After the war with Mexico, Earl Van Dorn was on frontier duty at Fort Belknap and Camp Cooper, Texas, scouting in northern Texas, and fought a minor skirmish with Comanche on July 1, 1856. He was wounded four separate times, including seriously when he commanded an expedition against Comanches and took two arrows (one in his left arm and another in his right side, damaging his stomach and lung) at the Battle of Rush Spring on October 1, 1858. Not expected to live, Van Dorn recovered in five weeks.
Van Dorn chose to follow his home state and the Confederate cause, and he resigned his U.S. Army commission, which was accepted effective January 31, 1861. He was appointed a brigadier general in the Mississippi Militia on January 23, and replaced Jefferson Davis as major general and commander of Mississippi's state forces in February when Davis was selected as the Confederacy's President. Van Dorn entered the Regular Confederate Army as a colonel of infantry in March He was sent west to raise and lead a volunteer brigade within the new Confederate Department of Texas.
Van Dorn was summoned to Richmond, Virginia, and appointed a colonel in the 1st C.S. Regular Cavalry on April 25, leading all of Virginia's cavalry forces, and then quickly promoted to brigadier general on June 5. After being promoted to major general on September 19, 1861, Van Dorn was given divisional command in the Confederate Army of the Potomac five days later, leading the 1st Division until January 10, 1862.
The Battle of Pea Ridge would be one of the few instances in the American Civil War where the Confederate forces outnumbered the Union forces. Just prior to taking command of the district, Van Dorn wrote to his wife Caroline, saying "I am now in for it, to make a reputation and serve my country conspicuously or fail. I must not, shall not, do the latter. I must have St. Louis -- then Huzza!"
The Confederate defeat at this battle, coupled with Van Dorn's army being ordered across the Mississippi River to bolster the Army of Tennessee, enabled the Union to control the entire state of Missouri and threaten the heart of Arkansas, left virtually defenseless without Van Dorn's forces. Despite the loss at Pea Ridge, the Confederate Congress would vote its thanks "for their valor, skill, and good conduct in the battle of Elkhorn in the states of Arkansas" to Van Dorn and his men on April 21. In his report on March 18 to Judah P. Benjamin, then the Confederate Secretary of War, Van Dorn refuted suffering a loss, saying "I was not defeated, but only foiled in my intentions. I am yet sanguine of success, and will not cease to repeat my blows whenever the opportunity is offered."
The performance of Van Dorn at the Second Battle of Corinth that fall led to another Union Army victory. After the battle Van Dorn ordered a retreat, falling back through Oxford and then Coffeeville, and finally reaching Abbeville, constantly skirmishing with Federal cavalry. Along the way Van Dorn and his staff were nearly captured at Water Valley on December 4. Following the defeat at Corinth, Van Dorn was sent before a court of inquiry to answer for his performance there. Though he was acquitted of the charges against him, Van Dorn would never be trusted with the command of an army again, and he was subsequently relieved of his district command.
The performance of Van Dorn at the Second Battle of Corinth that fall led to another Union Army victory. After the battle Van Dorn ordered a retreat, falling back through Oxford and then Coffeeville, and finally reaching Abbeville, constantly skirmishing with Federal cavalry. Along the way Van Dorn and his staff were nearly captured at Water Valley on December 4. Following the defeat at Corinth, Van Dorn was sent before a court of inquiry to answer for his performance there. Though he was acquitted of the charges against him, Van Dorn would never be trusted with the command of an army again, and he was subsequently relieved of his district command.
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| Battle of Corinth |
There were also persistent rumors of womanizing (he had fathered three illegitimate children in Texas before the war) and drunkenness. Mississippi was “dense with narratives of his negligence, whoring, and drunkenness,” Senator James Phelan wrote to President Davis in early December. Van Dorn wrote his own letter to Davis. In it he was both contrite and defiant. “I have never had intercourse with any woman … who was not alike accessible to others,” he claimed, addressing rumors of adultery. He was “unfortunately not a good Christian,” he admitted, and guilty of “indiscretions, thoughtlessness and folly — or pleasantries, as they may be called.” Nevertheless, he declared, “I am not a Seducer, nor a drunkard.”
Van Dorn proved to be more effective as a cavalry commander; his action in a raid at Holly Springs, Mississippi on December 20, 1862, seriously disrupted Ulysses S. Grant's first Vicksburg Campaign plans, capturing 1,500 soldiers and destroying at least $1,500,000 worth of Union supplies. On January 13, 1863, Van Dorn was appointed to command all cavalry in the Department of Mississippi & East Louisiana, and then was ordered by Gen. Joseph E. Johnston to join the Army of Tennessee, operating in Middle Tennessee. Van Dorn was also successful at Battle of Thompson's Station, on March 5, 1863.
Van Dorn proved to be more effective as a cavalry commander; his action in a raid at Holly Springs, Mississippi on December 20, 1862, seriously disrupted Ulysses S. Grant's first Vicksburg Campaign plans, capturing 1,500 soldiers and destroying at least $1,500,000 worth of Union supplies. On January 13, 1863, Van Dorn was appointed to command all cavalry in the Department of Mississippi & East Louisiana, and then was ordered by Gen. Joseph E. Johnston to join the Army of Tennessee, operating in Middle Tennessee. Van Dorn was also successful at Battle of Thompson's Station, on March 5, 1863.
On March 16, 1863, Van Dorn was given command on the cavalry corps of Army of Tennessee and fought his last fight April 10 at the First Battle of Franklin, skirmishing with the cavalry of Gordon Granger and losing 137 men to Granger's 100 or so. This minor action caused Van Dorn to halt his movement and rethink his plans, and subsequently he returned in the Spring Hill area.
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| Battle of Franklin |
It was Van Dorn's reputation as a womanizer, not a Union bullet, that led to his death. In May 1863 he was shot in his headquarters at Spring Hill in Maury County, Tennessee, by Dr. James Bodie Peters, who claimed that Van Dorn had carried on an affair with his wife, Jessie McKissack Peters.
An “incredibly beautiful woman,” Jessie was the much younger third wife of Dr. Peters, a wealthy landowner and retired physician. Her husband had been gone for months attending to his duties as a member of the Tennessee state legislature. During the doctor’s absence, his beautiful bride Jessie was often seen at Van Dorn’s headquarters. When Dr. Peters at last returned home, the rumors of his wife’s infidelity were on every gossip’s tongue, and he caught one of the general’s servants attempting to deliver a note to Jessie. He ordered the servant to “tell his whiskey-headed master, General Van Dorn, that I would blow his brains out, or any of his staff that stepped their foot inside of the lawn.”
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| Martin Cheairs Mansion in Spring Hill, Tennessee, site of Van Dorn's shooting |
On the morning of May 7, 1863, Dr. Peters rode to the mansion that served as Van Dorn’s headquarters, went to the general’s office, pulled a pistol and shot him in the back of the head, killing him instantly.
Dr. Peters then rode away, crossed over into Union lines and provided his testimony to police in Nashville, where he was released without ever facing trial. While some then and since have cast suspicion on the doctor as a treacherous Union sympathizer, Van Dorn’s fellow Confederate officers seemed to have no doubt about the justice of the wronged husband’s vengeance, and agreed with Gen. Liddell that Van Dorn’s death was a direct consequence of the dead man’s “willful violation of social rights.”
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| Wintergreen Cemtery, Port Gibson, Mississippi |
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| Van Dorn's Tombstone |
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