Pea Ridge

Pea Ridge, Ark. At dawn on March 7, the head of the Confederate column had reached Telegraph Road, but the tail was still back at Little Sugar Creek. Van Dorn now made another snap decision: to save time, Price's division would proceed south on Telegraph Road on the east side of a rocky hill called Big Mountain; McCulloch's division would move south on Ford Road on the west side of Big Mountain. The two halves of …

…Road, leaving behind not only most of his wounded, but also large numbers of his men who were still engaged. Leaderless, panicked Rebels fled in all directions as thousands of cheering Federal soldiers met at the tavern. Curtis rode among his men, waving his hat and shouting "Victory! Victory!" Despite being outnumbered and surprised by Van Dorn's unorthodox and reckless tactics, Curtis had achieved one of the first major Federal victories in the Civil War.