Battle of Pea Ridge (II)

DESCRIPTION: "It was on March the seventh in the year of sixty-two" that the Confederates fought "Abe Lincoln's crew." Fighting under Van Dorn, they lose 10,000 men. Cap Price does not want to retreat. The carnage is severe
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (collected by Parler from Allie Long Parker)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar war death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 7-8, 1862 - Battle of Pea Ridge (Elkhorn Tavern), Ark. Federal forces under Samuel Curtis had advanced into Arkansas, and were met by the larger Confederate forces of Earl Van Dorn. Van Dorn's envelopment strategy was too complex for his raw troops, and Curtis was able to beat them off and eventually counterattack
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 359-361, "Battle of Pea Ridge" (1 text plus a broadside of another Pea Ridge song)
Roud #3133
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Elkhorn Tavern, or The Pea Ridge Battle" [Laws A12] (subject)
NOTES [539 words]: For background on the battle of Pea Ridge/Elkhorn Tavern, in which a superior Confederate army was defeated by a smaller Unionist force, see the notes to "The Battle of Elkhorn Tavern, or The Pea Ridge Battle" [Laws A12].
Many of the references in this song are explained there: "March the seventh" (starting date of the battle), "Van Dorn was our commander" (Major General Earl van Dorn was the commander of the Southern army at Pea Ridge), "Cap Price" (Sterling Price, commander of the Missouri half of van Dorn's army), "Pea RIdge" (the high Ozark plateau on which the battle was fought). However, a few references are peculiar to this song:
"Indian Territory": Pea Ridge was in northwestern Arkansas, northeast of Fayetteville; at the time, what is now the state of Oklahoma (to the west of Arkansas) was Indian Territory, and in fact van Dorn's army had a small Indian contingent under Albert Pike.
"Springfield," "Cartherage" (=Carthage), "Lexington," "Drywood": Springfield, Missouri had been the approximate dividing line between Union and Confederate territory for much of 1861; it was about as far as the Federals could carry supplies from the railhead at Rolla without an elaborate system of guards. Springfield had been Union general Samuel R. Curtis's starting point for the Pea Ridge campaign in 1862.
"Carthage" (July 5, 1861): Less a battle than a skedaddle; Franz Sigel's Union forces in that town had retreated fast to avoid getting swallowed up.
"Lexington": Lexington, Missouri, east of Kansas City, was the site of several skirmishes: When Wilson's Creek had opened the door for the Confederates to head north of Springfield, Lexington was one of their targets. On September 20, 1861, Sterling Price captured part of James Mulligan's small command there in a battle that brought charges of what we would now call war crimes. That battle seems also to be referred to in "Sterling Price."
Much later, on October 19, 1864, Price raided Lexington as part of his "raid in Missouri." Given the context of the song, I would guess the 1861 battle is meant.
"Drywood" is presumably the Battle of Dry Wood Creek, sometimes called the 'Battle of the Mules," on September 2, 1861. James H. Lane tried to ambush a part of Price's force as Price worked to occupy land in western Missouri -- but with only 1200 men, Lane was not able to deal with superior forces and ended up fleeing to Fort Scott; Price did not pursue.
All of these "battles" were small -- much smaller than the Battle of Wilson's Creek that is not mentioned (unless "Springfield" is a reference to Wilson's Creek; that battle took place about ten miles from Springfield), and far smaller than Pea Ridge.
(Most of the information about those battles is derived from Louis S. Gerteis, The Civil War in Missouri: A Military History, University of Missouri Press, 2012, and from Albert Castel, General Sterling Price and the Civil War in the West, 1968 (I use the 1996 Louisiana State University Press paperback).)
Confederate losses at Pea Ridge did not approach ten thousand, but the Confederate losses were so high and straggling so common after the battle that there was probably a time when 10,000 of van Dorn's 17,000 men were not with the colors. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: CAFS1359

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography