The Human Cost
Photo: National Archives "The scene is silent and sad. The vulture and the wolf have now the dominion and the dead friends and foes sleep in the same lonely graves." General Samuel R. Curtis The Army of the Southwest lost 1,384 men at Pea Ridge – 203 killed, 980 wounded (of whom 150 later died) and 201 missing (presumably captured). Nearly half of the Federal casualties came from Carr’s hard-fighting 4th Division. The Army of the West lost hundreds of men to straggling and desertion during the campaign, especially during the retreat to Van Buren. The best estimate is that Van Dorn lost approximately 2,000 men in the battle, including 500 taken prisoner. |
Did You Know?
Morgan’s Woods is the location of Confederate retreat after a collision of armies. Afterwards, a surgeon from the Leetown hospital remarked that for 200 yards in front of White’s position in Morgan’s Woods, not a tree, bush, or sapling was unmarked by the firing of cannon, canister, or shell.