'The Battle Raged... With Terrible Fury': Battlefield Archeology of Pea Ridge National Military Park

Carlson-Drexler, Carl; Scott, Douglas; Roeker, Harold

An archaeological account of the Pea Ridge National Military Park, including historical accounts of the Civil War as well. In Fiscal Year 2000 a park-wide archeological inventory was initiated at Pea Ridge National Military Park. The program was funded for a five-year cycle that ended in Fiscal Year 2004. The first year of the project was dedicated to developing a park-wide inventory research design in concert with park management needs. The research design (Scott 2000a), developed for both Pea Ridge and Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield, called for an archeological inventory in each park, to identify, record, and evaluate for the National Register of Historic Places each site found. Prehistoric archeological inventory and non-Civil War related site inventory was conducted as a separate element under a separate research framework. In order to accomplish the non-Civil War archeological site inventory a cooperative agreement for the study of both parks was developed with the Department of Anthropology, University of Arkansas and directed by Dr. Marvin Kay. His inventory results are reported in a separate document. The Civil War battlefield was inventoried by the Midwest Archeological Center under the direction of Dr. Douglas Scott. The Midwest Archeological Center’s element of the project plan and research design had as its goals the study of each parks’ historic resources, particularly those dating to the Civil War. The project goals were to use the historical record and existing archeological collections as baseline information, then conduct park-wide archeological inventory with a view to identifying and recording the historic archeological sites with a focus on those dating to the Civil War in order to build a comprehensive understanding of the battles’ events and movements.