Introduction
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The Civil War, as an epic
event, looms large in the history of America
and a large body of myth has grown around
historical truth. The 1861 and 1862 battles
of Wilson's Creek and Pea Ridge are of interest
to historians for the roles they played
in keeping Missouri in the Union and setting
the stage for the campaigns that allowed
the Union to control most of the lands west
of the Mississippi by 1863.
The National Park Service’s
Midwest Archeological Center and
cooperating partner, the University of Arkansas,
Department of |
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"The Death of General Lyon" copyrighted
in 1893 by Kurz and Allison. This scene
depicts the death of General Lyon at the
Battle of Wilson's Creek, August 10, 1861.
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Anthropology began archeological
inventory work at Wilson’s Creek National
Battlefield, Missouri and Pea Ridge National
Military Park, Arkansas in 2001.
The overall archeological project is designed
to conduct archeological inventory in each
park, and identify, record, and evaluate
for the National Register of Historic Places
each site found. Prehistoric archeological
inventory is being conducted as a separate
element under a separate research framework
by the University of Arkansas under the
direction of Dr. Marvin Kay. This battlefield
archeology portion of the project has as
its goals the study of each parks' historic
resources, particularly those dating to
the Civil War. The research design defines
that effort and is a new kind of story about
the battles. It is about history but it
is not a history. The focus is the battle
but the tool of study is historical archeology,
a unique science that shares a common goal
with history, that of understanding the
past in order to build a comprehensive understanding
of the battles' events and movements.
The results of the 2001 through 2003 field
investigations will be reports that are
to be produced in 2004. The analysis will
focus on each battles’ physical evidence
patterning. From the patterns of lost personal
items, dropped bullets, impacted bullets
and the distribution of artillery shot and
shell fragments details of the fighting
lines will emerge as well as greater precision
of the extent of movement of troops at each
battlefield. The artifacts, their context,
and patterning will allow the archeologists
to not only refine details of the battle
for park interpretation, but to study the
larger issues of command and control, tactical
cohesion, and tactical disintegration models
on each battlefield in hopes of gaining
a better understanding of how each army
performed under fire. NEXT
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