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The Battle of Elkhorn Tavern
By admin | February 2, 2008
The Battle of Elkhorn Tavern
(Taken from the Confederate Military History, Volume 10, Chapter IV)
Colonel Gates, pressing upon the retreating enemy, engaged his rear guard a short distance beyond the town on the Springfield road. Here, besides the capture of prisoners and a baggage-wagon laden with arms and ammunition, our cavalry killed and wounded several of the enemy and compelled the main body to continue its retreat, pursuing it until dark. The other regiments of the brigade, occupying their respective positions in the line, came into camp late in the afternoon and proceeded to prepare supper, having received orders to resume the line of march at 8 o’clock on the same evening. Colonel Gates’ cavalry having rejoined the brigade, the Second regiment under Colonel Burbridge was detailed for the advance. At 8 o’clock our line of march was resumed, and continued all night. Once, about midnight, and again, toward morning, our progress was checked by an extempore blockade of the road, the enemy having felled the timber behind him as he retreated. By 6 a.m., the 7th, we had cleared the road of every impediment, and by 8 o’clock we reached and secured possession of the Telegraph road at a point about half a mile to the north [and rear] of the enemy’s position. The Second infantry, being at the head of our column, was now ordered to advance in line by the hillside to the right of the road, the Second brigade, under General Slack, following. Gates’ cavalry next defiled by the left up the face of the hill afterward occupied by our artillery.
Col. Henry Little’s report is the story of the action of his brigade of Missouri volunteers. If the whole battle could be described as he pictures the action of that brigade, it would stand revealed as in a photograph. His account, which is here reproduced, is clear and unimpas-sioned–no boasting, no criticism–a plain narrative which carries with it the conviction of its truthfulness in every word. It rivals any description of Xenophon’s March to the Sea," or of "Livy’s pictured page.“ The brigade marched from bivouac at Elm Springs early on the morning of March 6th, and proceeded on the road to Bentonville. In compliance with orders issued from headquarters on the previous evening, Colonel Gates’ regiment of cavalry led the advance of the whole army. "On reaching Bentonville the smoke of burning stores and dwellings indicated the presence of the enemy (Sigel and his Germans), whose rear guard abandoned the town as Colonel Gates’ cavalry entered. From information subsequently received, it is believed that this body of troops was General Sigel’s division, numbering from 5,000 to 7,000 men.
Gates’ cavalry next defiled by the left up the face of the hill afterward occupied by our artillery. Here the cavalry made a prize of several forage wagons, returning laden to the camp of the enemy. In compliance with orders, I then advanced by the same road with the remaining portion of my command. The Third infantry I placed in position as reserve on the hill to the left of the road, and shortly afterward summoned up the two batteries under command of Captains Wade and Clark, which were immediately placed in position with some other batteries [MacDonald's and Bledsoe's]already engaged in replying to the heavy fire directed from the enemy’s artillery along the line of the Telegraph road. For more than an hour our guns played upon the enemy’s batteries with such spirit and effectiveness as to silence their fire. Colonel Gates, with his cavalry, then charged the heights, supported by Rives’ regiment of infantry. On reaching the ground, our cavalry received a heavy discharge of small arms from three regiments of the enemy’s infantry in position. Returning the fire, our cavalry prudently fell back before superior numbers, and, dismounting; they formed on the left of Colonel Rives. The enemy, in turn, advanced against our lines, but were received by Colonel Rives’ regiment with a heavy fire, and repulsed with heavy loss. A second time the enemy charged our lines, only to be repulsed with greater spirit, Colonel Rives sternly holding his position, from which his men did not yield an inch of ground.
After an interval of thirty minutes the enemy, with two pieces of artillery, were observed advancing against our right, occupied by Colonel Burbridge (the Second) and by the men under General Slack. Major Lindsay, of the Sixth division, arriving on the ground with a small body of infantry, I directed him to the support of Colonel Burbridge’s position, on the left. Thus supported, Colonel Burbridge advanced, driving the enemy before him. This movement was supported on the left by the simultaneous advance of Colonels Rives’ and Gates’ regiments, which speedily occupied the heights lately crowned by the enemy’s batteries.
Here we found a broken caisson and a quantity of ammunition, and several dead and wounded horses, showing the destructive effects of our batteries on the enemy’s position After a considerable interval, the batteries of the enemy renewed the action by a heavy fire directed against our lines from the road in front of the Elkhorn tavern. A brisk reply from Guibor’s battery, which I had placed in position on the road to the left of Rives’ infantry, very speedily checked the bold assault of our adversaries, who gradually slackened their fire and answered only by an occasional round from their guns Meantime our ambulances were summoned to the field.
After our wounded had been removed, the wounded of the enemy, who thickly strewed the ground, were removed to our hospitals in the rear. Colonel Burbridge’s command, having been much weakened by their prominent position during the action of the day, now called for reinforcements. General Frost, whose brigade had been ordered up to my support at advanced his command to Colonel my request, Burbridge’s support, taking position to the left of Lindsay’s battalion, on a slope of the ridge to his rear, with the ravine intervening.
About this time I received instructions from General Van Dorn to the effect that General Price was about to make an assault on the extreme left of the enemy’s line [his right formerly]. With this information was coupled an order for me to advance my whole line so soon as the heavy firing on our left should give the signal of the attack under General Price. Colonel Burbridge’s regiment having been pressed forward somewhat in advance of Colonel Rives’ regiment, I ordered Burbridge to fall back, and forming my command into line, awaited the expected signal. It was very late in the day when the sharp rattle of small-arms, in the direction of the extreme left, announced the moment for action. My men advanced in one unbroken line.
