When I was a news reporter covering local beats, I was assigned to cover Pea Ridge events; They don't have reenactments there, because of the fear it would damage the park, which is a living monument to the many who died there.
I did cover some book signings. Most of these took place on anniversaries of the battle, in March.
Every time I went there, I had a feeling of profound sadness. It wasn't the heat of battle I felt, but the emotion of the aftermath. About 2,500 men died there on March 7 and 8, 1862. Some are probably still buried there, although many of the men buried there were later removed to other graves by their families.
Most of the dead were young, probably teens and early 20s.
Its hard to imagine 2,500 dead young people.
In the Civil War we lost more than 600,000 people. More than any other war.
"At least 618,000 Americans died in the Civil War, and some experts say the toll reached 700,000. The number that is most often quoted is 620,000. At any rate, these casualties exceed the nation's loss in all its other wars, from the Revolution through Vietnam. "
Source:
http://www.civilwarhome.com/casualties.htmPea Ridge was not among the most costly in terms of dead: Gettysburg takes the title for the most, at 51,112, followed by Chickamauga and Chancellorsville, both more than 30,000 dead.
But Pea Ridge is one of the best preserved battlefields; the land looks virtually the same as it did in 1862.
I haven't had an encounter with a poltergeist; but I've had shivers and experienced emotions of such sadness that pale the actual grief I've had in my life when death hits. I can't explain it except to say it had to be a concentration of the emotion at that place.