“THE BATTLE RAGED…WITH TErrIBLE FURY:” BATTLEFIELD ArCHEOLOGY OF PEA RIDGE NATIONAL MILITARY PARK By Carl G. Carlson-Drexler, Douglas D. Scott, and Harold Roeker Midwest Archeological Center Technical Report No. 112 NATIONAL PARK SERVICE Midwest Archeological Center United States Department of the Interior National Park Service Midwest Archeological Center Lincoln, Nebraska 2008 This report has been reviewed against the criteria contained in 43CFR Part 7, Subpart A, Section 7.18 (a) (1) and, upon recommendation of the Midwest Regional Office and the Midwest Archeological Center, has been classified as Available Making the report available meets the criteria of 43CFR Part 7, Subpart A, Section 7.18 (a) (1). ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The Pea Ridge battlefield archeological project is the product of a cooperative effort on the part of many people. Among the most supportive were the staff of Pea Ridge National Military Park. They extended their welcome and tendered every possible assistance to the field crew during our in-park work. We want to especially thank Superintendent John Scott for all of his assistance and guidance, the late Douglas Keller for his constant support and determination to spend as much time in the field with us as possible and former Chief of Interpretation Mary Cox Davis for her unflagging support and advice and for assisting us in the field, and the park’s maintenance staff who did everything in their power to aid the field investigations. We are grateful to Charles Haecker for all of his help during the field investigations and to Greg Kendrick who “loaned” Charlie to us from Intermountain Region. We could not have accomplished this work without the hard work of a small army of metal detectorists and volunteers, some of whom were park staff who gave generously of their time off. It was their hard work in all sorts of weather conditions that allowed this project to become a success. We offer our grateful and heartfelt thanks to the volunteer crews: Chris Adams, Conrad Angone, Floyd Barnhill, Derek Batten, Olga Berg, Carolyn Bernaski, Sam Bilyeu, Dana Burgess, Steve Burgess, Steve Burt, Frank Butler, Kenneth Byrd, Jeff Call, John Casteel, Glen Christophersen, Mike Clark, Cici Craglow, Julie Coleman, Jim Dobkins, Ransom Ellis, Fagan, Ronald Fagan, Jessica Faldon, Roger Farrer, Jack Ferguson, Norman Ferguson, Gail Fowler, Tom Frew, John Gibson, Larry Gibson, John Goodwin, Justin Goodwin, Henry Gresham, Charles Haecker, Steve Hall, Don Hamilton, Dick Harmon, Monte Harris, Erik Hazel, John Heuston, Bob Hofer, Glen Hofer, Rose Ann Hofer, Steve Hoover, Craig Jones, Ed LaMastus, Dave Lewis, Giselle Lewis, Sam Littrell, Ike Lockridge, Richard Lockridge, Larry Ludwig, Gordan McCain, Will McCain, John Nessmith, Bob Norris, Bob Rea, Tom Reed, Kent Ruddick, Sandy Ruddick, Ann Schafer Ed Schafer, Don Schafter, Don Schmid, Harold Sharp, Bob Sigafoos, Ellie Smidley, Dustin Smidley, Don Smith, Mike Swalley, Vicki Swalley, Glen Swanson, Jerry Sweeney, Tom Sweeney, Darla Thomas, Curtis Tilgham, Elizabeth Tyurikow, Tami Vitali, Sandy Wells, Jack West, Mark Wheeler, Travis Whenhust, James White, Nola White, Chris Whitehead, Mark Whitehead, Walter Whitehead, Phil Whitlow, Scott Wilkey, Warren Wilkey, John Willmann, and Bruce Wright. These volunteers contributed 3610 hours to the project, for which we are eternally grateful. As always the staff of the Midwest Archeological Center provided unqualified support in the course of the project. Thomas Thiessen, Park Program Manager, and Mark Lynott, Center Manager gave us sage advice and support for the project’s duration. We would particularly like to thank Jill Lewis for her yeoman-like efforts in handling the travel vouchers for all of the volunteers, and Linda Clarke for her diligent work on the cooperative agreement and assuring that the volunteer paper work was promptly handled. Bruce Jones, MWAC volunteer coordinator assisted us in many ways and we tender our thanks to him. Jan Dial-Jones, Karin Roberts, Claudia Schaffer, and Lisa Stanley of the Collections i PEA RIDGE Management team aided us and tutored us in the fine art of collections cataloging, for which we are very grateful. Scott Stadler provided much needed mapping support in 2002, and Rolando Garza of Palo Alto Battlefield did the same for us in 2003. Don Arp assisted in the artifact processing during 2002. We wish to extend our sincere appreciation to William Volf, who took on the task of conducting the geophysical investigations, and Alicia Coles for her willingness to explore the potential for metallurgical examination of some of the artillery shell fragments. Their hard work made the project more complete. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments .............................................................................................................i Table of Contents .............................................................................................................iii List of Figures ...................................................................................................................v 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................1 The Pea Ridge National Military Park Archeological Inventory ..............................4 Previous Archaeological Investigations ....................................................................6 Leetown Excavation ..........................................................................................6 Oberson’s Field Remote Sensing .....................................................................10 ARPA Investigations ........................................................................................11 Student Research Projects ................................................................................11 2. A Brief Battle History .................................................................................................15 Leetown ....................................................................................................................16 Elkhorn Tavern .........................................................................................................19 3. Archeological Project Methods ...................................................................................23 Field Data Collection Methods ................................................................................23 4. Metal Detected Artifacts - Description and Analysis ..................................................25 Analytical Procedures ..............................................................................................25 Firearms Identification Procedures ..........................................................................25 Artifact Descriptions ................................................................................................26 5. Interpreting the Archeological Evidence ....................................................................61 Firearms Types at Pea Ridge – The Historical Accounts .........................................61 Firearm Types at Pea Ridge Derived from the Archeological Record .....................71 Small arms - Pistols, Muskets, Rifled Muskets, Rifles, and Shotguns.............72 Artillery at Pea Ridge – The Archeological Evidence .....................................76 The First Day’s Fighting, March 7, 1862 .................................................................79 Narrow Ridge North of Elk Horn Tavern ........................................................81 iii Elk Horn Tavern ...............................................................................................96 Clemon’s Field ................................................................................................97 Leetown ...........................................................................................................101 The Fight in Morgan’s Woods .........................................................................112 The Second Day’s Fighting in Cox’s Field, March 8, 1862 ...................................120 6. Conclusions ................................................................................................................127 References Cited .............................................................................................................133 Appendix A .....................................................................................................................143 Appendix B .....................................................................................................................153 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Pea Ridge National Military Park and the 1862 campaign ..............................2 Figure 2. Pea Ridge National Military Park with major features noted. ..........................3 Figure 3. Metal detected inventory areas at Pea Ridge. ...................................................6 Figure 4. A 1903 plat map of the Pea Ridge battlefield showing land ownership. .................................................................................................................7 Figure 5. A 1940 aerial photograph of the Pea Ridge area showing farmsteads and the significant amount of clearing that occurred prior to establishment of the park ..............................................................................................7 Figure 6. Rex Wilson’s 1965 excavations in Tanyard hollow. .........................................8 Figure 7. Locations of