R. P. Matthews

Civil War reminiscences have a certain sameness to them: "We enlisted. We got a lot of bad food and clothing. We marched a lot. Some of us died of disease. We fought some battles. Some of us died in the battles. We won (or lost). We went home and went back to being citizens."

This one is a little different. R. P. Matthews was a member of Phelps's Missouri Regiment, which had the interesting trait of being recruited from fugitives from the Rebels: the men came from southwestern Missouri, plus a few from Arkansas, and were Unionists from the Ozark region who were fleeing the Confederates of Sterling Price. Most ended up at Rolla, Missouri, which was a major Union base because the railroad ended there. These men were recruited to form the Phelps Regiment, so called after the politician who became its commander.

Early in 1862, the Phelps Regiment was part of the force that Samuel R. Curtis took from Rolla toward the Ozarks to end Price's threat to Union control of Missouri. This was the campaign that ended at the Battle of Pea Ridge (Elkhorn Tavern), where Curtis, despite being outnumbered by about three to two, heavily defeated the Confederate army of Earl Van Dorn. Soon after, the Legion -- which had enlisted for six months -- was mustered out. So this account has most of the features of the Standard Reminiscence above -- but it also has an overview of how this rare unit formed.

If you want much insight into how Pea Ridge was fought, you won't really find it here. The Phelps Regiment was in the thickest of the fighting, and had some of the highest casualties of the entire army -- but R. P. Matthews, who was first lieutenant of Company D, didn't see the big picture. Indeed, being severely wounded in the fighting, he didn't see a whole lot of the little picture! Still, this is one of the few accounts of Pea Ridge, and very valuable on that account.

Matthews's tale isn't a brilliant piece of writing -- no one would ever call it a page-turner, though it isn't dreadfully bad. It's not particularly well organized -- it just sort of peters out at the end; we don't learn much about what Matthews did after the war, or what the other men did; we don't even really read about them mustering out. If you want the Life of a Union Soldier, you should read something else. But if you want the Life of Someone Who Ended Up in the Army Because He'd Been Driven from His Home, this is worth looking up.

Editor Jeff Patrick has added a useful introduction, footnotes identifying some of the people and events Matthews writes about, and an appendix listing all the men who served in the Phelps Regiment. These add significant value to the raw account.… (mehr)