PEA RIDGE — Today 150 years ago, the sights and sounds on the land now owned by the Pea Ridge National Military Park would have been gut-wrenching. The stench of death mingled with gunpowder and burned wood was overwhelming, so much so that Gen.
Samuel Curtis left the area and reestablished his camp at Camp Stephens on Little Sugar Creek between Pea Ridge and Bentonville, according to John C. Scott, superintendent of the park.
On this day in 1862, there would have been bodies awaiting burial. Soldiers burying the dead. Wounded in makeshift hospitals.
The temperatures would have risen, just as they have this year, Scott said. “You would probably have seen the forest smoldering from the artillery rounds and black powder weapons. All the fences were torn down, either from the battle, or being used for firewood.
“There were dead horses all over the place. There would be Confederate cavalry under a flag of truce to bury their dead and negotiate a prisoner exchange.”
This past weekend there were more people on the land there than there have been at any one time except during the battle, Scott said. There were 26,000 Union and Confederate soldierson this land 150 years ago.
“Unlike the battle, everyone this time was having a good time.
Everybody had a smile, except for a few small children who were tired of walking ... by the end of the day, every one of these people went home to a nice comfortable bed and went to bed full, warm, not afraid they would have to fight again.”
About five acres were covered Saturday with 3,500 luminaria, one for each of the men killed during the two-day Civil War battle.
Scott said he walked through the candles after sunset Saturday and was overwhelmed with the greatness of the unity of the country and the people.
“It was truly an emotional experience,” Scott said. “When I viewed it from a distance, I appreciated the number of dead that it represented en masse.
But, when I got out and walked amongst them, then each of those dead became an individual. It brought home that each one of those soldiers killed there was an individual whose life ended on that battlefield ... although I’ll never know their names, or what they looked like, or where they were from - North or South, they all truly looked the same, they were all truly united in death.”
“I would like for every park visitor to have the experience ofwalking through those candles,” Scott said, “so they could get the sense that this Civil Wary that ripped us apart ... the veterans were the first ones to try to get us to reunite our country. This reunitement of luminaria is representative of what we’ve become as a country today. We are the United States ...
“If people could have that experience, maybe they would stop their petty bickering and remember that we are united as a country and as a people,” he said.
And, to the side of that mass of candles was one solitary candle in honor of C.W. Webb, who died the week preceding the event.
“C.W. was a good friend of the park. He and his wife, Ann, were invaluable to the Civil War history of the park, the Headquarters House and all the various Civil War sites in northwest Arkansas.
Standing over C.W.’s candle looking over all the others made me reflect upon how that at some point, we in the present are going to pass on and become part of the past, then all those candles look united. We all share death in common,” Scott said.
More than 21,000 visitors were counted Saturday. There were 2,400 people visiting the event Friday morning at the Bentonville square; 150 at the Bobby Horton concert; 2,700 Saturday night to view the luminaria; and 550 Sunday during a rainy day, giving athree-day total of 29,200 visitors, Scott said.
Many visitors spoke to Scott and other park employees with stories about this being their first visit and that they knew their forefathers had fought in that battle.
Scott, who has been superintendent here since August 2000, has worked at many national parks but this is the first Civil War park.
“In a Civil War park, they become special and magical on the day that the battle took place. I’ve walked all over that park. I don’t know how to explain it, but when you walk across it on March 7 and 8, it feels different than it does on Jan. 8.”
Scott said there were visitors from a number of states including Texas, Missouri, Louisiana, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa.
“From Leetown to the Elkhorn Tavern, this field of battle has been extraordinarily preserved so we might view and walk underfoot the landscape experienced by those who fought at Pea Ridge. I am committed to seeing it remain as such, so that ... your children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will be able to vividly recall how the actions on this field contributed to the outcome of the larger conflict that secured the Union and created on nation, under God, indivisible,” U.S. Congressman Steve Womack wrote in a statement read by Jeff Thacker.
News, Pages 1 on 03/14/2012