County of marker: Benton County
Location of marker: Military Park Rd., Leetown Battlefield - Stop 4, Pea Ridge National Battlefield
Marker erected by: National Park Service
This next stop is Leetown Waystation. First you should try and imagine thsse fields filled with soldiers,, artillery and cavalry. A young soldier from the state of Illinois looking across these fields noticed a Confederate officer emerging from the woods to the northwest.
He raised his rifled musket and fired and the officer second in command in the Confederate forces fell dead.
Marker Text:
Shooting of Ben McCulloch
Ben McCulloch commanding Confederate troops north of Leetown, fell about 2 p.m. while riding out to examine the Union position. Private Pelican, 36th Illinois Infantry, probably fired the shot.
"Benjamin McCulloch was a tough frontiersman who commanded the Confederate troops from Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana. Born in Tennessee in 1811, "Ol' Ben" went to Texas in 1835, where he missed joining his friend Davy Crockett at the Alamo due to the measles. In the years prior to the Civil War, McCulloch was a Texas Ranger, an Army scout, a gold miner, representative to the legislatures of both the Republic and State of Texas, commander of the Texas Republic's militia, and a US Marshall.
"On the first day of the battle, prior to launching his attack on Osterhaus's division, McCulloch rode forward to inspect the Federal line. As he emerged from the tree line, he was spotted by the Federal skirmishers, who quickly fired a volley at him. McCulloch was killed instantly. Although Private Peter Pelican, of the 36th Illinois, was credited with firing the fatal shot, it is not known who actually killed McCulloch. Pelican had been the first to reach the general's body and took his gold pocket watch, which he later sold to his colonel.
"McCulloch's death, so early in the battle, doomed the effort to turn the Federal left, and quite possibly ensured the Southern defeat. His body was returned to Texas, where he was buried." ~ National Park Service