Streets named for soldiers in battle

Editor’s Note: The following is from Billie Jines’ 1996 booklet, “The Streets of Pea Ridge.” It has been updated to include new streets and those scheduled for future development.

All north-south streets are named after Union participants of the Battle of Pea Ridge; all east-west ones for their Confederate counterparts.

Confederate names

• Price Street — Three blocks long, it goes from North Curtis Avenue to Carr Street and honors Major Gen. Sterling Price. Gen. Price is reported and documented to have been hit when a bullet went through his right arm below the elbow and hit him in the side, causing a contusion. This took place early on March 7, on the first day’s fighting around Elkhorn Tavern. The general did not get off of his horse, staying put but having an aide bandage his arm with handkerchiefs. In fact, there he sits on his horse during the fighting on March 8 and again as the retreat is about to begin. These can be seen in paintings of the battle by Hunt P. Wilson, who was there. Price is seen with his right arm bandaged and him handling his horse with the left arm.

• Rains Street — A oneblock long street between South Curtis Avenue and South Davis Street. It is the second street south of Lee Town Road. Honors Brig. Gen. James S. Rains of the 8th Division Missouri State Guard.

• Sims Lane — East off North Weston near West Pickens Road. It was named for Col. W.B. Sims, who led the 9th Texas Cavalry for the Confederacy.

• Slack Street is Arkansas 72 West — Heads west from Curtis Avenue. It honors the third general killed at the Battle of Pea Ridge, Brig. Gen. William Y. Slack, who led the 2nd Missouri Brigade. Gen. Slack had been seriously wounded the August before the Battle of Pea Ridge when he fought at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek near Springfield. He had not completely recovered at the battle here. At Pea Ridge, a bullet struck him in the abdomen only inches from his earlier wound. Mortally wounded, he was carried to a field hospital at the tanyard and later moved to a farmhouse on Rollers Ridge near the present site of Gateway. There he died March 20, 1862, several days after the battle. He was buried in that area, but in 1880, his body was re-interred in the Confederate Cemetery at Fayetteville. His widow brought their two sons for the service. One son had only been six months old when his father had been killed, but was 18 years old when he came for the reburial at Fayetteville. There are two monuments on the Pea Ridge National Military Park, not including grave markers in Ford Cemetery. One of the two monuments bears the names of the generals killed at Pea Ridge: Mc-Culloch, McIntosh and Slack. Pea Ridge has a street that honors each of them.

• Stone Street — Turns east off of North Curtis Avenue opposite the street named Patton, goes one block passing the Church of Christ as it heads to North Davis Street. Honors J.A. Stone, Co. K, 4th Arkansas.

Union

Union soldiers honored on names of north-south street

• Asboth Street — Lies between Patton and Van Dorn streets. Named for Gen. Alexander S. Asboth, a former Hungarian nobleman, who commanded the second division under Gen. Samuel R. Curtis at Pea Ridge. Painfully wounded, he refused to leave the field. One of three Union generals at the Battle of Pea Ridge.

• Bancroft Drive — Located in the Givens Place development, which was added in 1996. Honors Cpl. Oruns D. Bancroft who was killed in the Battle of Pea Ridge while serving with Co. A, 9th Iowa.

• Barris Lane — Turns left (south) off of Slack Street (Ark. Hwy. 72 W.) by the Nazarene Church. Honors Capt. Sampson P. Barris of the 24th Missouri.

• Barnes Street — Was named for Lt. Col. M.S. Barnes of the 37th Illinois Infantry. Located in Tyler Estates, which is located on the north side of Hayden Road (Ark. Hwy. 265), and was approved by the Pea Ridge Planning Commission in 1996.

• Bowen Street — Lies between Patton and Van Dorn streets. Named for Major William D. Bowen of Bowen’s Missouri Cavalry Battalion.

• Bussey Lane — Turns left (north) off of East Pickens Road at the city limits. Honors Col. Cyrus Bussey of the 3rd Iowa Cavalry and assorted companies of the 1st, 4th and 5th Missouri Cavalry and half of the 1st Missouri Flying Battery. After the war, his men presented Bussey with an ornate presentation sword that is inscribed with the words “Pea Ridge.”

• Carr Street — Turns north off of Slack Street (Ark. Hwy. 72 West), the first street west as you leave Curtis Avenue. Carr Street actually is part of “the old highway” before Ark. Hwy. 94 was built. It was named for Col. Eugene A. Carr, who commanded the 4th Division under Gen. Curtis. It was Colonel Carr who is reported to have taken the elk horns from Elkhorn Tavern up north after the battle. They were returned in 1885 but are not the ones seen on the tavern today.

• Chapman Lane — If you head due north on Hayden Road from West Pickens, you reach a road turning north again just after you take the first curve. You are on Chapman Lane — but only a few hundred feet to the city limits. There suddenly Chapman becomes Easterling Road, reportedly the work of the 911 program. Chapman was named for Lt. W.B. Chapman of the 2nd Ohio Battery. Easterling is outside the city limits.

• Clark Street — Turns north off of East Pike behind the school campus. Its honoree was James W. Clark of Co. H of Phelps Regiment from southwest Missouri. James was wounded in the Battle of Pea Ridge.

• Coler Drive — Turns left (north) up a hill at the east end of the paved section of Carden Road. It ends at an attractive cul-de-sac which circles a large tree. Or you can turn right off of Carden on an undeveloped section of the street. In fact, Russell Yeates, a rural mail carrier, said there are four houses farther down the road that shows Coler, two on each of two forks. Both forks are Carden Street so far as mail delivery goes. This street honors Col. William N. Coler, who led the Union’s 25th Illinois under Brig. Gen. Franz Sigel’s 1st Division. TO BE CONTINUED …