Plans made for dig at Pea Ridge's Leetown hamlet; analysis of artillery site continues

Foundations are all that remain in Leetown (NPS photo)

The few Leetown residents who stayed after the Battle of Pea Ridge didn’t stick around a whole lot longer. The 1881 building of a railroad line a dozen miles away in Rogers brought new opportunities and the end to this northwest Arkansas community.

Nature reclaimed the area that once held about 15 one-story, log-frame houses and a small store. Leetown was only a half mile from the pitched fighting of March 7, 1862. Homes were used for hospitals, woods and fields were filled with battle debris, and the stench of death permeated the air, according to the National Park Service.

The Arkansas Archeological Survey, a part of the University of Arkansas system, is in a four-year project examining up to nine areas in Pea Ridge National Military Park.

Carl Drexler, a battlefield archaeologist with the Survey, said the University of Arkansas Global Campus will host a multi-week field school at Leetown in summer 2017. The site contains some foundations. The hamlet witnessed a major part of the first day's fighting and was the site of a U.S. Army field hospital.

(NPS photo)

Two Confederate generals died near Leetown (above) during assaults after their units were separated during a flanking movement. The Confederates were forced to withdraw.

The Picket has published posts about spring 2016 excavations in Ruddick’s Field, a couple miles to the east of Leetown. Archaeologists recovered 540 artifacts – the largest a 6-pound solid artillery shot – from the cornfield and in wooded areas.

“These have all been analyzed, at least on a preliminary level, and plotted in mapping software,” Drexler said recently. “More analyses of the items, including what their locations can tell us about gun positions, troop movements, etc., are still in the pipeline.”

NPS' Alex Swift with piece of case shot or musket ball at Ruddick's Field.

One aim of the project is to ascertain, by analyzing artillery fragment locations, just where the guns were located, the distance from targets and perhaps even the trajectory of the shots. 

An artillery duel at Ruddick’s involving 40 Federal and 30 Rebel guns speaks to the psychological and morale toll of artillery. “The smoke and the explosion of the cannonballs created such an overwhelming assault on the senses that the cumulative effect … was often greater than just what the bodily destruction was,” Drexler said earlier this year.

About 3,000 of the Confederate Missouri State Guard charged a Union position late on March 7, 1862. Union canister and shells and infantry fire ripped through the Rebel lines in the cornfield. It was over in 15 minutes, the survivors limping back toward Elkhorn Tavern.

The March 6-9, 1862, Battle of Pea Ridge (Elkhorn Tavern) has been called by some historians “the Gettysburg of the West.”

Forces under Union Maj. Gen. Samuel Curtis defeated the men of Confederate Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn, whose leadership has been faulted by historians. On March 7, the Rebels controlled Elkhorn Tavern, but the failed attack at Ruddick’s Field presaged the next day, in which consolidated Federal troops made a counterattack, sweeping Van Dorn’s brigades from the field.

The Union won control of Missouri and weakened the Confederate hold in Arkansas.

Those taking part in next summer’s excavations at Leetown, which was established in the 1840s, know it was a humble community.

An Iowa surgeon wrote after the battle: "In all, the windows were few and very small, admitting little light and an insufficiency of air, even when the sash frames were entirely removed.....They contained but few of the ordinary domestic appliances, and were wholly wanting in the usual necessaries found in more settled regions."

Field hospital flag exhibited in Atlanta aided stretcher-bearers, witnessed war's horrors

(Photographs courtesy of Atlanta History Center)

Before he became a renowned landscape and marine painter, Harrison Bird Brown created signs and banners. During the Civil War, his business in Portland, Maine, produced a U.S. Army field hospital flag that had a distinctive yellow background and contrasting green “H” for hospital (style specified in January 1864 Army regulations). One of Brown’s flags is among only a dozen such banners believed to have survived the Civil War.

Gordon Jones

The flag was donated last year to the Atlanta History Center, where it is displayed near the “Agonies of the Wounded” case at the center’s “Turning Point: The American Civil War” permanent exhibition. The Picket asked AHC senior military historian Gordon Jones about the donation from John and Joyce Shmale of Mahomet, Ill. (Jones first wrote about the gift in Civil War News). His responses have been edited.

Q. Any clue in which theater it was used?

A. None. It was made in Maine, so you have to think Eastern Theater, but you never know. 

Q. Why did the Schmales (who each have worked in the medical field) donate it specifically to the AHC? Have they done so previously?

A. No, this was their first donation to us, but not their first donation to a museum. They were looking for a good home, not to sell it, and decided on the AHC due to a recommendation from their appraiser. On our end, we were thrilled beyond words. The DuBoses (an Atlanta father and son who amassed thousands of items) collected for 35 years and never found one – and this is not something you find every day, or something you can just buy from the antique store. We probably would have never had one had it not been for this donation. And it really helps our interpretation of medical treatment during the Civil War, which we cover in “Turning Point,” and is included on all the tours, especially for school groups.   

Q. On the conservation of the 63-by-46-inch wool bunting flag by Kate R. Daniels, how much was involved in it? What shape was the flag beforehand?

A. The flag was in good shape beforehand and needed very little cleaning. The main thing Kate did was prepare the mount: a backboard to which is attached layers of soft cotton batting covered by plain-cotton cloth, then she lightly stitched the flag to the cloth. Then we had a local framer who prepares the frame – powder-coat aluminum frame with U/V-protected plexiglass front and cleats on the back for securing to the wall. This frame has to be precisely matched to the measurements of the backboard (everything has to be custom-made). The idea is that once the mount is placed in the frame, the flag is “sandwiched” securely between the cotton cloth and the plex front, preventing it from sliding around, stretching fibers, etc. It’s the safest way to treat a flat textile item like this. And, of course, we wanted the flag on display as soon as possible.

