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Scalping and Attrocities at Pea Ridge

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War-date Autograph Letter Signed, "Z. Cleveland" 3p. octavo, April 6, 1862, Bonaparte Van Buren Co. Iowa, and reads in part: "...Aaron was well when we heard from him last, it has been six weeks since we had a letter from him. There is a man here that came from the army not more than two weeks ago, he saw him he was well and looked uncommon stout and hearty. He did not go to Arkansas with General Cutice [Curtis] he was sent to Tennessee. There is nine regiments of Iowa soldiers near Corinth in Mississippi there is a large army concentrating there under Generals Grant and Buel and there probably will be a desperate Battle before long as they are congregating large forces on both sides. There was not a great many Iowa troops in the Pea Ridge fight. The Iowa third cavalry was there and suffered very much, a great many young men in my acquaintance was killed and wounded and several was scalped and several was murdered after they were wounded. Since the Union army has gone South the rebels on the border in Missouri is getting more impudent and I should not think strange if we should have trouble again this summer. There are a great many men in this Southern part of Iowa that sympathize with the Rebels and do not look at this war only as a mere party squabble but I think they are doomed to a short life as a party and will not be allowed to express themselves openly much longer..." Fine.^tThe Battle of Pea Ridge (also known as Elkhorn Tavern) was a land battle of the American Civil War, fought on March 7 and March 8, 1862, at Pea Ridge in northwest Arkansas, near Bentonville. In the battle, Union Army forces led by General Samuel R. Curtis, defeated Confederate troops under General Earl Van Dorn, which numbered 16,000 and included 800 Cherokee Indians. The outcome of the battle essentially cemented Union control of Missouri. One notable fact of this battle is that it was one of the few in which a Confederate Army outnumbered a Union Army.^t

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