Samuel R. Curtis regroups his Federal Army of the Southwest and prepares to counterattack Earl Van Dorn’s Confederates at Pea Ridge and Elkhorn Tavern.

Exploring the most important 55 months in American history
Samuel R. Curtis regroups his Federal Army of the Southwest and prepares to counterattack Earl Van Dorn’s Confederates at Pea Ridge and Elkhorn Tavern.
Earl Van Dorn’s Confederates attack Samuel R. Curtis’s Federals in northwestern Arkansas, as part of Van Dorn’s mission to reclaim Missouri.
Earl Van Dorn leads a unified Confederate army northward to confront Samuel R. Curtis’s outnumbered Federals in northwestern Arkansas.
Federal forces push Sterling Price’s Missouri State Guards out of their home state, where they join a new army and prepare to counterattack.
Delegates to the Arkansas State Convention vote to secede from the Union.
The mid-South states of North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas reject President Lincoln’s call for volunteers and take steps toward joining the Confederacy.