Q. Any general thoughts on the flag's significance? Why are they so rare?

A. It’s like a lot of other Civil War artifacts: That which was most common shall be least common. In other words, what was ordinary back then was not considered worthy of saving and was discarded, hence making it incredibly rare today. That is why enlisted soldier’s uniforms are so much rarer than fancy officer’s uniforms. Our artifact storage area is filled with wedding dresses and tuxedos. but no blue jeans – that sort of thing.   

Q. Did a yellow or red field hospital flag prove effective in deterring enemy fire on the sites?

A. It was probably not about deterring enemy fire as much as being recognizable to one’s own stretcher-bearers in the smoke and confusion of battle. The field hospitals should have been far enough from the front lines to avoid direct fire, but they had to be easy to find in order to bring in the wounded quickly. The same type of flags, but larger, were used to designate buildings used as more permanent hospitals in towns and cities -- so again, to make sure everybody knew this was a medical facility. It was a way of making medical care more timely and efficient. If you recall how unprepared and overwhelmed the medical services on both sides were early in the war – hence the terrible suffering of the wounded -- you know why this was so important. (About 30,000 emergency amputations were conducted by U.S. Army surgeons during the war.)

• Click to learn more about improvements to field hospitals during the Civil War

Gettysburg park's prescribed burn aims to make fields look closer to 1863 condition

Looking northwest toward Neinstedt field. (Images: GNMP)

(Editors note: The fire was postponed because of moisture in grass and weather conditions, the park announced. It has been rescheduled for Oct. 30.)

A prescribed burn scheduled for next week at Gettysburg National Military Park will result in visitors being able to see a more historically accurate version of a 30-acre plot of farmland that hundreds of soldiers, as well as horses and artillery pieces, trampled during the pivotal, three-day battle.

The burn includes a large field that was owned by Conrad and Henry Neinstedt and produced wheat in summer 1863. Another portion was the site of George Weikert’s pasture.

“Native grasses will be allowed to come back,” Katie Lawhon, management assistant at the park, told the Picket on Thursday. “It is preserved as grasslands now, although many other areas in the park are crop fields through permits with more than a dozen local farmers.”

The first prescribed fire at Gettysburg was in October 2013, covering 13 acres of the Snyder farm. Officials say such burns reduce herbicide use. The controlled fire of the 30 acres northwest of the intersection of United States and Hancock avenues is currently set for Oct. 7 (Tuesday), weather permitting. (click map to enlarge)

“The overall objectives are to maintain the conditions of the battlefield as experienced by the soldiers who fought here; perpetuate the open space character of the landscape; maintain wildlife habitat, control invasive exotic species; and reduce shrub and woody species components,” the park said in a press release.

By the time of the July 1863 battle, the wheat on the field owned by the Neinstedt’s was tall and rich, according to the NPS. The wheat fed their Pennsylvania families and they sold the rest as a cash crop. Weikert maintained an orchard and pasture.

Neinstedt field on left, Weikert orchard on the right

“Union skirmishers deployed over the Neinstedt’s land overnight of July 1, and by the end of July 2, the Neinstedt’s wheat crop was gone; trampled near to dust by hundreds of soldiers as well as horses and artillery pieces rushing to the front. Near the center of the field, Battery I, 5th United States Artillery had made a desperate stand against the 21st Mississippi Infantry, only to be overrun and captured until Union reinforcements arrived to re-take the guns. This scene of intense fighting on July 2, 1863, has been preserved as farmland ever since.”

Lawhon said the areas around nearby monuments, including along Hancock Avenue, will be mowed prior to ignition and sprinkled with water. A sprinkler line will be placed along the perimeter as another means of protection. If winds are too high or fields are too dry Tuesday, the prescribed fire will be rescheduled.

Upcoming film marks valor of VMI cadets

Field of Lost Shoes (Mark Wilson, Wikipedia)

A movie about the May 1864 Battle of New Market may make its debut in Richmond, Va., next year. Focused on the stories of seven Virginia Military Institute cadets, “Field of Lost Shoes” revolves around the cadets’ heroic charge. Ten cadets died of wounds suffered on the Shenandoah Valley battlefield, where many of them lost their shoes in the deep mud. The Confederate victory pushed Union forces out of the valley. • Article

B*ATL: Civil War field hospitals

During the week, Dave Furukawa is a physician assistant in Atlanta. On weekends, you might find have wearing a woolen blue uniform and laboring under a canvas shelter.

The living historian with the 21st Ohio Volunteers ran a field dressing station and hospital at B*ATL (Battle of Atlanta), an annual festival held in East Atlanta/Kirkwood.

Furukawa and Thomas Federico (below) educated visitors about the Civil War version of a triage station. A field dressing station might be 300-400 yards from the battle. Once they stabilized a patient, doctors would send him back to a hospital a few miles away for surgery or more complete treatment.

The enemy wasn’t always a guy with a rifle.

“Everybody got infection,” Furukawa said Saturday at the encampment at Gilliam Park in Kirkwood.

A recent Picket article talked about the advancements in medicine and field treatment that came from the Civil War.

At the time, though, there were no antibiotics. Gangrene and amputation were common. Doctors did have some morphine and patients also might receive opium or laudanum for pain and surgery.

Doctors and assistants had to make life-or-death decisions. A gut shot or serious head wound usually meant certain death. The soldier would be made comfortable, Furukawa said. Sometimes he would be propped up as he wrote or dictated a last letter home.

“That’s where you get the term ‘dying tree,’’’ Furukawa said.