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Early February 1862 found an 8,000-man mixed force of Missouri State Guardsmen and Missouri Confederate troops enjoying their winter encampment in Springfield. A large Union army under the command of Major General John C. Fremont had occupied Springfield the previous fall, but after Fremont was relieved of command, his troops abandoned the town and Price established winter quarters there.

A new Union army, the Army of the Southwest, under the command of Brigadier General Samuel R. Curtis, advanced southwest from Rolla in a daring mid-winter campaign. Price evacuated Springfield just ahead of the Federals, who arrived in the city on February 13.

Curtis did not pause. He launched an aggressive pursuit of Price’s force, and soon both armies had crossed the border into Arkansas.

Price continued to retreat and eventually joined Brigadier General Benjamin McCulloch’s Confederate division in the Boston Mountains south of Fayetteville. Curtis, at the end of a tenuously long supply line, initially adopted a defensive stance near Bentonville, but soon fell back and concentrated his forces along Little Sugar Creek, near the local landmark of Elkhorn Tavern.

A new Confederate commander, Major General Earl Van Dorn, arrived in the Boston Mountains in early March and formulated a counter-offensive. His army of approximately 14,000 would march around the right flank of the Union position, gain the enemy’s rear astride the Telegraph Road, and cut Curtis off from his supply base at Springfield.

On the evening of March 6, the Confederates began their march, but units were soon strung out and exhausted soldiers collapsed in droves by the roadside. Although Price’s Division successfully reached the Telegraph Road in the rear of the Federal army, McCulloch’s men, far to the rear, were ordered to take a shortcut by turning east to join the rest of the army on the Telegraph Road at Elkhorn Tavern.

Early on the morning of March 7, Curtis received reports that the Confederates were behind him. After a council of war, the Union commander ordered a third of his 10,000 troops to move northwest and northeast from Little Sugar Creek to investigate. The Federals under Colonel Peter Osterhaus, moving northwest, caught McCulloch’s column en route to Elkhorn Tavern. For the remainder of the afternoon, fighting raged near the hamlet of Leetown, and McCulloch was killed. By late afternoon, the Confederates withdrew from that part of the field.

On the other side of the battlefield, Colonel Eugene A. Carr collided with Price and Van Dorn moving down the Telegraph Road. The fighting was intense there as well. By nightfall, the Federals were driven back beyond Elkhorn Tavern, but the Union line held. By the morning of March 8, both sides had consolidated their troops near Elkhorn Tavern.

The Federals launched a devastating artillery bombardment against the Confederate position, followed by a massive assault by almost the entire Union army. By noon, Van Dorn’s army had been driven from the field.

Losses were heavy, with nearly 1,400 Union and at least 2,000 Confederate casualties during the two-day battle.

Pea Ridge was a decisive Union victory that ended any serious threat to the Union hold on in Missouri. Historian William Shea has called Pea Ridge “the most successful Federal operation ever carried out in the Trans-Mississippi.”