We met the foe. For a few seconds he resisted, and then fell back before our lines, as with a shout of triumph, Rives’ and Gates’ regiments dashed onward past Elkhorn tavern, and we stood on the ground where the enemy had formed in the morning. Here, too, Burbridge’s regiment halted, after forcing the enemy’s position on the right, and came into line, having Lindsay’s battalion and a portion of Frost’s division, under Cols. Colton Greene and Shaler, on his left and resting on the Elkhorn buildings. Two pieces of the enemy’s cannon, with an artillery camp, commissary and sutler’s stores, fell into our hands, captured by the charge of Gates’ and Rives’ regiments. A renewal of the enemy’s fire by a battery placed in position on the road was answered by Guibor’s battery, of Frost’s brigade. For more than thirty minutes we contested the position against a brisk fire of artillery, when, General Price having forced the left wing of the enemy from the ground he had occupied by General Van Dorn’s orders, my command again charged the enemy’s lines, driving them from the woods, beyond the tavern, and compelling them to seek refuge in the obscurity of the forest which skirted the opposite side of an open field. In this last charge Lieut.- Col. J. A. Pritchard made prisoners Lieutenant- Colonel Chandler and five other officers, with forty men of the enemy’s line, who surrendered to Col. J. A. Pritchard, commanding the left of Rives’ regiment Our men, exhausted by the exertions of the day, after a fast of thirty-six hours, were now released by the descent of night, and, under favor of the obscurity, rested upon their arms on the field whence they had driven an obstinate and stubborn foe. Early on the morning of the 8th, our line was formed on the verge of the timber, our front being covered by Col. John F. Hill’s Arkansas regiment, deployed in line to the right, and almost 300 yards in rear of Colonel Burbridge’s command, three Arkansas regiments,commanded by Col. Thos. J. Churchill, were stationed.
Until 7 o’clock no gun had been fired. Each army was engaged deploying its columns for a decisive contest. A battery of the enemy now advanced into the open field and took position in front of the enemy’s line, in full view of our men. During this operation they received no molestation; but no sooner had they opened fire upon our line than they were answered by Teel’s battery, which, having come up, was assigned position between Rives’ regiment and Gen. Martin E. Green’s command. But few shots had been interchanged until Wade’s battery entered the list. The enemy, not counting on such odds, limbered up and hastily left the field. For a short interval the report of an occasional shot from our own batteries was the only sound that broke the stillness of the morning. After a short time, the appearance of the enemy’s batteries moving into position over against our right proved that they had not been loitering Captain Good’s battery, now coming up, was placed to the right of Burbridge’s regiment, and opened fire upon the enemy’s battery from its position. The enemy, having got the range of our lines, threw in the shells with great precision and rapidity, concentrating’ their fire on one point.
Wade’s battery was ordered up to Good’s support, but had scarcely unlimbered when Good’s battery retired from the ground. Hart’s battery was now ordered to take the place vacated by Good. Hart’s battery did not prove steadier than its predecessor under the enemy’s fire, and immediately left the field. [Some of Hart's officers and men were censured in reports, but upon investigation by courtmartial, were relieved of all censure.] Wade’s battery, having exhausted its ammunition and several horses, was now ordered to retire to the rear and replenish its caissons. The position vacated by Wade’s battery was supplied by Captain Clark’s battery, which continued to answer the enemy’s fire, until, by slacking his previous impetuosity; it became evident that he was contemplating a new maneuver. From close observation I concluded that we might expect momentarily to be assailed by a charge of infantry.
The enemy’s line extended for nearly a mile and was supported by heavy reserves. Having ordered the left of my line to move close to the fence on the left of the woods, and Whitfield’s battalion to the support of Burbridge’s regiment on the right, I reported the expected advance of the enemy’s infantry to General Van Dorn, who, in reply, ordered me to hold my position as long as possible. The enemy’s infantry advanced. On, on they came, in overwhelming numbers, line after line; but they were met with the same determined courage, which the protracted conflict had taught them to appreciate. For more than half an hour our greatly diminished and
exhausted troops held their hosts in check. Their intention of turning our flanks by their widely extended line becoming now clearly evident, we slowly fell back from our advanced position, disputing every inch of ground, which we relinquished.
It was at this critical juncture that the gallant Rives fell mortally wounded; and as though fortune sought to dispossess our resolution by multiplying disasters, within a few minutes after the fall of Rives, we suffered an irreparable loss in the fall of the young and chivalrous Clark, whose battery kept up a galling fire upon the advancing foe as our lines retired; and as we had now fallen back on a line With his position, being ordered to withdraw his guns, he fell, decapitated by a round shot, while he was executing this maneuver; the last battery in action. Captain MacDonald was now compelled to retire his battery by the intervention of our retiring line between him and the enemy, and it was with regret the order was issued for him to cease firing, so gallant was the conduct of the commander and his men, so terrible was the effect of every round which he delivered against the advancing lines of the enemy, with a coolness and courage unsurpassed. Our latest order from General Van Dorn directed our line to retire by the Huntsville road.
Andy Thomas’s Painting of the Battle of Elk Horn Tavern, which is on display at
the Visitor’s Center at Pea Ridge National ParkThis article can be downloaded from the October, 2007 edition of the newsletter located at the top of the page…great Civil War articles written by Civil War buffs in Arkansas.
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