Campaigns · Pea Ridge, Corinth, Holly Springs, Thompson's Station
Earl Van Dorn was born on September 17, 1820, near Port Gibson, Mississippi. He graduated from West Point in 1842, served in the Mexican War, and fought against the Comanches in Texas before resigning from the United States Army in 1861 to join the Confederacy.
Commissioned a major general, Van Dorn commanded Confederate forces in the Trans-Mississippi, where he was defeated at the Battle of Pea Ridge in 1862, and later in Mississippi, where his cavalry raid on the Union supply base at Holly Springs disrupted Grant’s first advance on Vicksburg. In May 1863, while commanding cavalry in Tennessee, Van Dorn was shot and killed at his Spring Hill headquarters by a civilian who claimed the general had wronged his family.