Off the beaten path of the park tour road, beyond the preserved battlefields, behind the brush and brambles of a summer woodland, Pea Ridge National Military Park conceals many features unseen by most guests. Those secrets tell a story not only of the battle but of life in the Ozarks before and after those fateful March days in 1862, when Federal forces during the Civil War won control of Missouri for the Union.
Near the Federal trenches along Little Sugar Creek, a land anomaly lays visible from the road. "It was believed to be an old road bed, or maybe a bridge across the creek," said Kevin Eads, the park's superintendent. "But the recent inventory made us think and rethink its use, and we discovered it wasn't an old roadbed after all."
Places to see
Federal trenches
Federal troops under the command of Brig. Gen. Samuel Curtis dug trenches along Little Sugar Creek. These were the only features built as part of the military battle, but they were not used during the battle. Curtis anticipated that Confederate troops, under the direction of Maj. General Van Dorn, would attack him from the south. But the presence of the trenches led Van Dorn to divide his troops. Some came from the north following Telegraph Road, and others came from the west, attacking Leetown.
In deciding on this tactic, Van Dorn made a mistake. Sending his troops on ahead, he left the ammunition wagons behind. When the first day of fighting was over, Curtis and his troops were able to resupply themselves.
Leetown
Leetown hamlet was founded in 1840 by John W. Lee, a farmer from Tennessee. During the battle at Leetown, wounded from both sides were brought here, where buildings and tents served as hospitals. A cemetery was established circa 1860 to 1870, most likely after the war. Surveys point to at least 17 graves.
Elkhorn Tavern
William Ruddick and his son-in-law Samuel Burks built the tavern between 1833 to 1840 as a single family dwelling. Within a few years, the family built a tannery nearby. The tavern served travelers on Telegraph Road before the war came to Arkansas.
Union Gen. Curtis used the tavern as part of his supply base, until Confederates captured and occupied it in the early afternoon of March 7, 1862. They turned it into a field hospital, caring for both Union and Confederate wounded. Union troops retook the tavern March 8. The Federals used the tavern as a military telegraph station until Confederate guerrillas burned it in 1863.
Ford’s Field
Union troops advanced from Leetown hamlet to clash with Confederates along Ford Road on the morning of March 8, 1862. Area residents continued to use the road after the war, and Arkansas 72 eventually took over part of the route. In the park, it is a trace used as part of the trail system.
The road, a field and a home site are associated with G.W. Ford, but later owned by J. Ruddick. The cemetery on the land was likely established between 1870 and 1880. Ford, who died in 1923, is buried in the cemetery.
The field also played a role in the Trail of Tears.
Source: Pea Ridge National Military Park
When Eads and others crawled into the space a few years ago, they discovered it was massive, with double bricks, hewn logs purposefully placed and even wagon axles (now rusted through) added as supporting structures.
"We may never know for sure," Eads said, "but it looks similar to pictures of known ice houses.
"Even though it was built later than the early 1900s, it's still important to know it's here. Even though it's not battle-related, it's still history, and we'll still manage it.
"And it's cool. It's really cool," the history buff said.
TIME PASSAGES
Last spring, park officials released several reports as part of the park's management plan, with alternatives for preservation, conservation and park use. The report included not only manmade structures but topography, views and vistas.
National Park Service officials currently are working to identify and document sites of human habitation that stand above ground level at the park -- in excess of 100 different features, Eads said. Part of the process will include updating the information of structures listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
"They transcend time," Eads said of the park's "bonus" features, with some constructed before the battle and some after.
"We know what was here for the battle, but we don't know what else was on the landscape," Eads continued. "Was it a family home? Was it battle-related? How has the landscape changed over time?"
"We realized there has never been a survey overlaying the deeds of ownership with a found feature, such as a well," said Juile McGilvray, a landscape historian and archaeologist with the National Parks Service who is based in Omaha, Neb. She spent time at the park this spring, documenting known structures. "If we can determine the general time it was built, we might be able to figure out who it belonged to."
Not only did the region see the height of the Civil War, but Reconstruction, the Depression and World War II also affected how people in Northwest Arkansas lived. The Trail of Tears, the Butterfield (Overland Mail) stagecoach route and the telegraph lines before the war crossed through land now part of the park, too.
"Twenty-seven thousand troops came here on that road in February and went back in March," Eads said.
"One piece of the history of the place is the battle," McGilvray said. "But what about the families that lived there before and after the war? We know a lot of people left before the battle -- as was typical in many places -- but what about the people who still lived there through the battle? And how were their families changed?
"There were a lot of houses out there from the 1880s to the 1920s," she continued. "There was a lot of growth in the 1900s -- maybe there was land speculation. The area was full of farms, and the settlers might have cleared the land."
Park officials can confirm many features throughout the park thanks to first-hand accounts left by settlers. And they have found most identified on maps surveyed by noted historian Edwin Bearss in the 1950s and 1960s.
MYSTERIES REMAIN
Nearly a decade ago, park officials discovered a native stone retaining wall, built into a mountain, running about 100 yards following the stream bed of Lee Creek. A lower wall crosses the creek. The wall terminates at a spring cistern and dates probably to the 1920s or 1930s.
"We don't know anything about it, but members of the older generations might have the clue," Eads said. He imagined the hillside behind it cleared, yet filled with gardens and animals. A partial foundation on the hill might have been a school, he added.
And he wondered, if settler children caused trouble, would their punishment include picking up rocks for the fence line?
Eads finds this wall the most interesting of the hidden features in the park. "Just because it's so substantial," he said. "The ingenuity it took for somebody to build it, the amount of work it took to build it. It was done by hand. They cut the bank and filled in behind it, so it's part of the natural features. In a later time, water was piped to a house on the hill.
"The park's at least 50 years old. (The wall) has been here a long time. It's held up with no upkeep ... through floods.
"There are things like this all over the park," he continued. "But you see it, and you don't have time to stop and think about it.
"We're constantly learning about the place as we take care of them," McGilvray said. "We learn more every day."
NAN Our Town on 07/30/2015