Letter from David Ash, Company B, 37th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, three days after the Battle of Pea Ridge.

Exploring the most important 55 months in American history
Letter from David Ash, Company B, 37th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, three days after the Battle of Pea Ridge.
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.
John C. Fremont touts the recapture of Lexington and Springfield as great victories, but they do little to change the tumultuous military situation in Missouri.
Demoralized Federal troops begin a long retreat out of southwestern Missouri after their defeat at Wilson’s Creek.