Pea Ridge: 152nd Anniversary (Reference Photos)

The battle of Pea Ridge occurred on March 7-8, 1862, but they ‘celebrated’ the anniversary this weekend, which was the 15th-16th. There was a small collection of reenactors doing demonstrations, and, as the highlight, the national park brought out their functioning 6 pound smoothbore and had it fired a few times. It’s always great to go out and wander the 4,300 acres (4300!!) of the park, but I thought this would be a good opportunity to get some reference photos for my wargaming efforts.

The demonstration area was in a field south of the Old Wire Road, near Elkhorn Tavern. It being March, the sun was low in the southern sky, so, unfortunately, most of these photos are back-lit. I’ve tried to do some ‘correction’ in Photoshop to reduce some of the high contrast shadows, without totally blowing out the highlights.

Anyway, I hope some of this proves useful to someone, somewhere.

This gentleman is portraying a Missouri State Militia member. He gave a brief tour of an action that occurred just north of Elkhorn Tavern-an artillery duel between a four gun Illinois battery and 22 Confederate guns. The engagement produced a Medal of Honor winner. I’m sure you can guess the ultimate outcome. Excellent presenter. That fellow in the back isn’t a reenactor, just your typical rural Arkansan of a certain vintage.

 

Model 1841 6 Pounder. Your barrels can’t be too bright, or too brassy. These 6 pounders were prevalent in the early war, but were soon supplanted by larger smoothbores.

Union limber. I’m sure the ‘6 Pounder’ wasn’t on the back, back in the day. Note, the top of the ammo box is NOT padded. I’ve been painting them as if they were for my miniatures. Ugh.

Bad timing, on my part by a fraction of a second. Still, here’s the lanyard being pulled.

They fired the gun twice while I was there. VERY cool. The piece actually belongs to the national park, not a reenactment group. The ranger gave a detailed presentation while the crew went through their drill before firing.

Here’s a dropbox link to a video I took of the artillery piece firing. I was using my little hand-held Lumix camera, so it’s a little jerky, at times.

There was a presenter for each side. Both were great at their job. And not overly-well fed, like some of the other troops.

I probably mix up differing pants and jacket colors too often in my miniatures, if this is anything to go by. Also, note how light the un-dyed (I assume) fabrics can be.

Volley fire

Here’s a video of Confederate volley fire.

Union presenter. Also great.

War face. Note the variety in shades of blue and indigo. I believe these guys were portraying the 24th Missouri Infantry, but I could be mistaken.

Union column approaches

Every Confederate wants to see the Yankee rear, right?

Video of the Union reenactors firing by file.

Pea Ridge Visual Reference

I live a short distance from the Pea Ridge American Civil War National Battlefield and went there this morning to kick around and get myself inspired for the upcoming ACW wargaming hijinx.

The park is a great place to go for a hike or bike ride, as the the grounds cover hundreds of acres. Wildlife is abundant-usually you see dozens of whitetail deer. This trip a large variety of colorful butterflies took center stage. The prairie grasses, rolling landscape, and managed woodlands are all great environments to move through.

Anyway, there is a variety of split rail fencing to look at, various cannon, and the Elkhorn Tavern reconstruction, which I may try to scratch-build at some point. I thought I’d put together a small visual reference for the future.

Without further to-do, here are three types of split rail fence on display at Pea Ridge.

Split Rail Type 1

Split Rail Type 1

Split Rail Type 2

Split Rail Type 2

Split Rail Type 3

Gate connection. This may be totally ahistorical. It does, however, work.

Gate Connection: Part Deux

And here is the scene of the heaviest fighting-Elkhorn Tavern.

Elkhorn Tavern

 

Elkhorn Tavern – West Elevation

Elkhorn Tavern – South Elevation

Elkhorn Tavern – East Elevation

Elkhorn Tavern – North Elevation

Elkhorn Tavern – Artist’s Depiction (note the difference in the porch canopy compared to the photographs and the lack of ground floor railing)

And last, but not least, some cannon, which I am too ignorant to identify. I do know (well, guess, really) that they are NOT 12 pound Napoleons.

I have no idea what sort of cannon this is. It’s rifled. Its carriage is a deep olive green. Barrel is of brass. It has a flared muzzle.

Pea Ridge National Military Park – Arkansas

The Battle of Pea Ridge is an American Civil War battle that took place about 30 miles from where I live in Northwest Arkansas. At this battle, the outnumbered Union Army of the Southwest defeated the poorly led Confederate Army of the West over two days in March of 1862. Which puts paid to the apologist notion that the Confederacy was ‘unfairly’ defeated by overwhelming quantities of men and material from the densely populated and heavily industrialized north. In any case, the Union’s victory here cemented their control over Missouri and north Arkansas. Well, except for the utter lawlessness of raiders and other irregulars on both sides of the conflict.

Enough of my amateur history lesson. The battlefield as it currently stands is quite lovely to visit. An 8 mile hike is an excellent way to cover the ground-you’ll see beautiful oak forests and pass through groves of cedar trees only to emerge into golden fields (well, in winter, anyway) to see miles of rail fencing and dozens of cannon arrayed in their historical positions. There’s also a ring road around the entire site, if you prefer to travel by car, but I don’t think you get as good of a sense of the tactical situation the commanders and soldiers faced from the seat of a car.

Of course, my little trip to Pea Ridge today has me thinking about yet another conflict to game. Yikes.

You’ll have to excuse me succumbing to the lure of iphone photo filters on a couple of these shots.

Row of cannon deployed at a woodline.

Herds of white tail deer inhabit these fields.

Elkhorn Tavern, which sits at a strategically important road intersection.