Elkhorn Tavern: Where the Confederacy Lost the Trans-Mississippi

In early March of eighteen sixty-two, roughly twenty-six thousand soldiers converged on a plateau in the Boston Mountains of northwestern Arkansas, and the two days of fighting that followed decided who would control Missouri and the entire Trans-Mississippi West for the rest of the Civil War.

The tavern itself , a two-story log building where elk antlers hung above the door , sat at a crossroads on Telegraph Road, the main north-south route through the Ozarks. Confederate General Earl Van Dorn arrived with about sixteen thousand troops and an audacious plan: flank the ten and a half thousand Union soldiers under General Samuel Curtis, cut off their supply line, and sweep back into Missouri. On the night of March sixth, Van Dorn launched a night march through bitter cold, dividing his force to strike from two directions at once.

The first day went badly for the Union. Ben McCulloch's wing drove the Federals at the hamlet of Leetown while Price's division pushed hard against Curtis's rear near the tavern. What made this battle distinctive , and historically unusual , was that Van Dorn's force included about eight hundred Native American soldiers from several nations under General Albert Pike, including Colonel Stand Watie's Cherokee, the first time Native American troops fought outside Indian Territory in a major engagement. Stand Watie's Cherokee Mounted Rifles skirmished along the Confederate left through the afternoon.

But McCulloch was killed on March seventh, and his leaderless division lost momentum. Van Dorn consolidated his men near the tavern overnight, but by morning the Confederates had run low on ammunition. Curtis seized the initiative on March eighth, massing artillery and pushing Van Dorn off the ridge in a direct frontal assault. The Confederate army retreated south in disarray and never mounted a serious challenge to Union control of Missouri again.

The battlefield is now Pea Ridge National Military Park, one of the most intact Civil War sites in the country. The reconstructed tavern stands near its original site on Telegraph Road, a quiet reminder of the two days that sealed the Union's grip on the western theater.