![]() ![]() Price abandoned Springfield and retreated south to join McCulloch in Arkansas. ![]() But before Van Dorn could reach his new command the military situation had changed drastically. President Jefferson Davis tried to fix the situation by placing Major General Earl Van Dorn in charge of all Confederate forces west of the Mississippi River. Price and McCulloch had joined to defeat Union Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon at Wilson’s Creek the previous summer, but the two generals couldn’t stand one another and their armies, less than one hundred miles apart, operated independently of one another. ![]() Curtis had twice as many men as Price, but Price had potential support from the Confederate army in northwest Arkansas under the command of Brigadier General Benjamin McCulloch. The Missouri State Guard, a pro-Confederate militia under the command of Major General Sterling Price, was located there. For the next six weeks Curtis and his army struggled across the Ozark Plateau toward Springfield, the principal town in southwest Missouri. Curtis in command of the Army of the Southwest and directed him to defeat any Confederate forces in Missouri. Halleck placed Brigadier General Samuel R. On Christmas Day 1861 Major General Henry W. But its impact on the course of the war was immense. The Battle of Pea Ridge, which took place March 7-8, 1862, is a highly obscure military action in large part because none of the generals became heroes after the war. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |