The Battle of Elk Horn Tavern

Come, all you brave soldiers, a story I will tell, About the Battle of Elk Horn, you all remember well. It was an awful conflict, it will cause your heart to chill, It was the famous battle that was fought on Elk Horn Hill.

It was the seventh of March, just after dawn of day, The drums and fifes were playing for them to march away, And my feelings of that morning, I still remember well, When first the guns were firing on the fields of Elk Horn

Hill.

It was not long after sunrise, the battle it begun! And the fighting never ended, until after setting sun. The wounded on the field did my heart with sorrow fill, For the mangled and the dying that lay on Elk Horn Hill.

The dying men were calling to their comrades every

where,

“Mother! Brother! Father! Sister! I pray my God come

near!”

I was sitting in the cellar, and Oh, my heart did chill, For many a man was dying on the noted Elk Horn Hill!

The wounded men were crying for help from everywhere, While others were dying, were offering God their prayers: “Protect wife and children, if it be Thy Holy will.” This was the prayer of dying men, who lay on Elk Horn

Hill.

It was early the next morning, they were called to arms

again,

Unmindful of the wounded, unmindful of the slain. The fighting raged on, and many a man was killed, This was the second day on the famous Elk Horn Hill.

The battle, it raged on, and the wounded did cry:

“Oh, take me from this battle field. Oh, take me off to die!” And from their mortal wounds, the blood ran like a rill, In the famous battle that was fought on Elk Horn Hill.

There were men from every nation, laying on that bloody

field,

There was father, son, and brother, laying mangled with

the slain.

Many a home made desolate, many a heart to chill

In the noted battle that was fought on Elk Horn Hill.

Oh, my song is ended, about those bloody days,

I hope the like by mortal man will never been seen again. And let us pray to God, if it be His Holy Will,

To save the sons of those who fell on the noted Elk Horn

Hill!

•••

Editor’s note from March 5, 1970, edition of the Pea Ridge Graphic: Mrs. Lucinda Cox was the wife of the owner and operator of Elk Horn Tavern during the battle. The Tavern, but mutual agreement, was used by both armies, Union and Confederate, as a hospital during the fighting. Mrs. Cox hid in the cellar during the battle. The cries of those who were wounded in the field and others who, in many cases were undergoing surgery without the benefit of anesthetic, with blood seeing down into the cellar through the rough floors made a lasting impression on her. It was the memory of these things that inspired her to write in later years, the words to this “song.” Mrs. Cox was the grandmother of the present owner and operator of Scott’s Civil War Museum in Garfield. The song is the property of the Scott family and was reproduced with their permission.