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Near Garfield in Benton County, Arkansas — The American South (West South Central)
 

A Village Full of Wounded Men

Pea Ridge National Military Park

— National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior —

 
 
A Village Full of Wounded Men Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Craig Swain, August 30, 2010
1. A Village Full of Wounded Men Marker
Inscription.
Entering a little clearing, we discovered the yellow hospital flags fluttering from the gables of every house in the hamlet of Leetown, and the surgeons busy with the sad, yet humane task that was theirs to perform.
Lyman G. Bennett, private, 36th Illinois Infantry Regiment

The quarter-mile-long trail you see ahead leads to the site of Leetown, Arkansas. Today the woods and meadows of the Pea Ridge battlefield appear to be an uninhabited wilderness. During the Civil War, this whole area was a patchwork quilt of working farms and woodlots. Leetown was made up of a dozen or so log-and-frame homes and outbuildings.

As intense fighting ranged nearby in Oberson's cornfield and Morgan's Woods, stretcher bearers carried the wounded of both armies to Leetown, the closest place offering shelter from the winter weather. All the space in the houses was taken over by injured and dying soldiers. Yellow flags guided the walking wounded to medical attention.

This 1862 illustration from Harper's Weekly magazine shows Union surgeons working in a combat aid station very similar to those set up in the houses here. No Civil War-era drawing that shows Leetown is known to exist. Battlefield artists did not follow the armies that fought in Arkansas in 1862.

Today no structure remains in the clearing where Leetown
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once was.
 
Erected by National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.
 
Topics. This historical marker is listed in this topic list: War, US Civil. A significant historical year for this entry is 1862.
 
Location. 36° 26.471′ N, 94° 3.044′ W. Marker is near Garfield, Arkansas, in Benton County. Marker is on Military Park Road (County Road 65), on the left when traveling west. Located at stop three, Leetown, on the driving tour of Pea Ridge National Military Park. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Garfield AR 72732, United States of America. Touch for directions.
 
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within one mile of this marker, measured as the crow flies. Leetown (within shouting distance of this marker); A Fierce Tangle in Morgan's Woods (approx. ¼ mile away); Stand to Your Posts! (approx. ¼ mile away); A Crisis in Command (approx. ¼ mile away); Save the Cannon! (approx. ¼ mile away); Two Armies Collide (approx. 0.9 miles away); Getting Ready To Fight (approx. one mile away); City of Soldiers (approx. one mile away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Garfield.
 
Also see . . .
1. Pea Ridge National Military Park. National Park Service website entry (Submitted on September 9, 2010, by Craig Swain of Leesburg, Virginia.) 

2. Pea Ridge (Elkhorn Tavern). American Battlefield Trust website entry
A Village Full of Wounded Men Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Byron Hooks, September 19, 2016
2. A Village Full of Wounded Men Marker
1862 illustration from Harper's Weekly magazine
(Submitted on May 8, 2021, by Larry Gertner of New York, New York.) 
 
Tour Stop Three image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Craig Swain, August 30, 2010
3. Tour Stop Three
Site of Leetown Today image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Craig Swain, August 30, 2010
4. Site of Leetown Today
 
 
Credits. This page was last revised on May 8, 2021. It was originally submitted on September 9, 2010, by Craig Swain of Leesburg, Virginia. This page has been viewed 1,309 times since then and 15 times this year. Photos:   1. submitted on September 9, 2010, by Craig Swain of Leesburg, Virginia.   2. submitted on November 29, 2016, by Byron Hooks of Sandy Springs, Georgia.   3, 4. submitted on September 9, 2010, by Craig Swain of Leesburg, Virginia.

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Mar. 28, 2024