I’ll own up to being pretty hard to freak out. I’m not scared of ghosts or monsters or horror movies or graveyards. I’m not easy to scare. I can remember twice in my life that I’ve actually had spine-chilling experiences. Once was far away and long ago, when I was a teen visiting a concentration camp in Europe. The other was closer to home, when I found myself looking over a Civil War battlefield. I must have let my imagination get the best of me, because I could have sworn I heard echoes of gunfire and felt the ghosts of men and boys all around. I just let my imagination go too far, right? Or maybe I was only experiencing a sensitivity similar to what many other people have experienced at Pea Ridge National Military Park.
(You'll find directions to the park here.)
When the Union and Confederate armies met there, 26,800 men stood on the battlefield.
The confederates outnumbered the unionists by a staggering 6,000 men.
The confederates were advancing north, hoping to capture St. Louis, Missouri.
The confederate force wasn’t just local boys. Among the force of 16,400 souls, 8,000 were Texicans and 7,000 were from Missouri.
The Union troops accounted for around 10,400 men. The Union commander was considered to be more a politician than a war-tested general.
The battle lasted two days in 1862, March 6th through March 8th.
The Confederate force was tired.They’d marched through snow and over mountains, they were running low on food and ammunition, and their early losses at Pea Ridge further hampered their spirits.
Meanwhile, the Union army rallied around a hot breakfast, proud of themselves for the success of their first day of battle, glad they’d faced down an army that significantly outnumbered them.
Soon, Union victory was assured. At 10:30 a.m. on the morning of March 8th, 1862, the Confederate army began its retreat.
When the smoke cleared and the morning rose on Pea Ridge, nearly 3,400 men and boys were already dead, their bodies littering the expanse of field that had held the fierce battle.
Visitors to the battlefield report hearing cannon fire in the night . . .
. . . the feeling of strange presences following them around the battlefield . . .
. . . the shouts of boys who died on that bloody ground.
Perhaps the next time you visit Pea Ridge National Military Park you won’t find it odd that the field is so creepy. After all, thousands of men lost their lives there.
To find other spooky places, check out this list. If you're interested in finding the Most Haunted Hotel in America, click here.
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