5000 men, and was completely shattered. TheUnion loss was 1351. Among the contests of theCivil War this well-fought battle, out on the dis-tant borders of western Arkansas , was peculiarby reason of the presence of Indian auxiliaries.These red men were of small use to the Confeder ates . Amid the roar of artillery and the obstinatefighting of a stronger race, they quite lost theirheads, and only added to the confusion of defeat.So far as the state of Missouri was concerned,the victory at Pea Ridge went far toward endingthe serious business of the war. There was moreor less cruel and vexatious guerrilla fighting afterthis, but the rebels never again succeeded in in-vading the state in force. Van Dorn was calledaway to Corinth, where the Confederacy was mass-ing its strength for the coming struggle of Titansat Shiloh; and Curtis was thus enabled to marchat leisure through Arkansas , until he came outat Helena on the bank of the Mississippi river inthe midsummer following.
The interest of these early campaigns is some-what meagre as compared with the T
° r Importance
mighty struggles which were to come, of these early
But their place in the line of causal cal,l i >a ‘S' rls -sequence which ended in the overthrow of therebellion is profoundly interesting. Already theybegin to reveal the prodigious value of the initia-