During The Battle of Elkhorn Tavern/Pea Ridge
When the fighting around the tavern began, Joseph and Lucinda Cox, along with Joseph’s mother, Polly, did not leave their home, but retreated to the building’s cellar. They grabbed only a few necessities for survival. The family remained in the cellar for three days and nights, March 7–9, 1862, as the battle waged above them. The upper floors of the tavern served as a makeshift hospital for wounded troops, many undergoing surgery and amputations with no anesthetic, and for a short time served as Confederate General Earl Van Dorn's headquarters. The tavern was hit many times by ammunition during the battle, including a cannonball that tore through the second floor, but remained standing.
When the fighting finally subsided on March 9, 1862, the scene around the tavern was one of devastation, with the bodies of men and horses scattered across the battlefield and even the trees surrounding the property broken and scarred by the fighting.
Read more about this topic: Elkhorn Tavern
Famous quotes containing the words battle, tavern, pea and/or ridge:
“Marriage is a fierce battle before which the two partners ask heaven for its blessing, because loving each other is the most audacious of enterprises; the battle is not slow to start, and victory, that is to say freedom, goes to the cleverest.”
—Honoré De Balzac (1799–1850)
“Arrive at New Orleans, a city of ships, steamers, flatboats, rafts, mud, fog, filth, stench, and a mixture of races and tongues. Cholera, “some.” [At] Planters’ Hotel. Mem:—Never get caught in a cheap tavern in a strange city.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“I worry about people who get born nowadays, because they get born into such tiny families—sometimes into no family at all. When you’re the only pea in the pod, your parents are likely to get you confused with the Hope Diamond. And that encourages you to talk too much.”
—Russell Baker (b. 1925)
“The light passes
from ridge to ridge,
from flower to flower—”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)