by Samson Tamijani
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The UA campus may sit in the middle of a booming college town now, but in 1862, United States and Confederate States soldiers called the lands of northwest Arkansas a war zone. Today, the areas of Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove are home to many ghosts of Civil War past.
The two local battlefields make for good escapes for those seeking Halloween festivities, especially in chilly late October weather, according to their respective park rangers.
The Pea Ridge site is registered in the United States National Park Service and averages several hundred visitors a week. Its supervisor, Troy Banzchaf, said up to a couple thousand soldiers called the fields their final resting place.
“Many battles that may have had more troops than this one still basically use this (battle) as a measuring stick,” Banzchaf said.
“And most (survivors) talked about how horrific it was. To see wounded comrades, friends, and brothers dead on the battlefield was something they couldn’t shake for the rest of their lives.”
Thousands of soldiers would lose their lives in the two battles that took place in northwest Arkansas, but some say their spirits are roaming around still trying to fulfill their orders.
Longtime Pea Ridge park ranger Kenneth Lockhart has heard many spooky stories from locals who visit or grew up near the land.
“There was a gentleman at least in his sixties and he said to me that he used to play across this area as a child before it became a national park,” Lockhart said.
“At one time, he and a friend were up on the bluffs when they noticed a person in uniform from the (time) period down in front of the rocks. When they tried to wave to the person, the person just seemed to disappear, or fade away.”
“Later, they told their parents about it. According to them, some of the adults went and searched the area, and did find some skeletal remains right where they had seen this particular person in uniform there.”
Kylee Cole, a park interpreter for Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park, said even ghost hunters were frightened after visiting the Borden family house, which stands on the site of a former residence evacuated just before the battle of Prairie Grove on December 7, 1862 – just eight months after Pea Ridge.
“This group reported that in one of these upstairs rooms, there was a light that turned on and stayed on for a few minutes, and then turned off,” Cole said.
“No lights or fires are ever put in this house at night, and it doesn’t even have candles.”
One thing is for sure: to pay respects to the dead of these northwest Arkansas battles from America’s bloodiest war, it’s probably best not to go alone or at night.