The stomp of boots on dry ground, the jangling of harnesses and the creaking of wooden wheels could be heard in the still autumn air the morning of Friday, Sept. 25, eliciting images of what was heard by farm families living on the land in Northeast Benton County now owned by the Pea Ridge National Military Park.
Attired in the wool and muslin garments like their forefathers wore 153 years ago, men and women retraced the steps of the troops involved in the largest battle of the Civil War west of the Mississippi River.
Some of Civil War reenactors camped overnight Thursday near Ford's field park then marched through the woods, across the park through Twelve Corners and to the Webb farm where hundreds more reenactors had set up camp for a weekend of reliving portions of the 1862 Battle of Pea Ridge.
Ron White, Doug Skidmore, Dennis Young and Micah Jones, all of Texas, were part of the 9th Texas Infantry. This was their first visit to Pea Ridge.
"You've got to love the history of the Civil War," Young, 72, said. Young, from Jack County, Texas, said he has been a reenactor for 20 years. "You have to have something in here (pointing to his chest) that makes you want to sleep on the ground, march through the mud."
In a day when symbols of the Confederacy are being removed, White and Skidmore said it is important to remember history.
"Don't be ignorant. Right now, our federal government is trying to take away our rights," White said, explaining that was one of the causes of the Civil War. He said that in the 1860s, with a $60 million budget for the nation, $40 million was derived from tariffs on Southern ports.
Among the spectators were the Cox brothers -- Paul, David, Conrad, Barnet, Steven, Jerry and Clayton -- and their wives. The men, great-great-grandsons of Jesse and Polly Cox, owners of Elkhorn Tavern, traveled from Kansas and Colorado to watch the reenactment and visit the land of their forefathers.
Dave Cox said all but two of their siblings made the trip.
"My dad came through here in the early '60s," Dave said. "Our father was very interested in history. I went to college and majored in history ... that's the main reason we came here."
The Cox brothers and their sister with spouses, children and grandchildren now number 170. Dave said his father, Clarence Cox, was one of two children born to Joseph Cox, son of Richard Cox, son of Jesse Cox.
"It's very interesting. I love the people," Paul Cox said. "It's been a pleasure."
"It's interesting," Cathy Cox, wife of Clayton, said, "that people here refer to 'enough food to feed Cox's army.'"
Community on 09/30/2015