Our nation is currently facing several crises. There’s the spiraling-out-of control national debt. Record unemployment. No health care reform. And the lack of any real talent on this season of American Idol. But the greatest crisis in America’s history has eventually become a booming niche in the vacation industry, so there is hope (except maybe for American Idol).
I’m talking of course about the American Civil War. The darkest days of a young nation were pitched in bloody battles between North and South, where even brother fought against brother. The cost of achieving “let freedom ring” for all people was definitely worth the sacrifice, but it left nearly 700,000 Americans dead, devastated the economies of the southern states, and led to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. The places where many of these battles were fought have been preserved or restored, and attract hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. One of these storied sites includes the Battle of Pea Ridge in Arkansas, which just celebrated its 148th anniversary.
You don’t have to be a Civil War buff to appreciate places like this. Anyone who travels here will be moved by the sanctity of a location where so many lost their lives, making sacrifices for the principles in which they strongly believed. In fact, in a sign of restored healing and American reconciliation, and a sign of symbolism to the rest of the nation, veterans from both sides of the War Between the States gathered for reunions some two decades later and were the first to dedicate monuments to their fallen comrades which can still be visited today.
The Battle of Pea Ridge was a crucial victory for Union Forces who seized control of Missouri, one of the Civil War’s swing states—and the key to victory in the west—with the Confederacy’s defeat. The two-day battle, from March 7 – 8 in 1862 witnessed the Confederates losing nearly 2,000 casualties, while the outnumbered Yankee troops suffered 1,600 losses in claiming the win.
At the Civil War Centennial in 1963, the 4,300-acre area on which the battle was fought was dedicated as a national park, and christened as the Pea Ridge National Military Park—considered one of the best preserved Civil War battlefields around. This park offers a visitors center, museum, driving tour, and hiking trails. You can also follow the footsteps of travelers taken before the war began by traversing the pre-war Old Telegraph / Wire Road. There is even a portion of the Trail of Tears that runs through the park.
But the most prominent part of the park is the Elkhorn Tavern. First built in 1833, the structure was first a home that later become a tavern and occasional hotel, featuring a set of exterior stairs leading to the upper porch used by Baptist members so they wouldn’t have to go through a “public serving house” while gathering upstairs. During the battle, it was used as a headquarters for Van Dorn, as well as a hospital while the home’s owners hid in the cellar as the fighting ensued.
While war raged around it, and its walls suffered numerous hits from the flights of bullets filling the air—including a cannonball that hit the upper floor, it survived in tact. That is, until Confederate guerrillas burned it down after the battle when it was used as a Union base and telegraph station. The present structure was built soon after the war, and resembles its war-time appearance, with the original south fireplace and foundation still in tact.
The battlefield site is near Bentonville, also known as Walmart country. But it’s also just a two-hour drive from Little Rock hotels. So if you’re enjoying a wild Arkansas vacation in the great Ozark outdoors, add a little history to it.
Image: Wikipedia Commons
