6 - West Overlock

Stop 7 - East Overlook
Stop 8 - Elkhorn Tavern - Also used as a hospital to the wounded soldiers.  This tavern is a reconstruction.

Also, at Elkhorn Tavern were monuments to the brave Confederate dead.

Stop 9 - Confederate Sunset

Stop 10 - Federal Line

The park was interesting and all these battles are just the beginning of what's to come as we tour the south, I'm sure.  I would recommend this park, but just don't bring a rig on the auto-tour.