Stand to Your Posts!
March 7, 1862 - Mid-Morning
Officers and men, you have it in your power to make or prevent another Bull Run affair. I want every man to stand to his post!
Nicholas Greusel, colonel, 36th Illinois Infantry Regiment
Yankee cavalrymen, mauled from a sharp fight with 7,000 Confederates, raced back across Samuel Oberson's cornfield from the belt of trees you see in the distance. "Turn back! They'll give you hell!" some troopers shouted as they sped by the infantrymen moving into line of battle.
Two predominately German-speaking regiments - one from Missouri and one from Illinois - would have to stand and fight here without flinching. If they broke and ran, Pea Ridge would become as infamous as the July 1861 Union disaster at Bull Run near Washington, D.C.
Two full divisions - half of the Union soldiers who fought here - were immigrants from central Europe and Germany. These so-called "Dutch" regiments volunteered in St. Louis and other towns along the Mississippi.
Marker is on Military Park Road (County Road 65), on the right when traveling north.
Courtesy hmdb.org
