Voice from the Past: “Great God What a Scene is Presented”

Good Afternoon! We conclude our sesquicentennial tribute of the Battle of Pea Ridge with another Voice from the Past. Good Afternoon! We conclude our sesquicentennial tribute of the Battle of Pea Ridge with another Voice from the Past. Lyman Bennett, who served as an officer in the 36th Illinois, recounts the savage battle between Confederate Colonel Louis Hébert’s troops and Union Colonel Jefferson Columbus Davis’ Third Division vivid in the following account:

Great God what a scene is presented, The mangled trunks of men are thickly scattered around. From each tree or sheltering rock the groans of the wounded arise. Muskets, saddles, horses, blankets, hats and clothes hang on every bush, or in gory manner strew the ground. And now in the valley to the right ten thousand wild cheers proclaim the victory ours. Dead horses, dead men and dismounted guns, are strewed over the blood drenched field, and as some gun is taken or trophy secured, renewed cheering and shouts of gladness ring our upon the air…

Source: “The Lyman Gibson Bennett Collection” at the State Historical Society of Missouri Research Center-Rolla. Digitized courtesy of Community and Conflict: The Impact of the Civil War in the Ozarks.