Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/News/January 2022/Review essay

By Hog Farm

Over the last year, I have been blessed with the opportunity to visit several historical sites related to the American Civil War. These sites include those run by local groups, three different state governments, and the National Park Service.

The only National Park Service-preserved battlefield in Missouri, Wilson's Creek National Battlefield is a well-preserved site not far out of Republic, Missouri. Aside from a sizable increase in the number of trees, the area has changed little since 1861, with some of the cornfields present at the time of the battle still being farmed. The site museum has been recently renovated and includes some excellent exhibits, include a large display of period firearms. Aside from many of the 1861 lines of sight being blocked by heavy tree growth (one artillery position is so obscured that the NPS placed the cannons and signage marking it at a different, but nearby, point), the only major drawback is that you have to have a pretty good knowledge of the battle to understand the ground. The driving tour road is in a spherical shape around the battlefield, but the battle was an attempted pincer movement, meaning that it is pretty difficult to visit the battlefield sites in a chronological order. Graveled walking trails lead to points within the loop of the tour road. Many are well-maintained and permit horseback riding, but a couple are in poorer condition. If visiting during the summer, bring insect repellent, and Missouri has a substantial collection of biting and stinging insect life.
 * Missouri

About an hour west of Wilson's Creek is the town of Newtonia, Missouri, the site of the 1862 First Battle of Newtonia and 1864 Second Battle of Newtonia. The area south of town and north of nearby Stark City is privately held farmland, although it provides a good view of the terrain. Post-war, the area was used heavily for mining, to the extent that two places in the general region are Superfund sites, but I did not see any obvious mining traces during my visit. The primary attraction is the Mathew H. Ritchey House, a house that stood during both battles and saw use as a field hospital. I believe the interior is only open for tours during specific times of the year. On the north edge of a town is a historic cemetery known as the Civil War Cemetery; one of the burials is a Union officer killed before the 1864 battle. The cemetery is located down a narrow gravel road through thick woods, and is somewhat eerie with its isolated location, haphazard arrangement of burials, and the crooked metal crosses serving as the only marking for most of the interments. Some of the graves, including that of the Union officer, are decorated with arrangements of turkey feathers. I got a strong feeling that the old southern tradition of Decoration Day may still be practiced there.

North of Newtonia is the Battle of Carthage State Historic Site, which preserves a small portion of the site of the 1861 Battle of Carthage, Missouri. The park encompasses a couple of acres between a city park and a railroad track, and is centered around a small spring. Interpretation at the site is provided by some signage, and there is a short (and poorly maintained) trail through some woods on one edge of the park. Of more interest is a museum off of the town square, which interprets the battle, with exhibits, artifacts recovered from the area (including artillery projectiles and what I believe was an amputated arm bone), and a nice diorama of the running battle. The museum docents were friendly and knowledgeable.

Slightly over an hour north of Carthage is the Battle of Island Mound State Historic Site, one of the newer Missouri state parks. While Island Mound itself is on private property across the gravel road from the state site, part of the location of one of the first actions involving African American troops is preserved within the site. Like at Carthage, interpretation is provided through plaques and signage, and a short trail loops through the prairie and persimmon trees at the site.

Just across the state line from Island Mound is another small site, the Marais des Cygnes Massacre Site. The Marais des Cygnes massacre occurred before the war, during a time of tensions along the Missouri/Kansas border known as Bleeding Kansas. The massacre site is in a fairly isolated location down a series of gravel roads, and includes a historic home and the ravine site where the massacre took place. A gravel driving path with interpretive signage along the sides leads down to the edge of the ravine, and a footpath leads down into the ravine itself and loops back up to the house, which can also be accessed from the driving path. One of the signs includes an audio recording of a survivor's tale of the massacre; the recording is powered by turning a hand crank. The path into the ravine is badly washed-out, and parts of the gravel driving path are pretty eroded as well. I managed it in a Ford Focus without significant issues, but I don't think I would have attempted it after a heavy rain. Not far south of the Missouri/Arkansas line is another National Park Service site, Pea Ridge National Military Park. During my visit last summer, the central museum was closed for renovations. The 1862 Battle of Pea Ridge was fought in two separate areas - one to the west near the site of the extinct community of Leetown, Arkansas, and another to the east near the historic Elkhorn Tavern. When I went, the Leetown part of the battlefield was not as well maintained, with many of the walking trails having grown up to thigh-height with grass to the extent that we had to guess where some of the trails were. The Elkhorn Tavern portion of the battlefield was much better maintained, although many of the displayed cannons on that part of the battlefield were replicas. An overlook at Pea Ridge provides one of the best panoramic views of any battlefield I have ever been to, with most of the area visible from a single point on a mountain, but my trip here was cut short due to my +1 and I blundering into an aggressive nest of seed ticks on the Leetown portion of the battlefield. Like Wilson's Creek, this is another site where bug spray is a must.
 * Kansas
 * Arkansas

In southeastern Louisiana, not far from the city of Baton Rouge, is Port Hudson State Historic Site. The site is the location of the 1863 Siege of Port Hudson, and centers along historic lines of entrenchments. As shown in the 2009 image to the right, parts of the trails include wooden boardwalks, although when I visited in late 2020, the boardwalks had deteriorated in a couple of places to the extent that they were no longer passable. In several spots, the earthworks are still visible, although the trees have gotten very thick in places to the extent that I struggled to spatially determine the relative locations of the various points. Points of interest here include a display of two historic cannons, a museum, and a short line of restored trenches near the museum.
 * Louisiana

One of the finest battlefields in the National Park Service system is Vicksburg National Military Park. The park grounds are well-maintained, with driving tour roads accessing most points of the park. Several states constructed elaborate monuments at the battlefield, including the memorable Illinois Memorial. At the time of my visit in December 2020, both the museum and the salvaged remains of the ironclad USS Cairo were closed due to COVID, but the park's website indicates that both have since reopened. Artillery positions during the battle are marked with historic and replica cannon, and near the museum site is a side-by-side comparison of the different types and sizes of cannon used during the Siege of Vicksburg. Colored tablets (red for the Confederates, and blue for the Union) mark the approximate positions that individual units held within each side's lines during the siege, making it very easy to visualize the locations of the opposing trenches.
 * Mississippi