Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in to the 103rd episode of our Civil War Podcast.

I'm Rich.

And I'm Tracy. Hello y'all. Welcome to the podcast. When we left off last time, it was early March 1862,

and the Confederate Army led by Earl Vandorn had set out from its winter camps in the Boston mountains

to attack the federal force that had advanced down from Missouri and invaded Northwest Arkansas.

Through the opening flurries of a snowstorm, the rebels had set out on March 4th on a grueling march

that Vandorn hoped would end with the destruction of half of the Union Army and camped around Bentonville.

But two days later, on March 6th, that endangered portion of the Union Army, led by Franz Siegel,

managed to slip away from Bentonville and escape Vandorn's trap.

And so Samuel Curtis, the overall commander of the Federal Army, then successfully managed to

concentrate his hitherto widely dispersed forces at Little Sugar Creek, a strong defensive position

along the Telegraph Road. There, he awaited the Confederates next move.

On the evening of March 6th, Vandorn held an officer's meeting to discuss the situation.

Ben McCulloch advised against attacking the enemy now entrenched at Little Sugar Creek,

but said he knew of a way to maneuver the federal's out of their strong defensive position.

McCulloch said that the Confederates could use a roundabout route known as the Bentonville detour

to outflank the Federals and force them to abandon the Little Sugar Creek position and fall back

into Missouri. But armed with McCulloch's information, Vandorn decided he wanted to do more than

just maneuver the enemy out of their defensive position. He decided that using the Bentonville detour,

the Confederates would make a rapid march to get all the way to the Telegraph Road in the federal

rear, thereby cutting Curtis's line of communication and supply line back to Missouri, forcing him to

either fight and be destroyed or to surrender his entire army to Vandorn. Once Vandorn set his

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